It feels like spring is here

We had the most lovely weather last week, it was warm with a gentel breeze, blue skies and my sweet husband picked me some Daffodils for me and brought them home. They are so cheery so I thought I would share a little bit of spring with you.


Hope your having a great week x

Food Inc

Aaron and I recently watched a few documentarys. Last year we watched Supersize me which just reaffirmed our conviction to not eat any fast food and we stay away from processed pre packed food too.

A month ago we watched Food Inc. This was a real eye opener as to where our food in the USA comes from and how it is treated. This is not a film that is against meat or will try and gross you out, but it is truthful and hard hitting.

Let me Share some facts that hit home to me.

• Most stores have thousands of food choices... WRONG.... its corn products revamped.

• In the USA there are only 13 slaughter houses that deal with slaughtering our meat

• Ecol i is so prevalent because of bad hygiene in these slaughter houses they wash your meat in ammonia.

• Animals are feed corn not grass, causing bad living conditions and harming your food

• 5- 6 company's control the meat market so no matter how its labeled it has come from one of the top meat packing companys.

• The consumer YOU, have the power to tell companies what you want, every time something passes by the scanner at the checkout you are voting for what you want, the store supplys what you want.

• Fruit that is not in season is ripened with ethylene gas and leaves friut like tomatoes tasteless,

To that end Aaron and I are now eating mostly vegetarian and organic. We are buying from local farms, as much of our shopping as we can. Eating seasonally too.

I highly recommend watching the Documentary as so much more is covered.



Learn more about these issues and how you can take action on Takepart.com

Stop drinking sodas and other sweetened beverages.

You can lose 25 lbs in a year by replacing one 20 oz soda a day with a no calorie beverage (preferably water).

Eat at home instead of eating out.

Children consume almost twice (1.8 times) as many calories when eating food prepared outside the home.

Support the passage of laws requiring chain restaurants to post calorie information on menus and menu boards.

Half of the leading chain restaurants provide no nutritional information to their customers.

Tell schools to stop selling sodas, junk food, and sports drinks.

Over the last two decades, rates of obesity have tripled in children and adolescents aged 6 to 19 years.

Meatless Mondays—Go without meat one day a week.

An estimated 70% of all antibiotics used in the United States are given to farm animals.

Buy organic or sustainable food with little or no pesticides.

According to the EPA, over 1 billion pounds of pesticides are used each year in the U.S.

Protect family farms; visit your local farmer's market.

Farmer's markets allow farmers to keep 80 to 90 cents of each dollar spent by the consumer.

Make a point to know where your food comes from—READ LABELS.

The average meal travels 1500 miles from the farm to your dinner plate.

Tell Congress that food safety is important to you.

Each year, contaminated food causes millions of illnesses and thousands of deaths in the U.S.

Demand job protections for farm workers and food processors, ensuring fair wages and other protections.

Poverty among farm workers is more than twice that of all wage and salary employees.

Jobs that I currently hold

Its been a while since I posted last and thats because apart from bouts of sickness and money worries, nothing much has been going on. Apart from my job hunting which is a continuel endevor and seems involve mostly sitting at my computer filling in forms. Its a waste of time, applying for jobs online is futile. This is one point the internet really fails a great way to find jobs but to "get" the job. It has always been hard to make your Resume/Cv stand out from the rest when handing them into a particular job, for the most part though you had the oppurtunity to meet the person hiring you when you handed in you Resume/Cv, there was your opportunity to shine, juggle tell a joke, what ever came to you at that moment. Not anymore. The process couldn't be any less personal, unless of course it was randomly chosen like some lottery draw. Now you fill in a form and attache it to your email and send.

Arrgghhh I cant express my frustration enough.


Needless to say my job hunting hasnt been going to well. More so that the competition is huge everyone is looking for work right now.

So my jobs to date are:

Shabby Chic Furniture - Sold 2 items made $100 ( we cleaned our garage out now I have a work space I can get more done on this end, and its finally getting warmer)

Art Teacher - I have one private student and have advertised classes for children at a Teaching resource shop in town no takers as yet. I have posters around town too.

Janitor at a Gym - I got a job cleaning a Gym 3 night a week, Friday 9.30 -12.30 Saturday 6.30 -10.30 Sunday 6.00 -10.00 its basic wage and humbling but we need the money. I get free Gym membership so does Aaron and free Tanning.. Thats a plus. Its physical work and Im please about that, I was aching the first night as we did 6.5hrs in training.


Artist - Not sold anything yet, but Im hoping to have a exhibition at Starbucks for 3 months and most people sell their work thats on display.


Ill add to this list shortly

Hope everyone is staying positive despite the pressures of this system. Dont forget we are in the final few seconds of this worn out old system and we just have to keep faithful and loyal to the end. Our needs are known. Never has anyone righteous been left entirely. He is not unrighteous as to forget your works.

The Lurgy

We have a sick house hold at the moment. I got sick last week, I had body aches, headache and sore throat. Then Aaron got ill, he got blocked nose, headache and a cough. I got better then the next day I get blocked up, my throat gets worse and so the cycle continues. This is the second week of being ill and im sick of it .. Excuse the pun! Im fed up with being indoors and wanting to be productive but not having the strength of body or mind to do it. Of course there is also the lack of meeting with the friends and my daily dose of Service. The thing of it is, is that we are not laid up so sick we cant go to meetings ( sitting for 2 hours at home or at the hall is still sitting) but its not very kind of us to go sniffing and blowing our noses, coughing and crunching on those all important cough sweets. I like the cherry ones. So we are confined to our homes like outcasts and Im getting very restless... !!!!!

To give this blog a bit more meat around the bones Im going to put up an old poem I wrote the last time i was REALLY sick I mean I was really sick fever the works. ENjoy.. Gift baskets, chocolate, flowers and general yummies may be deliverd at your own risk. ;)


THE LURGY

Unwanted you invaded my body your green residue sitting heavy on my insides,
Holding on tight and fighting for life you disguise yourself as a friend

A war begins… A battle between two worlds

Those around me are unaware that inside I feel like I'm dying.
My people my friends O were will this end.
Trapped banished, kept away from the few, I see day light struggling through.
To weak to move, I bask in its beams thinking of ways to defeat you

Reinvigored by the warming sun I decide I will struggle on,
I close my eyes and fall into a deep sleep were our worlds become one and we battle on. Overcome by the slime that you leave behind I slowly open my eyes
A sigh of relief as I start to breathe…
For this day the war is won.

Lydia,s Trip To Placerville - movie

Finally in Theaters near you!

Borders Book Evening

Before I went away I decided it was time to buy some books.  Sarah and I trundled off to Borders.  As a rule I do not buy books from big chain stores. The prices are too high and Id rather support independent sellers or second hand books stores. I love second hand book stores, I love books that have the read feel about them, in  my humble opinon a book should look like it has been read, or loved as I like to put it. A fingered, bent cornered book tells me it has been read with a passion and the story that lies within calls to me. 

A large book store as Borders also gives me the luxury of being in a library, everything has its place, the best sellers are there, the recommendations are calling out me to.. Its a little easier to walk in having no idea what you want and not be totally overwhelmed. Borders to me is like a luxury library, with coffee and chatting.

This visit I went to find a new Author. I found Jane Green, I wanted to read the Beach House which sounded light hearted. I have yet to find it out side or Borders. Sigh...

I also purchased not from Borders but from my local second hand book shop and rather nice copy of Jane Austins Pride and Prejudice. I love Austen on screen, the language and the relationships, yes I confess it is a rather dulled down version, but I have never the mind nor the patience to actually read her.. Well thats changed, Ive started reading it and its very enjoyable.. Im finding lack of time being a issue but Im ill at the moment so maybe I should  take my leisure and read a bit.

I went with my friend Sarah.. it was a very pleasant evening.  We found a great little Indian right next to Borders I highly recommend it to anyone.. Very Cheap and  Great Food.

MEHRAN INDIAN RESTURANT - Excellent A+

Mendocino a funny tummy and napalese man.

Aaron and I went to Mendocino early Friday morning we planned to stay 1 night and 2days.  Our camping trip to the redwoods ended up being reduced to 1 night in a nice hotel.  The weather promised to be stormy and wet.. you,d think camping would be the cheaper option, but with petrol and equipment and then food.. it was up there. We found a great deal in a Hotel Aaron has always wanted to stay at.

Misty Drive to Mendocino                                          Green moss growing on trees very spooky

It took about 4 hours to get to Mendocino, through the most wonderful scenery from flat farmlands, mountains to redwood forests. unfortunately I was was unable to appreciate the most spectacular of it.    We had reached Ukiah, and for some reason we decided to have Mc Donalds.. As a rule we dont eat Mc Donalds,yes they have the best fries in exixtance but as a whole its crap food and you use your daily in calorie intake on one meal.. The horror. Today we were in a good mood in a dead end town and wanted something we could eat and move on.. I had a mini meal and Aaron had  angus burger meal. 

 Redwoods                                                              Redwoods

About half an hour later in the middle of the red wood forest my stomache was doing filps and my bowls were making some funny noices.. I was feeling sick. cold sweats and I felt the blood had drained from my body.. Did i mention we were in the middle of a Red wood forest!!! Beautiful!!! stunning like slicent giants they stand towering above you.. but all i could think of was the loo...
We pulled into a campsite and the normal toilets were locked as is out of season.  

                                    The redwoods and the famous toilet I used. Yes it                                                                             Looks more like a shed I agree.       

                                    View driving thro the mountains see the mist in the back ground

The pit toilets were open however.    Pit toilets are just that, a hole on the floor.. with a metal can over it so you dont have to squat. It was like going in an outside shower not any privacy the toilet paper was all wet as it was misty and wet... it had a roof so that was good. I was traumatized to say the least. I felt like i needed a shower when i came out.  Even then it wasnt over, 10 mins later i was feeling ill all over again.. Aaron made it to the hotel in record time, I ran in and promptly released all.. ahhhhhhh... 


The hotel was charming very victorian,  our room was a garden view, it was small as this was an old building.  We went and walked around the town. Saw the Ocean views and took in all the little shops.  We went back to the hotel for a drink and I had the appifiany to go and ask if they did complentary upgrades.. To my surprise they did.. we where upgraded to a Ocean view king with four poster bed it was perfect. I smiled from ear to ear. My motto if you dont ask you dont get! 




First room                                                   Upgraded room

The food at the hotel was expensive but exquisite.  I highly recommend the breakfast .. WOW! We had had eggs Benedict and french toast and we split it. we had mimosas and Aaron had coffee. It set us back $50 but it was worth every cent it was that good.

We walked along the coast, hiked a 1mile to the light house and back.  Found a great brewery. Looking in some shops, then headed back toward Ukiah. We took a rd that we had been looking for on the way here.. It was so long so twisty and lasted forever it was like being in the back of beyond and people still lived out there.. I started to think we were on the road to nowhere.. All the while the mist lay below us like lakes it was stunning.

 

We got back to Ukiah and decided to go to a restaurant that had been recommenced in Mendocino at a natural food store we went in and found patax. Needless to say the restaurant was a Indian restaurant, it really is hard to find good Indian food outside the citys. This one was called the Himalayas, it was Nepalese and Indian. We ordered Korma and a Vindaloo.. The Korma was good.. The vindaloo was bright red and wasn't what I was used to.  The owner was a small Nepalese man that would come to the table and try and talk to you but his English was so bad that it made having a convocation with him impossible , so he would stand there and nod his head and smile and then walk off at the most weird time.  The waitress wasnt very helpful, so she got a small tip lol..   The result of this meal was a car full of inoxious gases!  


We arrived home glad to be back. There is always something comforting about coming home.. 




Here are few pics of the area


Clift top nr where we were staying

                                                               Beach In Mendocino

 Beach at Mendocino below

Light house and area