Tweaking My Diet

I'm always looking for ways to tweak my diet, to include more natural and healthy foods, and dumping the 'bad for you', foods. Although there are a million sites on the net, with everything you need to know, I still like having a book in front of me to browse through when I have a spare minute. I picked up a couple from the mobile library the other day.

Patrick Holford is one of the worlds leading nutrition experts, so it says on the back cover of 'The Holford 9-day Liver Detox', I have read his books before and found them easy to understand, no blinding you with science. I am quite tempted to try this 9 day plan, and looking through the lists of what to eat and what not to eat, I don't think I will find it too difficult because I already eat a lot of seeds, nuts, fruit and vegetables. The only problems I might encounter are giving up my morning coffee and branflakes, but it does say you could possibly do it if you limit your coffee to one cup per day, so maybe I could just have a smaller cup.

His other book I have chosen is called 'Food is Better Medicine Than Drugs'. I am not into herbal medicine, and I rarely take any kind of medicine, I believe you are a product of what you eat, and everything that goes into your mouth is going to have an effect on how your body works, or doesn't work.

I am going to study these two books over the next six weeks, and hopefully get a few ideas on how I can improve my diet. Of course this will have to be done within the confines of my budget. People say you can't eat healthily on little money. I am going to have to search in many more places to find my food, because I think it is an excuse to say 'I can't afford to eat healthy food.'

I may not be able to start the detox immediately, because I have to eat the food I already have, is that an excuse? No not really, I can't be wastefull and throw food away. But I can start by tweaking, and gradually phasing out the stuff I shouldn't be eating, and phasing in the good food. As I am getting older, I am becoming more aware of how little time there is left, I would like another twenty years. Before my operation last year my consultant said I would have another forty years after it was done. I think that by being more positive and being carefull about what I eat, I might just achieve that.
If you want to look at Patrick Holford's web site it's here
http://www.patrickholford.com/

Diesel In My Veins

I watched a programme about lorry drivers in the Scottish Highlands, today, and it made me a little bit sad. There were two drivers taking their Class 1 HGV test, the anticipation as they were waiting for the examiner, and the elation when both of them proudly waved their pass certificates. Memories came flooding back to when I gained my Class 1, I remember the day well, I was so proud of myself.

Driving a lorry was my life for 32 years, I was so lucky to be doing the job I loved. It wasn't just a job, it was the excitement of always going somewhere, always on the road, the freedom of not being tied to one place, and seeing lots of different places and people. It was a job that suited my personality, I have always been a bit of a loner, so to go off on a long journey was pure bliss.

Why am I a little bit sad? Because I don't do it any more, and I miss it. I don't want to drive 60 hours a week like I did before, it would be nice to just do the odd trip now and then, more as a hobby. No one understands the draw of the open road, apart from the people who are continually pounding up and down them. You never get it out of your system, I definately have got 'Diesel In My Veins'
Daily spend - £5 Tesco late shop reduced prices.

Refurbished greenhouse.

What a super day today, at last the wind and rain has gone and we have sun, a perfect day to get out into the garden and re cover my greenhouse. I made it two years ago, the base is four pallets which I covered in green sheeting, and the frame is free wood I got from work. It has a sloping roof so the water runs off it. First I had to strip off the old plastic by removing all the battens, I bought the plastic sheeting from a car boor sale, a massive roll for £3.50, it has lasted well. Then I covered the sides with shrink wrap, the sort they use in warehouses to wrap palletised goods. I wrapped it round and round loads of times, then I put the roof on, a double sheet from the roll, and battened it down. Next I put more shrink wrap on to overlap the roof to stop it from flapping, the whole thing is nice and tightly wrapped. Then I cut a hole where the door is, and fastened the excess to the posts. I have got paving slabs on the floor, and there is a bench, it's too low to work on but handy for storing stuff underneath it. My greenhouse really is green, it cost almost nothing. Next I re covered some shelters I built along the side of the garage. These are smaller framed structures some with shelves, which I use for seed trays and baby plants untill they are big enough to be planted out, then I use them for tomato plants because it's a sunny spot.

Looks like it's all systems go in the garden now, I've started sowing seeds, but I'm going to stagger my planting so that I don't get everything coming up at the same time. My spuds are chitting nicely, they are nearly ready to go in. Ooooh isn't it exciting, I love gardening!
Daily spend - nothing

Crafting in my sleep

My first idea for the vinyl off cuts came to me last night, just as I was dropping off to sleep, must have been the cider. Something simple to start with. I drifted off into oblivion with thoughts of searching through my drawers for a couple of redundant keyrings, I must have one or two somewhere!

Here is the result of a couple of hours of playing,
well it's not like work is it?

Cut out five letters in pink, five circles in purple, and a strip of ten bigger circles in red with a bridge between five and six to accommodate the keyring. Sew letters onto circles with red thread, fold red strip in half and sew together with purple thread. And there you have it, it looks pretty cool, and as I can never find anything with my name on, I am chuffed. I think I will only use it for special occasions.

Daily spend - nothing.

I nearly bought a paper today but couldn't be bothered.

Other people's rubbish.

The thing I like about making things, or crafting as people call it, is that you can have a go at anything, and if you get bored, try something else. I like projects that don't drag on for weeks as my attention span is very low, and I don't want to wait ages to see the finished article. I also like to make one off's, so if someone says, I like that, can you make me one, I am not keen because working on a production line is not my idea of fun.

I also don't like working to a set pattern as that stifles my creativity, I'd much rather make it up as I go along, and make my own pattern. To me crafting is about ideas, mixing and matching colours, trying things out to see what works, and using different materials together in the same project. I like the idea of stitching aluminium and plastic on to fabric, or joining plastics and cardboard together with crochet, or finding new materials to knit with.

I am looking at rubbish in a different light, becoming excited when I find a colourful drinks can or plastic bottle. Oh my goodness, is there no hope for me, am I destined for a life picking things up out of the gutter?

I went to the Scrapstore today, and had a long chat with Lorraine, she thinks the same way as I do, that we should be thinking of recycling more, rather than dumping everything. They recently hired a van and went to the Halifax Scrapstore and brought back lots of new materials. They managed to get literally thousands of 6inch zips in many colours, which has set my mind thinking about what could be made with them. I came away with some colourful vinyl offcuts, something else for me to play with. Stitching may be the solution, but not sure what the finished article will be yet. Now let me think..........
Daily spend - £20.01 diesel. £13.48 cat food
£1.30 cucumber seeds.

Four tin cans

I've been playing with tin cans, and made these pen holders. It's not very often I eat tinned food it took me a month to save these four. If you've got a tin opener that leaves a clean edge that's better, but mine doesn't so I squashed around the tops with a pair of pliers to tidy them up.
I used upholstery samples to cover them, but you can use any thick fabric, cut a piece that is twice the height of the can, and wide enough to wrap around the circumference, adding a quarter of an inch for the seams. Sew it into a tube inside out, I do it by hand. Turn it right side out and check that it fits the can exactly. Turn it inside out again. Cut two circles of fabric, don't forget to add enough for seams, sew one on the bottom of the tube, pin it first. Turn it right side out and check that the can fits snugly inside.

If you are going to decorate it with something soft like the two white crochet flowers, you can add those to the finished pen holder because it's easy to sew them on from the outside. But if you want to put something on that needs sewing from the inside, you need to do that before you put the can inside. It is very fiddly, you have to roll the tube down so you can get inside.

I cut seven small hexagons from aluminium drinks cans and pierced each one around the edge with a pin, and stitched them on. For the one on the right I cut three green strips from a shampoo bottle, and cut out three plastic flowers, and made the holes for sewing them on with a hot nail over the gas cooker.

To finish them off push the can inside down to the bottom, and sew on the second circle, you will have to do some of the stitching on the right side of the fabric, but it doesn't matter because this will be pushed down inside the can.

You can put any decoration on them, maybe personalising them with a name if you want to give them as a gift. They are soft on the bottom so won't scratch a desk top, and if they get dirt and fluff inside you just pull the inside out and give it a brush. Easy to make and an ideal way to use up scraps of material.
Daily spend - nothing

More money than sense.

This is my free bunch of flowers, no, someone didn't give them to me, no such luck, I found them. Walking through the churchyard, my beady eyes spotted some pretty carnations that had been thrown in the wire mesh waste bin. They looked alright to me so I fished them out.

As I was doing so, an elderly lady walked past and I wondered what she would think about me rifling through the rubbish. I said, 'Look at these flowers that someone has thrown away.' She said, 'Some people have more money than sense.' I smiled and thought, exactly!
Daily spend - nothing

Eyes on the world.

I've just been watching a programme on iplayer, Beyond Boundaries: Where Are They Now, about a group of disabled people who trekked across Nicaragua three years ago. I didn't see the original programme, but I watched this sequel because I met one of the trekkers two years ago when I went on holiday to Sorrento. Amar Latif is blind and he started a travel company called Traveleyes, for blind people.

What they do is take equal numbers of sighted people along to be the eyes for those who are visually impaired. I wanted to go on holiday but didn't have anyone to go with, I thought this would be an ideal opportunity to meet up with a group. I met them all at Heathrow Airport, and was immediately struck by how organised it all was. I was initially paired up with Val, who had very limited sight during the daylight hours but virtually none in the evenings, Val was to be my room mate, she was great fun.

There was sixteen of us in total, eight sighted and eight visually impaired, and every day we partnered someone different, acting as their eyes, describing what we could see, and making sure they could walk safely on uneven surfaces. Amar and his sighted assistant Jenny were great, they had organised some fantastic tours, and couldn't have been more helpfull. This holiday certainly made me appreciate how kind and caring people can be, everyone was so friendly. I hope this doesn't sound too much like an advertisement, but I was genuinely impressed by how smoothly everything went, Amar looked after everyone, even though he can't see himself. If you want to see him in the programme it is here, Amar is the last person towards the end......
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00jj6zn/Beyond_Boundaries_Where_Are_They_Now/
If you want to check out the holidays with Traveleyes look here.......
http://www.traveleyes.co.uk/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1

From wild to calm.

The wind is howling today, I went to get Ben for a walk. I love the roar of the wild wind rushing through the trees, it's quite high up here and very exposed to the elements. We often meet Karen and her two dogs along the hills, and Honey, her big afghan type dog can spot me a mile off. Sometimes she appears from nowhere, and runs towards me at 100mph, heading straight for my pocket where she knows I have a few treats. In fact I always have treats in my pockets because there are so many dogs in our village, and it's a great ice breaker to get to know people.

I went to my psychology course tonight, this is a fascinating subject which I am enjoying, it's a shame that next week is going to be the last one. Never mind, I have booked to go on the Health Psychology course starting after Easter, we will have the same teacher so that should be interesting as well. Tonight was all about learned behaviour. We watched some film clips of children that have either been brought up by animals, or had an isolated upbringing, then we discussed various aspects of this. I always come away from my college classes with quite positive thoughts, to have a better understanding of how people live their lives seems to help me reflect on my own life, and make me a calmer person. A little education is a good thing.
Daily spend - £3.42 Tesco reduced prices

Car booting in Hampshire

Oh what a night! Amazingly Carol was up before me this morning, complaining that she couldn't sleep, hurting feet and aching legs from too much dancing. After pressie opening we went to the car boot sale at Bordon, a lovely sunny morning for mooching. There were a lot of traders which I thought would have been more at home on a sunday market, I passed them by in favour of eyeing up other people's tat.

I spotted a baby's bath under a table, how much is it, I asked. Lad looked fed up, shrugged his shoulders, I dunno, 50p? I snapped his hand off, just what I want to make a small garden pond, last week at my local car boot there was one at £5, big difference. Further on I found some very large plant pots, the lad was minding the stall for someone else. He said, they're £3 and they're 50p. I wanted the £3 ones but didn't want to pay that much, so I took a couple of the 50p ones, which would be right for the job of repotting plants.

Rooting in a box which had the label everything 10p, I found boys pants so I picked out two pairs, they were brand new I hasten to add. For those who remember my TV appearance in January, I have a particular leaning towards boys pants, they are very well made and last a lot longer than ladies knickers. Next I came across a box with a notice scrawled on the lid, 'free help yourself,' I had to look didn't I! I picked out a metal square planter which I am going to paint, and two glass tea light holders, love free stuff.

Back at Carol's we had some lunch and it was time for me to come home. With no one else around to take a photo of us together, I had a go at doing it myself. Not worked out the timer on the camera, so after about 20 attempts of me holding it at arms length, and lots of laughing, this is the outcome. It reminds me of when we used to sit in one of those photo booths in Woolies, put our money in the slot and wait for the flash, which inevitably we weren't ready for. The outcome would be half of someones face cut off, or decapitated, or looking asleep with eyes closed. Me and Carol, yes, my hair is now red!

Daily spend £5.70 car boot sale

Carol's Party

Shopping this morning, Carol needed to get some last minute things to finish off the buffet she was preparing for her 60th birthday party tonight. While she was doing her thing in Tesco I did my usual hunt the bargain game. Not a lot to be found we were a bit too early for the reductions, however I did get a big bag of spuds, carrots, and parsnips, reduced to £1.40, that will make six meals for me next week. I also got a bottle of wine so we could start celebrating as soon as we got back.

Later, Carol spent a couple of hours in the kitchen, but I am more an outdoor person so I left her to it and did some weeding and hedge trimming for her. I had given her three small bushes that I had grown from cuttings so she showed me where to plant them. Then we took all the food to the club in readiness for tonight.

That left one more task to do, get ready for the party. Carol is a member of a social club and helps organise some of the events, all the members were invited, and as is the custom, everyone makes a contribution to the food, there was loads of it. The party was great, lots of dancing, eating, and drinking. We were planning on walking home but some kind soul offered us a lift which was a good job because we ended up with lots of presents to carry. This is Carol and her cake.

Daily spend £8.31 Tesco. £4.26 drinks

The weekend starts here.

The weekend start here, as they used to say on a Friday night at the start of Ready Steady Go, only my weekend started this morning as I got in my car and headed south to Hampshire. I filled up with fuel and did a steady plod down the M180, M18, M1, A43, A34, A 339, and B3004, keeping my speed down to 55 - 60 mph for optimum fuel consumption. It was a relaxing drive down accompanied by Tina Turner and Cher, love their music, stopping for a free shower on Donnington Services. Always take your wash gear with you when travelling on the motorways.

I sent a text to my friend Carol to say my ETA would be 4.30pm, and I was spot on. She had a great night out planned for us, tickets to see Dreamboats and Petticoats, the rock and roll musical, at Woking Theatre. It was brilliant, we were dancing in the aisles. A great way to start the weekend, not very frugal I know, but this is the very reason why I am frugal, so I can have these treats. Here's the link to the web site
http://www.dreamboatsandpetticoats.com/
Daily spend £40.88 diesel. £20 theatre

A bit busy, back soon.

I'm going to be a bit busy for a few days, helping my friend to celebrate her 60th birthday, well you've got to haven't you, we've been mates for 50 years. I'll post again on Monday and let you know all about it, that's if I'm in any fit state, apparently it's going to be one hell of a party!

Surprise snail

It's not easy buying gifts for people when you are frugal and hate wasting money. I always go through agonies trying to justify spending more than a couple of pounds on something which the recipient will probably put into a drawer and forget about. It's not that I am mean or too tight to shell out the dosh, I would happily treat people with a gift if I knew exactly what they needed.

This is why I don't do Christmas shopping, I traipse around for hours wracking my brains trying to match the exact gift to each individual person, then give up and go home with nothing. It's wastefull to buy stuff that someone doesn't need. They smile as they open the wrapping, and carry on politely smiling, when what is really going through their mind is, what on earth has she given me this for?

I am going down to Hampshire this weekend for my best friends 60th birthday party, I spoke to her on the phone last night to ask her for any hints as to what she would like. Carol doesn't actually need anything, having chosen a much more lucrative career path than me, I know her house is lovely, and she wears the best clothes and accessories. I asked if she would like something for her garden and she replied an ornament would be nice.

I had a trip to the garden centre in mind this morning when I finished my business in town. I called in the hospice charity shop on the way back to my car to see if they had some new knitting wool in. Down at the bottom of the well stocked shop is the household and ornaments section, and then I saw it, straight ahead on the middle shelf, the perfect garden ornament. A very large painted snail, perfect, only it wasn't a proper garden ornament it was a biscuit barrel. But it's lovely, and you don't have to put biscuits in it, I am sure it will sit happily under a hedge and play with all the other snails. I hope Carol likes it.

Daily spend - £3.50 charity shop
£1 Redcurrant bush. £1 Plant feed.

Will I fit in?

I've just found out a bit more about myself, by filling in an online application form for a job with a DIY company. The first five pages are a questionnaire with tick boxes on a sliding scale, the answers reveal your Personality Profile. There are supposedly no right and wrong score directions, but I think it is fairly obvious that they would give you a wide berth if you admitted to being a lazy, miserable, untidy slob.

On reading the brief summary of my scores the first impression I got was that I would be the ideal candidate, but on looking a little closer there seems to be gentle hints that my personality could be a bit of a problem when it comes to conforming and fitting into their mould.

I scored eight on the Agreeableness scale, this means I would be perceived as genuine and sincere in my desire to help people and do my best, but I would find it difficult to deal with people who are brusque or off hand. Too right I would, manners cost nothing.

My Conscientiousness score was also eight, this indicates I am quite a methodical and neat person, and I have the capacity to be painstaking. I would pay attention to detail....correct, but pay less attention to obvious things like punctuality....also correct, what's a few minutes late now and then, I always turn up.

Then my score plummets to four, for Conformity, this made me laugh. It says I am a fairly unorthodox person who occasionally likes to be something of a non conformist. It goes on....I probably don't place the same high value on social convention as many of the people who work within the company, oh dear, maybe a square peg in a round hole! Then it says if I try to introduce some form of innovation into the working environment I could find the emphasis placed on following procedures was a little restrictive. Too right I will, I have a brain and I am capable of using it. On the plus side it says I am an original thinker, yep.

Moving on to Extroversion, I am up to a score of nine on this one. I am energetic and outgoing, and motivated by any kind of challenge, I would agree with that. But it's not going to get me anywhere in a company that stiffles individuality.

I seem to have some plus points in my Emotional Stability, it suggests I am a fairly confident and optimistic person, that's a fair assumption. I am likely to be enthusiastic, and able to make most descisions on my own without asking for help from my superiors. Saying that, my superiors are likely to be younger than me, so that scenario is a possibility. It says I could cope with most pressure, agree, I am very laid back, and have been known to doze off while someone is talking to me.

The job is for stacking shelves mainly at night when the shop is shut, I wait with baited breath to see if they take my application any further. At least I now have a better understanding of my personality, it suits me just fine.

Daily spend - nothing