made of green ingredients

France, afternoon

I am a big, big fan of The Body Shop.

I love some of their shampoos and air conditioning (e.g. the honey one and the olive oil), all the things of the white musk, the new grapefruit body butter and shower gel, I like the philosophy (e.g., the products are not tested on animals, a lot of products support community trade). Every time I visited a The Body Shop magazine, I always find a way to buy something. I consider it my way of spoiling myself.

But, because I started looking at each ingredient of some product of another "green" brand, Yves Rocher, I got to do the same for The Body Shops products I have. And I realized something, these products do contain botanical ingredients, but they are also full of chemicals. I am not sure what all these chemicals do to our health, but their names are scary. So, just as an experiment, I took one of these products, and checked on internet a few of the chemicals ingredients contained in there. Of course, as quantities of each compound are not indicated, there is no way to actually know what it is the percentage of botanical ingredients versus purely chemical ingredients. Fortunately, my research on internet revealed that the chemicals ingredients of the products I have at home (from Yves Rocher and The Body Shop) are not toxic or dangerous (more or less) based on current available data.

Here a few of the chemicals I have been looking up on the web:

Cyclomethicone: While silicons such as cyclomethicone do not appear to have adverse effects on the human body, there are many concerns regarding the harmful effects it may have on the environment (i.e. marine life). For this reason, many countries like Canada have requested the silicone industry to provide more information and scientific data regarding its safety.

Methylparaben and propylparaben: used as antimicrobial preservatives in foods, drugs and cosmetics for over 50 years. Readily absorbed via the gastrointestinal tract and dermis. There is no evidence of accumulation. Acute toxicity studies in animals indicate that they are relatively non-toxic by both oral and parenteral routes, although mildly irritating to the skin. Not carcinogenic, mutagenic or clastogenic.

Butylphenyl methylproprional: it is a skin irritant and there have been tests that found that skin applications of this product at high concentrations in animals caused sperm damage.


PS. If you know a website where to find all the info about chemicals substances used in food and cosmetics let me know because I am very interested on the topic.

a nice sunday

France, afternoon

It is sunday and I am at home working. But it ok. I am actually doing something relaxing. And I went running today. I should get running into my routine. I ran only 16 minutes today. So, I could basically squeeze 20 minutes of run in my every day schedule, as it doesn't take so long and I could just get ready in a few minutes, leave my place and run. Not big preparation necessary.

I can't run every day, as my back would give me hard time. But I could try to run at least two times at week....but when I come back home from work, all what I want is to collapse on my couch and remain in a vegetative stay for a while. Of course, after that I don't feel for sure like running. And there is no way that I could wake up earlier in the morning to run before work. It is already hard for me to get up at 8am to get to work at a decent time (10 am).....no way that I could fit running in.

So, I should run every sunday and once a week. That would already do something. I mean, I move, I walk a lot, rollerblading when I can, doing yoga sometimes, but nothing regular...and for my mood (and the safety of my co-workers and my friends) I strongly need to exercise regularly, otherwise I have too much energy that I risk to release in not good ways.

Anyway, after running I got back home, showered and had a very good lunch. A friend of mine made some hummus for the evening together I had on friday and she left the left-over here. I had it today on bread with some avocado. So good!!!!!

Now a bit more work and then I will go to watch a movie with some friends.

PS. I put a picture of Gary Oldman here, a very sexy man, because today is his birthday.

baking on friday

France, night

I normally bake on sunday morning, but since I invited people to come over to my place, I decided to bake two cakes for this evening. I made brownies and a cake with carrots and apples (very little apples). They were very good. But I was especially surprise by how delicious it was the cake with the carrots and apples. You should try it!!! I highly recommend it. I can't find a good picture to put it here. I should have got a picture of my own cake.
My mom sent me the recipe for this cake (I think she found it on the web):

Ingredients:
150 grams of flour, 5 eggs, 200 g of carrots, 180 g of margarine, a packet of baking powder, 125 grams of granulated almonds, 120 g of sugar, an apple, 1 tablespoon cinnamon, two full spoons of brown sugar.

Grate the carrots and place on a kitchen towel. Cover with another towel and let dry for one hour. Work 150 g of margarine with the sugar (mix very well till you get an homogeneous compound). Stir in four egg yolks and one whole egg (save three egg whites). Add the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, almonds and carrots. Beat 3 egg whites till they are very firm (I still don't know to say this in English. In Italian is montare le chiare a neve). Grease a round mold hinged, pour the mixture and sprinkle the surface with plenty of sugar cane. Bake at 180 degrees for one hour. Peeled and sliced apple. Cook for few minutes in a pan with the remaining margarine, and a tablespoon of brown sugar. Take the cake from the oven and distribute the apples on the surface of the cake. Put it back in the oven for just a couple of minutes.

Ready to eat!!! Enjoy it!!!

Sliding

I love trying anything that slides, rollerblades, skates, ski.......But I don't think that I will try this. Just watching it, it made me sick.....I would like to meet the guy and ask him what he had in mind when he decided to do that...

Video - Descente de cote en BuggyRollin

On my way to Paris

France, morning

I am on my way to Paris. I will take the TGV, the fast train, from here to Paris in a couple of hours.

My feelings for Paris are growing slowly. I have never been crazy about Paris until I started to have to go there already a few times for work. Then I met some friends and we found some nice cafe' and places to see and to try. I don't think that Paris is good for me as a tourist. Too expensive, too much. But then when you know someone, when you start to get familiar with the little cute corners here and there, then it hits you....at least, it did it with me.

So, I will be there just for a quick working stay, but tomorrow I plan to meet with a friend and go together for an early dinner in a part of the town that I don't know yet. This is the thing of Paris, you can always find something new and nice to discover.

I should definitively travel more here in France, since I live here....I saw so little of this country so far....

Unbelievable

France, evening

I went rollerblading today for a couple of hours. It was a nice sunny day. Not warm, but sunny. In the couple of hours in which I was outside it went for not too warm, but sunny, to very, very cold and windy to snow.

It started to snow on my way back home from rollerblading (fortunately, it started when I was very close to home) and it didn't stop so far. I live close to the sea in the South of France and today is March 7....and a couple of days ago it was spring and there were already people in t-shirt and shorts outside.....and now, it is snowing very seriously. I just got the picture that is on this post. I absolutely can't believe it!!!

I strongly hope that this will not create problems to the transport and circulation, as I have to travel a lot in the next days.

Sunday baking again

France, morning

Beautiful day outside today. A bit cold, but beautiful. I hope to go rollerblading for a couple of hours later, even if I also have to work a lot for my two job interviews......

I started my morning today baking a cake, a marble cake. It is in the oven right now (the picture on this post is not from my cake), I hope it will turn out to be good. As I did for the brownies, I will bring half of the cake to the office tomorrow for my colleagues, otherwise I would risk also to eat the entire cake myself in a day.....

Here the recipe if you want to try it too:

-250 gr flour
-100 gr sugar
- 350 ml milk (I used soja milk, so that the cake is cow milk-free)
- 100 gr margarine (you can use the butter too, but I use the 100% vegetable margarine, so that the cake is cow milk-free)
- 2 eggs
- 15 gr baking powder
- a bit of lemon skin sliced very thing and in small pieces
- 3 full spoon of cacao powder (I like the one without sugar)
- a pinch of salt

Mix the eggs with the sugar and a pinch of salt. Add the lemon skin and the margarine melted. Mix well and add alternating them, a bit of flour and a bit of milk, a bit of flour and a bit of milk. Add the baking powder.
Divide the mixture in two bowls and add to one of them the 3 spoons of cacao powder. Mix well.

Grease a cake tin (of course, I did it with the margarine) and spoon the compound of each bowl (cacao and white one) one after the other alternately, till you used them all. Bake it in the oven at 180 C for 45 minutes. My mom always bake it in a ring shaped cake tin (but I don't have one, so I baked it in a simple cake tin).

Enjoy it!!!

PS. The cake turned out pretty good.
This morning my dancing routine started with the great song of Michael Jackson "they don't care about us"

Spring is here

France, morning

I slept late this morning. I am even later for work.....I have to prepare for two jobs interviews in the next weeks, so it is also ok if I take it a bit easy with myself and try to get to the interviews not amazingly stressed.

It is official. Spring is here. I am in the part of France that has not been touched by the storm and the disaster and here we have sun every day, a minimum temperature of 10 degrees already, flowering plants with the first flowers and insects that start to come out.

It is official also that with the spring all the senses wake up and I see all these couples around to bill and coo. And it is some days already that every morning when I wake up, I can't stop myself from thinking of how nice I was living with the olandesino in Germany. Our lives there were pretty miserable, but our life together was wonderful and I remember it as one of the happiest moment of my life. We were not "officially" living together, as both of us had an apartment, but we were in fact almost always living together at his place. I loved waking up next to him and see his smile first thing in the morning. I loved when he was going to the bakery to get fresh bread in the morning. I love when some other mornings he was going to buy fresh fruits for breakfast and coming up with the fruits but also with some flower or a plant for me. I loved laying down on his hammock on his large balcony in the sun, while he was reading next to me or doing his things. I loved making fresh pizza on sunday. I loved watching all the animals that he had at his place and seeing him taking care of them. I loved when we fed the little prey mantis that were just newly born. I loved our week ends together. I loved when he was taking me in his arms making me feel home. I loved when he was singing songs of Frank Sinatra or Dean Martin, feeling completely comfortable with me there. I loved planning our holidays and sharing our dreams. I loved being and feel not just a couple, but a strong team. I loved immensely all that, and I miss feeling that way and having the chance to live all these things again.

Some people after years or even months complain about the routine of being a couple. I never had that. For me what others call it routine was all the little things that made living with the olandesino so special. All this happiness was years ago. All these happy memories are far happy memories unfortunately. I miss feeling that way. I miss feeling a team with someone. I miss sharing my life with someone. I miss growing stronger with someone. I miss the feeling that it doesn't matter what can happen in my life, I am not alone.

I never had that anymore. After that my relationships have been full of drama, living in different countries, and tears, and happiness too, but not in such a light way, there was always something else.

The best losing weight solution.....

France, evening

I gained some weight when I was in Italy. Of course, my mom cooks so well and she also tries to prepare all the things that I like most when I am there, that gaining weight was fairly easy.

I wanted to lose those 1 or 2 kilos that I took in Italy, but my plan was to get rid of those kilos by exercising more. Thing this that has always worked very well for me. Instead, it seems that I lost them in a much quicker way without needing to exercise at all.

How did I do that? I got an intestinal infection or food intoxication. I still don't know exactly what it was. I just know that the result was that I got so sick, that not only I couldn't hold any food inside me, but I also barely ate for a few days. I just introduced bread and potatoes back on my diet yesterday (woooooo!!!!! party!!!!)....

Now, my jeans fits much better and I guess I lost those additional kilos already.....

So, if you have trouble losing some last kilos, just get a very nasty intestinal bug and you will be happy with the result. I tested it. It works well..........

Of course, I am kidding. It is not really an advice to follow if you want to lose weight....I was actually so frustrated for the past days in which I felt like a shadow of myself that today to balance the deprivation of the past days I ate a lot of bread with half jar of jam........very smart of me.....of course, my body was not used to so much food all at once....I don't think that I need to explain in detail how it reacted.....

Repair it or buy a new one?

France, morning

When I moved to France, I bought a second hand very old bike. I need a bike, I can't do without it. But because bikes here get stolen easily and because I never know for how long I will be in the same place and where I will be next, I decided to go for an old bike.

Everything worked well till the last weeks. I paid my old bike only 45 euros and it last in a decent shape for a year and half. Now, it starts to have a lot of little problems that need reparation or pieces to be changed. Last week end I went to a bike shop with a friend, as she was looking for a new bike. A new simple bike doesn't cost less than 150 euros. However, you can find a second hand bike for between 40 and 70 euros. Repairing mine would cost me probably around 50-60 euros for a complete check and substitution of broken pieces. Here the dilemma:

Should I buy a new bike?

If I would decide to buy a new bike, I would buy a new one, with the warranty etc, as I wouldn't want in a year from now find myself in the same situation I am now in the case I would decide to buy a second hand bike again.

On the other hand what should I do with my old bike? I am not very much in favor of this philosophy that when something is broken we throw it away and we buy a new one. My bike would certainly work well if I would repair it, but it is true that for how things go now, it is cheaper and easier to replace a broken thing with something new than repair it.
I always got upset about this. Why should I buy something new when my old thing could be repaired and still work? and beside, don't we already generate so much trash that it would be much better for the environment to recycle things and repair what it is broken than buying new things?

I guess I will try to repair my bike, even if at the end on the long term for sure it would be better to buy a new one. But I don't want to throw my bike away, when it could still work well.

Staring at........

France, evening

.........at the toilet. This is how I spent my last night.
I came back home feeling very sick and in a couple of hours it went from bad to worse. I don't know if I got an intestinal flu or if I got a food intoxication. The result is that I spent my day today between the bathroom and laying in bed.....very exciting.

I called the doctor, because I can't leave home, as I would need to bring the toilet with me. She told me to take some medicament and let it pass........that was my plan, but I am not a very patient person, especially when I don't feel well...and now I also have fever (probably my body reacting to what it is going on inside).......

Awful night. I didn't eat anything in all day. Now I am going to try with some soup made it only of a bit of rice, water and onion for flavor......let's see how it goes....

I am definitively a wreak....

Save me from my neighbours!!!

France, evening

I spent the day (I am actually spending my weeks more than just a day) working on a presentation for a job interview....and the idea of risking to have another night without sleep makes me very anxious.

My neighbours must have a crazy life-style, totally incomprehensible to me, considering that when they have a party, they normally start not before 2.30-3am in the morning. What they do till then is unknown to me....I still can't get how someone can decide to have a party from 2.30-3am to 7-8 in the morning. Beside, they normally have the parties during the week, which means either they work on night shifts and not when they have the parties or they don't work at all....considering the French unemployment system, it seems the most probable explanation. However, I already wrote many times about having noisy neighbours. At least here, and here.

So, now I just read that if you use latex walls, this reduces a lot the noise coming from outside your apartment....should I call my landlady and propose it to her??? I don't think that she would be willing to take the walls of the apartment (and of course of the building too) down to just make me happy....I guess I have to find a way to just make my neighbours totally harmless....any suggestion on how to do that is very, very well appreciated!!!

This could explain something about me.....

France, morning

A few days ago I saw the movie Gladiator.

Parenthesis (Russell Crowe seems to have been born to play that role in the movie!!!).

While watching the movie I was thinking "wow, I am a descendant of the Romans...they have conquered half of the world. They were such an amazing culture". I a few words, I felt very proud of that...

Anyone who get to know a bit more about me, always wonder if I am 100% Italian, as I have some feature more typical of Asian people than of Italians, such as intolerance to alcohol (which makes me very sick) and allergy to cow milk products. One of my grandfather traced our roots back and even if it is true that apparently ages ago, one branch of my family lived in Venice (and so could have had some contact with Asian people thanks to the trips of Marco Polo), there was not clear explaination of where I got these considered not-Italian features from.

And then this morning I was just listening to a scientific podcast, like every sunday, when I heard the news that they found remaining of ancient Asian living during the Roman Empire in Italy........I can't help....I know that it may sound a bit weird, but anything to do with my ancestor and from where I come from, fascinated me immensely...so I like to speculate about it :-)

Is it really green what looks green?

France, evening

I just took a look at a cool graph published on the NewScientist on how "green" companies that we think as more or less "green" (in terms of good for the environment) actually are......so, if you live in the USA, you can really make a better choice when you buy something, if you want to support the "green economy"

PS. I have so much work to do in these weeks that I didn't have time to keep reading the book I started on greener economy.

A good day

France, evening

I have to say that when a lot of good things or nice news happen all at once, I can't believe that any of them happened for real.

I am just not used to have many good news, and two in a day certainly make it a big day. I am incredibly tired. I guess that feeling relieved that I can cross out some things from my "still in the process or to do list" resulted in me crashing a bit right now. It is only 7pm and I feel I could go straight to bed.....which I think I will do very soon.

My good news are all work news, something I was dealing with since either some years or some months. And I have to say that in the last months I had many good work news, after years of struggling and incredible misery. Nothing that would change my life, but some little good news that certainly improved my mood.

Today, when I got the first news, I was so happy that I even started dancing and jumping in the office, for the amusement of my office colleague. I couldn't restrain myself from being incredibly happy.