Category: On Lifestyle

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All Stretched Out And Loving It

On my run this morning, I found myself still working out kinks in a couple of muscles. Even after a run on Monday and a full training session yesterday, I’m still paying for ignoring my stretching routine while recently visiting the US.

Even if I did have a resistance band and a small calf roller in my suitcase and plenty of know how in my head, I told myself I was just too busy.

Wrong answer!

Check out my recent Woman’s World piece on stretching and its role in healthy ageing.

As for me, I am all stretched out and truly loving it.

On Life/

Summer Weddings Underway: Time to Invest

While June continues to reign as the most popular month for weddings in the US, August has pipped it at the post in the UK. Perhaps it’s something to do with the weather, but that’s another blog. Watch this space.

In the meantime,  US statistics show that in 2012, some 17 per cent of the thousands of weddings that took place happened in June. In the UK in 2013, only 10 per cent of marrying couples chose the traditional month. Here, 15 per cent married in August.

In both countries, however, trends  show that weddings are on the rise. How wonderful! And that’s all the more reason that it makes sense to invest in marriage, not just the wedding.

In a recent Huffington Post blog, I spoke to an expert about the matter.

According to Sila Lee, co-founder of Holy Trinity Brompton’s (HTB) Marriage Preparation Course with her husband Nicky, investing in marriage beforehand is one of the best investments that any couple can make because every couple will inevitably faces issues owing to different backgrounds and life experiences.

But for one reason or another, this notion is not necessarily the norm. The Lee’s  want to change this.

Sounds like a good idea to me. Read  Investing in Marriage for a Change in The Huffington Post UK.

On Lifestyle/

Comedy of Errors over for Easter

What a chock-a-block week! English please, some of you might be asking. I’m afraid it is and for all I know it could be American English, too. These days I am bilingual, but I do occasionally lose the plot where separation of the two languages is concerned.

The point is that this week has been crammed with all sorts for me, especially blunders. Actually, it’s been a bit of a comedy of errors.

Starting out on Monday, I arrived early for a weekly appointment in Knightsbridge that I might go to the local Waitrose beforehand. For some reason, I stopped by Ottolenghi first to get breakfast. Normally, it is the other way around.

At Waitrose, I found myself juggling coffee, a shopping basket, a bag for life, and my handbag. No wonder while deciding on spinach, I somehow leaned the basket against the broccoli. The comedy began.

The little vegetable guy, whom I have never seen, albeit it I know a few staff in this store, grabbed my basket, and told me I was damaging the broccoli! What could I say, I was guilty as charged, but so taken a back at his forwardness,  I went into a tug of war with him over my basket and finally shouted:

“Let go of my basket!”

A gasp of silence followed and I got my spinach and fled, but not before paying for it.

Then on Tuesday, the comedy continued with train travel. Though I left plenty of time to make an 11.00 meeting in Covenant Garden, I was late because as I stood on the platform, my train arrived on another without any warning or explanation from the staff. In the first instance, I sort of knew it had to be the Waterloo train. Trains to other destinations travel in the opposite direction.

And after checking the board, I deduced that the Waterloo train had come and gone. But it was likely a fluke, right. Wrong, because in five minutes or so another train arrived at the wrong platform, though crowds of us waited on the usual platform.

Quick thinking led to a few of us running down the stairs and up the stairs to just miss the train. Then the platform closed, according to the notice board. Back to the other platform I went along with several others.

After seven minutes or so, another train came to wrong platform, but this one was rolling fast and didn’t stop. Whew! Still, about three minutes later, another train approached the wrong platform with obvious intent to stop. Cleverly this time, I struck out early and made it in the nick of time. Off towards Waterloo we went without a word from anyone.

As comedic as it gets, right. Not really because on Wednesday, I drove to Hertfordshire for the day. Though I have been a passenger on this route several times, I didn’t pull it off as smoothly as I would have thought, as a driver. Let’s say I missed a critical turn in London, giving my satellite navigation system an opportunity to send me on a tour of local London and Hertfordshire, too.

Thank goodness for the Easter break or I would have surely been more than fifteen minutes late, caught up in rush hour traffic.

Speaking of Easter, the break starts tomorrow for me with Good Friday. And as the business day comes to a close, I’m thrilled that the comedy of errors is behind me. And if it isn’t, the work most certainly is, at least until next week.

Happy Easter!

On Lifestyle/

Leaflet featured on BBC Radio now available

Now available to all sonjalewis.com visitors, the leaflet Beyond Barren: Putting Childlessness into Perspective served as the backdrop to my interview with BBC London Radio host Jo Good on 19 March.

“It’s a fantastic piece,” the talk show hostess said.

No wonder I have decided to make the piece public, which has been available only to registered users and journalists in the past. Now, visitors can download it here, directly from My Books.

Thanks to the women who shared their stories for the piece, it has been a valuable resource in getting out the overall message of The Barrenness: finding happiness in your own space, whether a mother or not.

Since I released the novel in 2011, the topic of being childless or child-free has become a hot topic. Are they one in the same? Some think so, some do not. One researcher explains that childlessness is not by choice, being child-free is.

In any case, it is a topic that is off the shelves so to speak and on the table. And with a bit of luck, this unto itself, is slowly lifting the stigmas often associated with people who do not have children. Long may the discussions continue, at least until all is well that ends well.

On Life/

Age-old Secret out of the Bag

Shush! Never ask a woman her age. And certainly don’t expect her to volunteer it. In my grandma’s day, this was definitely the case.

And while there are women now who still prefer not to talk about the matter, many of us are happy to let the cat out of the bag.

I have my say on the subject in my latest Huff Post blog. Not only am I happy to talk about my age, but also happy to tell why.

Check out the full blog here and do have your say or keep quiet. It is a woman’s prerogative, irrespective of age old beliefs or new ones.

On Lifestyle/

Ten-year-old changing the face of girl’s sports

Being an expat has its upside, exploring a new world, but there are downsides too, not that I want to dwell on any of them. Most are just trivial things such as finding a new doctor, hairdresser, etc.… Once cracked, no need to dwell on it.

But there is one downside that simply can’t be cracked—missing one’s family and friends. I don’t dwell on this either, as I try to live my life where I am, and fortunately, I get back to the US quite often.

Still I miss a big chunk of day- to-day life, particularly in the lives of nieces and nephews. So often I hear through other family members about their successes and the doting aunt I am, offer up my congratulations privately.

On this one occasion though, I have to publicly commend my youngest niece on her latest success.

Since December, Miss J and I have become as thick as thieves, so to speak, talking on Face Time weekly. Together, we are working on an all-around better Miss J health-wise and girl oh girl, this kid is excelling.

But that is not what I want to brag about or congratulate Miss J on for now.  We’ll celebrate this in a few months. In the meantime,  I must commend this straight A student on being a multi-talented softball player.

While softball has been around for as long as I can remember, I do think the professional women’s league is starting to take off. And with girls like J on the scene, pitching at 55 to 58 miles per hour at age 10, softball is sure to command big league attention. On average, girls her age pitch at about 45 mph.

This past Saturday, J struck out nine players. And that is not all. This kid was responsible for six of the seven points her team made for a 7 to 3 win. She made two runs herself and also brought four people in with her batting. I am told these are called RBIs, thus she made four RBIs.

J is not only making history, but she is also making a difference in the way young girls approach sports.  She demonstrates beautifully what a girl can do through sports as well as academics.

No pressure kiddo and don’t go getting the big head. Just keep focused and you will no doubt set new trends and change the face of women’s sports someday.

Let’s hear it for the girls.

On Lifestyle/

American pancakes for Pancake Day?

So what are you giving up for Lent? I’ll never forget the first time I was asked this question and who asked me. More than twenty-five years ago, when I had a fun stint as a petite model (anybody remember that), one of the more serious models posed this question.

Though a Christian all my life, I hadn’t a clue what she was talking about and shamefully didn’t let on. No Google at my fingertips in those days, I made do somehow, even if I didn’t understand it. Since, I have learned that Lent is the time during which some Christians (Lutherans, Catholics, Anglicans, etc.) give up indulgences, often food, for forty days from Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday.

Now an Anglican, I observe Lent, even if my way of looking at it is simplified. And as we prepare for the season, I am struck by the many Britons, Christian or not, that are jumping on the band wagon so to speak to celebrate Pancake Day today, also known as Shrove Tuesday.

Over the years, folks have seized this opportunity to eat pancakes heartily in light of the abstention that they or others will practice until Easter Sunday. This might explain why recipes and tips for making pancakes have shot up in popularity over the last little while.  Some can be found in major newspapers and magazines.

Yesterday, while driving back from a meeting near Sloane Square, a radio announcer confessed, how his pancake making attempts went horribly wrong. One paper suggests that he use a recipe, any recipe. Just don’t mix in eggs, flour and milk at will, expecting to get edible pancakes. It’s not rocket science, is it? Any American knows that, even if we don’t make our own pancakes—more on that later.

The problem lies within the Brits idea of a pancake–a thinner, more crepe like food that is supposed to be a dessert.  No wonder there are so many flops.

For a sure shot, however, I suggest adopting American pancakes, be it for breakfast or for afters. And though this pancake loving expat has never made a pancake from scratch, she gets an excellent result every time. How? She resorts to a pancake mix.

Yes, it is mass produced packaged food, my dear trainer and all the rest who are gasping. Forgive me, if you will. Though I steer clear of such stuff as much as possible, pancakes are an exception. Hence, my stocking up on Aunt Jemima mix whenever I am in the U.S. Perfect, every time, whether I add blueberries or just enjoy them plain.

Now, I know Aunt Jemima may sound a bit stereotypical to some. I’ve had my say about this character over the years, too, but these days, this American favourite aunt deserves a bit of slack. If you ask me, she has kept up with the times. Most recently, she looks to have shed a bit of weight and has definitely splashed out on a soft, modern hairdo.

All she has to do now is cross the pond in volume, that is, and bring a bit of healthy competition with her. I don’t doubt that pancake mix, like many American specialty items, can be found in select shops, for a small fortune, which might be why folks in numbers haven’t caught on to this phenomenon.

In the meantime, however, what are you giving up? Me? Not pancakes, for sure. But as this is Shrove Tuesday, I’m at least in the know. Happy Pancake Day, to all!

Note: Shrove is taken from the word shrive, meaning to confess. Thus, participants traditionally confess what they need to absolve and spend the forty-day period of Lent, practicing abstention.

On Lifestyle/

Weekend in London for the BFF Books

On the heels of the acclaimed London Fashion Week, came the much awaited London Fashion Weekend (LFW), a style extravaganza for the fashion conscious members of the public. That’s me, and my BFF, of course, who flew over from New York for the weekend.

Paul got the tickets as a Christmas gift.

Anyhow, on Saturday, with our tickets in tow, we headed over to the brilliant Somerset House, where the venue’s winter skating rink had been replaced by an extraordinary marquee, which played host or rather hostess to the catwalk shows.

Crowds of stylish and a few ‘not so’ stylish young women, a few men, too queued to enter.  What was that about? Oh, the designer tote bag in exchange for the entry ticket. We’ll have one of those, we agreed, jumped the queue since we already had tickets, and collected the coveted bag. Hump, one look at it and we both wondered what the fuss was about, and after looking inside, we felt seriously let down—some Lavazza coffee, an energy bar, some lip balm. Enough said.

Still, we hoped for the best, remembering some years ago when the event was held at the Natural History Museum, a stone’s throw away from my (and Paul’s) flat at the time in South Kensington. There, we shopped until we dropped. Favourite buys included a sheepskin coat and a designer handbag for me. For her, a D&G leather skirt and a fabulous pony skin clutch bag.

With these cherished items in mind, we browsed from show room to show room, often being jostled by crowds, finally to conclude that either we had changed or the target market had changed and drastically. A bit of both I suppose but more the latter than the former. Though we were younger, at least 12 years, our good taste for fashion was well ensconced, even then.  Hence, we hoped that LFW had maintained its taste, too.

But sadly, the variety of designers had not only shrunk but also the ones participating held back the greatest and latest. For instance, I noted a Joseph dress from two years ago, marked down to a heart-breaking price. Heart-breaking because I bought it at full price at Harvey Nichols.  Never mind! The good news is that it’s still in style. Or is it?

Meanwhile, we caught a trend catwalk show, sponsored by the Outnet.com – very nice indeed! The young super models in training, we shall call them, seemed to enjoy strutting their stuff, all but one of them, who looked miserable. But at the risk of traumatizing her, I shall say no more.

Anyhow, though we had tickets for the Julian MacDonald show scheduled for later that evening, we decided to call it quits and head back to MatchesFashion.com on Marylebone High Street, where we had dropped by earlier.

This stock more than lived up to our expectations, featuring beautiful dresses, bags, shoes, etc., but we didn’t score there either. So off to Liberty we went, where we hit the jackpot – at least my BFF did.

I, on the other hand, was left thinking about a few items.

Later that night, we caught up with another friend at the popular Arts Club and dined and danced. And the night before had seen The Mistress Contract at the Royal Court with Paul and enjoyed dining at Chez Bruce, a Michelin star local.

In short, even if LFW didn’t meet our expectations, it turned out to be fashionable weekend in London after all – one that will surely go down in the BFF book of memories. In the meantime, I’m still thinking – all very nice thoughts, indeed!

On Lifestyle/

London Restaurants: Filling a Tall Order

Over the years, the restaurant scene in London has gone from abysmal to laudable, so I am told. As far as I am concerned, it has always been pretty good. In my 16-year experience here, the capital has been on the upswing with celebrity chefs putting it on the food map.

The trouble with this is that when the chefs cease being celebrated or experience a seriously big hiccup, so might London’s food reputation, needlessly.

Celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal’s two Michelin-starred Dinner at the Mandarin Oriental in Knightsbridge is at the centre of a norovirus outbreak and thus, will be closed for at least 10-days.

This is, of course, a serious matter unto itself but what makes it even more serious is that the chef had to close another of his great restaurants, The Fat Duck in Bray, in 2009, for the same reason.

While judgements and suspicions are flying around—is he experimenting too much—I am quick to defend the restaurant (went there last year for my birthday and loved it!).

The chef, also known for integrating science into his cooking, is wildly imaginative, creating dishes such as snail porridge and nitro glycerine ice cream.

I will have none of that, thank you. But absolutely love what he does with lamb, even beef, often slow cooking to perfection. We have tried it, at least Paul has, at home. Delicious!

To this end, abandoning Heston because he has had two unfortunate major events would be like turning my back on Rafael Nadal because he lost the Australian Open. Never!

Unless, Rafa somehow dishonours his public image in such a way that it is beyond a shadow of doubt that he’s no longer great, I’m standing by him. The same goes for Heston.

Anyhow, if you look at what the experts say, experimenting has nothing to do with norovirus.  According to the NHS, the illness, also known as winter bug, can spread rather quickly if an infected person doesn’t wash their hands before handling food, therefore, tainting it. Individuals can also catch it by touching contaminated objects and surfaces.

Recently, there was an outbreak on the Royal Caribbean cruise ship, affecting 600 or so passengers. In the case of The Fat Duck, it had to do with a bad lot of oysters. As for Dinner, the BBC reports that 24 diners and 21 staff fell ill.

Will I go back? Likely. Easy for me to say, you think. I didn’t catch the illness during my time at Dinner and, neither did thousands of others. But I do sympathise and can commiserate with those who were less fortunate. I have had food poisoning from at least two restaurants in my time–one part of a fine, fine hotel chain, and the other has plenty of accolades and willing dinners. Both places are still going strong.

And I have been back and am here to tell the tale. The difference in what is happening with Dinner and the places I had my bad experience is that it’s in the limelight. As such, the spotlight will shine on the restaurant and its celebrity chef in both good and bad times.

Let’s hope the bad times are over because if you ask me Dinner is one of the best restaurants in the capital and that’s filling a tall order nowadays.

On Lifestyle/

Expat Writer gets Motivated for 2014

Nothing like the eve of a New Year to get us thinking about what’s ahead. Though I’m not big on New Year’s resolutions, I do find beginnings quite motivational.

Anyone who’s ever started a new job, a new relationship, a new hobby, etc. can relate. It’s an opportunity to start afresh and perhaps believe in the ability to achieve that life long dream or just do something that needs to be done.

In any case, instead of writing about New Year’s resolutions, I thought I’d have a look at motivators for the New Year. Certainly in this inclement weather in London, those of us here could use some motivation.

As the sky bursts into tears of madness followed by roaring thunder, it is tempting to curl up in bed and pull the covers over one’s head.  But in a world full of conscientious objectors opposed to listlessness, fat chance!

All around are gadgets, devices, classes, even books that tell us to just do it! No wonder I feel inspired. Thus, as we head for 2014, I’ve shortlisted four ways to get motivated.

1) Topping my list, of course, is the Nike Fuel Band. It so happens that I got one for Christmas and have been wearing it since, figuratively. I do take it off for sleeping and showering, though some people leave it on. It’s apparently waterproof. I’ll find out soon enough when I take it out for a run in London.

In the meantime, however, let me tell you how it works. First, you charge it quite easily as it has a USB port that plugs right into your computer, set it up, (providing personal information including weight and age), set a daily goal, and sync it with your phone. It has an app for the IPhone. Then just wear it!

The fuel band clocks your movement, registering your energy burned in Nike fuel, as well as steps and calories. You will never feel good about being a couch potato again. Never!

So far, I’ve dragged out the Wii, skipped roped nightly, ran around the house and taken stairs instead of lifts on a few occasions to meet my goal. Looks like I’m on my way to gym soon.

2) But first let me tell you about the next on the list– the Run Keeper running app. There are many good running apps out there; Run Keeper just happens to be the one that got my attention. The motivating factor here is twofold – a personal champion while I am running and the data that it registers.

With this app tracking my moves, I don’t miss goals. In fact, I surpass them more often than not.

3) For those who have no interest in sports and little understanding of technology, taking a class is a sure way to get you moving in whatever it is that you want to do.

I’ve been known to take writing workshops, running lessons and chocolate making classes. The benefits here are mixing with people and occasionally competing with them. Nothing like competition for incentive, which is one of the reasons the apps mentioned above both encourage subscribers to participate in the relevant community.

4) Still, there are a few luddites who prefer to be alone. Books are tried and tested motivators for this bunch. Occasionally, I settle down with a good how to book, even if it is on the Kindle, and before long find myself ready to make a move—to juggle, to play chess, to meditate and so on.

This holiday season, I bought my dad a book relevant to something he needs to learn about and need I say more but I will. He now knows more than the rest of us all put together.

Inspiring. Now to go to the gym to rack up some fuel points all I have to do is get past the rain, the dreary feeling inside. Actually all I have to do is look at my fuel band. So I have. And I’m off now to just do it.