A Message From Babette

16 January 2021

Babette Bluett-Duncan

Director

I am writing to you from Germany! I stopped my 40 day fast in mid December and embarked on low carb diet. I then had an appointment with the oncologist on New year's Eve, and when I pushed her to give me figures, she told me that if I did nothing now, she'd give me 1 year. Alternatively, if I went for the chemo, that she recommended, there was a 50 % chance of success, but that would only give me an extra 8 to 10 months. That was an Oops moment! I was half expecting this but in my gut and heart I just did, and do not, believe this is going to be my lot. Of course, time will tell, but in the meantime I am determined to carry on looking for other ways, and to not be downhearted. When I wrote my mid-December update, I received a huge amount of support, in terms of wishes, peace, positive energies and prayers and I also got a number of recommendations of books, places, etc.

A book that spoke to me was "Radical Remission", which encompasses a fair amount of what I already believe in. Then, after Christmas, as I was still going through some emails, my attention was caught by one of you telling me of this clinic in Germany, holistic and specialised in the treatment of cancers! When I went on their website and saw this: "You are a whole person with a mind, body and spirit. You are not a disease." Homepage - Arcadia Praxisklinik (arcadia-praxisklinik.de), and when I saw that one of the recommended books was "Radical Remission", I "knew" this was the place for me to go and retreat. So thank you to Judy and Peter for telling me about Peter's stay at Arcadia, and thank you to Tim, who passed on his wife's recommendation of the book. I also want to thank all the other recommendations that have been given to me, and there are 9 of you whose emails I have not acknowledged yet, but I plan to do so from here.

Now to cut a long story very short, despite Covid, and stringent new restrictions to enter Germany, and a normal waiting list of 2 weeks for the initial consultation with one of their doctors, and then another two week wait, I quite magically ended up here 2 days ago after having initially thought it might take up to 1 month to do so. Everything fell into place, initial call within 2 days of re-opening the clinic after Christmas, flights, Covid test, appointments to be rescheduled, everything went "my way", one after another. And to crown it all, when I landed in Frankfurt on Tuesday evening, the taxi driver picking me up was... French, and delighted me with his sing song accent (from Avignon) all the way to Bad Emstal which is where the clinic is. So, do I feel looked after? Or do I feel looked after? :)

A few of you had commented or asked me about this fasting of mine, and when I mentioned it briefly to the Doctor here, he seemed to say that there are better ways to both treat the cancer and build the immune system. I was pleased to hear it, as my tumour did grow back as soon as I stopped the fast, and I was not looking forward to another 40 days of it....

So I am here, for 5 weeks which includes a 4 days quarantine, a time to look at all of myself, a time to stop thinking about others. That sounds weird, and really hard to say actually, but maybe it is just a time to retreat, to concentrate on myself, to let go, to accept the help, to not deflate compliments and offers of help. To believe that if the Universe looks after me so well, then it will look after our family and the business so I can stop "peacefully worrying" about them...

I am proud to report that since around Christmas, I have slowly managed to reach out and accept help from many of my friends, (coats and warm gear lent by friends as shops were closed here) or people I know through social media or Art of Living. It makes me so emotional to see that in the same way that I always want to help others, nearly everyone out there also wants to help... me. Oh my, this is so hard to say, voices of when being brought up "Who do you think you are? Do not be so full of yourself..."ring loudly in my head. To say that I am "worthy of help" feels as bad as going naked in the street... What a weird society we have developed...

Anyhow, I will leave it as such for now. Tomorrow morning a Covid test will hopefully be negative and we can start.

I do have access to emails, either if you "reply" to info@artoflivingcookshop.co.uk which is seen by a few of us at AoL, or write to me direct on babette@artoflivingcookshop.co.uk and as one of the elements identified for health in Radical Remission is "Embrace social support", then please do not hesitate to write to me.

Babette



Covid-19 Update

Andrew Bluett-Duncan

Director, Art of Living cookshop

Disclaimer: this information is correct at the time of publishing 06/07/2020, our situation will be under continuous review. 

  • Art of Living's Reigate and Cobham shops are now open Tuesday to Saturday from 10am to 3.00pm.


    At the entrance of the shops, we have a unit that I built with sanitiser and we are encouraging you to use it, especially if you want to touch things in the shop. This also applies to people wearing gloves. 

    We are all wearing visors, which is a great find (thank you Em) because they are far more pleasant to wear than masks, and enable us to be facing you without the 2 metre distance, and above all they allow us to be understood by customers and colleagues alike. I have built a screen in front of the tills and these are working well. We also have more sanitiser there.

    We are still allowing only 3 customers in the shop at any one time. If you come in as a couple, we would ask you to stay together if there are other people in the shop. 

    We’ll be asking you to pay by card if possible and the floor is marked out to give you a guide on distancing.

    Our website shop remains open, alive and kicking.

    Kind regards

    Andrew
    Andrew Bluett-Duncan
    Director 

Coronavirus (COVID-19)

We are pleased to say that we are operational, our website is open for you to place orders and we are dispatching at an unprecedented rate. Our incredible warehouse team have been working non stop to make sure we can still pick, pack and dispatch your orders as quickly as possible. As with most companies, we are operating with fewer staff than we normally would be, so we hope you understand that it may take a little longer than usual to answer your phone calls and respond to your emails.
Thank you in advance for your patience and understanding.


To make sure we can answer all customer queries as quickly as possible, please consider the following Frequently Asked Questions before contacting us:


When should I expect my order?
We are currently asking customer to refrain from calling us to chase up delivery dates for orders. This allows us to prioritise actually getting your goods out for delivery. Unfortunately we are not able to answer telephone queries at this time, though you can leave a voicemail message for us. This may, at times, mean that our response times are a little slower than usual but we would ask that you bear with us. We would like to apologise for any inconvenience, but please rest assured that all customer enquiries will be dealt with.

Our warehouse team is working hard to make sure that most products are dispatched within our standard lead time and many items are going out much quicker. Some items do have longer lead times due to our suppliers also working with fewer staff and taking longer to deliver to us.

Depending on whether you gave us your email address or mobile number when you placed your order, we will email or text you once items are dispatched and on the way. Your order confirmation will give you a 'worst case scenario' delivery date.

Why have we suspended taking telephone orders?
We are currently unable to take orders over the phone and so we ask all customers to visit https://aolcookshop.co.uk/ to place orders.

I received my order, but it was incomplete.

We do sometimes part ship orders to ensure the products arrive as quickly as possible. So if you receive a delivery and think something is missing, please check the delivery note as this will let you know what should be in the parcel and if there is anything to follow in future deliveries.

My delivery tracking shows my items have been delivered but I haven’t got them.
Our carriers are currently operating “Contact free” deliveries. If you receive confirmation that something has been delivered but haven’t received it, it’s worth checking around your property or in your designated safe place before contacting us.

Do you have plenty of stock?
In short, yes we do! We are constantly ordering more stock so that we can not only continue to fulfil orders as they are placed, but also reduce the amount of time you have to wait. However, a number of our suppliers have gone from delivering to us in 24 – 48 hours to 10 - 14 days and this, along with a spike in demand means that some items may be delayed, or temporarily unavailable.

I have another question or problem

We would like to assure you that we continue to be here if you need us. Like most of our customers, many of our staff are spending the vast majority of their time at home and we realise that cooking and baking are becoming a sanctuary. We are committed to making sure we do everything we can to continue to supply you with the best quality products at great value.

Please email info@artoflivingcookshop.co.uk.

Thank you for your continued custom and for your support and patience at this challenging time.

We really appreciate it and wish you all health and best wishes.

The Art of Living Team