Small Wonders

The weekly news from Stratford's "Herald"

A bit soap opera, a bit hard news, our local paper is always entertaining.

The Public have their say on Town Square -- a public hearing was held where over 100 people voiced their disapproval of a developer building a new multi-plex cinema in the middle of old town.

'Not very good' criminal is jailed for five years -- a house burglar breaks in when the owners are home.

Over three tonnes of unwanted fruit picked for good causes -- apparently there are so many apples and pears here, they pick 'em for charity.

Alveston bell-ringer sackings a disaster -- drama at a local church

Loo charges: two to one in favour -- the town will start charging 20p to pee at public toilet causing some controversy.

Won't you be my neighbor?

For the first time in a very long time -- I have some! And I am so thankful. I'm not counting our "part-time" neighbors who I rarely get to see at the house in the U.S. I'm talking about my British neighbors.

Until now all our residences abroad have been in very tall buildings making it impossible to even see a neighbor. In Brazil, we lived on the 27rd floor of a skinny building that swayed when a storm blew through. In Singapore, we lived on the 23rd floor where I could see Malaysia in the distance, and in Zurich we lived on the highest floor possible - the 5th floor -- in a building meant to withstand German bombs. Our storage unit in the garage was a designated bomb shelter. So, neighbors were an impossibility, not to mention language and culture gaps.

But, here at The Spinney, in our little corner called Bishopton in Stratford-upon-Avon, we live in a real bonafide house. More likely its a "cottage" as the ceilings are only 7 1/2 feet tall. But we have a muddy garden (backyard) and a one-car garage and so it has been a real change for us.

Our next door neighbors, Steph and Nick, wheeled in our rubbish bin for us when we had to leave early for the airport just before Christmas. Their cute kids are constantly kicking their ball over the fence and ringing my door bell to ask "Please m'am, is it okay if I retrieve our ball from your garden? Sorry m'am." And across the street, Mike explained why my front garden bushes are looking poorly. He also coordinated the drain clean-out for our little enclave and can advise on any of the systems in the house, about which we know very little (we have a "boiler" for goodness sake!). Another neighbor lady, clearly just out of the shower, came to my rescue at the front gate when I did not know how to open it with the code.

And there's the nice gesture of Christmas cards. All the neighbors exchanged cards by shooting them through the mail slots and a few of them even signed their cards "with love" -- now that is a friendly neighbor, and we're not even British.

Day 12 - Winter Cleanse

Breakfast - Green Juice

Lunch - Big Salad & Tuna Fish

Dinner - Pea Soup w/ shitakes, cannelini, and lots of leek.

Activities: Pilates with Cindy

Thoughts: This is going by fast. Workouts are great but think I'm gaining muscle and so weight is holding steady - though I dropped 2 pounds from Day 1.

Day 3 - Winter cleanse

Breakfast: Green Juice

Lunch: Big Salad, Ginger dressing, line-caught wild salmon

Dinner: Broccoli/Kale/Carrot soup

Activities: Hour of Pilates (reformer) with my friend Cindy

Thoughts: lost a pound, liking the Pilates, just my 2nd class, stressful evening

Day 2 - Winter Cleanse

First time to a Zumba class this evening -- it was fun! I left with a big smile on my face, that was a bonus.

Breakfast: Green Juice

Lunch: Roasted sea bass fillet, quinoa salad, steamed broccoli

Dinner: Leek/Broccoli/Black Kale soup

Activities: Zumba class, set up for new weight training routine

Thoughts: I feel better already. Hoping for good night's sleep, I need it. Rob working all hours has kept me awake lately.

Day 1 - Winter Cleanse

Day 1 my weight is (yikes!) 133 and I ate:

Breakfast: Green Juice (kale, spinach, carrots, apple, ginger, celery, cucumber, fennel)

Lunch: Big salad, all-natural dressing, plain tuna fish

Dinner: Cauliflower-Leek soup.

Snacks: hummus and gluton-free cracker, almonds, pumpkin and sunflower seeds, herbal teas

Activity: morning yoga, 45 minutes cardio, free weights, crunches, stretch

Thoughts: Dang, no more toddies for a while. Day 1 must be the hardest day.

This year I became a big fan of detox cleansing and I'm going to document the one I started today here on my blog. I'm not trying to convince anyone about this or make any veiled judgements, I just want to have a record of it and watch how things progress. I did my first cleanse back in February and had fantastic results (and lost 10 pounds!). So good, in fact, Rob asked me to walk him through a cleanse of his own and he is now a devotee as well. Some of the best outcomes were an abundance of energy, sleeping like a rock, feeling refreshed and generally light and happy. I also saw my skin improve dramatically.

There just came a time when I felt sluggish, puffy, sleep deprived, and I had over-indulged in too much food and drink and certainly was not paying too much attention to any healthy routine. The dark England winter wasn't helping. Not that I was in terrible shape! Our diet has been consistently healthy-ish and vegetarian-based for a long time. What's been great about the cleanse is many of the practices have stuck with us and become part of our everyday routine. And, Rob's recent blood work showed great results. Not only were the numbers within normal ranges, but he kicked it on cholesterol.

I follow the program from Dr. Alejandro Junger's book "Clean: The Revolutionary Program to Restore the Body's Natural Ability to Heal Itself"  -- a New York Times Bestseller (there's also an excellent support Web site). It is 21 days of "approved" vegetables, fruit, non-gluten grains, lean proteins, nuts & seeds and supplements. The schedule is a liquid (usually smoothie) for breakfast, a full balanced lunch, and a liquid dinner (usually soup). The idea is to give your body a break from working too hard to digest difficult foods and transforming toxins so that it finds time to release the bad stuff and restore the body to a clean state.

After the 21 days you slowly re-introduce particular foods back into your diet to see if you have bad reactions (i.e. headaches, joint pain, skin problems). Many find they have negative reactions to sugar, caffeine, wheat, tomatoes, and dairy -- some quite pronounced. Many have seen nagging health problems disappear. Rob found out tomatoes are not for him (aching joints). I found out I feel my best without coffee, sugar, and milk (I switched to coconut milk). I should mention there is a preliminary period to wean off sugar and caffeine before starting the 21-day program. No doubt many (most?) people are dependent on both.

I may not post every single day, but I expect when I am done on December 18, I'll be very careful about what I add back -- and that will include a pint of Christmas cheer.

 

 

 

Exercising my brain: a writing workshop

Living abroad can be great, and it definitely has its challenges. I am constantly looking for ways to dive deeper into the local experience and it isn't always easy (as one might think!). It seems I am always pushing outside that comfort zone, whatever is left of it. My latest effort has been an on-line writing workshop at Oxford. Yeah, I was a little intimidated by the sound of Oxford, but like everything else, I closed my eyes, crossed my fingers, and jumped right in. How could I not?

The 10-week course just finished up and I'm so relieved to have my schedule back to myself -- just in time for the holidays. Oxford offers lots of continuing education and short-term learning opportunities. This particular workshop focused on writing about real life, I might even call it a branch of journalism. While I have done tons of corporate writing and reporting, writing about life has been a welcome new twist. It includes intense emotions, sets a tone and scene, and turning facts into a treasured story. This includes genres such as memoirs, travel journals, biography, and family history. I have a few personal goals in these areas that involve crafting a tail of adventure for my little nieces to read when they are older. I'm also interested in how I can incorporate this type of writing into future freelance projects. Even corporate histories are interesting to me - ack!

Anyway, the coolest thing about this course for me was the amazing diversity of students. There were about 25 of us stretching out around the world: France, Egypt (Cairo no less, poor girl), Thailand, Laos, Oxford,even Dallas, Texas! Ages ranged from 17 to 70, several nationalities including Indian. Interacting with them and reading their writing was a real privilege and joy. The other joy was in the learning, I'm sure I'll be taking another workshop again soon. Creative Writing anyone, maybe Poetry?

The Post List (or Posts I Wish I'd Written)

I keep a running list because things are happening all the time that I'd love to share and keep track of. I suppose I use my blog as a kind of archive so I won't forget what's happened. The problem is, obviously, that the posts are in my head, and not written down. So, just to remind myself, here's the list of posts I wish I'd written over during the last few months:

• Jenny and Doug's Wedding
• News from the Stratford Herald
• A visit with my favorite professor at Belmont University
• Opera Glasses
• Volunteering at the RSC: Visitor Counting
• RSC Director Talk: How Shakespeare plays internationally
• Why I don't get the play "The Homecoming"(by Harold Pinter)
• Why I do get "Taming of the Shrew" at a Young People's Shakespeare performance
• Cleaning Windows and my Merry Maids
• Attending the BBC filming of MacBeth
• Reading Room: Before and After
• Thai Restaurant in Leamington-Spa
• Tesco Check-out Lady & her Vampire Show Questions
• The bespoke tour of the theater with Donna and Barbara
• Amazing Cat Ladies
• Pepperberry: Clothes designed with your boobs in mind
• The Bodleian library shop
• Visiting Oxford and the Dictionary Shop
• England's Canals
• Books I'm reading

 

 

Video: Steve Jobs Commencement Speech at Stanford 2005

I happened upon this a few months ago and it touched me then. And upon hearing of his death today, I pulled it back up to embed here so I will always remember it. I hope you'll find a few minutes to watch it. His words of wisdom are very down to earth and pragmatic, yet the words hold weight.  Rest in Peace Steve Jobs and thanks for creating wonder in our lives.

Apple Days

We're having Indian Summer here in England and everyone wants to be outside. Saturday, we did a quick search to see "what's on" in Stratford and found out about the Apple Days festival at Mary Arden's Farm. Mary Arden was Shakespeare's mother and the farm shows how they would have lived in the 1570s. This is one of the five main Shakespeare attractions to see when touring around here and we hadn't been yet -- and a perfect day to boot.

Rob wasn't too keen, but I mentioned fresh cider and the potential for a pub lunch and he gave in. Now, for me, the attraction was seeing the animals and a working farm, as well as the birds of prey. A bonus was a herding demonstration by a local farmer. He brought his two working dogs and some ducks and the game was on.

What was basically an excuse to get out in the sunshine turned out to be a nice stop on a Saturday afternoon. I pet gentle goats, friendly horses, and a blind chicken. We missed the falconry demonstration but I did get to see an amazing Eagle Owl, one of the largest. Please enjoy my photos from the day posted to the right.