Walking Talking Fruit Basket

Lately I have succumbed to the Juice/Smoothie making mania that occurs to me every year or so. In preparation for my Detox retreat I am to undertake shortly, I have been existing the last couple of weeks on mainly fruit and vegetable juices, and I feel fantastic!

Anyone that has ever had the displeasure of living with me has had to endure periods of juice making and vegetable pulp flying around all corners of my kitchen whenever I am "in one of those crazy diet phases again" according to them, although I do think this is one ‘crazy diet’ that is going to stick.

I have hardly felt hungry at all these last couple of weeks and when I did 'fall off the wagon' one day and eat some delicious hot chips, boy did I pay for it. My tummy swelled up and I promised myself I would NEVER touch them again and since have had no cravings except for one of my delicious fruit or veggie concoctions.

One of my favourite smoothies (don’t knock it til you have tried it!) is a Green Juice or Smoothie, made by juicing any number of sweet fruits (I like kiwi, oranges, apples, pineapple, watermelon) and topping it off with juiced romaine lettuce (yes you heard right) and then blended with a banana and a handful of spinach. As an alternative to this, I also make a pure GREEN veggie juice with zucchinis, cucumber, celery, lettuce, spinach and an apple or two to make it a bit sweeter. I am telling you, this recipe actually tastes quite nice and gives you a better kick than a coffee (I am not kidding!!).

My once dry skin is already repairing itself and all over I am starting to feel really good. I was sick of getting up in the mornings and never really being able to wake up properly, always tempted to going back to bed. This has already become a thing of the past, and the benefits are only going to get better I am sure, so watch this space.

As I write this I am waiting for my Champion Juicer to arrive from the US which after using my supermarket brand juicer up til now, then having the pleasure of using my boyfriend's Champion, I was pleased to see that my juice quantity improved dramatically, with the remaining pulp being completely juice free and the clean up was much easier. The juicer also claims to make ice-cream, frozen smoothies and nut butters.

Check out my Interview

Just racing off to catch my flight to my mystery holiday detox destination, but thought I'd take the quick chance to plug another great blog that I watch with keen interest!

Airboy is a French guy living in the Middle East and he puts my technology expertise to shame. If anything just check out his blog for the aesthetics....it is awesome.

Anyway, he regularly interviews other bloggers and yesterday I was featured so go on take a look. It was lots of fun.

More updates on my arrival to my holiday spot!

Happy reading!

Airboy's Interview with Girl on Tour

Organising from the Inside Out????

Does anyone else ever feel like they are living in chaos? I look at my neat freak completely organised friends and boyfriend with envy and wonder how do they do it. How do they know where to go to get the receipt from the blender that they bought 6 months ago, but has now carked it and needs a warranty claim and the receipt to prove it??? I am completely living for the moment, spontaneous and never planning more than one minute ahead. I thought that translated to exciting and creative and charming, but lately it translates to DISORGANISED and STRESSFUL especially with an occupation like mine where you can end up at any end of the world at any given time.

Imagine my delight when flicking through my boyfriends library I found Organising from the Inside Out - The Foolproof System for Organising Your Home, Your Office and Your Life by Julie Morgenstern. I stayed up til 3am last night, going through all my paperwork and filing in a completely new system according to the book, that for most of you is probably elementary, but no matter how hard I try, I have never seemed to developed a system that worked. I am the person who is always rushing around trying to find my keys at the last minute, despite having only used them 10 minutes ago, I never fail to leave a possession in a hotel room on a layover and I tend to operate out of piles of paperwork all over my house, never able to find the ones that I need right at this moment.

Coincidentally, this morning whilst perusing one of my regular blogs by another flight attendant living in the Middle East, I found she had detailed how to pack a FA bag and realised that after over 6 years of doing this job, I have NO IDEA what I was doing. This is the universe trying to tell me to get my life sorted out and finally cut the crap.

As I head off on another holiday at the end of this week, I thought it was about time to sort out my clutter in my life and make things just a little simpler and easy, so on my return I can hit the ground running. So next thing to conquer is the bathroom cupboard.

More on my upcoming holiday later...very exciting, it involves catching up with friends which got postponed from last holiday and doing a detox in a tropical climate....curious??? :)

Transit in Dubai

I am impressed! As I was disembarking my Emirates flight recently, the purser at the door said “Have a good day Miss L”. I seriously did a double take. I mean it. I doubled up and looked back at her and laughed and said, “How did you remember?” This was the person whom also checked my boarding pass only an hour earlier when I boarded. She said she always remembered with a wicked smile.
Now when I was flying for commercial airlines this was something that was especially driven down into the depths of our souls during training for dealing with premium guests. However I was only in cattle class this day (now I have to pay full fare for my flights cry cry). Ok I admit, there was only probably about 30% capacity today, however there were still at least 80 passengers on board my flight, and that is a lot of names to remember.
One thing I say I am not impressed with however is, the terminal situation in Dubai. As I sat patiently at a café waiting for my gate to open (they only open an hour prior to departure), at least 100 people who I could only assume were on my flight also, were crowding the outside of the secure gate, sitting on the ground, sitting on each other and fighting for what minimal seating was provided. Outside the gate, we all look lovingly to the lonely looking bench seats on the exclusive inside of the gate…all because there are no staff on the desk to check boarding passes. I don’t know, maybe I am missing something but here’s an idea. Why not have the seating area open so all the fare paying passengers can have a seat not only on the flight but whilst waiting to board, and check boarding passes on the door on the way to the aircraft?

I Still Call Australia Home

I've just spent all morning on the phone to various banks, accountants etc, back home in Australia, sorting out my affairs, and finding that every single person I dealt with, went above and beyond what my expectations were in dealing with my requests. Each time I would thank them graciously and appear amazed somewhat, and it was only after the 3rd or 4th person I dealt with that I started to notice their confusion. Having been away so long from Australia I have totally forgotten how high their standard of customer service is just the daily norm. Now I was brought back to reality when I had to phone the UK passports office to request a copy of a receipt that I was told over the weekend by not one but two 24 hour telephone operators, would be a simple request however needing to be done during office hours. Imagine my disappointment and annoyance when I phone during office hours only to have an operator advise the request is to be done in writing, and only via fax. Then the office will deal with the request if and when they have the time. I told her I did not have a fax and she rudely reminded me that public libraries have them. This is when I told her that I reside in the desert in the Middle East, and I am lucky to have adsl, of which she was non plussed. I asked her to perhaps check with a supervisor if email was sufficient and she was not bothered. This is when I told her how unfortunate the UK was with it's service ethic (as if she cared!!) and how she in particular could learn a thing or two from her counterparts down under, then hung up. Reminded me of all the fun I had dealing with service people like this EVERYDAY in London.....Mum was right. I wouldn't appreciate Australia til I left.

The European Adventure continues....

After our party hard time in Ibeeeeeeza recently, the party gang departed and it was just the two of us, weary and a shadow of our formal selves with still a good week and a bit to our holidays. Portugal was next on our agenda.

With no plan in place other than to have NO PLAN, we hit Portugal's capital around 1am, ready to fall onto our luxurious king size bed (I knew those loyalty points would come in handy for some last minute 'flash-packing') After a week of sleeping where we fell in Ibiza (ok although we did have an apartment between 6 of us, it became a nightly game of musical beds depending on who had the most party stamina and would be the last to make up the sofa couch). It was refreshing to have a lovely suite for at least the beginning of our week.

We surprisingly stayed in Lisbon one day longer than originally planned due to losing a day in recovery mode from Ibiza (who couldn't see that one coming?), but once we were done with Lisbon, we hired a car and took off to explore .....

The original plan was for some surfing (lessons for me of course), however this was thwarted by the lack of warm weather. We had been spoilt in 'the Mediterranean' with a perfect climate. Although Portugal was a pleasant change from the HOT STICKY DESERT I live in.


Best Bits of Portugal

• OMG the food! For a girl that dabbles with veganism, I couldn't pass up the national dish of Bacalhau^ (I first discovered in Mexico Xmas 2005). Oops. Also every dish was sooo heavy and comfort based. Lots of meat and potatoes but soooooooo yum, also every restaurant you would dine in would automatically place appetisers in front of you before you had even glanced at a menu. If you chose not to eat these you were not charged, but both P & I are real foodies and of course we polished off every last bite!
  
• Experiencing a Fado* club
• The history, impressive buildings and castles (too many to mention here!)
• SINTRA - The Summer Residence of Kings. Thought I had stepped into my own fairytale Kingdom
• Pasteis de Belém or Pastéis de Nata - (MORE FOOD!) flaky tartlets filled with custard like cream (truthfully I was warned about their addictive nature by a native friend of mine+)

• Pirate Exhibition in Palácio de Seteais in Sintra
• Oceanário de Lisboa (I had to take P under duress but I think he enjoyed as much as me)
  
• Tram 28 which takes you on a circuit of the inner part of Lisbon
• Portuguese azulejos - vibrant blue and white or multicoloured decorative tiles EVERYWHERE....
  

• Seeing real life 175 million year old dinosaur footprints in Estremadura (My favourite!)

The Not So Good Bits (not that much actually):

• We didn't even get to try any port wine (what Portugal is famous for!) or it's Ginginha#

• The million steps up to the Castelo de Sao Jorge - but the view was worth it!

Our trip to Portugal was purely by accident as neither of us had the desire to visit before any of our never ending list of dream destinations had been conquered, but due to a lack of flights to our first choice, we settled on here. And settle we did not. We were both amazingly surprised and enjoyed it thoroughly. Perhaps it was FADO!!

Bacalhau^ is a family of food dishes made from codfish, which has been dried and salted for preservation. Bacalhau originated in Portugal, but is very popular in many countries from Brazil to several countries in Southeast Asia. In Portuguese, the word bacalhua means codfish, but bacalhau most commonly refers to any of a variety of dishes that are prepared with codfish, or salt cod, as the main ingredient. Strictly a form of Portuguese cuisine, bacalhau is a dish that has been around for several hundred years.

Fado* ("fate") - is often described as working-class blues, although musically it would perhaps be more accurate to class it as a kind of light operetta, sing to a viola accompaniment usually enjoyed at a Fado bar where meals are served but you are not always required to eat. Moving music and lyrics.

Ginginha# - Portugese cherry brandy, highly advisable NOT to eat the cherry.....

+Many thanks to my Portugese pal Nuno, for his tips/hints and guidance on what to do and what not to do...and also for pasting those little things above some letters (`) for me as I have no idea. Nuno has since told me these are called 'accute accents'.

We Will Miss You Bronnie xxxx

Just a small tribute to my friend and earth angel Bronwyn McLennan whom I met in my banking days years ago. She unfortunately passed away suddenly last week in Australia from an unknown virus at age 34. She will be remembered by everyone who had the pleasure to have her in their life for however long they were blessed, for her vibrant and always positive attitude, happy go lucky demeanour, who always gave EVERYONE the time of day, colourful dress sense and amazing amazing aura! She was a lovely lady, that I had not seen in years, but kept in regular contact with me online in recent times. I am saddened to not be able to attend her funeral in Australia this morning, but my thoughts and heart are certainly with her 3 children, husband Michel and her brother Angus, sister Amanda and mother Nita.

We will miss you Bronnie! You lit up so many lives.

Dinner for Three

As I sat all lonesome in my tiny yet posh galley yesterday, eating my dinner whilst my pax were in La La Land, I couldn't help but remininsce about the good ol days at a previous airline and when I look back, the memories are mostly fond.

Last night I recalled a late night flight returning home after a 24 hour layover. The manager invited me from First Class cabin where I was 'operating' (my non airline friends LOVE to make fun of that term) to the Business Class galley where I was confronted with not only a feast, but a makeshift dining table. The crew were being invited three by three to take their turn to enjoy their meal break sitting down, NOT standing in a galley picking from all the left over economy trays, NOT racing to each cabin to beat the next crew member in the last of the premium cabin pickings and NOT hiding behind a curtain out of view from prying eyes. Our dining table was made from a tray mobile, cart top linen was our table cloth and we sat on atlas boxes. Genius!

Ibeeeeeeeza Rocks!!!!

Recently I went on a girls (okay and two boys) holiday to Ibiza. I can’t say I was enticed by the late night programs years ago on Australian television showcasing ‘Brit’s Abroad’ and how to get wasted in 2 easy steps; shots and more shots. However when living in London a while ago, I witnessed firsthand, my own friends preparing each year to do the ‘Ibiza thing’ whilst I wondered what all the fuss was about. One friend in particular had been several years in a row, this being her first of abstinence.

Roll on July this year, and the six of us Ibiza inductees (all over 30 might I add!) arrive all pasty skinned and ready to dance our little hearts out. With cheat notes in hand (from our collection of experienced friends) we embark on our week on Playa d’en Bossa.

Highlights of the week include but are not limited to:

• Optional nudity on the beach... in complete contrast to my current home country...this is where anything goes!


• Bull Bar Breakie – €3.50 for OJ, bacon, beans, sausage, toast and 2 eggs – AMAAAZZING even the 4th day in a row


• Bora Bora Beach Bar – if you are just beginning your day or ending the night before, great place to chill, listen to the beats, catch some rays and BYO drinks from the supermarket within walking distance


• Amnesia on a Sat night – by far the best night for us all...granted it was our 1st night out in Ibiza, but the tunes rocked and we were just firing up
  
• Space on Sundays (starts at 3pm)


• Tiesto in residence at Privilege nightclub on Mondays (I wasn’t too impressed by the show but had to be done...also I sold my pal’s pair of sunnies she had lent to me to a random for a profit, so that was the highlight of my evening!)


• The fashion! Where else in the world could you wear only your swimwear into a club and not look out of place?


• L’s contacts for getting us VIP entry (although we never ended up getting around to using any of them!)


• Venturing over to the dark side (San Antonio – the 18-25’s mecca and setting for most of those previously mentioned TV programs) to witness sunset at Cafe del Mar (we just missed sunset but that meant we at least got a table for some Sangria as everyone bailed out shortly after)

The lowlights:

• The cost!!! Very pricey, if you plan to club, try to get wristbands off promoters that day on the beach. Makes it hard to be spontaneous and they usually mean an earlier arrival than most of us would like but you can save yourself a substantial amount of cash. Also drinks are upwards of €8 each and that is just for a beer....
  
• Being frisked at Space when I was already in the club, and having my can of Red bull taken off me (the bouncer thought I had tried to smuggle in a can of Red bull when I had really just bought it from the bar for €8 10 minutes earlier and was saving it for later. Something tells me there were bigger fish to fry that day inside...hmmmm)


• The overall service ethic...most locals don’t speak much English and although the trade is seasonal in Ibiza (most clubs and bars shut down after the closing parties in September) it can still be difficult to ask for a ride home or for assistance in a store. Taxi drivers and some shopkeepers can sometimes appear downright rude. Try to keep your cool and handy to learn a couple of basics in Español if you can.

Needless to say my next holiday is most likely to be a detox, possibly Thailand, and sooner rather than later (however the boyf and I are not adverse to perhaps booking for next years closing parties but let's talk about that AFTER the recovery?????)

Free to Good Home - MY HOME!

I have a new cat. His name is Sam. He is 1 year old and was abandoned and rescued by my friend who kindly declined to keep him due to owning 6 already. Cue me to play the good Samaritan. Not really a cat person, rather a dog person, it has challenged me from the minute he arrived, as I rarely see the fella as he is loves to hide under my bed or in the shower, much to my boyfriend’s delight the other morning when half asleep he turned on the tap to hear and see Sam take off. His meow gives homage to the saying “sounds like he strangled a cat” and he does nothing other than eat or sleep (and leave stinky gifts for me in the litter).

I have hope he will come good, and last night we made progress as he jumped up beside me on the couch and snuggled (albeit violently slamming into my side). He still doesn’t like me to come to him though. We will see how it goes.

Long Time Between Drinks.....

It has definitely been a while since I last posted and I thank those of you who keep checking in for my 'so called promised posts' that I have still failed to present. I am still dealing with dark ages dial up however, this is no excuse as I am still able to post albeit a little slower than hoped.

I have lots of great material including my recent trips to London, Portugal & Spain, plus my many misadventures since returning home to the 'reality' of my life & work.

Please be patient with me as I attempt to produce more timely posts in the future, and don't forget to comment as you see fit too as it helps me to keep on track and it is constructive (for me) to gain feedback.

Stay tuned!