Why are we so concerned with eating? Apart from the fact that we need fuel in our bodies, food is one of our main pleasures in life.

This isn't the case for the starving people around the world. They need sustenance to carry on each day. No pickiness for them—no craving for sweet treats. Just enough rice of grain to help them survive one more day. I wish I could help them by prayer and meditation alone. That's the only device I can use, being poor and old myself. But I'm not hungry. In England, when you reach retirement, you receive a pension.

So, how can we equal the stakes? No point in everyone starving to show solidarity. Perhaps we could remove temptation from our kitchen and stick to foods that actually nourish us.

Let's call it a kitchen detox. If you keep the wrong sort of food in your house you will end up eating it. Throw out breakfast cereals which are full of sugar and preservatives, processed and convenience foods, margarine (it's much better to use butter if you can tolerate dairy), canned meals such as spaghetti hoops, gluten grains, salad dressings (make your own with apple cider vinegar, olive oil, mustard powder, fresh rosemary, garlic and sea salt), biscuits, cakes and sweets.

Restock your fridge with protein such as eggs, chicken, meat and fish, feta cheese, pulses, nuts and seeds, salad and vegetables and dairy alternatives such as coconut milk. Use coconut and olive oil for cooking and gluten-free flour such as coconut or rice flour for baking or thickening sauces. Quinoa is a great alternative to rice and couscous.

Another thing we should do is stop snacking. Many of us believe we should eat little and often and spend the day grazing, barely going an hour without consuming something. Constant eating stimulates the production of insulin that can put our bodies into fat storage mode.

The worst offenders are refined carbohydrates and sugary treats but even eating healthy snacks means our body has to work constantly to process them.

It's not a good idea to go cold turkey on snacking. You need to make sure you are eating properly the rest of the time.

Every meal should be made up of fat, protein and plants to help fill you up and balance your blood sugar levels. Most importantly try not to snack in the evening. It is important for your metabolism to fast for 12 hours overnight so stop eating after dinner and don't start again until breakfast.

Eat foods that make you feel good. These foods have all been proven to benefit the body.

• Fermented foods Fermenting is an ancient way to preserve foods. Sauerkraut is probably the easiest to find but pretty much any vegetable can be fermented if you do it yourself. Fermented foods help to supply the digestive system with beneficial bacteria.

• Healthy fats Coconut oil, avocado, organic and free-range eggs, wild salmon and olive oil are good sources and play a role in brain health.

• Dark green, leafy vegetables Vegetables such as spinach, kale, broccoli and cabbage contain folate, which studies have shown may reduce symptoms of depression. This is because folate is used by the brain to make feel-good hormones including serotonin and dopamine.

Source: Eat, Nourish, Glow by Amelia Freer.

All these foods are available to us. If something is too expensive, give up another food you can do without. We're so lucky to live in affluent, free countries. Wars going on around the world have left so many ordinary families destitute. Don't disrespect their plight by scoffing rubbish food. Make this effort for the sake of all humanity if not for your own health.

This calls into doubt everything we've been led to believe. Mother's, particularly, have been held up as the glue that binds the child's behavior.

Let's look at the results from researchers at the University of Toronto, and Bowling Green State University in Ohio, which tracked 1,600 children above the age of three. The measurement was taken from the actual time spent together, engaged in conversation or not.

The quantity of time parents spent with children aged between three and 11 had no influence on their later academic achievement, behavior and emotional well-being. Not did the hours the mother worked outside the home.

But the research found the total amount of time adolescents spent with their mothers and fathers did have an impact. Just six hours a week made a significant difference to their well-being and achievement, giving lower rates of delinquent behaviour, with less drug and alcohol abuse, and higher academic grades.

A sociologist at the University of Toronto claims that six hours a week, just 50 minutes a day, sharing the same space made a crucial difference. I guess this doesn't mean the teenager can be closed off in their room and the mother in the kitchen.

However, the stress level of the mother produced the greatest impact. Guilt about not being with the children makes matters worse. The terrific burden of juggling work with family results in the mother's anxiety which affects the children poorly.

Let's not discount parent's importance altogether. Plenty of studies have linked quality parent time, such as reading to a child, sharing meals, talking with them or playing games, with positive outcomes for kids. The same is true for parents’ caring and sensitivity toward their children. It’s just that the measure of time doesn’t appear to matter.

Maybe there's nothing special about a mother-child bond after all.

Everything I used to believe has been destroyed by this study. I spent all my time with my children until they left home. I gave my love, care, support, attention, and set a good example. Maybe they saw beneath my calm exterior to the unfulfilled woman inside.

Children are not as naïve as we first assume. They must be able to judge emotions below the surface. The best thing to come from this research is the knowledge that working away from home is acceptable. Release your guilt, mothers of the world.

Apart from cosmetic surgery, waist training (that is: forcing your waist to shrink) is popular these days with several movie stars involved. But one woman has taken taken the fad to extreme levels.

For the last 6 years, a busty model, from Caracas, Venezuela, has been wearing a waist-shrinking garment, (the dreaded corset from the old days), 23 hours a day. Unsurprisingly she draws both adulation and criticism whenever she hits the streets of Caracas.

The 25-year-old model started wearing the corset while still in her teens. At first it felt tight, but she gradually got used to the pressure and now the garment feels like a second skin. She even sleeps in it. Apparently, the floating ribs at the bottom of the rib cage are easier to mold.

With her enhanced (another artifice) 34DD breasts, she draws attention wherever she goes. Her body shape is so extreme, some people compare her to an alien. People even shout at her in the street. As a teenager, I remember getting the same reaction from boys. Some even shouted, 'I don't believe it'. Although I enjoyed looking good, I didn't flaunt my looks or change it in any way.

However, her stringent regime could lead to complications later on in life. Her doctor says she should stop the regime before it's too late.

Why does everyone want to change the way they look? I could understand this desire if a person was born with two heads or four hands.

As a teenager back in 1956, I had an hourglass figure—naturally. My waist measured 20 inches, between a bust of 38 inches and hips the same size.

In the 1950s, the normal difference between the bust and hips to the waist was ten inches. Since then, the average woman's waists has increased seven inches. The waist has grown from 27 inches 60 years ago, to 34 inches now. Perhaps that's a hangover of generations wearing corsets over hundreds of years.

We are all born different. That's what makes people so interesting, unique. Some women have large breasts and small waists, some women are small, some men have large … you get the picture.

It's the person you are inside that counts—your kindness, your strengths and weaknesses.

And don't think when you reach old age, your struggle to mold your personality will cease. It seems to me, the time spent in retirement allows more reflection. My waist might have expanded, but so has my ability to see my own flaws.

A terrifying illness causes the residents of a Kazakhstan village to fall asleep without warning. The village is close to the town of Krasnogorsk, which produced uranium for Soviet Union war machine. Everything points to an abandoned Soviet nuclear uranium facility nearby.

First noted in 2010, residents of the small village of Kalachi have been plagued by the ‘sleeping sickness’ illness which often causes people to remain comatose for days. They can fall asleep without warning, lying on the street with their shopping, at work, or going about their normal routine. After waking, they experience hallucination and disorientation.

There is little that medics can do for those who fall asleep except nurse victims as they slumber. But no prince will wake the sleeping beauties, who can remain asleep for anywhere from two to six days, accompanied by memory loss, blinding headaches, back pain, dizziness and general “edginess.” Intensity can range from full sleep to a deep, sluggish drowsiness.

Scientists around the world are baffled, but locals have noted a correlation with winds blowing in from an abandoned Soviet uranium mine which provided nuclear materials for reactors and weapons during the Cold War.

Almost a quarter of Kalachi's residents have been struck down at least once by the disease, some as many as six times. The bizarre illness does not seem to discriminate, with people of all ages affected, as well as animals.

The head of research at the Kazakhstan national nuclear centre’s institute for radiation safety reports that concentrations of radon at that particular place are four or five times normal.

Waves of attacks seem more common during a thaw than when the ground is frozen.

Some say there is a correlation with wind direction.

Viral and bacterial tests have ruled out known diseases.

Researchers have discounted underground gas and the local mobile phone tower.

Unexplained high levels of carbon monoxide having been reported in the air.

There is a theory that water from the disused uranium mine is seeping into domestic water supplies, but no evidence has confirmed it.

Other theories put forward include carbon monoxide poisoning and even mass hysteria.

The long-term effects of the disease are unknown and so far unstudied.

Local authorities will start evacuating people from the village, as the situation shows no sign of abating. Priority is being given to the families who have children in the village, with officials saying they plan to close off the entire village by May. Currently the relocation is voluntary. Source: WND.


This condition is different from the natural disease generally known as sleeping sickness. The African trypanosomiasis is a parasitic infection transmitted by tsetse flies which are found in 36 countries in sub-Saharan Africa. The infection attacks the central nervous system, causing severe neurological disorders. Without treatment the disease is fatal.

The unnatural condition affecting people in the Russian landscape is the lingering outcome of war. Mankind has a lot to answer for. If only we could learn.

A UK survey has revealed one in 20 parents mistakenly believe that a packet of crisps counts towards their childrens' 'five-a-day' items of fruit or vegetables.

Most alarmingly, more than one in 10 parents don't believe eating fruit is healthy.

Although 84% of parents were concerned about their child's diet, one-in-three in the poll couldn't correctly identify what 'five-a-day' actually means, with only two-thirds of parents correctly identifying 'five pieces of fruit or vegetable.'

Researchers found nearly one-in-four mothers and fathers also wrongly think a jacket potato counts, and one-in-seven believe mashed potato is considered a portion of the 'five-a-day' recommended by health chiefs.

Aw, that sucks! Surely a potato is a root vegetable. I love potato. It makes me feel so good, filling my stomach and leaving me satisfied. How can the body trick us this way?

But no, potato doesn't count as part of the five-a-day allowance.

Other vegetables that don't count in the vegetable stakes are yams, cassava and plantain. They are also usually eaten as starchy foods. However, sweet potatoes, parsnips, swedes and turnips are vegetables that are usually eaten in addition to the starchy food part of the meal.

So, how about you? Do you get the recommended guidelines of five pieces of fruit and vegetables a day?

A serial thief who admitted carrying out more than 200 burglaries has been spared jail and been told go on a victim empathy course. He stole household goods to fund his addiction to alcohol and gambling.

Despite the angry householders demanding he should not be let off, the judge said that he was sparing the jail sentence to launch him on a rehabilitation program called Choices and Consequences, commonly known as the C2 program, which no criminal has ever turned down.

The offender would be tagged for 36 months, be under curfew between 9pm and 6am and must complete 200 hours of unpaid work. Aside from that, he would attend the victim empathy course as well as alcohol and gambling intervention programs.

The Hertfordshire (that's where I live) C2 incentive is aimed at turning around the lives of prolific offenders to offer them a realistic opportunity to break free from the cycle of crime. The sentence reminds me of a heaven where we face our crimes and atone for our sins. Criminals who agree to take part in the program must obey the law for four years after which it is signed off. If they breach any of the rules in that time period, they are hauled back to court and jailed for their previous convictions.

It would be hard to break the cycle of offending. Many may have committed hundreds of crimes and have been in prison on a number of occasions. A criminal record makes it hard to find employment. They may be poorly educated and have limited social skills. Trapped in a cycle, they could face little option but to commit crime to make a living. It is hoped the sympathetic program will benefit local communities in the longer term. Source: Telegraph.

Here in our area, we belong to the Neighbourhood Watch Scheme. A message service notifies us of local crime and gives advice on how to avoid it. Yesterday, I heard about power tool theft from vehicles. I noted a sign on the back of a parked van up the road which said, 'All tools removed.'

What are your views on treatment for burglars?

A mammoth asteroid is headed our way, but no need to worry. NASA says asteroid 2004 BL86--estimated to be about 1,000-metre or one-third of a mile in diameter will zoom by Earth on Friday, traveling at more than 23,000 mph in space

This rock is forecast to pass within 2.8 million miles—a tiny distance in astronomical terms—of Earth, according to NASA's Near Earth Object Program.

The object was first spotted by the Catalina Sky Survey at the end of last year. Astronomers are expected to be monitoring the asteroid's progress.

It is not unusual for small meteorites to pass close by. However one of this size is a very rare occurrence. Experts warn it is only a matter of time before an asteroid capable of "life-altering" damage collides with our planet.

If the giant chunk of rock hit Earth, plumes of debris would be thrown into the atmosphere, changing the climate and potentially making the planet uninhabitable for all life.

Smaller impacts would be capable of destroying cities.


As to what to do to protect yourself—nothing. Pray. Secreting yourself in the bathroom will have no effect if the asteroid hits earth. Of course it would be a good idea to patch up quarrels, make peace with your family, and tell your life partner how much you love them—impact or not.

The possibility of a strike makes wonderful material for the imagination. The dystopian series of novels my partner Edith Parzefall and I wrote, takes place hundreds of years after after an asteroid hit Earth.

Wind Over Troubled Water:

After a great flood destroyed all technology, Cerridwen must find the elusive mad seer in Hailing to lead Britland into a better future.

Knights in Dark Leather:

Cerridwen races against rival adventurers to recover a hidden mural in Saint Eyes and find a clue to prevent Britland's tribes from self-destruction.

Golden Submarine:

Cerridwen joins forces with her rivals, escapes the lord intent on ruling Britland, then presses on toward the flooded city of Long Doom to retrieve powerful jewellery.

Long Doom Calling:

Supported by her allies, Cerridwen dives for potent jewellery supposed to help her avert war, while the most powerful gang in Long Doom closes in.

Seaweed Ribbons:

A diver and his wife escape a restrictive matriarchal society and must prove their love in a battle against pirates and a tribe collecting women for fun.

Click on any one of the titles to visit an Amazon store near you.

A doctor's manual from 16th Century France advised couples that the best time to conceive was not at the end of a long day's labor but after the first sleep, when they have more enjoyment.

But, what's this all about? What first sleep?

Research has found more than 500 references to a segmented sleeping pattern from diaries, court records, medical books and literature, from Homer's Odyssey, even an anthropological account of modern tribes in Nigeria. 


These accounts describe a first sleep which began about two hours after dusk, followed by waking period of one or two hours, and then a second sleep.

During the waking period between sleeps, people were quite active. They often got up, went to the toilet or smoked tobacco and some even visited neighbors. Most people stayed in bed, read, wrote and often prayed. Countless prayer manuals from the late 15th Century offered special prayers for the hours in between sleeps.

In the wake of the Reformation and the counter-Reformation. Protestants and Catholics became accustomed to holding secret services at night, during periods of persecution.

Those who could afford to live by candlelight copied the trend. However, with the advent of street lighting, (the first in Paris, 1667) socializing at night began to filter down through the classes. By the end of the century, more than 50 of Europe's major towns and cities were lit at night.

References to the first and second sleep started to disappear during the late 17th Century. This started among the urban upper classes in northern Europe and over the course of the next 200 years filtered down to the masses. Night became fashionable and spending hours lying in bed was considered a waste of time.

By the 1920s the idea of a first and second sleep had receded entirely from our social consciousness.

Today, most people seem to have adapted quite well to the eight-hour sleep, but perhaps many sleeping problems have roots in the human body's natural preference for segmented sleep as well as the ubiquity of artificial light.

Waking period between sleeps, when people were forced into periods of rest and relaxation, could have played an important part in the human capacity to regulate stress naturally. So the next time you wake up in the middle of the night, think of your ancestors and relax. Lying awake could be good for you. 
Source: BBC.

The ideal of eight hours' sleep each night is hard to achieve for many people. However, some experts now say it's too much, and may actually be unhealthy.

We all know that getting too little sleep is bad. You feel tired, you may be irritable, and it can contribute to obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes, and heart disease. But most people don't complain about too much sleep.

Research carried out over the past 10 years points to adults who usually sleep for less than six hours or more than eight, are at risk of dying earlier than those sleep for between six and eight hours.

To put it more scientifically, there is a gradual increase in mortality risk for those who fall outside the six-to-eight-hour band.

A professor of cardiovascular medicine and epidemiology at the University of Warwick analyzed 16 studies. More than a million people were asked about their sleeping habits, and were followed up over time. Compared to the medium sleepers, 12% of the short sleepers and 30% of the long sleepers had died.

The magic number of hours asleep, according to the lead doctor at the Sleep Disorders Center at the University of Massachusetts Medical School may actually be seven. But if you enjoy sleeping, spend a lot of time in bed and feel good, rest assured. No extra time asleep or just lying down and relaxing will kill you.

I consider myself a good sleeper. I go to bed at 10pm and fall asleep within 10 minutes. I get up once to go to the bathroom, fall asleep fast and wake again at 7am. Instead of that time asleep adding to nine hours as I'd previously thought, the time I actually sleep might be closer to eight hours. No matter what it adds up to, I wake refreshed and look forward to the coming day.

My husband lies awake for the first part of the night worrying. He falls asleep in the early hours of the morning and has trouble waking before midday. As a child he would keep himself awake so his piano-playing father would take him to clubs in London. So much of his behavior stems from that, as well as his night work thereafter. But maybe, in part, his nonconformist sleeping comes from the way our ancestors slept.

How do you sleep?

According to a survey, one in five adults in England are unable to swim.

UK's Amateur Swimming Association reports up to nine million men and women aged over 14 in England have never learned to swim. The highest number of non-swimmers is above 65.

My husband never learned. Each time we went on holiday close to the sea, he just watched me swim. On the other hand, my Australian background gave me a good grounding for survival in the water.

I'm completely at ease in the ocean. Well, I used to be. Haven't swum for over 10 years. I felt so buoyant, I thought it would be impossible for me to sink below the surface—rather like the legend of an Australian aboriginal woman who could not drown.

ASA's findings come after it was revealed that almost half a million women in England have given up swimming in the past decade amid fears about how they look in the pool. Source the Telegraph. 

Let's look at the history. Swimming has been recorded since prehistoric times. The earliest pictures of swimming dates back to Stone Age paintings from around 10,000 years ago. Written references date from 2,000 BC. Some of the earliest references to swimming include the Iliad, the Odyssey, the Bible, Beowulf.

And what of the future? Edith Parzefall and I wrote a series of novels set in Britland after the Great Flood. The trauma left survivors afraid of the sea. But Raymond, a free diver has overcome the stigma of swimming. He's joined his wife's group, the Saints, which is led by matriarchs. Here's a short excerpt from the novel I wrote alone Seaweed Ribbons:

~ "Thank you for your suggestion," Raymond's rival, Eric said. "Anything else you're good at?"

A couple of those close by paid attention.

"Well, as a matter of fact..." Raymond glanced at Ginny hovering in the food preparation area. She must have heard because she nodded. Excitement filled him at showing off his skills. "I can dive for food. Molluscs, fish or whatever is swimming by."

"We don't count bragging from foreigners here."

The men chewed and didn't meet Raymond's gaze. Desperate to prove himself, he said, "I can even enter buildings underwater. The flooded ones built in the before times. Some of them have containers full of food."

"What a story." Eric chuckled and glanced at the other fellows, who snickered.

Thwarted, Raymond tried harder to gain their attention. "I could teach anyone who's willing." He swept his gaze around without meeting a response. "You get used to diving after a while."

"Leave them alone," Deidre called from the opposite side of the room. "They know what they're doing, don't they Rose?"

Another woman, with brown hair resembling a mouse's fur, nudged her and winked. "What we tell them."

Raymond swallowed. Jumping juniper berries! What made the women with their shapeless garments and wan expressions so haughty and disdainful? And the men so compliant towards them yet rude to him? The Saints showed no support for his marriage. If they wanted the union to fail, why did they perform the ceremony at all?

The time for trying to fit in with these mouldy underground creatures had passed. He couldn't change the Saints so he'd work harder at convincing Ginny to leave. ~

Are you any good at swimming?

An Italian plastic surgeon has been suspended from UK work after allegedly leaving a grandmother with one ear bigger than the other after she underwent a facelift procedure. But why do people want to change their appearance—to wipe out the tracks life has left on their faces?

For the sake of discussion, let's compare curtains to a body—your body or my body.

Life's like a pair of well-loved curtains.

A bolt of dark brown, rich velvet caught the eye of the seamstress looking for full luxurious curtains to span a large window for her client. The couple agreed with her choice and gave consent for her to go ahead. Once finished, the machinist folded the heavy, lined fabric with care, pleased with her effort.

The new owners installed the curtains on a brass rod secured with brass rings holding the deep heading pleats and stepped back to admire their purchase. The raised pile caught the light with a gentle sheen. Every year, they took the curtains down and sent them away to be cleaned.

But fashions change. Twenty years later, they redecorated their room and placed an advertisement in the local paper rather than throw away the perfectly good material. A nice woman contacted them with an interest and they agreed to deliver the curtains.

Can you imagine my excitement and relief to welcome a pair of full-length curtains into my home? My husband and I had just moved in and needed to cover the 7 ft high glass leading out to our fifth floor balcony. The curtains fitted so well, and I couldn't thank the generous couple enough for their help. During the room's redecorating, a smudge appeared on a section of the cloth, but the curtains were so full, the blemish hardly showed. When they needed cleaning, I'd hoped it would vanish, but no such luck. After two years, we were lucky enough to receive an offer for another home, this time on the ground floor in a country aspect. I couldn't wait to move to a place that fulfilled my dreams, surrounded by fields with horses roaming. After my husband papered the walls, we packed everything and moved in.

Imagine my delight when the curtains fit the living room window. Maybe they were slightly long and too full, but neither of those things were a drawback. I loved the look of the full velvet trailing on the floor—so luxurious. During the day, we both worked and at night we pulled the curtains to block out the buzz of traffic and to prevent anyone looking inside. With the passing of the years, the curtains were cleaned many times. On each occasion, we were warned about their fragile condition. I never found them to be less than robust, although the lining didn't come as clean as it had before. Twice the room was painted—dark background color chosen to match exactly and create the illusion of a longer room. The bitter chocolate wall blended although folds that caught the light had faded to the shade of milk chocolate. The wonderful curtains survived many paint bruises.

Last week when the decorator left, I discovered the velvet wet and rippled in the center of one of the curtains. He'd squeezed the material into the tiny upper window to get it out of the way. I didn't take them down because of my disability. It was raining outside. I could have cried, mourning for my cherished curtains which we'd owned for over eighteen years. But, now forty years old, they endured. When dry, the pile hardly showed the tiny waves that had been visible before. I prop them back behind urns on either side of the window ledge, showing off the elegant drape of the fabric and matching with the overall scheme.

I relate my own body to that of a pair of well-loved curtains, shifted about, bruised with passing fads, but enduring and strong. 

Just as a new item of furniture can never compare to the patina of an antique, wear and care can never be faked. My body shows the life I've lived, my expression reflects my attitude to life. I match my surroundings, faded lustre reflecting my experience. I am me. A tribute to #MeDay.

Do you have a cherished item?