Dalai Lama: change the world... start small

Besides work, maintaining the vegetable plot, redecorating the house and still playing lots of World of Warcraft, I’ve been busy switching my diet. This new healthy diet requires more cooking, planning and preperation. More on that in a later post.


This cute Bee Happy image I found on Lollygaggin, a great artistic blog!

In short I've been a very busy bee, who’s been out and about a lot too. First I went to see the Dalai Lama in the Royal Albert Hall on the 22nd of May. I have never been to the Royal Albert Hall before, nor have I ever seen the Dalai Lama before. And it was quite an experience.

My colleague and dear Friend Louisa and I left work at lunch time and travelled to the Royal Albert Hall (RAH). The last part of our journey we took one of those old London Busses called Routemaster. These are still used on Route 9. We passed all sorts of demonstrations near the RAH. Chinese students (possibly hired by their government) protesting against the Dalai Lama. Some sort of Buddhist sect, Shugden Buddhists... protesting against the Dalai Lama. It was all a bit loud and chaotic. And angry too. Quite negative which says something about the protesters in my opinion. What sounds better: Dalai Lama stop Lying... or ...Dalai Lama tell the Truth. I would think the latter as it's a wish for good. Maybe they never heard of the Law of Attraction. This latter group seemed very religiously fanatic, something which I never understand. In the end religion is your own business but when it brings up hate and violence (intent) that to me is just the ugly side of humans and there is nothing religious or sprititual about that.


Bright lights are blinding...

After all that turmoil it was great to take our seats in this vast dome and watch the peace and cheerfullness of the Dalai Lama. He held a very good speach, sometimes hard to understand (because of his accent and bad sound). But this is what I took away from it:

You can not change big things if you don't change small things first. Change starts with yourself and it is your responsibility. We are all in the same boat together. Life brings ups and downs. We are all connected and all you need to do is recognise yourself in the other person.

In order to find happiness you must realise that everything is transient. Simply put: everything will pass away or change. That is what life is: change. We have a choice when it comes to dealing with change. We can either accept it or not accept it. If we choose the first option we take life as it comes, look at this moment and see the facts, our mind state and our feelings that are before us and move on from there. If we resist we do not accept the situation, mind state and our feelings and we go against what is (reality). This brings suffering.

So to end the suffering in the world do what you can to eliminate it in you. Because if you can not take away your own suffering, what makes you think you have any chance in making the world a better place. And the best thing is, anyone can do it. You don't have to be the president of a country or someone in a position of power. Start with you! Eliminate any unnessesary suffering from yourself and become happier. You will also become more an more able to help those you love and strangers who as was said in the beginning are in the same boat as you and I. By these small actions you really do help the world.

Namaste'

Alan Titchmarsh & Chelsea

I've always been a fan of Alan Titchmarsh. When he speaks the world slows down and without effort I'm in a relaxed state of mind. Everything is as it should be when Alan directs your attention. The world flows and it feels natural. If you do know know who Alan Titchmarsh is you might be wondering who this influential character is. Well, the answer to that is rather humbling I guess: he's a tv-presenter and gardener. Nothing more, nothing less. For years he presented Gardeners’ World on the BBC and I still find it a great loss that he no longer presents that program. Thank god he is still available to present the Chelsea Flower Show every year.


Chelsea is ON!!

The Chelsea Flower Show is named the greatest in the world and for good reason. The sheer scale, involement, knowledge, passion, vision and expertese that goes into this show are staggering. Not to mention money. Out of nothing a whole series of show gardens, small gardens and exhibition stands appear in a mere three weeks. Ofcourse I can talk on and on about new idea’s etc etc. But there is only one way to experience the Chelsea Flower show and that is to see it. The “>preview to the weeks broadcasts was shown on Sunday, but you can still view it via the BBC iPlayer! And I highly recommend watching any episodes that become available on the iPlayer this week. The preview show is nice, but the main show has all the jewels that form the crown that makes Chelsea the Queen of Garden Shows. Just type in ‘Chelsea’ in the search field at the top right of the page and hey presto!.


The Daily Telegraph Garden designed by Arabella Lennox-Boyd
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Links:
All the Chelsea Flower Show info on the BBC Website
“>Chelsea in pictures on the Guardian website
BBC TV coverage scedual
Chelsea in pictures on the Telegraph website

More Pilgrim!

Of some things you can never have enough when you're a girl: shoes, bags and jewellery. I'm a big fan of Pilgrim a Danish brand that sells very stylish and affordable jewellery. The face of Pilgrim used to be Liv Tyler, and a very good job she did, but they have changed to Helena Christensen. I've always liked Helena, but was quite used to Liv. Liv made it seem quite wearable and Helena makes it more.. model like. But this doesn't matter in the end as there is always something that I like. And now on to my three new (well I got them a few months back for Valentines) items.


Liv... one of us


Helena... much more glam!


I'm a big fan of the tv-show (no longer running) called The Gilmore Girls. Lorelei Gilmore often wears pretty little earrings and I fancied something similar. Normaly I wear long and big earring a lot and I have a lack of small cutie earrings. That's why I'm so happy with these. They are quite big for studs and have a georgeous green colour. They look ab fab and I love to wear them.


Lorelei Gilmore with cute earrings


Big small earrings!

I also got a combo of earrings (studs again) and a ring of similar design. I like wearing these when my clothes are simple (black tee on jeans) just to add a bit of colour without 'screaming'. The ring can be adjusted in size so it can be worn on different fingers, but I usually just wear it on the same one.


Little flower earrings


...and big matching ring!

My new baby...

This month as a celebration of my better financial situation I decided to buy myself this tinsy tiny little laptop called an Asus EEE. It's really small, so small even that my boyfriend calls it my calculator.

The operating system is Linux (very easy to use!!), but you could install a low spec Windows on it. It has 512 MB memory and a 4 gig hard drive, build in speakers, microphone and webcam. Battery is small and lasts circa 2.8 hours (I find this shorter).


A cutie small little laptop.. aka my calculator!

It has build in wifi so connecting to the internet is a breeze. The Linux operating system is very easy to use. I bought this little gem at PC World for £249.99 (circa $500) which is a whole lot cheaper than most laptops. This is because of the size, and it's spec. The EEE is a notebook that falls into a catagory of it's own.

Initially developed for children to use for school and developting countries Asus is finding that here in the richer west the demand for this little beauties is quite high. I had a lot of trouble finding one. This also because I wanted a green one, which seemed to be sold out everywhere, and I didn't want to pay more than £250.


Pretty colours

I choose this tiny simple laptop in favour of a more posh powerfull one because of practicallity. This mini baby fits in my handbag (no one knowing i'm carring a laptop) and is great for travel. And so later this week I will test it out as I'll be visiting family and friends back in Holland. :)

I might review it properly at a later date when I've spend more time using it. Verdict so far is a big fat: SUPER DUPER!

YNZzzzzzzz

Spotted on the net! This funny gadget you can use in your bedroom to communicate silently. After a short explaination I'm sure you can guess the use (don't scroll down, just read on, unless you don't want to guess).


What is this mystery object used for...

Clue:

Y stands for Yes!
N stands for No!
Z stands for Zzzzz (I'm sleeping/need sleep)

There is a forth side (an upsidedown Y) which you could use to represent indecision. An unspoken 'Maybe' if you like... so you guessed it yet?

One more guess?

Alright I'll tell you. It's to indicate ones willing to make love. You can display this item in the bedroom and based on it's facing communicate silently what your mood is. Other than that it just looks like an oranament. Funny eh!



The YNZ is a design made by Tomohiko Sato.

bon bon(d) wrappers

Pretty colours... nice scent

Like Gwen Stefani sang: If i was a rich girl.. la la la la la la lalala la. Well if I was a rich girl I might have bought this little box full with colourfull wrappers. Inside is a little glass vial of perfum. However I would need to be quite rich in order to spend £182 ($264) on something so indulgent and unnessesary. Until then I thought the pretty colours could brighten up my blog for nothing. Hehe. Inspiration is free!!!!

Spotted on the Kiss and Makeup blog in February, made by Bond no. 9 and sold by our very own Harrods.

Icy Blue Koolhaas

Although it is spring the weather here in London has been very changable for the last few weeks. Some times it's really nice and then the next day it's pooring down and icy cold. So last month I cast on for another hat. This one I fell in love with the moment I saw it. It's called the Koolhaas hat, named after the Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas. Some of his work I really like, some I do not. But this hat is a good design and has a fantastic structure. It reminds me of designs both modern and arabesque.


Great structure...

The pattern is published in Interweave Knits Holiday Gifts 2007 which I ordered online around Christmas. The magazine is chuck full with fantastic projects as I stated in my blog post: Knitting books & magazines. If you can get your hands on this mag I strongly advise you to do so as it's well worth it. However it seems to be pretty much sold out. No worries, you can also purchase the Koolhaas hat pattern seperate for $4.50 at the Interweave shop

I had two skeins of Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Chunky that I bought for half price in the John Lewis sale. I really liked the colour and wanted to make a hat, so I decided to make the Koolhaas hat even though the pattern asks for a lighter weight yarn. I tried making a gauge swatch, but it was no use. The pattern was directed for knitting in the round and the gauge was not stockinette but the pattern. My test swatch would have been so big, I though I might as well cast on and try it out. So I tried several times until I found that 80 stitches was the right gauge for my head. The Koolhaas pattern is a multiply of 10 stitches so 80 would do.


Matches my eyes.

Project Details

Pattern: Koolhaas hat
Yarn: Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Chunky
Colour: 17011 (blue)
Amount: 2 skeins, 130 m / 142.0 yards (I had about 1/2 skein left over)
Needles: 5 mm (US 8) for ribbing, 5.5 mm (US 9) for pattern

Cast on 80 stiches using 5 mm needles. Switched to 5.5 mm (us 9) needles for pattern. Pattern repeat over 8 sts, hence the 80 sts cast on instead of the 104 (needed for thinner yarn).

Repeated pattern 3 times then worked the crown decreases. Was not happy with size. It didn't came down enough and left my ears too exposed. So I put it back on the needles after froggin it a bit and added about 5 extra rounds in the decrease crown section. It now has a slight point which you can only see when it's not worn, but when on my head you can't really see it.

Over verdict: Absolute Gem! Fantastic to knit and great look. Colour is fab too as it matches my eyes. I am thinking of making a lighter weight yarn version later in the year in boreaux red.

Ravelry links:
My Koolhaas hat
The Koolhaas hat pattern