worms, gardening and vinegar...

I wonder if anyone heard the show I did with Diarmuid Gavin on BBC London on Saturday ? Though I say so myself it was very entertaining, he is lovely and many a female caller felt quite jealous I think, his blue eyes really twinkle when he talks all things seedlings and planting. I finally got an explanation as to how you take a cutting and how to successfully re-pot a plant - basic stuff for you green fingered types but as you well know I cheat and get my organic veg plants already established from Rocketgardens.co.uk We had Richard from Wigglywigglers on the phone and he did a fantastic job of explaining everything to do with composting including confirming that getting small boys to wee on it every now and then really does help the 'balance' - well not if you're teetering on top of the bin.....Julie from Living Clean was great giving tips for natural cleaning and there was much discussion about bi-carb and vinegar plus a few discussions about soapnuts - my turn to have a twinkle in the eye. In truth I'd forgotten how much I love doing my own radio show, I was a presenter on BBC London when it was GLR for 5 years, then Virgin for 6 years then my own Sat show on Radio 2 for 4 years so its only been the last couple of years that I've been co-hosting only and I really miss it, they do say radio is very addictive.

There was also a fun reminder of my Wham! days cos Gary Crowley's show was at midday and we were reminiscing about the first tour when I was a backing singer and Gary was the warm up act. All in all great memories then back for copious amounts of chocolate with the kids. My current fave is the Raw choccy from Shazzie (detox your world) and the Raw chocolate company. (with the odd chunk of Divine to be imperfect of course)

sproutman, juicemaster, so many natural peeps..

The natural and organic products show was fab ! I opened the show with my talk on sunday morning and it was a fantastic two days of meeting people. All my fave men were there which is all important, see Jason Vale's plug for my book on the front page (bless him) and his new Juice bars won best new food product so he told me many times hes now flogging an award winning bar !

I did a fab little interview with The Sproutman, what Jason is to Juicing Steve Meyerwitz is to wheatgrass and sprouts, actually I think it was his wheatgrass shots that kept me going for two days !

Amazing how the industry has developed in just three years since I wrote the first book, so many great new companies and new products. I'm reinspired to increase my raw food again after a few tips from Live Native and a few other enlightened souls. Quite a few people stoppd me and asked why I hadn't dragged Steve Wright along but he was on the air after all !

I now have a huge goody bag of new stuff to trial so sign up to what really works and I'll forward on some freebies, all you gotta do is promise to send me a quick review

Bed of nails !..and being imperfect

No its not some weird religious trip, I've just taken possession of the most amazing thing called a Shakti mat, it was recommended to me by Glenn and Aly (I co-author my pregnancy range of CD's with hypnotherapist Glenn Harrold) and it truly is quite bizarre. (the matt not Glenn's hypnosis) and in case you're wondering its not compulsory to eat croissants before lying on it, this is a snap taken to illustrate that I truly am imperfectly natural. !

The Shakti mat is pioneered and sold in the UK by Rose-Marie Sorokin, who I havent had the pleasure of meeting yet but I've got my eye on one of her yoga retreats. Anyway what is it ? well its a bed of nails but a softer version than Indian Yogis would use many years ago to achieve inner peace. Theirs was literally a wooden construction with metal nails, crikey the only peace was getting off it surely. This one is a soft mat but the 'nails' are plastic 'buttons' with in total 6000 points of contact with your skin. In truth the first time you lie on it you shout ouch ! it hurts like hell, but almost within seconds as you settle down it feels strangely peaceful, its said to inncrease circulation and help with insomnia, back ache, depression and a whole host of other ills. Look at http://www.shaktimat.co.uk/

Off to grab some inner peace then before I hit the Natural and Organics products show in London tomorrow, my talk is at 10am so gotta get up with the sparrows. I had hoped to get some 'outer peace' today by going to see The boat that rocked but the kids won and got to see Monsters v. aliens instead (not on at the same time, too complex to go twice) I know its had shocking reviews but then Radio is my industry and having heard Johnny Walker wax lyrical about the pirate stations I think it will be harmless fun if not exactly brain taxing. In any case Richard Curtis is officially the nicest man in the world - so there !

The Ladies Circle and toilets !

As you may know I've been patron of The Ladies Circle for a few years now and they're still a relatively well kept secret, even though there are thousands of circles worldwide and the money they raise for various different charities is astonishing. They do like a laugh though and at the area luncheon yesterday it was great fun, theres something inspirational about this bunch of gals who all like to dress up and wear hats at lunchtime (why not ?) and certainly the majority can 'hold their beer !' The main speaker was Rani Singh who you know from Eastenders amongst other shows. They all wanted to know what it was like meeting Lionel Richie, cos he was a guest on Steve Wrights show and he is possibly the worlds nicest man, (well - nicest artist, the nicest man is undoubtedly Richard Curtis) but amidst the name dropping and revelling a huge amount of money was raised for a brilliant charity called SARIs stands for sanitation at rural indian schools. Chris who I'm pictured with here started it all when she realised that as girls reach puberty they simply stop going to school because their are no toilet facilities, this of course has a huge impact on not just their education but their nutrition too, as food is provided there. Chris has so far raised enough money to build around 60 toilets blocks at rural indian schools and a paid for contract to ensure their maintenance for twenty years - incredible. I'm going to get her to write an article for the website.

Meanwhile I had a couple of glasses of red wine to be sociable and feel like death today ! Come back 'alcoholfree' all is forgiven, when you stop being unkind to your body it reacts badly if you revert back to old habits. I sat flicking between Notting Hill and Gosford Park last night on the telly (bet loads of people did that !) and felt totally bloated and headachey, Hey ho made up for it today with a great - as Enid (Taymount clinic) calls it - Shrek juice, - green basically.

Pet shop boys and a swanky new gym

Fab to meet the Pet Shop Boys again on Steve Wrights show, we've interviewed them a few times and in the eighties I'm sure we must have been on the same bill at various european gigs (when I was touring with Nik Kershaw I think) but back in those days they were oh so sulky, didn't Wrighty used to have a slot on Radio 1 called the Pet Shop Boys at home where Neil was very efusive and OTT and Chris just grunted occasionally ! Now they're both lovely and great fun, such a distinctive sound and such a mix, they've written a ballet now too which should be excellent. Popped in briefly to the opening of a new Gym called Lifesmart near Regents Park, swanky to the enth degree ! Its Carole Caplins new venture and trust me we're not just talking a few treadmills and a treatment room, this is luxurious, (hope she knows theres a credit crunch) but wonderful to see the holistic approach filtering right through even to the products in the changing areas (which were opulent by the way) Lovely to see Cheryl from Viridian, Marie from Solgar, Charlotte from Green People and Alex from Kinetic4health who told that the Jason products are 50 this year ! How scary - natural skincare products as old as Madonna and yet still the majority of people don't use them, but thats why we have imperfectlynatural.com - right !

New comps popping up by the way and if you bought the new book the money off vouchers are valid to end of this month (I guess while designated stock lasts)

Live blood analysis ! woo hoo

Did I mention how astonishing this is ? I went to see Enid Taylor again today at the Taymount clinic (see her fab article on colonic hydrotherapy in the features section) and they also offer live blood analysis, now wer'e not talking sample, send off to lab, lab works on 'dead' cells...no this is the real deal and you can see your own blood cells on the screen all kind of globulus ! (is that a word ?) Its a great way to warn you if theres something amiss and shows up how much fat you'rte eating ! Anyways I have a raging sore throat and immediately without me saying anything (and I wasn't snivelling yet either) Glenn said 'oh look at the increased number of white blood cells...you must have an infection...do you feel as if you're coming down with something ?'...incredible, these white blood cells look like fizzing blobs but thank God they're active, shows my immune system is working. Blood aside on Steve Wright in the afternoon we interviewed Ronan Keating and man alive - is he looking good! I tell you 6 days up a mountain and copious amounts of exercise and water did wonders for that crew, Chris Moyles lost a stone ! Good on them. Its the end of a busy week and I hear my new book got to 23 on Amazon last Wed, I've been short-changing myself and telling everyone 34, 23 ain't bad, quite impressive considering I've done The Wright stuff but not much other TV. BBC 3 counties radio was fun today, I'm slowly convincing Lorna Milton the presenter to try all things natural, I've got her on soapnuts, shes just a bit reluctant in the natural deodorant dept. I'll keep working on it.
x

Happy birthday to me !

A very sweet start to the day as the kids had made a happy birthday banner and each individual letter represented something, ...The B was a bee....a was an alien etc...I know you're thinking crikey thats inventive...some were just patterns but anyways its cheers up my kitchen, no end, the five year old also gave me the best present, a necklace and braclet made from painted past shells, how sustainable is that and so funky, he'll go far that boy.

Yesterday was fun on the Wright stuff and the new book went up to number 55 on Amazon best sellers which isn't bad for Channel 5, just need to get onto BBC brekkie now.

Lovely show with Steve today too with Lionel Richie who is one of the nicest guys in showbiz without doubt.

If I'm very lucky I might get to go out tonight to a restaurant but as I'm not drinking I really need to find a BYO type ressie so that I can take my lovely new best freind my 'Pearl Blanc from Alcohol free wine, either that or I'll have to convince my fave restaurants to stock it.

By the way if you're following the Horace (my live kefir culture 'pet') story, I managed a few teaspoonfuls of yoghurty milk but not a great consistency in all truth.

I'm being real good in the cappucino dept, just need to get onto detoxyourworld and stock up on the maca and raw choccy powder, oh and on that note, DH and my own old mum by the way bought me huge boxes of chocolates....mmm.....wonder who'll be eating those, don't quite fit with my new raw regime I'm thinking....hey once again thank the LOrd that I have never claimed to be anything other than imperfect.