Early Retirement...

Late last year, I retired from being a Thermomix consultant. My health had not been the greatest and my day job just left no time during the week for demos or any of the customer care I wanted to devote time to. Weekends ended up being running around ragged trying to ensure a balance of life, additional work and Thermomix and recipe testing. I just had very little energy left for me. I met some extremely fun and friendly people who all shared interest in food, healthy eating and family life balance. And I feel privileged to have been able to share in an experience that is so rewarding in terms of food (the best currency ever).

I will definitely keep experimenting and posting recipes when I have the time :)

Naming my Thermomix and ... outfitting.

Ok after reading entries on Facebook about naming Thermomix for a prize, I read through the comments and couldn't believe all the names that came up. I won't provide a link you all can search for yourselves. I think it was either Tenina's or the Quirky Cooking facebook page that ran it.

I then realized, I haven't named mine. It's been 1 year and 2 months (in 5 days) since I purchased my Thermomix. It's almost as bad as not naming your child within the first month... I do tend to talk to mine quite a bit while testing receipes or just randomly cleaning it. Maybe I should name it.

I'm sure someone has alrady thought of "MoMo". And I actually had a childhood friend with that nickname... so I feel odd using it. "Thermie" is the official Thermomix rep name on facebook... and I think Theo is too masculine for my TM... although the continual beeping sound does sound like: "is it ready, yeah I think it's ready, yup ready! Aren't going to get that, it's ready" in a male-ish sort of voice.

What dya all think of "MoMi"? a play on the name and play on the "mini-me" concept.

People always ask if there's other accessories for the Thermomix... This leads me to the concept of "dressing up" your Thermomix. A customer mentioned it does look plain, and they hoped it came in stainless steel to match all their shiny kitchen. So a quick google search (and knowledge my eBay account has this already 'favourited') revealed:
ThermoDress ThermoStickers for your Thermomix
ThermoSkins on Facebook or their website.
DecoTMX and many more...

There's also additional (non-official) cleaning brushes for the Thermomix, such as this.

I really like this one.

Honestly, sometimes life gets in the way of living.

Sometimes, life throws us curve balls to test if we still have the tenacity and elasticity of mind to bounce instead of *k-splat* on the pavement. Two interest curve balls these past two weeks to 1. excuse my lack of posts and garner sympathy, 2. to just share what's been on my mind:

Curve ball 1:
There's been a restructure at my day job. My position / role is fine, but... it's a different environment now to work in. This is the second one I've been through in approx. 6-8 months. Well honestly, was in an environment previously that had the "restructure" thing hanging over my head for over 10-12 months, it's nearly 1.5 years of pending "redundancy" feeling. I'm a bit over it and just over-exhausted to even pep myself up.

Curve ball 2:
Recently, I woke up one morning and couldn't turn my neck and move my left arm. This is not to do with any sports injury - I'm not a sportswoman by any stretch of that word. It freaked me out - still in quite a bit of pain and can't lift anything with my left hand. Tingly sessions sporadicly go through my arm. Overall an uncomfortable experience. Yes I've seen a doctor, there was a pinched nerve, some vetebrae adjustments and inflammation of the muscle/tendon groups around the area.

I'll bounce but... it just means I will be spending more time else where for the time being. With that being said, it's likely I'll use cooking as a way to de-stress. Lifting the TM bowl on my left hand is a bit difficult right now...

I'll fix up the previous posts on receipes and maybe add a little something to my other "dining out" blog. don't give up on me, I'll still keep posting. So keep an eye out and I'll surprise you later.