Not all women are Angels

Better late than never, I have put together my Gothic arch for Something Completely Different.  I wasn’t sure how to approach this one; but had been struck by some of he images of women in the Sunday magazines.  From the little girl being made up for a pageant, to the image of ‘The Lady’ from The Lady magazine, then there is Jane Mansfield in a pool of dolls in her likeness.  Finally the rather pure angel from a Hans Christian Anderson story I was researching for the quiz at Saxtead tomorrow night.  However, in the end I decided to cover this last image in graffiti.

Honest, I haven’t fallen down the plughole

The downside of my new found enthusiasm for getting fit is that I have been around less to blog/tweet and leaving the best camera on the other side of the country means only iphone photos.  However, I have taken out the old Sony Cyber shot and dusted it off.  I was certainly glad to have it with me yesterday for the sunset; which was blood red, filling the landscape.

I won’t do a list of the detox food each day as I did in the first week as people will have got the basic idea by now.  However, I will try and photograph the odd dish or put the recipe down in a bit more detail occasionally.

The bike is now back in regular use which means at least 3 days of about 7.5 miles; as the evenings become lighter I hope to come home on longer routes to maximise the exercise.  The swimming remains ‘interesting’.  I am still using the take to the streets training room schedules; but floundering badly when it comes to breathing in the crawl.  I am pleased tonight’s schedule is about arms and keeping the face up so I can see what I am doing.

After my blog on Saturday ‘Guilty not Innocent’ I couldn’t resist this competition on Innocent’s web site and entered with “If I’m lying in a ditch and you’re reading this – Take me home”.

Detox Day 6 and 7 – Second Coached Swim – Questions for Quiz

#f450 swift update……

Good news; the session on the Wii fit proved to me that the back pain was a strain from badminton.  I admit resorting to the brufen but even better news the pain has now gone, so the yoga session probably helped pull things back into their rightful place. Yesterday was a lazy day exercise wise, just dog walking and housework.  Food yesterday; breakfast the usual porridge and honey, lunch was home made leek and potato soup and for supper I actually used a recipe book.  I concoted a ‘bake’ with veggies in the base and a topping which is basically a hummus of chick peas, tahini, garlic, herbs and lemon.  The end result looks suspiciously like a pie when cooked but actually I didn’t find the combination of textures that pleasing.  I think I would rather have kept everything raw and just dipped the veg in the hummus; saved on the electricity and the wait.  Today I made watercress soup, which I love.  I haven’t worked out what to do for supper; some kind of chilli I reckon.

Today I went back to Stradbroke for my second swim as part of a group with a coach.  I am still very much the newbie amongst a group of experienced swimmers.  If I can just master swimming and breathing in crawl this could all come together yet – otherwise I will be a drowned thing in June.

Now back to the question setting for the next quiz at Saxtead, 29th, 7.30pm – book in advance on 01728 685 064

Detox Day 5 – Tossers – Guilty not Innocent

Day 5 of detox has passed and I am beginning to feel like I am in the groove.  It was a home day for me, which would normally mean fridge raiding for cheese and as many cups of tea as I care to make.  Instead I had the usual porridge breakfast, left over Thai soup for lunch and made a curry of sag aloo, bombay aloo and a mushroom dahl; all served with rice.  I also managed the dog walking and an hour of yoga/aerobics and fun on the wii.

Whilst on the subject of dog walking; my pet peave is rubbish slung from cars.  Every few weeks I pick the darn stuff up; but seriously if people can drive a car surely they can drive their bloomin rubbish home or to the nearest bin and not sling it out of the window of the car.

Clumsy Pippa

The topic for this week’s Illustration Friday is ‘clumsy’.  Being a fan of the late great Spike Milligan my mind went immediately to Poor Little Pippa.

Pip Pip Pippety Pip
Slid on the lino
Slippety Slip
Fell down stairs
Trippety Trip
Tore her knickers
Rippety Rip
Started to cry
Drippety Drip
Poor little Pippa
Pippety Pip

From a Little Pot Boiler by Spike Milligan

Detox Day 4 – Third Training Swim

Framlingham College has a large pool which allows public access via Framlingham Swimming Club. Their website explains that the college is taking over the standing orders side of things; I hope the basic times and other arrangements will not change too much as this all fits well with the training plan I have set through take to the streets.  Yesterday the plan required me to do a total of 400m as a warm up, then a focus on technique and then a cool down.  The advantage of the college pool over Stradbroke is it is closer to home and longer.  The disadvantage is no coach there to tell you if you are doing things right.  I am sure the others must wonder what I’m doing as I keep stopping to rest per the plan and don’t swim neatly as each length you focus on some skill.  This time it was trying to do crawl not letting the stretched hand drop until the swimming hand has touched it. – Remember I had not attempted crawl until last week so I must look like one of those wind up bath toys.

Food – Porridge and honey as normal; Lunch: salad, oat cakes with pesto, fresh pineapple, almonds.  Supper: Thai style noodle soup; mushrooms, sweet potato, bean sprouts, carrots, lemon grass, kaffir lime leaves, coconut milk, rice noodles.

Detox Day 3 – Palm Oil

Day 3 – the back pain continues and then there’s the ethics…..

One of the considerations in this detox is the ethics.  I am tending to eat more foods than usual that are out of season eg salads and imported fruits; but January is rather like that at the best of times.  Then there is the palm oil issue.  This stuff turns up in the unlikeliest of places; like oat cakes.  Finally I have found some made with olive oil and stocked by our local co-op so much happier about that.

Food:  Porridge and honey again.

Lunch was quinoa with the remains of the chickpea casserole stirred through and cucumber and fresh tomatoes added.

Supper was a stonking great risotto with sweet potato,  aubergine, tomato and leeks.

Managed 2 miles of walking, 7.54 on the bike and 14 lengths of swim training.

I’m in the Marmarati – thank you, thank you, thank you!

You ARE beautiful in my eyes Marmite

……..thank you, thank you, thank you, to everyone who voted for my mad makeover back in December.  I have been accepted to be in the Marmarati and am looking forward to receiving my limited edition Marmite post haste!

#f450 – Detox Day 2 – Late Night

Yesterday was a low exercise day, just two miles with the dog.

Food was much the same as yesterday but for supper it was crispy roasted potatoes and parsnips with chickpea creole casserole and cabbage.

The headache is now properly gone but all day my lower back ached, was this from the badminton or is it my Bowman’s capsules telling my kidneys ‘things have changed’?  I may never know which but I hope it will go away today.  The ache did make getting to sleep harder, but that could also have been because I was out late at a meeting, so my head was spinning.  Still managed a good six and a half hours uninterrupted tough.

Detox Day 1 – #f450

I had planned to do a detox from mid January to mid February long before the swim idea came up.  I have done this before and was really pleased with the results.  However, I know I have to be feeling strong and happy before I start and preferably not have anything on the social calendar for at least the first week.  So Day 1 was yesterday 18th January.  The rules are simple no meat, fish, dairy, wheat, tea, coffee or alcohol and avoid processed foods especially sugars as much as possible.

Day 1

Breakfast – Porridge made with water and manuka honey

Lunch – Salad, lettuce, tomato, cucumber, green pepper, carrot sticks.  Almonds and dried berries and satsuma to follow.

Snack – Oat cakes, with green pesto

Supper – Enormous veg curry, sweet potatoes, swede, carrots, broccoli, mushrooms, butter beans, tomatoes with rice.

Feeling physically good; but as expected, a gnawing headache which cleared after my foggy morning walk with the dog.