Saturday, June 11, 2016

30 Chic Days – The Fourth Series: Day 4



Welcome to day 4 of the 30 Chic Days Series.  If you’ve just joined us, you can catch up from to Day 1 here.

I’m following a simple format, logging my day.  The goals are:

Awareness of what I’m doing each day
Where I am placing my focus, and
Remembering what I want to achieve.

Here’s what I will be reporting on each day for thirty days:

What I ate
What I wore
How I moved my body
What I read
My focus for the day

Day 4:

What I ate

Tea with trim milk first thing

Breakfast – fresh chopped apple with mandarin topped with rice porridge (hot), coconut flakes, raw brazils, almonds and walnuts, a soy milk latte (homemade)

Lunch – store-bought sushi, eight pieces – fresh (not smoked) salmon with avocado, with an apricot Frooze Ball and coffee for after.

Pre-dinner – Perrier Lemon in a champagne flute with some roasted, salted chick-peas.  I’m not gonna lie, they weren’t that enjoyable, so I won’t be buying them again.

Dinner – Homemade fish and chips.  Sometimes we buy fresh fish, but tonight it was frozen crumbed fish fillets with potato wedges made from Agria (floury) potatoes misted with olive oil and cooked in a very hot oven.  Accompanied by crunchy coleslaw (yum I love coleslaw).  Decaf coffee and two pieces of Lindt 90% cacao chocolate for afters.  I even took a photo for you.  I know, I have a pile of chips; I enjoyed them though!


What I wore

I have a photo of this too!  I wore a black and white striped Esprit boat-neck long-sleeved tee-shirt with dark wash jeans (Diesel) and my black leather Clarks ballet flats.  My black blazer is a Dior uniform from when I worked there in the early 2000s (I didn’t pinch it, they were always changing their uniforms, promise).


 How I moved

I went for an after-lunch walk to a nearby shopping area which is probably 25 minutes walk away.  I got to window-shop and buy a few things before heading back to work.  Plus listen to my Mike Dooley audio book on the way, onto the last chapter now!

What I read

Lucky I have quite a few books on the go at once, because there is no way I get through one book every day!  I am enjoying a bit of We’ll always have Paris by Jennifer Coburn each night, and sometimes at lunch.  It’s a memoir of taking her ten year old daughter to Paris, just the two of them.  I’m only 1/4 in but it’s a good read so far – I love the descriptions of Paris, plus it’s funny when she talks about the embarrassing things they do as green tourists.  I can relate!  I like the way the author also weaves in stories of how she grew up, they are interesting asides and often quite humorous.

My focus for the day

Today I cleared my in-tray at work.  I filed what needed to be filed and felt very up-to-date.  I often let things languish too long and I always feel better when papers are tidied away.  I don’t know why it’s so difficult for me to keep my in-tray clean.  Quite a small focus, but an important one for me.

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Are you joining in this 30 Chic Days Series too?  If so, please mention this in the comments so we can click through to your blog, or if you don’t have a blog and would like to participate, you can let us know in the comments how your day went.

See you tomorrow, be chic!

13 comments:

  1. Keeping current and keeping one's mind sharp, for me, is very chic. Monsieur and I attended the Ageless Pursuits programme at our local university. There were 90-year-olds learning new things (Urban Wildlife and Plants, and Ideas of God) from much younger professors. Now, like you, I need to tackle my filing. I'm also trying to cut back on wine so I am making iced tea with lemon and serving it in my fleur-de-lys glass. Bonne journée.

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  2. I'm reading your new book and loving it! Now to Amazon to purchase your other books!

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  3. Well done with the filing, Fiona! And for eating just two squares of chocolate. I hope by the time I finish your book that I will have that willpower, instead of the waffle and icecream I scoffed during my 1 Day of Chic, which is now ready for you to read. The day did turn out more Bridget Jones Diary than serene and in control, just as I guessed it would!
    thanks for your chic inspiration. Happy Weekend, X.

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  4. I agree Madame. I endeavour to strike a balance of enjoying simplicity and my beloved nostalgia with keeping current and modern. Your university class sounds so inspiring!

    Thanks so much Pammie, glad you're enjoying my new book :)

    PP, I only purchase dark chocolate because I don't eat that in bulk. Other types of sweet treats I don't even buy because it'll only lead to tears :) Waffle and icecream sounds good though.

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  5. I am not participating in the daily challenge (yet), but I am reading your book and trying to conjure up my inner French Girl. I love this book and all your others.

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  6. Fiona I have a recipe for chickpeas that you will love and it's dead easy, they are way superior to commercial chickpeas. You can used canned or cooked from scratch, I'll assume that you're using canned.

    1. Rinse drained chickpeas thoroughly, drain then dry on a towel.
    2. Spread out on a foil covered tray, make sure the air can get to them on all sides.
    3. Mist with olive oil, good salt, paprika.
    4. Roast for half an hour at 200C/400F, shake pan once.
    5. Allow to cool on pan, they crisp as they cool.

    Enjoy.

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  7. Petal, thank you so much! Your inner French girl is definitely there, she wants to come out and play with you :) Give her some encouragement!

    Rose, oh yay! your recipe sounds delicious and I even have a can of chickpeas and all the other ingredients in the pantry so I can try it straight away. So excited, thank you.

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  8. Love your blog. It encourages me to be my better self. BTW what is a frooze ball?

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  9. It's like a bliss ball Linda, finely minced fruit and nuts rolled in coconut.

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  10. Ooh La La! Your Dior Jacket is tres chic! I've been reading your blog for years and I didn't know you worked at Dior. How exciting! What did you do there? Sophie x

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  11. Sophie, I worked as the office girl for five years, from 2000-2005. Office work is office work of course, but it was fun to see new samples that were sent from the Paris office, there were fragrance testers in the office we could use, dented box products were sold to staff inexpensively (because you can't have a dented box on their glossy counters) and we also received invitations to the Dior boutique 'friends and family' sale every so often, so I have some nice bags and scarves. Yes, it was a great job!

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  12. Oh Wow!!!! That sounds fabulous. And speaking of fabulous, I just ordered your book!

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  13. Yay, Sophie, thank you - I hope you enjoy the book!

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Merci for your comment. Wishing you a chic day!