bookshoplaura

I am currently sitting on my couch waiting on a dizzy spell to pass. My stomach is like a balloon and I feel all sorts of hazy. In my battle to wean myself off sugar I am not doing so well. Okay let's not deprive me of all the credit because it's been well over a week since I've eaten actual sugar which is the good news. One second I just need to pause so I can pat myself on the back in a congratulatory manner. The bad news however is that I have been mainlining every sugar substitute I can manage to fit into my pudgy mouth. Yea that's me all over, more cloud than silver lining.  First I ate all the coconut sugar which was fun but ultimately I knew it had to end. The trouble with baking all the buns is my propensity to eat all the buns. Even a casual bystander could have told me this was never going to end well. All it took was several times of me being very ill after eating said delicious baked goods before I concluded that perhaps I needed to take a teeny tiny bre...

Anyone who has read even two random blog posts of mine is probably well aware of my dilemma. The well established fact that sugar is not my friend and the also well known reality that I continue to return to it like some shitty ex boyfriend I can't quite let go of. The current situation is that I'm off sugar almost a week now and I'm doing okay, I haven't eaten a sneaky bit so far. I did have a dream last night where I accidentally ate some (as you do) and I did feel bad upon waking but I don't believe that really counts. For the most part I am doing okay but that is probably because I chose to forget that coconut sugar is still sugar and was baking away to my hearts content until I was forced to acknowledge the undeniable truth that I was both putting up weight and feeling sick from the coconut sugar. The main thing is that I get myself to the two week mark without breaking and I'll be back on the straight and narrow and can work on not eating all the food a...

I have not made a secret of my love for the home wares department of tk maxx. Between the stationary and kitchen accessories I could probably waste half a day browsing. Since I have taken up baking and cooking more frequently I have found myself eyeing and then later buying many new kitchen accessories. In the last few weeks I have bought a new kitchen scales, rolling pin, knife, muffin tray, baking tray, new tuppaware and wooden spoons. It is important that you understand I needed those items and was not just mindlessly frittering away my wages for the sake of it. I can tell you I am already better off for it. I swear my baking/cooking skills have been improved almost 90% with the acquisition of the new kitchen equipment. So today I found myself browsing in the treasure trove that is tk maxx home wares, just browsing without the intention of bringing anything home and I came across this gem. I could have left it there except I could already see it improving my life for the b...

If you're not familiar with the term 'bitchy resting face' then take a seat and allow me to educate you. When your face is at rest, such as when you are not feeling any particular emotion, most people have a blank neutral expression. Some people, however, tend to have a default expression that makes them look like a bitch and hence the term bitchy resting face. See the photo above for clarification or type that term into a google images search and you will see an array of celebrities afflicted with this condition. As it happens, I am not one the unfortunate ones. No, my neutral expression tends to make me look sad, lost or confused depending on who you ask. Not that I have sat around trying to feel nothing just so I could ask people to judge my facial expressions. I do find, however, that when my face is at rest, that 'are you alright?' is a question I get asked a lot. I do happen to have another problem and I am not sure if I am the only one here. Perhaps I wil...

I have been doing a lot of reading lately on health stuff. Not so much because I have been actively seeking it out but it shows up on my Facebook news feed and I guess I'm in a place where I am open to reading about this kind of stuff. To be fair you don't need to show me articles on why sugar is bad for me. I'm a smart girl and I have already worked that out of my own accord. As one of the lucky few with candida, I have a more adverse reaction to sugar than your average girl so I could not be any more aware how bad it is for me. Just recently I took a tumble off the wagon and started nomming chocolate like it was going off tomorrrow and naturally I felt awful afterwards so after a week on this rampage I called it quits and three days later I am still feeling utterly strung out. All this morning I was starving and dizzy and kind of out of it and nothing seemed to help, em thanks sugar. I kind of feel like I need to be locked in a room to sweat it all out of me and hopeful...

Before we get started just let me tell you that not that long ago I used to drink a lot of coca cola, not two litres a day or anything mental like that and I certainly didn't drink it with every meal but I had more than my fair share of the carbonated soft drink. When I was hungover I would mainline the stuff like it was the only known cure and I would swear blind that it was the only thing that could settle my stomach. Did I know it wasn't good for me? sure, it's not like I was an idiot but I didn't really care. I liked the refreshment and the sugar and the caffeine hit. I remember once getting a lecture from a taxi driver about drinking coke and he informed me that Estee lauder use a chemical in their make up that's also in coke. I took his warning with a pinch of salt given that in the same conversation he told me that he had cured cancer with the power of his mind. Anyway these days, despite kicking my sugar habit and then falling right back off the wagon...

As an avid reader there is one thing I have never really understood and that is the appeal of the great romance novel. We should probably clear this up before I go any further. The last of great romantics isn't me but I am known to have my moments of sappiness. Not so sappy that I would feel inclined to buy a mills and boon or something of that ilk and I am not sure what such books really have to offer. Would you not to be too busy cringing at the awfulness of the story to actually garner any enjoyment from it. Anyway today, at work, I was assisting a customer when this gem caught my eye. Possibly the funniest thing I have ever read and I must say it really cheered up my Sunday so naturally I took down the details so I could find it at home and share my good fortune and the next book I'll be reading. Okay so fine , I don't seem myself ever reading mush like this while there still other books in publication, you are more likely to catch me perusing the phone book for funsi...

Today I am feeling incredibly tired, a little bit sick and oh so silly but it's cool because I am just going with it. Lost somewhere in the high brought on by sugar and lack of sleep. For Valentine's I went to a comedy gig (Andrew Maxwell, in case you were wondering) and it was well worth the money spent, I think my stomach is still sick from laughing but that could be from the sugar. Anyway after we had arranged to meet a mutual friend at someone's 30th for a drink or two and I was being a sensible Sally, only too aware of my 7 am alarm call and my propensity for epic hangovers so I only had two glasses of not very nice wine and was ridiculously tipsy as a result. The trouble with the epic nature of my hangovers (even after moderate drinking) is that it often prohibits me from actually enjoying alcohol as I drink it because I am so worried about the after effects, I can't help that as a worrier at heart. Anyway I had my two glasses and at 1 I said my goodbyes because...

After a while of watching people select Valentine's cards I'm starting to think we should consider selling them in multi-packs. You could get five you're my one and only cards at a budget price to send to the special woman in your life. Surely it must get expensive when you have to buy cards and I would assume flowers or chocolates for the wife and girlfriend. Now, I do know not every man is doing this because they're not all ass-holes but surely for those that are ( and surely there's enough of them) it's turning this so called holiday of love into a bit of a farce. I, with the little naive head on me, expressed horror the first time I clocked someone buying cards for more than one significant other but anyone I've told this to seems to think it's the norm. Perhaps not so much expected but certainly common enough to no longer make it a talking point.  For me this makes me feel sad inside despite obviously being aware that cheating happens. I am not ...

Last night I went to the afters of a christening With the boyfriend. It was a good night and I behaved in a very grown up fashion, having 4 glasses of wine over a number of hours. Pacing myself , if you will. My mother would almost have approved. Anyway despite my good behaviour I woke this morning with a mouth that tasted like sock, a nauseous feeling in my stomach, my head was pounding and I was in terrible form. Not to mention the fact that I had an atrocious case of the dumb, a complete inability to form coherent sentences and an overwhelming urge to eat all the food.  So I lazed about and snacked a lot including crackers , buns and pancakes yum. I also managed to make two types of cookies for my friends birthday tomorrow and in an even more impressive feat, managed to not eat them all.  Probably not my most productive day ever but considering how I felt all day, I didn't do too badly. I promised a friend of mine I'd help her bake a cake . it turned out smaller...

Okay so this blog post is not about a crisis per se but I am still sticking with the title.  Today I was returning from a trip to Clonmel with the boyfriend and we were driving down the one way street that leads to my apartment when I noticed there was a car driving towards me. He wasn't going very fast so my immediate thought was oh great this idiot doesn't realize he's driving down a one way street. Once I reached the point where I couldn't go any further I stopped the car and he kept motioning me frantically to get out of his way. Even if that wasn't illegal, there was nowhere for me to actually reverse to.  So we sat in our respective cars.Me, stopped in the middle of the lane with my boyfriend and him, with his girlfriend and two kids, while he had a small snack for himself. What else is there to do in this situation except have a sandwich and a small carton of milk sure.  At this point I thought it was a pain , a minor inconvenience. I think I might have ...

This morning I woke with a start to light streaming in through my curtains and then checked my phone with trepidation to see how late I had slept in. Yea it was 7.40 but I am so used to getting up at 7am or before that I can't actually remember the last time I woke when it wasn't dark outside. I had decided in light of the fact that I am not beginning work until 1 today that I could allow myself an extra hour in bed to catch up on much needed sleep but sadly my body thought otherwise. The Friday's I am working generally turn me into a bit of an overachiever in that I generally make several very ambitious plans about what I shall get up to in the hours before work but I don't do so well at following through. Usually about half of it gets abandoned when I realise I am beginning to run late for work. As it stands this Friday I have to make time for making myself resemble a human being (ie shower and make up) eat breakfast and then a small lunch before work, sort ou...

Do you know when you're having a conversation and you know the exact word that describes what you're talking about but you just can't think of it. Then you try to google but you're not exactly sure how to describe the word you're looking for so google is being really unhelpful. Last night I was talking about the large number of celebrities in their twenties having meltdowns and how I thought their upbringing in the public eye, in part, contributed to this. I was saying that because they did not have a normal upbringing they were basically more inclined to act like idiots or go crazy in their early twenties because for them, the society they were living in, was breaking down. Possibly not my most coherent line of thought but it was late and I should have been asleep so it was never going to my best work. I had the word I was searching for on the tip of my tongue and I was convinced it was pretty common and it began with a. Apparently that and a vague notion of what...

Today I actually baked myself into a good mood. Yes, I know that's not the normal reaction to feeling blue particularly given that I will have to give away  most of the stuff I've baked. Yup I can't eat the absolutely delicious looking cookies I've made because of how the coconut sugar does bad things to my stomach. Not that I'd normally let that stop me but new leaf and sugar free diet and all that malarky. I'm really trying to be good this time so instead of nomming all the noms I give them away quickly (the quicker the better) and try to live vicariously through the people eating them or all the praise they lavish me with for giving them free yummy things. In case you are wondering today's offerings include Oat cookies plain and covered in melted chocolate and gluten free buns. I shall include the recipes at the end because I'm sound like that. Fortunately I can actually eat the buns so you wont find me crying to myself as a I nibble on cu...

This morning my alarm went off at 7 am and I forced myself awake to check the weather reports because I thought there was a chance last nights storm might continue and I would be forced to have a duvet day. Once I realized this was not the case I forcibly dragged myself out of bed and into the shower and afterwards sat in my kitchen sullenly spooning porridge into my mouth. As I sat there listening to rain pelt the skylight I realised I really really didn't want to have to drive home today and after consulting the book of answers, it only took me a few tries to get the answer I wanted, I made an executive decision to return to bed. Now it's 11 am and I am still tired, noticeably crankier and feeling a certain sense of remorse for this mornings decision. Right about now I should be sweatily finishing a crossfit class but instead I am lazing like a slug in my bed and not feeling better for it. The rain has stopped and all seems calm outside so my days sabbatical no longer fee...

Right now I am sitting at home under a blanket listening to the wind howling outside in an ominous fashion and if rumours are to be believed this storm hasn't even got started yet. Now I know the weather we're experiencing here in the South east doesn't even begin to compare with the hurricanes and what not in other parts of the world but I am not living in those places and I can only blog about my own experiences.  I am not enjoying this weather one little bit, not that anyone is but It does not fill me with cheer heading to work early in the morning on your average dry day, I am not and will never be a morning person, so you can imagine what battling my way in rain and wind does to improve my mood. Not to burden you all with my tales of hardship and woe but I lost an Umbrella heading to work on Monday morning. The wind turned it inside out so many times I was pretty much holding a handle so I dumped it and arrived at work with wet socks. That made for a good day.  T...

I do believe I said I would be baking this weekend and I guess when I commit to an idea I really commit because since last night I have made pancakes, French toast, bacon and egg muffins, baby cheese scones, almond brittle, almond chocolate sweets and I'm making buns later. Yea I know, I'm like a 1950's housewife or so I told myself as I brought food into himself and the house-mate as they watched a match and I returned to the kitchen to finish baking. Not that I would have voluntarily watched a match given half the chance. I like baking and preparing food especially when I get to play around a bit with a recipe and I get a great sense of satisfaction whenever I pull it off but unfortunately not every recipe is the success I am hoping for. As it happens I am reasonably competent cook and when I can follow the recipe to the letter ( yes, I like my recipes precise) then I am usually fine. It turns out pretty much like it looked in the picture and everyone agrees that...

Bitch is a word used as an insult or taunt. It's something you mutter under your breath after talking to someone you actively dislike. Just so were clear it's not considered to be a good thing. Then recently someone told me that there's a self help book that has a slightly different definition. It's called why men love bitches (just draws you right in, doesn't it). I haven't ever read more than the title because I thought that pretty much says it all and assumed it was aimed at the sort of women who like their men to seek permission before spending time with friends and use sexual favours as a way of getting what they want ( a handbag and whatnot). So yea, I didn't think it applied to me because I'm not big on manipulation. However, I was told recently that the author actually defines Bitches as strong women who stand up for themselves. So that's a bitch now ,is it ? Okay so I'm aware that there's no shortage of men who happily refer to str...