It’s now 15 days into 2023 and I’ve been thinking, since NYE, what happened in 2022 that I have to be grateful for. Besides the usual; my awesome wit, good looks and an appreciative man, I’m grateful for Rohan. So here’s the thing… Going back to 2007 when I married said appreciative man, our honeymoon was a fantastic East Coast adventure. Up to Bundaberg we tootled. And back down to Sydney in a broken VW Caravelle. Along the way home we stopped in at Wet n Wild and in our youth and craziness, we hit the big drop slide. It hurt! My back hurt the whole way home. It hurt for days. And then weeks. I finally went to my GP in Redfern who sent me to a specialist in Camperdown. Many visits (at $240 a pop), scans, x-rays, MRIs and he couldn’t work out what was wrong. He dismissed the waterslide story and decided to diagnose me with psoriatic arthritis. He put me on painkillers and not sure what else, but I ended up in hospital with a fried liver. It’s not very pleasant when your new husband comes home from work to find you shivering and barely conscious and tells you that you stench like rotten meat. I was yellow and still… my back hurt. Afraid of taking more drugs, I went to a naturopath. Taking the specialist’s diagnosis into account and $1000 later, she had me on a special diet and consuming 22 tablets a day. This was hugely depressing and unsustainable. 15 years!!! 15 years of being incapacitated meant I stacked on the weight and was depression kicked in due to back pain. Some nights the pain in my back was so bad it came through my chest, and I thought I was having a heart attack. The weight gain has left me with high blood pressure. The blood pressure medication has a side affect of weight gain… fucking stupid! My poor husband. I was always apologising to him (as he rubbed menthol creams on my back and stained the mattress) because he’d married a dud. I managed to maintain the pain with Mobic, Panadol and bed rest. I wasn’t able to carry out full time work where I was expected to arrive on time every day and pull off a normal working day. I spent many years on disability and ended up creating my own work where I could function on my own timeline. Granny Mel’s was great! Melting Pot Catering is better. So what was so mind blowing in 2022? My GP at Access Health in Wingham, who I love to bits, sent me to the Physio dept at the Mayo Hospital where I met Rohan. After a 5min conversation with Rohan, he stood me up, folded my arms in front of my body and went POP! 15 fucking years!!! And the pain was gone. I had a slipped disc. 15 fucking years!!! 2023…… time to lose the belly fat. I’m in my 50s now, perimenopause has kicked in. HRT has another weight gain side effect. This is going to be a slow journey.

Hoooweee! What a year it’s been. Trying to reignite Granny Mel’s during a pandemic was probably a little bit bonkers…. It was great to begin with, people had a few bucks to throw around (double dole an’ all) and were glad to be out and about – until they weren’t. And the rain! So much bloody rain! Then, things got tough for everyone with interest rate rises and the general cost of living going up and up and up. The food festivals we attended brought in less than half what we’d made in the past but the site fees were more. Then I got covid. BOOO! And, I thought by putting my sauces into shops would be a good idea too. Nope – still chasing people for money, which really sucks. It was so great to touch base with our old (and new) customers and we’re forever grateful for the love and support but…. We’ve gotta say see ya later to Granny Mel’s. The good news though, is people need people and people need feeding.  Say g’day to Melting Pot Catering!! We’ve got the best team of passionate foodies who go above and beyond for you and yours. I love them all so much!!