How are we?

I’ve been thinking about lots of things, so this is a slightly stream-of-consciousness post.

How a sincere compliment can make someone’s day. 😁

I’m currently eagerly listening to a podcast called 13 Minutes to the Moon, which tracks the USA’s space race journey over thirteen episodes. 🌕

I am a bit of an astronomer – I love the stars, the moon, space. If it were safer and personally cheaper, I’d love to see the Earth from space (which is what the current episode is about.) We exist in a vast universe, which leaves me full of wonder. Including the little things here on Earth too. 🌏

I hope we continue to experience these wonders for years… though that does depend on action being taken against the bad things, like climate change. This leads to thoughts of what-ifs which are sometimes scary, because even if us little consumers do everything we individually can (which varies person-to-person), real action (not tokenism!) still needs to be taken by governments and major polluters. What will it take for the latter to be more concerned about changing for the better than preserving the current status quo? Bah humbug. 😠

My mind returns to other matters: all I can do is raise my voice and live my life as best I can, doing what I can. That includes being a part of the future through my work and communities – choir, church, online groups, friends. 😌

Spread love and do what you can. 💜

A reblog: Brains are amazing.

Check out the following. I enjoyed it and related to it. Brains are amazing

This week has been good – first week back of term and of choir rehearsals too, getting into the routine again.

It’s also signalled the likely death of my laptop. The screen went kaput at work, so I’ll be working out of the resource room for a while until I get a new one.

Tomorrow marks fifty years since humans first walked on the moon. I think that’s awesome. I’ve always been fascinated by the stars and outer space.

Beef casserole

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I was given some corningware dishes at the start of the year, and we made a beef casserole in the biggest one a month ago. I’m thinking I should make a chicken casserole next! We used a recipe from The Great Australian Cookbook.

Ingredients:

• Baby potatoes
• Chuck steak or other chunked beef
• Plain flour
• Paprika
• Canned tomatoes
• Wine
• Beef stock
• Garlic
• Onion
• Carrot
• Other veg

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180*C
2. Roll the beef in flour mixed with a spice like paprika – do this in a ziplock bag or something similar
3. Put beef into a deep casserole dish
4. Add tomatoes and then other ingredients – the meat should almost be covered by liquid.
5. Cover with a lid and cook for two hours then taste and season with salt and pepper if necessary.
6. Cook for another 20 minutes if necessary to ensure the meat is tender enough.
7. Eat!