Thursday, July 25, 2013

Vacation in the Norwegian mountains

There are years since we had summer as fine as this!

Staying at our wooden cabin in the mountains these days is truly a paradise. Especially for Lea who just loooves running in the mountains and playing in every little stream and pool she sees. And Tore have taken lots and lots of stunning photos :)


Lea's energy is amazing. Who could think this dog is ten years old and has cancer with spreading? She runs up  and down hundreds of meters in just some seconds. We people move just  too slow for her - and she gets really impatient!





Nothing is better than active vacation! Climbing up and down mountains, stretching, doing lots of "old fashioned" body work at the cabin and eating plenty of wonderful, healthy home-made food.  Good stuff!







Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Where is Edward Snowden?

This case is getting really funny. Is Uncle Vova going to outsmart Uncle Sam?

I am really disappointed about the honest nerd Eddy Snowden. I think he urgently needs a make-over. Just think a moment: a proper spy is ought to have at least a wig and a false nose.  But Eddy turns up completely au-naturel at Sheremetyevo, even without any false documents, full-heartedly believing in the goodness of people. Ha ha ha.

Outsmarting Uncle Sam may be a matter of prestige for Uncle Vova. So instead of hunting  down the man with the well-known face at the Sheremetyevo airport, the spies and journalists maybe should be looking for someone like this:


or like this:


or maybe.....

this?


Wouldn't it be great if Eddy already were in Cuba? Who would believe a Russian government man issuing a twit about an asylum in Venezuela, anyway? I wouldn't. But the press is quick to  "bite" any worm. Good for Uncle Vova.

For there cannot be a problem to transport a fugitive over the ocean on the direct Aeroflot flight to Cuba. Even if Uncle Sam gets the last-minute knowledge about Eddy being on board,
quietly relaxing among the luggage 

...or hidden between the packs of wonderful and tasty air food.





Russian pilots are tough enough to ignore demands from any country to land the aircraft. They know that no government in the would take responsibility of shooting down a civilian aircraft with 300 passengers on board because of some fugitive being among them. 

Holding my fingers crossed and waiting for the happy end :)



KAL's cartoon from economist.com - good as always.









Sunday, July 7, 2013

Food decisions

Yesterday me and my fiancé watched the documentary "Forks over knives" on Apple TV.  The movie made us  more conscious about what we are eating.


Being a certified nutritional consultant and physical therapist, I am fully aware of disadvantages of animal-based food. Several years ago I turned vegetarian mainly due to my ethic considerations, even prior to my nutritional education. A a student I fought my fights with the teachers who were trying to persuade me to start eating fish oil, red meat and other unessesary and potentially dangerous stuff...

Because of my vegetarian life style my blood profile is as I were in my teens, not in my forties. My blood cholesterol is 3,7, sugar 4,4. I personally know nobody my age who eat meat and have blood values as good as mine. I believe this is only due to my life style, not my genes.

My mom unfortunately has cardiovascular diseases, overweight since her early thirties  and diabetes in her seventies. She has been a real meat-lover all of her life. Now she takes many prescription meds every day, like all of her friends.

At home we cook only vegetarian food but when we visit our non-vegetarian friends or go to fancy restaurants, we eat whatever is served.

Unfortunately I still am a milk-a-holic. I love milk and diary products and usually drink several cups of caffe latte daily. So does my fiancé. But the movie "Forks over knives" made us think really hard about abandoning milk and eat even less processed foods than we do.

I have been reading critics about this movie, the diet they advocate is really extreme: no nuts, no oils or oily foods like avocado and olives, no sauces of any kind... But there is no doubt this diet plan works in preventing and reversing cancers and cardiovascular disease. The research included millions of subjects over several decades.

So instead of finding arguments NOT TO, I would rather consider to make changes to my diet to make it healthier.

So today we went to our nearest veggie produce shop and bought lots of fruits and veggies. And we bought two types of veggie milk - organic  rice milk and non-organic soy milk (too bad they did not have organic).


As you can see, rice and soy milk have different colour and density. And the taste is quite different, too. 
I did not like the rice milk, it was too sweet and too little dense. The soy milk tasted not too good as well. But by mixing these two milks in different proportions I finally achieved a rather drinkable taste. In the end it was actually not too bad.

Later we did some experimenting on frothing this soy/rice mixture  for cappuccinos. Wow, the froth looked amazing! 



Worse was the taste. No, I could not drink THIS. 
Better stick to smoothies in the morning and indulge myself with one proper caffe latte in the weekend.



Today's dinner was as close as possible to the principles of whole non-processed foods as we could achieve: fresh baby potatoes with dill and sprinkle of the best quality Spanish olive oil (no-no, olive oil will not be abandoned here!) , marinated wild cucumbers, mushrooms and onion stew, and veggie salad with lemon juice and olive oil. 

No animal proteins and almost no salt. And this simple food tasted just heavenly. A good start for a better life style.


















Monday, July 1, 2013

Four-Leaf Clover

Today when I played with Lea on the lawn and was about to pick up her toy from the ground - I found  this ...


The four-leaf symbol of luck.

I thought of all the blessings in my life. Not just today, but my everyday blessings. Which are so many!

And I came up with this little poem about the little things that bring happiness into my life.


Good Luck


Good luck is
To appreciate today. Every day.
To watch sparrows messing in the bushes.
To stop and watch them a little more.
Even if it makes you to come a few minutes late
For work.
To smell the fresh-cut grass.
To kiss my dog's funny nose.
To look into my fiancé's beautiful eyes
And feel I 'm blessed more than anybody else.