The Milk and Mango experiment

I had lunch with a friend today, and we discussed a mutual acquaintence who lost a whole heap of weight in just four months; she went from a UK size 14-16 to a skinny size 8. And her legs are now the most incredibly long, flawless things you've ever seen. She's like a baby giraffe.

Anyway, I was thinking (as I often do) how amazing it would be to lose significant amounts and then do a big 'reveal' when friends and family come to visit. I guess we all think that - if we have a reunion, or a wedding where we will be seeing people we don't every day, it's always lovely to have people tell you you've lost weight. So, since I barely ever see anyone I know these days, I'm always thinking about losing weight for the next meet-up.

Actually - last time I saw people, I had put on a few pounds, and everyone noticed. My brother-in-law told me I looked better for it (whatever - nobody wants to hear theey've put on weight), and my friend said nothing- until another friend walked in the door. He told her she looked incredible and had lost SO much weight and looked great. These things felt awful. Putting on weight - even if it's just a few pounds - sucks.

Anyway, I have decided that the best way to do it is by only eating one proper meal a day. For breakfast, I will feast on fruit. For lunch, I will eat a healthy Thai meal of som tam (papaya salad) or roast sweet potato, or similar. For dinner, I will sip soya milk.

I love the soya milk here - there are so many varieties. So, even though - to you- soya milk for dinner sounds awful, to me it's a bit of a treat. Yum!

I will start tomorrow and let you know my progress. By the way; starting tomorrow doesn't mean I am spending the day eating oreos and chips today. I've just already eaten two solid meals.

Hopefully, the next time any of my friends see me, I will be of ballet dancer proportions. Or at least will have dropped a dress size or two...

Travel Troubles

I'm Googling ways to travel around the world on no money. Why can't I just be happy in one place for a while? Arrhrghrgh!

Can I still blame the fact I'm heartbroken? Or is this just my personality now? Great; condemned to a lifetime of sulkily walking the earth and always feeling that I'd be having a better time elsewhere.

Banging on about Bangkok.

It's been a while (again), and yet again all manner of things have changed since I last blogged. While everything seems to remain very still in my life, looking back I realise it's constantly moving. No wonder my family and friends can't keep up with me - I can barely keep up with my plans myself. And I really do have a vested interest in knowing what they are.

The latest is that I'm in Bangkok. I've got a place (a long term, super-cheap, super-homely guesthouse) and I'm job hunting.

My plans when I came here were to:

1. Get a full time media job
2. Freelance
3. Learn Spanish
4. Get better at yoga
5. Learn ballet

Two weeks in and I have begun to accommplish some of these goals. I have a nice, solid yoga practice. I am freelancing a fair bit (needs to be more) and I have started making a crack at the Spanish (kind of. Just don't test me on it.)

Unfortunately, without the job in place, I can't really afford to carry on with or begin anything else.

I've emailed everyone in town, and there just aren't any jobs. Not any media jobs anyway.

I am coming to the horrible conclusion that I have made another mistake, and I will have to work as a teacher until I can think of another way to make things work.

I guess in the meantime, I will freelance and apply for jobs. I'm pretty disappointed in myself, though.I really thought I'd come here and things would fall into place. I think I come across as so confident about it that other people thought I'd do it too.

But I haven't. I've had people interested in freelance, and one person who mentioned that there may be a job in a while, possibly. But even that would only be part time. It's a dream job, but still - you can't hang your hopes on something that may never occur.

I'm not sure what my next move is. It has to be a quick one, though because my cash is dwindling- fast. Hmmm.

In other news, I am pretty convinced I've lost weight. The reason? Well, I've been on the ignorance diet. I'm trying to live as a vegan again, but it's really hard to explain the concept in Thai, so I've been opting for mango lunches and soya milk dinners. Aaaah - the ignorance diet. You can't beat it.

Also - what with all my lack of money, I've been doing a fair bit of travelling by foot. Hopefully, this time next month I will have that teeny tiny body that I know is under all this flab.