The Royal Wedding

Questions...

Did you watch it?
Did you watch it all fancy and themed, or sitting in front of your TV in trackies or PJ's?

I watched it.

I had fancy, themed plans that didn't end up happening. In the end, Sabrina, my black girl cat and I watched it in the bedroom. I wore trackies and then PJ's. Sabrina wore fur.

My loving family members, the Cowboy and the Princess refused to watch it with me. They stayed downstairs watching Lord of the Rings. If you are really snarky and creative, you could probably find some comparisons.

Sabrina appreciated my commentary and didn't mock me when I wept. Weddings always make me weep, as do pregnancy announcements, birth announcements, people's achievements, the demise of people etc

Personally, I loved the wedding. I love all weddings. Secretly, I enjoy following the Royals and Hollywood people. All in all, I thought it went really well, despite the lead up portrayed by the media.

Poor Meghan. Who needs that crap in the week before your wedding. No wonder her dress was a bit loose. Do you think the Royal family are secretly rubbing their hands together?  As a family, they really look quite good compared to the pre-wedding dysfunction of the Markles.

Anyway, the dress, are you a love or hate it?

I was ambivalent. I thought the neckline was lovely but a shame the rest of it seemed a bit baggy. Her veil though, and that tiara. She could have been naked because really they were the showstoppers of her bridal costume. If I ever get married, again, I am going to have a cathedral long veil and a bandana tiara. I'd probably make the tiara myself and Mum's craft group could embroider my veil.

Seriously though, I thought she looked beautiful. I loved that she wasn't smothered in makeup and her hair was very natural and naturally fell out as the day went on.

And, how about Meghan and Harry as a couple. They were adorable, cute, sweet, whatever and seemed absolutely delighted with themselves, as all bridal couples should. The eye contact and hand holding. They are sexy!

Other thoughts on the wedding in no particular order and in list form (I love a good wedding list, actually I love a good list):

• Best Makeup - Lady Kitty Spencer - full face & Kate - fresh-faced.
• Best Hair Do - Amah Clooney and Victoria Beckham's pony.
• Best Dress - Amah Clooney - the colour, the style - oh la!
• Best Shoes - Victoria Beckham, even if her feet looked contorted, red shoes are the best.
• Best Hat - so many to choose from, I don't know!
• Best I'm So Not Phased at Being a Guest - Victoria Beckham.
• Best Plus One - David Beckham, he scrubs up.
• Best Dressed Royal - Lady Kitty Spencer.
• Best Pregnant Woman - Zara Phillips, I loved the way she spread herself out in her seat.
• Best Gay Man - Elton John's husband, fancy!
• Cutest Children - Princess Charlotte and her royal wave and the OTT, excited, veil holding, missing teeth twins.
• Best Preacher - Bishop Michael Curry, I couldn't follow his sermon, but loved watching the Royals watching him and trying so hard not to react.
• Best Music - the choir singing 'Stand by Me' I feel they had to hold it in, you could so see they wanted to sway and do hand motions.
• Best Horse - the sassy one who tried to bowl the crowd.
• Best Controversial Person - Fergie, loved her working the crowd inside the chapel!
• Most Useful Hat - Camilla's, she was totally able to hide her reactions under it.
• The Kindest Person - Prince Charles, he was so sweet when he delivered Meghan to his son (lamb to slaughter - no, no) and was so kind and gracious to her Mum.
• Best Dead Pan Faces - the Queen and Prince Philip, no pun intended. Truly!
• Best Moments - the kiss and the carriage ride. I so want a carriage ride.
• Best After Match Function Costume - Serena Williams.
• Best Cars - The Rolls Royce Phantom 4 that delivered Meghan and the electric converted Jag. Does the refurbished Landham count as a car?

What did you think of the cake and the gold cake stand thingies? 

So there you have it. The Royal Wedding. 

I do wish them well. Maybe this new wave of Royals, William and Kate and Harry and Meghan will be modern role models, enduring the state of Holy Matrimony until death do us part.

Suits

Thanks for reading.

Rachaelxo

p.s.  I can't wait to see what their babies look like ;-)

Healing Journey Update

We burn in this house, vanilla in the entryway...

I thought I would write a short update on my healing journey because today I started a new type of treatment.

To date, some of my symptoms have started to dissipate which is absolutely fabulous but my progress is still frustrating and as much as my Psychologist urges, I can not find ACCEPTANCE!! Sorry, Vineetha.

At the moment I am not having any other treatment as everything has been put on hold until a report comes from a Neurologist. Because of this, I thought it was a good opportunity to look into and try other forms of therapy.

The family up North swear by Bowen Therapy which is what I started today.  I did a heap of research first and found it is accepted as a successful treatment for Concussion in quite a few countries.  Continuing with my due diligence, I researched Bowen therapists in Auckland and found one that I thought I would be comfortable with because of course, you can tell this from reading online!

Anyway, my first appointment was today which was timely as I woke up this morning with a horrible migraine type headache and nausea. It might have been triggered by my psychologist appointment yesterday which is always intense. Sorry, Vineetha. Moving right along, I managed to sleep enough to get myself together for my Bowen appointment which was this afternoon.

The therapist was lovely. She had a calming aura and a soft gentle voice. Her therapy room was soothing, she had a salt lamp glowing and the room smelt delightful. I later found out she was burning an oil called 'Peace', a mixture of lavender, frankincense, ylang-ylang
and something else I can't remember.

eucalyptus in the living area, and our own natural fire, haha.

After the usual intro chat, I lay on her massage table and she did these strange little maneuvers where she would put pressure on a 'meridian point' and sort of roll the area and then do the same on the exact opposite side. The points were a little tender, some more than others but nothing shocking. She would then leave the room for 2 to 5 minutes and come back and do the same in another area. It was strange because each area she touched would feel cool and in the end, I had all these patches on my body that felt cool. According to Bowen, cool sensations are release and warm sensations are healing.

The actual 'healing' session was probably about 40 minutes. The next session is in 8 days time. My 'homework' is to drink at least 8 glasses of water a day which can include herbal tea. I do that anyway. She would also like me to walk for 20 minutes a day. That, I don't do. I will though.

As a side note, we talked about gut health which is something I have been looking into. She had just been to a seminar on it and it is recommended that Bone Broth is incredible for gut health. Apparently, gut health underpins many other health issues including the brain function. Mum, I need you to come down and make me broth (inside joke!).

If you interesting in learning more about Bowen Therapy check it out here because I cannot explain it well enough in my own words. My Bowen therapist is Sommer Wagstaff of Holistic Body Therapy.

I'll keep you posted on my Bowen Therapy progress.

And to keep it real, as I type this I have a lovely glass of red wine to accompany my water!

Thanks for reading,
Rachael xo

ps. if you have had Bowen Therapy I would love to hear about your experience.

This and That...

this week.

HOME
The Princess and I finally finished clearing her room. We left the hardest thing for last, her wardrobe and china cabinet. What a job! We carefully wrapped everything in bubble wrap and tissue paper and itemised each item, cataloguing who gave it to her and the occasion. She has lots of things that have been passed down to her from great-grandmothers and lots of beautiful treasures that have been made for her. One day she may want to pass things down to her own children and her cousins' children. I told her it is her responsibility to do so, she looked thrilled. Not!

Some of her precious things were absorbed into the house, such as a beautiful handmade cross my Mum brought her back from Armenia. We popped it into a frame and added it to the cross wall. Funny story about the cross wall, one of my students visited me at home last year and asked why I had lots of T's on my wall-haha

I had angst doing her wardrobe as it was the last of the 'little girl' stuff in her room, she, on the other hand, had no such qualms! 

The Cowboy bought an atomiser last week whilst picking up his prescriptions. It changes colour and matches our fake KMart candles in the living room. We have eucalyptus in it, for our health, of course.

The After. The Before housed a china cabinet, clothes squished into a corner, stuff on the shelf and boxes on the floor. Her shoes didn't actually fit in there. Girly, she is not.

Real life is crooked. Don't worry, I will be getting my spirit level
 out tomorrow and realigning myself.

Armenian Cross

fakery

SCHOOL
The first week of Term 2 is done and dusted. I am loving being back and am really enjoying the little people I work with. Their enthusiasm is infectious and they are hilarious without meaning to be. This week I introduced them to my 'pizazz' words (oral language - words of the week) which are lovely big words that make their writing sparkle. When we talk about the 'pizazz' words we mime sparkles with our hands. So cute! 

READING

I finished reading the Homecoming by Yaa Gyasi and can't recommend it enough. Such an incredibly powerful and moving story. I participated in my first online book club discussion at 6am NZ time one morning. It was so good and I didn't feel out of my depth as the questions were generally opinion based so I was able to contribute quite well, plus I had time to think about my responses. The May book is The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society which I am hoping arrives from Book Depository this week. In the meantime, I am reading The Spaghetti Giraffe which I saw on my Associate Principal's desk and borrowed. It's quite a different read to the Book Club novels haha

WATCHING

Our latest Netflix binge was The Sinner. If you love a good thriller/mystery type story you need to watch this. It is an incredibly well written and well-acted series which twists and turns in every episode and just when you think you have it figured out it changes again. 

Don't judge me but I am also obsessed with watching 'How do I Look' on Bravo from Monday to Friday at 3.30 to 4.30pm. I love a good makeover!

FAMILY
The Cowboy is on his second lot of antibiotics. This chest infection has really knocked him around.
My Mum and one of my Aunties have been in Auckland staying at Domain Lodge while my Aunty has some treatment at Auckland Hospital. They came for a visit on Friday, it was so nice to see them and fun and I loved seeing what they had bought for their latest craft projects. The bonus was they brought down a big bag of Feijoas for the Cowboy, who loves them, I don't, and homemade pickles and relish made by the Aunty. Her beetroot pickle is the best, I have been spooning it, read that as heaped and plural, onto my frittata for the last two nights!

FOOD
It was the Cowboy's birthday on Anzac Day (25 April) and because he was so sick we stayed in. I cooked him a nice dinner, steak which I marinated using this Chelsea Winter Teriyaki Marinade. It was for chicken but worked well for steak. I must make the chicken dish though, it looks so good!I used to have a fabulous Teriyaki marinade recipe that I got from a lady way back in my past called Mrs C. It was the best, but I have lost it. Grova, if you are reading this, try the Chelsea Winter one, I reckon it's close to Mrs C's.

a really good girlfriend would have made ganache and decorated with raspberries. Mine is the slack girlfriend version.

I also made this enormous Annabel Langbein chocolate cake. Mine was enormous because I didn't have the right size springform tin so I cooked it in my 25cm one. It was too easy, put all the ingredients in a bowl, beat, pour and cook. I didn't make the ganache icing or decorate with raspberries, instead, I did plain chocolate icing and one candle haha. It was still really good though.

FOLLOWING
I love following travel vlogger/Instagrammers and the best by far is this girl here, findingx. She is super clever, super funny, super gorgeous, has a super obsession with cheese and does life super well. I may be ever so super biased because she is actually my god-daughter! Seriously though, she puts so much into her content, and what I really love is she doesn't do the ordinary. Last weekend she glamped in a treehouse tent. Amazing! And you really want to check out her Iceland photos and stories. Incredible!

Last time she was in NZ she visited and I grilled her about behind the scenes of her travels. It was fascinating and an eye opener as to how much time, energy and personal expense goes into what she does. She also has a full-time job!

You can find Alexx on Instagram and on her website.

God-daughter, I hope you don't mind that I stole your photo xo

RANDOMNESS
I finally got around to dyeing my hair so don't need to 'Spray away the Gray' for a few weeks.

I also bought this 'device' because after my hair stylist cut my hair she gave me lovely big wavy curls and I want to replicate them. I researched first because that is what you do when buying a device and this one had the best reviews from real life ordinary people like me! My hair device came from Farmers, reduced from $70 to $30, I do love a good bargain!

Oh, and the L'Oreal Sugar Scrub I talked about last time. I used it last week and did it all wrong. I scrubbed without wetting it and aggravated my skin. I now have big acne type breakouts on my 53-year-old face. Great!

My new device.

THE WEEKEND
Is it sad that the highlight of my weekend was buying a new front door mat and glowy spring pegs for my laundry and that both items make me very happy!

My life happiness comes from a doormat

As my 7-year-old students would say,"have an amazing week".

Thanks for reading.
Rachaelxo