Quick.

I'm afraid to say that I have been somewhat shirking my housewifely duties recently while I have been living through my flower/gardening obsession. This has been causing my husband some angst as dinners have tended to be tediously repetitive, usually something with salad.....every single night of the of the week and because he just doesn't understand my gardening fixation.....he doesn't hold back when he says that it makes me seem prematurely middle aged. Insert snort of derision from me.

In my dreams I live in an utopian idyll where in my suburban backyard I grow all of our fruit and vegetables.....in my reality my vegetable patch is somewhat neglected and choked with inedible lettuce and coriander that has bolted to seed. I console myself with the fact that many of the flowers that I tend with such care....nasturtiums, pansies, borage and marigolds can be mixed into a salad and eaten, conveniently, as can the dreaded weed, oxalis. In my quest for self sufficiency I still long for a sheep....although my husband points out that I struggle to look after the 2 adults, 4 children, 2 geriatric beagles and 1,000 worms.....safely ensconced in the worm farm.....that are already in my care. I live in hope.

I used to find cooking everything from scratch therapeutic yet now I'm flabbergasted that I ever had the time. So, at the end of my tether last week I succumbed I bought Jamie's 15 Minute Meals: 

I must say that I was sceptical, yet so far it has passed my intensive testing and give or take 5 minutes, everything that I have made has been on the platter within the 15 minute timeframe and quite frankly, the food is delicious.

On Friday I made 'Golden Scallops Sun - Blush Mash & Greens':

On Saturday it was 'Chorizo & Squid Greek - Style Couscous Salad':

On Sunday 'Glazed Sizzling Chops Sweet Tomato & Lasagnetti':

And last night 'Incredibly Delicious Chicken Salad':

I've since learnt on Instagram that Jamie's 15 Minute Meals is available at Kmart for $25, so as a convert I might have to go and buy a few copies as Christmas presents.

As proof that we really aren't boring, staid, stay at home forty somethings, on Sunday we led a family expedition to David Walsh's free concert 'Standing in the Shadows of MONA' a Motown inspired sing along accompanied by the Southern Gospel Choir on the lawn at MONA. Most of Hobart was there from oldies in wheelchairs to newborn babies and EVERYONE in between.....there was barely a blade of grass to be seen:

Let's face it, MONA, David Walsh's own temple of art and hedonism has made Hobart cool. Thanks David!

My children are always embarrassed to see me sing out loud....in the supermarket....along with the radio in the car......on the lawn at MONA. Yet how could I resist as they worked up a rendition of one of those old disco anthems, The Jackson Five's classic 'Don't Blame it on the Boogie'. Memories of how wee used to boogie on down to this song at Launceston's nasty nightclub 'Hot Gossip' or rather 'Hot Vomit' came flooding back. For me this one song brought back in vivid detail the halcyon days of the early nineties.....on the multicoloured chequerboard back lit dance floor al la 'Saturday Night Fever' when we knew all the moves. I restrained from demonstrating them publicly on Sunday.

Brian Ritchie, one of the Violent Femmes was also on stage at MONA, as he too calls Hobart home. Remember the Violent Femmes? To me one of their albums takes me back to the year when a friend on a local B & S organising committee gave me and a couple of the girls a gig cleaning all of the dirty plastic glasses from the year before.....in return for a free ticket. The things that you do. There were sights in the bottom of some of those glasses that I wished I'd never clapped eyes on. Anyway, the night before the party, in a shearing shed somewhere in a paddock, the Violent Femmes was playing at full volume on the ghetto blaster....one farmer kept turning it down....because his grandmother, who lived 8 kms up the road, might hear it and be offended by some of the lyrics. True story.

And this weekend I have another opportunity to regress back into my misspent youth, when we go to see Blondie live.....with a friend who used to know every single word to the rap part of 'Rapture'. I wonder if she still does.

Rx