Cha Cha Cha!

It's winter, it's dark before I leave work to come home, it's cold and I'm in full hibernation mode. When I get home, close the door behind me and put my slippers on, I'm in for the evening. If I want to go somewhere it's better if I go straight from work rather than coming home first.

I like to have a something to do in the evenings during winter to prevent me from going into full hibernation mode. After losing my first dog several years ago I needed something to occupy my evenings and Neil and I decided to take a course of beginners ballroom dance classes. We really enjoyed it and actually both had a left and a right foot, so weren't constantly standing on each others toes. At the time I struggled with a problem with my knees and as the weeks progressed and we did more latin dances, which put a lot of pressure on my knees and when we found out that the follow up course focused more on the latin than the traditional ballroom dances such as the waltz, foxtrot etc, we stopped dancing and took up golf.

Following my operation a few weeks ago I need to get back into some form of gentle exercise and so tonight, we are going to join a new group of people in the first beginners class of this winter's course. 

The first dance will be the Cha Cha Cha. I can remember a few of them but I struggle to recognise them from the dance diagram below.

So I did a bit of a refresher by watching this video.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOgMhx2vmHc&feature=fvwrel

I'm really looking forward to seeing how we get on. If nothing else, it's an excuse for a drink and a chat and a chance to meet some new people.

Step, step, cha, cha, cha...

The Lion, The Witch & The Lampost...

No, don't worry, I haven't gone mad or changed the title of the famous and popular C.S.Lewis book. I have been enjoying a bit of late night musings.

A year ago we were in California visiting our friends and preparing for Thanksgiving. It was my first holiday where I had been able to take my kindle with about 200 books to choose from rather than the usual 3 or 4 paperbacks I was previously restricted to when travelling. Before going away I had downloaded a whole list of free downloads from authors I had always meant to read and never got around to doing so. Many of the stories had been made into films or portrayed in TV programs and so, the need to read them was somewhat diluted by knowing the  story and the characters already.

But there are some books which I really did still want to read. With the recent interest in Sherlock Holmes through the new films I reminded myself that I had never actually read a real Sherlock Holmes novel, How close to the character in the book was the character in the film? Would I now believe in the character in the book if it didn't match that portrayed in the film? While in California I decided I would read the first book written in the Sherlock Holmes series, A Study in Scarlet, and see how I got on with it. Over the next few nights I read several more of his short stories and before I knew it I'd read 10 stories.

Time for a change. Another set of free books that had downloaded were the Narnia Chronicles. I had seen various TV series and films of the C.S. Lewis books throughout my life, as well as reading the book of the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe while at school. I will be the first to admit that at the time of reading the book I had no idea it was part of a series and not a stand alone novel. The recent films had been the first time it had occurred to me that there were follow on adventures.

I decided I would read the series and although I knew the story well, I would start at the beginning with TLTW&TW.

Ha! I was absolutely stunned to find this is not the first book in the series. There is another book that fills that position, The Magician's Nephew - Never heard of it! And what's even more bizarre is that it is very much the equal of TLTW&TW as a story, infact I actually think it's better. It explains the wardrobe being magic, it explains the White Queen it even explains the lamp post. I loved it. Of all of the books it is my favourite.


Another book I needed to read was The Hobbit by J.R. Tolkein. Again, I knew the Lord of the Rings trilogy well from the films. I had the books on my shelf from Dad's collection. They were his favourite, most frequently read books along with The Hobbit, and I had not opened a single page in anyof them. He was always berating me for not having read them. I felt a duty to his memory to at least read The Hobbit. So, a while ago I finally downloaded The Hobbit to my kindle and read it. And yes Dad, you were right. I should have read it a long time ago, it is definitely my kind of story.


And this train of thought all started because I finished a book tonight. It's new, recently published by one of my favourite modern day authors, Cecelia Aherne. I enjoyed it, while not her best - P. S I Love will always be high on that list (and no, the film does not do it justice) along with A Place Called Here, to name but two.

And so I am at that place again, needing to choose my next book to read. 

I wonder what world I will choose to jump into this time. 

A cricky neck

For several years I have struggled with a neck problem which was brought on by the deterioration of the cartilage between the vertebrae in my lower neck. Most of the time this is fine, while everything is lined, up but every now and then I sleep in an odd position that puts my neck out of alignment. When this happens I wake up in a lot of pain and discomfort and this morning is one of those days. It's like the 2 bones that sit on each other have slipped a little out of line and until they 'click' back into place I will be in pain.

And so, I know today is going to be a long day, I have a searing pain that goes right up the right hand side of my face, like neuralgia. Painkillers and anti-inflammatories will help but until I go to bed tonight and hope it puts itself right overnight, it's going to be a day of my in a grumpy mood, as I find this pain difficult to forget about.

Don't envy my work colleagues today!

Does Beetroot Juice hold secret Health Benefits?

I love fresh boiled beetroot. I loved growing my own this year and freezing it, ready sliced, so I can enjoy it throughout the winter.

When I got the results of my months of eating low saturated fat foods in an effort to reduce my bad cholesterol I was set a new challenge after being told that I had low levels of good cholesterol. I needed to know if there were foods I could eat to improve the levels of good cholesterol. As well as finding out I needed to be eating more oily fish I came across articles suggesting that beetroot juice would also help.

Below is an extract from this website: 

http://news24.hubpages.com/hub/beetroot-juice-health-benefits

Health Benefits of Beetroot Juice:

Heart Health:

Beetroot Juice is very good to improve the health of heart as it increases the good cholesterol level and decreases the bad cholesterol level. So, risk of stroke or heart attack is decreased. Also, it contains nitrate which carry out expansion of the blood vessels so more oxygen and blood is supplied to heart. Also, it decreases the risk of several heart diseases. Its nitrate content also helps to reduce blood pressure so it is considered to be the inexpensive and easiest way to combat hypertension.

Now, the problem, of course, is that I have thrown away the water I boiled the beetroot in which, by all accounts, is where the nutrients are once they have been boiled out of the beetroot. I found that local health food shops sold cartons of beetroot juice or I could order it through the internet but then, on my normal weekly shop at the local supermarket I found they also sold bottles of it. 

So, each morning we have a small glass. It's ready mixed with apple juice to take the edge off the taste of straight beetroot juice and it's not as bad as you may expect. So far the only side effect I've read about, although not yet noticed, is that they do warn it may turn your pee pink.

So, whether it's the extra fish I'm eating or the beetroot juice, or a combination of the two, hopefully my next cholesterol test will be more positive.

Mischievous Night

Tonight is Bonfire Night, a British tradition dating back to 1605 when Guy Fawkes tried to blow up the Houses of Parliament. The bonfire was initially lit on the anniversary as a celebration that King James 1st had survived but soon the tradition began where an effigy of Guy Fawkes was thrown on to the bonfire. The kids would spend the day making the'Guy' from old clothes, stuffing it with straw and soon started taking it around the streets shouting 'penny for the guy' which they would then spend on fireworks for the evening.

Read more: http://www.bonfirenight.net/gunpowder.php

I remember when I was young we looked forward to mischievous night. This, for us, was always the night before Bonfire Night, the 4th of November. That was the night we were 'allowed' to play tricks on others. Taking gates from the local houses and stashing them at the end of the street, tying the front and back door handles together so they had difficulty opening the doors, putting black shoe polish on the handle to the garage or the 2 front doors of neighbouring houses. Throwing toilet rolls around the garden and sometimes over the roof of the house, backwards and forwards.

It was all harmless fun, no damage was done and it was tolerated for that one night only. 

So, this year I got wondering how did it get moved to Halloween? 

Half an hour on Google has led me to subscribe to the view that the tradition was taken to America by emigrating Brits, but as the Gunpowder plot meant nothing to the American's, it got moved to Halloween and evolved into 'Trick or Treat'. In my younger days the person subjected to the prank didn't get the option of giving us a treat to stop us, in fact the one down side to the whole tradition was that in most cases we weren't around to see the look on the person's face when they discovered what we'd done. But, being the grown up now, I have an idea how they felt - not pleased!

Read more: http://halloween.wikia.com/wiki/Mischief_Night