I'm leaving on this jetplane......

Why are the overhead announcement always preceded by that awful ding dong?

Torvill, Dean and The H-town iceskating rink

Did you know I used to be a champion ice-skater? I'm for real -  I won competitions and everything.... ok, ok so I was 10 and the competitions were at the paridice iceskating rink in the ghetto that is Avondale against other 10 year olds but I had aspirations of being the  Torvill of the next Torvill and Dean. Until those self-same dreams  were crushed by a sudden withdrawal of funding by the cruel Kevin and Gaylynn. Dream crushers grrrr.

well putting that pain aside - The Garden Place ice skating rink has been in place for a couple weeks now and as I'm leaving today and won't be returning till after the rink closes, Issy, Dad and I went to check it out.

The lemonjuicemaplesyrupcayennepepper detox

When life gives you lemons......
(why am I so lame?)

It is day 7 of my 7 day detox. Usually I don’t subscribe to fad ‘diets’ and detoxes, in fact, I am usually a champion of “exercise, eating healthy and water!” even though I don’t always follow this to the letter myself. However, the 2 following circumstances led me to be curious ;

1)    Tracy Karaka – family friend and my former flatmate – did a 40 day water fast last year – your eyes do not deceive you – 40 DAYS!  I admit to being pretty sceptical at the time that she was going to pull it off and that it would be beneficial for her – but not only did a bunch of her ailments clear up in no time she also was full of energy bouncing around Templeview in fine form.

2)    This year on my umpteenth attempt I successfully gave up diet coke – I know many may think that’s laughable and not something you ‘give up’ but seriously I have crazy withdrawals from the stuff and I was crook for at least a solid week with the shakes and cold sweats.

So I’ve been thinking was a detox all its cracked up to be? Will I lose a mega amount of weight? (yes, yes it will be mostly water weight  I know)

My container of choice

 So, Kash asked me to join her on the world famous lemonjuicemaplesyrupcayennepepper detox also known as the lemonade diet or the master cleanse or the cure.
I convinced here to start the next day as I needed enough time to do it before I went to England, so after a frantic search for grade b maple syrup (found it at the frankton organic store) we started last Friday.

Let me tell you, it has been awesome and I’m pretty much a believer - the third day of the detox was definitely the worst day (but I was prepared as I’d read that on ALL the lemon detox blogs) I had the shakes and cold sweat thing happening again but I had a hot bath and went to bed early then got up day 4 and felt completely fine again.

 Uncannily I have woken up much earlier than I usually do every day of the detox, I haven’t felt hungry (but have had cravings – the first day was for chocolate and pizza the last couple of days has been for kumara, pumpkin and capsicum) and the moment you may be waiting for : I’ve lost about 4.5 kilos. You do gain a bit of that back afterwards but as many of the blogs I’ve read (and youtube videos I’ve watched ) say – if you maintain a healthy diet afterwards you are able to keep much of the weight off and drop back down.

Kash is going on to do a full 10 days but the second day in she informed me you need to ‘ease out’ which takes about 3 days at least so I have to start my easing out tomorrow so I can be ready to go away next week - but the fast can be anywhere from 3 days to 30 (or 40 in some cases) so its all good.

So now its my last day and I’m about to go to bed, I’m going to start easing back in to normal eating tomorrow by drinking orange juice and then attempting some capsicum.

mmmmmmm capsicums



got a bottle just like this waiting for me in the fridge



Here is some info about the detox if you are interested;

Plain site that lays out all the info you need

PDF of Stanley Burroughs 1971 Master Cleanse.

Peter Glickman’s website (he wrote the updated version of the master cleanse)

*update* it’s the next morning, I woke up and even though I was excited all yesterday for orange juice, thinking about it this morning made me feel a little queasy! I did need to start easing out though so I made some lemon drink and started with that and then made a glass of half orange half water and that was honestly enough. The half and half orange juice tasted out of control sugary!. Anyway I thought that was weird considering I usually wouldn’t hesitate downing a full glass of orange.

I am a weapon of massive consumption

Or a countdown of the top ten things I am looking forward to spending money on in England

10.Benetint by Benefit

Personally, I think England is the best place to buy awesome makeup -forget America- for example benetint. I first bought this from Boots while I was in Uni and it lasted a whole year until it smashed on the airport floor in Barcelona during an easyjet scuffle for flights out of the selfsame airport (its a good story - you should get Kashka to tell you). What is it you may say ? why its a rose-tinted see-through stain for lips & cheeks that lasts for hours, that apparently was originally created for an exotic dancer in the 1970s. I restocked last time I was in England and I am going in for more.

9.Boots Sandwiches

Speaking of Boots the next item of consumption (literally ) on my list is a delicious Boots Sandwich. Honestly there really isnt another ready made sandwich that brings more delight and gastronomic satisfaction than any of the excellent selection they have at Boots. Also I like the fact you can buy both a quality sandwich and makeup in the same store - does this make me a little white trash? Whatever, I dont care.

8.Tesco- Bidston Moss.

I’m not ashamed to admit I was once a Tesco’s worker. During my Uni days I worked at the café in the hypermarket that is Tesco Bidston Moss, frequented by the likes of local scallies, recently arrived Irish immigrants and a whole cast of weirdo regulars. Working there was some good times and also some dangerously borderline health and safety times. I can’t wait to head down and stock up on Muller Yoghurt, OJ, Jaffa Cakes and Tunnocks Teacakes.

7.Tunnocks Teacakes

Ahhh Tunnocks Teacakes –how do I explain them? I would fistfight my own grandmother for the last Tunnocks Teacake in a pack. Gladly. Fight. her.
Even the delicious sounding Wikipedia explanation of what they are doesn’t really do the Teacake justice. If they really did do a pimped version of the Teacake it would be like I died and went to Teacake Heaven.
 In an attempt to explain them they are kind of like a much more superior version of a mallowpuff. Tunnocks Teacakes to mallowpuffs are like the Beatles in 1968 to a Beatles Tribute band in 2011. Both enjoyable, but we all know which version is infinitely better in every way.


6.Marks and Spencer - Liverpool

Both my Mum and my Cavanagh aunties freaking LOVE this place – so back in the day, if I ever missed Gaygay I would venture inside and think about how jealous she would be, knowing I was at Marks and Spencers. Also they make ridiculously good cream filled meringues and high quality underwear for reasonable prices.


5.The Egg

Full of smelly hippies and hipsters – the egg was easily my favourite eatery during Uni. Walking through the purple entrance and up the windy red stairs to the egg always made me feel highly bohemian. Of course this joint is a vegetarian/vegan restaurant and damn, if they don’t make the best food you ever tasted – I’m personally looking forward to the Spicy Burger that is neither really a burger nor spicy but delicious nonetheless.

4.Topshop Liverpool

I have whiled away many (and I mean many) an afternoon/evening/morning in Topshop. Topshop Liverpool based on proximity is the main protagonist for this time thievery…. But if I was to admit a favourite Topshop it would definitely be the flagship store in London that I spent 5 hours in one time and still didn’t feel like I’d seen everything.

3.H&M

While Topshop is amazing and fashionable and all-round good time. H&M is all of those things plus affordable. Although slightly generic now that its all around the world and dirty no-good Kate moss represents the place, still my heart beats a little faster every time I go near an H&M and I know I wont be able to resist buying at least one item of clothing that will totally become my signature piece okay? So don’t judge me.

 


2.Minstrels

Remember how I said I would fist fight my grandma for a Teacake? Well, for a minstrel I would fight my own brother and win because of the rush of adrenalin and my sheer will to win the minstrel. And if you’ve met my brother you would know how serious that would be. Minstrels are like heaven in a sugar coated shell. Like an angel cried tears of happiness and they mixed those tears into the chocolate. Like they used the milk of a unicorn and sugar made out of crystallized joy to create this confectionary of awesomeness.  Like all of those things...

1.Primark

Ok. I know this clearly marks me out as a scally. I dont care.I remember there was a time when Primark was truly trashy but since the recession and the arrival of cheap eastern european fashion to the shores of England, Primark has become freaking awesome.Cheap, cool, jam packed with options and sparkly colourfully wonderfulness. I have a recurring dream that Im shopping in Primark having the time of my life and then I wake up and its just a dream. and it is so sad.

Below are some examples from the primark website and seriously they could easily be see on some hipster in the sartorialist....

Blogger App

How convenient. Now I can post on-the-go from my iPhone. Because iPhone's are truly the best. Did I mention I have an iPhone ? Im using my iPhone to write this right now.

Photo taken with my iPhone

Some, some, some I, some I murder... Some I, some I let go-oh

very.cool.scene.

On Saturday night Bellababy and I went to check out the flash new Hoyts at Te Awa and saw Hanna – a movie about a girl trained from infancy in some backend european winter wilderness to become a deadly assassin. In the words of the Bellababy “That was random, but cool”  I actually, surprisingly, really liked it and have been thinking about it since. Mainly about the music.

Kash was the first to tell me about the music before I went to see the film and so I already had a heads up it would be spectacularspectacular – 'cause my homeboys The Chemical Brothers produced the musical score for the whole film. I like to think Tom, Ed and I have special relationship based on the moment we shared at the 2001 Big Day Out. Im sure our eyes all mutually met across the boiler room, probably.

Here is a review that explains my feelings about the music in this film perfectly.

I like this music so damn much I’ve been downloading it piece by piece on iTunes as a soundtrack to my life. I really should just buy the whole album – no point now though as I’ve pretty much got it in its entirety.

Below are my two fav’s........

 you gotta give this second track about half a minute to kick in..........

Solid beats and excellent – I mean excellent - for the running I’ve been doing in an attempt to rid myself of the winter chub.

Another album that I am loving listening to from beginning to end whilst running  is my recently rediscovered Kala  by the fabulous M.I.A who is a refugee all-star goddess – and who coincidentally is mentioned in Hanna by a lovable chav-ette that Hanna befriends

Hanna and the Chav-ette in question.

Such a great movie.

 I leave you with M.I.A, paper planes and the video that shaped my wardrobe for 2009. If you havent watched it before you gotta - especially around minute 2 when M.I.A and her crew start rocking down the street in the best UK Ghetto Fabulous manner you ever did see.

Photo Album

These photos from my iPhone (okay and stolen from other peoples facebook albums) have been haunting me - I have been storing these photos to share from the goings on of the past few weeks and it just hasn't happened yet- so Im just going to make this post a photo album of highlights from the weeks that were....

Koroneihana

A snapshot  of the powhiri at Korineihana for Ethnic Communities


YSA Snow Trip

on the way to the snow



Jake outside McD's where ALL the YSA stopped for lunch - it was packed  



The huge traffic jam as we hit the bottom of the mountain - apparently there were 6,500 people on the mountain that day



Traffic in the opposite direction and Yi-han before the outbreak of a snowball fight between all the cars waiting in line



The bus taking us to the top

Photo I took while waiting for the other groups to arrive....



 at the hotpools on the way home after the snow

 
 

RS Board Meeting



Our very first board meeting as a relief society was awesome - made double awesome by this food




Miss Rivers Purple Dragon
The lovely Miss River and I play a game where we take turns being a princess and escaping dragons.... except "purple dragons because purple dragons are our friends". Rivs turned 4 and so I thought Id make her her very own purple dragon

Miss River opening the dragon present with the darling Meadow and Dulcie

Poetry Slam

                     As per usual Kashka's monthly poetry slam was radness personified.

RS Movie Night - The Errand of Angels

In honour of two of our lovely ladies leaving on missions we had a RS Movie night where we watched The Errand of Angels - a movie about sister missionaries. It was an AWESOME turn out and most dressed up in their pyjamas - with several sisters rocking the onesie - but ....Im not so mean that Ill post THOSE photos

The food - oh the food!





Gleefest

Singing on Stage at Glee