Friday, June 14, 2013

Circle of Life


I found this print during one of my incessant link-clicking exercises. The quote, " The cure for anything is salt water. Sweat, teas, or the sea," is brilliant. You can purchase this as a print on TinaCrespo's Etsy store - http://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/151897509/salt-water-cure-print-ocean-sea-circle.

Have a salt-watery weekend.

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

The Whole Pantry

Guess what?

Belle Gibson, the wonderful and ever-positive @healing_onlybelle we follow in Instagram, has finally given us all a sneak peek of the upcoming App and online, interactive community. It's called The Whole Pantry and is devoted to wellness, good nutrition, collective knowledge, life guidance and the environment itself.

What an exciting project! It centers around the concept of restoring balance in your life, the healthy way. And to do this, it supplies the support, motivation and recipes you need to do so. With The Whole Pantry Team behind you, what's not possible?

Belle has for a long time been a supporter of clean vegetarian eating, and her own health has benefitted as a result. As my previous post mentioned, she has overcome so much internally to become the inspiration she is today. And she did it by exercising, eating well and being positive. You're capable of all three of those things as well.

So, the App isn't out yet, but I'll be on the watch for it. And in the meantime, follow Belle on Instagram (http://instagram.com/healing_onlybelle) and be inspired to make positive changes in your own life.

Can't wait to join the community movement. Check it out for yourself at thewholepantryapp.com

See you there.


Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Reynold Interior Decor


One of my best (and childhood) friends has just opened up her own online furniture store. As an interior designer, she'd in the trade. And if you're in the trade, you get trade discount. And she's so wonderfully generous and tasteful she's passing this onto us, the incredibly handsome general public.

Some people are just born with good taste in design and interiors. She's one of them. She has a limited supply of items online, but what she mainly does is source items for you. Give her an idea of what you want and she'll find it for you at a very reduced price. Sound good? Absolutely.

If you're in the market for a new lamp, chair, table, painting, rug, or an entire new room just let her know. And if you're in Melbourne she can come and consult with you about your space. She even styles commercial spaces. Very talented.

So, what are you waiting for. Head to www.facebook.com/ReynoldsInteriorDecor and get in contact. 'Like' her page and keep your eyes peeled for bargains. You'll love me for it. So will your home.

Instagram Update








Follow me: @landoftakewhatyouwant

Literally Outraged


Two nights ago my nana, aged 81, had difficulty breathing and chest tightness and was then taken to the emergency ward of a major city hospital in Melbourne at 6:20PM by my mother. My mother was thus sitting with her when a man in the emergency ward asked her for money, and she became nervous and called me. It was getting dark. I drove over and joined them. I got there at 8:30PM.

My nana wasn't admitted or treated until 3:45AM. That's over 8 hours later. That is simply not good enough. Not only isn't it acceptable, it's outrageous.

The people we morally should spend extra care looking after are the very young and the very old. They need our help. Yet we let them sit in pain for almost half a day. Disgusting.

But it doesn't end there. Let me introduce you to a young couple with a baby who'd just turned one. The young mother had worked all day 'til 8:30PM and at about 9:30 had noticed her child's eczema had flared up to horrendous proportions. It had taken over his legs and chest as an enraged, lumpy and weeping mess. She'd quickly alerted the child's father and taken them to the same emergency ward I was in at about 10:00PM. She waited until 1:30AM still without being seen to and asked again at the counter if her child would be seen to soon. The reply was: "There are people in here who've been waiting for 5 and a half hours. So add 5 and half hours to your wait time. You'll have to wait 'til 7:30AM to be seen."

When she told me what had happened I couldn't believe it. This squirming baby who was trying to be good in a difficult situation had to wait. And wait. Let alone the fact this poor mother had to be at work again the next day.

She finally left without the poor baby being seen to, and opted for going to her own GP at 8:30AM when the clinic opened. Ridiculous. In this country it's simply indefensible.

But as if that wasn't enough, I sat next to young girl (about 20 years old or so) and her boyfriend. She was curled up under a blanket, he was sitting next to her trying to console her. She had evidently fallen near a barbecue and skewered her forearm with a rusty piece of metal, now lodged 4 or 5 centimeters into her flesh. She was given two measly painkillers and told to wait it out until a doctor could see her. When was that? 2AM. She'd been there since 6PM. She had to sit there with a rusty piece of metal in her arm for hours while she waited to have it taken out and stitched up. Incomprehensible. This isn't a third world country with limited resources. The hospital isn't hundred of miles away from a city in the desert. It's Melbourne, Australia; apparently the most livable, bounteous and one of the most prosperous cities on earth.

Now, wait for the most infuriating part of all. There is an entire new wing, complete with beds, which sits in the dark, unmanned and empty because the state government has withdrawn funding from hospitals and the Health sector. All of the people in the waiting room could have been seen hours before they were if it had been staffed and stocked full of life-saving supplies. Yet it wasn't. And still isn't.

That makes me mad.

I also witnessed a homeless man come up to a bin outside the window of the emergency waiting room at about 3:00AM and fossicked through it. He pulled out a few pieces of food scraps and half consumed cigarettes, popped them in his filthy plastic bag and limped off. Reminder: This is Australia.

I'm so annoyed that so many people that night had wait, or weren't seen to at all. I'm not mad at the nurses or the doctors one bit, they were the saving grace. But I'm incensed by the needless suffering of so many in this city. It's time the government stopped building lifeless, unavailing statues and started putting money where they, and we, need it most.

Maybe then rash covered babies, suffering elderly ones and people with corroded metal rods stuck in their arms won't have to sit for hours tarrying to be helped.