Helena Writes...

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-20T12:11:00.002Z

Yesterday evening I was writing what should have been my last post before Christmas. It was a letter to Santa expressing a mild disappointment that he did not deliver what I wished for last year. It was only a villa with a pool in a warm country, a perfect body and Johnny Depp. Not too difficult, one would have thought.

However, this year I toned my wish list down a bit and made it slightly longer but less pricey and more easily attainable. It included a really fancy camera, a purple ipod, a gorgeous dress from Get Cutie with Mother Mary printed on it, a large box of Charbonnel pink champagne truffles and a luxurious holiday to Bali with accommodation in one of those bungalows sitting right above the water and I think there's a glass floor inside so you can watch the fish without getting sunburnt.

I had carefully resourced photos to upload and saved them onto my computer and guess what... every time I try to upload a pic my laptop crashes! I've tried so many times now without any luck and I realise that this is Santa's way of telling me that I'm not going to get these either.

So maybe I shall just be grateful for what I already have - my health, my wonderful family and friends, being able to work for myself, a wardrobe full of clothes, a roof over my head with central heating and food on the table.

I wish you all a very MERRY CHRISTMAS and a HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Christmas Comes Early This Year

2009-12-18T22:01:00.005Z

Yesterday it was freezing here and we had snow for the first time this winter. I went to Sainsbury's in the evening and I felt so sorry for the Big Issue vendor standing outside that I gave him my last fiver and put my shopping on my credit card. I just hope he had a bed for the night.

In the past I would not have been that generous with my money, especially not when times are like these, I mean I'm not exactly rolling in it. However, since I learnt about the Universal laws about giving and receiving I knew I was going to be rewarded (and this is not the reason why I gave him the fiver, by the way).

Today I went to House of Fraser and the sales is already in full swing. I tried on a gorgeous pair of summer shoes.

They were down from £65 to £25 which is a pretty good bargain. Two very keen sales assistant offered to get me the other shoe to try on but I said no thanks. I still thought £25 was too much especially since I don't really need a pair of summer shoes in the middle of winter.

However, as I left the store I started to regret it and I made my way back to the shoe department. And guess what?! In the ten minutes I had been away the shoes had been reduced even further to £19!!!

Oh, how I love that red label!!! It makes me feel like I've earned £46 today. Thank you, Universe!

Burning Down The House At The Christmas Party... Well, Trying!

2009-12-15T23:37:00.008Z

Last Friday the clinic where I rent a therapy room had their annual Christmas party. Last year's party was great so I've been looking forward to this one for about... a year!

The party was fab and when I left around midnight I was happy with my dose of wine, dancing and singing along to ABBA, Prince and Depeche Mode.

However,..., however,... apparently I missed EVERYTHING!!!

After I'd left some of the therapists decided to climb out of the kitchen window to dance on the scaffolding outside! And as if that wasn't bad enough someone dropped a fag and the scaffolding CAUGHT FIRE AND THE FIRE BRIGADE CAME!!!

When I walked to work at 11am the following morning I bumped into the therapy rooms manager, one of the receptionists and the acupuncturist who were on their way home.

Well, I don't know if it was a good thing or not that I left before all the excitement kicked off. All I know is that for next year's party we have to find someone else's building to burn down.

Getting All Chrismasy In London

2009-12-10T19:55:00.011Z

I realised that it's only 10 days until I go to Sweden for Christmas and I still had a bit of Christmas shopping to do. I usually avoid Oxford Street like the plague but today I gave it a quick - very quick - visit.

On my way there I walked past Piccadilly Arcade where all the Christmas decorations were up.

Fortnum & Mason always has fantastic window displays and this year they've been using Swan Lake as their theme. They've got part of the story in some windows...

and a lot of big swans in the others.

Oxford Circus' decorations were fairly understated but at least they don't use too much energy on lights.

I did a quick tour inside the Disney shop and picked up a couple of things for my niece and step-niece then quickly exited Oxford Street and went to South Molton Street for a 15-minute back massage at Sen.

On my way back home I walked past Liberty's which also has fabulous displays. This year Luella Bartley has done the Christmas displays and they're quite "contemporary" and fun!

Carnaby Street is going for the Love, Hope and Joy message. I like the happy hippie style of the decorations.

I continued to Covent Garden where I sat down outside Monmouth Coffee shop for the best latte in London. What better photo opportunity of Seven Dial's Christmas decorations than this?!

On my way home I crossed Trafalgar Square and the Christmas tree was all lit up in the dark (and this is only around 5pm'ish).

Normally I would walk through St James's Park but I thought I'd walk past Buckingham Palace to see if Lizzie had her tree up and of course she had.

Queen Victoria was sitting on her throne welcoming all the tourists and myself. Cheers Vicky!

And last but not least, my local pub all lit up in the dark. Isn't it gorgeous?!

I'm ever so slowly getting into the Christmas spirit now. A bottle of mulled wine and some mince pies anyone?

Useful Herbs For Beauty and Astral Travelling... Seriously!

2009-12-08T18:20:00.008Z

It's not long until Christmas but I've struggled to get into that "chrismasy" feeling. And no wonder with the downpours of rain we've had. Instead of winter wonderlands like these

it's been loads of this

and quite frankly... it's doing my head in!

Today I had booked to go on a herb walk with the lovely lady who owns Lemon Balm where I now rent a treatment room on Saturdays. Yesterday it was chucking it down again and I thought to myself that if it's like this tomorrow I will most definitely cancel.

Well, imagine my delight when I woke up this morning and there was sunshine!!! Yes, it wasn't just not raining but the sun was actually shining and off I went on the herb walk.

Paula Grainger is a herbalist and she really knows her stuff. Although you might think that there are no herbs around at this time of year you'll have to think again. We spotted nettle, clover and mugwort to name a few. Clover is supposed to be excellent for the skin and if you have a daily does of clover tea (please don't make this without having consulted a herbalist or at least read a book about it so you don't overdose or something!) you will become more beautiful than ever. Not that I or any of you readers need it but it's a good piece of knowledge to pass on to people who might benefit from it. :-)

Mugwort is a herb you can use for astral travelling! You put some underneath your pillow before you go to bed and off you go. Wooohooo! Sounds like great fun and I think I'm going to try it.

The herb walk was around the posh part of Camden up towards Regent's Park. This is where people live in houses like these.... lucky b****s.

We had a lovely walk along Regent's canal.

We then went into Regent's Park and walked past the London Zoo where two shepherds had a busy day at work.

And the sweetest thing was this little robin who joined us and even serenaded us for a bit before we headed to Coast restaurant for lunch.

The lunch had a herb theme... dandelion salad with crispy bacon and a gorgeous vinaigrette for starters, and trout with a divine herb dressing potatoes and red cabbage for our mains. Prosecco to wash it down with. What a great day to spend a sunny Tuesday!

Stop Press! - I'm In The Press!!!

2009-11-26T21:03:00.005Z

Well, not me personally but two of my bracelets are being featured in this issue of Spirit & Destiny magazine which is out today! I'm soo excited! I've sold three bracelets already which is great.

I had a call this morning from an elderly lady who started the conversation by very firmly asking: Who are you? Could you tell me who you are?! I kindly asked her if she could tell me who she was and she replied that she wanted to buy two bracelets. That's how I found out that Spirit & Destiny's January issue came out today. How excellent!

I've spent the day updating my website with new exciting stuff. Please pop over to take a look. I'm waiting for a new delivery with some gorgeous stuff including a very extravagant bracelet made with purple mojave, turquoise and amethyst...

... a gold vermeil ring featuring four turquoise stones...

...and this gorgeous black druzy quartz ring.

Funnily enough this happens to be my 200th post! Let's celebrate, shall we?!

Meeting My Personality- and Soul Guides with David Wells

2009-11-17T22:04:00.003Z

One week ago I had never heard of David Wells. I had gone to the library to print something out but I was too early so I hung around the spiritual books section and a book called "David Wells' Complete Guide To Developing Your Psychic Skills" stood out. Although I'm already reading three other books I decided to borrow it.

As soon as I came home I started reading it. It's a really good book where David first explains about his background and how he "became" a medium, and as the title suggests he gives advice on how to develop your psychic skills. There are some excellent guided meditations in there and a lot of other tips on do's and dont's.

A couple of days after I had started reading this book I was sitting here pondering over where my path is taking me and although I get so many messages and signs I still don't know what to do with it all. I was thinking that I need a mentor of some sort. I decided to check out the College of Psychic Studies website to see what they had on offer. Apart from the fact that all courses were already half-way through there was a lecture with... guess who... David Wells. At first it didn't register that I was reading his book. It took a good ten minutes before it hit me.

Anyway, I was in Derby over the weekend at a Mind Body Spirit fair selling my jewellery. In the evening I was shattered and couldn't be bothered to dress up and go out for dinner. Instead I crossed the street from my B&B and ordered a takeaway at the local Chinese. There was a newspaper on the table and as I was flicking through it I got to the horoscopes and... surprise surprise... David Wells writes the horoscopes. Being me I saw that as a sign that I should go to his lecture.

When I called earlier today to book my space I was told that it was sold out. I was really surprised because I was sure that I was going to see him. Well, it turned out that there had been a cancellation and I got a ticket. It was an absolutely excellent evening! David is a great speaker. He's got a good sense of humour and makes his talk very entertaining. He is also very, very knowledgeable. He's been studying Qabala with a Q and not the Kabbalah with a K that Madonna has introduced to the world. Apparently there is a difference.

The two-hour talk was about learning how to contact your spirit guides. We have different types of guides - personality-, soul-, and masters - and David was talking about the difference between these guides and he guided us through two very deep and powerful meditations to meet our personality and soul guides.

I now know that I have two personality guides called Anna and Nicholas. They are fairly young and they were encouraging me to stay on the healing path. My soul guide came through as a dark orange energy field. I did not get a name but was again re-assured that the path I'm on is right although I will be doing different things in the future to what I'm doing now. Watch this space!

It was a wonderful evening and I'm so glad I found David. If he ever comes to your neck of the woods I really recommend that you go and here him speak.

One Way Of Trying To Get Female Company

2009-11-08T22:11:00.003Z

I've lived in the same building for eons and I know I'm like an old piece of furniture here. Some of my neighbours have been living here for several years too but I'm the longest standing tenant. My landlord should give me a loyalty card!

The other day I heard someone starting the tumble dryer. All tumble dryers in the building are out of order at the moment which is a disgrace in itself. My towels are very rough nowadays from hanging to dry but I try to look at it positively and think it's good for dry scrubbing.

Anyway, I popped my head out to tell the person that the dryer wasn't working since someone had decided to throw my "out of order"-note in the bin. It was my old neighbour from another floor. Many years ago Paul... I've decided to protect his identity and call him Paul because this is his name... ,Sandra and I went for a few drinks. When we got back home Paul invited me to his room for a night cap. After having told me at length about a girl at his work who he really fancied.. as a matter of fact I remember him saying that he knew she was THE ONE although she had a boyfriend.. he made a sweeping arm gesture across his bed and asked if I'd ever tried it before to which I had to say no. I mean, Paul himself knew that I'd never tried his bed before. He then moved on to plant a smacker on my lips!!! That's when I decided it was time to leave!

The next day he was very apologetic and blamed the alcohol. I accepted the apology. No serious harm done.

Since then we've bumped into each other occasionally and we've even been out for a friendly drink once. He's a nice guy but we really don't have much in common.

Imagine my surprise when last night, which was a Saturday evening by the way, I had a call and his name was showing on my mobile phone display. I decided not to answer. So Paul left a message saying: "this is a long shot but I was wondering if you have any milk? I'm going to make myself a cup of tea and I've run out. Don't worry if you're not in or haven't got any I'll run to the garage and buy some". I burst out laughing!!! Seriously Paul, is this the way you ask a woman out?! I'm not stupid. The garage is literally two minutes away and it would probably be quicker for you to run to the garage than for me walking down two flights of stairs with my carton of milk. And then what? Were you going to invite me to join you for a cuppa'? Of course you were.

This is a guy who is nearing 40. I can't help but finding it very odd to call your neighbour on a late'ish Saturday evening and try to lure them downstairs by asking for milk. You seriously need to come up with something better. Like when you asked another female neighbour if she wanted to come into your room and have a look at your Egyptian cotton sheets. Or actually, that didn't work either!

Note: Paul once killed my goldfish but that's a different story.

All Fun And Games Whilst Giving A Massage

2009-11-03T21:22:00.004Z

Yesterday I was at work giving a client a Kahuna massage when all of a sudden the window opened... from outside... on the second floor!!! I nearly fainted. Luckily my client was so zonked out I don't think she realised what had happened. I quickly covered her up, stuck my hands out from behind the blinds (yeah, luckily there were blinds so at least nobody could look in), and a man's voice said something like uuuhhhh. It turned out that there were building works going on outside but I hadn't really noticed the scaffolding around the house. I certainly hadn't spotted any builders. Anyway, I told the man that I had a client in there and that he had to close the window. He did close the window but guess what? He then started to polish the window sills outside!!! Jeeez, hello!!! I knocked on the window to make him stop. I don't know if it was my frenetic knocking or the fact that he couldn't reach wherever he had to reach with the windows closed but he gave up after a short while. Luckily my client saw the funny side of it and laughed but I'm know for definite not all clients would have found that amusing. It's all fun and games!

Charmed Spirit Autumn News!

2009-10-29T17:46:00.005Z

A couple of months ago I went to the International Jewellery Trade Show here in London and found an amazing jewellery designer who's pieces goes exactly with my niche. She only uses high-quality semi-precious stones and Sterling silver and many of her designs have a spiritual theme. Her jewellery is being made in India and the handicraft is tops! I bought a few pieces from her at the show to test it on my clients and it wasn't surprising to see how quick they sold. It's particularly the druzy quartz I like but also the semi-precious pendants. I've been waiting and waiting for her to get more of the druzy quartz in stock. Most of the pieces are one-off's so you have to be quick to get what you want. Last week the website was updated and I was quick as a gazelle (hmmm, well... anyway). Here's some of the jewellery I got:

Most of the items are up on my website under Autumn News. Please do pop over and take a look: http://www.charmed-spirit.co.uk/userimages/procart2.htm

I don't know if I've told you but Spirit & Destiny Magazine contacted me a while ago and wanted to feature a couple of my bracelets in their January issue. Both bracelets are made by myself so I was really, really happy when they called. It's now all set in stone, the bracelets have been photographed, the text has been confirmed and I've had the bracelets sent back to me. Now I'm just waiting for the January issue to come out some time at the beginning of December this year. Spirit & Destiny Magazine is the largest spiritual magazine in Britain and they have thousands of readers which means a lot of people will see my jewellery and my website!

The Derby event is not far away either. I'm going there for another Mind Body Spirit event and this one is also called Alternative Christmas Gift Fayre. Here's the programme (Charmed Spirit on page 13) and if you're in Derby on 14-15 November it would be great to see you!

Sharing Some Amazing Experiences From The Healing Share

2009-10-23T23:15:00.005+01:00

Yesterday I went to the weekly Healing Share I've been the assistant organiser of for just over a year. This started as a Reiki share and to begin with I wanted to experience giving and receiving Reiki and become more confident as a healer. A year and a bit later I have made some fantastic friends at the share. We are a core group of people who turn up pretty much every week and then there are always a few newcomers or others who don't attend regularly.

A while ago we decided to change the name from Reiki share to Healing share. We now have so many healers attending with different types of healing modalities and it is such a fantastic opportunity to learn about and get a healing session you've never tried before. We have one guy who does re-connective healing, a few people doing Angel healing, someone is attuned to Shamanic healing, then there are several types of Reiki healers - Usui, Tera Mai and Seichem.

The absolutely most amazing thing about this group is that since Mark joined and introduced re-connective healing to us we are being helped by beings from the Pleiades.

I understand that to some people this may seem completely outrageous and that's ok. But I also know that to others this sounds perfectly normal. Before I started going to the Healing share I had never heard of either re-connective healing or the Pleiades. Slowly but surely some of us started to get channeled messages from our Pleiadean friends. I, for instance, can receive messages both at the share and also when I'm practising channeling at home.

Last week I was working with Brett who is attuned to Angelic reiki. I am attuned to Usui. We were practising distance healing and were sitting in front of each other but not facing each other. We've done this exercise before and I have always healed through my third eye. This time, however, I felt my hands getting incredibly hot and then they started to move up and above my head. My arms were stretching so far behind my head that I had to mentally tell my guides that I couldn't physically move them any further back. Both Brett and I experienced a wonderful healing session that evening and when we shared our experiences afterwards it turned out that Brett's hands and arms also had moved up behind his head and we'd performed the same type of healing. Since I've been reading the book about re-connective healing I recognise that this is the type we were performing. My guide, who is female and called Haweba, came through with a channeled message. She told me that due to the energy shift we have experienced in the last couple of months it has been very difficult for them to reach through to me/us. She did give me the positive message telling me that I am here to heal. When I told her I was glad she was back she replied: We have always been here but you haven't felt it.

At yesterday's share Sarah, our lovely organiser, felt guided to ask the group if anyone had any information to share? Mark told us that he'd been listening to a meditation on how to open up the pineal gland and how to take in energy through this gland. This, apparently, plays a huge part in consciousness. Being synchronised with the group I had read the exact same thing that afternoon in a book called "The Ancient Secret of The Flower of Life" by Drunvalo Melchizedek.

Sarah was then guided to ask Mark to lead the meditation that evening on this very subject. Mark has never done anything like this before and although he said he didn't feel confident to begin with he gave it a go. He'd only just started guiding us to pay attention to our pineal gland when I started to feel my whole forehead buzzing as if I had flies flying around inside. I've felt my third eye spin in the past but this was different because it was the whole forehead. It was so clearly guided and it felt amazing that we are being helped by a team of beings from a different planetary system who are willing to help us to open up to Oneness and become conscious.

During the actual share I was working with a lady called Louise who is attuned to Usui reiki. I'm not usually a very visual person but during the healing I saw many things such as a large faceted amethyst (which corresponds to the crown chakra/pineal gland), I saw an Egyptian female head of a painting or a statue, I sensed Atlantis and saw a lot of water. When Louise placed her hand above my forehead it started to buzz again and it felt like my third eye was sucking in as much energy as it possible could. I was aware during the treatment but afterwards it felt like I had been travelling very far and deep.

Needless to say the Healing Share has become the most amazing evening of the week. Every time I experience something fantastic but in a new way.

I have also in the past not been very keen on sharing my experiences here on the blog. I think this is mainly because I don't want people to think I'm a complete nutter. It's also felt quite personal. However, lately I'm starting to get the messages to share my experiences and people who are open to this will find my posts interesting and have a sensation of being able to relate. I know it can feel like you are all alone out there but believe me... there are many of us experiencing "the weird and wonderful" right now. I'm very lucky to live in London where there are many groups to attend but for you guys who live in smaller places I can understand that the feeling of being completely on your own can sometimes be a lonely and difficult one.

With this I wish you a wonderful weekend!

Happy Birthday To Me!

2009-10-19T23:37:00.004+01:00

Today it's my birthday! I am now 18 with 24 years experience and I realise that I should update my profile on Blogger.

I've had a lovely evening drinking cocktails at Souk Medina with my great girlfriends.

Thank you, wonderful ladies, for celebrating my birthday with me and for the lovely cards and presents!

So Many Closing Down Sales To Attend

2009-10-18T17:05:00.006+01:00

Yesterday I was at work. I say "was at work" because it was so quiet I can't really say that I "was working". Whilst I was sitting in the reception killing time a client kindly informed me that the Mambo shop was closing down and had a massive sale on. I grabbed my coat, told the receptionists I had to go out in an important errand and headed down to Mambo. Pretty much everything was marked down 70% and although most sizes available were 8 (teeny tiny) or 16 (slightly bigger) I did find a couple of things that fit and I love the colours!!

The Rip Curl top and the Mambo Goddess (love the name) board shorts were £3 each! Fingers crossed that I will be able to afford going on holiday soon!

Today I had to go out and invest in a new pair of Converse. My old pair had a hole in them so big that when it was raining I could just as well have walked down the street wearing just socks on my feet. As I was walking back from the shoe shop I walked past Books etc on Victoria Street and guess what? They're closing down as well. Recession seems to be hitting the retail businesses hard. Their sale was not as good as Mambo's but I'm not one to complain. I found two cookery books with recipes I liked the sound of.

I'm looking forward to try "Sauteed Calamari and Vegetables" and "Linguine with a Spinach & Anchovy Sauce".

Talking about food... in the last few days I've made the simplest yet most fabulous soup. Here's the recipe for one person:

0.5 l vegetable stock
a couple of large or a few more small potatoes
a piece of leek
some white cabbage
a large or a couple of small leaves of Savoy cabbage
2 slices of smoked bacon
a teeny weeny bit of red chili
some garlic
a dash of paprika

Chop everything and boil until the potatoes are soft. Goes really well with a glass of red.

That's it from London town this weekend. Enjoy you're evening!

Chocolate Week & Being Back In The Flow

2009-10-16T18:38:00.005+01:00

Did you know that this week is Chocolate Week? Last year I celebrated big time at this event. Since then I've been counting the days just waiting for another chocolatey bash. Well, can you believe it the ladies organising the event put the price up by 140%!!! I mean, seriously... when it's recession and all. I didn't book this year and you know what? Nobody else did apart from 16 people and the event was cancelled due to "unforseen circumstances".

Last Sunday I was checking out which chocolatiers were going to be at which posh department store. I'd planned to go to Fortnum & Mason, Libery and Harrods every day this week. And here I am on a Friday evening having not managed to get to one single free chocolate tasting. I'm so not determined enough. :-)

Today God knows what came over me but I have had one of the most productive days in months. I did the finishing touches to my new website http://www.energyiski.co.uk/ and I called Buddha on a Bicycle and booked their workshop room for three Sundays early next year. There's no going back now! I will give Reiki I attunements on 7 February and facilitate two different Angel workshops on 28 Feb and 28 March. I'm really excited about it!

I've got myself one more shift at the therapy rooms where I already practise. I have also been offered to start working at Lemon Balm in Camden on Saturday afternoons from 7 November. Things are really starting to work in my favour again which is great! On top of all this I won £20 a couple of weeks ago. I'm back in the flow..... Thank you, Universe!!!

Ouch, Ouch, Double-Ouch!

2009-10-12T23:28:00.004+01:00

I no longer know how to post videos from youtube on here. It's annoying but there are ways around it. Here's a link to a video that makes me burst out laughing everytime I watch it. I know it's horrible to laugh at someone else's expense but hey... I can't help it.

Entering The House Of Torture

2009-10-08T21:47:00.006+01:00

For quite a while now... like the past 2 months or so... I have been thinking about starting practising Bikram yoga. I'd found this deal at a Bikram yoga studio where you pay £20 for unlimited use during 10 days.

However, my previous experience of Bikram yoga made me come up with all sorts of reasons for not being able to go. Reasons such as "It's raining today and I've got a hole in my shoe and my socks will get wet before I get to the tube station" or "I think I've got a cold coming on and it would be a real shame if I couldn't take full advantage of the 10 day offer".

Anyway, a couple of days ago I decided that it was time. And believe it or not, it was raining outside and my socks got wet but I still went (took an extra pair of socks with me, yep).

When I entered the yoga studio the first thing that hit me was the smell. Eeewww, the sour smell of damp, thick clothes that never dried properly, d'ya know what I mean?
And then there was the heat.

Bikram yoga is being practised in a room heated to 40.5 degrees Celsius (105F) with a humidity of 40%. You only have to breathe to start sweating. And there's no point bringing a small hand towel to wipe your face with because you'll continue to sweat straight away anyway.

The above photo could have been of me just with longer hair and a less chiseled jaw line. The evil look in his eyes I share with him.

Now, having said all this it wasn't actually as painful as I remembered it. The series of postures are not that hard and you basically get into each posture, stand there, and sweat for a bit. An Ashtanga yoga class is much harder, believe me.

I went back again today and I'm now looking forward to getting fabulous skin considering all the toxins that must come out through all that sweat. I can wait to see myself glowing.

2009-10-05T15:26:00.004+01:00

Yesterday I went to the Mind Body Soul exhibition in Olympia. I usually go every year although it's always the same stand holders there. Last year I spotted some lovely angel paintings and throughout the year I have regretted that I didn't buy one. Luckily the same artist was there again this year. I stood by their stand twice trying to choose which painting I was going to go for. When I came back for the third time having finally decided on the pink one someone was just about to buy it.

But the Universe knew which one I wanted and just as the stand holder was about to put the painting in a bag the lady said: "Wait a minute! Hold it up to that painting over there. I'll change my mind, I'll have the one of the right".

I immediately snapped up the painting I wanted and bought it without giving her a second chance to change her mind again. Isn't it gorgeous?!

I also got some divine chocolate made without sugar and dairy. It was dark, soft and incredibly rich. I say was because it's already gone.

I went to a channelled workshop with a lady called Natalie Glasson. She channelled Master Kuthumi in a meditation that increased the participants light quotient and connected us to our soul energies. Personally I didn't find it very powerful but it was a nice meditation.

I spent pretty much all day at the event and had a lovely time browsing the stands, tasting chocolate and meeting some very nice people.

Another Glorious Day In London Town

2009-10-02T19:49:00.010+01:00

We've had another couple of days with glorious weather. How long is it going to last, I wonder? Yesterday I had to go to Camden on business. I haven't been to Camden in probably 10 years and let me tell you it hasn't changed much. It's the same old market stalls where they sell the same old black clothes, black doc martens and silver jewellery. I think the same old hot dog vendor was still there too.

I had to meet with someone who's offices are away from the main drag and as I walked up Parkway I spotted this in a charity shop window.

I've been looking for a statue like this for ages but those I've found was both made of stone and weighed a tonne plus cost a small fortune. This little fella' I'm not sure what it's made of but it's light as a feather and cost a mere £11.99! And it goes to charity! It now sits in front of my (non-working) fire place together with a large green calcite.

Today I took a stroll along South Bank.

There were quite a few tourists but not as bad as a month ago. I walked past the London Eye...

... and walked under the bridges where Charlie Chaplin was doing his make up.

I arrived at Borough Market and as usual it was absolutely packed with people. This is Monmouth Coffeeshop where they make the best coffee in London. Hence the queue.

I liked the look of the florist.

I happily noted that someone at Northfield Farm has got a great sense of humour. :-)

The fish vendor was busy...

... and so was the sausage and cheese stand. I had to be really quick to get a photo without any people's backsides in it.

Oh, and the chocolate smelt diviiiine!!!

Apart from all the tastings I didn't do too badly. I only bought a chocolate fudge brownie. But it was huge!

Sell Granny On Ebay

2009-10-01T22:57:00.004+01:00

Today I picked up the London Lite and the first thing I read made me burst out laughing. Hear this:

"Rare and annoying and moaning a lot. Very cuddly."
- Zoe Pemberton, 10, from Clacton, Essex, put her gran Marion, 61, on Ebay and got bids of £20,000.

Although Marion might not be best pleased to have been sold on Ebay she must still be quite flattered that someone wanted to pay 20 grand for her! Not bad for a 61-year old.

Indian Summer & Feng Shui

2009-09-30T20:25:00.006+01:00

London has experienced the most amazing Indian Summer for nearly a week.

I've been lazing about in the park every day making sure to enjoy those last rays of sunshine before the rainy, grey winter hits.

Today was the first day in nearly a week when it wasn't sunny. Little did it matter since I was working today anyway.

I had been meaning to update you on my weekend but being a little bit lazy I haven't got around to it. I was invited to my best friend Hajni for Japanese food. Hajni is not Japanese, she's Hungarian. But she has a Japanese friend who's taught her how to make Japanese food and I was so impressed with her skills... I thought she'd temporarily become Japanese.

Hajni told me a while ago that she and her flatmate had been "feng shui'ing" their flat. They decided to de-clutter to let the energies flow but they didn't have the heart to throw this one fine piece of art away. I was laughing my head off when I saw this fantastic, handmade (by whom we don't know) sculpture that now sits in the bathroom and acts as a toothbrush holder.

Funny thing is that their male flatmate is really insulted by it. That makes me laugh even more.

Well, it's almost Ugly Betty-time. I shall pop my popcorn and pour myself one glass of red and enjoy.

All Angels Are Girls Because They Gotta Wear Dresses...

2009-09-21T20:48:00.006+01:00

I received an e-mail today with the heading "Angels, By kids". It is soo funny it just has to be shared.

Gregory, Age 5

I only know the names of two angels. Hark and Harold.

Olive, Age 9

Everybody's got it all wrong. Angels don't wear halos anymore. I forget why, but scientists are working on it.

Matthew, Age 9

It's not easy to become an angel! First, you die. Then you go to heaven, and then there's still the flight training to go through. And then you got to agree to wear those angel clothes.

Mitchell, Age 9

Angels work for God and watch over kids when God has to go do something else.

Henry, Age 8

My guardian angel helps me with math, but he's not much good for science.

Jack, Age 6

Angels don't eat, but they drink milk from Holy Cows.

Daniel, Age 9

Angels talk all the way while they're flying you up to heaven. The main subject is where you went wrong before you got dead.

Reagan, Age 10

When an angel gets mad, he takes a deep breath and counts to ten. And when he lets out his breath, somewhere there's a tornado.

Sara, 6

Angels have a lot to do and they keep very busy. If you lose a tooth, an angel comes in through your window and leaves money under your pillow. Then when it gets cold, angels go north for the winter.

Jared, 8

Angels live in cloud houses made by God and his son, who's a very good carpenter.

Antonio, 9

All angels are girls because they gotta wear dresses and boys didn't go for it.

Katelynn, 9

My angel is my grandma who died last year. She got a big head start on helping me while she was still down here on earth.

Vicki, 8

Some of the angels are in charge of helping heal sick animals and pets. And if they don't make the animals get better, they help the child get over it.

Sarah, 7

What I don't get about angels is why, when someone is in love, they shoot arrows at them.

Taking Charmed Spirit to Birmingham

2009-09-20T23:39:00.008+01:00

This weekend I've been selling jewellery at a Mind Body Spirit fair in Birmingham. Although I've lived in Britain for 14 years I've never been to Birmingham before. I didn't even know it was only a 1.5 hour train journey from London. As a matter of fact I only knew two things about Birmingham up until this weekend:

1. They make Cadbury's creme eggs in Birmingham

2. This fine fella' has his roots there

Now I know where the Council House is and what it looks like.

This is where the event was being held and it was a fantastic venue. It's a very grand building right in the city centre and it's also stunning inside.

It was a fairly small event and I didn't expect it to be too busy. Having said that I had a good weekend and after all expenses were paid I made a profit. Yaayy!!

The nice thing about small events is that there are no walls in between the stands so you can have a chat with your neighbours when it's quiet. I had lovely neighbours - Richard the Angelman, David who sold incredible Quantum Balance Crystals (I swapped a bangle for a balancing crystal), Mesma and Steve from the Messiah Foundation International who gave me an initiation of the spiritual heart which only took five minutes but was so deep and powerful it was amazing, a tarot reader and a guy talking about how to receive more abundance in your life.

There was so much positive energy in there it was lovely to be part of. It was a most enjoyable weekend. More of those, please!

http://www.charmed-spirit.co.uk/

Keep On Dancing In Spirit Swayze

2009-09-15T14:11:00.004+01:00

Today I woke up late but when I looked at my alarm clock without wearing my glasses together with the fact that it was so dark outside I thought it was only 6am. What was I thinking? I haven't woken up at 6am in months! It's the first gloomy day in a long time and it's raining bucket loads.

Like every morning I got up, made a cup of coffee, had breakfast and logged on to read the news.

Same old as always... except for one thing - Patrick Swayze passed away last night. How I loved Dirty Dancing when it came out... and I still do!

Since a rainy day like this is for staying in it will be very fitting to watch Dirty Dancing once again and sing out loud to The Time Of My Life. That shall be it for today.

Keep on dancing in Spirit, Patrick!

To All Lightworkers

2009-09-14T00:21:00.006+01:00

Vaz who runs the London College of Spirituality has posted so many great videos on Facebook lately. I love this one! To all Lightworkers out there... you know who you are. :-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNzJzHma2R8

Being In The Jewellery Trade... Oh Yes!

2009-09-12T00:34:00.007+01:00

Last Wednesday I was still without my laptop so I couldn't report on my exciting day out at the International Jewellery Show. It's the biggest trade show in Britain and since I'm now in the trade... yep: http://www.charmed-spirit.co.uk/ , I got myself an entry pass to get in.

I learnt pretty quickly that making and selling my own handmade jewellery was not only going to be very time-consuming it's also going to cost too much if I want to get a large variety of stock.

When I exhibited at the Mind Body Spirit festival in May I was given the good advice to keep my own range but also buy ready-made jewellery from other designers. On Wednesday I was absolutely delighted to find great wholesalers and designer who's jewellery was exactly what I was looking for.

I bought gorgeous jewellery from a design company called Peace of Mind in England. The lady who owns the company designs the jewellery and has it made somewhere in Asia. I also bought ready-made jewellery from one wholesaler in England and one in Rome.

I'm in the process of adding things to my website but I want to share some of the stuff I bought from Peace of Mind. They make truly unique pieces of jewellery. Have a look.

Pop over to www.charmed-spirit.co.uk for more info. Have a lovely weekend All!

Getting My Stuff Back Together

2009-09-10T22:59:00.003+01:00

I had expected to be without my laptop for at least the seven days the PC World tech guy told me it was going to take to fix it. Imagine my surprise when they called yesterday evening to say it was ready for collection.

Today I went to High Street Kensington to pick it up and made sure to ask the girl behind the counter how to reinstall my Norton Antivirus subscription which I renewed only a couple of months ago. It wasn't going to be any problem at all as long as I had the product key thingy, I was told.

This is how totally computer-illiterate I am: I get home and immediately want to install the antivirus because that is important, right?! Oh, hang on, where's the green internet icon I always double-click when I need to get into cyberspace. It's not on my desktop anymore. Oh well, I'll just put it back on there then... or, maybe not. Because, dear Helena, you have to reinstall your internet connection with your service provider and when doing so you need to remember your user name, password AND where you put the installation CD after you used it last time which was 3.5 years ago.

After having cursed the internet, the Chinese flippin' link I clicked that "virused" my laptop, and my own crappy memory and sat down and started to think. Thank God I'm an ex-secretary and dutifully file all papers in a huge lever arch file. Shame that I didn't put the CD where all other important stuff is safely stored away but then again... luckily I can only afford to live in a box in London so it doesn't take too long to rummage through the few drawers I have.

Ok, that was the first obstacle overcome. I then moved on to reinstalling the antivirus and this was not as difficult as I would have thought. Having said that, I had to navigate around the website for a good 10 minutes before I found what I was looking for. Of course, my order number wasn't recognised to begin with but at my second attempt it worked.

I've been saying to everyone how glad I am that I did my back up only a month ago. I had this vision of just putting the back-up CD in the drive, click "copy" and then all files would find their ways back into their old places just like magic. Well, I now know that it doesn't quite work like that! This is possibly me being a complete idiot but the way I'm going about it is that I'm opening each file (which are not named what I named them, by the way, they're called FAE74923ETESSFI592422429 and similar), trying to figure out which program to use, then see what it is. It's a little bit like Christmas. You don't know what you're going to get until you opened your pressies. After having spent the entire evening on the "back up" I have now found and saved about 1/1000 of my photos and exactly 2 word documents. At this pace this is going to take me FOREVER.

Let's just say that in the future I will continue to do the back up but I will also make sure I save all pics and docs on Cd's as I go along. As for the iPod.... don't even get me started!

Caught A Virus

2009-09-08T14:18:00.003+01:00

Oh dear, oh dear.... my laptop's caught a virus. And it's not the H1N1. No, it's some trojan.something.something.friggin'annoying.aszy. The laptop is currently at PC World undergoing necessary care and will be back at home in seven days. It's costing me £50 which is bloomin' annoying but I know it could be worse. At least it's not me or someone else that I know who's caught the virus. It's just the laptop.

Last night was my first laptop free evening in a long while (well, except for when I went on holiday but that was different) and I actually had to think of other things to do. It was very refreshing to read a book, call my brother, make some jewellery and then chat to a friend on the phone. I'm sure this was the Universe's way of telling me to get a grip and get off the internet for a while. I'm at the library typing this but from now I shall stay internet-free until the laptop is back home. Ta da!

Make Your Own Album Cover

2009-09-05T21:49:00.003+01:00

I found this entertaining little game on Facebook - make your own album cover. I love the title of my album: as hungry as the dog.

Here's how it works:

1 - Go to "wikipedia." Hit “random”or click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
The first random wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.

2 - Go to "Random quotations"or click http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3
The last four or five words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your first album.

3 - Go to flickr and click on “explore the last seven days”or click http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days
Third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

4 - Use photoshop or similar to put it all together.

What will you your album cover look like?

Summer's Over

2009-09-01T23:27:00.006+01:00

It's 1 September.

Today the summer if officially over. Part of me thinks it's really depressing that soon I won't be able to wear my flip flops when I go out,

dresses will not only be worn with short tights, and thin cardigans will have to be swapped for winter coats very soon.

On the other hand I'm looking forward to the colours changing on the trees,

that crisp cold air filling my lungs and to be able to hide the flab under a thick jumper (but the jeans are still too tight).

I'm a Libra. That's why I always weigh the scales like this. But I have to say, at the moment the scales are weighing down a lot more on the "I hope it will be a very warm September" side.

It's Notting Hill Carnival Time!

2009-08-31T18:06:00.011+01:00

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

2009-08-28T12:04:00.004+01:00

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

2009-08-26T18:23:00.007+01:00

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

2009-08-16T01:04:00.003+01:00

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!

2009-08-13T10:58:00.004+01:00

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

2009-08-11T21:30:00.007+01:00

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

2009-08-10T22:21:00.005+01:00

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

2009-08-09T21:00:00.005+01:00

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!

Closed For Holidays

2009-07-15T00:22:00.005+01:00

I'm off on me holidays. I shall see you back here in three weeks and a bit.

"Bruno" vs. "The Beautiful Truth"

2009-07-14T10:48:00.005+01:00

I was going to write a review on "Bruno" but I got side-tracked by this film posted on Facebook. It's called "The Beautiful Truth" and is both shocking and thought-provoking but luckily it also has a positive message. You MUST watch it! Don't let the length of the film put you off. Once you start watching it you will want to watch 'til the end. Definitely.

This is what it's about (to quote Amazon): Raised on a wildlife reserve in Alaska, 15-year old Garrett was interested in the dietary habits of their animals. After the tragic death of his mother, Garrett s father decided to home-school his son and assigned a book written by Dr. Max Gerson that proposes a direct link between diet and a cure for cancer. Fascinated, Garrett embarks on a cross-country road trip to investigate The Gerson Therapy. He meets with scientists, doctors and cancer survivors who reveal how it is in the best interest of the multi-billion dollar medical industry to dismiss the notion of alternative and natural cures.

http://vids.rationalveracity.com/v/677,the-beautiful-truth.html

My "Bruno"-review: Shocking. Just shocking.

60-foot penis painted on roof

2009-07-12T00:48:00.004+01:00

Oh, kids......

http://news.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/hi/newsbeat/newsid_7961000/7961224.stm

And When The Sky Was Opened....

2009-07-07T19:31:00.003+01:00

... down came the rain! Lots of rain!

Spending Saturday Eve With ABBA-Benny, Tommy Körberg and Helen Sjöholm

2009-07-04T22:49:00.009+01:00

When I did my micro-teaching session last Tuesday the tutor who observed us was Swedish. She told me that Benny Andersson was playing with his new band in Hampstead Heath today. I had already planned to go out with a friend this evening but luckily she didn't mind coming along to a Swedish day out in the park instead of going to a bar. I arrived early so I decided to go for a coffee whilst I waited for my friend. What better place to go than Mamma Mia Sandwich Bar?!

The Swedish Embassy was organising this day out with various artists including the highlight - Benny Andersson Orchestra featuring Helen Sjöholm and Tommy Körberg.

I took loads of pictures. I love Benny! I've said it before and I'm saying it again. I just want to give him a cuddle.

I wish I could show you how absolutely bloody amazing it was! BAO is nothing like ABBA at all. They play Swedish folk music ("happy music" to quote my Japanese friend) which is mostly instrumental. They also throw in some "schlager" where they have singers like Tommy and Helen. "Schlager" is a Swedish phenomenon. It's also called dance-band music and traditionally when you go to a dance-band gig everyone will be... you guessed it dancing (you know, old-fashioned two people actually holding on to each other). Well, there was space meant for dancing but the people who stood there were not going to move. But I have to give credit to this guy for shaking his bootaaay to a "schottis".

BAO played for 2.5 hours. They played some excellent folk songs. Helen Sjöholm sang their new hit "Story Of A Heart". Calle Moreus did a great cover of "O Sole Mio". They even through in some ABBA songs! Oh my God, when they started to play "Hasta Manana" I took a serious walk down memory lane. I felt like getting my hairbrush out of my handbag and sing into it like I did when I was seven years old and couldn't speak English but sang in ABBA-English. They also did "I do, I do, I do" and "When All Is Said And Done".

Hampstead Heath was rockin' this evening. And the best (and quite unbelievable) thing is that it was FREE! The Swedish Embassy paid for it which I can only assume means that the Swedish tax-payers forked out for this TREAT.

So on behalf of all of us who were there I'd like to say a big THANK YOU to all you hard-working Swedes who dutifully pay your taxes. It was bloody brilliant!!!

Time Flies When You're Doing Course-Work

2009-07-02T22:08:00.004+01:00

It's been over a week since I last posted something. I can't believe how quick time flies. Last Tuesday was the big day on my course. We had to deliver our 30-minute microteaching sessions in front of some of our peers, a tutor plus we were being filmed. The DVD is going to go to City & Guilds for... yeah, for what? As far as I understand it we all passed. But I guess they need to see evidence. Or maybe they just want a bit of a laugh. I chose "An Introduction To Reiki Healing" as my subject.

It went really well. I got everyone to feel their own auras, perform an aura scanning on each other and I also let them feel my reiki energy. I handed in the last assignments yesterday and now I feel like this huge weight has lifted off my shoulders.

The weather has been scorching hot here the last few days. It's so hot it's not pleasant to be outside. It's not pleasant to be inside either.

Today I covered for another therapist in a different branch to where I normally work. It was dead. I mean, who wants to go for a massage when it's 32 degrees outside. Come to think of it... if people had known that there was air con in the treatment rooms they probably would have wanted a massage. So I was on the shop floor with the sales assistants. I had forgotten that my favourite therapist of all times works at this branch. It was a delight to see him again. I sensed that he felt the same.

Now I'm just looking forward to going home to Sweden on the 15th. I cannot wait until I get to go to this paradise.

STOP THIS MASSACRE! Please, we can do it!

2009-06-24T22:29:00.003+01:00

Today I received an e-mail from someone who's mailing list I'm on. I don't normally read his e-mails but this heading stood out. In the e-mail was a link to Magenta Pixie's blog. I have copied her post here because I felt that if I only linked her site people might not click on it and read the message. I am ashamed to hear that Sweden is supporting this brutal massacre. Very ashamed! By posting this message on my blog at least I'm doing something. I have also sent an e-mail to the Danish prime minister as suggested.

"At the current International Whale Commission meeting in Portugal, Denmark has asked for Greenland to hunt and kill 50 humpback whales. Sweden is supporting their request. Fifty more whales to slaughter!! Isn’t it enough that they keep beaching themselves en masse, from the sonic torture in their habitats and other alterations man is rendering to their eco-systems?

My friend, Hardy Jones, of Bluevoice.org is calling for help. We need immense social outcry to stop Denmark (and the countries that will follow their lead!) from killing these great and beautiful creatures. Humpbacks are slow swimmers, easy to hunt. Their populations are just rebuilding after remorseless hunting. The targeted humpbacks are well known and loved by populations along the eastern seaboard of the United States and Canada and admired and respected by people around the world.

He is asking you to please take action by writing to this misguided ‘leader’ URGENTLY and expressing your absolute protest against killing any more whales:

ACTION TO TAKE:email the Prime Minister of Denmark. This must be done from your own email account – not just a click from BV which will be filtered. Below is the email address and sample letter – you can add your own personal comments which make the email more effective.

I protest in the strongest terms Denmark’s support of the slaughter of fifty humpbacks from the Northeast Atlantic stock. Humpbacks are loved and respected by many around the world. Your actions are unthinkable. When making travel plans I shall remember your efforts to kill these highly intelligent, social and endangered animals and I will do everything in my power to help others, who are still unaware of your intentions, to join my protest against this inhumane and unnecessary slaughter.

Your signature

Note; Email for the Danish Prime Minister: stm@stm.dk
(You must cut and paste this address) – please do not simply forward it to him as it will have far less impact.

Beloved lightworkers, we have to do something immense. Global and unprecedented. We have to shout this out to everyone we know, flooding this Prime Minister of Denmark with emails and letters from around the world. Write to your governments as well – write your representatives, media…anyone you can think of to help save these innocent, joyous creatures.

Please care.
These gorgeous beings can’t defend themselves against this ruthless killing. Only we, the ‘awakening’ human beings of this planet, can help them live and prosper.

If you can, please donate to bluevoice.org by linking to: http://www.bluevoice.org/donate.shtmlThey need us to keep the fight going. These are the warriors who risk their lives TO HELP THE INNOCENT BEINGS OF THE SEA LIVE."

We can make a difference.
And we must.

www.sirianrevelations.net

Check Out Some Stunning Art Jewellery

2009-06-21T22:46:00.006+01:00

On Thursday I received a renewal letter of my contract from my landlord. I rent my room on a yearly basis and have always done so. I quickly scanned the letter and registered that they'd put the rent up yet again but that was expected. Just before I was going to bed I thought I'd better find out by when I have to return the signed contract and this time I actually read through the whole letter. At the very end it said that "clearly you will have to make the necessary arrangements at your bank to ensure the Direct Debit meets the revised sum". It went on to say that if I wanted to renew the tenancy I should return a signed copy of the contract together with a cheque for £90 to cover for the Administration Charge. Ninety pounds!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Excuse me??????!!! Do you print your f*****ing contracts on gold paper? Or is it diamond encrusted? Because that's what I would expect for a price like that.

Let me tell you that I did not sleep well that night. On Friday morning I called all numbers I've got to my landlord (which happens to be the largest letting company in the UK). Nobody wanted to take responsibility until I actually got hold of the property manager. She did waiver the fee for me for which I am grateful. But I can't help wondering how low my landlord has sunk. And what about next year when it's time to renew the contract again. Will they waiver the charge for me again? Probably not.

I've been looking at flat shares but everything is so expensive. I'd love to have my own flat but if that's ever going to happen I'll have to move out of London OR find myself a wealthy man soon.

On a much more positive note I'm really pleased to announce that my company Charmed Spirit is selling some of Claire Gerrard Designs unique art jewellery.

Claire works with sea glass and ceramics which she picks up from the beaches in Anglesey and North Wales.

She then turns it into stunning pieces of jewellery. Not one piece is exactly the same as the other. Pop over to Charmed Spirit to take a look.

Something To Think About

2009-06-17T11:36:00.002+01:00

My dear friend Miriam sent me this e-mail the other day. I thought it was very thought provoking and instead of sending on to everyone in my address book I've posted it here.

A man was exploring caves by the Seashore. In one of the caves he found a canvas bag with a bunch of hardened clay balls. It was like someone had rolled clay balls and left them out in the sun to bake. They didn't look like much, but they intrigued the man, so he took the bag out of the cave with him. As he strolled along the beach, he would throw the clay balls one at a time out into the ocean as far as he could.

He thought little about it, until he dropped one of the clay balls and it cracked open on a rock . Inside was a beautiful, precious stone!

Excited, the man started breaking open the remaining clay balls. Each contained a similar treasure. He found thousands of dollars worth of jewels in the 20 or so clay balls he had left.

Then it struck him. He had been on the beach a long time. He had thrown maybe 50 or 60 of the clay balls with their hidden treasure into the ocean waves. Instead of thousands of dollars in treasure, he could have taken home tens of thousands, but he had just thrown it away!

It's like that with people. We look at someone, maybe even ourselves, and we see the external clay vessel. It doesn't look like much from the outside. It isn't always beautiful or sparkling, so we discount it.

We see that person as less important than someone more beautiful or stylish or well known or wealthy. But we have not taken the time to find the treasure hidden inside that person.

There is a treasure in each and every one of us. If we take the time to get to know that person, and if we ask the God to show us that person the way He sees them, then the clay begins to peel away and the brilliant gem begins to shine forth.

May we not come to the end of our lives and find out that we have thrown away a fortune in friendships because the gems were hidden in bits of clay. May we see the people in our world as God sees them!

Magical Music

2009-06-12T23:36:00.004+01:00

After a week of negative posts about how everything is going against me and how I'm receiving odd e-mails from match members I thought I'd finish the week on a more positive note. When I had my stand at the Mind Body Spirit festival my friend Linda helped me out for a few days. She went to see Sacred Earth playing.

I also had the pleasure of meeting Prem when she stopped by my stand. Their music is magical bliss! Please pop over to their myspace site and have a listen.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Is This Guy For Real?

2009-06-12T00:29:00.003+01:00

When you're registered on Match.com you get five randomly selected "matches" every day. I don't know what they base these matches on because so far nothing has matched at all! I mean, I couldn't believe it when I read this guy's profile below. Is he for real?!

You see too many introductions which come out with the same old rubbishy statements like 'The most difficult thing is how to describe yourself' and 'I like to curl up on the sofa and watch DVDS, go walking in the park, and order up half-baked listeria infected pizza from the local takeaway some evenings and watch TV' What a load of old cobblers! Stand out from the crowd, why don't you.

Well , I know fine well what my admirable characteristics are. Here goes: 1. Total confidence in the superiority of my intellect, education, and knowledge. 2. Intolerance of foolish, stupid people. 3. Ruthless ambition. 4. An ability to earn lots of money, and to enjoy it! 5. Drinking fine champagnes in clubs in London, in front of poor, less fortunate people who cannot afford it. 6. The glee from stocking my wardrobe with the finest suits that money can buy. I love Jermyn St. 7. Contempt for political correctness, and those who hide behind it and can't think for themselves about the innate worth of people. I think Rabbie Burns beat you by about 200 years in saying a man's a man for a' that, you idiotic fools. 8. My disdain for people who can't tell right from wrong, and make lamentable excuses about how society has affected people one way or another for the worse. Grow up, and get on with it. And don't use the 'failure' of society to justify being paid buttons in a dead-end job. 9. Appreciation for women who like to emulate the above characteristics. 10 .Contempt for losers in life who wallow in self-pity, and whine about how they have brought it all on themselves. No one said life was going to be put on a plate for you!! Wakey, wakey! 11. I permit myself an eleventh characteristic, which is sarcasm and contempt for people of low IQ. My role models in life are: 1 The Master from Doctor Who. A true genius of malevolence and self-preservation against the odds. 2. The Romulans from Star Trek (devious, predictably treacherous, ruthless and ambitious) 3. Napoleon Bonaparte (with phrases like 'Men are led by toys' and 'L'etat, c'est moi!' - Brilliant) 4. Richard III, last Yorkist Kind of England. Ruthless, and ambitious to the end. Fantastic. 5. Sir William Wallace (born one mile from my hometown) 6. Sir Fred Goodwin (born one mile from my hometown) 7. Machiavelli for that fine training manual, the prince! 8. Robert the Bruce - winning against the odds eventually, and crushing the army of a weak English King, who couldn't lace the boots of his formidable father. King Edward I, though an enemy of Scotland, was a worthy one and one of the greatest, power hungry kings England ever had. I salute him! 9. JR Ewing 10 . Julius Caesar. Edmund Blackadder nearly got on the list! And remember, the Emperor in the Star Wars movies was played by Ian McDiarmid, a fellow Scot. The way of the future, hopefully! I am fiercely loyal to my friends and family, and hate lies and double dealing. Like most Scots, we make great friends and would do anything for you, but really vicious and nasty enemies when provoked (but not in a violent way!). We have long memories about bad-manners. Similarly, I hate mind-games and ambiguity. Don't waste my time with emotional indecision. I don't do second chances, fortunately. If I get messed around, it will mean a red-card without warning. I like talking about history, culture, travel, sport and a wide variety of subjects. Big Brother isn't really my thing! Hopefully, we can enjoy many stimulating hours of conversation. If you can deal with the challenge of the above, then you are the right woman for me. Looks are relatively unimportant, because we all lose them to some extent eventually, and some things are more valuable. Intelligence, ambition, and direction in life are much more attractive, ultimately. If you would like to share pink champagne with me, then perhaps you might find I have a humble, caring side underneath. I'll let you decide, and hopefully we can have fun along the way!

Would you like to share pink champagne with this bloke? My gosh, I certainly wouldn't.

How NOT To Ask Someone Out On A First Date

2009-06-08T16:11:00.003+01:00

Since I got dumped by "Potential" I have registered with Match.com again. I've received lots of winks and quite a few e-mails. Quite frankly, some people frighten me. I mean, if you've never met a person before and want to hear back from them would you send an e-mail like this?

Hello my dearest soulmate!!! How are you doing? I cant help but say you are beautiful, you are a pure dublicate of an angel, I am really amazed at your beauty. I am NN, am 41years old, successful business man. a native of italy living in Uk I am currently single, divorced some years ago. I really don't have much to say about my self except I am being asked. I really will love to hear from you. You can add me to your yahoo Messager, my id is xxx. Kindly send me yours so i can add you too...You are beautiful, Cheers till i hear from you.I wait with curiosity to hear from you.

Well, my dearest friend. How do you know we are soulmates? We've never met, remember?!

Then there was this e-mail (this one is rambling on a bit so scroll down in you can't be bothered):

hello cute....,well that was a romantic and good profile there..................,i will have to tell you the truth,i was moved by the words and the beautiful pix.there is one thing i want you to have at the back of your mind and what is that thing it is the ability for you to see how God has creadted everything beautiful and he has made them for us to begin to access and admire,today i am happy that i have gotten a baeutiful face,the face which i have long wanted to meet.well,distance can it be a barrier???????............i was angry when i sensed it that you are not in my present location which was as a result of my job,well i am an advertiser and you know we travel far and wide the world to make sure that our clients get there targeted audience they have wished to get.INTRODUCTION...........i am NN by name the only son of late mr NN,he was such a nice man,from united state of america,and my mum from united kingdom,after the death of that renowned philantrophist,i was taken to united kingdom by my mum,beacuse she could no longer stand the life there and she has been called by her uncle to at least come back and establish herself.When we got there the thought of fullfilling the long dream of my father to be a responsible person in life struck my precious mother,well,she is love she is a pearl in my life.i started my primary education there in one of the schools in london,although it was not part of the happening achool but i was given the best at the school there i proceeded for my college studies where i was given proper training in ART, aspects of education and it was there i got the flair for communication i beagan to build up myself,not until when i had an auto accioednt and i broke my leg,if not for the intervention of the almighty i would havr been in the six feet today,but he restored my life and brought me back to life and you know what i can walk perfectly well,he brought me back for damsel like you.............,so that we will together fullfill that dream that we will share together.cute, at this stage it was time for me to go to the university,well the courde of specialization was a big problem,but you know what i have adream i want to realise it,my family memebers wanted me to study LAW,but i said NO to it because it is my wish,i want to make my right choice do that i dont have problem with my wife and family,baby it was not easy through the university and today i am a graduate of communcation with specialisation in advertisieng which has helped me alot in travelling because i want to travek and whenever the thought of contact comes to the office i am always happy because i will go,menaing that i will travel.baby, i want to get that princess of my life that my night dream that long dream,i am here to make you happy,let us see what we are going to d o to eachother,i promise you we are going to make a good macth together.i will be expecting your reply to my mail address,we will talk more there.............[e-mail addres]............. hoping to ssee you there,hoping to hold you in my arms hoping to sing the song of love.....YOU ARE THE ONE I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR.

Jeeezzz!!! My intuition is telling me to run for my life.

This one made me laugh (he was 26):

wuuuu .. ur hot. can i be ur toyboy for a night lol :P ?

I was tempted to reply "Why just for a night" but thought it's best not to be too flirtatious and include sexual hints when I don't actually mean what I'm saying.

During the last week I've been e-mailing a guy a few times and he seemed pretty normal and he looks normal too. In my last e-mail I told him that I haven't been visiting the area where he lives in ages. I realised after I sent it that it sounded like I was inviting myself but hey... nothing wrong with that. The reply came yesterday. This is how he's asking me out on a FIRST date:

Well if you haven't been to [area] for years then you should get your arse over here and we could have a bite to eat down at the boat house on the river...!!

Seriously?! That really put me off. I'm not getting my arse over to his neck of the woods in a million years. I'll continue to look for Mr Right. Thank you very much!

A Massive Whinging Post

2009-06-04T19:01:00.005+01:00

It's been a week since I last posted something on my blog. I have wanted to write sooner but lately everything seems to be going against me. And not wanting to come across as a whinging bore I've been putting off the writing. Well, things are not looking up so I'm just going to get it off my chest and maybe after this things will change. If you're in a good mood and don't feel like me bringing you down then please stop reading now.

Since the Mind Body Spirit festival I have contacted several festival organisers asking to book a stand next year. I've been getting the same answer from all of them. "Our jewellery stand quota is full". I've replied that my jewellery is unique since I make it myself and it's not the same old pendants that everyone imports from India, but to no avail. I've been told that they only have a few jewellery stands at each event and every year the current stand holders get priority offers to come back the following year. Someone even added: "unfortunately it's very very rare that we should have a jewellery stand space come available at any of our events". Notice the very x 2 for added effect. Like, if you don't get this woman then you'll never understand.

I've been wanting more shifts at the clinic where I work for ages but it's just not happening. Having said that I enjoy energy work most of all and would like to be attuned to reiki master/teacher level. I've tried to arrange a suitable date with my reiki master for months but we can't find anything that seem to suit us both. I also want to be attuned to Angelic reiki but the attunements always take place on the Saturday when I work. If I can't get more shifts and if I can't have my master/teacher attunement then how am I supposed to be able to spread the light? I'm just asking.

On Tuesday next week I'm going to do my first micro-teaching at my college course. I can't open the document with the blank lesson plan either at home or at the library. I need the friggin' lesson plan as part of the assignment. What shall I do?

"Potential" dumped me last week. (Did you hear that? HE dumped ME!) I had noticed a change in him over the last couple of weeks but couldn't work out what had happened. We'd been getting on swimmingly since we met. Well, it turns out that he felt we are too different and have our opinions in completely different directions. To this I have to agree. There were a couple of other reasons as well but I'm not going to air them here. However, I'm agreeing with that as well.

And to top it all off, I've been needing to buy a new pair of jeans since the hole in my current pair is getting bigger and bigger. I knew exactly what I wanted, H&M's "Original" fit. Easy peasy. Or actually, NOT! Because "Original" has been DISCONTINUED!!!
I mean, come on now Universe. Work WITH me! Pretty please.

So here I am. A perfectly fine woman, single, with not many shifts at work, no reiki master/teacher attunement, no print-out of the lesson plan, a large hole in my jeans, and... did I mention single?

Jewellery Update

2009-05-28T08:18:00.005+01:00

The Mind Body Spirit festival is over and I had a great time! As you know it was the first time I sold my jewellery. It went remarkably well! I had many people admiring my jewellery telling me how unique it is.

Things that sold best were bracelets and earrings. Little things that doesn't cost too much. These two were my best-sellers:

These necklaces were admired the most and I sold one of each:

I met some very helpful stand-holders who've been working at festivals for years. I was given the very good advice to buy ready-made jewellery in India. It's cheap and looks nice and this is where you actually make some money when you sell it. The same person told me to keep my own jewellery range as "something special". There has to be a lot of choice.

I have learnt that people don't want to spend much more than £30 on an item. They like colourful stuff. And everyone likes something unique although they don't necessarily fork out £45 for it at a festival.

Now I have to decide where to go from here. I've got my online shop at http://www.charmed-spirit.co.uk/ which has had a lot of hits since the festival. I'm keen to work at more festivals but not until I've got more ready-made stock to sell as well.

I shall keep you posted!

Charmed Spirit LAUNCH!

2009-05-20T20:07:00.004+01:00

I am very happy to announce that I launched my online jewellery company, Charmed Spirit, this morning!

The website address is www.charmed-spirit.co.uk Please pop over and have a look.

Apologies for the thumbnail pictures (which will enlarge when you click on them). I used Mr Site's create your own website software. It's a great idea but unfortunately it doesn't leave much choice in terms of templates hence a lot of text and small photos. I will change it in the future but at the moment I'm busy attending my first ever festival!

Yes, that is my morning coffee in the background...

The Mind Body Spirit festival has been running in London for 20 odd years now. Last year it attracted 20,000 visitors! Today was the first day and it was ok. It was pretty quiet but I made a few sales which I was very happy with. I'm expecting the weekend to be really busy. It's Bank Holiday here in the UK so I'm hoping for three full-on days. Fingers crossed it all goes well!

Quote On Nudist Blog Attracts Hundreds Of Readers

2009-05-19T17:39:00.004+01:00

I thought my Live Feedjit had gone barking mad when I saw all the hits to my blog. Looking a bit closer I realised that all readers were coming from the same website and they were all ending up at one particular post - "Stop Being So Prude And Get Your Kit Off". (This is where I had a rant about women who shower with their bathing suits on in the communal showers.)

Well, it turns out that I've been quoted on a nudist blog! The quote starts with "Being a Swede, where nudity is something natural...". I have a feeling that quite a few of the readers of my post had hoped for some saucy pictures of a naked, Swedish, blond, young lady having a shower. What a disappointment it must have been to only get this:

I do have a video of young naked Swedish men though. If anyone's interested.

It's All Coming Together

2009-05-19T00:19:00.004+01:00

Last night I sat up until 5am this morning working on my jewellery website. It will be an online shop... soon. I just have to sort out one more thing and then "it will go live". [That's how they used to speak in the corporate world].

The lovely Lala Ema over at My Castle In Spain gave me the advice to bring little things like bracelets and earrings to the festival since her jewellery-maker friend finds that these items tend to go quickly. I very much appreciate the advice, Lala! Thank you very much!

Until my online shop is up and running let me show you a few pictures of some of my bracelets and earrings. They're all made with a mixture of semi-precious stones, freshwater pearl and sterling silver.

Well, it's bedtime here. Tomorrow is another day at college. I have to leave early to go to the exhibition hall to set up my stand. How exciting! After that I'm going to the pictures with "Potential". Have a good night, all!

It's That Time Of The Year

2009-05-16T20:49:00.009+01:00

Eurovision Song Contest! Yes, it is on as we speak. Back in the days when I was a girl this was the highlight of the year. I loved the music, the beautiful dresses, the voting. It was exciting! My mother used to make it even more special with good food, crisps and dips, and as much coke as we wanted. I will never forget when ABBA performed in 1974!

I have loved ABBA ever since! Unfortunately I don't remember seeing them win because by the time the votes had been counted I had fallen asleep on the sofa and my parents didn't wake me up to see them sing Waterloo the second time. I can still remember how angry I was when I woke up the next day realising what I had missed out on. Mum and Dad: I still haven't forgiven you!

Nowadays it's not quite the same. Europe has changed A LOT since 1974. There are so many countries in Europe that not everyone can be in the competition because it would go on for, like, ever. Another thing is that the Eastern European countries always friggin' vote for each other so you know from the start that the strongest Eastern European song will win. It doesn't matter if Spain or Iceland has got a better song. They're on the wrong location on the map.

Still, I'm sitting here watching it and I miss Terry Wogan taking the piss out of everyone. Graham Norton is commenting this year and he's doing his best to be sarky. I'm sure he'll get there if he keeps on doing it as long as Terry.

This year Sweden was represented by Malena Ernman.

She looked stunning but the song... it was pop sung in opera. It was crap! If you come from a country that has produced Eurovision winners such as Carola, Charlotte and ABBA then you have quite a lot to live up to. The pop-opera combo was a bad move, Malena. You should have consulted me beforehand and I could have guided you on that one.

I have to say that Britain was great. I hope Jade wins!

Countdown To Midlife Crisis Grand Finale

2009-05-14T23:57:00.006+01:00

The last few weeks have been hectic! You may recall that I was suffering from a midlife crisis back in January and went ahead and booked a stand at the Mind Body Spirit festival to sell my handmade spiritual jewellery... that didn't exist! I've had four months to work towards the event and although I've been making a few pieces here and there it was not until a month ago that I realised I had to get my act together and WORK HARDER!

If you have wondered why I have only been posting twice a week (out of which one post includes YouTube videos from Britain's Got Talent), and why I have not been commenting on your blogs as frequently as I used to, well... I didn't die, I just made jewellery.

Wednesday next week is when it all kicks off! I have never done anything like this in my life. I'm going in without having a clue if I have made too much, too little or just the right amount of jewellery. I don't know if my prices are right. I don't know friggin' anything! But I told myself a couple of weeks ago to stop worrying. What's the point? The stand is booked and paid for. I almost finished making my jewellery and now I can only use my fantastic charm and great sales skills (ahemm...) and try to sell it all. I shall go there and enjoy being part of the fabulous Mind Body Spirit festival!

My personal favourite is the Reiki Hand Necklace with Chakra Crystals. This one includes semi-precious stones for all the seven chakras: amethyst (crown chakra), lapis lazuli (third eye), blue topaz (throat), peridot (heart), citrine (solar plexus), carnelian (sacral) and garnet (root).

I have also made necklaces for any one particular chakra that might need activating. This one, for example, has got peridot and rose quartz crystals and will help activating and balancing the heart chakra.

This one with amethysts will help activating and balancing the crown chakra.

I have other stuff as well. This is the Victorian Moon Goddess with a freshwater pearl on a thin sterling silver chain.

And here are the aventurine, turquoise and sterling silver earrings.

This mad adventure has certainly kept me occupied. I can't remember the last time I watched an old episode of Sex And The City whilst eating a bag of Sainsbury's triple chocolate cookies. These days I only eat the cookies and all four of them in one go.

(Oh my Gawwwd, I just Googled triple chocolate cookies to find a picture but also found out they're 386 kcals per cookie! 386 x 4 = don't want to know!). Now I suffer from heartburn. Can someone get me a drink? How about a rum and Novalucola?!

Bellydance Shocker And Something Nice To Mix It Up A Bit

2009-05-10T16:03:00.006+01:00

You know how much I love Britain's Got Talent?! Last night was another highly entertaining evening in front of the telly (oh no, I'm not sad at all!!!). And as usual I can't help but share the best bits with you.

I can't choose between these two and you'll understand when you've watched them. To say they're different is a slight understatement.

I'll start with this one... Frankie, a 49-year old interpreter and "belly-dancer". Don't watch this when you're drinking your morning coffee.... I'm just saying.

Shocking, isn't it??!!

Well, I have something much more pleasant up my sleeve. Take a look at Shaun Smith (by clicking here). He is just gorgeous! And I mean that in a totally pervy "40-something woman ogling at 17-year old boys" kind of way! Amanda Holden is thinking exactly the same. Just look at her face!

Surrealistic Drawing Games, Hand Massages and Wine

2009-05-05T20:50:00.005+01:00

Today was my third session at college. I'm doing a City & Guilds course in learning how to teach adults. Since I left my job in June last year I have had the privilege of only seeing people I choose to see. Apart from my clients of course but they are so lovely that I don't mind seeing them.

Attending this course has unfortunately reminded me of a couple of things:

a) I quite often don't enjoy having to interact with people I haven't chosen myself to interact with

b) as a learner I have always undermined my intelligence. For some reason I think I am less smart than the loudmouths, but really... it usually turns out that I'm smarter than they are!

My objective for today was to make my voice heard!

There's a guy in my course who just shouts out the answers to all the questions and nobody else gets a chance to say anything. Well, I can only say that I tried. Did I succeed? Not really.

For today's class we had been teamed up with another person and was going to demonstrate a skill to them which they were going to repeat. I was teamed up with Justin, an artist who I haven't had the chance to speak to before. I knew he was going to teach me how to make a drawing and I've been feeling sorry for the guy the whole week considering that I can't even draw a straight line. Well, he chose to teach me how to play a surrealistic drawing game. Basically you fold a piece of paper into four sections. Start by drawing a head at the top of the paper, fold it and give it to your partner. Your partner then draws the torso, folds the paper and gives it back to you. You draw the legs, fold the paper and give it to your partner. He draws the feet and voila! You can be as creative and crazy as you like when doing this. Unfortunately I did not bring my camera to class today so I haven't got any pictures of our fabulous drawings but I found this one on the web.

I taught Justin how to give a hand massage. He understood what I was going on about and managed to give me a hand massage at the end of it. It was a confidence boost to learn that I can actually teach someone how to do something.

I had expected lots of homework this week but it turns out that we don't have to do much at all. When I found a tenner on the street on my way home I thought... no homework, no brain power needed this evening... guess what I spent it on?! Yeah, this...

Pizza Delivery Man's Got Talent

2009-05-03T22:19:00.003+01:00

I just love Britan's Got Talent. This is pizza delivery man, Jamie Pugh. Susan Boyle's got competition!

Fancy Pants Weekend In Brighton

2009-04-26T20:48:00.005+01:00

I've had a fabulous weekend! On Friday evening I went to "Potential's" and he cooked me dinner for the first time. I was very pleased to discover that he's a great cook.

Yesterday we got up fairly early and took the train to Brighton. It was one of "Potential's" friends 30th birthday party and "Potential" invited me. It was a glorious, sunny day in Brighton. We walked from the train station to West Laine. There are loads of cool independent shops and restaurants here. It's quite hippy orientated and the restaurants are mainly vegetarian. I love a shop called "The Get Cutie Co". One day I will buy a dress or two there.

From here we wandered down to the seafront.

The sun was shining and lots of people were out enjoying it.

Earlier this week when "Potential" asked if I fancied going to Brighton for the weekend I jumped at the chance! He offered to book a hotel room and of course he picked the coolest hotel in Brighton - The Pelirocco! This hotel has got themed rooms with names like Betty's Boudoir, The Pinup Parlour and The Nokii room. We booked the Fancy Pants room and it was really cute with the framed knickers on the pink walls,

bedside tables dressed in knickers

and complimentary Smarties with the tea.

The Play Room looked like fun with it's mirror in the ceiling and a pole for a spot of dancing. But at £250 per night it felt a bit steep. The reception area/breakfast room/bar had bright pink furniture and cool art on the walls. Breakfast was included. I went for the full English and "Potential" chose the veggie option. Everyone who worked there were so friendly and chilled out. I couldn't help but noticing the difference between them and people working in London. Oh well...

The birthday party was at a French restaurant. We had a three-course dinner with quite a lot of wine. Luckily neither of us managed to get too drunk and this was a good thing since we had to get up fairly early this morning and head back to London. I had promised to cover for someone at work.

The loveliest most caring people work in the clinic where I rent a therapy room. This little note was put up in the kitchen window.

I'm not usually a fan of pigeons but as with all babies you can't help but go "aaaahhhh"!

"The Crispbread Dance" (Naked Butt Alert!)

2009-04-22T22:38:00.005+01:00

Ding Dong!

Back To School

2009-04-21T19:13:00.008+01:00

Today was a big day... I went back to school! This is something that has been on my mind for quite some time. And then, on Thursday last week, I was randomly surfing the net and decided to Google this particular course. The first search result that came up was at the adult college where I've been studying in the past. It was also reasonably priced. And... surprisingly there were still a couple of places left. Yesterday I had to meet an advisor and do an English test including writing an essay. Can I just say that I felt that I have not written essays in a while. I was also slightly hungover after a night out with 'Potential'. Nevertheless, I passed and started the course today. It is the "City & Guilds 7303 Preparing To Teach In The Lifelong Learning Sector". It's running every Tuesday for the next 11 weeks.

This morning I woke up bright and early and made myself a proper breakfast. I didn't want my stomach to start rumbling mid-morning and draw attention to myself with all these new people.

After the breakfast, shower, slapping on make up and getting dressed I put my walking shoes on and walked to college.

In St James's Park I passed the black swans and the pelicans and saw Buckingham Palace in the distance. I vaguely remember hearing that it was Lizzie's birthday today. I do hope that she got loads of pressies from Phil, Charlie, Wills, Harry and the others.

I crossed Trafalgar Square and the sun shone on Lord Nelson this beautiful, sunny morning.

After a 40-minute brisk walk I reached my destination.

I also managed to find the classroom.

Our teacher is very approachable and had this calm energy about her. I get the feeling she is very patient. After having been told where the fire exits and toilets are and the much more important stuff such as where the canteen is we started the lesson with some ice breakers. All my fellow course-mate I talked to or did group work with seemed really nice and I think we will get on well.

After having been told what books to buy I sprinted to the college library and was lucky to pick up the last available copies to borrow. Thank you God for helping me saving some money!

The first day went really fast and I felt positive as I walked out of the college doors. Strolling through St James's Park I passed the tourists

and the office workers.

Also couldn't help but noticing the colourful flowers in full bloom.

Back home a glass of vino was highest on the agenda (and yes, there is an angel next to it!)

I will also do homework.. but maybe I'll wait until tomorrow.

Never Judge!

2009-04-17T21:35:00.003+01:00

Never judge a book by its covers.

Watch Simon Cowell and the others when their jaws drop:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY

Sunny Easter

2009-04-16T19:40:00.009+01:00

I had a great week in Sweden over Easter! It's always lovely to see my parents, my brother and his family and to catch up with my old school friends. We have been eating and drinking as if every meal was the last. Now my jeans are cutting my stomach in half and that's slightly painful especially when breathing. But I'm not one to complain.. I'm just telling how it is.

One major plus point this Easter was the fantastic weather. We had clear blue skies, bright sunshine (yeah, I guess that comes with clear blue skies... dooh) and 18-19 degrees Celsius. It was fantastic! My dad and I went to the island one morning and took a walk in the sun. I desperately needed fresh air, nature, space without any people being around and luxuries like listening to the birds singing and just looking at the stillness of the lake.

Talk about re-charging the batteries!

Because of the unusually great weather my brother decided to have a BBQ one evening. He's an excellent "BBQ'er" and he'd thrown both giant prawns and meat on the BBQ. It was divine!!!

I met up with my three best friends from school at Naturens Hus. It's a cafe and restaurant located in between two nature reserves.

It was really busy so don't ask me how we managed to get a table outside (this picture was not taken on the day in case you see all the empty tables and wonder "what the h*** is she talking about?)... we must have scared some people away... but it was excellent to sit in the sun and eat blueberry pie with cream and wash it down with a cup of java.

When I flew back to London I was watching the cabin crew going throw the safety demonstration and I couldn't help but wonder why they insist on telling you how to fasten the seat belt.

Isn't it pretty straight forward? And they always walk through the cabin before take off to make sure that you have fastened your seat belt and after they've done that they start telling you how to fasten it. Dear all cabin crew: You are doing it in the wrong order!

Happy Easter!

2009-04-07T01:00:00.005+01:00

I'm going to Sweden for a week to celebrate Easter with my family.

Happy Easter everyone!

Who's Been Nicking My Knickers?!

2009-04-02T23:02:00.007+01:00

A while ago I was writing a post about my new neighbour, the Japanese lady, who I upset by taking her laundry out of the washing machine and putting it in the dryer (without switching the dryer on, mind you) because I had to do my laundry. She was worried that A MAN had seen her underwear and wanted to make sure it was me and not a male.

I had a comment from Debbie at Etc., Etc., Etc. who lives in Japan and she told me that Japanese women are uptight about their undies AND that there are many cases of men stealing ladies knickers from the lines. Hmmmm.... worrying!

Well, a couple of days ago I took a look in my drawer and was surprised that I'd run out of clean undies... again! I thought I'd just done my laundry. So I checked the laundry basket and guess what? There were no dirty undies either! I checked all other drawers just in case I'd stuffed them in the wrong one without thinking but no... about 3-4 pairs are Gone. Missing. *Pooof*. Just like that.

I don't have any saucy underwear to brag about. Basically all my undies are black and they come in two styles:

small*

&

large*

It's the small ones that's been nicked!

What do you think I should I do? Put up a note asking the thief to please wash them and put them back where they took them? Or should I install a camera for next time I hang my laundry to dry to see who the pathetic looser is?

I've got four new neighbours - one British guy, another British guy, a Malaysian guy and the Japanese lady. Who do you think it is? My bet is on the Japanese lady. This could be her way of telling me to steer clear from her laundry or else.... I'll end up having to buy new pairs of knickers every week.

Oh life is fun! There's never a dull moment in this house! [did you hear the tone of sarcasm in those last two sentences? Yeah, I thought so.]

*Please note that it's not me modelling the underwear. My stomach is much flatter than that. I go to the gym, you see!

Cosmic Evolution

2009-03-28T10:34:00.006Z

Last Monday I went to the Angel Healing Practitioner course. Our teacher, Dee, took us on another happy meditation to meet Kuthumi who told us our life purpose. When Dee told us to ask Kuthumi about our life purpose my hands went incredibly tingly and hot. I have been getting several messages throughout the last couple of months that I should do more energy work. This was another confirmation to that. She also called in another high level guide (I think it was Metatron) and he was going to show us geometric symbols. I have never been shown any symbols in the past so I got very excited when I saw a spiral of light in a tube of more light. I was very happy to have been shown a symbol and I was wondering what it could mean.

Last night I was surfing the net and decided to google the Pleiades. Lately I have been given several messages that I am from there and I wanted to find out more. Imagine my total surprise and delight when I found this website: Children Of The Pleiades and posted on there was a picture of the spiral of light that I saw in meditation!

The picture is called "Cosmic Evolution". The picture speaks for itself really. In the beginning we only had one chakra, the root- or base chakra. This has developed over the years up to the seven chakras we know about today. However, we are going through rapid changes and now the chakras have evolved further and we are opening up to different dimensions. I feel that by being shown this spiral symbol in meditation it was a way of telling me that I have now opened, anchored and activated my chakras on a different dimension. Yaaayyy!!!

After having Googled a bit more I found out that this is the Kundalini symbol which means "The serpent is the power behind the development of consciousness. The Kundalini serpent is in potentia as she sleeps, awaiting the call from the divine. The Kundalini serpent is embodied spirituality. The Spiral Serpent is also a symbol of alchemy and healing."

I believe the spiral symbol exists in other beliefs to after reading the following: "From kundalini to the cochlea, the spiral form is everywhere and that of which matter comes into being from the field of pure energy."

Being on this spiritual path is like being a child who is constantly experiencing new things with excitement.

Stop Being So Prude And Get Your Kit Off

2009-03-23T23:00:00.006Z

I have had four new neighbours within the last couple of months. They are all lovely people - friendly, clean, quiet and considerate. One of them is a Japanese lady. She is very friendly but I've realised that she is a bit forgetful. Like she forgets that she's got eggs boiling on the stove and the water's run dry and the eggs are starting to smell... like a bad fart. She also forgot her laundry in the washing machine the other day. For as long as I have lived here, if someone leaves their laundry in their washing machine and you need to use it you just take their stuff out and dump it in the dryer (without turning it on in case there are delicates in there and it'll shrink... see, I'm considerate like that). Well, my neighbour had left her laundry in the machine for a while and I needed to use it so I took her stuff out and put it in the dryer. About half an hour later she approached me in the kitchen and asked if I was the one to do the laundry after her. She wanted to know because she had her UNDERWEAR (oh deep horror!!!) in there. I said yes, it was me and I took your stuff out. I also told her that I've told the others that they can do the same because often the person who does the laundry forgets about it, falls asleep or goes out. And if that happens it's not fair that the others won't be able to use the washing machine until they remember. She gave me an angry look and said I just wanted to make sure it was you and NOT A MAN, thank you, thank you! (Wow, Japanese people are polite even when there pissed off with you!).

In all the years I have been living here it has never crossed my mind that my male neighbours would take any interest in my underwear. I have also never thought that me taking someone elses laundry out of the machine and putting it in the dryer would cause upset. It's not as if I was taking her laundry out piece by piece, putting her knickers on my head, taking a photo of it and posting it on Facebook. I seriously couldn't give a shit what her underwear looks like. I just wanted to use the machine.

But this led me to think about when I go for a swim (yeah, joined the gym a couple of weeks ago) and the women using the communal showers actually shower with their bathing suits on.

Being a Swede, where nudity is something natural, this is incredibly strange to me. When I'm in the communal showers I notice that these women are still wearing their swimmers but had they been naked I wouldn't have batted an eyelid. Why is it that some women, depending on their upbringing, culture or religion, cannot get undressed in front of other women. We all look the same. And when I'm in the shower I don't look at what your bodies look like. I'm busy trying to squeeze out of my wet, too tight bathing suit and just wash myself. I have no interest in looking at other women. So please, just get your kit off and feel that it's ok to wash yourselves properly. Because you can't really reach all your bits when wearing a Speedo!

Hint Of Spring & "Potential"

2009-03-16T23:00:00.005Z

We've had a couple of days with glorious sunshine. It's been lovely to get that first feeling of spring. I walked through St James's Park today and it looked very yellow indeed.

I continued up to Fortnum and Mason where I took several pictures of the spring window displays. Unfortunately they didn't come out that well but here are a few.

After my photo session something very non-London happened. I was chatted up by a guy on the street! Wooo, we're not supposed to talk to strangers here. You're not actually even supposed to look someone in the eyes. Bless him, the drummer of that jazz band that plays in Stockwell every Sunday evening and invited me to come and listen. I did turn him down using a little white lie. I said I have a boyfriend. It's not entirely true but I have had three (3) dates with "the 30-year old" (from now on I will call him "Potential") and I intend to see him again so I feel no need to listen to jazz in Stockwell.

"Potential" (who, by the way, does have a name but I'd like to keep him secret for now) and I have been on three very successful dates. The first time we went to a lovely wine bar off Carnaby Street. It was a perfect place for a first date - intimate, cosy, lit candles on the tables, you name it. After having had a bottle of wine there he took me to an excellent cocktail bar in Soho called The Player. It's a place I would never have found on my own. It's got a small sign outside, then you have to walk down the steep stairs down to the basement and then... there's this fantastic place with cool interior, great music and a very extensive cocktail menu. Guess if he got bonus points for knowing THE places to go to?!

On our second date we had dinner at Rasa. It was my choice and I have to say it was bloody excellent! They serve Keralan food (not your average Vindaloo or Masala) and the food was superb. "Potential" is veggie so I wanted to go to a place with a good vegetarian menu. How about "sweet mangoes and green bananas cooked in yoghurt with green chillies, ginger and fresh curry leaves"? It was delish!

Last Friday we met on the South Bank. It's such a fabulous (and well-hidden gem) in London! I have never really been going out there (except for when I ate in a restaurant on my own and decided to do a runner. You can read more about it here, if you must...) but "Potential" knew where to go. There's this very cool bar at the BFI (British Film Institute) called Benugo. I would never have found this one either on my own. This was another one that had a very cool interior, again great music, and just really good non-pretentious atmosphere. After a couple of hours here we decided to go for a bite to eat. Wagamama was nearby although they were going to close in half an hour. We thought we'd be fine but "Potential" and I have so much to talk about that the staff had to kick us out. Since we hadn't finished our bottle of wine we decided to take it with us. We found a bench with the greatest view across the Thames of St Pauls Cathedral lit up at night and here we took swigs straight out of the bottle whilst watching the view. It may not sound like it but it was very romantic.

Do You Know Where Your Epps Are?

2009-03-14T18:51:00.010Z

Today I attended the most hard core yoga class ever! It was called Satyagraha yoga and although it did say in the brochure that it "consists of a dynamic flow of yoga and breathing" I had not thought it would be that dynamic.

In the past when I've been going to any sort of class the instructor would ask if there are any new people in the class and if anyone's got any injuries. Not this time. Our instructor, who was Scottish, ordered us into the downward dog position. He then called out the first instructions: "muuve yurrr epps so that yurr rrright epp is above yurrr left epp. If yuu dun't knuw wherrrre yurr epps arrre and yurrr not lesteneng tuu the instructions yuu can injure yurrself". He then came over to me, grabbed my hips and said: "these arr yurr epps". He then twisted my hips and continued to say: "now yurr rrright epp is above yurr left epp". All this while I was standing in downward dog. What a great start!

The thought of giving up did enter my mind but I snapped out of it and tried as best as I could. I was secretly thanking my previous yoga instructors for their patience in teaching me the correct poses. Today's yoga class was certainly not for the fainthearted.. and not really for someone who hasn't been practising in three years. I came out of there sweating like a horse and I could barely hold a glass of water to my mouth for my biceps were shaking so much but it felt good. I'm also glad to have found out where my epps are.

Research Day - All In The Name Of Work

2009-03-13T16:15:00.005Z

I have been very busy exercising this week but today I decided to give my body a rest. I have been informed that if you exercise too much your muscles don't know what's hit them and they will refuse to change shape which then makes the whole idea of exercising useless.

On my day off I decided to go to the Country Living Fair. My visit was completely in the name of research [ahemmm] since I wanted to borrow [borrow is a much better word than steal] ideas from other jewellery makers as to how to display my jewellery at the Mind Body Spirit festival. I now have a pretty good idea of how I would like my stand to look.

Since I was already at the Country Living Fair I couldn't help but browsing all the other stands as well and pick up a couple of things that were just too irresistible to refuse.

This, for instance, is an organic hand cream made by Great Elm Physick Garden.

They grow their own herbs in their garden which they use for their organic herbal skin care. I chose the Geranium and Apricot Handcream because the geranium smells gorgeous and the scent lasts for hours. You also only need a teeny-weeny bit so I won't have to buy another one in ages. £10 for 50 ml was pretty good for a homegrown organic product. I recommend!

The other thing I bought was this melon jam from France.

Also organically grown and produced in Burgundy. It's imported by a small company called Savourez and they were selling lots of jams, chutneys and tapenades with unusual flavours. The melon jam tastes so delicious and feels like a real treat. I recommend too!

There's No Turning Back Now

2009-03-09T12:29:00.003Z

Today I have done something unusually out of character. It's something that has been on my mind for quite some time. But I have been procrastinating.... and procrastinating. Until this morning when God knows what came over me and I joined THE GYM!

I was sitting in their offices whilst the Gym-Man was sorting out my registration. There was a window between his office and the gym and I tell you what... I got tired just by looking at the people on the treadmills.

The Gym-Man asked when I wanted the gym induction and I told him the sooner the better. So he suggested today at 1pm. Uuuuhhh, ohhhh noooo maybe that's a bit too soon, I replied. How about tomorrow? So my gym induction is tomorrow at 1pm.

He then offered to book me in for some classes. Eeeehhh, but I don't know what I want to do yet, was my reply to that one. I'll get back to you.

Once a procrastinator, always a procrastinator. Maybe I'm wrong (although I doubt it) but the smile he gave me when I left kind of said: I bet a thousand quid she'll only last a month.

When You Find God You Can't Have Breakfast

2009-03-05T21:25:00.005Z

I guess you could say that I've found God although not in a religious sense. And I usually call him Source but that's just a matter of preference. Well, since I've found God does that mean I must stop eating breakfast now? Pay attention to the woman in the video. I think she may have stopped eating breakfast considering how lifeless and lethergic she looks. And when she looks up at the ceiling with her glazed over eyes is it God she sees or is she hallucinating bacon?

Pinched from the hilarious Mom-O-Matic.

Amazing People In My World

2009-03-04T23:04:00.006Z

I have been neglecting my blog lately. I've snapped out of my denial mode and kick-started my creative part of the brain in time for the Mind Body Spirit festival which takes place at the end of May. As you know I had a moment of madness in January when I decided to book a stand at the festival to exhibit my handmade spiritual jewellery... that didn't exist! Well, things are starting to take form. I realise that I have a lot of work to do in the time leading up to the festival and that I'm likely to start setting the alarm for 7am like I used to do when I was employed. But this time it's fun... because I'm working for myself!

Pretty much every day do I think about how lucky I am to have got out of the corporate world. When I look at myself now compared to a year ago the changes in me are immense. I have slowed down. I look at my surroundings when I go for a walk. I smile at the cashier at the supermarket. I don't get annoyed when people are "in my way" because I'm in no rush. And I've learnt to manage on little money without feeling at all resentful that I don't earn more. When you do something you really enjoy you don't do it for the money.

A few years ago I couldn't see a way out. I thought the rat-race was a prison where you were locked in until you retire. And the holidays booked months in advance were like the furloughs - something to look forward to in order to get through it. This way of thinking is an awful place to be in your mind.

Since I left my job in June it has taken me quite a while to see new possibilities. I guess when you have not had to take initiative or being creative for so many years you switch off. Well, slowly but surely it's coming back to me and I now see so many opportunities. All of a sudden my brain is racing ahead of itself and I'm thinking that I could do talks, lead workshops, attune people to reiki, etc, etc, etc. Once you've opened up your creative side there's no end to the imaginations of what you could do.

The people I meet on a regular basis nowadays are the other attendees on my Angel Healing Practitioner course and the reiki practitioners who come to reiki share every Wednesday. I have very much in common with them all in terms of our beliefs that we are all on a spiritual path and that the materialistic wealth is not important. I feel very connected to them and I feel lucky to have the privilege to meet so many wonderful souls.

My fantastic and absolutely lovely Angel Healing Practitioner teacher, Dee Apolline, told us on Monday that from now on she's not going to charge for her services. She also sent an e-mail which I want to share with you because I think she is amazing and VERY brave. This is what she says:

With immediate effect, I am making a commitment to share my work in service to the Light based on a "gift economy". I passionately believe that the act of giving is its own reward, and that this will hopefully generate more giving in an ever-enriching circle. I am looking at making my own organisation, The Big Chi, a non-profit organisation, so everything that would be a "profit" can be used for the benefit of others who need it more than me.

On this basis, I will no longer have a formal charging system for the work that I do. Everyone will be welcome to make donations for my goods and services, if they would like to.

Vaz Sriharan, the Director at the London College of Spirituality, has very generously supported me in making this my position through the College also, so all of my work at the College will also be on a donation basis only (and of these donations, half will go to the College, which is also part of a non-profit making organisation; the PEACE Foundation).

It is important to communicate that I am not doing this from a position of financial stability. I promise I am not asking for anything in explaining this, but it feels important to communicate that I am doing it from a position of not always knowing how I can pay my basic outgoings. But yet it still feels right to me to do this and I am doing this from a position of love and peace. I am committed to a full life of service to the Light, and feel that what I do does not come from me, but through me. On this basis, I feel comfortable giving it and sharing it will all who would like to access it. I choose to share these gifts without expectation, without reward, without any conditions; giving from a place of full unconditional love to all who wish to receive. It is this act of giving which is my reward, and I am grateful for the opportunity to do so.

Dee and Vaz are the two people I admire the most in this time and place. They give from their goodness of their hearts so that it is easily accessible for the rest of us. I hope one day I will be as brave as they are and give my services believing that I will be rewarded in some way. Imagine people like that in the corporate world! Difficult, I know.

Disaster Date

2009-02-26T17:22:00.007Z

I went on a date last Friday with a guy I met at a social meet up. He was very easy to talk to, seemed pretty down to earth, generous and all that. I'm guessing he's in his mid-forties since he comes with quite a lot of baggage in the form of a wife he's separated from and three teenage kids. I've always been wary of men who's already got a family but I thought I'd try and not be narrow-minded. However, one of the first things he told me was that he's had enough kids and doesn't want any more. He's been doing well in his career and now he wants to go travelling. Well, I have been travelling my whole adult life and really don't feel the urge to take the backpack and go off around the world again. I'm looking for someone to settle down with. We had a nice evening and I enjoyed his company. I guess that's the reason why I agreed to see him again on Sunday although I had already decided that it was never going to lead anywhere since we want different things.

Today I was snooping around the meet up website. It's a place where you can join different groups depending on your interests and then meet up with them when the organisers arrange a time and place. It's not a dating website (although some people seem to be using it for that) but it's a website which makes people go out and make friends rather than hiding behind their computers. You can write a short profile and post photos of yourself too.

I guess I was curious to see if this guy had had any messages from other women so I checked his page. To say that I was surprised of what I saw is a major understatement. There was a message from a man who'd posted a photo of himself stark naked! His message said: "Glad you like my pictures!!! Do contact me if you would like to meet [phone number]." To this my date had replied only yesterday: "Cool, will drop you a line soon x".

Man....!!!??? You may recall a while back I was posting about another man in his mid-forties who I was supposed to go on a date with but he kindly informed me just before we were due to meet that he was into stripping for other couples. What is it with men in their mid-forties? Are they having a mass-midlife crisis? Are they all of a sudden waking up thinking that they've done nothing in their lives and now they want to explore. And that exploration is sexually?

Don't get me wrong here. I am a very open-minded person. I believe that everyone has their right to do what they want, explore as much as they like BUT PLEASE... don't start dating me before you know what bus you're on, you know what I'm saying?! Seriously, men my age are frightening me. Thank God I have another date this evening... with a 30-year old. Wish me luck!

PS. Sunday's date has been cancelled.

Extra, Extra... Royal Engagement News!

2009-02-24T19:19:00.004Z

Finally Sweden's Crown Princess Victoria is getting hitched to Daniel Westling! They've kept us waiting for years.... seven to be exact. I am a big fan of Victoria. I have always thought she is modest considering her royal roots, down to earth, good-hearted, intelligent, sweet and she's got a good sense of humour. I find her to be the most likeable out of the three royal "children". The fact that she's marrying an ordinary guy, a gym-owner originally from an almost unheard of place called Ockelbo, makes me like her even more. I have a feeling that it hasn't always been easy for either of them to have their relationship accepted by certain people since he's not from a "noble" family (and what the hell does noble mean anyway???). But the fact that they have kept their relationship going says a lot.

The wedding will take place in Spring 2010. I can hear the champagne corks pop as I write this.

Congratulations!

Congratulations Slumdog Millionaire!

2009-02-23T23:07:00.004Z

I'm so pleased Slumdog Millionaire won eight Oscars last night! Being a low-budget film which apparently wasn't even supposed to be shown in the cinemas it's such an amazing achievement for Danny Boyle and his rather unknown cast to receive so many awards.

Did you see the children being interviewed on the red carpet? Look how excited they are. And don't you just love the accent?

If you haven't already seen it... GO! It's the best film you will watch this year.

A Different Type Of Snow

2009-02-19T11:47:00.003Z

It's hard to believe that it's just over two weeks ago St James's Park looked like this

and today there is a different type of "snow"... little snowdrops

I'm hoping that spring is well and truly on its way although someone kindly reminded me that last year we had snow in April. I forgot.

Reclaim Love

2009-02-14T17:14:00.005Z

It's Valentine's Day and here I am without a hot date in sight.... again! But don't think that I'm sitting here crying over spilled milk. Oh no, I've been to the "Reclaim Love" party by the Eros statue on Piccadilly Circus this afternoon. There were a lot of colourful people

a band was playing the drums on the stairs to the statue

others were handing out postcards

and stickers

and FREE HUGS!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Giving and Receiving

2009-02-11T14:42:00.004Z

I fell out with another therapist a week ago. It's someone I met on a massage course and it turned out that we were working in the same clinic but on different days. It's Robert. I'm not even going to try and protect his privacy. Not after what he said to me!!!

Robert is a therapist and he also writes and teaches his own courses. He's been known to attend the shortest courses himself to quickly gain a certificate and then he goes on to teach. Personally I'm against this fast-tracking and make-money-quick-mentality but it's not really any of my business. However, when I attend a course I expect my teacher to have years of knowledge and experience behind them.

A few months ago Robert called me up and said "I've been thinking that we should do a swap. You can attend one of my courses and I'll get two facial rejuvenation treatments from you. Have a look on my website and see what course you want to do". Please note that Robert DID NOT ASK if I would like to do a swap. He TOLD ME to do it. I don't like to be told what to do.

A month later we bumped into each other at the clinic and he brought it up again. In my head I was wondering why he wanted to do this swap and innocently thought that he might not have that many attendees on his courses and wanted to up the numbers. Naive, Helena, naive! This time he said "We have to do that swap. I want to see what you're doing" And then he smirked. Big mistake, Robert. Big mistake! Now I knew that all he was after was to nick my techniques since he himself had only attended a one-day course in facial rejuvenation whereas I did a full on diploma course, four days in college followed by three months of home study, six case studies, a written essay and an exam. I was annoyed but still didn't manage to say no.

Since then I have tried to avoid him hoping that the subject was going to be forgotten about. Well, a week ago we bumped into each other again and of course it was being brought up. This time I told him that I did not want to do this swap because I thought it was uncool of him to try and get my techniques and then go on to teach. Wwwwooooooo!!! That did not go down well. And I'm assuming that it didn't go down well because he was fully aware that I was right. He started telling me that he has been soooo kind to me (eeehh, yeah, you asked me to cover four shifts for which I paid you the room rent) and how could I not do this for him since he's been so good to me?! He then went on to lecture me about how it's all about giving and receiving and the importance of keeping a balance between the two. I was gobsmacked. I'm usually quite quick in my response but to this I couldn't get a word out. How dared he portraying himself as a good-hearted saint and myself as the ungrateful bitch?!

Later I was stewing in my treatment room thinking about what I should have said. Things like: I know the art and the beauty of giving and receiving. It's when you give without expecting anything back. Give without any ties. And it's when you receive without having the feeling that you must give something back. Think about that, Robert!

Yesterday I went to Caffe Nero for a coffee and two elderly ladies asked if they could share my table. Of course they could. As they sat down I stood up to clear the table from empty cups the previous customers had left behind. One of the ladies thought that I was leaving but I told her that I was just clearing away the rubbish for them. The look on her face... her jaw dropped and she thanked me so much. I thought to myself that such a small act of kindness could be so appreciated. After we'd finished our coffees she asked me if I wanted another one. My first instinct was to say no thank you. But then I thought about giving and receiving and how it's important to accept a gift in order for the other person to feel happy about giving. So I accepted.

One of the ladies had bought a sandwich but couldn't finish it all so she wrapped her leftovers in a napkin and was going to take it home. They both left before me and when it was my turn to leave I realised that her sandwich was still on the table. I put it in my bag and as I walked past the bus stop there they were. When I fished the sandwich out of my bag the old lady couldn't contain herself. She was absolutely delighted. Bless her! The rest of the evening I couldn't stop thinking about how I had experienced the true feeling of giving and receiving with no expectations and what a great day it had been thanks to it.

Before I went to bed last night I got my angel cards out and asked if there was anything the Angels wanted to tell me about the day. Guess which card came flying out of the pack? "Giving & Receiving"! Say no more.

Blissful Music

2009-02-09T01:04:00.005Z

I absolutely love "Bliss". They're a spiritual band from the UK. On their website it says that they are the UK's best kept secret and I have to agree. Therefore I was very surprised to see that one of their songs was featured in Sex And The City - The Movie. Or so I thought.

I downloaded "Kissing" on iTunes yesterday and have had it on repeat so my ears are now bleeding. I wanted to share it with you and imagine my surprise when I found it on YouTube and realised that the singer looks nothing like the singer in the "Bliss" I know. It's a different band!!!

Anyway, here's "Kissing" by the other "Bliss".

(The original video was removed for copyright reasons. This video with pretty pictures works just as well.)

Thawed

2009-02-07T17:40:00.006Z

Dear God,

I would like to thank you for bringing me this

and this

By yesterday afternoon I was wearing a hat, scarf, polo neck and double cardigans to keep warm. I couldn't leave the house because I was waiting for a delivery. It never turned up, by the way. Thanks DHL! At 5pm there was light at the end of the tunnel... the rescue came in the form of a man who carried nine portable heaters up to us on the top floor. Not all nine at the same time, mind you. I made him a cup of tea to show him my gratitude. The evening was nice and warm. I decided a bottle of wine and a re-run of Sex And The City - The Movie was a good plan for the night. Shame that I later set both my alarm clocks for 8.45am instead of 7.45am. Ooops! But very lucky that I woke up at 8.15am thinking that surely it must be time to get up. And, oh yes, it was!!! I made it in to work with 10 minutes to spare before my first client arrived. Thanks God, for waking me up too!

Cold, Colder, Coldest

2009-02-05T21:44:00.002Z

I'm terribly sorry but I can't write for very long today. You see, it's very difficult when your fingers are frozen and you have to wear double gloves. I would type with my feet but I can no longer feel my toes and they are starting to go blue'ish-black. Should I be worried? My nose has already fallen off since there are no knitted nose-warmers on the market. Maybe I could turn that into a new business. Oh no, I just forgot I can't knit because my fingers are... yeah, frozen. I'm gearing up for the third night without central heating. Am I annoyed or am I annoyed. Yes, I am annoyed. And had I been living in America I would have sued my landlord!

Ice Ice Baby

2009-02-04T15:04:00.002Z

Well, it was only a matter of time before the boiler was going to pack in. Like everything else in London it decided it doesn't do snow. Great!

Stunning Snowy Landscape In London

2009-02-02T09:37:00.006Z

I've been checking the weather report in the last few days and we'd been promised snow to fall last night. Snow in London generally means and thin layer of powder which nevertheless causes havoc in the city. Buses don't run, tubes and trains are delayed, schools shut... And every year I'm sitting here thinking "don't they ever learn?". So when we were promised snow last night I didn't expect much. Well, I was still awake at 1.30am and by then there was already a lot more snow than I've ever seen in London. I decided to set my alarm for 7am this morning so that I could go out and see the beauty of it before everyone else.

It was one of the most stunning mornings I've ever experienced during my 13 years in London. Check out all the snow on the cars outside my house.

I walked to St James's Park. There was only myself and a few other people. It was magical.

View of Buckingham Palace in the distance taken from the "photo-bridge" in St James's Park.

I continued walking to Piccadilly Circus.

Then to Leicester Square.

And into Chinatown where they had the official new year's celebrations yesterday.

Covent Garden Market.

Trafalgar Square. By now more people were out taking photos of the unbelievable amount of snow.

I walked back through St James's Park again on my way home.

All in all I was out walking for two hours this morning. It was a lovely atmosphere out there. People actually looked at each other and said good morning. Someone started chatting to me. A boy was holding a snowball in his hand, looked at me, trying to suss me out, then when he saw the glint in my eyes he threw the snowball at me. "This doesn't happen every day", he shouted with a beaming smile. Quite right!

Let's Talk About Me Hot Club Sandwich

2009-01-29T23:52:00.004Z

I've been checking my livefeedjit now and again and some of the search words that bring people to my site are quite funny. The search words are to the left, my comments to the right:

Skimpy brazilian panties - You won't find them on me, dear

Kate Winslet a secret - No, I believe Kate Winslet is known

Creating spa for idiot - Fill up a bath, light a candle, have a glass of wine. Easy.

Spray against chocolate feeling - If you find such a thing please let me know

Tips on remebering what you read - Try memorising it

Blocking out guilt - Drink lots of alcohol

Lets talk about me hot club sandwich - Sure. What's so hot about it?

My jeans shrunk - Or maybe you put on weight?

Bird watching around Helena - Yeah, I'm such a bird so naturally many want to catch a glimpse :-)

Princess Madeleine of Sweden and wallpaper - I know she's pretty but come on... wallpaper??!!

Foreskins for you - Thank you very much!

Princess Madeleine fat - Not really, no

Tunnel foreskins - Que?

Largest amount of chocolate eaten - Several kilos over Christmas

She is so sexy and I am so miserable - Oh, get over it!

Cord Cutting With Archangel Michael

2009-01-27T01:13:00.005Z

I'm attending a course to become an Angel Healing Practitioner. Today we were meditating on cord cutting. First of all, let me explain what cord cutting is:

Etheric cords are formed between people, objects and/or situations where there is a fearful attachment. It is a cord of energy that attaches from one to another which allows energy to flow between the two. For example, if you have a cord attached to a sibling and that person is undergoing a life crisis then they may be draining you of your energy. You will feel drained without knowing why. Your sibling is stealing your energy instead of tapping into their own natural supply of energy. We can also drain from others. Cords are most often formed out of fear, and not out of love. They get thicker as relationships deepen and as time passes. It is the neediness that strengthens them. (An example of a positive cord is the one between a new born baby and it's mother). The cords are usually attached to a major chakra point. To get rid of cords on yourself invoke Archangel Michael and ask him to cut the cords. Visualise Archangel Michael as he cuts through the cords of attachment. When cutting cords for others we can do that with our hands. Call in Archangel Michael to assist and then manually cut through the cords visualising them being cut as you do the actions. You can visualise using a sword, a knife, axe, scissors or whatever feels appropriate to you to sever the connection.

In the past I have attended a couple of workshops where we have practised cord cutting on each other working in pairs. We have invoked Archangel Michael and through intuition let him guide us to cut the cords on our partner with our hands. Today our lovely leader Dee led us through a meditation where our cords were being cut by Archangel Michael. This was one of the most powerful meditations I have experienced since my spiritual awakening 1.5 years ago. I could physically feel cords being cut from my body. I could feel the energy balance in my body shift. I could even see who was draining me of my energy through a couple of the cords. One of these people was myself in a previous lifetime. This is the first time I have experienced a past life regression. It was an overwhelming feeling filled with sadness over a life in poverty and being dependent on other people. I cut the cord with myself in my past life. After the meditation everyone in the group felt exhausted. One was feeling emotional and couldn't hold back the tears, another one felt low. Personally I was feeling shattered by all the healing energy work that had been carried out. The fact that we had done it in a group of seven made the experience even stronger. Dee told us that the reason we were feeling sad, low or exhausted was the effect of having a lot of energy supplies cut off. I am now, five hours later, starting to feel relaxed, uplifted and I feel a sense of happiness inside. I had not planned to write about my experience but there was a strong feeling telling me to share it with the world.

It is a blessing working with the Angels!

Please pop over to Charmed Spirit and take a look at my unique spiritual jewellery.

Happy Chinese New Year!

2009-01-26T11:53:00.003Z

THE YEAR OF THE OX

26/01/2009 - 13/02/2010 (Earth)

According to the Chinese Zodiac, the Year of 2009 is the Year of the Ox. The Ox, or the Buffalo sign symbolizes prosperity through fortitude and hard work. Those born under the influence of the Ox or Buffalo are fortunate to be stable and persevering. The typical Ox is a tolerant person with strong character. Not many people could equal the resolution and fearlessness that the Ox exhibits when deciding to accomplish a task. Ox people work hard without complaints at work or at home. They know that they will succeed through hard work and sustained efforts, and do not believe in get-rich-quick schemes.

Ox Years: 2/19/1901 - 2/7/1902 (Metal), 2/6/1913 - 1/25/1914 (Water), 1/25/1925 - 2/12/1926 (Wood), 2/11/1937 - 1/30/1938 (Fire), 1/29/1949 - 2/16/1950 (Earth), 2/15/1961 - 2/4/1962 (Metal), 2/3/1973 - 1/22/1974 (Water), 2/20/1985 - 2/8/1986 (Wood), 2/7/1997 - 1/27/1998 (Fire), 1/26/2009 - 2/13/2010 (Earth)

Famous Ox People: Barack Obama, Catherine Freeman, Heather Locklear, Jane Fonda, Jack Nicholson, Juliette Lewis, Margaret Thatcher, Meg Ryan, Meryl Streep, Princess Diana, Vivien Leigh and George Clooney.

Courtesy of www.springsgreetingcards.com

Oh, don't worry I haven't forgotten. I'm job-hunting today.

Imbalanced Scales Are Bad For The Libra

2009-01-23T16:59:00.007Z

I'm a Libra. Well-balanced scales are very important to me in order to live a harmonious life. My scales have been imbalanced for about... hmm, let me think.... 10 years or so. It used to be like this:

Work, work, work. And although some of the jobs only had the requirement of me turning up and not necessarily doing any work I was so exhausted from the boredom that at the end of the day I could not face any type of socialising.

Nowadays it is a completely different matter. The scales look like this:

I work one (1) day a week and I really enjoy what I do. I would love to work more but it has proved more difficult than I thought it would to get good shifts in well-established clinics. Since I don't see many people during the day I have turned into a social butterfly in the evenings.

I have joined several meet up groups and I'm having a great time getting to know new people. Don't worry, I haven't forgotten my friends. I make sure I see them too. Last week I went out with one meet up group for dinner at Kitchin. It was 25 of us having a "swap seat" dinner at this buffet restaurant and between each course we'd swap seats to get to talk to new people. It was a fantastic evening with very nice people! On Friday I met up with two ex-work colleagues. I had not seen them since we went to Spain last year. We took advantage of a 50% off your food deal at La Tasca. Again, it was a great evening with good company and lots of catching up to do.

I have just started attending a certified course to become an Angel Healing Practitioner (AHP). I have already been to a couple of workshops on the subject and know how to work with the violet flame, cord cutting, etc., so this seemed like a natural next step to take. The fact that London College of Spirituality want their courses to be available (read affordable) for all certainly helps. They only charge half the price of what others do. That's why it felt justifiable to join this although my income is more like pocket money.

I also go to reiki-share every Wednesday and this month I am leading the group since our organiser is on holiday. It is a great step for me to take responsibility for the group and plan meditations and exercises.

In terms of my social life my scales are very well balanced between spiritual stuff and just having fun. But, [pause] *sigh* [pause] after having taken a quick glance at my bank statement (and ouch that hurt!) things has got to change in terms of work. On Monday I am the one who makes an effort to go out and find more work as a complementary therapist. And I'm writing about it on my blog so that I can procrastinate no longer. Wish me luck! Ta very much.

I'm Having A Midlife Crisis

2009-01-18T20:14:00.006Z

I know I haven't been posting as often as I used to. I've even had a complaint from a reader who told me off because she needed something to read as she was bored at work. No names mentioned because I take privacy very seriously. This reader's boss might also be reading my blog... what do we know? He might be bored at work too.

Anyway, there is a reason why I haven't been writing very much lately and it's called midlife crisis!

Yes, I am suffering from a midlife crisis and it's part of that secret project I mentioned a while ago. When I moved to London 13 years ago I wanted to have a jewellery stall at Camden Market. It was my dream! Easily pleased, I know. I remember even walking around the wholesalers shops in Soho and they refused to let me in because I didn't have a trade registration number. Bastards! I gave up my dream to become a secretary instead. Safe, secure and boring.

Well, now, as you know, I'm no longer a secretary. I am also no longer in my 20's. And I have come to a stage in my life when it's like "if you don't do it now it will never happen". So, the secret project/midlife crisis goes like this: I've placed a rather big order of Sterling silver pendants from the States. I'm going to use these as a base to make jewellery together with semi-precious stones and freshwater pearls. I have also booked and paid a deposit to exhibit my jewellery at the Mind Body Spirit festival the last May Bank Holiday.

A few days ago I enquired about exhibiting at the Country Living Christmas fair in November. I was told to send in photos of my work asap because they are already deciding who will get to exhibit and who won't. Photos of my work???!!! Shiiitttt!!! I haven't got that much to show them yet. So, the last few days I have been running around Hatton Garden in search for good quality material. And this weekend I've been making jewellery to send photos of to the organisers. It was exactly that kick up my backside that I needed.

Please keep your fingers crossed that I'll get a stand at the Christmas fair. I know it's incredibly popular and attracts thousands of visitors.

Also, please send positive thoughts to me for the Mind Body Spirit festival in May. I think I'm in denial and don't know what the h*** I'm doing.

This is an exciting, mildly rebellious midlife crisis. And it's keeping the creativity going and me on my toes.

Amazing Job Opportunity For Person With Blogging Experience

2009-01-12T18:42:00.012Z

Last week I was suffering seriously from the January blues. On Friday afternoon I had prepared a post in my head where I was going to rant about how there had been no phone calls, text messages or e-mails since New Years Eve and that I could have been lying dead at home half-eaten by Alsatians (yes, I'm quoting Bridget Jones) and nobody would have noticed. Luckily, the same afternoon I had a text from Kristina inviting me to her birthday drinks the following evening. And then another friend woke up from her slumber... and another. All of a sudden life seemed pretty good again.

Today I've been taking advantage of one of the cheap restaurant deals that are on offer. I went to Yo Sushi and got a 40% discount on the food. After that I went to see Slumdog Millionaire. Have you seen it yet? It is the best movie I've seen this year :-). Jokingly aside, it is a must see!

Slumdog Millionaire is a rags-to-riches saga set in Mumbai. The story centres on Jamal, a boy from the slums who has somehow become a big winner on India's version of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? As he gets close to the final question and a huge payoff, Jamal is grabbed and taken to a police station, where he is accused of cheating on the show. No one can believe that this uneducated street kid could possibly know the answers to questions about gods, poets, guns and great literature. But Jamal does know the answers, and mostly through terrible life experience. To prove his innocence, Jamal has to tell his life story. And as soon as Slumdog Millionaire moves back in time to Jamal's childhood, the film goes from ordinary to extraordinary. Despite the poverty and hardship in the slums of Mumbai, the movie is suddenly vibrant with colour and music and all the energy of childhood itself.

If you don't win the Who Wants To Be A Millionaire or the Lotto there's a life-changing (well, for six months anyway) job opportunity on the market. How would you like to live and work here?

The job is to work as an island caretaker on Hamilton Island in the Great Barrier Reef. The successful applicant gets to explore 900 islands and give weekly reports via blogs, a photo diary and video updates. I just qualified for the role right there!!! He/She will get to live in a three-bedroom villa with pool rent free. The salary for this six-month hardship is £73,500. To read the full article, click here.

If you can't be bothered to read the article and want to apply straight away click here.

Young Love At It's Best

2009-01-07T12:17:00.006Z

Every time we switch on the telly or read the papers there's terrible news from all around the world. I hadn't expected anything different this morning. However, there was an article in a Swedish newspaper that made smile... then giggle.

These two "love-birds" had packed their bags and were off to get married... in AFRICA!

Mika (6) and Anna-Bell (5) had left their homes early in the morning whilst their parents were still asleep. They had packed their bags with sunglasses, toys and clothes for a warmer climate. With them was Mika's six-year old sister who was going to act as a witness at the wedding.

They walked one kilometer to the tram station and took the tram to Hanover where they were going to catch the airport train. However, a security guard got suspicious when he saw them on their own and carrying a lot of stuff for the beach so he alerted the police.

When asked about the runaway Anna-Bell commented: We wanted to get married so we thought "let's go".

Mika said: We wanted to take the train to the airport, from there we were going to catch a plane and when we arrived we would have unpacked our summer things then gone for a walk in the sun.

Both mothers want to be anonymous but said that it felt like "being in a bad movie".

The children said they had decided not to tell their parents because they didn't think they were going to be away that long. [How sweet.]

Instead of a wedding the children got a guided tour of the police headquarters.

Aaaahhh, bless!!!

Cutting Down On Chocolate

2009-01-02T17:04:00.007Z

For a short moment I was contemplating buying a box of Nutrilett for a week's hard core dieting. Luckily I came to my senses and realised that I was only going to waste 30 quid on some nasty tasting soup that won't fill me up and I'd turn into a grumpy old witch as a result.

Since I haven't made a new year's resolution to loose weight (or any other resolution for that matter) you can imagine my delight when I went into Fortnum & Mason today and saw shelf upon shelf filled with posh boxes of chocolate at half price!

If we shall talk dieting let me tell you that I was holding a 500 gram box but changed it for a 250 gram one. That's cutting down, isn't it?!

I Have A Great Feeling About 2009

2009-01-01T21:31:00.003Z

I have no New Year's resolutions. I can't keep them anyway. I do, however, have a great feeling about 2009!

2008 - What A Great Year!

2008-12-31T16:42:00.010Z

Today is the last day of the year. 2008 was a very good year for me and I'm hoping 2009 will be just as good or even better.

January, February and March passed without much happening.

April. I went on an amazing trip around Japan. It's one of the most fantastic countries I've ever visited.

May. I handed in my notice at work!

I was finally ready to give my secretarial career up for something much more rewarding.

I also started blogging! I never thought I would come across such lovely people in cyberspace and follow so many interesting and fun blogs.

June. I left work early that month and celebrated by going on a fabulous holiday in Oludeniz, Turkey.

July. I celebrated a bit more by going to Lagos in Portugal.

August. I went home to see my family in Sweden.

September. Luck was on my side and I got more work as a holistic therapist.

October. I celebrated my birthday at the Brazilian club dancing and drinking too many caipirinhas. I also went to Istanbul and was chased like an animal by crazy men who all thought they were in with a chance. An experience in itself although not a very nice one.

November. My creative side woke up from a long slumber. I'm working on a secret project.

December. The run-up to Christmas. I love it! All the Christmas lights and decorations. All the catching up with old friends. And of course the grand finale - going home and celebrate Christmas with my family.

This year, thanks to giving up a career in which I was very unhappy, has changed me back to my old self. I have a much more positive outlook on my life. I am happier, have more energy to do things, meet friends and new people. I enjoy my new career and actually want to work. I'm being creative. I am also very grateful that I have my health, that my family are in good spirits, I have some very nice friends, a roof over my head, food on the table and money enough to buy a cappu and go on a trip once in a while.

I wish you all a very Happy New Year!

My Jeans Have Shrunk This Christmas

2008-12-30T13:34:00.002Z

I came back to London last night after having spent 12 days with my family in Sweden. I've had such a great time! When we meet everything revolves around food. My mother used to be a cook and we have always eaten very well. The menu plan I have followed have looked like this:

09.00 Breakfast consisting of a nice sandwich, yogurt, orange juice and strong coffee. Read the paper for an hour, read parts of the articles out loud to each other, laugh.

11.00 Fruit break. Roll a clementine across the table to my dad. It's important to eat your five a day.

14.00 Lunch. Something home cooked and delicious. Sometimes healthy, sometimes not so.

Eat chocolate if there's any left.

16.30 Coffee and cake. Always have at least two home-made cookies or a large piece of cake. This is more likely than not accompanied by a cognac.

Put the boxes of chocolate on the table. Eat whatever is left.

19.30 Light'ish dinner.

Dinner is immediately followed by a vodka, cranberry and lemonade. Depending on how light the dinner was there might be crisps to go with the drink.

Do the exact same next day.

After this fabulous diet my jeans have shrunk! They feel like a pair of tights being glued onto my body and there's no point even thinking of trying to button them up without first sucking the stomach in and holding the breath for... well, for as long as I'm wearing them. Standing up is not so bad but sitting down, man, they're cutting me in half. Thank goodness the flight from Sweden to London is only 2 hours and a bit. I could not have held my breath any longer.

On the airport bus I got a disability seat at the front. There was enough leg room to half lie down and thanks to that the jeans did not cut into my poor body too badly. And don't worry, there was no disabled person on the coach who needed it anyway.

I'm looking forward to celebrating New Years Eve tomorrow with friends. I might dress up in my comfy jogging pants for the occasion.

White Christmas

2008-12-24T10:54:00.002Z

We DID get a white Christmas. Not a lot of snow... but still.

Ham Sandwich Premiere

2008-12-23T16:25:00.004Z

In Sweden we celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve. My mother has been slaving in the kitchen all day today in order to have everything ready for tomorrow. I have offered her my help but for some reason she always turns it down. Before she retired she worked as a cook throughout her whole professional career. I, on the other hand, can just about make a stir fry. This is possibly the reason why she feels that it’s better if I stay out of the kitchen on a day like this.

Ham is an absolute must on the Swedish Christmas table but the ham never tastes as good as on the evening before when you try it for the first time and it’s still slightly warm.

Slice the ham, put it on crisp bread (like Ryvita) and spread some hot mustard on top - today’s choice: Whisky mustard - yay!. Serve with a cold beer. Aaaahhhh! Roll on Christmas!

Pre-Christmas Stuff

2008-12-22T14:06:00.004Z

A few years ago I lived in Barcelona where I took a crash course in Spanish during three months. I had a fabulous time meeting new people while learning a new language. Most of the people I met were nearly half my age and my best friend turned out to be Ingrid. She and I spent hours in Barcelona’s cafés, restaurants and bars solving all sorts of worldly problems. This was four years ago. Since then I haven’t had much contact with Ingrid but by chance I found that she too is a blogger over at Ingrid I Grytan (in Swedish). She is now studying to become a “culinary meal creator“ [sorry, Ingrid, if I didn’t get the translation completely right] in a small town not far from where my parents live. A couple of days ago we finally managed to meet for a coffee and a catch up. It was absolutely lovely to see her again. She looked exactly like she used to and it certainly didn’t feel like four years since we last saw each other. Ingrid also gave me a little Christmas pressie - divine chocolate truffles with tea flavour that she’d made herself. She knows what I like, dear Ingrid!

I walked into the centre of town again today. I quite like going for strolls just before Christmas just to people-watch. It’s always interesting to see if I’m going to bump into any old school friends, boyfriends or other folk I used to hang out with. It didn’t happen today. I guess some people have to work. I’ve already done my Christmas shopping so I’m happily excluded from the pre-Christmas stress. I did, however, buy this handmade “tomte” - a bargain at half price.

I was looking for some nice photo opportunities but since there’s still no snow the Christmas spirit is not quite in the air. I did take a photo of the church - Nikolai kyrkan.

This is where I was baptised many moons ago and this is where my mother and I go to midnight mass every Christmas Eve. My father stays at home. Say no more.

Christmas Market In Sweden

2008-12-21T12:57:00.004Z

I travelled to Sweden last Wednesday for the Christmas holidays. It's always lovely to go home and see friends and family.

My parents and I have a tradition to go to the Christmas market at Wadköping the Sunday before Christmas.

My mother got her wallet out and bought a few things.

Luckily the weather was on our side with clear blue skies and bright sunshine. However, I would have loved to post some photos of a snowy landscape but the snow melted just a few days before I arrived.

Wadköping is a part of my hometown, Örebro, where they have moved a whole block of old, traditional houses from the center of town to a more piqturesque area by the river.

These old buildings are now workshops for various skilled craftsmen (and women), there is a traditional old-fashioned shop that sells hard candy in glass jars, teas in paper bags, jams, chutneys and lots of other nice little things.

The owners kindly let me take a photo of their shop.

Now we're waiting for my brother and his family to join us for coffee and cake. I've been baking a Christmassy cheesecake and if it's good I'll share the recipe tomorrow.