It's Notting Hill Carnival Time!

The last Bank holiday weekend in August equals Notting Hill Carnival. It's been about 10 years since I last went due to me developing a greater and greater dislike for crowds as I've got older. However, I thought if I arrived early, like 2pm'ish, I'd beat the worst crowds and maybe get the chance to see some of the costumes, get to sample some jerk chicken (the queues were already forming at 3pm) and not be trampled to death when trying to find a tube station that's open to take me back home.

There were already hundreds of people making their way to the carnival.

Lots of police too.

There were many happy, colourful, dancing people... and there was NOISE!

Now these girls know how to shake their booties.

Although this elderly lady was walking with a walking stick it wasn't going to stop her from being part of the carnival.

Fixing the costume. You wouldn't want the skirt to fall off in front of all those people.

Some people's costumes were not as fabulous as others....

These drumming guys were absolutely amazing. I wish I could have recorded the sound.

There were plenty of food stalls.

And after some queueing I got my jerk chicken. I even found an empty spot to sit on the street in between two cars. Classy!

People were having house parties. Or maybe they were hijacking someone's windowsill... yeah, that's more likely.

Last but not least... these crazy people were dancing like mad to Michael Jackson outside their windows with no safety nets whatsoever.

God forbid that they eventually got too drunk or dizzy from dancing and fell down on the pavement. Jeeez, I hope not!

Eating Larvae For Breakfast

Yesterday I was having my Reiki Master attunement (did the teacher training over the weekend) and I am now a fully fledged Reiki Master Teacher!

My Reiki Master lives in South Harrow which is in the suburbs northwest of London... aaaall the way in zone 5. All I knew about South Harrow was that they have a large Asian community. With an Asian community comes Asian grocery stores. With Asian grocery stores comes the great fruit and veg stands outside each store. And I'm not talking your usual tomatoes and cucumbers. No, they have the veggies nobody's every heard of and you can't possibly figure out what it is just by looking at it.

After we'd finished the attunement and I was walking back to the station I caught sight of sweet honey mangoes. I remembered those from my days working as a secretary at the diamond company. Some of our clients in India would send hundreds of these divinely tasting mangoes to us in the big city. I picked up a box of four, took a look and thought they looked ok.

When I got home and took them out of the box I realised that they had seen their best days and had to be eaten pretty quickly. I consumed two last night and when I woke up this morning I thought I'd have the other two for breakfast. How healthy too start the day with sweet mangoes and not the usual cup of coffee!

The last two had gone off a little at the sides but being someone who does not like to waste food I cut off the bad bits and ate the rest. They tasted just as sweet and lovely as I remembered. It wasn't until I had finished the mangoes and threw the box in the bin that I noticed something crawling on the kitchen table.... larvae!!! Eeeeeeewwwwwww!!!!!!!

My stomach started to churn and my brain was racing... how many of these disgusting creepy crawlies had I eaten for breakfast? That healthy breakfast, you know! I ran out to the bathroom, stuck my fingers down the throat (sorry, readers but that's what I did) and tried to get that horrible stuff out of my body.

I'm a person who tries to think that there's a reason for everything. But dear God, I really can't see the reason for eating larvae! Can you enlighten me? And I really, really hope that this particular type of larvae is vegetarian and won't start to feast on my organs and I will be eaten alive from inside and die a nasty death. That's what I wish for now. Thank you and Amen.

Handsome Men and Sweetpotato Noodles

A friend of mine sent me an e-mail yesterday telling me that she misses my blog posts. I did send her reply straight away and to tell you the truth, dear readers... I have temporarily lost my spark.

As a matter of fact I feel a bit like this.

I cannot think of a single thing to write about. Nada.

Well, earlier today I had to walk into Regent Street to get a couple of things in H&M and I thought I'd bring my camera just in case there was something going on worth writing about. As I walked past the Royal Academy of Arts I noticed some strange objects in the courtyard with water floating around them.

It was the Royal Society of Chemistry that had a little exhibition about carbon.

I'm not particularly interested in carbon but... Oh, hello... excuse me... where did you come from?!

Maybe he is interested in carbon and he is moooore than welcome to stand in the way of my picture. Any time, Mr Handsome... any time.

After having watched "the view" I continued to my final destination H&M and got what I needed. I then ventured into Soho and by now it had started to rain so I popped into the hugely overpriced Whole Foods Market.

This is a chain of stores where they sell organic and healthy food at a ridiculous price. Someone at work had recommend their buckwheat and sweetpotato noodles. I thought it sounded both tasty in an unusual sort of way and like a good idea to cut down on the wheat but hey... at £1.99 for a small package of 3 tiny bunches of noodles... I don't think so.

Well, Chinatown is just around the corner so I went to New Loon Moon Supermarket and guess what? They've expanded their shop and now have a second floor full of groceries from China, Japan and Korea. And man, did they have buckwheat and sweetpotato noodles!

Not mixed together but separately indeed. I bought one packet of each. Much cheaper than at Whole Foods Rip Off Store was it too. I'm very much looking forward to try these new foods out.

I shall keep you posted. Promise!

Thoughtful Words

I've nicked the following thoughtful words from dear Vaz's Facebook page:

There are three kinds of people in the world, those who are asleep, those who are stirring, and those who are awake. If you try to wake up the sleeping person he will just mumble and go back to sleep. If you wake up the stirring person he will wake up just long enough to curse you and then go back to sleep. Instead of trying to wake them up, if you come across someone who is asleep or stirring what you should do is, fluff their pillow, tuck them in, and kiss them on the forehead. The important joy for those who are awake is to seek each other out, connect with others who are awake, talk, sing and celebrate together. This will create a groundswell of awareness. As this groundswell increases and spreads out, it will awaken the stirring and will begin to stir those who are still sleeping.

The End Is Near... Check Out These Skirts!

Oh My God!!! I couldn't believe it when I opened this e-mail. It read:

COMING SOON TO A WALMART NEAR YOU !!!? What you see below are not see-thru skirts.. They are actually prints on the skirts to make it look as if the panties are visible and these are the current rage in Japan ... They'll be the rage here in the UK and the USA soon. The end is near!

CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS???????!!!!!

And my answer to that question is NO! I can't believe it. Who the hell is coming up with ideas like these? And who is it that buys skirts that look like this:

I'm speechless. End of post.

There Are No Chance Meetings

Yesterday I sat here with my thoughts and realised that I'm going to have to get my act together and start earning some money. I decided to get my oracle cards out and one of the cards that fell out read "Treasure Chest" - "An unforeseen windfall of new abundance comes to you now". That cheered me up and although I'm not sure where the abundance is going to come from it was a positive card.

Today after I had been running my errands I was debating with myself whether or not I should go for a cappu at Nero. The one thing I spend an unnecessary amount of money on is cappuccinos.

Well, the spending-side of my brain won and off I went. I had plonked myself down in one of the sofas and got "The Reconnection" book by Eric Pearl out of my handbag when a man asked if he could sit at my table. Within the first sentence he'd told me that his name was Glen, he was from California and that he was an artist.

Us Londoners don't talk to strangers but I know that it is common practice in the States so it made perfect sense that Glen started talking to me. When he told me he was from California I showed him my book and asked if he'd heard or Eric Pearl (he hadn't). That was the start of a great conversation. It turned out that Glen was an intuitive and received messages from the other side. He wasn't sure what he was going to do with the information he was receiving and was looking for someone to give him guidance. Well, here's me currently walking on my own very curvy spiritual path.

I told him about the London College of Spirituality, The Alternatives and The College of Psychic Studies and I hope he'll find someone there who can guide him.

Glen asked if I had read any good manifestation books. I can't say that I have so I was very pleased when he offered to e-mail me an e-book called "The Science Of Getting Rich" by Wallace Wattles (click the link if you want a copy). This book was written 100 years ago so talk about being ahead of his time.

And this is where I wanted to get to... maybe this book is the "Treasure Chest" that the cards told me about yesterday? But if it isn't then that's ok too because Glen was such a pleasure to talk to. Definitely worth the cost of a cappuccino!

Glorious Swedish Summer

Every time when I come back from Sweden I want to move back there. But with the unemployment rate at 10% I just can't see how I could make a living there. And in all fairness, I'd probably miss the London buzz if I moved back permanently. A summerhouse would be ideal! What a shame I can't afford one.

Well, it's not the end of the world since my cousin now lives in the countryside just outside our home town so I can go and visit whenever I'm there. It's such a gorgeous place and they've got a large garden where they grow their own veggies.

When you go for a walk there are huge fields, cows, sheep and the next door neighbour has horses.

Doesn't it look fabulous? Well, if you do happen to know someone who would like to donate some money for me to buy a summerhouse then please ask them to get in touch. It's for a good cause. Really.

Chanterelle picking in Sweden

I have had a wonderful holiday in Sweden. This time I spent just over three weeks there which was great. Apart from seeing my family a lot I had time to meet up with old friends and my cousin and her children. I even went to the forest picking chanterelles with my dad twice. Here he's on his way into the wilderness :-)

The blueberries were large, juicy and... blue. Perfect when you're feeling peckish in the bush.

Do you understand why I don't feel like paying £2.99 for a teeny weeny little packet of tasteless blueberries in Sainsbury's when you can find much tastier ones in the wild for free. It's a shame we don't have that many forests in London.

My dad has a chanterelle place where he goes every year. I have no idea how he remembers where to go but he recognises a branch here and a ditch there. We were in luck both days we were out and found "gold".

My mother is a fabulous cook. She turned the chanterelles into divine stew which she put on white bread, topped them with some cheese and then put them in the oven. (Red pepper on top is really not necessary. I guess my mother wanted a bit of colour, bless her).

It was heavenly!

By the way, the spellchecker on here doesn't know what a chanterelle is. It suggests Cinderella!