2018 Week 14 Summary

Blog for week ending April 05 2018.

I’ve read some things on addiction this week and have opened my mind to understanding that addictions aren’t just of substances but can be of anything in life (shopping, eating, gambling, sex etc).

Basically, anything that you do incessantly because it satisfies a deep craving or gives temporary relief (usually from pain).  Addictions are only a problem when they have negative consequences associated with them.

On reflecting on my activities during the day and night, there are 3 things that would fall into the addiction category:
1.  Browsing Facebook feed / the web
2.  Playing “Township”
3.  Watching series / movies

There are positives to each of those activities but the negative consequences far outweigh those positives.  That negative is time spent.  Time that I will never get back.  Time that I cannot spend doing something else.  Time is worth more than money.  If you lose money, you can get it back but once time has passed, it’s gone.

The other negative is sleep.  Most of the time when I go to bed at 3am, it’s because I’m doing one of the above.  The bags under my eyes exist and I’m tired from lack of sleep every morning because of one of those 3 things.  When I think about it like that, those 3 things are so not worth it!

All of it is screen time and so my eyes remain focused on one distance for extended periods of time and I wonder why my eyesight isn’t as good as it used to be or why my eyes are dry!!  Methinks it’s time to dramatically reduce my screen time and curb those addictions!

Paris & Rome
The boys have been happy and quite surprisingly well behaved, especially after last week’s adventures with multiple chewed up cords.

Tony spent 4 full days at home over the Easter long weekend and this influenced the boys’ behaviour.  They’re both cautious around Tony.  It’s because Tones is heavy footed and tends to move loudly and suddenly.  For example, he sits very still when reading or working.  He can do this for hours at a time but then when he moves to get up, he’ll jerk the seat back, drop the phone, move things around the table and then thud the floor with his foot while attempting to put his slippers on.  The sudden kerfuffle scares both bunnies.

The difference is, Rome will stop to listen and watch out for anything peculiar before deciding to run, Paris will just bolt straight into his hutch, even if he’s in the middle of eating or toileting.

During the 4 day long weekend, after multiple times bolting back into his hutch, Paris eventually spent all day every day in there, hardly ever coming out.  He even bit Tony when Tones attempted to move his pellets closer to him.  We reckon he was having an issue with Tony cleaning around his hutch and play area as he’s used to only me doing that.

As soon as Tuesday hit and Tones went back to work, Paris was out and about, running, jumping and binkying, as usual again.

His current “thing to do today” (he’s been doing it every day for the last 3 days) is to pull out the newspaper from his litter tray.  It’s a miracle.  The newspaper sits underneath some absorbent wood pulp and hay which he’s supposed to wee and poo on.  He actually manages to pull out the newspaper without spilling any wood pulp or hay outside of the litter tray.  Unbelievable.  I don’t know how he does it and I don’t know why he does it but  “Look Ma!  No hands!”

Home, House and Completions
I finally got my act together and sorted out my hair.  I usually grow my hair to really long and then chop it to a bob and then wait until it grows really long again before I go for another hair cut.

Usually I just have the hairdresser sweep it up off the floor and throw it into the bin but this time my hairdresser suggested I cut it off in a ponytail and send it off to The Princess Trust so they could make a little wig using it.  I thought this was a much better use of hair and so I’ve now finally sent it off.  It’s been sitting in an envelope, on the table for months!  Hopefully they can do something with it.

My hair that I sent to Princess Trust

I also collected a bag of unwanted, unworn, no longer used items of clothing from the cupboard and dropped them off to the clothes charity bin.

Another completion which is quite a relief is that I sent a very late birthday card.  I’m talking 10+ YEARS late. I bought the card 10 years ago and kept forgetting to send it.  Well it’s done now!  I never have to “remember” to do it, ever again!

I packed and sent a thank you gift – one that I really should have sent back in January but hey ho.  This is what completions are about.  Just getting stuff that’s been hanging over your head for ages, finally completed.

Lastly, I’m reactivating my kefir grains.  Someone at the yoga studio asked for some so I promised her I’d give her active ones instead of the stored ones we had in the fridge.  It’s going to take a few cycles and I’m up to the 2nd one but it’s getting there.

With those things sorted and wanting to surprise Tony with a treat, I made a  cinnamon bun cake using almond flour.

Cinnamon Bun Cake

Given the name, I thought it would taste like Cinnabon which I know he likes, but it didn’t.  Still, Tony really liked it and asked if I could make it again.

It seems I’m becoming OK with this baking thing.  I always think that it’s not good enough and Tony is just very encouraging or forgiving of me.  Being very critical of my results, I haven’t yet found the confidence to let others beyond Tony, tell me what they think.

Tones and Joy

Mental Health
Considering addictions are things we do to find relief from pain, I pondered on my reasons for movie watching, game playing and Facebook browsing and it’s pretty simple.  I’m procrastinating and therefore using screen time and looking like I’m doing work, to avoid actually doing work.  It’s as simple as that.

I would rather do any of those 3 things than clean the bunny hutch and vacuum every nook and cranny that has bunny fur, do the finance admin, clean the toilet or clear the clutter and list things for sale online.

This is why I take years to get anything done.  Those completions I listed above were just put off for months and years!  Except when I actually just got it all sorted, it was done in a couple of hours.  WTF?  Definitely a wake up call.

Meanwhile, Tones has been watching various videos on Quantum Mechanics with his eyes closed.  Haha.  I love it.  Every time he has a hard time understanding something, he closes his eyes.  That’s when you know he’s REALLY concentrating.

Physical Health
Declaring that I will sleep earlier hasn’t worked.  We’re still getting to bed at 1.30am and the long weekend made it worse.  It seems with nothing to do the next day, Tony and I don’t care if we’re up until 4am surfing the net or playing games.  We’ve been doing this for years and have proven that old habits die hard.

Rome hasn’t helped either.  I suppose he’s used to sleeping late too.  Last night we attempted to get to bed early but he refused to get with the program and wouldn’t go into his litter to be carried into his hutch to go to bed.  The result was, instead of getting to bed at 11pm, we got to bed at 12.30am.

My yearly yoga membership has expired too and after collating feedback from people on FB, the consensus was to “Use a Class Pass”.  So that’s what I’m going to do.  I also managed to do a tripod headstand in my one yoga class a week, this week and lifted my knees off of my arms!  I never managed to straighten my legs or body and collapsed shortly after lifting my legs but it was progress!

Having failed on my sleeping goals, I immersed myself in watching health and nutrition documentaries to remind myself to stay healthy and the result from that is that I am on smoothies for 2 meals a day, since Tuesday.

We’ve had smoothies for breakfast every single day for the last 4-5 years now, can’t remember when it started but it’s about that.  Now I’m going to have smoothies for lunch too.  It’s not for weightloss.  God knows I’ve lost no weight by drinking smoothies every morning.

Besides, I leave the morning smoothies to Tones to make and all he puts in there is 1 banana each plus superfoods and that’s it.  Sometimes an avocado, sometimes berries.

Starting today I’m making my own breakfast smoothies and having lunch time smoothies specifically to ensure I eat more fruit and vegetables, equivalent of the min 5-a-day (or  more) requirement.

Getting to sleep early is still on the cards.  Perhaps reducing my screen time activities, increasing physical work via cleaning and eating more vegetables will actually help.  We have yet to see the results of this new experiment.

Spiritual Health
Apart from life chugging along like it ain’t no thang and all the tweaks I’ve been able to make as each week goes by, there isn’t anything to report in this arena this week.  We continue to meditate every day.

Emotional Health
I’ve noticed that nothing has sent me off the rails in either positive or negative directions lately.  I’ve been pretty even keel for a while which is amazing!

Even my annoyance at Rome chewing wires last week was nothing more than wanting to whinge which was gone as soon as I found a replacement wire the next day.  So emotionally, I think it’s very safe to say I’ve made a massive improvement from times gone by!

Financial Health
I sought and I found.  After what felt like hours and hours of research, I managed to find an app I could use for managing our finances.

Coincidentally (or is it..?) I found it just in time for the start of the new Financial Year, UK.  We’re now using Mobills for our personal expense recording and budgeting.  Can’t say much about it because I only just downloaded it 2 nights ago but so far so good.  All of April’s expenses have now been recorded on it.  This new financial year is looking more organised!

That’s the “summary”.  Tones suggested last week I split this into 2 blogs.  If my blogs continue to be this long, it’s looking more and more like that’s what I need to do!

See you next week x

2018 Week 13 Summary – Part 1

Just as quickly as it takes for me to complain about something, a resolution ensues.  Such is my life these days and I am loving it.

Before I continue, Tony advised that it would be better for me to split this post into two because it’s way too long.  So here goes part 1 where I update on Paris & Rome and House Stuff.  Part 2 will be an update on me & Tones in the different areas of life.

Paris & Rome
Paris is a breeze.  He is such a scaredy cat he refuses to touch anything in case he gets into trouble.  The end result is he won’t touch anything unless it’s in his play area.   The onus therefore lies with us and where we keep our belongings. If we leave things in his play area, then they are his to play with.

Rome however is the complete opposite.  Nothing is out of his reach. He will jump onto and climb things where he can.  According to him, everything is his domain and his to treat however he likes.  The fence between him and Paris is the only boundary that keeps him from owning the entire flat and all of Paris’ things, including Paris and every day he bites on it in an attempt to break it down.

Anything we keep out of his reach is just something he will work out how to get to eventually and he has a lifetime to achieve this (that’s approximately 12+ human years.  Right now he’s only 1.5yo so we have many adventures and bouts of destruction ahead).

That was pretty much the destiny of my computer charger.  Paris managed to bite it one night while unsupervised as it was very close to his play area but he didn’t bite it enough to sever the cord.  I was able to fix it and continue using my charger.  Over a year later, Rome managed to climb and reach over the bin barrier we put in place.  He pulled the cord and with one bite, severed it entirely.

 

Of all the f*&King wires he had to sever, he managed to kill my computer charger. And it’s a really hard one to find to replace since my laptop is now 5+ years old. Arrrgh!! #romerabbit #whatamigoingtodowithyou I will be solely on mobile until I can find a replacement charger or end up buying a whole new computer. Can’t decide whether to make rabbit stew or teeny weeny fur coat with this #wiregremlin #thedestructionneverends #rabbitprooffail #facepalm this is what happens when rabbits get bored. #nevergetcomplacent

A post shared by Joy Pe (@joypetitpois) on Mar 26, 2018 at 6:57am PDT

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I wasn’t happy.  I felt myself upset but not stressed, just annoyed that I had to spend money on a new cord.  That is, until I found it really hard to find a replacement cord online and then I got really annoyed.  Tony however, checked all our other power cords of other electrical items and found that the printer and the camera battery chargers both had the same base power cord that I needed.  So, we just used the camera charger cord as a replacement and didn’t have to spend a cent.

Job sorted in a day.  Happy days!

Before my computer charger, Rome also managed to chew through the power board plug this week too.

What a power cord looks like after #romerabbit chews through it

Tony, wanting to check the level of destruction, touched the cord with his finger and got a nasty 240V electric shock.  We were surprised Rome was absolutely fine.

I must say, if I haven’t already, part of me actually wishes Rome got an electric shock so it would teach him to stop chewing the wires.  The other part of course, is terrified that he will get completely electrocuted and I’d have a BBQ’d bunny to deal with.  I’d prefer just being annoyed at a naughty bunny.

My absolutely adorable, super naughty, one minute chilled out, next minute destroying everything #romerabbit

Cords can be replaced but my Romey-Rome-Rome, no matter how naughty and needing to be taught a lesson, cannot.

Home and House Stuff
The completions have begun again.  After his nasty electric shock, Tony bought a new power board and replaced the cord cover tube.

He also replaced one side of the hallway’s skirting boards because I mentioned that over 3-4 weeks had passed since he insisted I buy them.  He agreed and sorted it over the weekend.  I will have to buy some more for the other side now that we know it’s come out ok.

#romerabbit chewed up scotia next to the replacement floor edging

Tony measuring out the replacement scotia.

Since I’d been sick and not paying attention to the food in the fridge, this week, I had to go through and clear it.  I threw away everything that was going off and started to salvage things just before they turned.

I made Kaldereta again because we had enough left over ingredients from last week’s batch, to make another pot full.  That cleared most of the ingredients from the fridge.  This one tasted different.  Not as smoky, instead quite spicy.  It definitely was the chorizo we used as it was a different brand / type to the one we used last week.  This week it tasted more like a spicy chorizo stew.

Kaldereta

I also made paleo bread.  That’s the best way to describe it.  No grains, no dairy.  It used almond meal and eggs.  Tony made almond milk which went off.  When made fresh, you need to use it within a few days and we didn’t.  The almond meal that came from making the milk, I salvaged by turning it into bread then used the bread to scoop and soak up the chorizo stew.

Paleo bread

Slices of paleo bread

The new food discovery this week is now our brand new all time favourite corn chips.  We loved them so much, we went and bought 2 more packs (they were on sale).

ManoMasa is a brand of corn chips we’ve enjoyed in the past.  But this week, we tried the Hexano with Serrano Chilli and Mayan Yucatan Honey.  This is by far our favourite out of their entire range.  We barely even eat spicy food but couldn’t get enough of these!  Next time you find some, make sure you try it.  It looks like this:

Manomasa Hexano

 

Part 2 of my Week 13 update is going to be posted on Saturday.

So, see you then!

2018 Week 12 Summary

The week of being sick.  The last time we were sick was during our trip to the Philippines and Hong Kong in December.  It’s been 3 months and we (or rather I… as usual) have gotten sick again.

Tony did some sneezing and feeling a bit unwell for a day but he always manages to nip it in the bud and ends up fine the next day.

I however, ended up thinking I was being really awesome not getting any symptoms when he did  and then 3 days later doing the whole rigmarole.  Day 1 – sneezing.  Day 2 – fever.  Day 3 – coughing.  Day 4 – the start of recovery or so I hope.  I’m on Day 4 right now.

Paris & Rome
I am so glad the boys can’t catch any of my diseases.  They have however, been avoiding me.  I think I must smell different.  When I was feverish, both of them actually hid and really kept away from me.  I felt like I didn’t see them all day and night.

After I broke my fever, they were both approachable but they would hide away again or stare at me with eyes and ears wide open, from afar, during my sneezing or coughing fits.  It must be a sign that I’m getting better when they both allow me to pat them again.

They have both been well and healthy this week with nothing too crazy other than abstaining from pellets.  I feel like Paris isn’t eating anything at all sometimes because I find all his pellets (that he doesn’t want to eat) hidden under his blanket, all his fresh veg wilted and all his hay still in his trays.  Yet, he is happy, binkying and still pooing.

Look at this beautiful handsome (even though he’s so picky with his food) boy #parisbunny

Like I said last week.  A healthy appetite + healthy poo makes for a healthy rabbit.  If he doesn’t have much of an appetite, then I get worried.

So far  his behaviour indicates that he’s eating enough so I’ll just monitor him now more closely and I’m never buying this brand of pellets ever again.

Urgh…. who needs kids when bunnies are just as picky?!

Home and House Stuff
Remember the scotia Tony bugged me to buy ASAP oh, maybe 3-4 weeks ago?  It’s still sitting on a pile of junk in the lounge.  As quickly as they came, the completions have stopped.

I’ve also piled up bottles of hotel shower gels and conditioners on the table to sell off.  Tony collected them on his business travels.  We don’t use them.  Time to sell them.  Ironically, this is my attempt at clearing the clutter.  Over 30 bottles (such a waste to just throw) are now cluttering the table!

We haven’t cooked much either because I’ve been sick.  Tony has just gone to the shop and bought ready made soups so that’s all I’ve been having for the past 4 days.  I can’t smell or taste them though so it doesn’t even make a difference what flavour he chooses!

On a positive note, Tony cooked a Filipino dish this week.  He made Caldereta using a Filipino cookbook my cousins/Uncle shared with us from our last visit.  It’s the first Filo dish he’s ever made.

Beef Kaldereta / Caldereta

It’s so awesome to be able to make and eat dishes from all over the world, in your own kitchen  – this is the power of technology!

The best part?  The recipe called for chorizo.  We were able to put Spanish, from Spain chorizo in this dish.  That smoky paprika taste actually gave this dish such a different but welcomed flavour.  We were also able to put fresh liver pate in there instead of canned AND we put the beef in the slow cooker so it stayed solid just enough to be able to deliciously fall apart, in your mouth.

I tell you what, it doesn’t look like much in the picture but  Caldereta just went up a few notches on my favourites list.

With the left over Chorizo, we just put it with garlic and a bit of olive oil in the oven.  I added tomatoes which gave them some sweetness to balance out the smoky, salty, fatty, garlicky taste.

Chorizo with tomatoes

I wished we had bread but alas, we did not.  Tones used free from (free from wheat/gluten) crackers to soak up the oil.

Also went shopping and ended up finding these for £1.99.  I actually thought they were going to be thin rice crackers covered in chocolate but they weren’t!!

They were actually thin sheets of Pringle shaped chocolate with little crispy balls of puffed rice.  Cappuccino flavoured at that!  Oh what a lovely discovery!

Belgian Chocolate Thins

Joy & Tones

Mental Health
We watched all 8 movies back to back of Harry Potter.  I wanted to.

I wanted to re-watch from beginning to end with the information you get at the end.  I wanted to see the same sequence of events with a different perspective.

It makes me think of life and things about my life I might have seen differently, had I been given all/different information.  I wonder if this is what happens when you die.

Physical Health
As mentioned above, I’m sick, Tony is not.  This is where Biochemical Individuality steps in and produces different outcomes.

Tony and I have been eating the same food, same supplements and exercising similarly to each other for the last 10 years but when it comes down to fighting disease, he’s always stronger.

I’m MUCH better than I used to be.  I used to get sick once a month every month without fail and I’d be sick for 2 weeks at a time.  It was horrible.  At least now, 5-6 days every 3 months is doing well.  BUT I have also been better than this.

I think I’ve gone over a year without getting sick which if I could, I would replicate ALL THE TIME except I know what it takes and it takes a lot of discipline and effort!  Tones I’m sure of it, has gone over 2 years without getting a cold when we were making that effort!

So, it plays to the tune of us requiring different nutrients (and/or different amounts of them) and Tony having everything he needs at the right dosage and me, not quite.  That’s the conclusion I’ll draw from this situation at the moment and also that it means, I do better when I’m juicing (urgh!)

Spiritual Health
It’s been officially 2 months since we’ve started meditating twice a day every day.  How ‘bou dat?  (Sorry…. but ever since hearing it, I can’t unhear it and now I can’t just say “How about that?”.   I also know I just turned an impressive statement into an oxymoron by adding that last bit but it can’t be helped.  If you’ve got a problem with it, you can always “cash me outside!” Ha!  My humour.  Yep, again, sorry if it made you groan or cringe.  That’s just how I roll.  Tony’s still with me after years of it, so it can’t be that bad! Hahaha)

Can I talk of changes from meditation?  Not distinctly but I know things have changed.  For example, when I look at things in our life right now, they had started to move and now it looks like it’s stopped, paused, halted and yet I don’t feel like it has.

Perception is different.  It’s almost as if we just spent the first 2 months breathing in and right now, we’re just waiting to exhale.  The movement is still there, it’s just at a different phase.

What is different between now and before is that before I would have gotten upset or depressed or even angry that things weren’t moving but now, it’s understanding that it’s like the passing of a season.

Seeing the ebb and the flow.  It’s like I’ve finally started to understand what it looks like – the time for sowing, the time for growing and the time for reaping look different, for different things.

Some things you need to put effort into and some things you don’t. Some things you actually destroy by doing too much and some things die when not given enough attention or energy.  I can’t say I’ve got the knack just yet for each situation but I can say the cogs are turning and a greater understanding is starting to take shape.

Financial Health
They say that rich people talk about money and poor people don’t.  So I suppose if I want to be rich, I’d better start talking about money then hey?

I would say our finances are average but I guess that depends on what you’re comparing it to.  On a global scale, our finances are above average and that’s because we’re comparing to all the billions of people who live below the poverty line in third world countries.

On our own scale, we’re doing OK.  Compared to where we’d like to be or think we should be, we’re not quite there but we’ve improved from where we started so that’s a good thing.

Compared with our neighbourhood, we’re poor.  We recently put bubble wrap all around the borders of our windows to stop the cold draught coming in.  I told Tones I didn’t care how povo we looked as long as we stayed warm.

That’s a tough thing isn’t it?  Keeping up with the Jones’.  Well, I refuse to keep up with the Jones’ if it’s going to put us in the red.  I would always prefer to look poor and have money than the other way around.

Except having dodgy windows isn’t looking poor, it is being poor.  There is keeping up with the Jones’ and then there’s maintaining a certain standard of living.  Functional windows isn’t a luxury.  It is a necessity especially when it’s -5’C outside.

There is of course, the question of affordability.  It’s going to be a big expense (anywhere up to £5,000 as they are wooden sash, bay windows – $10K AUD, $7K USD).

Regardless of what it costs, if you can’t afford a necessity, then that is being poor.  Windows that work come under providing adequate shelter.

Besides, it’s not that we cannot afford it.  It’s just that we hate parting with that kind of money.  We’re really frugal (my new polite English expression rather than the Aussie “tight ass”).

If I can get it for less than half that price I will.  It may mean we need to get the PVCU stuff ie not real wood but I’d rather that because it means it doesn’t need refurbishment / replacement every 5-10  years.  I might even request triple glazing.  No noise, no cold. AAA energy efficiency rating 😉  (even though you can’t get it ’cause the highest rating is A) Alright!

Emotional Health
To know where you’ve been and see where you are now and realise how far you’ve come is a blessing.

Of all the different areas of life, I must say that I was way behind the eight ball with this but this challenge has become my biggest blessing in life and if I ever had to live it all again I would.

I would never wish my experiences on my greatest enemies but I’m glad I went through it all and come out the other end as sane, as grateful and as blessed as I feel right now.

There may be no accolades or prizes for accomplishing great feats in the emotional world but I know what I’ve achieved so far and the inner peace that comes with each revolution of evolution is a wonderful reward.

See you next week!

2018 Week 7 Summary

Whoot!  7 weeks into 2018 and we get to start the year again!

Happy Chinese New Year!

This week, week 7 was the week of completions.  I was introduced to this concept of completions back in 1998.  Back then I just understood it as someone’s fancy way to name their to-do list.

“The completions I accomplished today were….” and then to me it just sounded like listing things off their to-do list that they managed to “complete”.

It’s only now, 20 years later that I finally get it.  So let me explain so you don’t need to take 20 years to figure it out (I know, I’m slow like that!).

So, you know those things that exist for you to do that you kind of leave and put off and then before you know it, months or even years go by and you still haven’t done it?  You know you’re supposed to do it so every now and again, something will come up that will remind you of it.  We all have those right?

WELL, let me tell you that the feeling you get when you actually get the thing done,  when that weight is off your shoulders, when the niggling can finally stop, when any thoughts of “oh yeah, I still have to do that” just disappear about that item….  THAT is a completion.

This week, was a week of that and it feels REALLY good!!

Paris & Rome
Rome’s exercise area has been in the hallway ever since he and Paris began to fight (about a year ago).  We barely let him into the bedroom because he bites EVERYTHING.  You only need to see our skirting boards and all the broken wires we’ve had to fix and/or replace, and now the entire underneath of the bed to understand.

If you like your stuff pristine, don’t get a rabbit.  Otherwise don’t put anything you care about, in a place where he can reach it with his teeth!!

This week, we bit the bullet and decided to trust him and leave him on his own in the bedroom.  We moved his entire play area into the room, finally clearing the hallway so we can walk through it freely without tripping on boxes, his toys or him.

It is the first week in over a year that we’ve been able to open and close our front door freely without hitting his boxes and having to walk in through the door sideways.  It feels AMAZING!

This is what Rome thinks about it…

Rome’s new play area. He’s upgraded from the hallway. Do you think he likes it?

The boys have taken it in turns to moult and go through some episode of GI stasis this week including me having to stay up until 3am just to make sure Paris was actually eating but pleased to report they’re both still alive, happy and eating and pooping well again.

I don’t mind this, I actually like having an excuse to massage their fat furry bellies.  It’s the only time they’ll let me touch them on their tummy (to gently ease their tummy ache).  I think being able to help them at this time has allowed the bunnies to learn to trust me even more.

House Stuff
The week of completions definitely compensated for the extremely lazy week we had last week.  Here were my completions of house stuff:

1. Re-cleaned (because there were still some pee stains on it even after hosing it down with the shower and scrubbing it down) Paris’ carrier and finally packed it away.  This was outstanding since beginning of Jan when we got back from holiday.
2. Cleaned all my makeup tools and brushes.  I made a point to do this once a year since I only wear makeup about once a year and it was due to be done at the end of last year.
3. Fixed the blinds in the bedroom.  One of the ropes had come away from the blinds.  The one you pull so the blinds go up.  I had to hand sew quite a few places to put it back in place and get it working again.  This has been outstanding for at least 6 months, if not more.
4. Fixed sliding door rubber lining (as much as I could anyway).  Rome pretty much destroyed it so I salvaged what I could and stuck it back on.  Again, another thing that has been broken for more than 6 months.

   

   It stops the sliding door from banging – what do you call this? Anyway, whatever it is, I had to fix it…

5. Fixed chewed up wires – this is never ending since we got the bunnies but I’m hoping this was the last of it and that is because….
6. We rearranged furniture and wires in the bedroom so that Rome could stay in there unsupervised without reaching or destroying any more than he already has.  There is part relief and also partly wondering if we’d done a good enough job in this department.  Hilarious to watch our inability to outsmart a rabbit.  When they really want to get to something, they can be very clever (and destructive) about it.
7. Made new batches of natural personal and home cleaning products (Shampoo, Conditioner, Body wash, Face wash, hand wash, all-purpose cleaning spray and dishwashing detergent).  When I have to make many different kinds because they all finish at similar times, I procrastinate about it.  Probably shampoo / conditioner were the longest outstanding, for about a month or two (we just used hotel shampoos that we’d collected from holidays instead).
8. Fixed Tony’s mala beads.  MULTIPLE TIMES.  I had to rethread all the beads because he broke the string, scattering beads everywhere.  This has been outstanding since last year.

   

   Tony’s Mala Beads (Tiger’s Eye) which are now just in a vase because we lost some after they scattered

   When I finally fixed it, he broke it again and so I just threw the beads into the vase as “decorative” rocks for flowers.

It’s really a wonderful feeling when you don’t have to think about things anymore.  Not because you’ve forgotten or blocked them from memory (because that requires effort) but because you really don’t have to think about them anymore because you’ve dealt with it and COMPLETED it!

On top of my completions, I also attempted to make almond milk AGAIN.  This is the 3rd time around.  This time, I blended the almonds and then used a muslin cloth to strain.  The result was a much smoother almond milk.  It was really good!!!

Straining almond milk with muslin

Bottled almond milk

I made cake again using the strained almond meal.  This time I attempted making the same chocolate cake recipe without the cacao (because I wanted to know what it would taste like).  Bad idea.

Tony and I ate it anyway, doused it in strawberry jam and cream and when we ran out of jam, we used honey and cream.   Yes, this is honey.  It’s all crystalised because it’s raw honey and it’s cold in London 😉  It looks way better than it tasted!!

Chocolate Cake without the chocolate. It tastes like bicarb!

 

Joy & Tones

Mental Health
For completion, we finished watching the rest of Season 5 of Vikings.  I suppose I could just look it up but are these tales/stories of real people?  Is this series actually based on historical fact or are they fiction?

We’ve seen all of Ragnar’s life and right now we’re up to King Alfred (Alfred The Great) becoming King in England and Ragnar’s sons Ivar The Boneless and Bjorn Ironside having a Viking civil war.  If sticking closely to fact, then this is the first time I’ve actually enjoyed history lessons!!

In addition to this, we also managed to watch Daddy’s Home, Daddy’s Home 2 and Darkest Hour.  Some comedy and some more history!!  I actually liked watching Darkest Hour having watched Dunkirk maybe a month or two ago and also watching The Crown.  All three has the events of WW2 in England seen from different perspectives.  It really does bring history to life!

We’ve also continued to eat high fat (for brain health) foods.  It doesn’t do a thing to change weight and I might be going about it in the wrong way (eg we’ve eaten more cream and cheese in the last 2 weeks than we do in a year) but I’m doing it to help my brain and surprisingly, although very subtle, I’m definitely experiencing less brain fog episodes.  I’m still experiencing brain fog at times but less so than I was, late last year.

Physical Health
So, this week I went to Dharma for beginners.  The first time in a year? or 2 years?? and we LOVED it.  It was the same teacher whose classes we went to before and although it wasn’t at the same studio, he remembered us!

Since I haven’t been to any yoga for a while and have only done 3 classes (one vinyasa, one bikram and now one dharma), I was very stiff and weak.  I could barely hold myself up in side plank and was sweating profusely.

I was also unable to do warrior 3 (balancing stick)  with my arms perfectly straight/without strain.  Also, I used to be able to touch my knee to my forehead and now I cannot do that.  And don’t even get started with the binds… my shoulders are stuck in hunched forward position LOL

The great thing is, for the first time, I didn’t judge myself for it.  I just noticed that I couldn’t do certain things and instead of making myself feel bad (which I normally do), I actually thought, “Wow, it’s been a while huh?  It’s ok, you’ll get back there soon enough.  Just take it easy, take it as it comes.”

Spiritual Health
Which leads me back to meditation.  I got it wrong last week.  It is only THIS week that we’ve been meditating for 4 weeks.  Yet, there have been so many changes in our lives that it feels like it’s been way longer!!

This concept of “Take it easy, take it as it comes” is one that has made the most significant impact.  I’ve noticed that this is the thought that helps me to let go of expectations, let go of outcomes.  It is also the same concept that has me understand kindness and compassion to self, everything and everyone.

It’s also become easier to apply that kindness to myself and for that I am grateful to have found something that works to that effect.  Don’t get me wrong, my episodes of kindness and compassion are still few and far between.  I’m just saying, it’s becoming easier!

Chinese New Year Dinner 2018

So, here it is, our CNY 2018 meal.  We usually do this on the eve.

CNY 2018 Meal

We only took one photo.  Sorry, we were distracted chatting as we invited a couple of friends to help us eat it.  Whole steamed fish, whole ginger-shallot chicken, crab yee mein, dried oysters with fat choi and jai.

Our place has become pretty squishy since getting the rabbits and you can even see the fencing to the hallway in the background but it was nice to be able to invite people over even if it was “cosy”.

CNY is the one time of the year that I become really superstitious.  All those rules of cleaning the house, wearing red etc all get adhered to in our household and CNY meal ends up being the same/similar each year.  So anyone that’s seen me post about this in previous years will see pretty much the same picture every time!! Hahaha

Why?  Because when we started following all those superstitious rules about food, home and routine for CNY, life just started to improve. With each year, we have gotten healthier, happier and wealthier.  Even in tough years, it never ends up as tough as things used to be.

It could be experience or age or a different outlook to life but whatever the case, life started improving after our first CNY  when I looked up all the rules and adhered to them.  Why change/stop it if it works right?  If I had a pair of lucky underwear I’m sure I would wear them on CNY just to ensure the year ahead is more prosperous than the last.

And with that, I wish you too a very prosperous year of the Dog.  I hope you were wearing your lucky underwear and eating lots of long life noodles!

See you next week 🙂

 

2018 Week 6 Summary

Lazy week.

Paris & Rome
Today I spent 3 hours sitting around waiting to see my Paris bunny poo.  For 3 hours he’d done 3.  All morning.  As in 3 pellets in total.  They do over 100 a day.

So I chased him around and wouldn’t let him sit still.  I gave him tummy massages even though he kept trying to run away.  I brushed his fur for at least 45 mins  while he continued to run away, all so I could collect a fur ball large enough to be another rabbit.  Better in the bin than in his stomach.

He keeps having trouble pooing because he loses so much fur every moult and ends up ingesting a lot of it!  Except he does this every 3 months and every time, without fail,  he has an episode of constipation (GI Stasis).  If he weren’t a rabbit,  I wouldn’t be so worried but he is a rabbit and rabbits can actually die from GI stasis if it goes on for any longer than 4 hours.

He’s more active now and he’s moving around quite a bit on his own (without me having to chase him).  He’s even done a few binkies which means he’s feeling better.   He’s also managed to do a poo of more than 10 pellets and has eaten his favourite treats (still refuses the hay).  We’re not in the clear yet.  What a process!

Paris Bunny poking his head out of the tunnel to eat pellets from my hand.

Apart from that, this week, everyone in the house was being super lazy.  I’ve never seen the bunnies so lazy before.  Paris barely came out of his hutch the whole week preferring to just chill out in there, whether the door was open or not and Rome, after being let out to run, would more often than not, just head straight to his favourite spot behind the bed, plonk himself down and go to sleep.

They’d sleep for hours!  From 10.30am through to 11pm both of them would just sleep!!  This is not normal and yet they both did it, independent of each other.

Such a character. This is Rome Rabbit in his younger days “relaxing” in his hutch. Unsure why he chose to stick his double chin and paw over his litter. It looks so uncomfortable and yet he stayed like that for ages!

Nothing’s changed in diet, environment or routine, so it must’ve been the blue moon!

House Stuff
I keep sneezing.  The house is covered in rabbit fur which is so light it blows about as you walk past and I keep breathing it in as it floats by, so it keeps tickling my nose.  I’m sure it’s been all in my food too.  It’s exactly like when you get a tiny bit of dust on your tongue and no matter what you do, you can’t find it to get rid of that sensation that it’s there.

Within a day of vacuuming, there’s so much fur everywhere again that it looks like I didn’t vacuum at all.  It makes cleaning a nightmare.  On the upside I finally got around to cleaning Paris’ travel carrier which, was stained and full of pee.  I have no idea if it was him or if the sitter had shoved a different rabbit into his carrier during their 3 week stay.  Either way, Paris is not one to pee in his carrier because he’s a neat freak.

So… either she kept him there for way too long and he couldn’t hold anymore or, it was another rabbit.  It was so hard to clean.  It’s like trying to wash a small tent in your shower cubicle when your shower only fits one skinny person.

To add to all my usual chores, Paris also managed to jump onto the couch after his foot soaked up his pee.  So he left 3 pee-soaked foot prints all over the couch that I had to scrub out.  It’s the only bit I don’t understand.  Rome is super messy but very rarely gets pee on his foot. Paris, the neat freak seems to keep having his pee roll back down to his foot 80% of the time!

I made almond milk again (this time using the juicer) and with the “pulp”, I also made chocolate cake….. again!

Chocolate cake again. This time cream and honey on top.

Joy & Tones

Mental Health
I don’t think you can imagine just what kind of a lazy week we had.  So let me tell you.  When we get lazy, we watch movies or series.  This week, we managed to watch:
1.  Jumanji
2.  Star Wars: The Force Awakens
3.  Star Wars: The Last Jedi
4.  Thor Ragnarok
5.  Downsizing
6.  Wonder
7.  Murder on the Orient Express
8. ALL episodes of The Crown, Season 2
9.  Marshall
10.  The first 6 episodes of Vikings, Season 5.

I think I’ve forgotten to list a couple of things but when you watch that much, it all becomes a blur.  Unsure what this much TV watching does to the brain but it sure makes the days go by really quickly and I don’t think we’ll need to watch TV again for a while!

Physical Health
I missed Saturday yoga this week because Tony thought there was a Dharma class in the afternoon so we missed the morning class but realised too late that Dharma wasn’t on so we didn’t go at all.

For the first time ever, I managed to slice a bit of flesh from my finger with a knife.  Tony was talking to me while I was slicing carrots.  He was showing me something and of course I turned to look at him at the exact same moment I pushed down the knife which rolled off the carrot and straight into my finger.  It took a week before I could remove the plaster (bandaid) when normally I don’t have to use one because I don’t bleed or, it will heal in a day.  Slicing my flesh is a whole new ballgame.  Up to now my finger still hurts.

I did manage my first Bikram class on Tuesday.  The first in months!! I sat out pretty much one set of each posture in the standing series right after the warm up but I did promise myself to take it easy.  I still managed a toe stand 😉  The best part is, no ill after-effects.

The sharp pains in my shoulder that I mentioned last week have stopped about as quickly as they came.    For that to happen, I had to make an effort, not to make an effort.  I realised that when I wanted something to happen desperately and was being impatient with it or trying to control an outcome (no matter what it was), that’s when my shoulder would hurt.  If I let it go and just let it be, my shoulder would stop hurting.

In other words, I had to let go of my expectations and allow for whatever outcome to happen and as soon as I did, the pain would disappear.  Strange right?  Unusual to find such a bizarre solution to shoulder pain but that’s what happens when a pain is psychosomatic and I realise now that I push myself really hard and attempt to control many things that are out of my control, to the point where it causes me physical pain!

Spiritual Health
Still meditating twice a day every day and it’s getting much easier with being able to sit still the whole time.

I can’t believe we’ve had 4 weeks of meditation.

The 2 consistent things I have DEFINITELY noticed since starting meditation practice:
1.  Everything we eat tastes delicious.  We haven’t had a bad meal since we started meditating.  Bizarre!

2.  Every stranger we come across that we interact with, whether it’s waiter/waitress, courier, shop assistants etc, have all been super duper nice and helpful to us.

We’re in London!!  London – home of the shittiest customer service I’ve experienced anywhere.  London – the place where you have to stick your elbows out while walking, just to physically specify your personal space and prevent getting bumped around like a pinball between fast walking locals and tourists who always manage to stand right in the middle of any and every high-footfall pathway.    London – where customer service is self service.

You’d be lucky for anyone to even be in the department to ask a question and yet, each time we needed something, there was someone around and that person would go out of their way to help us get exactly what we needed.  Finding competent, friendly people to help you with each interaction is a miracle and I am loving this!!

Holiday
So as not to bore you with rabbits and chocolate cake, here is another picture of our last holiday.  This is of, I guess, an indoor flea market which was located inside a shopping mall in Manila, Philippines. It was huge and spanned the entire basement area of the mall with all manner of trinkets, gadgets, clothes, jewellery, carpets, bedding and electronic devices.  This was just the t-shirt/clothes section!

I don’t know but this reminded me of all the knick-knacks I once used to buy that would sit on the shelves collecting dust and my frequent visits to the mall where I’d come back with bags of clothes, shirts and ornaments just because I thought they were cute.

It’s been a long time since we’ve done that.  Tones and I haven’t bought anything that’s not for the bunnies or for health in a very long time.  He bought his first thick winter jacket just yesterday.  I’ve been wearing the same winter jacket every day, all winter (I only have one) for the last 8 years.

Viewing this flea market from above is as surreal as it gets.  It’s like objectively viewing our past, consumeristic selves or, seeing a vibrant, colourful representation of what people’s cupboards and houses look like – every nook and cranny jam-packed full of stuff.

All I can say is, it’s nice to see this on holidays and I can’t wait for the day our place  doesn’t look like this either! 😉

Indoor flea market so you can shop for your trinkets in the comfort of air conditioning!

Well, that’s all for now.  I have to go do some vacuuming – AGAIN!

Next week, my blog will be late because it’s Chinese New Year’s eve next Thursday and Tony and I will be spending all day cooking.  On the upside, next week’s post will have all our food pictures of the CNY food we cooked.

See you then!! x