I agree with JudyDawn about organising your recipes from the start. 

After she started the thread about how she stored her recipes I decided I should also attempt to be organised, purchased a ring binder and got started - that was about 8 weeks ago and I am now onto ring binder no. 2 and still adding to it.  I generally download at least 6 recipes a week and just put them randomly into the various sections in my binders in no particular order, but under a couple of headings - Soups; Risottos; Sweet Things; Meals and Savouries; Dips; Entrees, etc., that way I have to go through all the recipes when I am menu planning and often find ones that I had forgotten I had - I call it my "It's a Surprise" system of filing.

I also have a pressure cooker, but rarely use it now that I have the TMX - main reason being that it's another pot to scrub, when it is just as easy to cook everything in the TMX.  However, being a vegetarian, the pressure cooker does have a place when I am cooking dried beans as it is so much quicker, or else if I am brewing an extra large pot of soup, etc.

I have never made a meal combining TMX preparation / pressure cooking, but I see no reason why that can't be done.  Wonderful as the TMX is, it is a tool (one that I wouldn't be without, mind you) and each one of us utilises it the way that best suits our individual needs.

Our business is arts related and we often get "mature students" in (and by mature I mean that this encompasses those from around 40 to 70+) who have always wanted to learn, but there were other demands on their lives, or maybe they had learned at an early age and stopped but now want to start again.  I love working with these people because of their enthusiasm, it is so rewarding for someone on the other side of the counter when your customer gives you such a buzz - my colleagues and I always talk about them with a great deal of happiness when they leave.

These people always get so much more enjoyment, fun and satisfaction from their studies - simply because it is something they WANT to learn and even if they never become "proficient", that doesn't matter, it is all about their own satisfaction in what they are doing.

Welcome, Chris.  Perth is certainly the place to be if you have a Thermomix - a great many of our more active members live there and often arrange informal get togethers so you will get loads of additional support.  I too still follow recipes pretty closely but find I am cooking things just because I can and am starting to get a bit more adventurous in what I cook.  It amazes me that this has happened because we live in the heart of a major restaurant area in Melbourne offering such a variety of cuisines that it had previously been easier to just pop down the road for a takeaway than to "bother" to cook dinner and now I prefer to make my own.  I am spending more money on ingredients, etc. but saving much much more by not buying takeway every night.

There is definitely one male GL here in Melbourne, so you won't be alone in the gender stakes!

Well said, Frozzie.  Knowing that you are going to get good, sensible and CORRECT advice from one point would be an invaluable help to so many people.

What an ingenious clip (well, ingenious to me as I haven't seen this 'double ended' version before).  Have you thought of using the type of male / female nylon or plastic clip you see a lot on rucksacks these days (you know the type that you slide one half into the other and it clicks into place) - or perhaps velcro?

Good tip about the tea towel - my apron tie isn't long enough to go right around twice - I think I'll have to lengthen it.  I always wondered how the TV chefs kept their tea towels in place.  Mine always fell out.  Isn't it great how these brilliant small ideas, although obvious, are often amongst the most useful.

... what's a NOR or SOR?

Whatever you are, Deonie, welcome and we all know exactly how you are feeling.  Have a great time with your TMX.