Joanne Musgrave

Yesterday, we stepped in to the 21st Century and bought our very first Apple computer (if you don’t count the dodgy second hand giant round contraption with the big old screen in it). I was going to buy an iPad for browser testing, but ended up with a MacBook Air for the same price. A very tiny, lightweight solid state hard drive laptop that’s just perfect for what I need.

I think I might have just unwittingly joined a cult

I’ll admit it, I’m not big on reality TV. I did get hooked on Masterchef as I found it an inspirational and educational show. I decided this year to take a swing at The Biggest Loser, thinking I might find the same thing. Boy was I wrong.

Initially, I just wanted to see the trainers have to eat crap for a week and see how it made them feel, purely so I could show my husband that even fit and healthy people can feel like crap from eating the wrong thing (my digestive system is kinda useless), but after this, I decided to plod along and continue to watch.

What was I expecting? I’m not sure really. I was hoping that the show would be helpful to the ‘lazy lard arses’ sitting at home on the lounge wondering if they can make a positive change in their life and lose weight too. I was hoping they’d get to see information on making smart food choices, how to exercise at home ….. stuff like that.

Instead? The physical and emotional torture of some of the most unstable people I’ve seen on television in a long time.  To have that much weight and that little self esteem must be hard enough, but to be pushed to breaking point constantly would be too much for most people to cope with.

The show makes it look like you have to scream and sweat and exercise to the point of painful exhaustion to get anywhere. Pull a train carriage or two, run up 100 flights of stairs. Hell, my husband, who’s a fit bastard would have struggled with some of these things.

From a personal perspective, these contestants for the most part also make me angry. The fact that they can treat their bodies like total and utter crap, yet still manage to get through all these exercises drives me insane as I pace myself on my daily 600 metre walks (anything longer and it takes me too long to recover).

So, I say, shame on you The Biggest Loser. The only time I’ve seen you feature the contestants eating food is when they’re eating garbage or being forced to eat Chinese food for breakfast lunch & dinner. 

There was a distint difference in the mentality of Masterchef and Junior Masterchef. The kids were treated delicately. These contestants on The Biggest Loser should be treated a little nicer than they are and should be allowed to stay in the house for considerably longer before they start flinging them out the door to fatten back up at home.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for people buying and using reusable shopping bags when they do their grocery shopping. I think it’s fabulous, and in my online shop, we sell the Envirosax and they’re just stunning. But I do think that this whole ‘envirobags’ everywhere is counter productive. Today, while walking around Charlestown Sqaure, we went in to The Games Shop to buy a good old fashioned board game, Backgammon, and we were given our purchase in an envirobag.

It’s a shoulder variety, and apart from carrying our new board game out to the car, it’s smelly, an awkward shape and is emblazoned with the shop’s logo. Let’s face it, I’m not going to use it again. On what planet is it better to make those chemically laden stinky pieces of non-biodegradable crap and have them tossed aside instead of a paper bag designed to break down when in land fill? Yes, I’m making a living selling water bottles because reusing the packaging of anything is so much better than disposing after one use, but sometimes, disposing of something after one use is necessary. And if it is, shouldn’t that thing be small, easy to make and biodegradable?

At least at Borders, you can buy a plastic one. Hell, make them $1 each for all I care, it might make people like me actually remember to pack one of their Envirosax with them when they go out instead of leaving them at home all the time

My love of music and Glee has won over my hatred of Christmas. You just HAVE to get your hands on a copy of the Glee Christmas album with the best version of Jingle Bells on the planet. KD Lang also sings a song with Mr Shoo

Buy it a JB HiFi or online at iTunes. If you have to be sitting at home all weekend working like I do, then at least you can listen to something cool. Packing boxes to these funky tunes makes the time fly by a little quicker. Let’s see – 120 boxes, 5 minutes a pop, I’ll be done in 10 hours and listened to the album so many times I’ll never want to hear it again LOL!!

Dyson have a really cool looking grooming tool you can use to vacuum your dog! No joke, it’s a brush attached to a Dyson vacuum cleaner that sucks the hair right away as you brush them.

I’m very keen to check out the Dyson grooming tool on my dogs, but there’s one small issue, they chase the vacuum cleaner!!!

BPA is in the media again today, as Choice magazine put out a report on all the nasties found in canned food, and even some Heinz baby food (tsk tsk). This has finally prompted me to start up my BPA Free project, a blog where I will post news articles, research and links to all manner of products that are BPA Free, whether we sell them at Shop Naturally or not.

There’s so much BPA Free stuff out there, it’s easy to find plastic that won’t kill you slowly if you know where to look.

Spring is almost here, and once I come up for air after moving in to our new house, I’m going to need to seriously think about getting back in to the exercise again. My friend Robyn runs a great Central Coast Pilates Studio at Forresters Beach, which is now only 5-10 minutes away instead of 35 minutes, so I might actually get back there at some stage!

Then there’s the new basketball hoop hubby installed in our backyard today and the personal training sessions with Kylie at Toowoon Bay. I think I’m only a few weeks of mustering up the energy to get back to it again. Better grab the Lorna Jane gym gear, strap on a water bottle and get to it!

We’re in the process of moving house, and it’s just amazing at how much rubbish and crap one person can collect in 6 years! I think we’re going to have to call a Central Coast Skip Hire company to do some rubbish removal for us. Either that, or have a garage sale. Do people still buy useless junk? hehe

We got a very cool delivery from Fuzzyard today, the most divine & fluffy doggy beds for my 4 legged furry kids. Jess got the Carnival and Jedi got the Maverick.  At the same time I also ordered some of the Natural Pet Shampoo & Grooming products for the shop, so we’re now an official Fuzzyard Naturals stockist.

If it will ever stop raining, we might get the opportunity to bathe the dogs and test them out!

It’s been a busy couple of days, we’ve been getting some interesting entries for our food storage containers giveaway this month. We’ve been getting the typical “i’d store organic food” and “left overs for my kids” and more, but we’ve had one completely unique entry, someone who wanted to store dead bugs in our Lock & Lock containers to keep them crunchy & fresh for display …..

Today I finally got my hands on the Joseph & Joseph cooking utensils from my new favourite homewares store in Newcastle, Interiorz. Don’t worry if you don’t live in Newcastle, Interiorz have an online store and sell some gorgeous brands including Marimekko, Florence Broadhurst, Missoni, French Bull, Tord Boontje, Karlsson Clocks, a great range of Designer Lamps, Iittala & Metro. Once we actually move in, we’ll be heading back in to grab some funky floor lamps and matching desk maps for our new TV unit plus a few cushions and bits & pieces.

We also sat on at least 2 dozen different lounge suites at Harvey Norman and have picked out our favourite, but we’re holding off buying it for a few months. It’s a double recliner with a little middle section like a movie theatre for room for a tub of popcorn and a water bottle each. I think I could learn to watch a bit more telly than I normally do with a leather recliner lounge that I literally melt in to ……