Favourite Friday

Actress

Toni Collette

So versatile, believable and amazing to watch. Toni got my attention when I was a young girl after I watched Muriel's Wedding. The film is a classic and I don't think I will ever forget it!

I didn't come to find her again until About a Boy was released (although I did see her in The Sixth Sense, but it was more about the little boy!) and I fell in love with that film so I watched it over and over again! 

Another favourite of mine is In Her Shoes, which also stars Cameron Diaz. I can't help but love the characters she plays.

Toni sort of disappeared from my life for a while and then I discovered she had her own TV series called The United States of Tara, where she played a mother with dissociative personality disorder. AMAZING!!! This TV show had me hooked and I was so disappointed when it got cancelled. I believe this series showcased ALL of her talents and it really put her back on the map.

Recently Toni has been in a mini series that is currently on Channel 4 here in the UK called Hostages and by 'eck it is a fantastic program filled with suspense, drama and plenty of thrilling action! You must check it out if you've not seen it already.

Well after my latest addiction I went on IMDB and have been doing my best to get through all of the films she has starred in. All are superb. I cannot fault her performances at all. For me, she is my favourite actress.

Jennifer x

Think Thursday

The Brain

The most important organ. Why do we abuse it?

So I've been reading this book and it's really opened my eyes to how we are so thoughtless towards the thing that actually creates those thoughts!! I have never heard anyone say they are taking a holiday/vacation because they want to get some R&R for their brain. It's usually the body, well without our brain our body wouldn't function.

We take our brain for granted on so many levels. We over work, which causes stress, then we damage it by excessive drinking or taking recreational drugs, we make poor food choices and then we often do not get enough sleep to help it recover from the ills that we put on it.

This book is a delight to read and will open your eyes to so much that you would never have considered (and I'm only 1/3 of the way through). Although I do not agree with every bit of advice given in this book you will be blown away by the information that is packed inside.

I think we all need to treat our brains like a delicate flower. Nourish it with the right foods, give it plenty of access to fresh air and daylight and be patient. Get plenty of rest every night and understand the importance of giving yourself time off. 

We put our brains at risk everyday from cycling without a helmet to stressing out about work.

We need to take more care if we want to have a long, healthy and productive life.

Edited to add this embarrassing video from almost 17 years ago in Disney World...

Jennifer x

Wishful Wednesday

Fruit trees

I wish that every country would plant more fruit trees.

We have so many beautiful gardens, parks and plantations here in the UK, but what we are missing are trees with an additional purpose - free healthy snacks.

Wouldn't it be amazing to go to the park and be able to pick an apple from a tree, or some berries from a bush? There would be lots of varieties, plenty to go around. Children would love the idea of picking their own food and it would be a great way to educate them about eating healthily.

The waste is compostable and does no damage to the environment, where as currently litter is a big problem with crisp packets and chocolate wrappers thrown on the floor, which take years to decompose.

Imagine the change in how we view food. People would be eating more fruit if it was more readily/freely available. All of these parks and gardens have gardeners to maintain the flowers and trees already, so I don't see why it would cause much of a problem to grow fruit trees instead.

I can see it now and I hope that it comes true in the future.

Jennifer x

Try it Tuesday

Distiller update 2

Last week I posted some photos of the scum that the tap water in my dad's house left in the distiller. This week I am posting the photos from my experiment of distilling the filtered water from where I used to work.

So these photos are the water from last week, quite disgusting...

You would imagine that the filtered water would look better...

To a certain degree the water is a little better, there is no lumpy white stuff :P but there's still a lot of scum. 

I have not tried any other waters out yet. I was told the best water to drink is Eden Falls from ASDA, so I will distill that to see how much scum is left from that. I showed my (now ex) colleague about my experiment and he asked me if I've ever distilled distilled water...so that will be another experiment. I was going to try distilling filtered tap water from the house, but I don't have a filter and I don't plan on buying one just for the experiment, so if you have one and can filter 5 litres and pass it onto me then that would be fabulous :)

I hope you've liked my update on the distiller, if there's anything you want to know then post a comment.

Jennifer x

Make it Monday

Fruit art

If you love art and you love fruit AND you are patient, then this could be something fun for you to try! It's definitely something I'd love to have a go at and now I have plenty of time on my hands I may try it.

For beginners, this is something so simple that we should all be able to make, an apple swan.

For the extremely creative and patient person you could try sculpting the Eiffel Tower out of a parsnip!

Watching this man create these delicious pieces of art is wonderful. I would want to preserve the food though and not eat it!

So, are you going to give it a try?!

Jennifer x

Soulful Sunday

What a week!

I've had many ups and downs this week, but the weekend is ending on a high as I get to spend the last few hours of it with an amazing man :)

Today I have had quite a strange day though. I had a dodgy stomach around 1pm and had to stop at Tesco to go to the toilet twice. This was really abnormal for me because I haven't had a problem like that for over 6 months (and that was due to eating random Turkish junk which involved severe diarrhoea and vomiting!) I think it was due to the gourmet raw food I had on Friday night. As tasty as it was, it was heavily salted with oils, nuts and many other ingredients that my body has become sensitive to.

One of the great things about today was that I tried a young coconut for the first time, from a Chinese Cash & Carry in Manchester. The water was amazing to drink and then the jelly was good too, but at £1.75 it was an expensive treat. I saw more frozen durian and had to make myself walk away from it!

Despite sending my CV to some agencies I have been thinking about taking time out to work on myself, so from tomorrow I shall be focusing my energy on doing what's best for me. Jobs and money shall have to wait. 

I am doing a 3 days juice cleanse from Tuesday, so tomorrow I am going to New Smithfield market in Manchester to get some apples. Expect a video to be up in the next few days :)

Jennifer x

Sleepy Saturday

Sleep log

Would anybody be interested in seeing how much sleep I have? I was thinking that if I post my shopping every fortnight then I might use the other weeks to log my sleep on here for you to see.

I must average 8 hours a night, but it would be good for me to see how much I actually have and how often I get up to pee.

I definitely won't make this 100% accurate because I don't really want to spend all my time logging it to the minute, so this will be a guesstimate.

During the week I go to bed at 9pm and wake up at 5.30am. Most nights I get up once, occasionally I'll sleep right through. Thursday night I slept for 11 hours, although I think I got up twice. Last night I only had 7 hours sleep and I didn't get up at all.

I think this will be really interesting, so I will work on a way to display the information.

Let me know your thoughts.

Jennifer x