A wonderful idea crossed my desk. It was talking about defusing stress, and reducing the risk of burnout or maybe just moving our creativity forward.
The Three "W"s
Walk - Get Moving
Water - You might be dehydrated - Have a drink
Window - Look outside - better yet, go outside.
Nothing Much Happens is a collection of cosy episodes, beautifully described. They are simple stories - gently told. I remember that I loved these episodes and I would listen to them whenever I woke up in the night, if I felt a bit overwound.
I still have it in my Audible Library and I just checked - it is in Spotify, too. I'll be having another listen tonight, as a bedtime treat.
It was a friend who reminded me, today. Her doctor prescribed listening to "Nothing Much Happens" instead of taking sleeping medication.
I'm impressed.
It is
time. I will be finishing the Sandgate class at
the end of the year.
Meanwhile, class members are already fantastic. They understand the exercises and the reasons to exercise. I enjoy exercising together with class members They're so highly motivated to come to class and to pay, thanks.
I have
equipped them with fitness knowledge, vocab, and skills, so they have options to continue exercising:
-
·
Online
with me
·
At
Petrie with Carol
·
The
gym down the road.
· Or maybe Bruce - a possibility I am chasing up
Socializing
I must admit,
a very important part of our class is the chat we have before and after
class. I look forward to this time we
have together. Coffee could continue across the road at 10.00am. As well, I would
like to keep in touch, regularly, let’s have a coffee together or a lunch.
It is time for
me to retire.
What a great crop of mulberries!
I looked up this recipe for Lyn next door. Meanwhile, I am spreading out mulberries on a baking tray and putting them into the freezer. As soon as they are frozen, I can put them into a freezer bag or tupperware. This means I can have berries on porridge all year round.
I would bet that mulberries are just as beneficial as blueberries and they taste better, in my opinion.
Meanwhile here is the recipe
Mulberry Jam
from manusmenu.com
Ingredients
350 gms – 2 ½ cups mulberries cleaned
300 – 1 ½ cups sugar
½ tbsp lemon juice b
Instructions
Mix the mulberries, lemon juice, and sugar in a pot.
Cook, stirring, for about 20 to 30 minutes or until thick.
While the jam is cooking, put a small plate in the freezer.
After 20 minutes, when the jam appears like it is beginning to gel, it is ready to bottle
Carol Birch teaches a mighty fine class. I am always happy for her to fill in for me. I have no hesitation in recommending her class to any current or former class members.
CAROL'S CLASS
FRIDAY at 9.30am
BRAE HALL, PETRIE
Here is a ridiculous astrology column.... It is an oldie, but it has completely labelled me correctly. Aries the Ram.
"It's time. You no longer need to listen to focus groups
or pretend to obey consensus reality.
Macho Mars - your sponsor
planet - is in Aries! That's right! You get to make the trains run on time, or whatever the Ramzilla
issue de jour.
Stop pretending that you actually
relax via relaxation. Couch life and
cocooning are simply not your thing.
Artistically, the muse has alighted.
You realized your Self yonks ago.
Now you've got to realize everybody else's selves."
As you may know, if you come to class, I have very tight hips. So when I drive to town - around about about a 90 minute drive. - I am so stiff that I struggle to walk.
Here is a clever hack.... It really worked for me. You can do it now, while you read this. While seated, hips and knees at an angle of 90 degrees press your feet into the floor. This may cause you to rise up a little. You are contracting hamstrings and glut muscles. They are at the back. In the car, they can't normally move because we are sitting on them. However when we clench these muscles we are contracting them.
I tried this on the way to Brisbane I did about ten repetitions through the drive and voila, the stiffness of my hips reduced by half and I could walk normally.
I'm so excited by the result, I recommend it in class - Habit of the Week.
There is an excerpt from ABC's" Life Matters" program. It was recommended by Sue. Here is the link.
https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/lifematters/steve-biddulph-wild-creature-mind/104273738
It charts an interesting way to regard anxiety - a fresh way to understand the brain. This is a look at the right hemisphere of the brain. This session is only 21 minutes - wow, I am ready to buy the book.
Thanks, Sue.
I have discovered that I struggle to get up and down from the floor in a graceful manner. I am somewhat fit and mobile, so this was quite a surprise.
So I am practicing getting up and down. I am cheating by using the couch with my arms....How graceful are you I wonder?
Habit of the Week
Let's practice getting up from the floor. You never know when you might need this skill.
Foggia is the main city in northern Puglia, a three-hour train ride from Rome. You will be transferred from here to a small town on the southern end of the Gargano Peninsula (a 40-minute drive) where you will spend the first night.
The first walk is takes you up to the top of the peninsula. You then follow a marked medieval pilgrim path through rolling farmlands with spectacular views south across the plains to the northern coast of the Adriatic and the town where you will stay the night. Although with an ancient historic centre, the town has become a modern pilgrim site, being the home and resting place of Padre Pio (1887 to 1968) the most beloved of modern Italian saints. It also is famous for its giant modern church designed Renzo Piano to accommodate the faithful. (12 kms, 3.5 hrs)
Today you pick up the Lombard pilgrim trail again and continue along the peninsula, passing through beautiful farmlands to one of the most important medieval sanctuaries in southern Italy. Although dating from the 5th century, it was the Normans, on their way to Jerusalem in the 11th century, who placed the site on the map. Along the way you have more spectacular views south over the coast. It is a long but very satisfying walk through forests and farmlands (which can be shortened by 8 kms). (23 kms, 6 hrs)
The walk today picks up another pilgrim route (dedicated to St Michael) which you through the Foresta Umbra (an ancient beech forest which was recently listed with UNESCO) to a beautiful ‘agriturismo’ that sits under Monte Sacro, the ‘sacred mountain’. The walk starts by dipping down into a gully and climbing up the other side before winding its way along mostly unsealed country lanes to your accommodation. The agriturismo is family-run, serves fine food and has a swimming pool. Another long but rewarding day. (17 kms, 4.5 hrs)
Today starts with a visit to the top of Monte Sacro to the ruins of a Benedictine monastery founded by the Byzantines in the 7th century. The path then follows unsealed country lanes through the Foresta Umbra to another charming, family-run agriturismo, an ancient ‘masseria’ which has been in the same family for four generations. (15 kms, 4 hours)
Leaving your accommodation, you walk down a wide path with views over the coast, before deseanding to the sea. The last stretch is a walk along a long sand beach to Vieste, a very attractive town on a promontory wedged between two extended beaches. (12 kms, 3 hrs)
Free day in Vieste. We have booked a private boat to take you for a morning tour along the spectacular rocky shoreline to explore the grottoes and bays of one of southern Italy’s most spectacular coasts (subject to the weather conditions). You’ll have the chance to have a swim before heading back to town. The afternoon is free. No dinner is included tonight.
This morning, you will have a private transfer from Vieste to Foggia railway station (1 hour), from where you can take trains west to Rome or south to Bari.
Yacon, a root vegetable is a high fibre, low-calorie food with beneficial prebiotic and probiotic bacterias which are thought to aid in digestion and gut health. It looks like a small sunflower. It grows on very long stems.
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| Illustration by Nicolás Ortega; Photograph by Getty Images |
 | By Jancee Dunn |
When paramedics arrive at the scene of an emergency, they have to gather information, often quickly and under chaotic circumstances.
They need to know about a patient’s basic health, said Elizabeth DiRocco, a paramedic with the Los Angeles County Fire Department. But sometimes that person is incapacitated.
If paramedics are in a house, they’ll scan the fridge or the bathroom cabinet for medications and try to find identification in a wallet or a purse, DiRocco explained.
But scrambling for these items “eats up time,” said Anthony Almojera, a paramedic and lieutenant for the New York Fire Department. “Our role is to buy you time.”
Seconds count. Brain damage can occur in as little as five minutes if your brain is deprived of oxygen during a heart attack or stroke.
Most of us don’t want to think about the circumstances that might bring paramedics to our door. But there is something you can do today that could be an actual lifesaver: making your medical information handy. Here’s how.
Almojera recommended jotting the following on a letter-size piece of paper and a sheet that can fit into your wallet: your name, date of birth, medical history, an emergency contact number and medications you are currently taking, as well as the dosage and any allergies.
Those basic details are helpful, “but the more health information, the better,” Almojera said. Including your blood type, for example, is useful for the emergency room doctors if a blood transfusion is needed, he said.
If you’re able to laminate both sheets to protect them, even better, Almojera said. (Office supply stores carry inexpensive self-sealing laminating pouches).
Tuck the smaller sheet into your wallet, and place the larger one on the refrigerator, on the front door of your home “or someplace that, if you’re unconscious on the floor, I may think to look,” Almojera said.
You have just saved a crew crucial minutes “trying to search for that stuff,” Almojera said.
The sheet is useful if you’re unable to tell the paramedics the information yourself, DiRocco said, and if someone called 911 on your behalf. In those cases, that person may be too upset or distracted to remember critical medical information.
“Sometimes a relative will hand us, like, a shoe box of medications,” she said. A preprinted sheet, she added, “is going to be so helpful to us.”
You should also set up your medical ID on your iPhone or Android, said Christopher Moehlenkamp, a paramedic from Fort Wayne, Ind. That way, he said, emergency medical workers can obtain your information without using a passcode.
I took Moehlenkamp’s advice and put all my health data onto my phone last weekend. It took five minutes. Then, I had my entire family do it.
There are, of course, other things that paramedics want you to know, but here are two quick ones: If you’ve called 911 from your home and are able to, unlock your door. People get caught up in the moment and forget, DiRocco said.
And lock up any pets. That doesn’t mean exclusively dogs and cats. “Some people have dangerous snakes,” Almojera said. “We’ve done jobs where people had an alligator. Years ago, there was a guy in Harlem who had a tiger.”
“If you have a tiger,” he added, “lock it up before I get there.”
At the moment, I carved out some time for other things:-
I am finally reading "The Covenant of Water" by Abraham Verghese. My friend, Robin. recommended it months ago.
I have started going to the gym. I am literally closing my eyes to all that annoys me in gym land.
I have watched "Swedish Death Cleaning" on SBS. We are underway. There have been half a dozen "kicks up the backside" to prompt me to get started. It is not so bad. I actually look forward to throwing things away. Sorry, donating things.
I am drinking Rosella Tea and kombucha. Woohoo.
We are planning our next holiday.
Choir has started again.
Italian starts mid February.
And you? What have you been up to? You can let me know in the comments.
Simon Hill is a physiotherapist and podcaster. He interviews world-class scientists. He has put forward a free 12 week challenge. There is a requirement for you to log in your latest blood tests and then at the end of 12 -weeks retest.
I am advocating this because the twelve week program builds up in intensity over time.
Don just had a blood test. I had one late last year. I will be using those results to register.
Here is the link - Let me know what you think
https://theproof.com/livingproof/
In the northern hemisphere Rosellas are called Hisbiscus flowers. I have grown a crop this year specifically to make Rosella Tea. I found an article that talked about the fat-burning qualities of Hibsicus tea.
Here is the link to the YouTube:
https://nutritionfacts.org/video/fat-blocking-benefits-of-hibiscus-tea/
I am not making jam this year. I will be freezing the rosellas and making tea. As well, my friend makes "hibiscus flowers in syrup" which she drops into champagne.
