This is another scary challenge for me because I buy a lot of books and they are lovely and just quietly sit there adorning my bookcases but aren’t read because I’m lazy and just simply don’t do it. Anyway, I’m going to post about them as I go, which also is scary because I have to do it now, don’t I, I’ve told you I’m going to do a post for each one!

If you’re wondering how I picked them, some of them (a lot of them) were gifts, some of them I decided I wanted to read ages ago and then didn’t but now own and why not, and some of them are ones I’ve chosen for myself recently because they caught my interest at the bookstore.

Here is my list:

1. A Visit From the Good Squad, by Jennifer Egan
2. The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, by David Mitchell
3. Cloud Atlas, by David Mitchell
4. The Book of Negros by Lawrence Hill
5. Angels in America, by Tony Kushner
6. The Yiddish Policeman’s Union, by Michael Chabon
7. The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, by Mordecai Richler
8. Life Ascending, by Nick Lane
9. The Help, by Kathryn Stockett
10. The Thornbirds, by Colleen McColough
11. Love in the Time of Cholera, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
12. Mercy Amongst the Children, by David Adams Richards
13. Catch-22, by Joseph Heller
14. The Lost Girls, by Jennifer, Holly and Amanda
15. The Night Circus, by Erin Morgenstern

What are you going to read this year?

JMH xx

Ok, now that’s out of the way, I want to do a 30 Day Yoga Challenge. I really, really want to do it. But not just say I want to do it and never start it in the end, but say I’m going to start on the first of February and then finish at the beginning of March and feel good because I’ve done something fully that I said I’d do and not make excuses for myself so that I wouldn’t have to do it properly.

I started to do P90X with Bear when we tried it last year, and he did the whole thing, the whole programme and I managed a few weeks, and even then I don’t think I did that in the way I was supposed it. Anyway I suppose this all started on Friday when I bought a yoga magazine (which I thought would be a more reasonable purchase than, say, a Vogue or Vanity Fair) and then yesterday when I tried to do the yoga DVD that comes with the P90X programme. I made it through a half hour. One lousy half hour and stopped. I used to do 90 minute power yoga classes, but that was the crazy summer I lived with the vegans, so it doesn’t count, right?

I’ve just spend the weekend on and off looking at lululemon (who I simultaneously cannot stand–their wild overpricing and weird bags with quotes that have fundamentally missed the point of the book they’re from–but love like crazy–you would have to be nuts not to want to wear only their clothes most of the time ) which I figured I could reward myself with when I finish, and search for other people’s 30 Day Yoga Challenge blogs, and my local yoga studios and their prices and researching whether Bikram will kill me faster than doing an Ashtanga DVD in my living room (I still don’t know the answer to that one).

So, here I am at the end of this post, not sure whether I’m going to do it or not. I’ll let you know, of course, but I can see it ending three ways: (i) me not thinking about it anymore after I publish this; (ii) me starting and quitting and pretending like it was absurd of me to even start it in the first place; or (iii) starting next week and finish in 30 days’ time and feeling great mentally (I did it!) and physically (I did it!).

Have you done anything like this before?

JMH xx

Although it’s hard to believe that yet another year is drawing to a close, I can’t pretend like this isn’t my favourite time of year. And no, it isn’t just because of the presents and you all know me well enough to know I love presents.

Christmas has always been my favourite time of year. And this year, I’m looking so forward to really making some great traditions with Bear. This year, we have our first Christmas tree and we’re making our first Christmas dinner together, and I’ve made stockings and we’re going to watch movies and have a big breakfast and maybe go for a lovely walk along the seafront.

I love Christmas because everyone is nice, and cheerful and while a lot of times there is one person who’s super stressed (I’m not necessarily looking at you MomKat but if the shoe fits), they usually stop freaking out after the wrapping paper is cleared and the snacks start piling up. Christmas to me isn’t about making that once-a-year trek to Church to pretend like I’m a good Catholic. It’s about having your family around you and being able to feel the love and joy that seems to just be floating around.

Some of my favourite Christmas memories are of watching movies and playing boardgames and slobbing around while the turkey cooks and my mom, and Gramma and my aunts and I play with our new Christmas goodies and just spent time with each other. I’m really looking forward to making some of those memories with Bear and our kiddies when we have them (noIdon’tknowwhenthatwillbebutwearen’treadyyet).

So I wish you all a very Merry Christmas, or Festivus, or whichever celebration you like best, as well as a Happy New Year and lots of wishes for brilliant things to come in 2012. Play safe and remember to wear pants with elastic waists.

JMH xx

I was just going through the comment people have left on my blog and I was surprised to find they’re all nice. I mean people are very supportive of my posts, and I haven’t quite figured out why I think they wouldn’t be. I’ve been working on that for a while – why I’m so fearful that no one genuinely wants to be around me. I haven’t come up with anything really good so far, except that maybe it goes back to what I said in my last post about being apathetic because I’m hesitant to be held to a higher standard.

I think that when I was in high school I was really intense and I did lots of activities and I wrote lots of stuff in my agenda and then I flagged a bit but in my fourth year of university I was super intense again and I did really well. Then I got less intense and a bit lazy and I can’t get back to being that girl again. I suppose my issue with intensity is that sometimes it’s good and sometimes it’s too much. I’m not always good at finding that balance.

I suppose that what I’m trying to say is thank you for reading and for being supportive. I do really appreciate it, and it does make me feel not-crazy but also warm and fuzzy. I’m not going to say that I’m determined to do better because how many times have I said that? But let’s agree that maybe more than one post a month would be nice.

JMH xx

Considering that there’s been a post drought since June, I’d say I wasn’t quite able to supplement my social media activity with wordier entries here. Something I’ve learned this year, having started my first real job and all, is that I’m a bit (a lot?) apathetic. I have a bad habit of determining something isn’t quite good enough but deciding it’s just fine the way it is, then getting frustrated with myself, and deciding that next time and every other time in the future) I’m going to be better and do it properly.

Except, I don’t do it the next time, and then I feel like I have a huge mental pile of things I should be doing in a certain way because (i) that’s the right way and (ii) because I know better but it’s become so daunting that I’d rather pretend like I don’t have the potential to do it and just accept that mediocre is good enough.

This goes for lots of things, but not the least of which is this blog. I want to be consistent and say I’m going to post on Tuesdays and Saturdays and do that each week regardless of what it says. But I know that I’ll be able to do that for a few weeks and the one week I’ll get thrown off and it will all go pear shaped and the whole cycle starts again.

I’m really envious of people who have lists of things and patterns and daily routines and who can just tick things off and putter around and not feel afraid to set high standards for themselves and then achieve them. Imagine! Setting and achieving!  What a radical concept.

In 2012, I’m going to try to be that kind of person. I’m going to post once a week, at least on Saturday and I’m going to keep tweeting, and I’m not going to worry that what I have to say is boring or that if I miss a week I’m letting myself down. I will stop writing letters that begins with “sorry it took so long to get back to you” and I’m not going to be afraid that getting things accomplished makes me anal or over-the-top or OCD.

Let’s see how it goes.

JMH xx

I couldn’t agree more with ethical farming and free range and organic. I don’t want to eat poultry that’s been forced to live on top of each other in a football field sized barn where there is poop all over the ground because it’s never been cleaned, the chickens don’t ever, ever see sunlight in their atrociously short lives and have zero quality of life. I don’t want to eat meat from cows that don’t get to wander around eat grass and I’d prefer not to ingest the antibiotics that have been forced on them either. But, that all being said, I don’t want to deny myself food that I love.

What I find really confusing is the amount of information floating around saying that you have to eat a balanced diet, or that you have to be vegan or that we should eat like cavemen because they did alright, didn’t they? Should I eat cottage cheese to get my calcium? Or will raw broccoli do? How are we supposed to eat 4 pieces of fruit a day and 5 servings of veggies and however many bits of protein and grains if we’re not meant to be constantly eating? What is the right thing to do?

Bear and I did a detox a few weeks ago which we were going to commit to for 6 days a week for 4 weeks. The 7th day was for a binge day where we could eat anything. When we were on a detox day, we weren’t allowed sugar, dairy, or carbs. Basically, we were encouraged to eat beans, veggies, and meat. I felt better. I really did. But then on the weekends, I’d stuff my face with sugar and chocolate and potato chips and feel super gross physically and mentally for being a gross grosserson. Highly restrictive diets do not do you any favours in creating a good relationship with food.

There are so many people who are vegan, who go back to being vegetarian, or back to being omnivores. There are also many, many people who stay vegan for their lives. But, the thought of  the replacements (tofu bacon, and veganaise or cheese made out of…well, really, what is vegan cheese even made out of?) kind of gross me out. Why would I replace something that comes from an animal with something clearly highly processed? How is that better for me?

Still, I will read a vegan recipe blog and think, wowzers that looks yummy. Those recipes are mostly made out of delicious vegetables. Maybe what this is all telling me is that I just need to eat more vegetables that are fancied up in a better way than minty peas, asparagus or salad, which is what we normally eat. There are some recipes, however, that I see and think, why would I ever make Chick’n pot pie made from highly processed meat replacement when I could make it out of an organic, free range, corn-fed chicken that had a nice life?

What do you think?

Back to your first question. The Wolseley is a restaurant near Piccadilly Circus that has been open since 2003, but the building itself was built in the early 20th Century as an elaborate showroom for too-expensive cars that didn’t sell so the building was then turned into a bank. It’s an awesome cavern like space (which you would expect from a car dealership) and there are lots of spiral staircases and smaller rooms which is where we sat and which I am thankful for as the middle room is huge, and as I was walking through it kind of reminded me of that scene in Titanic where they’re in the dining room and it’s so loud and hustle bustle.

On to the most important bit: the food! We got there around half past ten, so it was the breakfast menu for us. Sally had the Full English, which looked like the most delicious and least gross and greasy English breakfast I’ve ever seen. I settled on the fishcakes with poached eggs. If you know me well, you know that I cannot say no to Hollandaise sauce, and so I really wrestled with the choice between the Eggs Benedict, but I was very pleasantly surprised that my eggs arrived on top of my fishcakes (which a Maritime girl like me is also basically powerless against) and that they were topped with Hollandaise. Brilliant! I do have to say that I was in the mood for waffles and they weren’t on the menu, and I also feel like the French toast or pancakes would be so delicious so they’re on my list for next time.

We were cheeky and stayed so long sipping on our delicious lattes that it was basically lunchtime and so we thought, how about a sweet treat? I had an eclair, and Sally had a strawberry tart which was so fresh that I immediately felt sad I hadn’t ordered it.

All in all, it was a wonderful bustling place where I could go for breakfast, or any other meal of the day on many, many occasions!

I’m sure you’re wondering: “what do you do when you feel like this?” Obviously, I go to YouTube and find the Jenn Grant video that was filmed in the North End. I know, I’m certainly no hipster (I do not like this song ironically, I actually like it) and I’m not a hippie either, but seeing the grey skies and the snow on the ground and a bit of Halifax makes me feel a bit better.