Detox Delight

Last night my mother reminded me that lent had started last Thursday.  Admittedly, she was not too impressed that she had to remind me.  As for I, I just can’t believe that I missed Pancake Day!

Regardless of the religious connotations, I always try to give up something for lent or change my life in some way.  I’m not the good (not-so-little) catholic girl I once was, but I do it because I love a challenge.

Normally, I give up chocolate, sweets or promise myself that I will get fit.  But this year, I am thinking something different.  I say this because I decided yesterday to give up chocolates and sweets, but realised that I am sat in Starbucks, writing this with Iced Mocha…  An epic fail clearly.  After quite a bit of though, I am thinking that this year I will do a whole body cleanse.

Throughout the whole of 2014 I read about detoxing through juicing.  I even went so far as to buy a juicer - although I did tend to stick with Orange and Carrot juices, maybe throwing in a handful of spinach to make me feel like it was harder work than it should be. I certainly didn’t fall in love with it the same way some of my colleagues did.  I used to get updates on ‘the juice of the day’, “Today I have beetroot, spinach and apple,” Becs would proclaim one day on entering the office.  Another, it would be some awful concoction that looked a tepid brown…

With hindsight, I was glad that I listened to my taste buds.  A juice diet long-term has been proven to be bad for your health.  High in sugar and low in essential fatty acids and protein, they should be used purely as a boost to your health and not as something that you should engage in long term.  Regardless of what it could do to your health, your teeth and your overall mental wellbeing, it has been proven that these juices should be consumed in a three day cleanse and not as an alternative to a meal.

So for me, with ladies night this week coming up, plus a couple of dinners with my girlfriends, should I engage in cleansing right now or leave it until the following weekend?

Alternatively, I could do a digital detox.  This is sweeping across the UK at the moment, with tourist companies enabling those who feel as though they are addicted to their smart phones, to leave them behind for a weekend.  You basically book yourself on to a retreat (think Glastonbury with the teepees and fields, but without the huge name bands to accompany the mud fest with music), and you hand in your cellphone at the door, only getting it back at the end of the day.

Another detox I could do is a detox of the mind.   One of my best friends is a life coach and swears by the fact that she had counseling, as it was the best thing for her.  She gave up her high-powered Human Resources Director role with a multinational company, studied and became a life coach herself. 

Or I could soup it up.  An alternative to juicing, I could soup.  This would enable me to get all the nutrients I need and be fit and healthy. 

Personally though, I don’t want to lose weight, but I do desperately want to tone.  So, instead maybe a 30-day squat challenge would be beneficial whilst I try out every type of detox that I can find.  

Decisions, decisions…  Right now, I don’t really want to take anything away from my life so I think I will do all of these and more.  Starting with squat challenge.

Chelsea FC

Chelsea FC…

I am actually a big football fan.  I have stuck by Chelsea FC through thick and thin, even after marrying an ex Arsenal football player and having my very comfortable life paid for by Arsenal FC, whilst being fully ingratiated into the club and it’s values.

I am not going to lie, when you spend so much time around something that you used to detest, you cannot help but see it in a different light.  Whereas I used to go and sit in the Directors box of Arsenal Football Club, mingling with them all, I would ultimately being going for the free vino and fabulous food, not uttering one word if Arsenal scored a go, uttering a quiet cheer if they lost (I couldn’t be completely disrespectful by cheering loudly).  Fast forward 10 years, I admit I am happy when they score.  Not Chelsea happy – whereby you jump up and down screaming and shouting, but I can now get lost in that goal moment, jump up and smile.

Chelsea, regardless of anything else have always and will always be my team.  I never thought to question that until today.  I mistakenly had thought we had moved on somewhat, or at least driven this diatribe underground, but it appears not. 

I am so appalled and disgusted by the behaviour of their so called fans who threw a black man from the train carriage in France and then proceeded to chant racial abuse, that it has left me questioning everything.  Not just loyalties with football, but the darker depths of are we really heading back to the 70’s and early 80’s, where racial abuse was commonplace and everyone appears to have an angry existence?  Back then, you would see signs in some of the windows of bed and breakfast places saying, “No Blacks, No Dogs, No Irish.”  Seriously!

Admittedly, not living in the UK and reading all the anti Muslim, anti Semitic stories in the press, I am likely to have a warped view of it.  At some point in the, hopefully no-too-distant future, I want to take my daughter home, but what world will she be brought up in if I do?

Chelsea Football Club HAVE to take a very hardliner approach to this.  Failure to do so will make a mockery out of the FA’s “Kick Racism Out Of Football” campaign.  Also, what about all the black players and fans?  I have no doubt that these thugs are Season Ticket Holders.  If this is the case, they should never, ever, be allowed to step foot inside Stamford Bridge again.  They should also be banned from purchasing any tickets to football in the future. 

This goes deeper than just football though.  These mindless thugs are likely to be part of the Chelsea’s utterly unauthorized ‘firm’, a bunch of morons who meet on match day to fight.  I appreciate that stopping the travel is unlikely, but at least ban them from travelling so they are sending out the right message.

The irony of these uneducated morons is that they will be the first to cheer when Drogba scores a goal and wins Chelsea the match… Need I say anymore?!

Don Alfonso 1890 Dubai - Food Fit for Kings

A couple of weeks ago, myself and a colleague were invited to go to a female press afternoon at the restaurant Don Alfonso which is located in the Shangri La on the Sheikh Zayed Road and all I can say is “WOW”!

The restaurant is everything you would expect from one located within the Shangri La. The bar, with it’s brushed aluminum top, the brushed aluminum chandeliers each table with the comfortable arm chairs and beautiful fresh flower arraignments, give you an insight into luxury that they convey into their food.

Since moving to Dubai, I have really struggled with flavors.  Asian food is amazing.  Arabic food fantastic, American food delicious, English food gorgeous, but Italian food…  Maybe it is my heritage.  Maybe I know the flavors so well because I was brought up, sat in the kitchen after church on a Sunday, with my Nona, Mother and aunts, gossiping, squealing, laughing, shouting, arguing whilst they all fought for to be heard (think Big Fat Greek Wedding and times it by 5).  But at the heart of this, they were all cooking.  Each one - including me, was always given a job to do which would finalise in the whole family being sat around the dinner table as we ate what we had cooked just a few hours later.

Eggplant Parmigiana with San Marzano tomato sauce

All food is a passion to me, but Italian food is in my blood.  Nowhere in Dubai that I had eaten so far, has been able to get the flavors spot on, and more often then not, the pasta is horrendously overcooked.  Not so at Don Alfonso.  Actually, the food took me straight back to thinking about my Nona, which left me really rather emotional.

All plated beautifully, the Eggplant Parmigiana with San Marzano tomato sauce, was superb.  The tomato sauce was beautifully sweet, yet it perfectly offset the saltiness of the strong Parmesan cheese.  The main course was a stunning Sea Bream in Aqua Pazza, a delicious broth – very similar to one that my Uncle would make.  

Neapolitan Sfogliatella with Cinnamon cream and candied sour cherry

I was very worried that I would have no space left for the desert, but when they brought out the Traditional Neapolitan Sfogliatella with Cinnamon cream and candied sour cherry, suddenly I was not so full.  

The typical Italian desert, which my Nona would hand-make herself, was nutella perfection.  I was desperately hoping my colleague would not eat hers so I could, but sadly, this was not meant to be as she ate it quicker than I.

All in all, I will definitely be back.  I have my family visiting at the end of March and this is absolutely on my list of places to take them.  

Culture Club

Culture Club

At the moment, I seem to work, work, work. So what little time I have outside of the office I spend with my family although this makes for a very boring life.  Luckily though, the guys in my office make up for this.  As I have said before on here, one of the great things about Dubai is meeting people of so many different nationalities and cultures.  In my office alone I have six different nationalities, and this is due to grow over the coming month as we rapidly hire more staff. 

Now, in the UK people would say they were Italian, Pakistani and Czech despite being born and raised in the UK, often third generation (yes, I am one of these people – Italian BTW).  Here though, this is not the case.  More often then not, the people who are here have never, and are very unlikely to ever, visit your home country if you live in Europe or America.  But they burn with curiosity about your home and culture, as you may about in theirs. 

Take Christmas for example, my colleague is a Pakistani Muslim.  He is shocked that in the UK, you don’t have church bells ringing in every village like you used to.  He believes it is a great shame that we are losing our identity and national religion, but he was very confused about Christmas.  He understood the religious side, but was unable to get his head round the idea of Santa Claus, the tree and presents.

Now this is my favourite time of year.  I love nothing more than preparing for it months in advance, and spending the time with my family and friends.  The whole two weeks surrounding Christmas is a time of food and because you are on show, catching up with those you haven’t seen in a while, you have to look the part too – Food and fashion, two of my favourite things.  Because of this, I was only too happy to explain, getting incredibly animated with excitement about the whole day and it’s importance (think of an Italian mama gesticulating and you can get an impression of me).  I explained the about the excitement of children when they open their presents and how you can use Santa to get your children to behave as he only gives presents to those who are good.  I described in detail, the importance of the huge family dinner, where you have three different types of meats, two types of potatoes and ridiculous amount of veg – and that is just the main course.  And how you spend the next few days eating the left overs whilst friends visit. 

I was so excited about the whole day that my colleague went out, brought a Christmas tree with all the trimmings and had his children write to Santa.  They had their own big family Christmas day and his brother, who loved seeing all the kids happy, said that next year, Christmas would be at his.  Clearly this is not a religious day, but in the same way westerners, atheists and Christians alike all celebrate Ramadan here, they too have experienced one of the best things about our culture.

With all that is happening in the world, the shock and disgust that 99.9% of Muslims feel, is often overlooked.  So often I read in the western press negative things about their religion, because people don’t understand it.  They fear it.  There is nothing to fear.  Take it from me, someone who is completely western but has fully embraced and loves the culture of Middle East.  It is just a shame that others don’t have the opportunity to have this life experience.

A New Beginning…

Well it has been more than a while since I last posted anything and my, how things have changed.

We are still in Dubai – So much for staying here just two years! Life, as we know it has moved on dramatically.

Firstly, my husband and myself adopted the most beautiful baby from Ethiopia.  We have just celebrated her second birthday and 18 months of being her parents.  We are so blessed to have her in our lives, but I am aware of becoming one of ‘those’ mothers, so I am going to try not to post too much about her! 

Secondly, I have landed my dream job.  I am now the Editor of BUSINESS INSIGHT MAGAZINE, a magazine that is published in partnership with the DMCC, which is a business freezone in Dubai and have many other things in the pipeline.

Thirdly, we moved from the apartment with views over the palm to a villa.  It feels much more homely and we have a large garden, swimming pool and friends all over the village.

It is all very exciting!