Bunny Brown 1994 - 2009

On Saturday evening, we said goodbye to our dear elder daschund, Bunny. On Wednesday, he’d stopped eating and we’d presumed that it would be a 24 hour thing, as it often was with him these last six months, as age had begun to take it’s toll and his digestive system wasn’t what it was – he could clear a room with one of his farts (and look very pleased about it too).

By Thursday, he took a turn for the worse and my mother called me at work - I raced home, as did my boyfriend. Late in the evening, fearing the worst, we rushed him to Medivet, a wonderful 24 hour veterinary service in Richmond. It turns out that we were just in time – his temperature was very low and he was about to go into shock. He was placed on a drip to rehydrate him and given hefty doses of antibiotics to combat what was presumed to be a bad gastric infection.

And we waited.

On Friday evening, we went to visit and he looked slightly happier but he still wasn’t all too well but we had a glimmer of hope and we clung to it. Unfortunately, that changed the following morning – he wasn’t getting any better and four days without food was clearly weakening his condition. It was awful to see him in that state and as much as we may have selfishly wanted to keep him alive in some hope that he might get better, we knew it was best to let him go. The same evening, we drove back to the vet’s, who said that it was unlikely he would recover which helped to reassure us that what we were about to do was the best decision. We spent time with him, stroking, hugging and telling him just how much he meant to all of us and then we stayed with him as the vet administered the injection.

Since his passing, the last 48 hours have been awful. The house is incredibly quiet without his incessant barks and our other daschund Holly is miserable, snuffling around and trying to find her constant companion.

It's the small things that break our hearts - coming home and not hearing his distinctive patter of feet, the empty bed, even his collar that he hasn't worn for months that hangs on our coat stand. But as we keep telling ourselves, we must remember the good times and over almost 16 years, there were plenty.

Rest in peace, my beautiful boy.

I do bands too.

So, remember a while ago, I mentioned that I was doing a test with a band? Well, I realised that I never posted the results and as I'm embarking on another test shoot this weekend, I thought it was about time to share the results of my previous efforts. Working with bands is a pretty different but equally fun ball game, as is men's fashion, something that I am still only an amateur explorer of. So, without further ado, I present to you Rochelle: The Test.









Photographer: Caroline Leeming
Makeup: Ruth Brophy
Hair: Lynda Darragh

This is just a small selection of the shots from the day, if for any reason you'd like to see some more or throw me some work, drop me a line. In the meantime, check out the people you've been ogling: Rochelle.

A tale of two legs - week one results

I apologise that I haven't blogged since my introductory post for this latest series in my quest for ever elusive skinniness - first, I had a bout of food poisoning and then I caught a throat virus, which I'm still battling. Unfortunately, neither of these illnesses have much affected my appetite, so I haven't lost the requisite poundage that often comes with being ill that I'd hoped for.

Anyway, enough of my recent medical history, let's get on with the experiment's results thus far, yes? After all, that's probably why you're here. And as I've mentioned in my previous post, if you think you're getting photos of me in my pants, move along now. I'd also like to point out that owing to the medical reasons mentioned above, I only made it to the gym twice last week, which may've adversely affected results. All changes from last week's measurements are listed in brackets.

LEFT LEG
Top of thigh - 21" (-1")
Mid thigh - 19 1/4" (-.25")
Above knee - 14.5" (-.5")

RIGHT LEG
Top of thigh - 22" (no change)
Mid thigh - 20.5" (no change)
Above knee - 15" (-.25")

As you can see from the above results, my left leg is showing more signs of improvement, although I'm guessing that this is largely to do with the fact that it had a lesser fat percentage before.

I'll be back on my thrice weekly gym routine again from tomorrow, now that my throat virus has been downgraded to a nasty cough so hopefully there'll be more of a difference next week.

Tune in next Monday for the next riveting chapter of a tale of two legs.

A tale of two legs

I have never been one of nature's skinny people. Bar a stint for about four years when I was travelling and at university when my metabolism went nuts and sped up resulting in me miraculously losing almost 20lbs (yeah, I would've hated me too), I have always been a little bit squidgy. Not fat per say but defintely with a layer of puppy fat that didn't need to be there.

Last week I decided to take the matter in hand. Having spent months haemorraging money to the gym that rarely made use of, I figured it was time to actually start visiting before my membership expires. Now, I may not be one of nature's skinny people as previously mentioned but I am also not naturally sporty or physically inclined - the thought of jogging is enough to bring me out in a cold sweat and thanks to a dodgy knee that likes to dislocate, I have managed to avoid most sport since I was 15.

But I went; I Powerplated, I crunched and I sweated my little heart out on the cross-trainer (oh, evil machine!) and you know what? I can already see a slight difference. It's miniscule but it's there.

And now, I'm going to help it. You may've read a spate of articles in various newspapers last week about a product called Boob Tube from Mama Mio. It apparently is considered a Wonderbra in a tube and does miraculous things to stop your boobs from sagging. Well, I'm not quite at that stage yet but another one of their products has come to my attention, Shrink to Fit.



Described as boot camp for bulges, because lipo sucks, it says that it's full of "ingredients that will reduce the appearance of cellulite, water retention and sponginess and restore elasticity to significantly improve the appearance of your skin". So, the theory goes that if I rub it into my wobbly bits twice a day for a month, I will soon have the skinny thighs of my 19 year old self. Or so I would like to believe.

Ideally, I would test this solely by itself without the exercise to help it but since I would quite like the aforementioned skinny thighs and time is of the essence (a holiday in September), my body is about to take a double whammy of fat blasting.

To see whether it's actually working, I am willing to measure and post the diameter of my thighs but I draw the line at photos. Nobody needs to see me in my pants as the numbers are bad enough:

LEFT LEG
Top of thigh - 22"
Mid thigh - 19.5"
Above knee - 15"

RIGHT LEG
Top of thigh - 22.5"
Mid thigh - 20.5"
Above knee - 15 1/4"

My left leg is slightly thinner due to my bad knee which has been cast in plaster and immobilised several times but it'll be interesting to see if there are major variants.

Check back next Monday for the first week's findings.