I was so excited to be invited to the opening of the WellNEST Store in Sag Harbor (Aka The Hamptons ooo La La) izzi and I were suffering jet lag but I would not miss this party. Rachel Paletsky and Richard Ash MD had invited us and we wanted to be there. You probably remember that Richard Ash is my DOC and has really got me on the road to a healthier lifestyle. I have been eating just as much food but have managed to loose weight by eating a proper balanced diet, together with actually taking vitamins. Anyway I am digressing but just wanted to point out how I knew these lovely people.

Anne & izzi from izzi bag

We met some great people at the party, Jason Binn from Niche Media, Fred Devito from Core Fusion,  Donna D’Cruz (DJ) John Melfi the Producer of SATC, who spent ages swapping stories with me. I told him about the time I went to Buckingham Palace and met the Duke of Edinburgh and what he said to me Shush it’s a secret, you are not supposed to tell the world what the Royals say to you, it is seen as very undignified!

Anne with Richard Ash & Donna D'Cruz,

The Rain came and went and everyone still turned out to wish the WellNEST Store well, I drank far to much of the Organic Avenue Coconut Milk (I was driving) and izzi drank far too much Champagne (Say no More) but we had a lovely time and I want to live in Sag Harbor now.

Donna D'Cruz & Anne

I wish my good friends every success with their new business venture and I look forward to seeing just how much weight I loose on my diet plan. Did I mention that Doc has developed a new wholesome meal replacement ? 5 hours of satisfaction and sustained energy. Each serving provides potent protein, whole nutrients and beneficial fiber, it is called Nutritious & Delicious. I can honestly say I wish I had this when I was travelling on that dreadful airline last week. So needless to say I shall be taking the powder with me wherever I travel.

So before I post this blog I am actually about to shout from my balcony that yes finally I am having a vacation (Holiday) I am going to be very old next week and izzi is taking me to St Maarten. Our first holiday in 2 years and I am staying in a hotel on the beach. I really cannot wait and I promise to post pictures of the trip. So no mentions of my birthday in the comments please, it’s one to be forgotten as quickly as possible!

So izzi and I left New York and headed for London, I had to pack up the house in Greenwich and decide on what stayed in the house, what went into storage and what I was giving away. I hate the last bit, giving away your belongings is really hard for me as a hoarder. Anyway to cut a long story short if I ever could do that it would be a miracle. I decided to be ruthless, but clearly not enough as the day the removal truck came they brought one that was not big enough I am not sure what I considered to be big enough but I had to repack boxes time and time again.
In the end I decided to abandon all hope of ever finding anything again and went to Marks and Spencer and bought myself a Pork Pie, sorry DOC,but yes I did give in and ate a Pork Pie. Things I guess went down hill from there as I then not only gave in to eating pasta I also helped izzi drain the Malbec.

So the next day was a big day for us since deciding to uproute our life and move to the USA as we were summoned to the US Embassy for our visa interview. We trawled into central London on the tube, I have to say I had forgotten what the experience of commuter tubes was like. No Air Con, no seats, no polite people and finally the dreadful smell of yesterdays gym kit oozing from most of the bodies, take me back to civilisation I thought. I was minus my handbag, cell phone (See how Americanised I am) in fact everything except the bare essentials as izzi had read the instructions ! this should have been a warning sign that I should have checked myself. So we get to Grosvenor Square and everyone in the Queue is carrying ruck sacks, huge handbags, well everyone except me! The process was fairly painless and the agent tells me all is good to go I am now officially allowed to stay in the USA. Hallelujah !

When we got home I called KLM (Name and Shame here) to reconfirm our flights and to advise them that I had 6 pieces of baggage and to check the cost of the excess I was going to have to pay. The agent on the line tells me one bag each is free and the others will be charged at 50euros per bag. So the next day izzi and I turn up at London City Airport with the said 6 pieces of luggage to be told ’sorry it is 50 euros the first bag each and then 200 euros there after’ I was on the point of  hitting the floor with either a fainting fit or a hissy fit, I am not sure at this point which. I of course exclaimed that I was refusing to pay that much but was told ‘Well you have a choice’ oh I do thank heavens for that I thought, ‘Yes madam you have a choice it’s called take it or leave it!’.

I have to say the Service agent was obviously sucking on a lemon as she informed me of my choice, I reluctantly paid up and boarded the aircraft, to be told that the choice of food was garbage or garbage which did I want to eat? I have to say that you guys all know that I travel a lot and the airlines are just getting worse.  The Hostess or Host, it was difficult to tell, I am sure the said person who was wearing a skirt had more than a 5 o’clock shadow was the most offensive waitress ever. When I asked if it was OK for me to have another Coke I was just ignored. The service on KLM was the lowest of the lowest and the food was not fit for human or canine consumption. I guess the moral of my little escapade is buy your own airline or stay at home!

I needed to talk about how my health regime is going and I was all poised to write an update last week but then a disaster happened! I made this great salad for lunch full of all the great summer vegetables, ( including olives hold that thought) Doc Ash you would be so proud of me. I happily sat down at lunchtime to munch away when crack I heard this awful noise like I had almost shattered a glass vase onto a marble floor,knowing what I know now I wish in fact I had. Interestingly nothing else happened until 8pm. I sat down for dinner with my husband when I felt this awful solid lump in my mouth (sorry for the graphics, please do not make a vision of this bit) which turned out to be my filling. Yikes, how I got through the next 12 hours I have no idea, except that I became the mad woman of twitter, I tweeted away with anyone and everyone still awake to find a dentist in Manhattan. Everyone knows right ? that I am a foreigner in New York, without a doctor or a dentist so what I was going to do was find one. Who needs google when we have twitter?

Funnily enough it worked and now someone that had been following me, @tishacakes became my saviour, she sent me a tweet advising there is a dentist of all dentists called @Sinkinfeeling well I tweeted and I tweeted this guy and guess what the next morning his office called me and told me to come right over! by the time I got there I was  a nervous wreck and 8lbs lighter as no food had passed my lips what ever else was going to happen that day this was probably the best bit. So after taking x rays he informed me that unfortunately the tooth had snapped clean in half and was loose, it had to come out! NOOOOOoooooooo I was now having to be strapped to the chair (clearly not really) I was palpitating and thinking what excuse I could make up not to have to come back the following week, the world might end, I need to stock the dishwasher, the dog cannot stay home alone, I mean he doesn’t know that we actually do not have a dog right?

So the weekend came and went and the dentist Michael Sinkin called me three times to check I was OK, do you believe that? in the UK my father had major brain surgery and the doctor told us he was going on holiday the next day and surely my dad wasn’t going to be alive when he got back but that is life! sorry to use that comparison my dad actually eight years later is in fact still alive, but you get the gist here. Doctor Sinkin if you ever read this know that I will send anyone to you who has a tooth ache, you not only treated me but you actually cared about me as a human being not someone who wrote a cheque.

Needless to say I did go back on Monday for the tooth extraction and a crown, this was not the best experience of my life as I have the worst fear of dentists as I mentioned earlier.However I was watching the world cup on the TV and Doc talked me through the whole procedure as he carried it out, too much information for me but no pain at all. At 3.30pm I left the surgery numb and dribbling, not a pretty sight but the best is yet to come. I was invited to a premier of RED LIGHT, yes you got it a red carpet event, of all the days by my good friend Rachael Ann of Red Rover Style. I got home, showered changed into my lovely LBD and even brought the naughty shoes out of their box Michael Kors you are forgiven and off I went. Flash lights everywhere and I had this awful vision that I was dribbling and talking like a nutcase with a droopy mouth. As I got to the Red Carpet photographs, I told this very rude person who told me she just had to go before me as she was melting and it would not do for her to not look her best! excuse me ‘Do you know who I am’? I had a real flash back of the ‘Shorty Awards‘ I am really not a diva, no really I am not but did this twiglet not know that I just had major tooth surgery and that I too was melting. Clearly not as she pushed me out of the way again. I am not one to name names, but just know that I do not like rude blond models! if I had been feeling myself I may have overlooked this but not on this day Humpf!

Anne with Red Rover Style

Photograph courtesy of Arthur from arthur@nyarthur.com

A little information on what the film is about in the words of Wikipedia as I could never have written this down, it was the hardest movie I have ever watched and I know that if you take nothing from my blog then please try  to find a way to give your time to help this cause, if you do then I will have achieved something.

The Redlight Children Campaign was inspired by Guy Jacobson’s personal experiences backpacking in Cambodia in 2002. While traveling in Phnom Penh, a group of young girls, some only five years old, began to aggressively solicit him for prostitution. Although he refused several times, they revealed to him that they would be beaten by the brothel owners if they returned empty-handed. After Jacobson gave them some money and left, he was motivated to create Redlight Children.

Shortly thereafter, Jacobson decided to utilize mass media as a vehicle for social change through his film production company, Priority Films. He teamed up with Israeli actress Adi Ezroni to create the first phase of the Redlight Children Campaign, the K11 Project. They went undercover in Cambodian brothels using espionage equipment and secret cameras to research the plight of child trafficking victims.

At one point, the International Criminal Police Organization contacted Jacobson to warn him to flee the country because the Chinese, Vietnamese, and Cambodian mafia had hits taken out on his life. Jacobson, Ezroni, and their team of filmmakers were also blackmailed and extorted for money, one of the producers was held hostage for two weeks when the rest of the team had left, and they had to hire bodyguards to protect themselves and their research.

Jacobson’s and Ezroni’s work on the ground level provided the education and foundation for them to address the issue on a larger scale. After they established RedLight Children, they created a comprehensive legal manifesto of action items to decrease the demand of child sexual exploitation with the aid of a team of international lawyers.

Jacobson and Ezroni have also been honored as Global Heroes by Condoleezza Rice in the Trafficking in Persons Report 2008.

Guy Jacobson

Please go and see the movie, it is imperative that the world knows what is going on, only with people like us talking about it will this stop.

So I want to end this blog post on a lighter note and I want to say that I am now on the road to recovery from my tooth surgery and that is all thanks to Doc Sinkin. I am back on the straight and narrow with my journey to health thanks to Richard Ash MD and I am sure that I have lost some weight not sure how much as I have not been on the scales that is being saved for next week.

It is really amazing that I have met two really awesome people in New York and found them via Twitter, God Bless Twitter. What is really scary is that they are both Doctors. Dr Sinkin and Dr Richard Ash MD you are really very caring special people and I want you to know this would not have happened in the UK I would just have been another number in their Bank paying in book.

On Tuesday Night Robert Verdi invited me to his very special Luxe Laboratory to tweet with him about suggestions for Father’s Day gifts. I was really impressed with the quality of gifts he had chosen to talk about so here they are let me know what you would choose.

Robert Verdi & Anne Agoren

John Bartlett Tees which are really cute, they all come with a picture of John’s muse Tiny Tim who he rescued from the NSAL. The 3 legged dog he rescued became his design inspiration and company logo. A percentage of the cost of each shirt goes to the NSAL so what better gift to give your dad and to know that a man’s best friend will benefit.

John Bartlett Tees

Jonathan Adler Hot Pop candles were the next gift idea, now I love candles but this one has got to beat all others as they come in the most bizarre smalls ever, Grapefruit, Cilantro and Tomato Vines. I am not sure that my mom would really like my dad burning a candle that smells of the greenhouse in the lounge, but the grapefruit I can see would be a different matter. The candles are $38 each so go by the website and check out a retailer near you.

Jonathan Adler Pop Candle

Now the next gift is awesome Kenneth Cole Vintage Black Fragrance, anyone who knows me knows that I have a rather unhealthy addiction to fragrances. This is one apart, fresh citrus woody that blends effervescent citrus with masculine woods and soft skin musks. I would recommend you check this out and at only $70 I think it is a must.

Kenneth Cole Vintage Black Fragrance

John Allan’s Grooming Services was one of those items I was really not sure was going to be any different from any other hair salon, how wrong was I ? The full service experience is in the atmosphere of a private club with a full grooming service outpost for men. The busy dad only needs to take 30 minutes out of his busy schedule to take advantage of a scalp massage, shampoo and conditioning with a hair cut, full manicure and shoeshine, it even includes a beverage. You can get a gift certificate with a travel kit of goodies for only $65

John Allan's The Full Service

Rowenta just launched a new First Class Travel Iron and I have to say that at 1.65lbs in weight and folding to 7.8″ it is a must for the travelling, jet setting dad. So even when Dad is away he has his own personal mom in his suitcase to keep him looking pristine.

Rowenta First Class Travelling Iron

I loved the next gift Hugo Boss Aviator sunglasses and I can actually see my brother stealing these before my dad gets chance to wear them. I loved the fact that dad can even change the lenses to his own prescription lenses.

Hugo Boss Aviator Sun Glasses

Joseph Abboud for JCPenney came up with a really super idea and that is to give your dad a voucher to get a new suit, think about it every time he wears it he will think of you and at $180 this is a bargain. I took a look at their website and these suits are really chic and modern styled.

Joseph Abboud Suit for JCPenney

At $145 I thought this Skagen Watch is for the dad that deserves more of life’s little luxuries and it is really stylish and tastefully designed. Affordable luxury which looks like a million dollars and is made from high quality materials.

Skagen Watch

The next gift Stoner Solutions invisible glass cleaner is a must for every car enthusiast dad at only $30 this is sure to keep him amused for hours. He will have the best shiny car on the street. Tell mom that when he is done shining his car he can come into the house and clean her tables and mirrors. Just spray on wait until it evaporates and then wipe off without leaving streaks.

Finally my last and favorite gift has to be the Leatherman Skeletool, this is multi functional combining style and function into one design, it has won numerous awards. It weighs only 5 ounces and can easily fit in dad’s pocket, complete with a blade, pliers, bit driver, removable pocket clip and bottle opener.

Leatherman Skeletool

How I Did It

Anne Agoren, owner of UK / NYC based izzi Bag, shows how to build a brand over Twitter. Lauren Parker finds that life is indeed tweet.

Tweeting her way to success here’s a story a little bird told us:

izzi bag on Twitter

Out of the 17 million users on Twitter, 250,000 were nominated for the Shorty Awards—an international “Oscars” for those who live their life out loud on Twitter in 140- character blurbs. Of those 250,000 nominated, a year-old,  little-known English handbag company named izzi Bag made it to the top six in the “Brands” category—the only fashion brand nominated. izzi was up against brands like Whole Foods and ultimately lost to Sesame Street. Heard of them? Here, izzi Bag owner/designer Anne Agoren—who wisely moonlights as a social media strategist—tells Accessories her David and Goliath tale.

‘Are you listening? Because your competitors are. You need to join the conversation— because it’s going on with or without you.”

@accessoriesmag: So how did you get into the top six? Do you have 86,000 followers like Sesame Street? Or 4.7  million followers like Ashton Kutcher?

@izzibag: I have 2,000 followers and was nominated by one of them. You aren’t allowed to nominate yourself.  Actually, I did lose some points after showing someone via Twitter how to nominate me since he was having trouble and asked for help.

AM: You only have 2,000 followers?

AA: That’s one of the biggest misnomers for brand promotion. More is not better. It’s  about quality, not quantity. I have 2,000 of the right followers. They spread my word to their followers. There are lots of sites where you can buy 50,000 followers but they’re not relevant to your brand. Don’t do it. You’ll start getting spam and your important—and legitimate—followers will stop following you. Protect your brand reputation.

AM: How do you get started using Twitter?

AA: My techie husband pushed me into it to help build my budding brand. I was so resistant to Twitter—saying I didn’t understand it, that I didn’t have enough time, and so on. Now I’m a Twitter addict. I use it to promote my blog (blog.izzibag.com), to talk about things that are happening to me, and to strategically promote the brand. I realized the power of Twitter early on—I ran a Twitter competition where the first 10 people who went to one of my retailers on Bond Street got a $40 keychain. Suddenly, a rush of people went to that store. It was apparent it was working.

AM: Did you launch your brand and tweet about it simultaneously?

AA: I launched izzi Bag with no customers, no retailers, no e-tailers. So I used Twitter and the blog to find those small stores that I wouldn’t even know about. The goal was to get retailers talking about us. To build that buzz.

AM: Do you think that too many brands don’t take Twitter seriously enough?

AA: You need to join the conversation—because it’s going on without you. The most important thing I say to companies is  ‘Are you listening?’ Because if you’re not, your competitors are. On Twitter, you can read every tweet that mentions your brand—good and bad—and respond if you want. It’s important to join the conversation.

Bag Lady -Anne of izzi bag

AM: What do you tweet about?

AA: I come here a lot so I write about my life as an English person in New York. I write about the journey of building izzi  Bag. Yes I’m a brand but I’m also human. People want to relate to you. It makes them want to buy your product.

AM: Do you use Twitter to show your bags?
AA: I use Twitpic to upload images, but often I link a Twitter entry to my blog so people can see more there. There are so many tools that are all free, from Twitpic to Tweetdeck, which helps you manage Twitter better.

AM: Do you tweet all day?

AA: No, but my followers are passionate! When I slow down, they start with the ‘Where’s izzi Bag?’ ‘Did something happen to izzi Bag?’ They miss me! I’d say 60% of my tweets are relevant to my brand. The rest are relevant to other people — recommendations of things to check out, or I pass along information I read on Twitter.

AM: Ah, so you’re a re-tweeter?
AA: In many cases, yes. You can retweet (i.e. RT) something that one of your followers post. It’s good will and keeps the conversation going.

AM: Did building buzz on Twitter in the U.S. and UK give you immediate international cred?

AA: I was able to simultaneously connect with retailers worldwide—all for free, and all with the power of social media.

AM: Has Twitter gotten you free publicity?

AA: The Australian news show equivalent of “60 Minutes” found me on Twitter. They sent a crew to New York and filmed me for a day-long documentary. Later, they flew the reporters back to New York to get additional footage because they wanted to extend the segment! That publicity didn’t cost me one cent. And although it aired in Australia, I was able to post it on my blog and tweet about it, and still get local (and worldwide) exposure. Again, for free. Take a look at the video SundayNight Live.

AM: How does a brand prevent a tweeter from posing as them and saying something bad?
AA: It’s important to control the conversation. You can be verified by Twitter (celebrities do it), and you’ll get a blue check next to your brand’s name/avatar. That way the Twitter community knows it’s authentically you.

AM: But it must be a little bit tempting to bash your competition on Twitter…

AA: Never do that! If you report another company for spam, for example, the Twitter police will shut them down while they investigate, so you really must follow business ethics. I will unfollow people if they don’t “keep it clean.” That’s my one rule.

AM: What about companies who say they don’t have time to tweet? Or skimp on the resources to hire someone who can?

AA: Social media should not replace your existing business structure, but it must be integrated with what you have in place. Just as a brand has a PR, branding and advertising budget, it must have a social media budget.

AM: What if the company owner, or designer doesn’t want to tweet personally?
AA: The person doing the tweeting or blogging must have a passion and understanding of the brand and its objective. They should write in the “voice” of the brand.

AM: What are some great Twitter branding anectodes?
AA: There were some people in the Empire State building tweeting that it was so hot and they wished they had ice cream, but they were too busy to run out and get some. An ice cream truck picked up the conversation on Twitter and sent over a truck to give them free ice cream! The story got picked up on the international news. You can’t buy that sort of publicity!

AM: So what were the Shorty Awards like?

Shorty Awards Diva Fit - No Sesame Street Here !

AA: First of all, I pulled a Diva moment and while walking the Red Carpet I refused to be photographed with some of the puppets from Sesame Street. Then they beat me!

June 2010 - Accessories Magazine

Well I am not a happy bunny today I really am not, Why? well I am going to tell you even if you don’t want to know. Since I came to New York I have bargain hunted constantly for those Michael Kors dresses, shoes and trousers, I have angled my way through so many aisles looking for my shoes that I just have to have. I have even come to blows almost with izzi when he accuses me of buying something new every other day, it’s not true the shopping fairy delivered them when I was asleep and what is more important they were left there for free right girls?

Only  you and I both know that when it comes to shopping a girl has to have what a girl has to have. Well my secret is out the New York Post advertised her allover the place yesterday. Victoria Nielsen personal shopper at Loehmanns, there I have said it. Vick is my right hand lady when it comes to shopping, if there is a bargain to be had she is the one with the key. Vick calls me at stupid o’clock in the morning to tell me there is a Jean Paul Gautier Cashmere coat, my size (Not that this point is important mind) to be had and it will be gone if I get there after an hour! I have purchased Jimmy Choos at a fraction of the retail cost in Loehmanns all because of Victoria. So now you all know about her I thought to add insult to injury I would show you who she is.

personal shopper Victoria Nielsen at Loehmann's

Victoria is located on the 3rd Floor in her own office and you do need to make an appointment prior to visiting her. I seriously hope you all go and visit because she is the Queen of the show and really one of the great friends I met through Twitter.

Anne Before the diet began

So the diet or is it  torture is moving along but it’s a slow process and believe me this giving up carbs is no fun and on day 3 I am now swallowing 26 capsules of vitamins, minerals and nutrients that apparently my  body needs! this is a girl that cannot even swallow an aspirin and I really believe that I rattle when I walk. I am getting used to the squeezing a lemon into a glass of water before breakfast and actually I have to say that it is not as bad as you may think, supposed to get your metabolism going as well as making you have the look of sucked in cheeks hahaha. I think I need a bucket full of lemon juice as mornings are really not my thing. The daily headaches and backache are now so bad I am having trouble sitting down, so today I spent the whole day working at the breakfast bar standing up. izzi was banished to the bar stools to watch TV so that I could lay flat on the sofa. By the time bedtime arrived I was so irritable (Well more than usual anyway) however I slept like a baby. So my point here is that if this is detox I am not I repeat, not doing it again and that my friends is final.

So day 4 sees me back at the Doctor’s and the beautiful Tania was demanding more blood from me ( is there going to be any left for me?) and the most gross thing of all was that I was not allowed to brush my teeth before today’s tests or have anything pass my lips. That is no food or drink not that I am prone to a G&T first thing in the morning but a nice cup of tea or coffee would have gone down a treat. This is the day that izzi decides to have feta cheese scrambled with eggs and pide (toasted no less) and this is washed down with a banana milkshake complete with milk & yogurt. So go ahead and rub it in that I am on starvation row why don’t you. Now not speaking to izzi

Tania makes me swallow a pill that only elephants should be given in extreme circumstances and then she squirts this vile liquid into my mouth which I can only describe as having the taste of wet fish. I am then hooked up to a transistor the size of a house brick which is hung around my neck, what this is going to do is beyond me because now I have given up the will to live and expecting Radio Gaga to start playing from my body. Apparently if I am not turned in to Optimus Prime first then this contraption will analyze the bio chemistry of my body and the nutritional deficiencies. It will also tell the amount of acidity and alkaline through the saliva, blood and urine tests I had to do.

Tania tells me that I have a problem and I am now calling the under taker and writing my last will and testament in my head as she tells me that I have not enough acid in my stomach to digest the food I eat and therefore I have to stick to the diet I have been given for another two weeks…. Whatttttt is she kidding me as I continue to decide what I will wear to my own funeral. Tania now drags me kicking and screaming to the weight scales and believe me at this point all I want is to come back and see the reading when it is 40lbs less, let’s put it that way.

OK  I’m done.

By day seven and I want to end this on a positive note, if there is one, I cheated yes I admit Doc I cheated I can honestly say I fell out with the diet sent it packing with all it’s belongings. I had less than a pub measure but I did have it a very very cold small glass of Sur Lie and it was heaven absolute heaven !

Anne(Soon to be 40lbs lighter) with Cory Booker Mayor of Newark

Do you ever feel that you are sick and tired of being sick and tired? I mean do you get up in the mornings feeling tired? well I do and I moan about it all the time. So when I was introduced to Richard N Ash and he told me how he could stop me from feeling tired and also help me to loose weight at the same time I was in 100%. Most of you that read my blog regularly will know that I moan about putting on weight and that as a busy Handbag designer of izzi bag I am always running around. I moved to New York only 4 months ago and I commute between there and London so I have a rather hectic life. I have been under the weather for the last couple of months and I had put it all down to the travelling, Well that was until I met Doc. So here I am documenting  my journey to a healthy sustainable life allegedly, I say all of this with tongue in cheek because I am not sure I believe it will work so let’s see.

Richard N Ash MD

Before I went to see Dr Ash I read from their website the following:

If you like the idea of living a longer,better life, now is the time to take action. Breakthroughs in medical science have made the aging  a treatable condition. The Ash Center offers individualized programs that add years to your life.You can feel and look younger, have more energy, a strengthened immune system, improved cognitive skills, better moods and increased sexual function.

Well Amen to that I thought, all without surgery, Book me in!

So I arrived at the doctor’s office, the Ash Center on 5th Avenue (Posh address) feeling really not great, I had aches in my kidneys, headache and was absolutely exhausted, I have to say I was a little bit sceptical as to how alternative medicine works, but having read the statement above was willing to give it a go. Since I got sick around 5 years ago from a parasite and lost 23kgs or around 40lbs ( for those of you who cannot translate). It took me more than 8 months to get well , it was a real struggle and after all the medication I had to take I rapidly put weight on and have really struggled to shed it since what ever diets I have tried. Believe me every diet going has been my new best friend.

So I am introduced to the most lovely nurse Tania, has the most amazing skin (Wonder if she did the program I thought) and she asked me to fill in a bunch of questions on all my ailments and treatments since the age of 5, crikey how long was this bit of paper going to be I was thinking. So Tania then takes my blood pressure and goes through my medical history one more time just to make sure I didn’t forget anything, another 5 hours is going to go by, all the time I was scrutinizing her to see if she had had plastic surgery, because believe me no one has that great skin if they are not still in their 20’s. But guess what I could find no signs, so I  was starting to think maybe just maybe this program will work, if only they can make me look like Tania, Happy Days.

Tania at the Ash Center

So I sit and wait for the next procedure and I am so nervous, I felt like I was waiting and hoping at the same time thinking that I was going to get an instant fix and leave 5th Avenue looking like SJP with the skin of Tania (My now favourite nurse). Patience is a virtue ummm! my mother would be proud of me. OK have they forgotten me I am still waiting.

So a really nice guy comes into the room, asks me to strip off so that he can do an MIR scan and an AEG , OMG I am really nervous now, but quickly he tells me I do have a heart he can see it on his screen! what a relief!

So next the nice Dr Ash comes in and sits with me going over the medical history one more time! another 5 hours going by, He tells me that you are what you eat and food is the cause of so many things, he compared it to this:

If you have a mole problem in your garden and you put down some poison but not a lot what happens? they keep breeding and come back. If you keep the moles in a dry basement what happens? it dies…. So now we are changing my diet and we will see if we can eliminate the symptoms of my problems. After you have a blood test. WHAT !!!!  - Hold me down….

So the second day of my new diet, goes terribly wrong, I have headaches and backaches that I would only relate to dying, not that I actually know what dying feels like! (of course I am a wimp)they tell me that this is called DETOX!!!!!!really Detox?? order the coffin and slit my wrists now.

They want me to take How Many a Day?

So you think giving up Carbs / Sugars is going to be easy right? well think again, imagine no bread, that’s the toast lathered with butter in the mornings, mid morning bagels I have with my tea or yummie dunkin donuts coffee. Then there is the Panini stuffed with cheese for lunch, ah and don’t forget the cheesey chips (Crisps to the Brits) or if I am really naughty then Pizza. So then can it get worse, oh yes no fizzy drinks not even diet Pepsi then Doc tells me no alcohol, Whatttttttt!!! no wine, he can’t actually mean my daily dose of Sur Lie or Malbec has to go can he?  Sorry that’s enough am going to lie down in a dark room and contemplate my fate!

Robert Verdi & Anne from izzi bag

Robert Verdi held a twitter party to discuss hot topics for Mother’s Day recently in New York and invited izzibag along to review his chosen gifts. I get really confused because of course in the UK Mother’s Day is in March, in the USA it is in May and in Turkey it is in August, I guess if I was really clever I could be in all three countries in those months and then I get 3 gifts and three cards. I could be like the Queen with her 3 birthdays, ok ok i realise that is not quite the same thing.

So the gifts that were my favorites are these, starting with the Brelli, made from 100% bio-degradable parts and is not only Uber stylish but it’s good for the earth too. Made from Bamboo, cotton and clear plastic. I have stopped traffic in New York since I got this and it comes in a lovely carry holdall too. My husband says I look like  a Ninja Turtle carrying it, but believe me it keeps me dry.

The brelli bio - degradable umbrella

Of course every girl needs a tote bag for shopping, now normally I would only talk about izzi bag’s as you know but I have to tell you that this bag by Marimekko for Avon is a little hard to ignore. 100% of the net profits from the sales will go to Avon’s breast cancer crusade and that means a lot to me. So go check them out and on this occasion and this one only I am allowing you to buy another label hahahaha.

Marimekko & Avon's Breast Cancer Crusade Tote

Now here is an accessory that I can endorse wholeheartedly a clipa, this is a handbag hanger and will extend the life of your handbag, preserving the bottom from the horrid grubby floors of restaurants and pavements. The clipa comes in over a dozen finishes and can be clipped onto the handle of your handbag so that you never have to rummage through your bag to find it.They are really sturdy and designed to hold the heaviest of handbags.

The Clipa Handbag Hanger

I have to say that the gifts that Robert had chosen to talk about were all really lovely and Karen and Debbie from the Accessories council were very busy with me tweeting away about them all during the evening.

Karen & Debbie from the Accessories Council with izzi bag

I was quite sad when the evening was over, as you all know I love tweeting and I had a great evening with Robert Verdi, I hope that we gave all the tweeter followers around the world an idea for their mom’s gift if they were stuck.I look forward to the next one, I hope it is for Father’s day my husband will be pleased!!