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Other food stuff - Diet and Health

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Unwanted guests in the bedroom

January 5th 2007 00:46

Last night I shared my bedroom with an uninvited guest.

With the sheets pulled over my head I gritted my teeth as I listened to their whining drone and hoped my bare skin wasn't showing.

No, my unwanted guest wasn't my husband, or any other man for that matter.

(Where's Mr hot and sexy from Stargate SG1 when I need him? – Unwanted? Oh no …)

My unwanted, uninvited and thoroughly despised guest was a mosquito.

I did try a bit of catch and kill at one point but the little (oh dear, I can't say that) the little [delete] was way too slippery for this poor pregnant woman. Sniggering and giggling at my attempts to trap it, it insisted on constantly buzzing annoyingly around my head, getting as close to my ear as possible.

The little [delete] knew exactly what to do to thoroughly [delete] me off!

In the end I gave up, hoping beyond all hope that no-one was peering through the hole in the blinds, watching as I bounced around on the bed, waving dirty socks around my head and screaming incoherently (under my breath, of course; don't want to wake my children up). It was like a rather bizarre version of a rain dance … unfortunately, no rain ended up falling and no mosquito met it's untimely death, suffocating in my husband's sock or squashed unceremoniously against the ceiling.

I missed it … every time.

Anyway, that got me thinking.

For those of you that don't know, I'm English. I have sensitive and delicate English skin … perfect for tiny little suckers to come along and take my blood. When bitten I come up in horrifying itchy welts, two centimetres in diameter, unless I'm bitten close to my eye (which has happened before) in which case I end up looking like a battered wife or crash test dummy, with swollen and blackened skin around my poor abused eye.

You can imagine the embarrassment I feel when people gasp over my appearance, all imagining the worse and giving my poor husband the evil eye, thinking he's the culprit, and I quietly inform them that I was attacked by a mosquito.

Okay, back to my thoughts.

I'm interested in natural ways to dissuade pests like mosquitos, flies, ants and the like from taking over our lives. I've done a bit of research and this is what I came up with.

Garlic Oil has been known to repel insects, particularly mozzies. Make garlic oil by peeling and chopping a dozen garlic cloves and adding to half a litre of olive oil. Leave for a couple of weeks to mingle before using. Rub over exposed areas of skin.

A bit messy and stinky but better than catching Ross River Fever or other mozzie born diseases.

Alternatively, you can just eat garlic. Apparently the garlicky smell/taste ends up close to the surface of your skin, coming through your pores in your sweat. Flies, mozzies and other air-borne insects hate it.

Garlic is also an excellent insecticide. Poke some in the ground near your plants to dissuade aphids and other bugs. Especially great with tomatoes. The garlic oil above can also be mixed with water and a little washing-up liquid to make an insect spray for plants.

Okay, so what if you have already been bitten or stung?

Apple cider vinegar can soothe itching when applied to bites and stings, as can baking soda. Make a paste of three parts baking soda with one part water and apply to the bite or sting.

Wasp or bee stings can be eased with cucumber. Apply thin slices of fresh cucumber directly to the site of the sting (remove the stinger first if necessary) and the pain will be drawn out and any swelling will decrease.

Lemon and lime juice are excellent ways to ease the pain and itching associated with insect bites and stings. Just squeeze a little onto the offending site or rub a slice of the fruit on top of the bite. Lemon juice can also be used as an ant repellent for your home. So if you're one of the many sufferers of ants in the house this summer, try squeezing a little lemon juice along the window and door sills and any other entry point into your house.

Onions, tulips and sesame seeds are also known to have healing properties when it comes to insect bites and stings.

Okay, so that's just a few of the one's I found. I could go on and on about this as there are many more natural remedies around. Maybe some of you have other tips that you'd like to share to ease the pain and itching of bites and stings or keep unwanted bugs out of the house.

Above all else, have a safe and insect free summer and, don't forget, garlic will not just repel insects, it'll keep the vampires away as well. It doesn't get better than that.

Blood suckers beware; the garlic is here!

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Posted By: Andrea - Category: Other food stuff

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Hang on ... whoever said Christmas is fun?

December 25th 2006 08:25

Okay people, it's time for a bit of honesty now …

… who on earth made the decision that Christmas was fun?

Fun? FUN? Christmas is so not fun … in fact, Christmas must be the most unfunnest day of the whole year.

Why?

Well, I'll tell you why.

First of all there's the lack of sleep. Not fun.

At not quite six o'clock this morning, two little terrors, my vampires-in-training, awoke. All I can say is thank goodness it was beginning to get light by then, otherwise I could have ended up with little puncture marks in my neck and children with blood dripping down their faces.

I was woken up every fifteen minutes between six and eight o'clock when I decided to put them out of their misery and crawl, kicking and screaming, out of bed.

Every single present had been touched, poked, shaken (but not stirred) and held up to the light, just in case the wrapping paper was see through. It was truly amazing that all but two presents had managed to get through the experience unscathed.

Then again, I did get to bed relatively early last night, in anticipation of just this event happening so the tiredness didn't hit me until late this afternoon. I suppose the lack of sleep really wasn't that bad after all.

Okay, well how about the copious amounts of money that were spent? That's not fun, is it?

Then again, most of the money went on toys and gifts for the two beautiful little terrors. To see my son's face light up when he ripped open the paper and found a new cricket bat and a real cricket ball, or my daughter's smile when she opened up one of her packages and found roller blades.

Priceless. Absolutely priceless.

Santa did pretty well this year, for an old bloke.

All right, how about the overeating and over drinking? That might feel like fun at the time but it's not fun afterwards, is it? Total unfun.

Then again, with Little Blog taking up much of the available space in my lower abdomen I really couldn't over eat or over drink this year (oh, did I mention to you that I'm pregnant?).

And Christmas dinner was total yum. Seafood, roast pork, fruit salad (with cherries and bananas and grapes), pasta salad, sweet and sour twiggy sticks, baby beetroots and pickled onions. YUM!

And, of course, that was followed by the obligatory mince pie and custard. Damn, I love custard.

Oh well, so the food wasn't as unfun as it seemed at first (and I didn't even mention the chocolate) so what about the weather? Now that definitely wasn't fun.

The weather people, in their infinite wisdom, predicted a balmy and tropical sixteen degrees for Melbourne today. Yes, sixteen degrees … apparently the coldest Christmas day for a very long time with snow on the mountains.

Yes, snow!!!

Not fun. Definitely not fun.

Then again, it could have been a hot and humid forty degrees in the shade. My children could have wandered outside and come back in thirty seconds later looking like lobsters from their sun burned skins. Peeling and blistered and thoroughly miserable.

It could have been raining all day with storms that took out the TV reception so the terrors couldn't watch Carols by Candlelight this afternoon, instead of the few little showers that we had. Well-needed rain, I hasten to add.

Yep, can't really complain about that, either.

So, what can I complain about? Why was it such unfun?

It wasn't. Not really. I love Christmas … the overeating, the copious amounts of money being spent, the excitable terrors … even being forced to have my face painted.

I love it all.

Merry Christmas. I hope you all had a great Christmas too.

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Posted By: Andrea - Category: Other food stuff

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The Gothic look - do you dye your hair?

December 17th 2006 02:07

Changing your hair colour. It's something that is an integral part of many people's lives and, these days, not just the domain of women, with many men also trying to defy the aging process that brings that tinge of grey.

So why do people dye their hair?

When I was around fourteen I dabbled in the mystical art of changing the colour of my hair. Like many teenage girls I decided that if I was going to do this right then I had to totally amend my appearance by making a radical hair colour change.

So I went black.

My natural hair colour was a sort of mousy brown with a very slight red tinge, my skin tone was (and still is) very pale and I love black eye make-up.

So with the black hair, black eyes and black school uniform contrasting nicely with the pale skin, I looked like something out of a Stephen King novel or Night of the Living Dead.

Very Gothic … and very not me.

When the black finally grew out (not before time) I decided on a different approach. Gone was the urge to scare others with my zombie routine, now I just wanted to accentuate the colour I'd been born with … so I went red.

I've always loved auburn hair, always wished that my hair colour was more auburn and a lot less … well, brown. So I picked myself up a Nice 'n Easy Medium Auburn and tried again.

As you can probably imagine, this one worked a hell of a lot better than black. No more Living Dead, now I looked alive. I used to like sitting in class at school and letting the sunlight shine onto my newly reddened hair. How dramatic was that.

Oh, give me a break, I was a teenager, after all.

I've tried a number of different looks over the years, with my hair. Recently I tried a blonde dye to lighten my locks, which didn't work particularly well, so I tried another blonde one of a different brand.

That also didn't work too well either.

Currently my hair is a little stripy with some natural(ish) tinges and blonde streaks where the dye took better in some places than in others. I think, after the baby's born, I might just go back to the old favourite … red.

Maybe it'll make me feel young again. After all, having two monsters and a newborn running around, nipping at my ankles and keeping me awake at night, I'm not expecting to feel anything but old.

So, do you change your hair colour? And if you do, how do you do it?

Are you one of the majority who gets their new hair colour out of a bottle of chemicals (like most of us)? Or do you use a more natural method, like walnuts to darken, or lemon juice or camomile to lighten?

And does it work?

How about the colour. Do you radically change your colour or just accentuate what nature so kindly gave you?

Share your secrets and let me know what you do.

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The Orble Angels are here

December 5th 2006 01:34

Orble's Angels are here - original picture courtesy of Wikipedia

You've heard of Charlie's Angels. You may have even seen the movie, enjoyed the TV series or played with the funny little promotional dolls they decided to bring out to really push their point home.

Well, move over Charlie's Angels … the Orble's Angels Girls are here.

And they mean business.

Orble's Angels work undercover to fight crime on the Orble network. The MOSTEST directions are their bible and they adhere vigorously to the guidance set out for the betterment of the human race.

And they love their food.

They act, with the best of intentions, to protect the Orble minnows … supporting and encouraging, giving strength and assistance to the 'newbies' in Orble-land, while using their cunning and guile to bring down the smug, the bad bloggers, those who use disrespect and disdain to discredit their fellow Orblers.

Orble's Angels are strong and sexy (of course), tough with a sassy humour and smart intelligence (goes without saying).

Orble's Angels are knowledgeable, lurking in the background, ready to pounce on some unsuspecting blogger who threatens the integrity of the Orble network.

The Orble’s Angels just … are. And beware … they know where you live.

And they love their bubbles.

Meet the Orble’s Angels.

D.D. is Gold Angel. Like a slab of Old Gold Chocolate, Gold Angel is sensual and seductive, dark and mysterious, deceptively sweet, smooth and sometimes full of nuts. Gold Angel is not old, just Old Gold (does that make sense?), intelligent and attractive, weaving her web of intrigue and observation to attract unsuspecting Orblers who insist on doing the wrong thing. Gold Angel’s bubbles come from her G & T… a drink not for the faint-hearted.

Watch out for our D.D.

K.L. is Cherry Angel, the baby of the Orble’s Angels. Like a bar of Cherry Ripe chocolate, Cherry Angel is fun and fruity, but full of bite, passion and femininity. Cherry Angel is a pink and blonde goddess, but beware, her teeth are sharp and she has a strong connection to … the Dark Side. (She’s a zombie but … not … if you see what I mean.) Cherry Angel’s bubbles come from her love of pink champagne but, don’t be deceived …

… K.L. is a force to be respected.

A.H. is Caramel Angel (or Caramello Angel, or Old Fangy Angel or Bitey Angel or …). Like one of those chocolates you get in a box of Cadbury’s Roses, you know the ones, when you bite into it the caramel splodges out and sticks to your chin, Caramel Angel is sweet and sticky, never letting go when she has her fangy teeth into a problem (not until she’s washed off with soap and warm water, anyway). Caramel Angel is deceptively simple (no, I don’t mean that she’s one slice short of a loaf) and more-ishly tasty, with a vaguely reddish stripiness to her hair. Caramel Angel’s bubbles come from a cold glass full to overflowing with dry white wine with a dash of soda water (alternatively, they could come from a plastic beaker of Diet Solo but that just doesn’t sound quite romantic enough).

Beware the pregnant woman, A.H.

The Orble’s Angels weapons are their pens (well … their typing fingers, actually, but that just didn’t seem to flow quite as smoothly as ‘pen’. I’ll show you what I mean …

The Orble’s Angels weapons are their typing fingers … well, I’m sure you can get my point.)

Where was I? Oh yes, pens … and they wield their weapons with courage and determination, sensitivity and humour, humanitarianism and truth.

The Orble’s Angels are here; watching, lurking, stalking, ready to pounce. And if you’re not careful they might just bring out little dolls too, with little moving arms and legs and a head that can’t be pulled off (just in case).

You have been warned.

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A commemoration to actor Jon Blake

December 2nd 2006 06:28

There's something that I want to share. It has nothing to do with diet or health or food or anything like that but I still thought that I would share it here, on Orble.

Yesterday, December 1st 2006, was the twentieth anniversary of an event I feel very strongly about, something that I feel shouldn't be forgotten. On the night of 1st December 1986 a terrible car accident took one of Australia's promising young actors off the screens for good.

While driving back to Adelaide after shooting the final scenes in the Lighthorsemen, an epic World War One movie, 28 year old actor Jon Blake was involved in a horrific head on collision with a broken down car.

According to reports, he was found slumped over his steering wheel by a behind the scenes person also involved in the movie. She managed to bring him back to life and keep him that way until he was taken to hospital.

Jon Blake suffered massive brain damage in the accident, finishing his blossoming career as an actor (he was touted to be the 'next Mel Gibson') and his life as he knew it. He could do nothing for himself, needing round the clock supervision and assistance. His primary carer during the last twenty years has been his devoted mother, Mascot.

As a girl in her mid-teens, I first encountered Jon Blake as an actor in ANZACS, the Australian mini-series in which he played Flanagan. I fell instantly in lust with this gorgeous young Aussie and watched ANZACS on video time and time again, just to see his smile.

When I came over to Australia from England in the early/mid nineties, I found out about his accident and was devastated. It had happened almost ten years ago but, for me, it was as if it had happened yesterday.

I never could come to grips with why something like that could happen to a man like Jon Blake.

Jon Blake was a fantastic actor … just compare the characters he played in his two major roles, Lighthorsemen and ANZACS. Two totally different types of personalities portrayed professionally and believably by one man.

To me, Jon Blake will always be the young actor I loved as a teenager. To me he will never age, never die. I'll always have a soft spot in my heart for this amazing actor who had everything taken from him at such a young age.

Many of you probably won't have heard of him or remember him, or even care. But on the anniversary of his terrible accident, I wanted to commemorate the awesome acting skills of Jon Blake.

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The Atkins Diet Revolution - is it a fad?

November 16th 2006 00:34

Controversial diets are nothing new. But is it true that controversy and 'fad' always go hand in hand?

Probably the most well-known controversial diet is The Atkins Diet Revolution, a low-carbohydrate lifestyle change that achieved amazing popularity during 2003 and 2004. In fact, its popularity was so high that many food manufacturers jumped on the bandwagon, cashing in on the success by producing low carbohydrate forms of traditional foods, such as pasta and bread. A craze that is still happening today

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Posted By: Andrea - Category: Other food stuff

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Chips - the ultimate goal for all potatoes

November 7th 2006 00:19

I'm a big fan of hot chips.

That's right, I admit it, hot chips

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Posted By: Andrea - Category: Other food stuff

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Eating Disorders - signs and symptoms

October 26th 2006 12:10

It's probably every mother's nightmare (and every father's) that their teenage daughter will develop an unhealthy and potentially fatal preoccupation with their body image. Eating disorders are widespread in this age of thin models and slender actresses as young people desperately try to be just like their chosen idol.

However anorexia and bulimia are no longer relegated to the realm of teenage female diseases. Increasing numbers of boys and young men are being sucked into the damaging world of eating disorders and the problems can start in children well before they hit their teenage years

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Posted By: Andrea - Category: Other food stuff

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Happy, healthy hair

October 18th 2006 00:20

There are many factors that can affect your hair and how healthy it is at any given time. We've all experienced those days when we're feeling a little under the weather just to find that our hair is also looking under the weather. Straggly, greasy, hard to manage … those are just a few of the reactions you can notice in your hair when illness hits.

Of course, illness isn't the only time you can notice changes in your hair. During pregnancy amazing transformations can occur to a woman's hair. Straight hair can become curly, and curly hair straight. These changes often continue indefinitely, even after the baby has been born. A woman's hair also becomes thicker during pregnancy due to a surge of hormones causing more hair than usual to be thrown into a growing stage. This results in less hair loss during pregnancy. The hair that would normally have fallen out during this time but was retained will eventually be lost in the months following birth

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Posted By: Andrea - Category: Other food stuff

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Seven sure-fire ways to get sick from your favourite foods

October 6th 2006 00:17

It's estimated that around 2 million cases of food poisoning happen in Australia each and every year. And this figure is rising. So why does a country with such an excellent food safety record have comparable food poisoning rates to the USA? You also have to remember that many cases of food poisoning, in particular the minor cases, aren't reported to doctors. So what the hell are we all doing wrong?

Speculation has determined a number of factors that contribute towards this rise in foodborne illness. These include

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Leeches and maggots and all things slimy

October 3rd 2006 05:41

One thing I've always been fascinated with is ancient medicine. The use of herbs in healing, the dilemma that must have presented itself to olden-day healers when confronted with an unfixable problem, and the use of creatures to aid in healing, creatures that, in recent times, have begun to make a comeback.

Parasites and bugs, such as leeches and maggots, have been used by the medical profession for many centuries. Leeches have been used for bloodletting, sometimes usefully, sometimes not. Maggots have been used for debridement, or cleaning the decaying flesh away from an open wound, allowing the wound to heal more cleanly

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My favourite food

October 2nd 2006 00:26

Shhhh … don't tell anyone, but I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Just between you and me, I'm just a little bit of a food fanatic.

I know, I know, you hadn't guessed, how could you? After all, I never mention food, do I? Anyway, I thought I'd let you in on another little secret and have a little chat about my all time favourite foods

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Food allergies and intolerance

September 13th 2006 23:41

Every one of you who has been affected by food allergy or intolerance, either suffering personally or having to watch someone close to you cope with this condition, will know how it can potentially reduce your quality of life, sometimes quite significantly.

These sensitivities can be relatively harmless, causing an irritating rash or maybe an upset stomach. Sometimes, however, certain foods can cause reactions in people, such as breathing difficulties, which if left untreated can quickly become life threatening, causing a potentially fatal anaphylactic reaction

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Posted By: Andrea - Category: Other food stuff

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Go for 2&5

September 6th 2006 12:56

In 2004, the Australian Government declared war on poor eating habits and a decline in activity levels among children. The four year package Building a Healthy, Active Australia was born, with the ultimate goal being to provide Australian families with advice and information vital to the health and well-being of their families.

In April 2005, the national Go for 2&5 campaign was introduced, based on a model developed by the Western Australian Department of Health, it encourages all children to consume 2 pieces of fruit and 5 serves of vegetables each day

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