Sunday, 28 September 2014

Breakfast and Lunch

Hi friends,

I know, you have heard this so many times but I will say it again.

I will lose weight.

As a result of daily consumption of Snickers’ bar and other rubbish, I am now getting close to the boundary of size 10. Before I cross the border, I need to lose at least 4kg.I cannot afford new dresses. All of my dresses and skirts are getting tight in these days except the ones with elastic waist. Doh!!

At the tender age of 45, I cannot lose weight drastically. My cunning plan is, as usual, eating properly, cutting-off junks completely, drinking plenty of water, not eating after 17:00, having salt bath in the evening, doing some exercise in the morning and in the evening.

And off course, drink green tea every day! (The easiest task ;-p)

My normal topic. Breakfast and lunch.  




Enjoy the rest of Sunday. Thank you for reading. God bless. xxx

Saturday, 27 September 2014

My Day-off in London

Hi friends,

Hope all of you are enjoying yourselves wherever you are. The weather in South Warwickshire is bit gloomy but I am enjoying lazy morning here.

At the peak of my fatigue and stress, I decided to take a day –off and went to London on Tuesday. It is my policy to stop when I start losing my work/life balance.

As you may know, I am not keen on train journey in this country. Trains are expensive, filthy and give me sneeze and cough. However, my good friend in London lives very close to Marylebone Station and it makes more sense to go there on train rather than driving down to London, spending a lot on petrol, paying congestion charge and criminally expensive parking fee.

I caught a train from Banbury and arrived at Marylebone around 11:00am.
As we planned to meet up at the restaurant in Baker Street at 12:00, I went to Piccadilly Circus to go to my favourite sweet shop there. Minamoto Kichoan sell Japanese style confectionaries. They are very classy and elegant but at the same time, they are shockingly expensive. I have to confess, I spent more than £60 there. Oops.
 Regent Street.

The restaurant my friend chose was just in front of Baker Street Station. As it is within walking distance form her flat, it seems she often goes there. We had great service and complimentary dishes thanks to her “frequent custom”.

I feel happiest when I am having a nice meal with my favourite people. I have not seen this gorgeous woman for nearly 8 years, but it was amazing that we could catch up as if we were seeing each other every month just like we used to.

I am so glad that we are still good friends and could see that my beautiful friend keeps herself as an inspiring soul I knew, despite hardship she had in the past.

Really well spent day-off. Thanks, K. Please come to my cottage next time.


Friday, 19 September 2014

Breakfasts and Lunch - keep eating or cycling!

Hi friends,

Oh dear, I don’t know where my days have gone. Apologies for not contacting you for ages.
It has been really busy and I feel so behind from everything.

However, my dear ladies and gentlemen, I have being eating properly. As you know, when I give up my foods and high-heels, it simply means I am dead.

Breakfast.

I found this in my usual Korean Grocery Shop. Ground Soya Beans, called Kinako in Japanese. Soya beans are great source of Isoflavonoid and it is said to work like female hormone. I highly recommend soya products to those who suffer from menopause.

Although it is not as apparent as women, men can also have menopause. If you are seriously thinking about cycling to the Lands End and screaming the love for your colleague as young as your daughter, congratulations, you got it. Unfortunately, I can only recommend soya products for ladies to take Isoflavonoid. For gentlemen, keep cycling and raise money for mid life crisis charities.

Lunch

I found this at Waitrose. Rapeseed oil mayonnaise.

As there are few king prawns and minced meat left in the fridge, I made “Cutlet-like” using them both and this mayonnaise.

Yummm…………




Saturday, 13 September 2014

Breakfasts

Hi friends,

My usual topic – breakfasts.

Monday

Tuesday – all day meeting with a strategic German supplier at Stratford Manor Hotel. As those external venues come with unlimited supply of refreshments, cakes and biscuits, I did not cook breakfast as a part of precaution. The lunch at such a venue normally ends with selection of cheese and cakes (they are not up to my standard, though). No wonder why all my dresses are tight.

Wednesday

Thursday – all day meeting with another strategic German supplier at Ettington Chase Hotel. Again, they come with refreshment, cakes, biscuits and buffet lunch. What a dangerous place to the waist line. Yes, I am getting bigger and bigger.

Friday

No breakfast today. Just a cup of green tea will do for now.
This is the one I blended with Mattcha powder. It is shockingly green, isn’t it? My engineering colleague saw this the other day at work and immediately made grimace. Although I told him all the fabulous benefits of green tea, he did not look convinced. I thought he was a lovely well-educated man with cosmopolitan view but at the end of my explanation, all he said was,



“Yeah, but it’s green.”


That is what green tea is about, Richard!!

Medical Reiki Lesson with Master Hiroko Ohmura

Hi friends,

20 minutes after I updated my previous article, I got a text message from my good old AML asking “so, does it mean you have been up to no good again?”

Charming!  What does he mean by “again”?

I work for silly hours and have no life during weekdays but the reason why I had been super busy even in weekend was, I did something rather exciting and something useful.

I went to Reiki Healing Lessons in London at the end of August, went shopping for new shoes (Oh yeah!) for the little madam who now takes size 3 and went to the elocution lesson last weekend.
I will talk about this elocution lesson when I see you next time. It had been my secret ambition to pronounce “width” and “wool” properly. I think I am getting there but still struggling to say the latter word.

No, you cannot ask me to say it. I absolutely refuse to take your calls for that!!

Let’s focus on the Reiki Lessons. That is more enchanting.

My dear friend in London, whom I know for more than 15 years, got hooked first. She told me to contact her when I feel stressed out, so she can practice Remote Reiki on me. However, it was months ago and I forgot about the message until quite recently.

In the middle of August, I was at the peak of my stress, suffering from sleeping disorder for days and felt really exhausted. I suddenly remembered her message and contacted her for Reiki Healing.

It was late Friday night before the bank holiday weekend. It was ridiculous timing to bother people and, when manners and etiquette are concerned, I am normally a gigantic matron of them, aren’t I? However, my ladies and gentlemen, I did contact her after 22:00 breaking my old policies. I was that desperate!  

Dear KT was very kind and she immediately agreed to send Reiki to me and guess what! It worked brilliantly!! She told me to lie down and wait quietly. Nothing happened for few minutes but suddenly I felt something. It was rush of energy and I swear to God, I saw a cream coloured tartlet-like “something” in the air!

Few days later, I felt much better, so I phoned her to report my miraculous recovery. Whilst we were talking, it shocked me that she used exactly the same word I thought on the day I received the Reiki through herself. Furthermore, she mentioned about the cream coloured something before I said it!

OMG. Off course, it was my turn to be totally hooked and wanted to learn Reiki. You know what I am doing for living and I like what I am doing. I have no intention to be a healer but I wanted the skill for self-healing and self-protection to sustain my career in the stressful world I reside.

When things happen, they happen at the same time.

I asked her where she learnt Reiki. She said her master, Hiroco Ohmura, the founder of Medical Reiki was visiting London in that very week!!
I immediately thought it was telling me something. I do not believe in “coincidence”, I believe that everything happens with reasons.

Off course, I asked KT if her master was holding the lessons for a complete novice and the answer was yes. Then, my little expedition from a sleepy Warwickshire village to the Smoke.

The venue was one of the learners’ private house and just like the owner, it was very stylish. I sensed she is similar age to myself but she looked much younger and I found her very charming.   

Reiki Master was a lady with serine air around her. Yes, it was “serine” which popped out in my mind when I met her. I was little nervous in the stylish house when smart looking ladies welcomed me. In my private life, there are only horses around my place, unless otherwise I dare to step out from the farm, I see no people, needless to mention good looking stylish ones!

However, once they started talking, the image changed in a more pleasant way. The Reiki Master was simply a delightful person with good sense of humour. Very witty yet very sensible at the same time. My kind of lady, definitely.

There are 5 ladies (plus me) and 1 man in the beginner’s class and 4 of the ladies and I stayed to take the afternoon lesson for the 2nd stage.   There are 4 more ladies joined for the afternoon lesson. There were 11 ladies in total including the master and the lady of the house. All of them were lovely and I really enjoyed myself with them.

There was a lady from France who was sitting next to me. Although she is older than me, she was such a cute and likable person.  Two fabulous ladies,who were sitting in front of me, are, I presume, younger than me. One said she has just started working after 2.5 years career break and another one was working as a practitioner of Alexander technique. As I was with them from the morning session and we sat closely, naturally I talked with them most.

The ladies who joined us in the afternoon were also attractive people. No offence to anyone in my village, but it seems that ladies are maintaining rather well in London. It reminded me the story of “the town mouse and the country mouse”. Although I felt slightly dowdy, I was still a happy country mouse with kind souls.

The lesson wasn’t cheap at my private standard (although I say “only a million” at work.) but it was almost the same amount I just received from the insurance company. (ref: the accident in March) Again, I thought it was telling me something.

The lessons were simply amazing and the experience was quite something.  I learnt a lot through the sessions and practice with the delightful master but the simplest yet the most important learning for me on the day was its 5 principles;

Just for today, I will not be angry.
Just for today, I will not worry.
Just for today, I will be grateful.
Just for today, I will work honestly.
Just for today, I will be kind to everyone and everything.



Wishing you a nice weekend

Hi friends,

OMG. My sincere apologies for neglecting you all for weeks, if not months. It has been absolutely non-stop and I was running like a headless chicken in the past few weeks.

Although I was relatively happy and content, I must admit, I lost my work/home balance (again!).

Time for me to stop and chill out.
This is the view in front of my cottage. The photo was taken on Wednesday. Rather calming, isn’t it?




Wishing you a very nice weekend.