at least they didn't show her clingfilm samples



I met a friend of Chris' recently who is...erm...an unusual character. She only eats raw food. Not as in raw meat or sashimi, I mean raw fruits and veg. And that's it. There's a series on channel 4 about dieting, and she was in the first episode, which I sadly forgot to watch. I am not going to slag off this woman's choice of dietary living - I am an ex-vegetarian who still doesn't eat red meat for reasons I've long forgotten. What does interest me is the concept of people who use their diet as a means of attracting attention. Apparently, one "expert" on this series made this observation, and I can see their point. I know a few people who can raise quite a fuss about their dietary needs; the sort who can't simply just pick something off a menu that they can eat without broadcasting it to their dinner companions and the entire restaurant staff. "I'll have the salad, but only if it's gluten-free, hasn't been tested on animals, and doesn't contain any ozone-depleting chemicals. I'm getting this because it's the only thing I can eat in this entire restaurant, and I've felt the need to share this fact with you for no good reason other than to draw attention to myself. I'm now going to drone on about my dietary needs at length to my disinterested dinnermates. Thank you." As I always say, if I could find something to eat at a place called the "Steak and Burger" (this was in Toronto when I was still a veggie), anyone can find something to eat anywhere. Criminey.



Speaking of dining, we're off for an evening of Mexican food with my mates at the lovely White Horse pub in Oakington. It's hardly authentic by any stretch of the imagination, but it's perfectly decent and the staff are always so friendly.



Speaking of authentic Mexican food, we're planning our holiday in California in May. We plan to fly to LA, drive to La Jolla to see Paul's grandma (and his parents who will be there at the same time), then we're off to Vegas (wooooo Sigfried and Roy!), San Francisco (woooooo been wanting to go here for years!), Napa (wooooo wine tours!), San Simeon, and back to LA. Oh how I cannot wait to see the sun again. Truly.

don't rub your eyes after you've been slicing jalapenos



...are my words of wisdom for the day. Yowch. And yes, I knew that already but I'm very tired tonight and plum forgot.



Back to the daily routine again after playing hookey during the holidays. Although it's generally the same old grind, things also feel decidedly new. I guess starting a new year will do that to you, eh? We talk a lot and we plan a lot; Paul scribbles on paper in the middle of the night and I mumble ideas to him as I'm falling asleep. I'm very much looking foward to the months ahead, even if the days do still include the same old, same old. That's a really nice feeling.



Even though my eyes are still somewhat on fire. Ow. Ow. Ow.

wot's that penguin doing on the television?



Run for your lives! It's the deep freeze!



Honestly, you people. -10C is nothing to get panicky about, for goodness sake. This reminds me of a couple of years ago when Scotland got 6 inches of snow and people were advised to stay in their homes. This Canadian points and laughs. Hah, I say.

home sick



What better way to greet the new year than to greet it full of phlegm, with a sore throat and a backache to rule all backaches! *whoop whoop whoop*



The evil cold that's been plaguing Paul since we were in Toronto has now decided to move in with me. This is not good news as I've watched Paul suffer through this (and continue to suffer even today) and this is one bad ass mofo cold. This isn't the little sniffles with a bit of a cough variety, this is the kind of cold that makes you beg your partner to chop off your head to relieve the agony. I'm not at the head chopping stage yet, and I'm doing my damndest to make sure it never gets there - I'm plying myself with cold tablets and green tea, and thinking happy thoughts. On today's lunch menu: chicken soup with garlic, ginger, and chili. I may go wild and have a piece of toast later. Somebody stop me!



I really hate being sick. I can't sleep when I can't breathe through my nose, my lips get all dry, and I get so whingy that I even annoy myself. What's worse is that all the fattening food is now out of my house (okay, only because I ate it all...shuddup), and I can't even console myself with chocolate. All I can say is thank god for bubble baths, digital television, my Gamecube, and the fact that I have an extremely patient boyfriend who takes good care of me.

here we go



I decided that I would eat healthier food starting on Monday, so this weekend was our last big splurge (for a while, anyway). Paul made me a gorgeous cooked breakfast this morning (scrambled eggs, toast, beans, mushrooms, chicken sausages, and turkey bacon) and continued spoiling me with a fantastic dinner of roasted turkey breast, roasted veggies, gravy, bread sauce, and Yorkshire puddings. Now that I've used up my yearly starch allotment in one day, I'll savour the moment and look forward to healthy eating (with treats every now and then, of course). Right now, I need to lie down and undo my trousers. Ooof.

resolutions and resentment



I never make New Year's resolutions, simply because I hate doing stuff just 'cos everyone else is doing it. This is why I also find Beanie Babies so vile; they are specifically manufactured to convince people that they must purchase these "limited edition" floppy animals, and not only that, you are compelled to collect the whole frickin set. I only bought those two Canadian beanie bears in Montreal because they were Christmas pressies for two adorable little girls. I swear. But I digress.



I never make New Year's resolutions, but this year Paul and I decided to get back into healthy eating/exercise habits after the holidays. Makes sense - eat like a crazed pregnant woman for a few weeks, feel extremely happy but slightly nauseous, start to get grossed out by the sight of chocolate Santas, then start eating things that won't make you feel like poo. I hate to admit it, but I actually do feel a lot better when I'm eating properly and into a regular exercise routine. I don't need as much sleep, I have a lot more energy, and my grocery bills are quite a bit lower. The weekly "treats" are much more enjoyable (these are usually in the form of a night out once a week eating something sloppy like a curry and drinking a large amount of wine) and I don't feel hungover afterwards. So starting Monday, it's back to eating well and moving around on a regular basis.



I was reading an interesting article here on one of my favourite fitness Web sites (do take a look at the rest of her site here - it's one of the best resources for fitness I've come across). I think, if I were to be totally honest, that I am 50% motivated to get fit because it'll make me feel good and 50% motivated to do it because of how I'll appear to others. We are aware that we are being watched (and I don't mean in a stalking kind of way), and there are very few of us who can deny that we are affected by how we are judged by others. Similarly, we do the judging ourselves. There are many times that a scantily clad super buff chick will appear on my TV screen, usually eliciting some sort of "ooo!" type noise from the male watching television with me. My immediate response is to say something like, "She's got fat ankles. Look at them. I bet she gets them injected with collagen. And that hairdo - what did she do, hang her head out the bus window on the way to the shoot for this commercial?" I freely admit that all of these snide remarks are due to the fact that I am incredibly jealous of these super buff chicks and it makes me feel a lot better if I spot something wrong with them (spotting fake boobies is always another favourite of mine - "Look at them! It looks like she's had two giant Smarties sewn in there!"). On the other hand, I will look at friends in an entirely different manner. When I met up with Heather at one point last summer, I was so impressed with her flat tummy and how great she looked in a camisole and jeans. Instead of being jealous, I was inspired to stick to the gym routine and look like that myself one day. Maybe it's because I know how hard she works to look like that and how far she's come. Maybe it's because I know her and she's a really nice person. Either way, it would be a lot healthier if I could regard the super buff chicks on my television in the same respect. Except for the ones with the fake boobies. That's just cheating.

happy new year!



Good god, it's 2003. When I was a kid, that was like some sort of crazy sci-fi date. The year 2000 (and beyond) was going to mark the time of all sorts of funky high tech stuff, I thought. Surely we'd be transporting things around the world by now and living like the Jetsons. But no, here we are, with a few new gadgets and no flying cars.



And now, here's a list of celebrities who didn't die in 2002: Abe Vigoda, Bea Arthur (actually saw her on a poster for a play in Toronto - I'm scared and intrigued at the same time), Ann-Margret, Paul Newman, Elizabeth Taylor, Ron Woods, and Richard Chamberlain. Well done, everyone!



2002 was a year of changes: I changed jobs, got together with Paul, and bought my very first car. Paul said to me at midnight, who knows what this year will bring. Good things I hope, I said back to him.



Here's to good things for everyone.