Tuesday 31 August 2010

To infinity and beyond!

Did anybody watch Inside Incredible Athletes on Channel 4 on Sunday night? It just made me realise that the human body really is an amazing thing! Take Liz Johnson, the swimmer with Cerebral Palsy, the left side of her brain can't control the right side of her body so to compensate for this the right side of her brain controls not only the left side of her body but also gives partial movement to the right side. Confused? Maybe, amazed? definitely!


Think you could give rugby a go? How about if you'd had your neck broken and were paralysed from the chest down?! Well Mandip Sehmi and Steve Brown play wheelchair rugby, affectionately referred to as "murderball" for England and at the moment are campaigning to have it considered as a sport in the 2012 paralympics in London. If you think that the wheelchair version of rugby is in anyway toned down then you are very much mistaken. These men, are rough, tough and not afraid to take a bit of a battering during the game!


These athletes, along with the others featured in the programme (and the following channel 4 programmes) are the best in their field be it swimming, running, blind football or dressage. I'd just like to tell you about one more athlete who wasn't featured on the show.


Aimee Mullins is an American athlete, actress and model. Pretty impressive list of achievements for anybody let alone someone who had both legs amputated below the knee at one year old. As you can probably tell, Aimee has never let this hold her back. Like the thousands of other paralympians and disabled sports men and women out there Aimee has turned her disability round as she has the ability to do such amazing things that maybe she wouldn't have realised had she been able bodied.

I first became aware of Aimee Mullens because in 1999 she modelled on the catwalk for the late, great British designer Alexander McQueen wearing a fierce pair of carved wooden prosthetic legs which he had designed just for her.


She also acted as Cheetah Woman in the 2002 film Cremaster 3, complete with these fantastically beautiful Cheetah limbs.


For someone interested in fashion, and modelling, Aimee Mullins is one of my biggest inspirations. She shows that you can do whatever the hell you want with your life if you don't let the little things stand in your way. Go for it, be who you want to be, for the most part the only thing stopping you is you. Who wants to get to 70 and have a life full of regret? Certainly not me! I'm well on my way to getting what I want out of life. It may not be easy and it may not be instantaneous but it's within sight and within reach. I'll get there, the question you have to ask yourself is will you?

Wednesday 25 August 2010

Do you know the muffin man?

Hey! Long time no speak! Sorry i've not been writing the past few weeks, it's pretty odd moving across the country and having to adjust to new surroundings.

Well i'm still not in Southampton. I'm in Poole looking after my sister's kids over the summer. Moving in date is the 18th September. Cannot wait!!

No outfit posts today, or for a while, until I get myself a new camera. But... how does muffins grab you? I've been baking my little heart out while i've been here and took a photo of my chocolate-banana muffins the other day for you to drool over.


I'm sure you'll be wanting to make some of your own so here's my recipe:

Ingredients:
100g Plain chocolate, melted
150g Unsalted butter
175g golden caster sugar (but you can use ordinary caster sugar)
3 Eggs, beaten
175g Self-raising flour
1tsp Baking powder
25g Cocoa powder
2 large banana's, mashed

Heat the oven to 180, 160 - fan oven or gas mark 6

Mix together the butter and sugar, then add each beaten egg one at a time, mixing in well. Sift together the flour, baking powder and cocoa powder into the butter mix. Fold in and add the mashed banana and melted chocolate. Mix well and pour into muffin cases. This mixture is enough to fill 12 muffin cases. Bake for about 30 minutes.

A few days later I made chocolate-orange muffins using exactly the same recipe but changing the bananas for 200g of thin cut orange marmalade. They were absolutely amazing! Make sure though if you're making the banana muffins that you use ripened bananas!

Happy baking people!