Star Tickle

Competitions tickle my imagination! A little wary of commissions, competitions are my private butt-kick projects. Jasmine Starr, the most amazing of wedding photographers, is hosting one for tickets to her workshop. Brief: self portrait containing at least 1 star in the image. Still semi-bed ridden with flu, fueled by Chemical Brothers & Underworld, here are today’s offerings..

 

NLRC & SHAE

I allow myself 1 NLR [non real life] crush a week. Then I must let go & move on [similar to the premise of the movie 'I Hate Valentine's Day'. Sucky movie, great premise]. The NRL part keeps me out of trouble, & the 1 week deadline keeps things fresh because hey, there is only so much mischief that this Naughty Girl can manage in 1 week. Other unexpected treats have unfolded along the way: 2 weeks ago, my NLRC was the charismatic & talented Jeffrey Vincent Parise. Via him, I discovered my new favorite photographer Allan Amato who I WILL meet & assist; and Society HAE – where, due to the sweet generosity & support of Black Lily, I am featured in the Society Pages this week. Thank you Lily ❤

[Last week's NRLC was Dave the Raw Truck Driver - check out this video of him, brought to you by Dan aka Life Regenerator. This week's NLRC has yet to be discovered..]

 

The Raw Rockstar Community

I’m lucky enough to always find myself in great company: Philip McCluskey has created a Rockstar Community of Bloggers @ Loving Raw. Check us all out ~ mine is the latest blog ❤

 

Healing Cancer Naturally [How Dickon saved his balls]

My gorgeous friend Dickon Walker called me last year after receiving his testicular cancer diagnosis, seeking methods to save his balls, whilst avoiding the advice from the men in white coats. 18 months later he is cancer free, expecting his first child & more handsome than ever. Tuesday October 20th he is giving a talk about his health journey @ Manna in Brighton @ 8pm..

 

In England’s green and pleasant land ~

This rambling patchwork [see, 2 days back & the words are pouring out again] of a Qito blog will show up on Facebook as a Note. And on several other groups I enjoy, as a feed. All I do is press Publish & it’s automatically done for me. Magic. Long gone are the days of typesetting and printing presses. Gone are the days of cut & paste & photocopying. Backing up my new hard drive today after the recent Apocalyptic crash, I’m shocked by how much stuff I have stored, how many external hard drives I own [embarrassing] & well yes, how times have changed.

I am from here. England to me is about history. We like to preserve. To hold on. To sustain and maintain. Antiques, houses, cars – everything. I grew up in a low ceilinged house marked in The Doomsday Book [William The Conqueror 1085], so I laugh when people from Elsewhere tell me their 50 year old house is old. I LOVE being Elsewhere, where the architecture is more often than not: clean, uncluttered & wider, bigger & lighter. My tastes are more minimalist Zen / Shaker, than cluttered trinket laden mantles & fluffy flowery valances.

Yet, wherever in the world I roam, these road signs [road signs particularly irk me], colours, windows & guttering, street corners & accents are my DNA. They may not be my preferred choice anymore, but they are home. They don’t resonate with me the way other places do, I still get claustrophobic the further I am from London airports [and London] but there is a huge relief being in the same country your passport is from. No more ‘itinerant wandering alien’ with no rights [but that's another subject]. English sun dappled lanes, green air, jumpers [sweaters], socks & slippers. Clothes is what makes the seasons work. That and copious amounts of tea (from 2 litre electric kettles! Joy).

Food: I’m hungry. I’ve been spoilt by the heirloom tomatoes & abundant organic produce in the Californian farmer’s markets. The local stores here are Waitrose & Tesco & I feel like little they stock will truly nourish me. The overly-chilled plastic-wrapped romaine is not speaking to me. Everything here is expensive – superfoods are prohibitively so. The only way it makes sense to eat the foods I want & need is to have trade accounts everywhere again & have juicy big deliveries. Time to go find me some late season nettles & wild foods in these verdant lanes. I’ve almost immediately reverted to blended foods – something I haven’t even thought about since I last was here.

The past month was a humdinger! I don’t know anyone who hasn’t gone through something vast in the last 6 weeks. Our internal horizons are being called to change. The lessons are bigger, clearing faster & YES we love our jackass mothaf*king teachers: Ho’o Ponopono. So much gratitude to Mama Mango & Papa Smurf for the time I spent with them in the last few weeks. Many friends blow me away with their grounded wisdom – thank you for having my back when most I needed it. This time, acceptance made leaving America [& seeing Jacquie for a final squeeze] easier than expected. Everything felt/feels unreal & surreal – which made my departure, sleepless flight [five movies - a record!] & arrival kinda floaty.

For the first time ever I watched someone I knew surf. No biggy if you’re from California, but ‘I’m not from round here’. So thank you Eddie Sunburst for my first surf shoot, & for re-entering the freezing surf when I wasn’t quite done having fun. And for the Big Sur journey South to LA – stunning.. ❤

 

Hitting The Ground Running

I’m returning to GMT & the left side of the road within this waning moon.

I already have a couple of clients lined up for Deep Tissue Cleansing – private juice fasting programs in your own home. There’s no better time of year to jump onto the skinnyfication train, ease your way into the season change & clean your cells before the default “It’s cold, I need potatoes” kicks in. Winter is much easier with green juice in your belly..

I’ll be making & selling chocolate again, taking photos & making a little mischief ✘

 

Once Upon A Time..

Again my time in America draws to a close. What a roller coaster trip on so many levels! How amazing lucky this girl is. So many challenges and blessings wrapped up in one. Such a huge thank you to the very many friends who have supported, nurtured & hosted me during this expedition of the spirit. Your belief in me & mine in you is soul food ༻

The rest of the world beckons ~ who knows what lies ahead*. There’s often the expectation that I’ll go back to London, and maybe I shall. But having spent over a year outside of major cities I’m happy for a greener life. My old life is long gone, so there is nothing to step neatly back into. Whatever I make, I create anew. I’d love to grow some food (me – did I really say that?) and really, all I need is clean water, WIFI & superfood deliveries to be happy. It’s time to visit Camilla in Siwa methinks, do some private cleanses in India, Winter in Ibiza, Christmas with the Stevens & photography in Yemen – Oyster (not card) comes to mind. *It will be massive, of that I have no doubt.

It’s not easy to leave (to be missing Epic Eden!) – when your heart is so firmly embedded somewhere, it’s a wrench to let go. America pulls me back again and again like the strongest magnet. Being elsewhere is like the toughest break-up ever. The feeling that you’re in the ‘wrong’ time-zone, on the ‘wrong’ side of the road. But, I will come quietly – it’s gentler that way..

I am back in touch w/ Yvonne again. Yesterday she said to me “You need to live a life of internal integrity, & I think that everything that you go through is always attempting to aim you in that direction. It isn’t like that for everyone, but I don’t think that you are going to be allowed to get away with anything less” Hmm! As long as there is chocolate..

 

Laurel Canyon

For the first time in forever I had a whole week to myself. I was gifted an amazing, huge, quirky house in Laurel Canyon, all to my alonesome. Bliss. I watered the garden naked – bringing the roses and periwinkles back to life; swept the yard with tree sap between my toes & wrote; drank tea & slept alone. Awoke alone. 2.5 days in silence (till Creamy rang from Ecuador – how could I refuse?). Catching up on Suki-time – I was renewed & refocused. Quiet days of not needing to go anywhere, or leave the house. For this itinerant alien bouncing from place to place for a year & always surrounded by loved ones, this bare-assed solitude was precious. I love big spaces, gorgeous light, windows & doors open, bare feet; and I love LA – that you can wake up to a eucalyptus sunrise less than a mile from Sunset Boulevard is delicious. Self portraits feel vain to me, but with light & space like this & no models to play with?!.. Thank you Jeni & Paul ✖

 

Health Etcetera

A new all-raw residential retreat near Winchester, Hampshire is opening very soon. Currently the only one of it’s kind in the UK, it’s perfect travel distance from London. Owned and run by Rian Torres a ‘Health Warrior amongst other things’ & with my kindergarten friend Emily Hutt onboard moving & shaking things, it will be the destination to look out for!

Rian is also running workshops & day classes – please support the growing community ❖

ps. And there’s a group on FB

 

necessity is the mother of invention

In some ways this last year has been an unplanned investigation into my passion for colonics. Having had colonic units at my disposal for many years now, to go without for long periods has been oddly easy. When having frequent treatments, I found I was far more sensitive to food & more aware of what not to put into my mouth. Without them, I get used to being a little more sluggish, backed up & dulled to the effects of foods.

I’ve paid for three colonics (all appalling) since I left London; used herbs; colosan; enemas & best of all colema boards. I would not consider leading anyone through a cleanse now without a colema unit (with the addition of colonics, if available). Having a home set-up, with flexibility around timing (hey, sometimes midnight is the only hour you have free), music & temperature is more like having a massage at home ~ you get to curl up in bed afterwards, or soak in the tub. Added to which, by treating yourself, you learn a lot about your body & your breathing; by feeling & smelling what you release you become more in touch with what you consume. A colema uses a 5 gallon bucket, which you can top up, or use more than one, if you need. The typical enema bag is 2 litres & a colonic uses 20 gallons. Give me a gravity colonic any day ~ but in the meantime, colemas (click link to the top right of blog) rock..

Santa Cruz

✖

 

Cloud Nine

I have been blessed with two Cloud Nine shoots in the last couple of months! What beautiful people & amazing energy. They display an impressive ability to get bendy in the cold seaweedy waters of South California. We in Europe are used to warm seas in the summer – not so where the Pacific hits these shores. Thanks to Cloud Nine yoginis for their willingness & patience ✘

 

~The Raw Curious Salon~

WHO: For those curious ‘dabblers’ who want to know what’s this all about, people who want better health & vibrancy & the over-initiated who wants to reacquaint themselves with living food basics ~

TIME: 7:30pm -9:30pm

WHERE: Private Residence of Jacquie Jordan – Santa Monica, CA

WHEN:  Thursday, August 13th, 2009 -

WHAT: Live-food 101 & Cleansing

* Why go raw

* How to you incorporate rawfoods into a busy life

* Do you really have to prepare everything & will it take forever

* What kind of things really happen to your body when you go raw

* How do you eat out/party like a normal person (& still have friends)

* Do you stink; get skinny; always feel hungry

* What changes can you expect to make in your kitchen

* Where you will get your protein from!!

We’ll be serving fresh coconuts and samples of raw chocolate truffles, kale salad and elixir smoothies.

Your Hosts

Jacquie Jordan, CEO of TVGuestpert.com and Jacquie Jordan Inc. has been raw since 2004.

Suki Zoe, originally from London is a colon hydrotherapist; cleanse specialist & live food chef.

HEALTH & INVESTMENT: $44.00 please pay by check to Jacquie Jordan

RSVP: JacqJordan@aol.com 310 770 8978

Who: For those curious ‘dabblers’ who want to know what’s this all about, people who want better health & vibrancy & the over-initiated who wants to reacquaint themselves with living food basics ~

Time: 7:30pm -9:30pm

Where: Private Residence of Jacquie Jordan – Santa Monica, CA

When:  Thursday, August 13th, 2009 -

What: Live-food 101 & Cleansing

* Why go raw

* How to you incorporate rawfoods into a busy life

* Do you really have to prepare everything & will it take forever

* What kind of things really happen to your body when you go raw

* How do you eat out/party like a normal person (& still have friends)

* Do you stink; get skinny; always feel hungry

* What changes can you expect to make in your kitchen

* Where you will get your protein from!!

We’ll be serving fresh coconuts and samples of raw chocolate truffles, kale salad and elixir smoothies.

Your Hosts: Jacquie Jordan, CEO of TVGuestpert.com and Jacquie Jordan Inc. has been raw since 2004. Suki Zoe, is a colon hydrotherapist; cleanse specialist & live food chef.

Health & Investment: $44.00 please pay by check to Jacquie Jordan

RSVP: JacqJordan@aol.com :: 310 770 8978

 

Epic Eden Hot Springs

Eden retreats are by no means done with, they’ve just turned over a new leaf or two. Join the vibrant family on this special land, from November 11th-15th. There are many scrumptious people involved – if we thought the last one was was epic, this will be rid-unku-lous!!

 

Sunfood

My poor neglected blog! Much updating of links & a re-ordering of my brain is necessary. I’m writing from the Sunfood Nutrition HQ in San Diego. 108 hours cacao-free ended when I was offered some Balinese Cacao beans: good job.

This is a dream place to work if you’re in our world – MSM hand cream in the bathrooms, a kitchen with several vitamixs, many superfoods & delicious samples, comfortably air conditioned with hot dry desert sun outside! So nice to visit the place where so many things we now consider essential for our lifestyles originated. Before Sunfood the living food lifestyle was primarily dates, nuts & salads. I remember…

I’ve spent the last month or so at the Waterfront Temple in Huntington Beach, playing with the stone grinder, getting creative in the kitchen & sleeping on a boat in the marina: life is sweet.

Raw Spirit Festival in Santa Barbara was beautiful – much quieter than Sedona & a very different venue – but you know you’re going to have the best weekend ever go when family gather in the sun, with tents & music… ❤

 

Raw Spoo

Franky G was photographed for the next cover model for Raw Fu magazine by the Rawtographer. Because I love them, and because I can – here’s the spoof Sean & I came up with at Eden. This has led to the The Big Spoof Off – knives, aprons & cameras at dawn!.