KYLIE, RIHANNA AND ME
Tuesday was a nice spontaneous day out with the girls- lunch with Ellen and then Debs joined us for some coffee and wine. I dragged Ellen into the lingerie department in Selfridges and tried to convince her to let me "lingerie- style" her and she finally agreed that I might be allowed before she goes on vacation. Hell yeeeaah! Oh that's something I want to discuss a bit later on by the way- even though it's not my job anymore I tend to look at and compare different collections and fits (kind of like Alex always has to read at the back of every cereal and biscuit pack of the entire supermarket to check who makes them...). I think it's a shame that most of the things that are made won't really work to actually wear if you're over a size 8 alternatively have a bigger bra size than 34 B. (Now we're talking the more "fun" range, if you know what I mean... Not the basic white t- shirt bra.) So- I'm gonna do a little "field" research and then there will be some MissFriFri's tips and tricks coming up ;) Sort of similar to this one, but not as focused on the basics:
http://missfrifri.blogg.se/2010/august/theme-shopping-lingerie-1.html
Anyways, after Ellen left Deborah and I thought it would be a great idea to go back to Selfridges. Suddenly we were both proud owners of new make- up products that we a few hours earlier thought we couldn't afford. However- it's an investment. It's ALWAYS an investment. (Or as Debs said when I was stroking the Michael Kors Hamilton Eastwest bag longingly: "Well, I mean if you divide £360 pounds into 2, it's just £180 and that's not even that expensive! Plus, if you use it every day, then it's just a little over 1 pound per day- cheeap! And it's the cute little version, you have to have the cute one!")
These are the goodies that I ended up with: Bathina (makes your legs shimmer, according to the sales guy Rihanna uses it), the highbeam highlighter (which apparently Kylie Minogue uses) and Benefits new moisturizer. I'm quite excited to try that one... And some little testers (eyecream and scrub). It feels pretty good to have something in common with Kylie and Rihanna. I feel like, with these products there's nothing stopping me from being them. You know? No? Oh well, worth a try!
LIKE, TOTALLY BUSTED
I hear rumours of new readers joining my blog; a warm welcome to Mr and Mrs M (or as I'm sure they would prefer, Andy and Sue)! I wonder who the little bird was who cheekily told them about the MissFriFri blog persona (Giiilllll?) I'm like, totally busted. However, I'm very happy to have you!
Oh, and another thing: you have to try this couscous and red lentils salad- it's amaziiing. Eat with anything (in my case: grilled chicken), perfect for the barbeque- season. This is a Mummy Eva classic, works every time!
For four people: 2 dl red lentils, 2 dl couscous. Fry 1,5 red onion and 2 (small, according to my opinion) cloves of garlic. Mix couscous, lentils, onion+ garlic, avocado, feta cheese, tomatoes and black olives together. Pour over the dressing mix (2 tablespoons of white wine vinegar, 4 table spoons of vegetable oil, 1 tablespoon of cold water, a bit of salt and pepper). Tadaaaa
PROUD PORKER
The McCutccheon's have seen my real breakfast habits in full swing for the first time. After trying their many different breakfast cereals with milk I've gone back to my old habits. Despite heavy accusations of being a "porker", "piglet" and even a "fatty" I maintain that a big breakfast is the best thing ever. I try to explain to Mr and Mrs M that in Sweden you can have cheese on your breakfast sandwich, and that the sandwich doesnt't have to be cut or folded in some strange way either. I'm met by faces of disgust and disbelief as Mr M shouts "PORKERRR" after me one more time, just to make sure the message really sinks in. Alex says that I'm in England now and have to stop eating weird things at the wrong times but I don't care. MissFriFri's a Proud Porker.
Today's breakfast action: greek yoghurt with blueberries, strawberries and walnuts, satsuma, boiled egg on wholegrain bread, cheese and salad on wholegrain bread. Naughty apple juice that I suspect contains high amounts of sugar, but I'm sure I'll live.
HIPPO- ESQUE?
After some shopping with Mrs M and her friend I thought I'd go for a run before Alex came back from work, the least I could do after the Wednesday wine consumption. After a bit of excitement over both being able to run for longer than I thought AND finding my way back to Alex's house (which took a while, so that's how I discovered I could run for longer than I thought...) I thought that I'd finish off with some lunges, push- ups and plank. My good mood soon disappeared when Mrs M came running out asking if I was feeling unwell. So apparently me doing the plank looks as if I've passed out or thrown up. MissFriFri goes hippo?? Rather worrying....
WHAT WOULD DAGNY DO?
After a "coffee" with Ellen on Wednesday evening that turned into two bottles of wine I happily walked home through the London night. As I got into my flat I didn't think that my tipsy state was that obvious, but when I tucked into a pack of Philadelphia cheese Ise suddenly froze, pointed at me and shouted "YOU'RE DRUNK!" while Fran tried to take photos at the same time for evidence. Good times.
Anyway, the crux: when I woke up on Thursday morning, feeling a bit.... out of shape, I realised that ah, yes, I'm going to Peterborough today and need to look like a fresh breeze, effortlessly chic Kate Middleton style. So how exactly do you make that happen? Well, when in a situation like this you have to think "what would Dangy do?" Dagny is the expert. So I realised that Dagny would have bought a Powerade. So I bought one too. Dagny would probably have wanted italian food for lunch, but since that wasn't an option I had sausage, eggs and two oranges and juice for breakfast (screw the nuts and seeds for now) went to get a pedicure, packed tons of clothes that I probablt won't even need but just in case, and got burger king for lunch at King's Cross. All done. Thanks Dags, Powerade really DOES work!
NO ONE BELIEVES YOU, GWYNETH!
I found this book in Tesco's when I was food shopping, I completely missed that Gwyneth Paltrow wrote a cook book? (On the other hand, what celebrity hasn't?) Anyway, it's called "Delicious recipies for healthy, happy living- Notes From My Kitchen Table". Ironically, in a Swedish magazine in April I read about her diet which pretty much consists of, eh, nothing. Like, REALLY nothing. I don't even think she ate chicken. She pretty much drank tea (or rather hot water with lemon), ate soup and had salad. When a "normal" person tried her diet her hair even started falling off. Add this up with the fact that I think she exercised like 6 times per week. Healthy, Happy Living? This book contains pastas, desserts, everything- by a woman who doesn't eat them herself. HOWEVER- props to her for commenting on her diet that it's difficult and blood sweat and tears. Much preferred to people who pretend they eat cheeseburgers everyday and just are naturally skinny, I think that messes more with "normal" people's heads. But still- Gwyneth, no one believes you when reading this book! We know you don't eat!
ELLEN AND HER BAD INFLUENCE
After the lecture on finding and funding a PhD (that mostly made me feel trapped in the room and as if I wanted to escape through the back door- bad timing to have lectures on PhD's during the exam period, anyone?) I went to Oxford Street to do some shopping and meet Ellen for coffee. Window shopping evolved into proper shopping and coffee evolved into dinner AND dessert. Ellen has a really bad influence (or maybe it's just me who doesn't have will- power?) on me. With excitement in her eyes she was all "ooooh, have the Pannacottaaaa!!" "I shouldn't I just started my no- sugar thing!" "Oh you should though, I'm on GI so I eat through watching other people eat. It's like soft porn to me!" Oh well, you want to be there for your friends, don't you? Since Ellen's on GI she ordered fruit salad with "lots of cream, please!", essentially ending up with her having cream with fruit. Fail for us both, but toootally worth it!
I forgot to take pictures yesterday, so here's Ellen last year after exams- honestly that blonde hair can be spotted from miles away, preeettyyyy!
Now: breakfast and cardio. Today I'm having power- porridge for breakfast; wholegrain oatmeal, mixed with frozen fruits and raisins. Topped with fresh raspberries, sunflower seeds, pecan nuts and milk. Make the porridge in the microwave, super- quick, no mess, no excuse not to- faster than fast food!
Yes, I know the pictures look bad but I can't find the thing for my camera so I have to use my blackberry for now. Hmm I should've listened to Alex and got an iPhone. If he read this he's gonna become unbearable and shout "I WAS RIGHT- AGAAAIN" in my ear for 30 mins but hey, he was!
FISH SOUP LOVE
I tend to be a bit bad with eating white fish, here’s a good tip for those of you who are the same: super- easy fish soup. Fry some garlic and onion, add water and veg stock cubes. Put in some diced carrots, pieces of cod/ alasca pollock, prawns and some couscous or bulgur. Add salt, pepper and some coconut milk. Cook until the fish has been cooked through (tear the fish into smaller pieces if you’re impatient like me and it’ll take about 5- 6 mins =P) Garnish with fresh dill and chives, serve with knäckebröd (crisp bread).
Hehe I'm such a loser btw- I haven't even finished my LLM yet (We write the dissertations over summer) and the words "I'M NEVER EVER STUDYING ANYTHING AGAIN EVERRRRR" (shouted on the phone to my poor mum on Thursday evening) haven't even really died out, BUT: I'm still going to this career event today at UCL about PhD's and working in academia. I know, I have no right to complain. I bring this misery upon myself. After that I might pop by HM to try on a pair of suuupercute shoes that Debs recommended to me. They've not quite left my mind since Saturday when I first tried them on, so it might be worth a second visit....
I SURVIVED!
I had my last exam on Friday, finishing off what's probably been the worst week in my entire (academic) life. Seriously- the exam schedule from hell. A few days after I still wake up at 6 every morning (although after watching 15 mins of scrubs/ gossip girl/ sex and the city I can go back to sleep again) and am doing an exam in my head every night- discussing case law with myself and everything! Healthy? Probably not. I managed to power through by pretending that I was Nicole Scherzinger in her catsuit in her Poison- video, alternatively Beyonce in any video. It works you know!
Ok, so enough with the negativity- there are some seriously light and exciting times ahead! =D I'll let you know as everything unfolds. The first few weeks will be spent as a "recovery"- session though. It's quite ironic in a way, for months before you try to prepare your body mentally and physically for the stress that exam- time means (exercise so that your body will actually handle all the sitting down etc, eating well so that your immune system is good and you're not TOO fat when you start since it's inevitable to gain at least about 5 kgs....), then it aaaall crashes during- and then you spend months after to get back to where you started. But hey, Miss FriFri likes a challenge! I'll keep you updated on what exercise I do and what I eat, sometimes it's fun to get a bit of inspiration from other people. I'm absolutely NO expert in any way (obviously) but I know myself it's good to get ideas from others. Luckily I have a brother AND sister who can help me put together a new fun exercise schedule. Fuuuuun =D Feeling healthy and full of energy should always be first priority. When you do, all other things in life seem to sort of fall into place!
