The Raw Chef Blog

"There is no condition so severe that you cannot reverse it by choosing different thoughts.  However, choosing different thoughts requires focus and practice.  If you continue to focus as you have been, and believe as you have been, then nothing in your experience will change."

-’Ask And It Is Given’, Esther & Jerry Hicks, The teachings of Abraham

I’ve got some time to myself today so woke up early to a beautiful sunny morning and went for a walk down to the beach.  The cliffs and the waves along this coast line are incredible, I took some really great piccies.  It was so nice to sit on the cliff looking out to sea with the sun on my back and the fresh sea air on my face.  It was a perfect time for some reflection on my trip and what comes next.

Amanda confirmed that she is going to be able to take me to San Fran tomorrow which has made me very happy.  Not only do I not have to worry about the busses but I also get to go to Cafe Gratitude, a raw cafe in SF.

Getting used to the roads a little bit more now.  They don’t have roundabouts here, only crossroads.  Although i’m not driving it still takes some getting used to when you’re crossing these huge (wide) roads and thinking about which way to look.  I’ve found that even though the pedestrian crossings are letting you cross, they don’t always hold traffic turning right so you have to be very aware.  All of the drivers that i’ve seen are very considerate to pedestrians.  I’ve also seen  driving school cars!

I’m constantly impressed by the availability of organic food here.  I’ve never seen tomatoes as red and succulent as the toms we been using.  I’m even more passionate about supporting local organic farmers when I get back.  It’s so important, every penny you spend on organic produce is a vote that is counted.  I’ve worked for Tesco for over 10 years and I know that people power rules, they cannot afford to ignore what you spend your money on.  It’s very encouraging to see that the biggest growth area in the food is organic.  Of cousre, buying local is even better!

We had a talent contest the other night which turned into a bit of a laugh with a couple of guitars, some singing, some bongos and some tribal style (excuse my ignorance, it’s the only way I can think of describing them) flutes.  It was fantastic fun at the end of a very hard day and was just what was needed.  Jason, one of students was very entertaining, I’m so fascinated by people who can perforn like that.  He’s got a great voice and did a few tracks including one from The Verve and a Bob Dylan/Guns N Roses number.  It really inspired me, i’ve got a guitar that I bought years ago but never learnt how to play (that’s the enthusiast in me, thinking something’s a good idea and not actually seeing it through).  I’m going to take some lessons when I get back and also have some singing lessons, my housemates are going to love me!!!  I have heard that there’s great health benefits in singing (whether you sound good or not) and i’m sure that being able to sing and play would have profound spiritual and psycological benefits.

I’m off to the deli now to have a sarnie (almond bread, cashew dijonaise, salad….fantastic!) before I start ‘work’.  I call it work because I don’t know how else to describe it.  I think I heard Bob Proctor say that work is something that you do that you think of having no personal benefit, or words to that effect.  If you do something that you love then it’s not work.

The next time I write will probably be at home so i’ll check-in then.

Bye for now.

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"To unpathed waters, undreamed shores"

Willaim Shakespeare

So much to write about and so little time to do it.  I’m on my lunch break at the moment so seeing as the internet cafe across the road has now reopened after a week of being shut, I thought i’d have a little blog update.

Yesterday was the last for the students on their ‘Elegant Entertaining’ course and we finished in style with a raw buffet Xmas style lunch.  I’ve been totally amazed at the things that can be created raw and am very excited about sharing my learnings.  I’ve learnt so much in this short time, i’m definately coming back next year for the full course.

The food yesterday was just amazing, you’ll see the photos when I get back and post them on here.  We had pecan pie for desert but it was no ordinary pecan pie.  It was created by one of the students and it was so huge!!!  There was one piece that we named ‘Burtha’ because it was just ridiculous.  It wiped out 2 people who couldn’t even finsh it between them!

It was quite sad to say goodbye to all the new people i’d met on the course yesterday, they’re very special human beings that i’m grateful to have known.  All the people here have been amazing, helpfull and so full of love.  Elaina Love has been helping out here as well and it’s been fantastic working in the kitchen with her, the other Angels, Alcia the Excecutive chef, Elise,Damien, the list goes on….

Looks like i’m going to get a lift to SF on Wed with Amanda, one of the other Angels.  She’s going to meet her husband at the airport so has offered me a lift so I don’t have to go through the bus thing again!  We’re going to spend the afternoon in SF and check out the raw restaurants.  More good food, brilliant!!!!

I’m off back to the kitchen now, seeya!

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"The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams"

Eleanor Roosevelt

What a wild time i’ve been having!  Got back from the fantastic Fresh Festival last Sunday and then flew to San Francisco the next day.  You may have seen some of the photos from the Festival that I managed to post on here in between packing my suitcase and sleeping!  I have more photos of that event to put up here when I get back, I just didn’t have the time on Sunday.

How hard has it been to get on the internet here?  It was easier in Thailand!  Let me tell you about my adventures in getting to Living Light….

Had a fantastic flight.  Boooked myself in on-line before I left and managed to end up with 3 seats to myself, thank you very much!  Only got about 20 minutes sleep on the 10 hour flight because it was a daytime flight and I wasn’t tired.  Arrived at sunny San Francisco and got a bus to downtown SF to get the Greyhound to Fort Bragg, home of Living Light as instructed by the guy at airport information.  The greyhound was delayed by an hour so spend too long in SF Greyhound depot with some very unsavoury characters!

To cut a (very) long story short, the Greyhound doesn’t go Fort Bragg so I had to get off at Willits (a very remote town) and catch the CCRider to Fort Bragg.  The only problem is that there’s only one CCRider to Fort Bragg from Willits every day and, you guessed it, my Greyhound got in too late to get the connection.  So I had to find a place to sleep in Willits and stay there for an extra 24hrs.  As I was approaching Willits I didn’t even know if there was going to be a Motel because as we got further from SF the towns were getting more and more remote.  I was relieved to find a really nice room and get some much needed sleep after 22hours of travelling.  So I thought it would be a good opportunity to see some more of California but no amount of ‘reframing’ can take away from the fact that there’s just nothing in Willits!!!  The biggest event of that next day was buying a huge fruit salad from Safeway while I waited for the 4:57 bus.

Anyway, i’m in Fort Bragg library now and everthing is looking much better.  Did my first day at LLCAI yesterday, the food and people are so nice there.  The 2 other kitchen angels i’m working with (Julia from Aus and Amanda from the US) are great and both want to open thier own raw deli when they get back home.  I’ve got loads of food photos from the Deli here which is just incredible.  I had, amongst other things, some cherry cheesecake yesterday and it was just like cooked dairy cheesecake, I will be getting that recipe!!!  It’s wierd, I feel like we’re in the middle of nowhere (there’s not even any mobile phone service) but yet there’s this incredible raw food available.

I must go now as i’m due to be at LLCAI and my time on the Libarary’s computer is up!

Ya’ll have a nice day now.

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