Tuesday 15 December 2009

Betty – why have you entered my dreams.......?

I have noticed in the build up to Christmas the amount of “stuff “we buy ..... Extra nuts, crisps, chocolates and even silly things like different preserves and chutneys........ All of this food is just in case...
Just in case someone comes round.
Just in case we run out
Just in case the shops never open again
Just in case there is no more food left in the shops........

Then come March you look in the cupboards when your spring cleaning and you find a stash of just in case food which gets given to charity as no one wants to eat it or it will not make a meal.

This weekend I went in to the West End of London to look at the shops for research and the major iconic shops in London have pulled out all the stops and most windows had a dazzling array of goods from clothes to jewellery and home ware and food.

Selfridges had this amazing window and nestling in the middle of the massive display was a box – Betty Crocker French Vanilla cake mix .......... I was drooling almost licking the window – thankfully the shop didn’t open for another two hours.







Why – I do love vanilla and the picture of the cake looked so delicious all the way home all I could think of was Betty and her cake ........

So maybe I’m not buying all the just in case food this Christmas but Betty is coming over Christmas as I do feel I deserve a treat and I think Betty would make me so happy on Boxing Day watching old films on the sofa ...... plus she would be handy just in case a visitor came ?

Thursday 10 December 2009

Well it made me laugh.........

One of the nice bit’s about Christmas are the surprise gifts you receive from companies you have done work with.


Yesterday I had a wonderful bar of handmade chocolate delivered from Livingstone Partners – a huge slab of “Billy Banka” chocolate and yes in some of the bars a “golden ticket “for a trip to Madrid


I didn’t win the trip to Madrid but I loved the chocolate.
So I’m on a diet and I ate it – go on bite me!

Enough already..........

Last Sunday I went to my local supermarket just for a few items we had forgotten – like teabags and some extra milk ...........Waitrose like most supermarkets have two sizes of trolley and a basket.
I opted for the small trolley even though I was buying a few items so I could put the rest of my shopping & handbag in the trolley. There was an abundance of the small trolleys normally they are like gold dust as most people opt for these unless they are buying for a large family.
I hit the aisle and was just going up and down two for my milk, teabags and some bread ......meanwhile all around people were lingering over every shelf and chilled cabinet and piling food into their large trolleys- we are talking all kinds of food you only see during the holiday period like fresh white sauce for Christmas puddings and duck fat in tubs and then all kinds of nuts and snacks in lurid packets.
It’s like food voyeurism looking in peoples trolley’s I often do this – it may be judgemental or totally off the mark but looking at peoples food when they load onto the conveyer belt – “single, divorced guy with a chicken, dry roasted peanuts, bottle of Scotch and a six pack of bear “– widow “cat food and a piece of frozen fish and a prepared salad and some rice pudding” ........
But looking at the mountains being built in trolleys of bumper packs of snacks , pre made Yorkshire puddings, Turkey gravy , tins of chocolate you have to think there are nearly twenty days to Christmas – so twenty days of more food and gift shopping ....... plus all the “just in case” shopping we do. I couldn’t guess what they were doing other than laying in for an apocalypse or a siege.






So why every year do we buy all this food which we either feel forced to eat or we have to “offer i.e. force” other people to eat and then come the 2nd of January feel out of shape and overweight ..... Which is bound to happen as every available dish and surface with have a bowl of nibbles, chocolates, crisps?
So this week when I do my quick run round the supermarket will I see the same local people buying even more fun food and drinks and produce – I wonder if their fridges and freezers have any room to hold any more – I’m betting they will be back.
For many years I was this woman with the big trolley and yes in the New Year all my clothes were tight and I felt uncomfortable but now I’m restraining myself as I know I can happily graze at other folks houses as they will be pressing food on me due to their overstuffed cupboards and fridges/ freezers.
With over 45% of the population overweight or on a diet in the UK and half the world starving when do we say enough already.

Sunday 6 December 2009

Where is the laughter?

For a girl who has always had the glass overflowing, the eternal optimist ....... daydreamer extraordinaire this last two weeks I‘ve had this feeling of drowning in my own overflowing glass of optimism.

So not like me!

I have had this feeling that I’m running 4 hours late – that feeling you have when you oversleep for an important meeting and you don’t have time to wash your hair, you ladder your tights getting dressed and can’t find another pair in that colour so have to rethink the outfit and then miss the train by a nano second.... and you never catch up all day plus you look and feel crap all day.

Well it’s been like that for me and on two days had a knock on effect on my diet – thankfully I got home in the evening and checked into Spark People and retrieved the situation and put it into perspective so didn’t continue down the road to crappy eating ......... you know the one where you think to hell with it one super large pizza with a tub of Ben & Jerry’s will just finish off the crap day and then you lie in bed filled with self loathing and bloated.........

The other thing is I turned quite introverted and just went into my shell which is quite unlike me- so this week I slowed the pace right down and did a big review of all my routines and work and just every area of my life.

I went through my diary for December “the season to be jolly” looked at the schedule and thought where is the laughter? So all the dreary meetings are out , plus all the meetings with people who are booked in “just because we need to catch up before Christmas “ – I thought actually if truth be known I don’t like you 11 months of the year so why do I have to suffer you just because Christmas is coming .......?




Mean I know but hey I’m Santa’s naughty elf and I have to use that time to work off the illegal Starbucks eggnog latte (350 calories) I had twice.........

One Girl Revolution .......

I wear a disguise
I'm just your average Jane
The super doesn't stand for model
But that doesn't mean I'm plain
If all you see is how I look
You miss the super chick within
And I christen you titanic underestimate and swim
I've got the rifle gonna be myself
I've got the rifle gonna be myself
I've got the rifle gonna be myself
I've got the rifle gonna be myself
(CHORUS)
And I'll be everything that I wanna be
I am confidence in insecurity
I am a voice yet waiting to be heard
I'll shoot the shot, bang, that you hear round the world

And I'm a one girl revolution

I'm a one girl revolution
I'm a one girl revolution

Some people see the revolution but most only see the girl
I can lose my hard earned freedom if my fear defines my world
I declare my independence from the critics and their stones
I can find my revolution I can learn to stand alone...

And I'll be everything that I want to be
I am confidence in insecurity
I am a voice yet waiting to be heard
I'll shoot the shot, bang, that you hear round the world...

And I'm a one girl revolution

I'm a one girl revolution
I'm a one girl revolution

(And I'm a one girl revolution

I'm a one girl revolution

And I'm a one girl revolution)

And I'll be everything that I wanna be
I am confidence in insecurity
I am a voice yet waiting to be heard
I'll shoot the shot, bang, that you hear round the world


Everything that I want to be
I am confidence in insecurity
I am a voice yet waiting to be heard
I'll shoot the shot, bang, that you hear round the world

And I'm a one girl revolution
I'm a one girl revolution