Inspiralize Your Life!!

I bought I spiralizer last week, on the recommendation of my cousin and his girlfriend. I'd been slowly reading about them in more and more places, but as soon as I saw them and they raved about 'courgetti' I just knew I had to have one (courgettes were my vegetable of last summer with my courgette and lemon cake becoming my new cake speciality!!).

So I bought the Hemsley + Hemsley Spiralizer from Amazon and I think it is amazing! I'd read reviews that said upright ones were best, because the vegetables don't slip out, but then everyone who had bought one, seemed to have one like this so I decided to go with the masses. And IT IS AMAZING!!!

I have used it every day so far and without really trying have massively upped my vegetable intake. Plus anything spiralled looks really cool. I have always been a stickler for my 5 fruit and veg a day, but have recently upped this to 10, with the aim of eating more veg as a lot of my intake tends to be fruit which is not so good for me.

Since last Tuesday, when it arrived just in time for dinner, here's what I have spiralled....

TUESDAY: Thai red curry (onion, pepper, tomato, mushrooms, sweetcorn, aubergine) with courgoodles (courgette noodles). I did also try and spiral the aubergine but it just went a bit mushy and shredded and didn't really work.

WEDNESDAY: The classic, courgetti bolognese (with onions, tomatoes, mushrooms and carrots in the sauce)

Verdict = courgettes are super easy to spiral, if they're a bit wonky I just cut them on the bendy bit and spiralize them in sections which works perfectly. They are also nicely soft so very easy to spiral. And both nights we ate just one courgette spiralled between the 2 of us and a normal portion of the rest of dinner and were nicely full.

THURSDAY: Chorizo sausages with spiralled potatoes, spiralled carrots, mushrooms, onions and garlic.

Verdict = I thought the harder veg might not work as well but the blades are so sharp that the carrots went through with little more effort. The only downside is that you need really fat carrots to make proper spirals, but my thinner carrots gave nice arcs, and then I munched on the middles whilst cooking. Yum!

The potatoes worked amazingly and I just steamed them in with the sausages so they got a lovely chorizo-y flavour. Curly potatoes taste so much nicer than plain boiled potatoes for some reason, and we weren't tempted to add butter which we normally would have so well worth it!

FRIDAY: Wraps with humous, courgetti and peppers. Amazingly delicious!!

SATURDAY: Wraps with boursin and courgetti. Again, AMAZING!!!

I own a fair few kitchen gadgets which I do use fairly often, however, never have I had one that I am so in love with that I want to use it every day! I think the fact that it's not electric so you can dump the whole thing in the sink to wash it if you want helps too so I would recommend to everyone GO AND BUY A SPIRALIZER!!!!

New Years Resolutions

I've had the same few new years resolutions for the past few years, and have just managed to become to frantically busy that they get pushed to the bottom of my list of things to do. So I decided, this year, to write them down in black and white on here so that I might feel more inclined to actually complete them and blog about updates on my progress. So here goes:

1. Knit myself a jumper. 
Last year I knitted, amongst other things; tiger, penguin, about 20 different shaped hats, over 100 baubles, and a camel. I feel that I now have all the skills to knit a jumper, and even picked up a cool pattern to adapt for 10p in a charity shop. I've even chosen a wool I love in John Lewis. So this year I MUST actually get round to knitting myself a jumper. Maybe I'll start tomorrow....

2. Make myself another knitting needle case. 
I have one roll for my standard needles, and then a bag full of a confusion of different sized double pointed and circular needles. I must sew myself a double point and a circular needle case to make my life so much easier when I am looking for a certain size.

3. Read more. 
I managed to join the library last year and went along with brilliant intentions of reading more and would take out 4 books at a time...only to return them on the due date with 3 unread and the 1 read one having been finished at 2am the night before. I used to read before I went to bed every night but now somehow end up only going to bed after midnight every night and so just being too sleepy to read. I have a huuuuuuge list of books I need to read so I must make more time for that. Maybe I could knit myself some more time....hmmm

4. Make more of my own clothes. 
I'm still hanging on to having a ridiculous amount of free clothes from my last job, and so haven't really been clothes shopping at all for a year, but I do have a drawer full of beautiful fabrics and so I really must sew some more outfits for myself.

Then I have the usual ones about eating more healthily, going to the gym more often, travelling more, making time to see friends. I actually did quite well on these last year - I started cycling to work, and managed to go on holiday to France (skiing), Poland, Russia, Italy, Switzerland and some lovely seaside destinations in the UK.

Now I must go and finish some work quickly so I have time to read for at least half an hour before bed....wish me luck!

All Things Green and Beautiful

I've been having a bit of a love affair recently with spinach. As a child I refused to eat spinach if it was called spinach as I declared it to be slime. However, my clever Granny used to call it holly and I would happily eat up my holly if it was put on my plate as I thought it was really hardcore and cool to be able to eat something so prickly!

I was given a soup cook book for my birthday by my house mates and one of my favourite and most cooked recipe from the book is a spinach and coconut soup - absolutely delicious!

I have made it many times, sometimes with chilli to give it a Thai style soup edge, sometimes with potatoes to make it really thick and creamy, but mostly just as it is as it is scrumptious.

When I haven't got any coconut milk in the house, I have been making a few variations on green soup, with spinach still as the main ingredient. I find spinach just makes you feel better at just the thought of eating it, it exudes goodness, and especially after an exciting weekend with a fair amount of drinking, I feel spinach is absolutely the best thing to be eating to make myself better and keep going for a weeks work.

To make it an ultra healthy soup, I quite often go for a green theme and put in anything I have in the house that is green. As one of my colleagues said today...'ugh - what are you eating' ...it may look like slime, but it tastes fabulous and very, very healthy!

The latest green concoction contains a red onion and vegetable stock cube, as the base soup ingredients, and then also contains spinach, peas, broccoli and celery! Yum!

What A Strange Country - Oh Wait, It's Malaysia!

Malaysia! Such a beautiful, underrated holiday destination, but also a rather strange place! We crammed a lot into our 3 weeks, and hopped all over the country, visiting the capital, an island, the jungle, another island, with Sharon's house on the mainland, some tea plantations in the mountains, another island, a historical city, then a short stop in Singapore, before the overnight train back to KL.

On Pulau Tioman we saw loads of fish, quite a lots of monkeys, and I got sprayed by a cat whilst at dinner one night!

We had the most amazing Satay one night, as well as some scrumptious Singapore noodles and far too many cocktails.

After a short stay in the jungle where we encountered far too many leeches than is necessary (only about 5 but that's 5 more than I' comfortable with) we headed to Penang for a stay with Sharon! She was an amazing tour guide and took us to all the best places and made us eat all the local delicacies. Including Cendol. Do not eat cendol - it's weird! Who puts noodles and beans into their pudding??

Onto another island, and we headed to Pulau Pangkor which was very calm and quiet compared to Tioman, but we did manage to persuade one of the local barmen to bring us mojitos on the beach at sunset every day. And there was an inflatable obstacle course in the sea. And a temple with a Mickey Mouse and a mushroom. What more could you want?

From Pangkor we headed to Melaka (my Greek housemate says this means 'arsehole' in Greek so finds it pretty funny every time I mention this!) which was a beautiful old city. It was baking hot but we still managed to fit in lots of wandering and a visit to one of the local night clubs.

Then we headed South to Singapore (followed by a Frenchman who we were very rude to) and spent a classy day and a bit in a posh hotel with a rooftop pool, a cocktail at the Raffles Hotel and then a good explore.

We overnight trained it back to Kuala Lumpur and did a final bit of sightseeing and finished off our bargainous shopping, before partying in style at the Reggae Mansion - the best hostel in the world!

I loved Malaysia (so much more than Thailand!) and would definitely recommend it as a holiday destination!!

Ooompa Lumpa Makeover? Anyone?

I'd been meaning to buy some new foundation for ages as I'd been feeling a bit blotchy and uneven. I don't really wear make up very often, and so wanted something really natural, that would just smooth me out a bit, and not look like I was wearing make up at all.

So we went to Selfridges on a Sunday morning, definitely not looking our best after a Saturday night out, and in need of some pampering.

The first counter I went to, was Bare Essentials, and the girl was very enthusiastic about transforming my face. I have to admit, I did look very smooth...but also very much like I'd been tangoed. It's hard to tell exactly under the harsh shop lights, but as I walked away from the stand, not only did I feel a bit cakey (she'd put a lot more layers on than I was really after) but I was also worried that I was looking like an extra for Willy Wonka.

So we wandered on. I was feeling very self concious as I knew I was looking slightly worse for wear after the night out, and I really didn't want to be orange and slightly worse for wear. We approached the Mac counter. After wandering around slightly aimlessly, we were advised that you have to go to the booth to get a makeover.

The woman looked at me, and said 'I don't mean to be rude - but is that your normal foundation?' When I shook my head very enthusiastically, and explained what had happened she said 'Phew, how can they do that to you!!'

Similarly, when I told one of my colleagues what had happened, she looked horrified and said 'But I thought they weren't allowed to do that to people?'. I don't think she'd purposely made me look like an oompa lumpa, I'm pretty sure that she thought that's what I wanted to look like! And she herself was pretty orange - I assume on purpose!!

So I came away with some Mac foundation which does exactly what I wanted - smooths me out without looking like I'm wearing make up. On the recommendation of most of my friends I also bought some Benefit tinted moisturiser and I am in love with it! Not only does it smooth me out, but it also smells like flowers - in a very nice way! Successful mission!

Sausages, Mushrooms & Other Stew Ingredients

I love cooking and especially cooking with random ingredients and making stew concoctions. Last night, it was raining and so I couldn't be bothered to go to Sainsburys and so raided my shelf in the fridge and the freezer.

I ended up making a bit of a hot pot which had: Sausages (I don't normally eat them for fear of what's hiding in processed meat, but they were finest ones), onions, tomatoes, lentils, potatoes, broccoli, carrots and mushrooms. Oh, and a stock cube. Yum!

It was a bit runny though and very lumpy and so after eating a bowl full, I blended the rest into incredibly delicious soup!! I've never made sausage soup before but they are a seriously good addition!!!

Mooncup

A friend of mine mentioned a few years ago that she was thinking of buying a mooncup. My initial reaction was 'Eurghhhh!!! That's so gross', and then that was it really. She didn't buy one and there was no more said about it.

I also didn't think much more about it until I was packing to go travelling, and had to pack a ridiculous number of tampons to take with me as I wasn't sure if I'd be able to buy them anywhere whilst travelling through Africa.

When I got back to Kenya, I spent a few days helping out at Mission in Action baby orphanage (http://www.missioninaction.com.au/), but went back to visit the Walk Centre (http://www.thewalkchildrenschurch.org.uk/), where I'd worked before. The kids here all live on the local rubbish dump and both the children and their parents will forage amongst the rubbish to find anything they can eat, wear or sell. Whilst being shown around the rubbish dump to be shown the new rooves on some of the childrens houses, I noticed a massive amount of sanitary towels which just didn't seem to be decomposing at all.

I did a bit of research and couldn't find an exact answer on how long they take to decompose, but I did find out that disposable nappies take 200 to 500 years to decompose and some of the plastic used may never even disappear. That's a ridiculously long time. The plastic in them is also made from crude oil and harmful pollutants which go directly into the earth and are really bad for the environment. In comparison, it only take 6 months to one year for a tampon to completely bio-degrade. Apparently 90% of the sanitary products we used are flushed and end up floating around in the sea until they eventually bio-degrade, if they can.

Again, I didn't think much about this until I was in Rio at the end of my travels last year. As must be the case in many other places around the world where there is a large city situated right on the coastline, a lot of rubbish ends up in the sea. And when there is a stunning, pristine beach, the last thing you want is to be fishing tampons out of your hair.

Thankfully, this didn't happen to me, but I did see a lot of waste including tampons floating around in the sea and heard the horror stories of other people having to pick used tampons out of their hair. That's definitely more disgusting than the thought of a mooncup.

As soon as I got back from travelling then, I decided that this was one way that I could reduce the amount I throw away and so I bought a mooncup. I didn't actually use it for the first month as I will admit that I was pretty scared by it. Mainly that it is quite big. But then I took the plunge and now I can honestly say that I am hooked and will never go back to tampons or sanitary towels again.

Apart from a minor (well pretty major) incident where I forgot about my mooncup whilst sterilising it (it has its own saucepan which I keep in my room - don't worry) and so melted a hole in it and had to buy a new one, I will have it for as long as I need it and there will be no waste each month. Perfect!

Also, as I have very light periods, I used to get quite uncomfortable when having to change a tampon and it was not used enough, and pulling out a fairly dry tampon also increases your risk of contracting TSS. The mooncup is perfect as it is soft, smooth silicone and you really can't feel it at all when it's in. I have spoken to some of my friends about this who are still unsure but I really do urge everyone to convert to a mooncup. You really won't regret it!

Vegetarians

A lot of people seem to think I am a vegetarian. When I was at school my boyfriends Mum was so convinced that she kindly bought me some vegetarian cookbooks to take to uni with me. Maybe I look like a vegetarian, if there is such a look, though most likely, it is because I have a slight phobia of processed meat and so don't really eat any meat that often.

I am known though, sometimes, to have a bit of a rant about vegetarians. Whilst I think it's very admirable to be a vegetarian and certainly much better for the environment, I get very annoyed by vegetarians who aren't really. Most vegetarians I know eat fish.

The definition of a vegetarian is: "Noun: A person who does not eat meat, and sometimes other animal products, esp. for moral, religious, or health reasons."

The definition of meat is: "Noun:The flesh of an animal as food."

The definition of an animal is: "Noun: A living organism that feeds on organic matter, typically having specialized sense organs and nervous system and able to respond rapidly to stimuli."

Therefore, they are not vegetarians if they eat fish. Luckily, my closest "vegetarian" friend has accepted my rants about this and calls herself a ovolactopescatarian, although probably only to me. I call her pesky, but that doesn't have much to do with her eating habits.

Similarly, it also annoys me when vegetarians eat sweets containing gelatin, especially when they're my Haribo. I will only accept that if they admit that they are not really vegetarians.

One of the 'most' read BBC news articles today was 'The Unusual Uses for Body Parts'. When I initially read the heading I wondered if it was something to do with the boy in China who sold his kidney to buy an ipad but no, just some other things to do with a cow once you've had your tasty steak!

I never realised that Bone China was actually made from bones!! I know, I know, it is in the name but I thought that was because bone china looks slightly translucent and fragile - like bones. I didn't realise that it actually had bone in it!!

We've been discussing this at work today and it turns out that I am not alone and most people did not realise this either. One of the directors did though as a while ago Boden sold some cups and mugs. For these to be sent to America, the warehouse had a list of ingredients, for the customs declarations and this included cow bones. Apparently, this shocked some of our Hindu warehouse staff, who had never put the link together. As Hindu's consider cows to be sacred animals, it's not really the done thing to drink your tea out of one of their legs.

So should vegetarians drink out of bone china cups? And eating of bone china plates? Essentially, it's like licking a cow. I wonder if vegetarians are allowed to lick cows?

Scary Salad & Other Germs

Everyone's afraid to eat salad at the moment. And that is reasonable enough, after all, quite a few people have died!

I first heard that something was going on on Tuesday at work when the Metro had a suitably ridiculous sounding headline about salad killing. I was slightly concerned when I read the article and discovered that there was a risk of catching E.coli if you'd eaten any Spanish salad...with particular emphasis on cucumbers. Now I happen to love cucumbers and had in fact eaten about 3/4 of a Spanish cucumber on Monday. As you do.

I told my manager at work this and he seemed to think this was really weird. I don't agree. Now if I'd eaten an entire lettuce in one day..that would be more worrying as that's a lot of lettuce. But when you're munching cucumber sticks as your lunch because your neice has stolen all of the more exciting food from your plate, and theres yummy humous, it's very easy to get through a lot of cucumber.

Anyway, I told my boss this and he said 'Oh you'll be fine as long as you washed it'. Now I'm entirely un-germ-phobic so don't really think about washing my fruit and veg that much, but I'm pretty sure that just water alone would not get rid of E.coli. Surely some sort of Dettol or peeling the fruit would be more effective?

I had this discussion with some of my colleagues at work today and we all slightly shamefully admitted that we never wash our fruit and vegetables. Even though I think, when picking out the 'best' vegetables at the supermarket 'I wonder how many other people have touched this (insert vegetable name)' I still rarely wash my fruit and vegetables before eating them.

I grew up with the teaching that 'germs are good for you' and I do seriously believe that because I ate a bit of soil here and there when I was little, and definitely enjoyed the odd lick of a pebble and taste of sand, that I'm nice and healthy now because I'm immune to lots of germs.

So hopefully I will survive my excessive unwashed cucumber eating...we'll see how it goes!

Alternative 5's.

Sometimes, when you're eating out a lot, or staying with friends who are scared of vegetables, it can be hard to get your 5 a day. And that always makes me think about unexpected places to get your vitaminy goodness...


I was quite surprised to recently discover that Heinz Spaghetti Hoops count as one of your 5 a day. I always thought of them as 'Spaghetti' (no idea where I got that thought from?) and so counted them more as a carb than a vegetable. On slightly closer inspection of a can, I discovered that they are 47% tomato, and it seems that the spaghetti has lessened and the sauce grown in order to make them more healthy. So, half a can of tomatoes is pretty good for you. Tick one. 


Cider? Anyone who's met me will know that I am a cider lover, and being from the West Country, that's exactly how it should be. Now, my favourite thing to drink is proper warm cloudy cider with only one ingredient....apples (well and a bit of yeast), and lots of them. Wikipedia tells me that you need around 10lb of apples to make a gallon of cider. So that's a lot of apples. Does this mean then that if you drink a gallon of cider, it count towards one of your 5 a day. I know that obviously all the pulp and pith will be strained out, and so it's not as good as actually eating an apple, but if apple juice is good for you, and counts as a 5 a day, how can cider not count?


Sweets. Another thing you will probably learn within minutes of meeting me is that I am a sweet addict. I have an incredibly sweet tooth and have been know to eat half a bag of Haribo instead of dinner. Oops. But what if there was some sort of goodness in there. Maybe not Haribo, but I am also a big fan of Natural Confectionery sweets, and these definitely have lots (?) of fruit juice in them. One 150ml glass of unsweetened 100% fruit or vegetable juice can count as a portion to be one of your 5 a day, so how many sweets would equal 150ml of fruit juice?


I've been doing some Googling but I haven't really found any definite information. Concentrated Fruit Juices are the 5th or 6th ingredient though, so there's obviously quite a bit in there. Maybe a few packets would be enough to be a portion of fruit, but my dentist would probably murder me!


But in my researching, I have found out that Jelly Tots are 25% fruit juice. So roughly converting fruit juice from g into ml, this would mean that 100g of jelly tots contains 25ml of fruit juice. So you would only need to eat 6 packets to get one portion of your 5 a day. Again, my dentist may kill me. And I probably wouldn't be able to sleep. 


Another alcoholic one. Wine? Main ingredient is grapes. You need to eat about 15 grapes to count this as one portion of your 5 a day. Again, after some Googling, it seems the average answer is that it take 1.2kg of grapes to make one 750ml bottle of wine, which is about 7-8 bunches or 600 - 800 grapes, and definitely a lot more than 15! So you wouldn't even need to drink a whole bottle to get a portion of fruit, although you may wish to to ensure that you have absorbed all the grapey goodness.


Lastly, how about cake. I am a great lover of cake, in all varieties (except chocolate - yuck!) but I particularly love a good gooey carrot cake. When I make it, there's at least 2 or 3 carrots, some walnuts, orange juice and sometimes pineapple in there, so surely that's 2 or 3 portions of fruit and vegetables straight away. Cooked vegetables still count as a portion so why don't vegetables cooked in cake count? Not that I have ever eaten a whole cake in one go, but if it was divided into 6 scrummy slices, that could be half of one of your 5 a day, there sorted.


I'd love for a nutritionist to read this some day and actually let me know if there is any truth in my rambles, but for now I am very happy to keep up with the cider and wine drinking, and sweet and cake eating, along side my salad nibbling.   

5 a day

I am a big follower of the 'you must eat your 5 fruit or vegetables a day' rule. I love fruit, so it's not too hard and I usually end up eating more than 5 portions, but on the odd occasion that I don't , I feel terrible. Not ill, as I doubt I'd notice after only one day, but as my mum would say 'I'm not angry, just disappointed'.

It really annoys me then, when people don't even make an attempt. I do know some very fussy people who will only eat about one type of fruit and one type of vegetable, so I suppose it would be a bit difficult for them, but even just eating a portion of each every day would still be better than nothing.

I did struggle to eat my 5 a day when I was travelling through some countries last year. In Ethiopia, where the staple dish in 'Injera' which is like a vinegary stodgy pancake, we struggled. Well actually, this was mainly because we didn't eat anything. We spent a lot of time travelling and lived mostly on bread and water, and got quite thin.

In Kenya, after 2 days in the back of a lorry, mainly surviving on biscuits and the odd 'soda' (fizzy drink - in this case Blackcurrant Fanta was the favourite, although I'm sure it didn't have even a trace of one Blackcurrant in it) and so by the end of the second day, I cracked and bought a very expensive tin of Pineapple. On first glance, I was quite pleased to see that it was 'Produce of Kenya'. However, reading the small print below, I realised that although this Pineapple had been grown in Kenya, it had then been packaged in the UK, and then shipped back to Kenya to be sold to me! Ridiculous, I would have much preferred a fresh one!

My stay in the Cook Islands was the most expensive part of my trip, especially on Aitutaki (where Shipwrecked is filmed) as there is no 'backpacker' accommodation, and so the cheapest was NZ$35 a night (Only about £17 but my average night was more like £3 or £4). Luckily, Mariati who owned the guest house, also owned a fruit plantation, and so fresh bananas, pineapples, mangoes and passion fruits were included in the price of the stay, as was toast. That's me sorted!

In Argentina, when I first landed in Buenos Aires, I'd picked up some sort of stomach virus in Peru and was feeling pretty rough. Randomly, the only thing I fancied eating (and could keep in me) was cherry tomatoes and skittles. Whilst I'm sure the cherry tomatoes did me quite a lot of good, I wonder how much nutrition I got from the Skittles?

Then, I met a group of girls, and we would wander around Buenos Aires and eat empanadas (like small pasties) all day, so then return in the evening and want to eat salad to counter balance this. Some fruit and veg, like tomatoes, apples, oranges were really expensive, but bananas and root vegetables were really cheap, as they are all grown locally, or in neighbouring countries.

I was in heaven when I discovered that you could buy an entire large Butternut Squash for less than 50p!! The sort of size that would cost at least £3 here. Amazing!

It really annoyed me then, when I got back to England and saw a programme about a family of really obese people living just outside Buenos Aires, who claimed that they wanted to eat healthily, but could only afford cheap fatty meat. They were filmed going into the supermarket and holding up one apple and all tutting over the price, and then left the fruit and veg section. Now I realise that apples were expensive and definitely out of the budget of the poorer families there. But potatoes, carrots, bananas, squashes were all passed by, and these were easily affordable and much less than the cheapest pasta and crisps.

Equally, it annoys me in England. There is an obesity crisis and no one can deny that as a population, we are getting fatter and fatter. It suits me in some ways, as it means children's clothes are made in bigger sizes to accommodate the expanding younger generation, and so I can easily buy children's clothing, but it is worrying. Again, you read reports of poor families saying they'd love to eat fruit and vegetables, but just can't afford to. Yet they can afford to eat McDonald's.

I read a report in the Metro (apologies if this means it's not true) recently, saying that you can eat your 5 a day for 42p a day. People sometimes only think of fresh fruit and veg, when of course, you can count frozen, tinned and juiced fruit and vegetables. This seems amazingly cheap and unrealistic, but then not so much when you actually look at how much, a tin of basic peaches, costs. Considering there are usually 2 portions in a tin, that's less than 10p for one portion. Sorted.

Sainsburys also seem to be on a mission to make the 5 a day accessible and so fruit and vegetables are always on offer, making it easy to eat healthily...but sometimes I wonder where else I could get my 5 a day from?

Body Proportions

Since writing my dissertation on body shape and size in comparison with culture, and how this is portrayed in the media, I have been fascinated with the different sizes and shapes of bodies.

We were watching a 'Super Nanny' special in my flat last week and there was an extremely overweight boy who was trying to lose weight. His Mum was being told to measure him at regular intervals to check how much weight he had lost, as this was more accurate then weighing himself.

Although I know a lot of older people who tell me that back in the day they had a 24 inch waist, nowadays, I think almost everyone I know goes by Dress Size and would know that they were a Size 10 for example, not not what their waist and bust measurements were. Well everyone assumes that they know what their bust measurements are, going by their bra size, but I am sure that most people (me included) are wrong.

So after watching this programme, I decided to measure various bits of me, just to see how I compared to this extremely overweight boy (thankfully I'm a lot smaller!). I'd always known, I don't know where from, that there were certain body proportions, such as your foot is the same length as your forearm, and that your arm span is your height, and then I'd always had the idea that your wrist is half the circumference of your neck, and your neck is half the circumference of your waist.

I was thinking about this as I was walking back from work last week and trying to stare at peoples necks as I walked past them..to compare to their wrists. I realised afterwards that I probably looked a little odd, and I started to think that maybe I'd been wrong. My wrists look tiny and my neck is pretty chunky. Yet I remember when we were younger making a choker that fitted perfectly around my wrist twice, and making a beaded belt that was twice as long as a necklace.

So I got my tape measure out and started work. The first thing I discovered is that my thigh circumference is only a little smaller than my waist! That's seriously worrying! I clearly have massive thighs!!

But the wrist-neck-waist thing is true (at least on me!). My wrist is just under 6" in circumference, my neck is 12" and a bit and my waist is 26" (when I haven't been eating too much at the weekends). It's mad. My wrist look tiny and so I just can't get my head around the fact that my waist is only 4 and a bit times larger? Weird.

And my chest circumference is over 4" smaller than the bra size that I wear...but I think I would be suffocated if I bought one 4" smaller - that would be ridiculous, but makes me think that it must be true when people like Trinny & Susannah say that 90% of the population wear the wrong bra size.

Strange.....now I'm off to research if there are any more strange but true proportion facts!