Me update! Double chins away :o) tee hee hee hee
Yesterday (Monday) I didn’t make it to Don’s so no updates.
Monday was pretty cool, I went training in the morning and the afternoon though admittedly only for the ski machine both times. I hung around for a lot longer in the morning which was nice – ended up talking to a lot more people. The boys from London are heading back later today so it was nice to seem them this morning. I think it’d be good to go along to their club for a Saturday training session or two.
With the market coming local on Thursdays I figured it would make sense that they also come to the place close to gym on Mondays (if they alternate between the three places then Tuesday and Wednesday are probably the other two locations – strange to say in Thailand but the logic actually works on this one – the market was there in the afternoon. I only remembered at about 3:30pm so it was all set up and full of produce!
I found a stall selling bananas and went a little nuts – I got three bunches (har har, bunches – they’re a bit more than a bunch!). I wondered around a little and found a stall with some watermelons pre-cut in half and got a half. There I also picked up 10 of the large apples. I was pretty weighed down at this point and couldn’t see any yellow mangoes anywhere (there only seemed to be green ones)..so I wondered back to my bungalow to deposit my finds. I was walking back thinking there must be some yellow mangoes somewhere there! So I headed back and found some! 2 kilos later and I was a happy shopper. I picked up enough fruit to fill the fridge in my bungalow and the whole hoard looks like this:
It’s a lot of fruit – I did the conversion into pounds…£3.93!!!!!!!! If only we could this amount of fruit that cheaply in the UK!!! We’d all be so much healthier. I think I got a bit too blinkered in what I wanted to buy as I realized later I missed the dragon fruit which I would really love to try – it’s pink on the outside and white with black flecks on the inside. Apparently it tastes a bit a kiwi fruit.
Happy with my pur-chases I went back and got ready for training. I did another half hour on the ski machine, hung around to talk to people for a bit and then wandered off to get showered and changed. I had a really nice feeling of being clean and dry. I’d changed into my black combats which roll up into half length trousers, which make it that much cooler. I was feeling very relaxed sitting outside perched on the ledge which runs around the front porch of the bungalow.
I saw Sam after he finished training, mentioned I was heading for dinner and he asked if I wouldn’t mind some company. So after wating for him to get washed up and changed we wondered out along the road to Don’s looking for some Thai food somewhere different. After a few bends in the road we wandered into a rather nice looking place which advertised having air conditioning (Sam doesn’t have air con in his bungalow). The place was really well decorated with burgundy walls and lots of wood and natural tones complimenting the colours they’d chosen.
The menu was a mixture of French, European and a bit of fusion cooking as well. There was predominantly a fresh French influence throughout and I noticed the second half of the menu was actually in French.
I had a classic salad and when it came to adding a little more olive and oil and balsalmic vinegar..I have to admit it’s sad but I got very excited as the vinegar was in a bottle with a squirty top! Absolute genious..such a simple small thing but I’ve always found when dressing a salad that balsamic vinegar bottles pour too quickly and don’t distribute the vinegar very evenly..so having a spray is perfect! The salad is also organic and picked daily so it was lovely to have some something more interesting than iceberg which is what is served everywhere else.
For the main I decided to push the boat out – I’d only had fruit so far during the day so I was pretty hungry. I went for the cottage pie (not very French I know, or thai for that matter!)..but it was described as gratinated mashed potatoe over mince. It was amazing!!!! The beef was beautifully seasoned with herbs, the cheese on top of the potato was simply gorgeous. I haven’t eaten cheese other than the feta in the greek salad for the better part of 6 months so this was a real treat. The portion sizes are excellent – small enough so you don’t feel stuffed and large enough to be enjoyable.
I was enjoying the aftertaste of the cottage pie so much than I went for desert too! I had the black chocolate mousse with a ball of vanilla ice cream. It was just like Mum’s but without the booze! :o) I haven’t eaten nuts for so long it feels like years! The almond flakes sprinkled on the plate with the mousse were really surprisingly tasty.
Great meal, really enjoyed the food (duh). I think it’s just become my favourite non-Thai restaurant in Phuket!! I wasn’t going to tell anyone about my birthday coming up but under the influence of the cheese and the mousse I said to Sam I wanted to go back there for my birthday.
Doing the fast and changing my diet to mostly fresh food has really awakened my tastebuds. All the rich foods that become a normal part of our diet really have a huge affect on our mood and health and I don’t know of any other way to really learn that knowledge than doing the detox and emptying your system of all the toxins. (Like my other half says, I’m probably going to come back a Health Nazi!). It’s great fun trying different foods and seeing how they affect me now. It’s such a good learning experience for me – I’m learning to listen to my body! I know from what Michael was saying about detoxing that I’m not going to be a saint forever when it comes to food but I’m starting from a much better place and at the end of the day isn’t the key to it – enjoying it all!
I couldn’t get to sleep last night – too much sugar and rich food running through me so I overslept this morning. I did toy with the idea of missing training – for a few seconds. That was until I realized the training session goes on for 3 hours and I can start whenever I want to, doh! Silly me. I started on the ski machine at about 8 and went for 40 mins. It usually takes about 15mins before the sweat really starts and I thought I’d share what my legs get like after my ‘warm up’ – it’s like having tiny little rivers of sweat…awww aren’t they cute!
Today is laundry day – I’ve been putting it off as long as possible and handwashing my gym gear for the most part. But there’s a certain point when the laundry bag is overfull and I’ve nearly run out of clothes!
This morning after my workout I washed my gym gear, had my shower and laid out all the fruit I bought yesterday for the photo above. My room was cleaned yesterday morning so with all my washing in it feels like I’ve got a brand new room again – lovely feeling.
Coming away and having all this time to think about things and slow down has really made me appreciate certain things a lot more. I’m not rushing through everything on the way to something else and missing the experiences as I go. I’m loving washing my clothes in the sink while I’m having my post workout shower – hanging them up to dry for the heat of the day so they get the best chance to dry. It tends to get very humid towards the end of the day and overnight so things don’t really dry overnight.
After I’d sorted out all my morning chores I fixed myself a huuuuuge fruit salad..and managed to get bitten by the big nasty sharp knife. It’s sharp all the way down to the bottom and the corner dug into my thumb. Mangoes, bananas, apple..all yum!
I saw Rodrigo who I met at the fight a while ago this morning. He’s doing well, he’s got himself a little rice cooker, steamer combo for about a fiver – lots perfect for cooking good healthy food on next to no money at all. I’m tempted to get a blender and a steamer too but I’m not sure about having to carry things back..I’d need a chopping board to. Actually that’s not a bad diet – steamed veg with rice..smoothies..hmmm..maybe I will. Still indecisive as ever :o)
There are ants everywhere here and this morning when I got back from training I saw a steady stream of them climbing up onto the porch. I followed it to the corner and realized the moving black mass were collected into a gecko shape. They were picking the gecko apart bit by bit. I was going to take a photo to show you once I’d finished my shower, but by the time I was out again they’d completed removed all remnants! Life in action.
I’ve got a bit of a headache again today, I’m staying in the air con and fans and am going to drink another couple of litres of water before I go training at 4ish.
I’m really looking forward to a thai meal with lots of veggies this evening. I’m also started to look forward to this weekend, there’s a bit going on. On Friday my 30 day visa runs out so I’ve asked Noi at the shop if I can do a visa run – the only thing is it’s Songkran (Thai New Year) so I thought there might not be a run – so I’ll either be off to Burma on Thursday or Friday for the day. There’s no training at the gym Friday or Saturday because of Songkran though I’m thinking if I’m here on Friday I’ll still head down and work out for a couple of hours. On Sunday, Suz mentioned hiring a boat for a group of us to go out on for the day. I’m really looking forward to it – it sounds like it’s going to be a bit like the old days in Hong Kong. I’ll be getting the fruit, someone else will sort the drinks, someone else other food…etc.etc.. I can’t wait! I do need to sort myself out with a swim suit so I might need to do a trip into town before Sunday too.
Suz is leaving on Tuesday and I think David may go as well. Bit of a shame – I’ve enjoyed talking to them, though there’s already been talk of meeting up in the UK.
So at the moment if I follow up on all the possibilities and plans there’s
Lunch in London
A Party in Malta
Drinks in London
A Trip to Ireland
Possibly a fight in Wales
A Party up north somewhere
Oh and when I get the time and money, trips to Mexico City, Singapore and Dubai!
My other half and I are going to need to get creative financially to live this new life :o)
Yesterday (Monday) I didn’t make it to Don’s so no updates.
Monday was pretty cool, I went training in the morning and the afternoon though admittedly only for the ski machine both times. I hung around for a lot longer in the morning which was nice – ended up talking to a lot more people. The boys from London are heading back later today so it was nice to seem them this morning. I think it’d be good to go along to their club for a Saturday training session or two.
With the market coming local on Thursdays I figured it would make sense that they also come to the place close to gym on Mondays (if they alternate between the three places then Tuesday and Wednesday are probably the other two locations – strange to say in Thailand but the logic actually works on this one – the market was there in the afternoon. I only remembered at about 3:30pm so it was all set up and full of produce!
I found a stall selling bananas and went a little nuts – I got three bunches (har har, bunches – they’re a bit more than a bunch!). I wondered around a little and found a stall with some watermelons pre-cut in half and got a half. There I also picked up 10 of the large apples. I was pretty weighed down at this point and couldn’t see any yellow mangoes anywhere (there only seemed to be green ones)..so I wondered back to my bungalow to deposit my finds. I was walking back thinking there must be some yellow mangoes somewhere there! So I headed back and found some! 2 kilos later and I was a happy shopper. I picked up enough fruit to fill the fridge in my bungalow and the whole hoard looks like this:
It’s a lot of fruit – I did the conversion into pounds…£3.93!!!!!!!! If only we could this amount of fruit that cheaply in the UK!!! We’d all be so much healthier. I think I got a bit too blinkered in what I wanted to buy as I realized later I missed the dragon fruit which I would really love to try – it’s pink on the outside and white with black flecks on the inside. Apparently it tastes a bit a kiwi fruit.
Happy with my pur-chases I went back and got ready for training. I did another half hour on the ski machine, hung around to talk to people for a bit and then wandered off to get showered and changed. I had a really nice feeling of being clean and dry. I’d changed into my black combats which roll up into half length trousers, which make it that much cooler. I was feeling very relaxed sitting outside perched on the ledge which runs around the front porch of the bungalow.
I saw Sam after he finished training, mentioned I was heading for dinner and he asked if I wouldn’t mind some company. So after wating for him to get washed up and changed we wondered out along the road to Don’s looking for some Thai food somewhere different. After a few bends in the road we wandered into a rather nice looking place which advertised having air conditioning (Sam doesn’t have air con in his bungalow). The place was really well decorated with burgundy walls and lots of wood and natural tones complimenting the colours they’d chosen.
The menu was a mixture of French, European and a bit of fusion cooking as well. There was predominantly a fresh French influence throughout and I noticed the second half of the menu was actually in French.
I had a classic salad and when it came to adding a little more olive and oil and balsalmic vinegar..I have to admit it’s sad but I got very excited as the vinegar was in a bottle with a squirty top! Absolute genious..such a simple small thing but I’ve always found when dressing a salad that balsamic vinegar bottles pour too quickly and don’t distribute the vinegar very evenly..so having a spray is perfect! The salad is also organic and picked daily so it was lovely to have some something more interesting than iceberg which is what is served everywhere else.
For the main I decided to push the boat out – I’d only had fruit so far during the day so I was pretty hungry. I went for the cottage pie (not very French I know, or thai for that matter!)..but it was described as gratinated mashed potatoe over mince. It was amazing!!!! The beef was beautifully seasoned with herbs, the cheese on top of the potato was simply gorgeous. I haven’t eaten cheese other than the feta in the greek salad for the better part of 6 months so this was a real treat. The portion sizes are excellent – small enough so you don’t feel stuffed and large enough to be enjoyable.
I was enjoying the aftertaste of the cottage pie so much than I went for desert too! I had the black chocolate mousse with a ball of vanilla ice cream. It was just like Mum’s but without the booze! :o) I haven’t eaten nuts for so long it feels like years! The almond flakes sprinkled on the plate with the mousse were really surprisingly tasty.
Great meal, really enjoyed the food (duh). I think it’s just become my favourite non-Thai restaurant in Phuket!! I wasn’t going to tell anyone about my birthday coming up but under the influence of the cheese and the mousse I said to Sam I wanted to go back there for my birthday.
Doing the fast and changing my diet to mostly fresh food has really awakened my tastebuds. All the rich foods that become a normal part of our diet really have a huge affect on our mood and health and I don’t know of any other way to really learn that knowledge than doing the detox and emptying your system of all the toxins. (Like my other half says, I’m probably going to come back a Health Nazi!). It’s great fun trying different foods and seeing how they affect me now. It’s such a good learning experience for me – I’m learning to listen to my body! I know from what Michael was saying about detoxing that I’m not going to be a saint forever when it comes to food but I’m starting from a much better place and at the end of the day isn’t the key to it – enjoying it all!
I couldn’t get to sleep last night – too much sugar and rich food running through me so I overslept this morning. I did toy with the idea of missing training – for a few seconds. That was until I realized the training session goes on for 3 hours and I can start whenever I want to, doh! Silly me. I started on the ski machine at about 8 and went for 40 mins. It usually takes about 15mins before the sweat really starts and I thought I’d share what my legs get like after my ‘warm up’ – it’s like having tiny little rivers of sweat…awww aren’t they cute!
Today is laundry day – I’ve been putting it off as long as possible and handwashing my gym gear for the most part. But there’s a certain point when the laundry bag is overfull and I’ve nearly run out of clothes!
This morning after my workout I washed my gym gear, had my shower and laid out all the fruit I bought yesterday for the photo above. My room was cleaned yesterday morning so with all my washing in it feels like I’ve got a brand new room again – lovely feeling.
Coming away and having all this time to think about things and slow down has really made me appreciate certain things a lot more. I’m not rushing through everything on the way to something else and missing the experiences as I go. I’m loving washing my clothes in the sink while I’m having my post workout shower – hanging them up to dry for the heat of the day so they get the best chance to dry. It tends to get very humid towards the end of the day and overnight so things don’t really dry overnight.
After I’d sorted out all my morning chores I fixed myself a huuuuuge fruit salad..and managed to get bitten by the big nasty sharp knife. It’s sharp all the way down to the bottom and the corner dug into my thumb. Mangoes, bananas, apple..all yum!
I saw Rodrigo who I met at the fight a while ago this morning. He’s doing well, he’s got himself a little rice cooker, steamer combo for about a fiver – lots perfect for cooking good healthy food on next to no money at all. I’m tempted to get a blender and a steamer too but I’m not sure about having to carry things back..I’d need a chopping board to. Actually that’s not a bad diet – steamed veg with rice..smoothies..hmmm..maybe I will. Still indecisive as ever :o)
There are ants everywhere here and this morning when I got back from training I saw a steady stream of them climbing up onto the porch. I followed it to the corner and realized the moving black mass were collected into a gecko shape. They were picking the gecko apart bit by bit. I was going to take a photo to show you once I’d finished my shower, but by the time I was out again they’d completed removed all remnants! Life in action.
I’ve got a bit of a headache again today, I’m staying in the air con and fans and am going to drink another couple of litres of water before I go training at 4ish.
I’m really looking forward to a thai meal with lots of veggies this evening. I’m also started to look forward to this weekend, there’s a bit going on. On Friday my 30 day visa runs out so I’ve asked Noi at the shop if I can do a visa run – the only thing is it’s Songkran (Thai New Year) so I thought there might not be a run – so I’ll either be off to Burma on Thursday or Friday for the day. There’s no training at the gym Friday or Saturday because of Songkran though I’m thinking if I’m here on Friday I’ll still head down and work out for a couple of hours. On Sunday, Suz mentioned hiring a boat for a group of us to go out on for the day. I’m really looking forward to it – it sounds like it’s going to be a bit like the old days in Hong Kong. I’ll be getting the fruit, someone else will sort the drinks, someone else other food…etc.etc.. I can’t wait! I do need to sort myself out with a swim suit so I might need to do a trip into town before Sunday too.
Suz is leaving on Tuesday and I think David may go as well. Bit of a shame – I’ve enjoyed talking to them, though there’s already been talk of meeting up in the UK.
So at the moment if I follow up on all the possibilities and plans there’s
Lunch in London
A Party in Malta
Drinks in London
A Trip to Ireland
Possibly a fight in Wales
A Party up north somewhere
Oh and when I get the time and money, trips to Mexico City, Singapore and Dubai!
My other half and I are going to need to get creative financially to live this new life :o)
1 comment:
Wah! Ho lenga!
(i have eyebrow envy to add to my mango envy)
Did a bunch of revision today. I am confused as to how revision can be so panic inducing and so boring at the same time...it is one of life's great mysteries.....
Glad to hear you haven't fallen off the planet :)
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