Day 55- Day 59: Long weekend.. Low productivity

First and foremost, I would like to wish Kuwait a Happy Belated Birthday (I'm always late on Birthday wishes these days).

Over February 25th and 26th, Kuwait celebrates its National and Liberation Days respectively. I'm not much a festive person myself so I spent most of the long weekend vegetated at home. I did however, have highlights for every day:

Day 55: Movie night! We watched Law Abiding Citizen and it was kick-ass.

Day 56: Mind. Went. Blank. (I honestly can't remember)

Day 57: Drove for a good 200 km to Bneider for lunch. Meh.

Day 58: A nice big dinner with friends and friends of friends.

Day 59: A failed attempt at retail therapy and watched Everybody's Fine; cried like a baby.

Finally, I would like to highlight my recent favorite home-made salad; Mushrooms, Black olives, Rocket leaves and Pine nuts. I need to name it for future reference. Any recommendations?

.. I'm waiting on that name people!

Day 54: Another diary post

If any of you out there know me personally, you'd know that I'm one who sticks to what works.

That includes the banana-strawberry shake, which I'm having third day in a row now.

Aside from that, I'm taking raw veganism one day at a time (as you could all witness). Next up, I'll have to get myself a dehydrator to have some actual real food every once in a while.

This is probably the first thing I'll make.

*Raw strawberry crepes. I CAN'T BELIEVE THEY'RE RAW!

Day 53: The Ultimate breakfast

This morning, I woke up thinking 'WAIT A MINUTE! If I could blend THAT many vegetables and get away with it, maybe I could do the same for everything else?!'

So I introduce to you, the one and only ULTIMATE breakfast!

On any average weekday, I have a glass of water and a banana for breakfast. TODAY, I'm having two bananas, a glass of water and a bunch of strawberries too!

It's fulfilling, nutritious and kind to my taste buds (if I have any left).

.. Cheers!

Day 52: Enjoy music. Help Haiti

On Day 54; February 23 2010, LoYAC will be holding its Annual Music Evening at the Abdulaziz Hussein Theatre in Mishref.

I would like to emphasize that all the proceeds from this event will go to helping the earthquake victims in Haiti.

See you all there!

Do you have a secret?

PostSecret is an ongoing community art project where people mail in their secrets anonymously on one side of a postcard.

For the past three years Frank Warren, creator of PostSecret, has invited people of all backgrounds and nationalities to send him creatively decorated postcards bearing secrets they have never before revealed. He has shared these PostSecrets on his award-winning blog, PostSecrets.com, in an internationally travelling art exhibit, and in three books.

PostSecret Kuwait will be based on Frank Warren's original PostSecret. Entries can range from admissions of sexual misconduct and criminal activity to confessions of secret desires, embarrassing habits, hopes and dreams. The postcards are inspirational to those who read them, have healing powers for those who write them, give hope to people who identify with a stranger's secret, and create an anonymous community of acceptance.

Share your secrets *anonymously* with PostSecret Kuwait on:

postsecretkuwait@gmail.com

or

PO Box 26051Safat, Kuwait13121

Day 51: RESULTS

I finally went to get my results from the checkup and blood work I got done the other day.

And guess what?! All is great!

Except for my iron level, which is higher than last June, nonetheless too low:

Haemoglobin result: 119 g/L (reference range 120-150 g/L)
Iron result: 3.1 umol/L (reference range 5.0- 32.0 umol/L)
Ferritin result: 7.1 ng/mL (reference range 11.0- 306.8 ng/mL)

The assigned doctor advised me to have more fruits and vegetables..

..and prescribed me Iron injections, which I'm not too keen on having.

Day 50: Importance of customer service

This beautiful Friday morning, a couple of friends and I went to Dean and Deluca for what seemed to be the typical Kuwaiti breakfast (since most of Kuwait was present there).

We sat indoors but outside the store/restaurant and ordered our respective breakfasts. I ordered the fresh berries platter without the yogurt while my friends ordered plates of processed, cooked, animal flesh.

For some odd reason, my order took a good 15 minutes to serve, and if that wasn't enough, a short blonde human hair was found swimming between my strawberries.

When we complained to the waiter, my order was replaced but still lacked the yogurt (that I ordered on the side for my friends to have).

What I don't understand though, is why do we still end up paying for the order? Yes, it was a measly KD 2.500 but not paying for the order does seem like a good gesture, and would probably encourage us to visit the place again.

Dean and Deluca did have a couple of good raw vegan dishes but the customer service is just too snobby for my taste. *hmph*

Day 49: Practice what you preach

After the green smoothie I had the other day, I wasn't feeling so well. So I did some research about what to avoid in green smoothies and when to consume them.

Apparently, I am to keep the ingredients at minimum and to avoid adding starchy vegetables (such as carrots, beets, corn, green beans, etc.) because they combine poorly with fruit.

Another guideline was to drink the smoothie by itself, and not as a part of a meal (which I didn't do).

So in an attempt to 'practice what I preach'; something I never fail to do, I made another one!

Green Smoothie (take 2):

- Green apples

- Parsley

- Water

- Lots of love

Day 48: Justice for Khojaly event

As I mentioned earlier, today was the 'Justice for Khojaly event: War through the eyes of kids', I took part in the brief presentation by mediating speeches by Mrs. Fareah Al Saqqaf, founder, vice-chairperson and managing director of Lothan Youth Achievement Center (LoYAC), Mr. Shahin Abdullyiv, the Ambassador of the Republic of Azerbaijan in the State of Kuwait and Amneh Tarkhan, a student and my roommate on our recent Azerbaijan trip!

Along with the speeches and presentation, the gallery exhibited beautiful paintings and drawings by children, all communicating the end of war and the demand for peace.

Day 47: My New Obsession.. GREEN SMOOTHIE

I knew that I've been messing out on a HUGE portion of the raw vegan lifestyle, but I never knew it was that yummy!

After constant nagging from a good friend who had experienced the raw vegan diet himself, I decided to go through with it and do a little bit of research on my new found obsession; Green Smoothies.

Recommended sources of information were books and links by and in reference to Victoria Boutenko, a writer and raw vegan advocate. After looking through her website, I settled on a few popular recipes:

Rocket Fuel Smoothie

2 cups green or red seedless grapes

3 golden kiwis peeled

1 ripe orange peeled

1 small leaf of aloe vera, with skin

5 leaves red leaf lettuce

2 cups water

Yields 2 quarts

or

Morning Zing Smoothie

4 ½ bunch dandelion greens

2 stalks celery

½ inch fresh gingerroot

2 peaches

½ pineapple

Yields 2 quarts

Of the two, I prefer the latter since it includes ginger, known for its medicinal uses, preventing flu, common cold and relieving a soar throat.

And here's my own version; a mixture of ginger, lettuce, red cabbages, parsley, 2 green apples, 1 red apple and 2 carrots. It wasn't exactly green, nonetheless delicious!

Day 46: Busy bee

Boy, was today a busy day.

I must admit, the only downside to taking some time off work is getting back into business. Even though I've only been gone for exactly 7 working days, I've got a lot to catch up on, and I've consequently been too busy to multitask.

Fortunately though, it has no impact whatsoever on sustaining my raw veganism.

I started my day with a banana and orange juice. My dear friend Nada also got me some yummy salad from home.

Around 7:30 pm, I was still at work, missed out on a K4K meeting and also had some work to take home with me!

I sure hope I get to breathe over the weekend :(

Awareness event: Justice for Khojaly

Lothan Youth Achievement Center (LoYAC) is holding a photo gallery exhibition, under the title of 'Khojaly: War through the eyes of the kids'.

The exhibition will be launched in collaboration with the Embassy of the Republic of Azerbaijan in the State of Kuwait and the Justice for Khojaly Campaign.

The event will be held in Bait Lothan on 17 February 2010 from 6 pm to 8 pm.

Go to www.loyac.org for more information and www.justiceforkhojaly.org to petition!

Day 45: Ketchup!

And just like that, it's the day of red roses, tacky stuffed bears and l-o-v-e all over again.

Despite my complete disregard to the origin and background, I definitely acknowledge this day because I feel that it signifies the independence of single women (and men) all around the world. So cheers to that!

On another topic, I'm very excited about completing my second month on this raw challenge. I've been having lots of greens since I came back from Azerbaijan. I've also been a mess and have been very dependent on Casper and Gambini for some good Alaskan Salad.

After work today, I decided to tick off number 30 off my 101 list and get a physical checkup (or Ketchup- according to a 5 year old me).

I went to the International Clinic (because I'm cheap and it's covered by my Health Insurance) and got some blood work done. According to my randomly-assigned M.D, I have to take a total of 21 tests to follow up on my raw vegan self.

Results come out Tuesday!

Day 44: Kuwait Towers and the Grand Mosque!

Today might as well have been narrated from a fairy tale.


The sun was shinning, the breeze was chilly, the birds were chirping and if you look closely, I think you could have seen a speck of a rainbow! To top that off, one of my Casablancas (refer to #60 on 101 list) started blooming and it was so fragrant.


So, a dear friend decided to help me tackle my 101 list. We started off with fresh juice from a renowned venue in Kuwait.


Then, we went to Kuwait Towers (where I saw the Paint Ball place and the rest of Kuwait).







After that, we went to the Grand Mosque for the afternoon prayer. That place is magical!

For lunch, I joined my friends family at none other than... *dum dum dum duuuum* L'Entrecote!! Yes, the place with the fixed menu of a tiny salad and a refillable plate of juicy steak and crisp french fries!!

I had.. two plates of salad.

Around 7 pm, I met up with the Azerbaijan trip group for some announcements and picture exchange.

For dinner, the green valley salad (without the corn and mayonnaise) from Wasabi seemed to satisfy.

I sure hope next week could be as productive as today.

Day 41-43: Recovery

No matter how many oranges I have, I guess I can't cheat my way around a good flu and a heavy cough.

Yes, I'm probably consuming 3-5 times the vitamins and nutrients any normal carnivore of a human being is having, BUT it WAS snowing and I didn't really pack heavy.

Aside from that, all is well. I've got a BIG test coming up that I've got to prepare for, so I don't think I'll be as active as I normally am here (in Kuwait).

Also, looking at the 101 list, I've been able to cross off several more items. Including going to a concert (Eurovision), going to Azerbaijan (well, duh), and going to a museum (Mugham center or the paintings gallery will do).

I passed by the Qurtuba Co'op Wednesday evening for some photocopying and saw a flower shop nearby. I got some of my favorite Casablancas and that very much ensures cheering me up throughout the next week or so.

I miss Baku alot. I wish I was still there. I wish I could go for the end of February national holidays. *sigh*

Aside from that, I'm looking forward to some hardcore studying next week, getting back on track at the office and starting some reading!

I'll sign off with a couple of more 1000 words from Baku.

Day 40: Guess who's back?!

Ten days later, I'm back from Azerbaijan! I haven't blogged in about 9 days and I'm exhausted!!

The trip was absolutely wonderful! The country was breath-taking and the people were the sweetest on earth! The only challenge I had when I was there was maintaining my raw vegan promise (and keeping warm from that cold)!

The Journey was shared with 13 other people, one of which left a couple of days early. We were accommodated by Areli, a youth organization in Baku and stayed in the Park Inn hotel overlooking the Caspian Sea (and a merry-go-round as a matter of fact).

The weather was very cold and it snowed for a couple of days in the midst of our trip, which mediated some major snowball fights!!

Since a picture is worth a thousand words, I've attached a couple of pictures of Baku and the places we've visited while further details are soon to come. Bottom line is: I'M BACK!!