Meat glue? What the...?

A similar story recently aired on New Zealand tv. This video aired on Australian tv .

Mark from Marksdailyapple.com voices his opinions here and I agree especially about the deception involved. I buy my meat directly from a small beef farmer Cilla Verry and a local organic meat producer, so I know what I get is not glued but I do buy steak in restaurants now and again and that leaves me concerned.

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The western diet and lifestyle and diseases of civilization

This research paper somes up the argument to stop eating crap and eat real unprocessed food and stay away from fructose and every other sugar.
click download article for the full 20 page pdf underneath the abstract. pdf here

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What I've been upto.

I've been under the weather this week so I'm missing all training apart from essential walking to shops and picking the children up from school. Even without the arthritis flare up (which doesn't stop me training , just makes it harder) has been the worst year of training since Cameron was born almost 6years ago. And I blame him. No really I've had a lot more colds than ever and I think it co-incides with him starting school.

I've been doing a lot more reading and not just graphic novels(super hero comics) and watching hardly any tv. I've recently read a book about world record and olympic meadallist Peter Snell and the world record setter Ron Clarke. The most intersting book was The Last American Man by Elizabeth Gilbert. It is about Eustace Conway. At seventeen he ditched the comforts of his suburban existence to escape to the wild. Away from the crushing disapproval of his father, he lived alone in a teepee in the mountains. Everything he needed he built, grew or killed. He made his clothes from skinned deer before using their sinew as sewing thread. In the years that followed he stoped at nothing in pursuit of bigger, boder challenges: he travelled the Mississippi in a handmade wooden canoe; he walked the two thousand mile Appalachian trail; he hiked across the German alps in trainers.
However my take is he failed at his biggest challenge and to teach encourage p[eople to simplify their lives and live off the land, learn skills. He was thwarted by modern society and his own vision and high standards and his inability to be flexible. His cause was not helped by being emotionally starved by a father who was constantly diasppointed by him.

In other news I've joined Greenpeace..more info to come.

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Fascists and their bully boys in America trying to stop real food(raw milk)

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Talks@google Barefoot Ted

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Car day

This may sound odd but this is the first day since we have been the new house that I am actually going to use the car all day. Normally I walk everywhere (including to swimming) and even the children have surprised me by wanting to walk to school there and back every day. We even walk into town for our coffees.

This was always one of the main reasons we moved so Teresa could go on her own to school(walking) and then I would bring the children later. We thought they would have to adapt to it. It has been much better than expected - I filled the car with petrol about 3 weeks ago and I'm hoping to make it last at last another 3 weeks if not longer. I drove to the farmers market in Hastings at the weekend because I wanted some free range pork, bacon and ham.

Which brings me to today Emily is complaining of feeling sick but being half way through the term she may just be tired because not only is she walking to school they do cross country running most days, she has ballet on Monday, Kelly sports (sports programme) on Thursday and swimming lessons on Saturday and then she walks with us at the weekend. I think it is great and it is how I was brought up with plenty of exercise. Both the children have no problem getting sleep often going to bed early. But today I also have Cameron's class to trip to the library and we are supposed to walk, I am typing this whilst looking at the weather trying to decide should I leave the car at home knowing that if it rains I would be expected to tale children in the car. There are slightly grey clouds but a lot of blue sky and the forecast said it wasn't going to rain...

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Pull ups video

I used to love doing pull ups and if my arthritis allowed I would again. I used to do some of the simpler exercises in this video but I didn't know there were so many variations.

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Food, Inc - edited by Karl Weber

Food, Inc - How industrial food is making us sicker, fatter and poorer - And what we can do about it.

From the back of the book: The movie Food, Inc is shaking up our perceptions of what we eat. This powerful documentary deconstructing the corporate food industry in America has been hailed by Entertainment Weekly as 'more than a terrific movie - it's an important movie.'

If daily headlines about food poisoning, pollution, labour abuse and rampant hunger have left you worried or confused about the foods you eat, Food, Inc provides the facts behind the problems - and shows what you can do to make a differnce.

What I get from the book - The book is a companion book to the film which I haven't seen and it explores the challenges raised by the movie in depth through 13 essays, most of them written especially for the book by lots of different experts. One of whom is Michael Pollan who also wrote 'In defence of food'. The book made me redouble my efforts to buy organic, fairtrade, free range and locally produced. The pinnacle is buying locally produced organics and it isn't always easy. Fruit and veg is okay and meat from Ti Kouka Farm (just bought some lamb). The hardest bit it is seasonal, I know Teresa is missing fresh tomatoes and cucumber but it is New Zealand winter and it is the wrong time of year.

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The Moneyless Man by Mark Boyle

The Moneyless Man - A year of Freeconomic Living( all proceeds of the book go to charity). From the back of the book - Imagine living an entire year without money. Former businessman Mark Boyle did just that and here is extraordinary tale. Article from Guardian newspaper

How do friends and Family react. What do you eat? Where do you liove? How does it affect your social life and relationships? How do you stay in touch with frientds? How do you wash? In this landmark book, Mark Boyle finds out the hardway and , in the process, explores the troubling consequences of our obsession with money. Encountering cuttlefish toothpaste, seasonal foods, skill-swapping schemes, and compost toilets, Mark even travels to Ireland without a penny and faces the unthinkable: a cash-free Christmas.

Following his own strict rules, Mark goes back to basics and learns ingenious ways to eliminate his bills and flourish for free. From making paper and ink out of mushrooms to constructing a rocket stove from discarded catering cans, Boyle puts fun into frugality and reveals some indispensable tips for economical and enviromentally friendly living. Heart warming and witty, The Moneyless Man is a testament to Marks's astounding determination and will inspire you to really question what really matters in life.

My take from the book: A very enjoyable read, re-enforces my belief in living simply, although what he does is to extreme to appeal to mainstream. People think I'm extreme by having one old fourteen inch tv in the house. It does remind me there are better ways of living and we could get by without money but to be honest for most people they can't see past buying stuff and I think it would taken a global catastrophe for people to stop pampering themselves and simplify their lifes. I enjoy living in a house with some heating. It made me think or re-enforce there is still a lot I could be doing and still live quite comfortably in our hoose e.g. replace the water flushing toilet for a composting toilet (Yes they do exsist for houses.)

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Sick again and new house

Two weeks of my life gone, sick with flu. Teresa had a flu jab at school to prevent her getting the flu and she was wiped out for almost2 weeks and I think I caught it off her.

We have bought a new house in Napier a villa at 13 McDonald St much more expensive than Coote Rd but it was recently refurbished so needs very little work doing to it. And it has a clawed foot bath which Teresa has always wanted.

Hopefully back to some sort of training next week, there are only 5 weeks before our trip to the UK so I don't know how much training I'll get in.

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Training and stuff

Not such a good training week again. Monday I was waiting in all day to talk to estate agents, etc. Then I had Cameron off sick Wednesday and Thursday. On Sunday were I have been cycling around 28 miles and enjoying it on flat roads was ruined today by a peice of glass. Only 5miles in I hit a big piece of broken bottle and it punctured both tyres . I only had one inner tube with me so I had to get Teresa to rescue me. And it wrecked my rear tyre which was a newish specialized armadillo at $60 which are very good puncture resistant tyres.

So I got home and did a set of Tabatha sprints on the turbo which is what I normally do mid week. Then went to the farmers market - Esk Hill pork produce really thick bacon and other delicious treats from well looked after pigs.

House wise we offered 280 000 for the coote rd house and they settled for 285 000 they or originally wanted 300 000+. So it was good for us but we haven't had an offer on ours yet although we've had plenty of viewers. I had to dive out three times last week so somebody could look at it which in some ways is a pain because I have a lot of work on in fact I'm fully booked till August.

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House update

We've been very busy getting the house ready to sell. We`are doing it as quick as we can see it online here and we've put an offer on a property in Napier on Coote Rd see here and on Google maps
View Larger Map at the bottom of Napier Hill opposite Napier Prison which is now a tourist attraction and backpackers hostel. It is near the seafront and needs a lot of renovating which makes it affordable.

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I'm back

Training

Had a week off training. Started back with a little bit and than this week I felt sick and tired again. I'm going to try again this weekend.

Business

is going well my ericksen honda revamp has been really well received , although another made me fed up because I've got to spoil my design because they are too lazy sort their content. However they are providing a couple of more jobs so I'll just think about the bottom line and remove my name from the website.

Other Business News

Stopped teaching completely.

Other News

We've decided to sell the house and move before the end of the year. We were going to buy a lifestyle block but we've decided to buy in Napier as close as we can to Napier Central where Teresa teaches and the children go to school. This we decided but give Teresa and the children more`time at home and if we can get close enough they can all walk to school saving us money especially as petrol is getting more and more expensive. Napier Hill is more expensive so we will have a smaller house and garden.

Racing News

I was going to race the big olympic distance races and local races but because of the cost of transport and accommodation and wanting to buy our new house every penny will count so I've decided to just do the local sprint races again and maybe the national sprint championships.

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