When Violet went viral !!!

The internet is an amazing thing.  The popularity of this blog surprises me.  The amount to views is beyond belief for what is essentially a blog about my dance with cancer and my veggie patch.  Knowing this I thought a picture I put in a comment about the awesome Hunter Valley Santa Claus might garner about 50 views.  I was very very VERY wrong!  It went viral.  And the flow on effect was even more amazing.

As you may be aware my mum, Violet, has been diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer.  The bevy of oncologists can't offer her any hope and she is deemed terminal.  The oncologists have offered themselves available for advice and information, but have passed mum's care over to the Westlakes Palliative Care team.  Knowing this mum is not happy with her lot and as a result is doing it tough.   

Unrelated my sister Nola sent me a link to a photo of a Santa with an amazing set up.  That got me thinking that it might jolly Violet up to have a photo with Santa.  She has always loved Christmas.  So I found The Hunter Valley Santa on Facebook and I made contact with them asking if they were able to accommodate an 86 year old in a wheelchair.  They replied to my enquiry saying they would love to.  A few days later I went to the venue, "Sinclairs" on Hillsborough Road, Warners Bay, here in Lake Macquarie.   I needed to check wheelchair access.  Mrs Claus was brilliant.  Santa was busy with kids, but Mrs Claus showed me side access easy for a wheelchair and we confirmed a time and date.    A few days later Violet frocked up and off we went to meet Santa.   

Santa and Mrs Claus asked the crowd in front of us if we could pop in straight away and from what I could see no-one there minded, even though they had already waited some time.  Santa is VERY popular out there!     So mum was wheeled in and Santa helped her out of her chair.  She sat on his knee, then on his throne and as he was about to help her back to her chair I asked if Santa could dance.  He could, so they danced just a few steps and we helped her back into her chair.    We weren't there long, but Violet was very very happy at what had just occurred.  We collected out images and USB and headed home.  She was very excited.    I used those images to create her Christmas Cards and had them printed by Redbubble.  One larger print was framed and took up residence on the china cabinet.  That's were I thought it would end.  

So a few weeks later a woman I do not know posted a pic of Santa and her son Levi, taken at "Sinclairs".   I commented on her photo that Santa and Mrs Claus bent over backwards to help Violet get her first ever photo with Santa.   I added a small copy of the image in my comment.   

Violet's photo and comment on this lovely photo of Santa and "Levi" was then picked up by the television show "Today" and they created a new thread or page or whatever you call it with Violet's photo and the story.   I didn't know anything about it until about 10 hours later when Josh rang me and  told me to go have a look and that 6000 people had "liked" it on Facebook.   While he was on the phone the "likes", "shares" and "comments" continued to grow.  He kept calling new figures thru the phone to me.  By morning about 12,000 people had "liked" her photo dancing with Santa.    

Now Violet doesn't really understand how the internet works and isn't on Facebook, but she understood what I said when I told her 12,000 people had clicked a button to say they liked the photo of her dancing with Santa.  By the following morning over 21,000 people had "liked" the photo, over 800 had "shared" it on their own page and over 400 people commented on the shot.    I showed her the Today story on the iPad and she sat and read every single comment.  She recognised just 3 names  and spent the remainder of the day smiling and joyous.  

The following day Santa contacted me on Facebook.  We had tried to organise a family photo with mum, myself, my sister and all three adult grandkids, but two of the kids were working and one was off in Sydney, so it couldn't happen.  It was a very kind offer though.   Just another indication of how awesome Santa and Mrs Claus were.   Sometime later Santa told me that the local television station, NBN, had contacted Mrs Claus hoping to interview Violet and do a story about her visit with Santa.   As Santa and Mrs Claus had been so wonderful to us I offered to get Violet back to "Sinclairs" so NBN could do their story.  And so it happened.   Violet was as excited as a kitten to be interviewed by the lovely Emma Murphy.  She was going to be on the news!!

NBN played to story on Christmas Eve and put it on their website too.  She tells everyone who comes to the house.  Shows them the clip on the computer and we watched it a couple of times on christmas day with all the grandkids here.

So one simple comment about how wonderful Santa and Mrs Claus are had made Violet go viral and she loves it!

Below is the link to the NBN news story.  I hope you enjoy when Violet went viral!

Click here to see Violets interview with Emma Murphy

Let them eat cake!

"Let them eat cake!" she said.

When challenged by Terry the Tradie to make a Christmas cake like his grandma used to make I thought I best rise to the challenge.  Initially I made a version with a bucketload of scotch.  A classic 8 inch fruit cake baked in a slow oven for about 2 hours 20.  I gave him a quarter and asked for an opinion.   He was very happy with the result.  We discussed options like more dates or less grog or different grog.  Different grog intrigued him and we decided the thick orange liqueur Cointreau would he his choice for christmas day.  I set out then to replicate the first, substituting Cointreau but found the it quickly stuck to the bottom of the boiler and needed more liquid so as not to burn.

The second Cointreau cake was a better consistency than the first and so it is the one he will receive tomorrow.

The cake is very easy to make.  Today I am making 4 smaller Whiskey versions and I thought I would blog as I go.

First up you need to soak a kilo of mixed dried fruits in half to a whole cup of grog of your choice.

Then you need to hack 15 or so pitted dates.

Then a about the same in glace cherries.

Into the boiler goes 125g of butter, a teaspoon of ground dutch cinnamon, three quarters of a cup of brown sugar and more liquid.  You need a cup of liquid in total.  It can be all grog, all water or a mix of both.

Throw the fruits in now. The groggy mixed fruit and the dates and cherries.  All in together. Onto the stove top she goes and the butter, sugar and liquid will begin to simmer.  Lots of stirring so that it doesn't catch on the bottom is required if you use all grog, or the thicker liquers like Cointreau.  It needs to simmer for 3 minutes then cool down.

When its cool you need to beat 2 eggs and add the beaten eggs and another cup of grog to the fruit mix.  

They need to all be mixed up well before you add a cup of self raising flour and a cup of plain flour, sifted of course!  Then whack it in the cake tin of you choosing.  Round,  square, whatever.  This mix suits an 8 inch tin.

If you are going to ice it (which I HATE HATE HATE) then the process ends there, otherwise you can pile up more mixed fruit or almonds and cherries or pecan nuts and jazzy up the top.

The tins need to be wrapped in 4 layers of newspaper and tied off with string, then onto a sheet of cardboard and into the oven at about 160 degrees for a smudge over 2 hours.  If the skewer comes out clean, then she's done.

Now most people skewer the top of the cake as it exits the oven and sprinkle over more grog.  Not me.  I use my insulin needles to draw up more grog and inject it directly into the cake.  (eerrr clean fresh unused needles of course) .   You can continue to feed the cake this way for a couple of weeks... depending on how high you want to blow when you get pulled over for a RBT on Christmas Day!

The end result is pretty good and Terry the Tradie agrees.

To tree or not to tree? That is the question!

To tree or not to tree might well pertain to my gardening conundrum.  I do not grow fruit and have one dwarf citrus, but trees steal the sun from my veggies and the lawn.  But I digress, I do not mean fruit trees... I mean Christmas trees!   The silly season.  Home decoration.  As  I live alone, the youngest in our family is now aged 21 and few of my friends have small children, what is the point of the setting up a christmas tree?  Christmas lunch is not at mine this year, I'm not planning any home orientated christmas drinks or parties.  So the question is,  should I bother fighting my way to through the garage to find a 7 foot fake fir tree with 900 hanging points on it AND find 900 baubles to hang on it.. or should I just not bother with a tree at all?

Last year I did hang 3 trees from the ceiling in the office, but this year I'm in the tin shed and I don't really think there is either enough space or sufficient visitors to bother with that.  Home is a different story though.  So the question is to tree or not to tree?

I do have at least 12 Christmas trees in 4 different styles and numerous sizes down in the garage. And yes, I would have at least 5 or 6 HUNDRED baubles to hang off it.  There are at least 6 different star/spiral/angel style tree toppers and tree skirts in 3 different colours!  As for colour schemes I can do a fully silver bauble tree. Or a fully gold babble tree.  Or a vibrant multi coloured tree ... but will I bother?   Should I bother?  Will the enjoyment outweigh the effort?  What benefit is there to a couple of hours hard slog setting up a tree?   I don't feel particularly christmassy.  Will a tree change that?

I already have all the gifts bought, some wrapped, but an hours should see the remained all wrapped with with bows and gift tags.  But a tree????  I'm still not feeling the joy of it!

It's beginning to look a lot like ......

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas......  well actually it isn't!  That's actually a big fat lie!!

It is hot and the days are long. I'm on leave. Pressies bought, wrapped and under a tree, my first ever pink frangipani has flowered, but it still doesn't look or feel like Christmas at all.

I have about 10 days off work and, as per usual, about 20 days worth of work to fit into it! I started off on saturday by turning over one of the veggie beds. Had just about finished when I was bitten by those nasty flies that are the bane of my life!  I'll allergic to them and even though I immediately washed both bites and hit the drug cabinet they blew up all sore and itchy and lumpy.  Jeeze I just can't seem to win!!!  Still I did get the bed ready for some planting and I could have avoid the bites by using the bug spray.  Too late now for those recriminations!!!  Three days later there is still lumps and the itchiness continues.  The drugs really don't do much!    I've done all the grocery shopping and even bought every item on my "bits and pieces" list.  All the wrapping is done and the pressies are all under the tree at mums.  I couldn't be bother putting one up here.  I have 3 in the office, surely that is enough!   As the afternoons cool I hope to get some more mowing done.  I'd much rather be sitting in the big chair with my nose stuck in a book. An icy cold glass of water by my side.

I have a few books set aside to read over this break.  Mundles' "Cook", Humans of New York by Brandon Stanton and for something novel, a novel!  I don't usually read fiction, but I am testing the waters with William McInnes.  I don't really have much else planned.  I won't stray far from home.  I hope to take a few photos along the way.  There should be some time for Gallery visits, maybe some fishing and sitting by the lake.  Maybe even a trip to the beach!  For christmas I need to make some rocky road, some fudge and maybe a flour less chocolate cake.  Otherwise Christmas is all organised.  Menus planned, ingredients either growing or purchased. Nothing left to get.

What to do on New Years Eve is another concern.   Last year I went to town and watched the fireworks.  Then I taxied a whole heap of "P" platers home. They can't drive together in one car until they get a black licence.  That's on option for this year too they will all still be on their "P's".  Sadly Newcastle has canned the midnight fireworks this year.  An economy drive I suspect.  The 9.30pm ones are always better. Normally longer, more bangy and flashy than the midnight ones.  I guess town might be desolate after 10pm!!!

As for the rest of my time off.  Rest is an option.  As is cleaning, gardening and taking a few photos.  Here's one I made earlier!