Navigating 50

Wow—have I been living under a rock?

For the past year, I’ve been following a woman on Facebook who is also a farmer. She’s younger than me, still has young kids at home, works out in the heat fencing with her husband, holds down a part-time job, and somehow still cooks a hot meal every single night.

Meanwhile…
My kids are grown.
I work from home in air conditioning most days.
I show properties that also have air conditioning.
I drive an air-conditioned car.
I have no real time constraints around cooking.

And yet—we were eating out most nights.

I’ll admit it: watching her was a little convicting.

Her saving grace—aside from her stamina—was her Thermomix.

I’d heard of Thermomix before, of course. But being the sceptic that I am, I never really looked into it. They’re expensive, and I always thought, Who actually spends that kind of money on a kitchen appliance?

Well… turns out, I do.

After watching how easily she prepared home-cooked meals night after night, I finally decided it was time. I took the plunge and bought one. Around $2,629 on a kitchen tool—still a bit hard to say out loud—but thankfully Zip Money exists, so I went that route. Minimum repayments? I’ll take that as a win.

I was genuinely impressed by how quickly it arrived. From order to delivery was only a few days—exceptional service and a great first impression.

When it arrived, my husband and I unboxed it together, mainly because it’s quite heavy and there are a lot of components. Once it was set up on the bench, I went to connect it to the internet and attach the bowl.

That’s when things stalled.

What should have been a simple task absolutely wasn’t. I could not, for the life of me, work out how to get the bowl on properly. So, I rang my Facebook friend—the one I purchased it through—and through her laughter she gently talked me through it.

And then… magic.

I could not believe how easy it actually was. It literally walks you through everything step by step. Turn on the oven. Grease the pan. Add ingredients. Press go. It’s like having a calm, patient kitchen coach standing beside you—something I didn’t realise I needed.

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve definitely become lazier when it comes to cooking, and it had started to feel like a chore. Now? I genuinely enjoy it.

And the biggest win of all—we now eat out once a fortnight instead of almost every night. Honestly, that saving alone has already covered a significant portion of the original investment.

Sometimes the things we swear we don’t need turn out to be exactly what we were missing.

Just some of the things I have cooked with the Thermomix TM7!