El Salvador Part 2 - Dig deep!

I dont think I need to say much mosre than this http://www.justgiving.com/Becka-and-Tim

Hi all,

In a nut shell Tim and I are going to El Salvador for 10 days in March to help out and build a house (or two) and I know the charity we’re working for would appreciate any donations, big or small, for extra funding.

The trip is being organised by the company I work for (O’Kane Consultants) and there will be 15 of us heading to Central America to basically become Bob (or Bob-ess) the builder.  El Salvador isn’t exactly on the normal ‘tourist drive’. The country hosts amazing coffee plantations (I’ll be in my element!), active and dormant volcanoes (hell yeah, that inner geologist is about to come out in full force) and is positioned to get some amazing surf in the southern portion of the country (...Tim is already considering moving there!)

But beside the amazing things to see, do and visit it is unfortunately basically classed as a 3 World country. Resources are scarce and international help is not enough to get this wonderful country back on its feet.  Civil war is a major off putting issue with tourists who favour Costa Rica and Guatemala (the war finished over 20 years ago!) and prevent jubilation and development. 

We’re heading over there under the help and guidance of Habitat for Humanity.  This is an international, non-governmental, non-profit organization devoted to building "simple, decent, and affordable" housing.  Each affiliate (we’re going with the Saskatoon, Canada variation) and national office is an independently run, nonprofit organization.  Affiliates and national offices coordinate all aspects of Habitat home building in their local area, including fundraising, building site selection, partner family selection and support, house construction, and mortgage servicing.  The mission statement of Habitat for Humanity is to "seek to eliminate poverty housing and homelessness from the world and to make decent shelter a matter of conscience and action." 

Any money raised will go directly to Habitat for Humanity and will not, at all, help pay for our costs in getting to El Salvador.  I am only creating this page and asking my wonderful friends and family for money in order for Habitat to continue with the amazing stuff it already does.

So that’s it. End of rant and thanks for getting this far with my words! Now, please dig deep and offer up some wonga. Even the price of a pint of beer would be appreciated (not pointing any fingers....!)

Oh, and if you need either of us between 16-26 March, tough! We’re doing something far better.

El Salvador

Happy Friday!! I'm still up to my eye balls in work so this will be a short one, but I want to promote awareness to a charity I'm going to be working for in less than two months.

Basically, myself, the hubby and a few people from work are heading over to El Salvador to build a house (how good am I??) We're doing this in a quaint town called Sonsonate which is desperate need of volunteers to do similar tasks. The charity organising it is called Habitat for Humanity which is a global venture (we're working with the Canadian side) and should definitely be helped out! Please spend a couple of minutes reading up on them and dig deep guys!

Here is to a successful house build, plenty of gorgeous coffee and a fantastic adventure!

Santa Ana Volcano

Bangkok Baby!

Previous to this blog I had a travel-only site with places we'd been, things we'd done etc. I think it is time to converge the two so over the next few weeks I'll include other places to see outside of Australia. First up: Bangkok.

I love Thailand. The food, the happy people and the best countryside/beach combo. We went to Bangkok for a few days in 2008 and vowed to return later on. This hasn't happened yet, but will!!

We wanted to be close to Khao San Road, but not on it, so opted for the reasonably priced New Siam 2. Obviously this was 4 years ago now, but at the time the hotel offered everything we needed (basically a comfortable bed and decent shower, other things were just a bonus!)

Khao San road is the main hub of backpacker central in Bangkok and is exactly how it is in The Beach. Trade sellers (clothes, food, fake everything), bars, hotels and hostels everywhere, but not at all intimidating. Great place to pick up bargains and watch the world go by.

Must visit places are: Wat Saket (large monastery with 250 steps to the top, fantastic views), the standing Buddha (35m high, amazing!) and the Golden Palace. When we went the King's daughter was visiting the Emerald Buddha (actually jade) so they had the red carpet out and plenty of guards/police. The royal family is very important in Thailand which is nice, but sometimes off putting!

We went on a great river cruise too. Amazing food, great views, Thai dancers the works! A must in this fab city! 

Yes the tuk tuks can take you to places you might not fancy visiting (mainly suit shops) but actually it is often worth the hassle. When we visited the drivers were getting fuel vouchers for taking tourists places as an incentive which is a great idea. We actually bought my engagement ring based on one of these impromptu trips, but that is another story...

A must on any ones list!

The other thing and a splash of Holy Cool

My lack of posts is pretty much due to the other thing in my life. Work. 

Apparently I'm a bit of a workaholic, well according to my husband. Thing is I enjoy my job which is pretty rare! So any way, I've been away with work in a land without internet but general blogging shall resume tomorrow

In the mean time I'd like to share a great website I have stumbled across called Holy Cool, and it is just that, cool! Basically it is a blog showcasing all the cool gadets and life savers from across the world.

Here are some of my favourites:

A touch of home for my breakie

Because you always do enough to feed a horse!

Holy Cool, you are a winner!

Golden Globes, I want that dress!

Whilst at work on a boring Monday I was glued to the Golden Globes twitter feed (@golden globes) for all of the updates. However, these weren't so much for the 'whos-won-what' but more who looked the best on the red carpet! I'm a bit of a gossip hag and love flicking through magazines, on line blogs and everything else that provides a source of pretty. However, I doubt I'll feature too many of 'who wore it best' style posts!

I'm normally a huge Dior fan but I personally thought Charlize Theron looked a tad washed out in hers. I loved the waist detail though!

Pretty but pale

I'm not sure how Madonna was able to breathe in her frock and I'm sure there will be rumours surrounding one fashionista and a slight baby-looking-bulge...

The winner for me though was probably Reece Withspoon in the red Zac Posen number. She totally rocked it!

Red delight!



Brisbane to Coffs Harbour

Sydney is only actually a 10 hours drive south of Brisbane, so do-able in a day, a very long day but still. I fail to see why anyone would want to do the journey though without having several stop offs on the way, unless you’re on a plane. New South Wales is beautiful. Very different from Queensland in every sense, but nonetheless a lovely state to drive through. You can even notice the differences immediately the other side of the border, strange! When I started planning the journey it was decided that we had to make the round trip in 7 days, only problem was I had found enough exciting things to, lovely places to see, and restaurants to enjoy to cover a month. Time to get picky!

We started off on the journey by a quick stop in Bangalow a quaint little town a bit inland from Byron Bay. Like Byron it oozes a chilled out hippy feel, there are coffee stops galore, antiques shops, kooky wine bars and belly bursting organic cafes. We’ve been back several times since and each occasion found somewhere different to eat that was better than the last. Food heaven!

Next stop on the trip, and where we were staying, was Coffs Harbour. We didn’t get to see much of it but what we did see was lovely. On the journey down (which is about 5 hours from Brisbane) we had a call from the place we were meant to be staying. No this isn’t the kind of call you want on your first day, let alone when you had searched and researched the best place to stay. Low and behold that was not to be our stop for the night. I won’t name the hotel but basically we were told that their power had failed so no one could stay (we later found out this was utter crap), but they would be kind enough to find us alternative accommodation. We agreed and were called back to say they had found us two rooms at the Novotel Pacific Bay Resort. I was now confused. That was where I had wanted to stay but it was fully booked. Hummmm. Anyway we arrive at our new hotel, checked in without issues and went to our room, only to find just the one bed. This was going to be cosy! I hot footed it back to reception and asked for the other set of keys which was returned with a look of horror, see where this is going? Place 1 had only booked us one room, one double bed and there were four of us. Place B was fully booked. Fortunately the matter was resolved, we all moved to a different part of the hotel, rooms next to each other (disabled suites but it didn’t matter) and Place A footed the bill for their error. Result!

The hotel itself is lovely, some of it is new, some old. There is a small golf course on site, spa, health club and basically anything you'd need. It is also a two minute walk from a small sandy cove, big enough to sunbath on and water too beautiful not to swim in!

Stunning beach at sunset

The best part of our time in Coffs was the food. We went down to the jetty and stumbled across Latitude 30. Gorgeous restaurant and bar overlooking the sea in all directions. The food was incredible (mainly fresh as you like seafood but some tasty meat options too), great Australian wines on the menu, as well as some Europeans. Service was wonderful and you just can’t beat the setting and comfort of the restaurant. Oh, and the desserts were lip smackingly good!!

 Stunning location, amazing food



Pretty Friday

I'm sure the majority of the world breathes a sigh of relief when they wake up on a Friday, I know I do! No work for two.whole.days, time to be with loved ones and live life. Pure bliss.

On a Friday I normally have more to do than any other working day (what's that all about?) but it doesn't stop me from trawling the internet looking a lovely things I would like to own.

Today has been no exception. I have been lusting over a particular bag for two years now and I am finally going to buy it exactly one month today! The bag in question is called Bayswater and is of course by the British brand Mulberry.

Super pretty bag love

I have been a Mulberry fan ever since I can remember but moving to Upside Down Land meant my love affair came to an unfortunate end. This is no more!!! Mulberry have opened a store in the Sydney Westfield centre and it is heaven. I visited it in November but unfortunately was Christmas shopping with the husband and wasn’t allowed sufficient time to stare, stroke and of course purchase. Stupid Christmas! Anyway, I’m taking my mother down to Sydney for a girly few days when she visits nxt month and Mulberry shall be visited and an exchange shall be made between my long suffering bank account and the lovely Mulberry people. They might just have to drag me out of there...

I am a big fan of the new Harriet collection just released too and recommend to all fasionistas, or just general Jane to head over to the website for a looksee. I hold no responsibility for purchases though!

x B x

A bug: Love to Travel

I adore travelling. Everything about it, new cultures, new faces, experiences, different food, different climates, hell even the flight/car/train journey is fun! But maybe most of all I love to plan trips and research them. I think my ideal dream job would have been a travel writer, but I think the world has enough of them already so I pursued something else to give the others a go *ahem* maybe not.

I am at my happiest with a new adventure to plan. We spent five weeks in SE Asia in 2008 (not nearly enough time but work got in the way of fun) and I probably spent twice as much time researching different hotels, where to go, places to visit etc etc. Heaven!

The most recent trip of note was a weeks road-trip to Sydney with the in-laws. Over the forthcoming weeks I'll try to sum up what we did and give anyone out there planning the drive some great websites to look up.

I'm excited about reliving it!

x B x 

What Sydney stands for

Day 2: Rodial tummy tuck sticks

Yesterday the 'drink' went down much easier. I used freezing cold water instead of cold-ish water, maybe that helped.

No miracle inches lost as yet, the wine belly doesn't actually look that much smaller than after a few days off the booze.

No unsightly or embarrassing moments yet either (hoorah for little thank yous!)

The healthy diet didn't go too well yesterday though, started well: healthy breakfast, super healthy lunch, followed by a chocolate bar (oppps) and fish and chips for dinner (sin sin sinner). The fish did come with a salad though and I didn't eat all of it (nor the chips) so not that bad...surely?

Today.will.be.better* I live in hope.



*fail, forgot my lunch so will be hunting down a bought healthy alternative

Day 1: Rodial tummy tuck sticks

So we're not quite at the end of Day 1, but I just thought I'd add my views so far.

The sticks themselves are easy to take.  You just add the sachet to 100ml of water, mix and drink! They come out as an orange colour, smell ok (not the best but ok) and have bits floating in them. The taste is probably something that I will get used to. It isn't horrible but I wouldn't be buying a drink in the same flavour!

So far I just feel very thirsty. It might be because it is so hot in Brisbane at the moment but I seem to be drinking water like anything (and I'm normally a 2-3L a day girl anyway - one thing I can do well!). I also feel full of energy and a bit jittery, which I can only put down to the sticks as I have only had one cup of coffee.

No bad side effects yet, they are meant speed up digestion but no mad trips to the ladies.

All in all, Day 1 hasn't been too bad!

New Year, New Tummy??

Well like many other people the Christmas period saw me consume too much food, and far too much wine! As a result my midriff has gone from normal to pot belly, or as I like to call it my wine belly.  This is not the look I want to flaunt at the beach currently! So this week some changes were made. I'd like to state that it was this week, rather than last, because we were away with some friends and I knew it was pointless saying I was going to keep off the good stuff, and anyway everyone else was on the band wagon so I thought it was my duty to continue.

I have a sweet tooth, a very sweet tooth. There isn't enough chocolate in the world for me, nor enough wine it may seem. Typically I don't drink Monday to Thursday and that is normally enough to keep the wine belly away. With guests over for November, then my birthday, a week away with work, Christmas and the New Year this has not been the current state of play. So on Monday it changed.

I will not be drinking for the next 3 weeks (a month seems too harsh) and I am cutting down (not out!!) sweet things. I have also come across something that may help in the form of clay...

I stumbled across what may be my saviour (with my help too of course, I’m not that delusional!) whilst browsing the online sales. Rodial do ‘tummy tuck sticks’ and advise that ‘Rodial tummy tuck STICKS are rich in green clay, fennel seeds and inulin (prebiotic fibre) to help eliminate toxins’  So you are meant to take one of these sticks, with water, everyday for 14 days. Yesterday was Day 1 so we’ll see how they go!