LUNCH IN LARNACA WITH BITTER LEMONS

My all-time favourite book has got to be Bitter Lemons by Lawrence Durrell. Bitter Lemons is an autobiographical work that describes the three years (1953-1956) that he spent on the island of Cyprus, the very place that I am happily (oh so happily!) currently residing in.  Durrell bought a stone house in what is now the Turkish side of Cyprus and earned a living teaching English literature. During that time war broke out among the Cypriot Greeks who desired union with Greece, the British who were attempting to control Cyprus as a crown colony and the Turkish Cypriots who favoured partition. Durrell found himself caught between the warring factions and eventually had to flee.

The book is fabulous, the place even more so. I was last here fifteen years ago. Much has changed in that time but the feeling, the indefinable feeling, has not. I made this little video of the lunch I had on my first day on the island because (well, because I love making little videos about lunch) but also because I wanted to share that feeling with you. But be warned, this is a Greekalicious experience that will make you instantly hungry. For that reason I will also be very kind and share some of the recipes featured, below.

Lamb Kleftiko
The Lamb Kleftiko I ate on my first day back on Cyprus had been cooked for 8 hours in a traditional clay oven. Here's how to make a much tamer version at home. 

1,5 kgs potatoes, peeled and cut into wedges
1 large red pepper, cut into strips
1 large tomato, sliced
1 leg of lamb
juice of 1 lemon
1 bulb of garlic, cut in half horizontally
salt and pepper
1 tsp oregano

Heat the oven to 190C. Place the potatoes, red pepper and tomatoes in an overproof dish and season. Put the leg of lamb on top and pour over the lemon juice, some olive oil. Now add the garlic and sprinkle with oregano. Pour over about 200 ml water and cover with foil. Cook for 2 to 3 hours until the meat is falling off the bone.

Greek Salad
OK, so the Greek Salad I had with my Lamb Kleftiko featured the crispiest cucumber and the juiciest tomatoes, grown in the restaurant owner's back yard, plus capers that grow wild on the island..but here's a version that you can still feel proud of. 

3 ripe, red tomatoes, sliced
1 crispy cucumber, cubed
a few dark green lettuce leaves, sliced
1/2 red onion, finely sliced
a handful of capers
1 round of feta cheese
1 tsp of oregano

Mix the tomato, cucumber and onion. Top with a wheel of feta cheese. Douse liberally with olive oil, lemon juice and oregano and sprinkle with capers.

HERE'S HOW TO DO THE WALKING LIFE

When I set out to write Change Your Life This Year , I was deliberately coming against the kind of perfect 'fake' lives that put us all under such condemnation. I believe that most of us do want to add quality and substance to our lives, we do want to improve our lives and keep learning how to do things better, or differently. But none of us need to feel like we've set goals that are so unrealistic and demanding that we couldn't possibly attain them.

In my book I suggest making just one small, positive change to your life every month, that all add up to a lot of change over the course of a year.

Walking for just 30 minutes a day is one of those positive changes that I suggest you try to make. 30 minutes doesn't sound like a lot of time but those 30 minutes are actually rather elusive and difficult to find!

I put together this little video to show you how I do it (most of the time..very imperfectly..) Enjoy!

YOU DESERVE THE GLORY: WHICH VERSION?

I'm busy working on a new course for the ministry that my husband and I work in (King's Cross Training). The course is called Building Stones. It will build upon our essential truths course, Foundation Stones, and will help believers to explore 7 practises to keep their connection with God fresh and relevant.

I've often been accused of being a 'mystic' because of my passionate advocacy for the spiritual disciplines or the exercise of intentional spiritual formation - which really amounts to nothing more than time spent mindfully with God, and a life lived in dependence upon Him. I take that as a compliment because in my opinion, what was the point of being restored to God through Christ, if not to now live in joyful dependence upon Him?

I love this quote from Mark Scandrette, "all of us must find those disciplines and practices, those rhythms and patterns in our life, through which we are able to walk the path towards what Dorothy Day described as "the long loneliness" of obedience." Can you relate to the concept of a "long loneliness" of obedience?

I'll be creating resources to go along with the Building Stones course, like Quiet Time playlists. I know this is an old-fashioned song but I really want it on my playlist. Which version of the old favourite You Deserve the Glory should I use on my playlist? Take a listen and let me know.

Here it is being performed by the woman who wrote the song, Juanita Bynum

Now here is Terry McAlmon's version

And finally, here's a version that I really love. Its performed by a South Indian worship team comprising Immanuel Paul Perli, Samy Pachigalla and Stephan George, so they sing it in English and then two South Indian languages.

Maybe you've come across a better version that you think I should use. If so, let me know. Thanks!

CHANGE YOUR LIFE THIS YEAR: MONTH 4

I'm frantically trying to meet the deadline on my latest novel, Cape to Cabernet - so I don't have much time to research and write my usual weekly blogpost. However, I did come across this fun video that I thought you might enjoy as well. Month 4 in my book Change Your Life This Year is all about walking, walking for just 30 minutes a day. I happen to live at the sea and wherever I walk, its safe and its beautiful - but I'm very aware that not everyone has an environment like that to walk in. If you've been convinced by Chapter 4 that you simply have to change your life by adding 30 minutes of walking to your day, but you have nowhere to walk, then this video might provide you with the solution you've been seeking. What do you think of this new walking routine? Would you do it?

Is it possible to find body products that are kind to the environment and kind to you?

In the book I'm currently writing, Cape to Cabernet, Ganiet, my Israeli protagonist, is given a fabulous smelling gift by her grandmother - a jar of priceless frankincense oil from Oman. I too was blessed recently with a beautifully fragrant gift that is just up my alley - a range of all-natural products; a deodorant, a body scrub and a body butter. They are produced by hand by Rona Mirimi of Verte Natural Body Products. Rona is also an Israeli woman and my daughter bought her products for me as a celebration of the fact that I am so. nearly. finished . Cape to Cabernet.

Although I wouldn't class myself as a health fanatic or a rampant 'greenie' I do believe that the area we neglect the most when it comes to de-toxing, is our skin. We tend to focus more on what we're eating (ingesting). I don't know about you but I really didn't think about what I was putting on my skin when I first started de-toxing my life. My motivation was my grandchildren. I didn't want there to be any poisonous or lethal products in my home in case one of my grandchildren came in contact with it when visiting; so I slowly got rid of products like Jik and Handy-Andy and replaced them with vinegar, lemon oil and bicarb.

It was only later, when I started self-medicating with essential oils, that I discovered how incredibly quickly the skin absorbs almost anything you put on it. You might have heard that parabens and other chemicals found in skin care products are bad if ingested, but they can't penetrate the skin. This is simply not true. You only have to think about nicotine and birth control patches to realise that.

According to an article written by Deborah Burnes in HuffPost "in 2005, the Environmental Working Group published a combination of two studies that found toxic chemicals in the umbilical cord blood of newborn babies. They screened for more than 400 chemicals and an astounding 287 toxins were detected". Many of these, like mercury, polyaromatic hydrocarbons and polychlorinated dibenzodioxins were most likely absorbed through the mothers' skin into the blood stream.

Some of this absorption just can't be helped. It happens as you go through life. But you certainly can avoid putting poisons on your skin deliberately. Deborah says that her Top Ten ingredients to be avoided are:

1. Parabens
2. Formaldehyde
3. 1,4-dioxane
4. Phthalates
5. Diethanolomine ((DEA), Triethanolomine (TEA) and monoethanolamine (MEA)
6. Sodium Lauryl/Laureth Sulphate
7. Propylene Glycol
8. PVP
9. Nanoparticles
10. Fragrance

The scary thing is, these ingredients are found in most commercially produced skin-care products, sometimes in disguise. There are two ways to go about avoiding the Terrible Ten: examine every label before purchasing or switch to products that you know are natural and free of the Terrible Ten.

Can I be honest for a moment? I'm not going to stop using Amarige in summer and Hypnotic Poison in winter. But I've eliminated pretty much every other toxin from my beauty routine. And that brings me back to my DIVINE smelling gift. I tested each one yesterday and here are the results:

1.  Verte Body Scrub. It contains only salt, jojoba oil, rosemary and grapefruit, rosemary and juniper berry essential oils. It smells so heavenly, its unbelievable. After using my skin felt smooth and soft.

2. Verte Body Butter. It contains only olive oil, calendula, shea butter, mango butter, vitamin E and sandalwood,patchouli and orange essential oils. As a former hippie, I was in seventh heaven surrounded by traces of sandalwood and patchouli and my skin felt hydrated all day.

3. Verte Natural Deodorant. It is the consistency of solid coconut oil, not surprisingly as it contains coconut oil, shea butter, bicarb, corn flour and essential oils. I applied it in the morning and it worked all day for me. I cannot vouch for whether or not it would be as effective in Summer. I usually use the Pure Beginnings deodorant but I'm just as happy with the Verte product.

So, do I recommend Verte Natural Body Products? I do. If you'd like to order something from Rona you can contact her on roxanacu@hotmail.com. (This is not a sponsored post by the way, I just like her products and think she deserves support. Besides, its not always easy to find all-natural, toxin-free body products and I really enjoy passing this kind of information on where I can).