Friends with Jenny

Valentine’s day fail

friendswithjenny — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 08:25:51 +0000

Deep down I’m a romantic, and over the years (okay, just one or two years), I’ve had some fairly good Valentine’s Days. In fact I even met a long-term boyfriend at a singles V-day party.

But yesterday did not turn into a silver lining kind of a day. The low-point was finding a note under my windscreen wiper (“Ooooo, look, a secret admirer has left me a declaration!”), from someone who had bumped into my car while parking (goodbye wing mirror). Someone in a huge, white 4 x 4; someone whose huge, white 4 x 4 has a beeping monitor thing to help them avoid colliding with objects; and someone whose note directed me to their husband’s PA (“she’ll deal with it”).

And so it went from there … to a party in the right dress, in the right venue, with the right friends, but with the wrong crowd. Entirely.

Luckily I woke up today and it was 15 February and I had Ferrero Rocher for breakfast.

Kling

friendswithjenny — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 14:10:58 +0000

I discovered a lovely store via Lucky Pony today (thanks!). I am now coveting Kling!

Saved for later

friendswithjenny — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 10:33:58 +0000

I’ve been browsing ASOS (they’re on SALE) and there are just so many things I love. I keep hitting the ‘save for later’ button. I’m not too sure what later I’m saving for though, because although they do send to SA, the import duties on clothes are almost as much as the clothes themselves (and there’s not much chance of ASOS sending my goodies to me in an unmarked, ‘unsolicited gift’ box.

Oh well.

Here are some of my dream purchases:

Resoultion 101

friendswithjenny — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 09:34:17 +0000

I’m back from a delicious holiday and almost fully back into my work year. It’s not easy. I’ve spent the last two weeks booking holidays and yoga workshops for 2012, which has gone some way to boosting my ‘looking forward to’ quotient. I’ve also, since I landed (thump!) back from dreamy Mozambique, put together a list of resolutions, which looks something like this:

: Joy board

I did a joy boarding exercise last night, which is a creative couple of hours where you let your mind go and page through various magazines looking for images that make your heart sing (attaching no meaning/judgements to the images that attract you; i.e. no “that’s really materialistic/superficial and so not me”). These were them, and they (and what they represent) are where my joy is at for 2012.

Not everything is literal (although a man covered in whipped-cream might well be): for instance luxury items may symbolise wealth, upping fees in line with worth, demanding a little more pay for services rendered; while fit bodies could mean getting in shape, or in my case, a more groundedness/rootedness in the body.

It’s a deeply personal activity, and can offer some insights into where you are in your life, where your priorities lie right now, and what you actually really, really want. And it should leave you feeling happy, joyful and excited for the future.

Jen x

Paying attention Santa?

friendswithjenny — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 11:27:19 +0000

If I had long locks

friendswithjenny — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 10:08:14 +0000

These pretty hairdos make me jealous:

See all the tutorials here.

More spending online?

friendswithjenny — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 09:25:19 +0000

Yay for online shopping. If I was in London, I’d be on here a lot:

I also recently discovered l’Emile et Son and the joys of buying wine from Wine Style and Norman Goodfellows. Happy days!

Online spending bliss

friendswithjenny — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 09:22:53 +0000

I am a good shopper. It’s something I do well. Shopping online though takes my skill set to a whole new level, and feeds my introverted nature (agorophobia anyone?).

Delighted doesn’t come close when I stumbled upon Meekel today. Add to that Yuppie Chef and old faithful Amazon and I hardly ever have to leave the house!

Here are my favorites from Meekel:

Jen

Fast and furious (kind of)

friendswithjenny — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 11:04:06 +0000

It’s funny how a fast works. Day 1 is easy peasy. Day 2 is hell. And day 3 is still pretty hellish, but manageable. And on all 3 days your relationship with food, and thus your body, is exposed. It’s a highly uncomfortable process.

I’ve just finished a 3 day juice fast. Today I break the fast, and let me tell you, breaking a fast is about as interesting as being on a fast. It’s hard to decide what I feel like eating – the past three days I’ve wanted tea and biscuits … a lot. But now I’m not sure what the hell I feel like eating. My stomach feels tender and everything I place in my mouth is contemplated; which I guess is the point.

I also am very much aware of how I distract myself from myself with food; how food is both a reward and punishment when I’m feeling miserable, and a trip to the kitchen cupboard is a nice way of circumventing painful and/or stressful thoughts.

Since a teenager I’ve had a complicated relationship with food (pretty much the status quo for every woman in the world). It’s certainly become less complicated the older I’ve become, the more therapeutic processes I’ve committed to, and the more yoga I’ve practiced. But drinking juice three times a day and nothing else (except water) is one way to bring yourself face-to-face with your food desires and cravings, and how you are feeling when you have them (and how you feel when all you can have is a cucumber, carrot, celery, ginger and apple juice … not happy is the answer!).

It’s also a good way to really appreciate the effect food has on the body. My practice this week while fasting has varied from elated, to dismal, light and fantastic, to light-headed and weak. And so as I slowly start adding variety, whole-foods and protein back into my diet, I’m going to watch what happens to my morning practices. What we eat is so very many things – comfort, culture, social connection, reward, desire, loneliness, heartache – but mainly its fundamental to how we operate in the world, and the quality of our experience therein.

Fuel, plain and simple. But then there’s nothing plain and simple ever, is there?

These two blogs make my foodie, fast-breaking day. Enjoy.

www.greenkitchenstories.com

: www.mynewroots.blogspot.com

Jen xx

Thanks for coming November

friendswithjenny — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 14:02:34 +0000

This has been a week I’d rather forget (and believe me, I’m all about seeing patterns and learning from them, etc, etc, but damn the last 7 days have kicked my ass!). In fact November (I usually love November as it’s my birthday month and indicates all sorts of much anticipated things like summer holidays, beaches, sea swimming and sleeping in late), has been a month from hell. Really. November 2011 almost had me in the ground (or at least on some serious coping medication).

And the last weekend in November pulled out all the stops and said: “Hey, bitch, you are 30 and awesome and everything, but for fuck sakes can you please sort your shit out!” Take three ex-boyfriends, one foot-in-mouth friend, too much wine, some insane blasts from the past, a long-desired unrequited flame, a bad case of an inability to say ‘no’ and some wild hormones, and you have the following:

Exhaustion on a very basic level (and finally making some decisions because something had to give)
A realisation that even when money is good, toxic work environments contaminate your soul (and may led to homicide)
Ex-boyfriends arriving in your space literally one behind the other is something to take note of. Some represent a youthful love that has a special place in your heat always, but is so very far removed from who you are now; some represent something you’ve always wanted, never had, and on reflection may not want at all anymore; and some just leave a bitter-sweet taste in your mouth and a desire to shake your head and shout “Really?! Really?!”.
Being on The Pill is not a joke and the beginning of that journey shouldn’t be taken lightly, because: goodbye contraceptive pill, hello mad moods and a body in turmoil.
When I am unable to practice every morning, I need to reassess. When I am hating practicing, my body hurts all over and I keep hitting snooze, taking a few days off is ok.
Thank God for the lightness of retail (thank you Anthropologie):