Be positive
Keep your mind positive, it will reflect your words
Keep your words positive, it will reflect your behaviour
Keep your behaviour positive, it will reflect your values
Keep your values positive, it will reflect your destiny...
That was what a yoga teacher taught me today. She is fit and trim, cheerful and stable. In class, her voice is not loud but very clear so everyone understands how to posture, and she gives advice individually as she is walking through it with us. I am fond of her class.As she emphasised today, forcing to keep or move your body is not what Yoga aims to do, though some postures look as if they need enormous effort. To feel inside you and do not torture yourself - this teaching impressed me a lot.These days I was busy and unconsciously felt stress. The words she gave and the yoga session made me calm, relaxed and positive ***
Daffodils
In my town, there are a lot of
daffodils just coming out last week.
I felt spring when I saw daffodils in England as when I saw cherry blossoms in Japan.
Passing by a flower shop, I caught vivid yellows in the corner of my eyes and in the next second I was holding a bunch of flowers in my hand : ) Now I feel spring even in my room.
Becoming a night owl
Since the holiday starts last Friday, my life style has changed dramatically. I stayed up until quite late, around 3 or 4 o'clock in the morning and it makes it impossible for me to wake up before 10 o'clock. Now, it is already 3:15... it is doubtful that I can sleep right away tonight.
"Hatsuga-genmai"
I like healthy diet and recently my friend gave me special brown rice called "Hatsuga-genmai" in Japanese. Its literal translation is "germinated brown rice" (or "sprouted brown rice") which means each grain of normal brown rice is sprouted by 1-1.5mm.
It is one of the popular rices among Japanese women these days. This brown rice is easier to digest than normal brown rice but contains a lot of nutrition. Because it is a bit harder than white rice, we need to chew the rice well - it is also good for teeth and jaws.
It has slightly strong flavour and taste, so not many people like it, but so far I like it.
It is difficult to get this rice here so I was excited when I found the web-site which explains how to grow "Hatsuga-genmai" from normal brown rice. BUT it takes 72 hours (3 days!!) to grow it in a fridge. There is not enough space in our fridge since I share the fridge with 8 flatmates.
Well, I am trying to keep the rice which my friend gave me as long as possible.
What is "Hatsuga-genmai" and how to grow it (in Japanese): http://www.yokotanojo.co.jp/cooking/hatsuga.html
"Germinated rice" (in English): http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/health/HealthRepublish_225249.htm
Summer Time!!
Today we have changed from winter to summer time: it means that we need to
put the clock forward an hour. But I told my friend the other way around - we had an extra hour to sleep.
In addition, she is going on a trip from this afternoon, plus she is an nigh owl!! It must be hard for her to get up earlier. I have to tell her as soon as possible!!
The Royal Ballet
Last Thursday I went to see "Romeo and Juliet" at the Royal Opera House in London.That was the first time I have seen ballet. It was one of my dreams to see a famous ballet at a historic opera house!The Royal Opera House at Covent Garden has a long history and is famous for the ballet "Romeo and Juliet". Although it was renovated four or five years ago, the building produces a quaint atmosphere: wide stairs with the red velvet carpet, gold handrail and bluebell shaped lamps. Being there was something special and graceful. The ballet was brilliant too. It was more like a play than pure dancing ,such as Russian ballet.Dancers wore Shakespearean costumes and used properties like fake swords.I like the dancer who played Juliet who was boyish, a bit of a rascal and cute at first, then she gradually became womanlike, tender and more elegant. (Later I checked her name, Mara Galeazzi, a principle dancer in the ROH. ) Other dancers were also excellent and so was the orchestra.I am not a great fun of ballet but if I have a chance I would like to see "Swan Lake", a classical ballet played by the Russian ballet.History of the Royal Opera House: http://info.royaloperahouse.org/AbouttheHouse/Index.cfm?ccs=288&cs=1017&SubNavMenu=6Mara Galeazzi official website: http: http://www.maragaleazzi.com/
Snow flakes
On our way to Tesco, a supermarket near my house, I and my friend saw snow flakes floating down from the grey sky. Wow - we had snow again, I thought, but soon it stopped snowing.It is still cold here, around 1 or 2 degrees, however the days are becoming longer and in this weekend we will switch from winter time to summer time. The weather is changing day by day... Now I hear the sound of spring, it is almost here.
my favourite hand cream
One of my best friends in winter is a skin cream.This winter, it was very dry in England. We even did not have much rain on average.Not only outside but also inside was dry because of the heating - the central heating system is used in my accommodation and it makes the room comfortably warm but dry.As I tried many skin creams, L'OCCITANE's hand cream works well on my dry hands :) The only problem is the price... It is too expensive to buy every time. This attractive effect tempts me to use it, though! (L'OCCITANE homepage: http://www.loccitane.com/)
Fair trade - does it work well??
Do you know what “fair-trade” is? I was volunteering at Oxfam, a charity shop and I knew about “fair-trade” products – they are products for which farmers or producers receive proper wages and who have not been exploited. Those products are generally a bit expensive but I thought it was good for the farmers, so I bought them if my purse would allow.
However, yesterday I watched a BBC’s programme which discussed fair trade and supermarkets.
(cf: BBC"how fair is Fairtrade?": http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4788662.stm)
In the programme, they said the price of those products in supermarkets is higher than what farmers have received.
For example, a pack of ground coffee costs you 3.00 pounds and one of fair trade costs 3.60 pounds, while fair-trade farmers receive 10 pence more than non-fair-trade farmers.
So, where does the extra 50 pence go? Who receives it? – it becomes supermarkets’ profit. Because “fair trade” becomes a kind of brand, supermarkets put additional “brand” cost on products and gain extra profits from fair-trade products.
That is not what consumers expect though. People buy those products for farmers’ goods but not for supermarkets’ extra profit. This fact may lose consumers’ trust and may I think lead to the collapses of fair-trade mechanism.
Here, I have some fair-trade bananas in my room and I am wondering if I will buy them next time…
Longing for spring
It has been raining for days and surprisingly a weather forecaster said
we may have snow this weekend!!
How come! It's nearly spring, isn't it?
I know that the UK is much colder than Japan and even in the northern part of Japan it snows until April.
But, I have just listened to the radio in which people discussed whether we should officially call 1st of March the first day of the spring or not - I advise them not to call "spring"! It's too cold to call spring, at least for me, as I am a person who has poor blood circulation.
I'm longing for a lovely bright sky, blooms (cherry blossoms are the best), warm days - spring generally. (the photo: one strange day when we had snow and sunshine at the same time)
Getting started...This is my first blog in English - I was inspired by an enthusiastic blogger.Generally I am lazy and I cannot remember how many times I gave up keeping a diary...But, this time, I will try to keep this blog much longer!!... well, I hope I can. We shall see how it goes, anyway.
