ISBN 978-1-923645-49-3
PAPERBACK
Late Essays is a blend of auteur and amour: my thoughts on substantive issues in society at home and abroad, threaded through with less substantive, and more personal, memories and topical and nonsuch poems. Subjects range from Gaza to geysers, from Constantine I to Charles III, and from race relations to radioactive waste.
ISBN 978-1-923589-73-5
PAPERBACK
Why shouldn’t aged care residents enjoy the same delicious and nutritious food you and I would love to eat?
Good food is vital to a residents’ health and happiness. Quality meals not only nourish the body but also lift the spirit, and for many residents, mealtime is the highlight of their day.
Drawing on more than 22 years of experience creating and preparing fresh meals for aged care residents, chef Deborah Cairney’s vision is to develop a recipe book that supports chefs and cooks in providing wholesome, visually appealing, and cost-effective dishes for the elderly.
She hopes to inspire and equip those working in aged care kitchens to make every meal something residents can truly look forward to.
This recipe book is filled with nutritional recipes that I curated and adapted for aged care residents over my 23-year career as head chef at a NSW Aged Care facility. The recipes are nutritional, cost effective, use only the freshest high-quality ingredients, and can be produced with minimal time and staffing available.
It was a vision of my employer and myself to give the residents quality, nutritional food for this stage of their lives. I have collected and tested the recipes in this book, with this vision in mind. I have been guided by my qualifications in commercial cookery, hospitality catering management, business catering operations, workplace training, and my years of experience in aged care kitchens.
I have included diabetic, gluten free, vegetarian, and vegan recipes, to cater for people with dietary requirements. Most of the recipes can be made gluten free by swapping out the existing ingredients for gluten free products.
In aged care budgets are important, but so is quality and nutrition, and all the recipes in this book have been costed using the best ingredients to provide the elderly with food that they will look forward to eating. I have included a 7-day sample menu incorporating all meals and beverages at a cost of $15-16 per resident, per day (at time of publishing). This figure was achieved through making 90% of the menu items on site, which has the bonus of limiting the amount of processed food offered to residents. Chefs in aged care will be familiar with strict budgets and so will understand the importance of being innovative to provide premium quality and choice for residents. Information on menu planning, tables of weights, measurements and oven temperature tables are included to assist in producing these recipes.
Recipes can be adapted for different medical requirements and can be made presentable for residents with Dysphasia, or any related swallowing problems, by pureeing the foods and using moulds to recreate the food. Pureed foods are also available already moulded for purchase from food suppliers, these products are frozen and only need steaming. The moulds save time and look like the food that is being served but in puree form. e.g. menu item Lamb Chop Casserole with Mash Pumpkin Peas and Mash Potato would be moulded in the shape of lamb chops, peas, pumpkin, and mash. Moulded products look desirable for the resident to eat, which is important, as we all know we eat with our eyes first.
I hope this book can be of assistance in your aged care kitchen and support you to provide the residents you cook for to enjoy nutritious and delicious meals.
I would like to dedicate this book to the Proctor Family who owned Figtree Point Age Care, without their vision and support I would not have been able to deliver this type of food to the residents.
Also, to my children Heidi, Tanya and Sam for their encouragement to compile and publish this recipe book.
ISBN 978-1-923443-87-7
PAPERBACK
ISBN 978-1-923523-02-9
HARDCOVER
This book won’t ask you to align to your ‘higher self’. It won’t ask you to work towards something better, or to change yourself to get what you want out of life.
It will tell you to look for the principles that already guide you. To figure out what it is that you are committed to and embrace it. To realise that your commitments are serving you perfectly right now. That they always have and always will.
Your principles are the rules and theories you live by. They determine what you believe. How you see the world. The things you do.
Through the witty and insightful musings of Melanie Kim Brockwell, be guided in a process of self-awareness, self-acceptance, and self-determination of each of your commitments. Recognise the ideals that build the foundations of who you are. Find love and approval for them. And for yourself as you are in the present.
“This small book is a sample of the new ways we can take the old truths (we thought we were living by), and reinterpret them to give us a new way to let ourselves fully be in every moment, in rapture for the gift that we are and the opportunity that we are given.”
– Louise Moriarty, feature poet
It’s 2AM. I’m up working on my manuscript only be·cause some crazy-pants possum woke me, ransacking the kitchen in search of fruit. Which we’re out of, by the way. So, he’s gone mad – throwing pans and chopping boards. Perhaps in the hope I’d come running out, no fur on, and hand him an overripe banana. It’s not un.heard of. I do things like that. Especially the no fur thing. It’s a feature in our household – nudidity and wildlings
As you can tell, my days are pretty un.complicated. When I’m not fending off wildlife in the wee hours, or caring for street cats, you’ll find me at work. For me, that means listening to the universe, tuning into what’s for me to do today, and following my instructions.
Sometimes that’s as simple as being-with a migraine. Other times, I’m asked to be a little more than present. I’m asked to act. To speak. To be a participant who interweaves – a participant of more than. To not just see the silver cord, but to be the voice of that vision. To know-without-knowing that the vision has meaning beyond itself in words on a page for a reader to digest and move on.
Knowing-without-knowing that I am who I am for a reason, one that may forever remain inexplicable except to say – Life Is, or it is. That what-is, in this moment, in every moment, is the Universe re-arranging itself, repeatedly, until it’s not. That my job, my duty as a receiver of instructions, is clear as day. Even when it’s not. Especially then, be·cause it’s all on purpose, it’s all divine, it’s all perfect on that grander scale where everything’s involved and I’m not focused on some smaller, personal detail about who I am in the eyes of a world I don’t have much to do with anyway.
To be in the world but not of the world. To be lived by it. To know without knowing. These are all beautiful bumper-sticker beliefs until they challenge you – challenge, meaning to be ‘called forth’. All is well until our faith in what-is is called forth into the world, into today, where our experiences are pained with doubt, disturbance, and disbelief in the perfection of this.
How could this be perfect?
How could this be on purpose?
How am I to make peace with this version of what-is, right now, as I am, in this moment?
I get asked these questions too. They’re part of my reality. They haunt my halls and live in my house alongside the beauty and birdsong. It’s how this works.
I’m not immune. My faith is not in some better outcome if I decide to do things differently. My hope isn’t anchored to evolutionary humanity headed toward Atlantean peace and fulfilment.
The commitments that run my life do so from a place so deep I couldn’t touch them with any powers I possess. Before there was a ‘me’ to speak of, my commitments, my vision, and my ability to perceive the silver cord, were all in the void. As the sphere of all-that-is condensed into a stream of existence, these particulars came into being via the field of excitation.
That’s how I get through the day. That’s how I deal with the conditions of my life without believing they’ve been foisted upon me as punishment or reward. That’s how I know-without- knowing this is all meant for me. That this has meaning beyond which I can find or ascribe it, beyond which I can see, feel and know to be true from this smaller piece of more than.
My vision. My excitation. My faith. It’s all deeper than that. It pulses up from below and lets me know, from time to time, that I am doing all I can with what I have – and that’s more than enough. In fact, it’s holy. It’s karma, kundalini and Christ consciousness all in one.
There is nothing else going on. There is only the silver cord, the excitation of a field, and a sphere of being. Anything else, that seems to be happening, is tied to one of those in some way, and it’s not for me to say how. Unless it is, and I’ll know if it is by the instructions I get when I tune into what the Universe is saying to me and do what I’m told.
Which is how I end up working on my manuscript at 2AM when some crazy-pants possum starts ransacking the kitchen for fruit.
(to be read aloud with rhythm)
I have journeyed far and wide Outside and inside Explored alternate realities to ease the pain Did all kind of menial work as I explored the terrain Travelled this land connecting and freeing All the country and its diversity seeing Joined the circus after I ran away Contemplated in silence day after day Studied social work and took it to the fight For the environment and human rights
Decided it was me who needed healing A master of social ecology, one of purpose and feeling Fools rush in with a stop and a start Opening and trusting giving away my heart Loved men continuously When will love stick to me Danced the songlines of the planets calling Married a kindred heart in love falling Closing it down I couldn’t connect Doing our best each to protect
Wanted to set the children free Went to India to the orphanage to see To the other extreme private summer camp For kids on meds How I always mess with my head Sought my lineage in Germany, Ireland and England Found so many searching for another to hold their hand Linked to so many communities, didn’t know where to stay Flipped and flopped, drew, sewed and wrote, raised one or two goats Planted gardens in the permaculture way Took circus to the outback Drove along many a dirt track
Came home to the child inside and found she was still hiding scared of the pain Of love being abandoned again and again Re-learned all I could about me and the people around Families take me in as I am the pied piper on sacred ground Found my gift in poetry Love to give it with joy, sometimes for free Hold space for others to get a smile on their face Make paper and read, rest a lot it’s no disgrace
Searching for the evolutionary edge in deed By the sea I settled into me and started to truly let myself be Accepting and surrendering to Divinity Recognising in everything what others see in me Feeling the grief and the sadness Knowing that most of my mind is madness Feeling into the heart of the matter Timely letting all illusions shatter Heart open sensitive soul Acknowledging others and myself are whole Everything I ever did Was serving me and my inner kid
We have been on a journey of love Protected by angels below and above Stories have been told I’ve given myself away and I have been sold Deep feelings wondering why Life hurt and made me cry Strive to be happy, follow the trends Found I’m ahead of them again and again Big picture and vision, a culture free of any box Making circus toys out of second-hand stuff and socks Nature my guide, Feelings I feel A creative catalyst with a strong will Fire horse friend to many All doing our best, big smile and friendly Playing games – Jump or flip right in Heart of a child, nothing a sin Experiences to be had, People to meet Love animals and plants since I was a kid in the street Community worker voice of the heart Always steps up and plays her part
Always a writer and each day I come back to the page After a bundle of feelings have danced across my stage Whatever I did used to make me feel right and wrong Then I realise it’s all just a song With a message for me about how I live life Revealing its effortless – doesn’t have to be about strife If I trust and allow whatever comes in To explore, be grateful, question and grin Cos the secret of life is things aren’t as they seem Then even when they are, it is just a dream A story we tell that matches our beliefs And in some strange way, it all gives us relief Cos it proves that we thought was true That we are perfectly justified in all we do
So, who am I when it all comes down A saint, a jester, a lover or a clown I am an experience that all beings respect I am the muse who plays to inspire and express I am the adventure where we can touch and be touched In a moment where senses mean oh so much Things move and change, there’s nothing to pin down If I try to know too much, I end up with a frown So I surrender, and accept my calling Whoever I’m with I listen, it’s never boring So much to experience so many to feel Connected to all life, the earth I reveal All are my kindred spirits, part of it all Messages revealed nothing to do but have a ball
Again, I sit down to talk about me How to put myself into some category It all falls away to this small little light None of its important I know I’m alright All of the tangents and all of the trends All of the times I’ve lost and gained friends I feel so excited about what I will see when we are together you being you, and me being me. We will get to connect, what will we alchemise By seeing what you hold in your heart and your eyes.
ISBN 978-1-923589-54-4
PAPERBACK
The modern world is fracturing, the drums of war are beating, extremism and tribalism are on the rise, national debt is expanding, and poverty and inequality are increasing.
The drums of war are beating, extremism and tribalism are on the rise, and the modern world is fracturing. National debts are expanding, while poverty and inequality are increasing.
The capitalists blame the socialists, and the socialists blame the capitalists, the rich blame the poor, and the poor blame the rich. The world’s religions blame each other, while politicians of all nations seek to deflect criticism by blaming other nations.
Tragically, they are all both right and wrong, the enemy of all nations knows no boundaries, prays to no God, recognises no social ideology and maintains no national loyalty. It is a single economic entity that carries and spreads throughout the world the significant disease of our time – corruption.
The following is a citizen’s tale, a warning from one citizen to another – the enemy of our children’s future resides within and is maintained by those the citizen has empowered.
ISBN 978-1-923645-43-1
PAPERBACK
We are living in a pandemic of ‘mental illness’. Hospitals are overfilled, and people a are suffering or even dying from the side effects of medication. Psychiatry is not interested in finding the cause of the so-called illnesses, but their medication offers neither prevention nor cure.
IT LOOKS LIKE THERE IS NO HOPE ON THE HORIZON, BUT THERE IS ANOTHER WAY.
Through her research and own experiences with ‘mental illness’, Giselle Jane Robin explores the DNA aspect that is the root cause of many mental illnesses (those not caused by brain damage through accidents), how they can be found in a DNA test and subsequently treated with supplements or alternative remedies.
If you are unsatisfied with your treatment and are looking for an answer to your own ‘mental illness’, this book can help lead you to a better way of life.
Giselle Jane Robin has lived a colourful life. From a young age, she was always moving, and found her life take her from WWII Hamburg/Germany all the way to Australia. This movement led to Giselle having several professions, from government worker to founder of an organic winery. Her diagnosis with the mental illness ‘Bipolar’ was the cause of her restless life.
The treatment of her ‘illness’ and her passion for justice and research led Giselle to write this book. Her hope is to give those who suffer the same fate the information about what is really happening in Psychiatry and the reassurance that there is a way out.
Now living in Aldinga, South Australia, Giselle is engaged in painting, puzzles, reading and attending the theatre.
ISBN 978-1-923589-86-5
PAPERBACK
Clara the croc felt sad the her family were a long way away. Until one day she found an egg and looked after it. Clara was surprised when she found more eggs and looked after those as well. Soon she had a family of her own.
Debbie was born in Wauchope NSW Australia and moved to Port Macquarie at 7, where her parents still live.
She has 6 daughters who live between the Sunshine Coast and MelbourneVictoria.
Debbie went to University of Newcastle at the age of 47, graduating at 51 with a Bachelor of Arts and Primary Teaching.
She taught in remote NSW before moving to the Northern Territory where she now teaches in a very remote school in the Top End.