So for the next 4 weeks I have decided to embark on a wholefoods diet and also do a spring herbal detox cleanse, in yet another effort to rid my system of toxins and lose weight. I seem to attempt detoxes on a regular basis, but rarely ever last as long as I intend to, usually at the 3 day mark I smell something diabolically delicious & throw in the towel. On day 2 (I started last Saturday) my aunty bought me over two amazingly decorated cupcakes which I couldn’t bear to throw out nor eat. So I came to a compromise, I tasted the icing on both, ok well if I’m being honest I ate all the chocolate icing on one, tasted the almond icing on the other, tried a small amount of each cupcake and threw the rest out.
But yesterday I was super good. I got invited to dinner at my auntys (she is a brilliant cook) and I thought about skipping the invitation but I also wanted to see my sisters new car, she was also going to be there, so I made myself some food & took it with me. It worked amazingly well.
So the cleanse I’m doing is called Brett Elliots Ultimate Herbal Detox which goes for 10-14 days, you take herbal pills morning & night and can only eat or drink smoothies, soups, salads, herbal teas and juices. Basically you can only eat fruits, vegetables and herbs, with a little bit of olive oil with salads. Last time I did it (in January) it did make me feel a lot better, unfortunately as soon as I ended I went on a road trip where I undid all the good results from the detox. So I’m hoping that this time it will work out a lot better.
I’ve had a cold/flu since last Thursday which hasn’t been fun either, I’ve been coughing almost non stop and generally feeling like crap, I had a headache for 3 days straight which thankfully has gone now, I’m only just starting to feel a bit better today so hopefully things can only improve from here on.
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Crash and die
Last night my external hard drive accidentally fell on the ground and smashed something on the inside because it is no longer recognized by the computer & it makes a clicking noise which my brother in law says is the kiss of death.
Everything was on there, photos, documents, music, digital pages I'd been working on for my scrapbook. All the photos older than 2yrs are on cd as well, but none of the recent stuff was. Thank goodness for facebook, at least some things are on there, but a lot of it wasn't, I'm so gutted. Also last week my sister took my hard drive & was loading stuff onto her hard drive for about an hour. I emailed a couple of data recovery places, but their fees were around $5-800, which, for a hard drive that only cost $100, seems rather exorbitant. But i guess its the memories which are important. I don't know if i want to pay that much just to retrieve photos though. I have learnt my lesson though - always back stuff up, and never trust Maxtor USB hard drives, they can't be made very well if they break that easily.
Everything was on there, photos, documents, music, digital pages I'd been working on for my scrapbook. All the photos older than 2yrs are on cd as well, but none of the recent stuff was. Thank goodness for facebook, at least some things are on there, but a lot of it wasn't, I'm so gutted. Also last week my sister took my hard drive & was loading stuff onto her hard drive for about an hour. I emailed a couple of data recovery places, but their fees were around $5-800, which, for a hard drive that only cost $100, seems rather exorbitant. But i guess its the memories which are important. I don't know if i want to pay that much just to retrieve photos though. I have learnt my lesson though - always back stuff up, and never trust Maxtor USB hard drives, they can't be made very well if they break that easily.
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Weather Cancellations
I planned a trip to Dunedin this week, I had booked both my accomodation & my flights. Unfortunately just as I was getting organized to pack, the weather packed in down there (snow & blustery gales). I was a bit worried about getting stranded down there as I only had four days off work, so on sunday I cancelled my accomodation. Sunday night I'd already decided it wasn't worth it to go down & my trip would have to be postponed til another time. Monday 5:30am one of my workmates rung me to tell me that my second flight (down to Dunedin) had been cancelled, the airport was closed due to snow and ice on the tarmac, which is fair enough from their point of view. So its a good thing I already had decided that I wasn't going down. I still want to go another time, just maybe when its summer & theres less chance of a cancelled flight.
Saturday, May 28, 2011
Travel High
I made a quick trip to Sydney a couple of weeks ago, and already a sense of wanderlust has begun to pervade my entire being. I just got back from a trip and I already want to go somewhere again. Granted next week I'm going to wellington for 2 nights, and then my next planned trip after that is to the Abel Tasman national park at the beginning of september, but everytime I travel, I have this feeling of wanting to travel more. Its like i just can't get enough of it.
My flatmate just got back last week from a trip to Langkawi, Malaysia last week (it sounded awesome, hot weather, beautiful beaches) and my sister got back from the Gold Coast just a few days ago. I personally have had enough of the gold coast for my lifetime, i don't know how people can love it so much, i liked the theme parks but that was about it.
Then in november i have requested a month of work so that i can travel to my hearts content (pending having enough saved), ideally i would like to spend 1 week in asia, preferably Hong Kong and one week on a beautiful island, I'm thinking Tahiti or Fiji and then the rest of the time on a nice beach in NZ, it should be getting hot by then.
I think really, for me, its all about the anticipation. I get so much enjoyment out of planning trips, that once it arrives, its almost an anticlimax, and then by the time its over, i'm already trying to think of ways to get that momentum going again.
My flatmate just got back last week from a trip to Langkawi, Malaysia last week (it sounded awesome, hot weather, beautiful beaches) and my sister got back from the Gold Coast just a few days ago. I personally have had enough of the gold coast for my lifetime, i don't know how people can love it so much, i liked the theme parks but that was about it.
Then in november i have requested a month of work so that i can travel to my hearts content (pending having enough saved), ideally i would like to spend 1 week in asia, preferably Hong Kong and one week on a beautiful island, I'm thinking Tahiti or Fiji and then the rest of the time on a nice beach in NZ, it should be getting hot by then.
I think really, for me, its all about the anticipation. I get so much enjoyment out of planning trips, that once it arrives, its almost an anticlimax, and then by the time its over, i'm already trying to think of ways to get that momentum going again.
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Past Memories
My phone has died, and I have lost all my phone numbers. Strangely when I changed my SIM card into a borrowed phone it had a heap of numbers I haven’t seen in about 5 years, since I got my previous phone, ones from 2006. A lot of the names I didn’t recognize, or they seemed vaguely familiar but I couldn’t quite place who the people were.
At that time I was living in Tauranga, and I was the Stake YSA rep, so its quite possible that a lot of them were YSA who I don’t really remember anymore, most of whom I haven’t seen in years.
My late aunty and stepfather’s phone numbers were also on there, that made me sad. Goodness knows how many people I will have forgotten in another five years.
A couple of days ago I checked in two lovely ladies, whose names and faces looked very familiar, but I couldn’t quite place them. But they both had the same first name. I took a chance and asked them “Do you know Amanda*?”
They both looked at each other and looked at me again, “Yes we do.”
“Which one of you made her wedding dress?”
“I did.”
“And which one of you runs a Backpackers hostel?”
The other one put up her hand. I remember going with Amanda for one of her wedding dress fittings, I took a couple of pictures of her dress on my phone, and also one of a tiny rainbow that was on the wall, I’m thinking it was light streaming through the stained glass window that caused it.
Last night I had a dream with more than one person from my past, I think I must have been thinking about them just before I drifted off to sleep. It’s a bit bizarre though, how all these things are just coming back to me now. Maybe I need to make a better effort to record the things I’m doing now, so they won’t just end up as vague memories in the future.
* Name changed for privacy reasons
At that time I was living in Tauranga, and I was the Stake YSA rep, so its quite possible that a lot of them were YSA who I don’t really remember anymore, most of whom I haven’t seen in years.
My late aunty and stepfather’s phone numbers were also on there, that made me sad. Goodness knows how many people I will have forgotten in another five years.
A couple of days ago I checked in two lovely ladies, whose names and faces looked very familiar, but I couldn’t quite place them. But they both had the same first name. I took a chance and asked them “Do you know Amanda*?”
They both looked at each other and looked at me again, “Yes we do.”
“Which one of you made her wedding dress?”
“I did.”
“And which one of you runs a Backpackers hostel?”
The other one put up her hand. I remember going with Amanda for one of her wedding dress fittings, I took a couple of pictures of her dress on my phone, and also one of a tiny rainbow that was on the wall, I’m thinking it was light streaming through the stained glass window that caused it.
Last night I had a dream with more than one person from my past, I think I must have been thinking about them just before I drifted off to sleep. It’s a bit bizarre though, how all these things are just coming back to me now. Maybe I need to make a better effort to record the things I’m doing now, so they won’t just end up as vague memories in the future.
* Name changed for privacy reasons
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Seek and maybe you'll find
I can’t believe I finally found the answer. And all that time it was right under my nose. Looking and looking, and finding erroneous results and all the time wondering what was going on, there must be something more to this.
Coming across people who “couldn’t see the forest for the trees” looking for one little detail and missing the whole complex context of nature that was there.
Granted, my search did bring me into contact with lovely people I would never have met otherwise, and I did pick up some wonderful pieces of information. But it was hard to pull it all into a congruent whole.
I was rereading an old journal entry I’d written about a year ago recently, where I'd had an epiphany and drawn a massive conclusion about my own wellbeing based on a few things that I had read in a book, things which were being contradicted at the same time by something else a friend had given me in another book. It was all very confusing and frustrating.
And now (finally) I have the answer in my hands, a recommendation from a friend. Its just so logical and yet hard to believe – and yet it must be true. I trust the author implicitly and I don’t even know him. But his refutation of other things I’ve read is absolutely brilliant.
And next time I will get to the point of what this is all about. (Once I finish reading his book).
Coming across people who “couldn’t see the forest for the trees” looking for one little detail and missing the whole complex context of nature that was there.
Granted, my search did bring me into contact with lovely people I would never have met otherwise, and I did pick up some wonderful pieces of information. But it was hard to pull it all into a congruent whole.
I was rereading an old journal entry I’d written about a year ago recently, where I'd had an epiphany and drawn a massive conclusion about my own wellbeing based on a few things that I had read in a book, things which were being contradicted at the same time by something else a friend had given me in another book. It was all very confusing and frustrating.
And now (finally) I have the answer in my hands, a recommendation from a friend. Its just so logical and yet hard to believe – and yet it must be true. I trust the author implicitly and I don’t even know him. But his refutation of other things I’ve read is absolutely brilliant.
And next time I will get to the point of what this is all about. (Once I finish reading his book).
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Small Miracles
Last week was stake conference. I went to the Saturday evening session and I took a lot of notes but I’m not sure how much I mentally absorbed. Only two things really stood out to me and that was from the final speaker Elder Neilson. He said fear is the opposite of faith, and we need to move forward with faith and not be too concerned with whats going on. Earthquakes and tsunamis are the Lords way of testifying that He is coming back.
But what really got me was a story that he shared and the experience I had both before and after conference. That morning my sister had wanted to go garage saleing and I ended up tagging along. I initially wasn’t too keen on the idea as I wanted to go to the Tamahere Farmers market, but I did end up getting some stuff I really liked, really cheap. As we were driving around looking for signs we saw one for a place called Derby St. I didn’t know where that was, but I saw this girl on the side of the road who I recognized from Institute even though I didn’t know her name. I asked her, but she didn’t know, so we kept going and found it in the end.
That night Elder Neilson shared a story about people who pray for others to receive help, even though they themselves could just offer the help that those people need eg a family leaving church discovering they have a flat tyre and need a jack, and someone else, instead of offering their jack, take them inside, pray about the situation, ring the bishop to come help them and then go outside and leave.
After church the girl I’d seen that morning came and said Hi and that she had just moved to Hamz and didn’t really know her way around yet. Then she went away outside to call her ride.
When I walked outside and saw her she had a puzzled upset look on her face, and I remembered the story and had this strong feeling like I should go check if she had a ride home. And guess what? She didn’t. Her ride was asleep and wasn’t answering her phone. And then it just seemed like everything had fallen into place, as though designed by some divine hand of providence that was looking out for her – the fact I’d run into her that morning, the fact they had shared that story and that she’d come up and met me after the conference.
What made it seem even better was that I was about to go visit my friend at her house and this girl lived on the way there. It just seemed so perfectly lined up that I was blown away. The stuff going on in Christchurch, Japan and issues in the middle east are just so dejecting and I find it hard to not focus on all the negativity, but when something good like that happens, a small miracle, it just picks me up and makes things seem more worthwhile.
But what really got me was a story that he shared and the experience I had both before and after conference. That morning my sister had wanted to go garage saleing and I ended up tagging along. I initially wasn’t too keen on the idea as I wanted to go to the Tamahere Farmers market, but I did end up getting some stuff I really liked, really cheap. As we were driving around looking for signs we saw one for a place called Derby St. I didn’t know where that was, but I saw this girl on the side of the road who I recognized from Institute even though I didn’t know her name. I asked her, but she didn’t know, so we kept going and found it in the end.
That night Elder Neilson shared a story about people who pray for others to receive help, even though they themselves could just offer the help that those people need eg a family leaving church discovering they have a flat tyre and need a jack, and someone else, instead of offering their jack, take them inside, pray about the situation, ring the bishop to come help them and then go outside and leave.
After church the girl I’d seen that morning came and said Hi and that she had just moved to Hamz and didn’t really know her way around yet. Then she went away outside to call her ride.
When I walked outside and saw her she had a puzzled upset look on her face, and I remembered the story and had this strong feeling like I should go check if she had a ride home. And guess what? She didn’t. Her ride was asleep and wasn’t answering her phone. And then it just seemed like everything had fallen into place, as though designed by some divine hand of providence that was looking out for her – the fact I’d run into her that morning, the fact they had shared that story and that she’d come up and met me after the conference.
What made it seem even better was that I was about to go visit my friend at her house and this girl lived on the way there. It just seemed so perfectly lined up that I was blown away. The stuff going on in Christchurch, Japan and issues in the middle east are just so dejecting and I find it hard to not focus on all the negativity, but when something good like that happens, a small miracle, it just picks me up and makes things seem more worthwhile.
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