Happy Breakfast cum Lunch

Hi friends,

My breakfast cum lunch.

Homemade mini rolls.

Made from organic flour without preservatives or any artificial stuff. They don’t look particularly sexy but trust me, they are tasty.

Meatballs Al Forno with Parmigiano Reggiano.

Hummmm….I enjoyed it. (Followed by my usual course of vitamins.)

My dear friends, there will be no posts after this until 24^th November. It is about time for me to concentrate on study and I decided to have strict regime from now on to prepare for the exams.

Until then, take care of your beautiful selves. Happy Halloween, happy Guy Fawkes, happy Diwali and all sorts. Thanks for reading and see you soon.

PS: It is Leptin Diet I am following. It works.

The Queen & Castle - Kenilworth

Hi friends,

It was not a good idea to go out in the evening 3 times in a week. I feel warn out now and so does my wallet…

On Tuesday, I went out for meal with my colleagues to welcome a lovely Indian colleague who is visiting the UK for a couple of weeks. We went to the Queen and Castle in Kenilworth.

I forgot to take the photo of foods, but they were great and I had good time with equally great company.

Stay Positive - the Result of the Tarot Reading

Hi friends,

Yet again, my favourite tarot reader Kathy was spot on. She predicted my promotion a couple of weeks ago and guess what? I got it.

“I think you are having difficult time, lots of stress and conflicts in your life at the moment. Everyone knows you are good at what you are doing and I think you will receive some kind of recognition. Something like promotion at work. It is happening soon, matter of few weeks.”

OMG.

When my manager told me about my promotion, I got goose bumps.

She also told me to stay positive and I will put everything behind me, can step forward and go further. What encouraging words! I believe 100%. After all, I have nothing to lose as she said.

Stay positive. 

Anti-aging Breakfast

Hi friends,

Breakfast this morning, as usual.

This is my favourite salad. Ham and carrots with mayonnaise and French mustard.

Slice carrots thinly and boil them for few minutes with pinch of salts and then, add chopped ham and mix them with mayonnaise and mustard (French is better for salad.) I normally add cucumber in this salad but could not find it in the fridge this morning.

Rice with sesame, carrots, Hijiki (a kind of kelp) and A-ge (a kind of bean curd).

Miso soup contains tofu, onion and A-ge.

Followed by Vitamin C water and Vitamin A and B complex.       

My ant-aging breakfast….

Environ Aging Well Collection - Limited Edition

Hi friends,

Old girls talk. 

Ladies, if there is a salon dealing with Environ products near you. Go now and get this.

This is a limited edition for this autumn. Aging Well Collection. £65 for these.

Simply fabulous. 

Breakfast and Welsh Cakes

Hi friends,

Today’s breakfast. As I had been eating sandwiches for days, I missed rice.

My good friend in London sent me few ingredients such as sesame. As I like eating more than anything, a food parcel is the best treat for me.

And, mid-morning snack.

Welsh cakes.

I quite like simple sweets rather than sophisticated decorative cakes with lots of creams. 

Breakfast and Pudding

Hi friends,

What depressing days, so wet, dark and chilly!

To cheer me up a bit, I used a pink table mat this morning. (The photo is bit dark, isn’t it? It shows how dark my cottage is…)

And pudding, off course.

I know what you want to say, yes I am on diet. Trust me my dear ladies and gentlemen, it makes more sense to have a pudding at breakfast rather than at supper. We can burn the calories of it by evening, can’t we? 

What a week!

Hi friends,

Don’t you sometimes feel “one after another”? I just had the very week like that.

My old school has a society for graduates and its committee issues a newsletter on a regular basis. The chairperson of the society contacted me in late August with a request to write a little article for their newsletter.

To cut a long story short, 3 great old girls (M, M and H) came back to my life thanks to the support of the committee member.

As we shared so much, good memories, laughs and tears at the peak of my life, it was overwhelming to hear from them again. As I am far away from home, it really means a lot to me. I thank the lady, Ms YS, who made it happen and having big sisters (that is how we call older students in my school) like them made me so proud of being a graduate of the school. My sincere thanks to Ms KV and Ms YS.

It happened at the beginning of the week, and in the middle of the week, my favourite German guy contacted me after few years silence. We both know where we are but we lost in touch in the past years because of the geographical distance. This man is a great laugh. Who said German people have no sense of humour?

He is two years older than me and a hopeless chauvinist. Normally such men can be annoyingly condescending but in his case, it makes him so funny and charming.

Contain your excitement my darling ladies and gentlemen. I am sure that we have warm friendship between us but no more than that.

On Friday, I saw 2 old friends in the canteen at work. What coincidence! We used to work for the same company in Oxford in 90s. After that, I moved to Derbyshire and lost in touch with them for a while. When I came back to Warwickshire nearly 6 years ago, we went to the best Thai restaurant in Banbury for celebration but since then we had not seen each other.

Although we work for different companies, we are still working in the same industry where we started and we knew we can trace each other through business contacts any time. I think that is why we have not actively communicated to each other.

It was quite funny that I was waiting for an aeroplane in snowy Dusseldorf 9 months ago and was chatting with a chap who went to the same school with one of them.

“He is my mate.” “On my God, he is my mate, too!”

Funnily enough, the very man contacted me through Linkedin 2 days after I came back from Dusseldorf. How weird!

And on Friday, he and another friend of mine were waiting for someone in the canteen in my company. Although both of them looked bit aged, they are still great laugh and the moment we stared talking, our friendship is back. We talked and laughed a lot and I am sure our table was the loudest one in the noisy canteen.

What a week! 6 old friends back to my life!

  

Bibimbap and Gyoza Breakfast

Hi friends,

Today’s breakfast cum lunch.

Breakfast and Lunch

Hi friends,

Today’s breakfast.

This chicken is my top 5 recipe. Easy to cook but the result is guaranteed.

And lunch. Packet of noodle and lots of left over vegetables.

I have to go shopping for weekend as there is only a tube of Colesman’s mustard in my fridge now…

One Week Wardrobe Part3

Hi friends,

Someone commented that I am wearing a printed dress all the time. Am I really?

Monday

It is unusual of me wearing trousers. I had a meeting with suppliers, hence a jacket.

Tuesday

Day-off. Went to the dentists.

Wednesday

Had a meeting with the chief programme engineer. He is my cup of tea, but comes with a wedding ring. Damn….lol.

Thursday

It was very chilly in the morning and evening. I wore a blue coat and a blue scarf on this and became very blue…

Friday

This is my lucky dress.

Saturday

Lunch with friends. Pucci’s skirt to match with the happy feeling.

Still lots of black, but I have been working on it. Hope you noticed some more colours than before.

Divine Beauty

Hi friends,

This is the sky in my village at 7:00am. Absolutely gorgeous, isn’t it?

Les sanglots longs

Des violons

De l'automne

Blessent mon coeur

D'une langueur

Monotone.

(Paul VERLAINE, Chanson d’automne)

My favourite product 5 - Hair Thinning Issue

Hi friends,

One of my colleagues in her 40s asked me if there are any anti-aging tips for thinning hair. She said, her hair is getting thinner and thinner, after having her daughter.  She now thinks she is getting bold.

She often pulls my hair when we encounter in a corridor at work. If you promise me not to do that again, I shall share my tip with you…

Here’s my favourite product. Organic whole bean soya milk.

Why on earth are you talking about the milk when we need a tip for hair thinning? Now now, friends, please refer to my old post about soya products.

http://junoslifeinstyle.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/anti-aging-dinner.html

Unlike body hair, hair on your head is pretty much affected by female hormone. When we become 40 and plus, we tend to suffer hormone imbalance. It starts early if you are having stressful life.

That is the big cause of menopause. I wouldn’t say that you are suffering from menopause, but majority of us experience some changes in our body, metabolism and energy level etc since we hit 40.

Hormone imbalance is caused by old age but also stress and health conditions. Age – this is inevitable but we can delay the process by adopting isoflavone rich foods in our daily diet.

I know majority of you cannot stand the texture of tofu. If that is the case, why not try this one then?

I must admit I wasn’t keen on soya milk before. Even though I bought non-sweetened one, I thought it was sickeningly sweet, I could feel something unnatural about the taste. This one is quite bearable. I cannot drink soya milk as it is, but when it is added in coffee or tea, it is OK.  If you are not sure, try English tea with soya milk and one spoon of organic honey.

This can be used as substitute of milk for cooking. I make white sauce with this soya milk. One pack is more or less like my 1 week consumption.  

  

Also, keep changing parting. It doesn’t cost you a penny.

If your problem is serious and you are willing to spend more than £1.39 (that is the price of soya milk), I highly recommend scalp massage using good quality hair tonic. My favourite is Weleda’s product as it is natural and organic. See this link for reference.   

http://www.weleda.co.uk/hair/revitalising-hair-tonic/invt/103024

Lastly, stay in love. That is the greatest stimuli to promote the production of female hormone. If you feel difficult to be in love with your partner, fall in love with yourself.

That is too sad, you might say.

Unless otherwise you publically admit that, you are not. One colleague said that to me over Christmas lunch few years ago. It was kind of scary but I was more impressed with her transformation. That is for another post, maybe…

  

Simple Life in Style

Hi friends,

As well as shredding my flabby tummy and legs, I am slimming down the contents list at home. De-cluttering is part of it, but what I am aiming is bit bigger than that. It is to change the way how I have lived.

My friend in London decided to sort out the things she did not need whilst she was helping her daughter’s packing in the past few weeks. The daughter left the country for a gap year last week.

She is now de-cluttering and decided to downsize her household to concentrate on herself, not on what she has and hasn’t.  

I support her decision 100%. That is my thought, too.

Although I like spiritual things, fundamentally I am a material girl. As you already know, I am awfully fussy over everything. I feel comfortable and happy when I am surrounded with my favourite things.

However, at the same time, I like logics, patterns and control. I am not a freak, but I cannot stand laziness, so I need certain orders in my life.

Based on these characteristics, I found that the best way of living for me is, “Simple Life in Style”.  

I don’t need lots of things, but I still need few carefully selected good quality things to maintain my happiness.  

When such living becomes myself, I believe my life will go along with this pattern. I don’t need 100 friends. If I can have handful of great inspiring people around me, I feel my life is blessed.  

Breakfast and Weight 9

Hi friends,

Today’s breakfast.

And my weight this morning.  555 – angel number!

Some of you asked how I manage to lose weight when you saw me eating a slice of lemon tart and a slice of coffee and walnut cake. Well, I will tell you when I hit 55kgs but one of the small tips can be seen the photo of today’s breakfast. Can you see something in the soup?