We're in Double Digits!

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It's Friday and that means its Europe update day! We're in DOUBLE DIGITS BABY! 98 days to go!

I'm in Aussie at the moment for the Soundwave Festival, but I'll tell you all about my trip next week (Yay Slash!)


At the moment, all of Europe is about making sure we have enough money. We're backpackers, we're doing it tight! Most of our money is going on booking accommodation and sights (so we don't miss out and because we can qualify for discounts this way) and so our savings are minimal. It's seriously scary! We are very reliant on selling our stuff to make up the last of the money we will need, and there's a chance it won't be enough.

We are staying positive though. I'm taking on as many nail jobs as I can, I'm going to look for some writing work, and we will keep doing overtime at work. The hard yards will be so worth it when we get there.

www.normandie-camping.com

This week, we booked our camping spot in Cherbourg. Its pretty much our last spot, we're there for 2 nights/1 day before we drop the bike back in Bournemouth and head back to London for a couple days before flying home. We arrive in Cherbourg after a very full day of riding - and it will be Courts birthday. Poor boy has to do a full days ride on his birthday so the next day we have nothing to do but enjoy Cherbourg and each other and celebrate not only the end of our big adventure but Courts turning 26 as well. You have to look at the photos of this place, it looks amazing.

We also booked 2 nights just outside Venice. The campground doesn't take bookings but when I checked cabin prices it was a euro cheaper to have a cabin with 2 single beds that it was to camp with your own tent. So I'm not sure what the catch is but we have a cabin and we are walking distance from a 30 minute ferry into the heart of Venice. I've been told you don't need much time in Venice. Hopefully this rings true because we don't have much!

www.urban75.org

Lastly, we booked the London Hostel for our last 2 nights in Europe. Not quite as exciting because we will have already been there, but I booked a hostel in Greenwich Village which is a cool. A bit out of the way, but we will get to see a different side and we will get to stand on the Mean Time line which is the kind of lame touristy tackiness that I love!

We still have to figure out accommodation in Barcelona, Chalon-en-Champagne, Santorini, Sorrento, Rome, Castaldo, and Nice. We have found campsites in all places but booking them is not always as easy as it could be! Hopefully next week I will have more news for you, in the meantime if you have ever been, or know anyone that as been where we're going, especially if they camped, send them my way with some tips!

Working Towards a Common Goal

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Sometimes, it's really freakin hard to find a silver lining. It's just over a week now since the quake struck Christchurch and with such devastation and loss of life it can be really hard to see any positives. I think as New Zealanders though, we have proven how strong we are in the face of adversity. I hate saying 'we' in that sentence, because although I was extremely upset by everything that happened, it hasn't really affected me. My friends and family are fine as am I. I say 'we' though because almost everyone I know has been overwhelmed by a hideous sense of helplessness.

We have donated, we have worn Canterbury colours, we have done what we could. We have supported each other, reached out to one another, counted our blessings together. New Zealand media has gone to town reporting on the community spirit that is alive and kicking in New Zealand. We will not be defeated.

www.breakaway.co.nz

New Zealand is awesome. I'm so proud to be a Kiwi and I so wish I could have helped in some small way when the earthquake hit. You know what I haven't seen in the media? An outbreak of 'This world is so cool to be a part of'.

That, my friends, is my silver lining. Within hours, teams from all over the world were on their way. It feels like the whole world picked up the phone and went 'Oh shit mate, won't be a second, I'll just grab my keys and leave a note to say where I've gone and I'll be right there'. Australians, Americans, Brits, Japanese... they're all here, helping.

I know that they have their own motivations. If they help us, we'll help them. In many situations, we already have. But at the end of the day, they didn't have to. Australia has enough issues of its own, with floods, fire and cyclones to deal with. But the government gave us $5 million as though it was pocket change, and sent equipment and people over. Hundreds of Aussie police officers have been sworn in as New Zealand police so they can help. American Urban Search and Rescue teams are helping us search for the living. Japanese crews were put on to search a school where many Japanese may have perished.

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As much as I love my blog and as addicted to facebook as I am, I'm the first to say I'd happily go without the Internet. But without modern networking capabilities, or even just communications we take for granted, these other countries wouldn't even know we were in trouble. A hundred years ago, your world was your community. Everywhere else was so far away. Now, we are in a world that is exactly the same size it used to be, but so much smaller in so many ways.

If your neighbour came by to ask for help with something, would you jump at the chance? Would you have offered before they had to ask? Would you have opened the door? We do not extend the same civilities to our own communities that we do to strangers the world over. It's sad, and I am guilty of it as much as anyone I've ever met. This last week though, has felt different. I'm inspired, I'm grateful, and I'm hopeful. Not all countries have it all figured out just yet, that's for sure. But if those of us that do, can band together like this... what an awesome world we live in.

I Wish I Could Hear Crickets From my Desk...

www.agnarchy.com

I work in an office. I sit by the window, a priviledge which took a couple of years to come to fruition, and the natural light is the best thing about my space. Most of my view is roof tops and apartments, but thats ok - I get sunlight. Lunch times spent outside on the grass produce the most fruitful afternoons. Maybe I am solar-powered.

Most of you know by now that when we get back from Europe I am going to most likely have to look for a new job. I guess, as it should, the whole thing has got me thinking. As always, and as frustratingly as always, I have 2 sides to my thinking.

I love my job. Sure I have times when I fall into a rut or when I'm disgruntled by situations at work, but at the end of the day, I have never held a position longer than the one I hold now, and if the decision were based on day to day activities alone, I probably wouldn't look to leave anytime soon. I train people how to do their jobs and how to be better at customer service. With help when I need it from my boss and my team mate, I create documentation, I design lessons and activities and I facilitate training. I see new employees take on challenges and learn and grow. I love helping people be better at what they want to do and achieve awesome things.

As with any job, there are downs just as there are ups. Those that need to, know them. But of course when the downs out weigh the ups from time to time, you gaze out the window and you wonder 'what if'.

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After Courts and I went to the Farmers Market the other week,  we had to call into the office to log a request for Courts grandfather. We had spent a good couple of hours with hot morning sun bouncing off our skin, fresh air filling our lungs, tasting beautiful hand crafted treats, smelling fresh produce, and chatting to friendly, easy going and often eccentric market folk about their stalls - more often than not, also their passion.

We walked into the office, and I saw the harsh red and white walls, smelt the stale air conditioning, and felt temperatures that disagreed with the sun streaming into the edges of the large room. I saw staff staring at computers, while outside the sun drenched possibilities were endless. I said to Courts - "I never want to work in an office again". We talked of renovating houses, of selling home produce at market stalls, of working together on something we were passionate about. Our own hours, our own motivation. Fresh air, sunlight, creativity... Bliss.

http://sheenedy.blogspot.com/

On Monday, at 8.30am, we were back in the office. I settled back into my daily routine. I thoroughly enjoyed the work I was doing and I even skipped breaks, preferring to keep working on the projects at hand, more because I was enjoying them than because they had to be done right then and there. Later in the week, I was inspired by talk of positive change by our GM. He told me I wasn't allowed to leave for Europe because I was one of the family, and that I should definitely try and come back after my trip. I said to Courts - "This is why I'm still here. We're changing the way things are done, not only within the company, but the industry. We make mistakes, and we bounce back higher than anyone else. I want to be part of that".

And here we are, at a cross roads. If I set up a small market stall, and I do nails, and I blog, and I go to the beach when I want, there will be no ladder to climb, no promotion to aim for, certainly no payrises. Will I be able to pay off my personal loan? Travel the world? Buy a house?

If I get back into an office, I can do all of those things. But will I be making the most of this one life I get? Will I be as happy as I possibly could be?

Is there a balance?

Keepin on Truckin

sushantskoltey.wordpress.com

Sugar sugar sugar. Last week was Week 8. I'm finding this middle part of my 3 months mission to be very up and down. I will not think about sugar for hours and then bam. Need. Chocolate (Just say no, just say no).

We found out about this plant called Stevia that we want to try out. We're going to buy seeds from King Seeds and see what happens. Basically, Stevia is a plant that is naturally super super sweet - as in, 300 times sweeter than sugar. You can use the leaves if you either steep them like a tea to make a liquid or rip them up and put them straight into cooking. You can also get it in powdered form if thats easier for you. You make a cake, you need 1 teaspoon of it. Want a coffee? Sprinkle just a few grains.

It's completely natural and unrefined. It's a plant! You need far far less of it and some research shows it actually has medicinal properties - its GOOD FOR YOU! Yusssss.

Meanwhile, I kept a food diary. Skip to the bottom if you don't care, I'm mostly just publishing it so I am accountable. This week I ate - 

• 13 pieces of wholegrain toast (2.5%)
• 1 piece turkish bread (unknown)
  
• 1c roast potato
• 100g Kumara
• 2 poached eggs
• 50g Bacon
• 2 small breakfast sausages (unknown)
• 50g Edam Cheese 
• 100g Ham
• 100ml Vanilla Ice Cream (at Movies by Moonlight, 19.6%)
• 1 nut bar (22.9%)
• 27 raw nuts
• 1/4 cup Hollondaise sauce
• 2.5 avocados
• 1c guacamole
• 1 large mushroom
• 2 tomatos
• 1 Passionfruit
• 3 Olives
• 1 apple
• 1c lettuce
• 4 Plums
• 3/4 cup green grapes
• 25 prunes
• 3 Peach Muffins (made with honey)
• 2 Banana muffins (made with Honey)
• 2 tbsp Sunflower seeds
• 6 tbsp Honey
• 1 scoop hot chips with vinegar
• 1 Taco Salad - lettuce, tomato, chicken, beans, sour cream, guacamole, mayonaisse in a taco bowl. The only sugar would have been the mayonaisse. (unknown)
• 2 meals of Vermicelli with brocolli, yellow pepper, eggplant, bok choy, soy sauce (3%), honey, ginger. One day I had it with egg, the next with chicken. The egg one had beef stock (0.4%) and the chicken one had 1 Chicken OXO Cube (0.1%) between 3 servings (of which I had one)
• An egg, rice and vege bake that Natalie made
• 2 meals of a concoction Courtney made with Mince, rice, coconut cream, tomatos, capsicum and onion
• 5 Wholegrain buns (over 3 meals, 1.8% from memory) with spinach, tomato, turkey, camembert, salami, capsicum and cashew pesto, butter.
• 2250ml water
• 1 Sugar-Free V
• 50ml Peach Iced Tea (It was my Mums and I just wanted a sip to tide me over, 7.5%)
• 100ml Phoenix Cola - at work they got a free coffee for everyone. I don't like coffee, can't do Hot Chocolate, so I asked for a Coke Zero. This was the closest they could find, made with organic cane sugar. I tried to drink it, I really did. But for a combination of reasons - too sweet, too jittery, didn't want to let myself down - I gave to Courts after 2 or 3 sips (11%).
• 600ml Milk (4.9%, I haven't bolded it because its not added sugar, just natural lactose)
• 1 can Coke Zero 

http://iis.berkeley.edu/research

It's still not what I would call healthy eating. I think it's just closer to 'normal' than I used to be. The things that had sugar in them had an average of 7.64%. It's good, but considering I'm supposed to be keeping below 3% it wasn't great. The culprits were the nut bar, which I haven't bought any more of, sips of sugary drinks, which i just need to say no to, and the ice cream. It was only 1 scoop and it was once this week, so I'm ok with that.

I don't really like seeing my water intake up there. I know I need to drink more water, but I struggle. Rather than get my percentage down further, this week I'm going to focus on water. It will probably be easier to avoid sugar if I can get on top of that.

Any tips for making me want water? I've tried it cold, warm, hot, with lime, with lemon, with ice, in a bottle, in a cup... help!