※SpinalGap24 ※

All you ever wanted was
at your fingertips
on the tip of your tongue
and the end of your lips

All I wish for
hand-in-hand
without need for words
sharing kisses so ripened

My heart failed
the moment it stole
daylight's blessing
of cold hopes
in false dawns

My living Sun
rests where it sets
the day's undoing
where light fades
in hopeful dusk.

written by lauren6
in hospital, 17h10 29/08/06

The crest of a wave
I saw you there
my pains called
but without a care

as words travelled
upon beauty's vision
recalescent heart ravelled
kisses pure precision.

written by lauren6
23h55
29/08/06

The inner fear
legacies of yesteryear
clasping the crag
where faded hopes nag
breaking a fall
hurt casts a shadowed pall
such undertones of war
pains of outraged yore
a time-cellar of thirst
to salon dreams traversed
seeing lofty finials aspire
like the pinnacle of eve's desire
now summer's been swallowed
a southward migration followed
escaping the night frost
retracing journey's lost
to the bitter end, hope never dies!
nor this life-like virga of the skies.

written in cardiology by lauren6
16h15, 30/08/06

Of medical hurt so mickle
doses doubled effects fickle
the nerves curtailed by needles
from surgeon's hasty presage
the end of a sunbeam
a stormy day within peaceful dream
unnaccountable losses
set against recogniseable pain
what providence!
such feelings a breeze
of energies great refluence
to reckon on survival's influence.

at prie dieu
17h00, 29/08/06

We, of littoral need and thinking
knee-deep in ocean's kismet
our metonym for life
suffuses survival's summit

by evening tambour seas
wave-notes lap our trilithic form
soothing the shores of vagus
sanded underfoot and warm

windward dreams drift skywards
gentle breeze plays on soft skin
hair blown delicately off-course
in tongue-tied moments destine

moonlit maxixe currents
'neath attentive picaroon gulls
together we disolve ensuing oblivion
enwreathed by tidal lulls.

written by lauren6
23:45
30/08/06

Does anybody out there know
where these feelings ought to go
in velvet-layered throe
a sardonic lenitive show
it's all-beguiling commentary
is a reprehensible reportage
an afrabilious atonement
for commemorative postponement
now the glass walkway awaits
the presence of one
an icy crepitative crossing
of unshrinking mind-hopping.

written by wensum24

Ballack given bollocking

Chelsea midfielder Michael Ballack has been fined €70,000 (£47,000) for not paying tax on a gift for his wife.

The incident occurred in January when Ballack returned from a training camp in Dubai with former club Bayern Munich carrying a €2,000 (£1,350) handbag.

At Munich airport, the 29-year-old filed through the channel labelled 'nothing to declare', but on a random check by German customs officials the item was found and he was accused of trying to avoid paying 350 euros (£235) in taxes.

Pampered footballing innocence?? A fine that they can well afford, whereas the rest of us might be more heavilly penalised for such an impossible misdemenour. Footballers are now scaling the politcian's grubby palatial walls of arrogant, inoble evasions.

Anelkasthaesia

Nicolas Anelka is at a loss to understand why he has a reputation of being a controversial character.
The French striker, 27, has returned to the Barclays Premiership with Bolton after spells with Manchester City, Arsenal and Liverpool, where he was on loan. Anelka, an £8million signing from Fenerbahce claims people have the wrong impression of him.

He said: "To say I am a bad boy then people do not know me. When I was in Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester, I did good things. I just want to play football, that's it. I just have to speak on the pitch."

And the verdict? Enter Wenger, Houllier, Keegan...

Thatcherism still a pain in the neck

And what can be said about Ben Thatcher that hasn't been said...kick him out, forever, damned animal, (sorry to the animals)...because of hospitalisation, I missed the dreadful deed last week, but finally saw it on tv recently, and watched in horror as he attacked Mendes with such savagery that it would have put any other 'free man' in jail.

Mr B. Thatcher wrote a letter of apology to Pedro Mendes?? Who wrote it...not Ben I'm sure, at least it appears he is believed to have written, 'He says he is sorry, signed Ben' ...clever lad, those fists were not made for writing were they!

It is not the first time this country has endured a chorus of 'Thatcher out'...well, my wishes are with Pedro, and never will I defend Thatcherism.

Music of the moment: Blackstreet: No Diggity.

I'm back, from dangerous hospitals, but realise that blogging can be more injurous to my health than a broken spine ever can...my heart also was wearied for two weeks, (which I chose to keep quiet from all)...but this recent blogging hell will stay silent no more.

I have had some devil, steal my blog id, duplicate my blog name and tag me with sick, vile comments...it is not even funny.
I was unable to log-in to my own blog, because this 'person' had played with my blog and in effect, seized it. They also had the nerve to gloat about it, in the form of rude, nasty, even threatening comments to me. Well, human spirit is unbeatable...I'll say that NOW!
I'm sorting it out now...with a few new words at the ready!

As Morrissey once sung, '...the devil will find work for idle hands to do...'

Look at the clouds
those are yours
some are mine too
see their embrace
in loving storm-chase
of rainbow energy
and lightning applause
behind it all-
the acqueous sun
connecting one and all
like temperature's zoom
the locations in bloom
all coming to life
this sky today,
an arcanum of zest
stoicism at rest.

written by lauren6
23:55hrs
29/08/06

Always tempted to run
the shorterm pleasure of loneliness
is a vast world
where veins are fired in readiness
when the body is furled
from human hurt and sadness
When running ceases
and the cloud of charmless pain descends
outstretched hands reach the air
a touch that offers no amends
with but a hope and a care
a wing and a prayer, health yet pretends
My preaudience with the stars
in dewy evening chill
shooting tears fall wishfully
the occlusion of will
and health loved-for wistfully;
heart and soul; faith and spirit; life's quadrille.

written by lauren6
19:55
27/08/06

Emotions stretch out before us
like a half-read book
left-open mid-chapter
disgarded and creased
yet very much alive,
in your hands
A page of your mind
turning-over one at a time
within the covers of life
-the preface of me
to the index of you
writes our in-between
a context of spirit
found in the passage of days;
your thoughts - written in my heart
-a double stanza of loving endurance.

written by lauren6
19:40
27/08/06

Spine Fusion Surgery
Spine fusion has long been considered the best treatment for degenerative disc disease of the lumbar spine once conservative treatment measures have failed. The first treatment for degenerative disc disease is always with non surgical options. These include anti-inflammatory medications, physical therapy, and epidural steroid injections. However, if patients try these treatments, and do not find satisfactory relief, then spine fusion surgery may be an option.

Spine fusion surgery is done to remove the damaged disc, and stimulate bone growth in that same area. Fusion of bone means that the space once occupupied by the flexible disc will be occupied by bone that will not allow motion at that spinal level. Once the bone fuses across the disc space, the vertebrae above and below the damaged disc are locked together. By securing the vertebrae together, the spine does not move at this segment, and the pain relief can be excellent.

However, there are several problems with spine fusion surgery. First, the rate of successful fusion is about 80%. While complete fusion of the segments is not always necessary for pain relief, it is concerning that we cannot always find a way for bone to grow across the damaged disc space. Second, fusing a spinal disc space decreases the motion of the back, and may lead to symptoms of stiffness. Finally, because of the stiffness when the fusion is performed, the segments of spine above and below the fusion are subjected to increased stresses. Patients who have a fusion at one level are more likely to develop problems at discs above or below (so-called adjacent levels) down the road.

Also: Spinal surgery
Artificial disc procedure (video)

My concern is that in addition to the disc trouble, I also have a fracture nearby.

I'm due in surgery next week...

What are you eating today?
And what do you yourselves consider healthy? For me, I would always have a day with black olives, and fresh vegetables if possible. And how about a small glass of red wine...that doesn't hurt either does it!!

1. Avocado: Good for youthful skin

Avocado may be naturally high in fat, but most of it is the healthy, monounsaturated type, which is essential for plump, youthful skin and actually helps neutralise bad fat in other foods, meaning it could help you lose weight. Avocado lowers bad cholesterol and is a good source of potassium, which helps the body flush out toxins. It also contains the most potent anti-ageing combination – vitamins E and C – which mop up ageing free radicals and de-clog arteries.

2. Brazil nuts: Good for hair, nails and skin

These nuts are a great source of selenium, which improves the condition of your hair and nails, and boosts skin elasticity. Selenium also wards off opportunistic infections, keeps the muscles in your heart healthy and even helps with acne. Brazils also contain a good amount of zinc, which reduces ageing skin inflammation and eases dry skin problems like eczema and psoriasis that leave the skin more vulnerable to wrinkling.

3. Broccoli: Good for the heart

As well as being packed with antioxidants, this veg provides heaps of beta-carotene, which protects against cancer and disease. It's also rich in folate, which can help to reduce the risk of heart disease. Broccoli is high in fibre, which is vital for cutting the risk of bowel cancer, digestive disorders and heart disease.

4. Cabbage: Good for cutting the risk of cancer

It may have been the most dreaded vegetable at school dinner time, but it contains amazing anti-cancer and antioxidant compounds. Studies have shown that people who eat cabbage once a week compared to once a month slash their colon cancer risk by a third.

5. Berries: Good for supple skin

Blueberries, blackcurrants, raspberries and cranberries all help the body make collagen, the protein needed to keep skin supple, smooth and healthy. Blackcurrants in particular protect against UV skin damage and reduce the ageing effect of sunburn by neutralising free radicals. Cranberries and blueberries both help protect against cystitis by stopping harmful bacteria sticking to the urinary tract.

6. Oily fish: Good for protecting against heart disease, diabetes and wrinkles

Oily fish is the best source of omega 3, an essential fatty acid that the body can't manufacture on its own. Omega 3 has been found to protect against heart disease, adult-onset diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis. This fat also reduces skin dryness and improves elasticity, which means wrinkles are less likely to appear. Celebs such as Kim Cattrall follow a salmon-based anti-ageing plan – the Perricone Plan – which lifts and smooths skin in three days. If the recent pollution scares have put you off, tuna, swordfish, anchovy, herring, mackerel and sardines are good omega 3 sources.

7. Grapes: Good for preventing saggy skin

Red and black grapes contain 20 known antioxidants that work together to fend off the free radical attacks that lead to wrinkly skin and disease. These antioxidants are concentrated in the skin, so always buy the most colourful grapes you can find. All grapes contain compounds that strengthen the capillaries and protect against thread veins and skin sagging.

8. Carrots: Good for lowering bad cholesterol and protecting skin from sun damage

The bunny's fave is high in anti-ageing vitamin C and a good source of dietary fibre. One study showed that eating two carrots a day lowered bad cholesterol by 10 per cent. Cook the veg to release nutrients from the tough cell structure and you'll get heaps of beta-carotene. Research has shown that people with low levels of beta-carotene in their blood are more likely to have heart attacks, strokes and certain cancers. This nutrient also protects against the sun's rays. One study found that taking carotenoids equivalent to two large carrots a day gives a natural SPF of 2 to 4 in light-skinned people.

9. Citrus fruit: Good for fighting infection

The orange has been described as the 'complete package of natural anti-cancer nutrients'. It's an excellent source of collagen-building vitamin C and helps maintain the body's defences against bacterial infection. The other wonder citrus fruit is grapefruit, which has a unique type of fibre proven to dramatically reduce cholesterol and help prevent arteries clogging up.

10. Tomatoes: Good for reducing the risk of cancer

Toms are the richest source of lycopene, which forms the red pigment in the flesh. As well as repairing the DNA damage that can lead to crinkly old skin, recent research suggests that lycopene may also help to preserve mental and physical function among older people and reduce the risk of breast, prostate, pancreatic and cervical cancer.

Link

This caught my eye...hospital days allow me to read things I may otherwise have missed...

Premiership footballers are storing stem cells from their newborn babies to use in case of their own career-threatening sports injuries.

They are freezing cells taken from the umbilical cord blood of their babies as a possible future cure for cartilage and ligament problems, the Sunday Times newspaper reported.

Five professional footballers have frozen their children's stem cells with Liverpool-based CryoGenesis International (CGI), and London-based Smart Cells, has done the same for three Premiership players in the past year.

One Premier League footballer, playing in the northwest of England, explained: "We decided to store our new baby's stem cells for possible future therapeutic reasons, both for our children and possibly for myself.

"As a footballer, if you're prone to injury it can mean the end of your career, so having your stem cells - a repair kit if you like - on hand makes sense," added the player, who declined to be named.

Paul Griffiths, managing director of CGI, said: "This has been carried out experimentally. The stem cells are injected directly into the knee and because they have the same genetic code they start rebuilding."

One professional footballer known to have stored stem cells for his children's future use is Arsenal's French international striker Thierry Henry, although there is no indication he intends them for his own use.

Over 11,000 British parents have in the past five years paid up to 1,500 pounds (2,831 dollars) to store their babies' stem cells to use should their children become ill.

Sunrizon

Never expect anything
because the unexpected
will steal it away
in the blink of a day
whichever shape is spun
from lassitude to longevity
illness reproaches
a hinterland dream
in globate image
today's path (of mine)
leads tomorrow beside you
stepping into your thoughts
all mine are with you
smoothened vitality of faith
spruce visions in sunrise
negativities terminus-ad-quem
daylight footsteps...
each belongs to you
the sun, your beaming guide
endless horizon awaits one more step.

written by lauren6
10:25am

In energies light
that moment at sunrise
a time to feel right
where faith always tries

In the deepest soul
a true power source
answers to our all
in nature's unique course

belief will nourish
amidst human fears
the spirit will replenish
and wipe away the tears.

written in hospital by lauren6
20:00 for Kiki

My humble words contain a message of positive energy...all my best wishes at this time for lovely Kk, who I care so much about.
xoxox

We've arranged a civilization in which most crucial elements profoundly depend on science and technology. We have also arranged things so that almost no one understands science and technology. This is a prescription for disaster. We might get away with it for a while, but sooner or later this combustible mixture of ignorance and power is going to blow up in our faces.

-Carl Sagan

I can but agree.
Could you honestly say, hand-on-heart, that you are happy with our technology-based-electronically-obssessed&relaint society?

I posted a week or so ago, about how an internet glitch, pc crash etc can knock us out these days, myself included...and I am constantly fighting with this, as I have hitherto embraced technology, but for how much longer?

I fully realise, that when I am with ink pen, drawing paper, garden and wine, sun and pine, I'm so much happier than when hooked-up by pc...no wonder they called it the web/net, how apt that was, but are we all losing our ability to think for ourselves; I mean the net has brought brilliance, knowledge, quickness of thought, but also, we forget that we need our own time and space, real worldly events and organic interaction.
Science and technology, governments and their nanny states have wrought havoc on the soul of humaness.

When the net goes down, it is not our final curtain call...we are the audience yes, the stage is ours by choosing, not by 'acting'. And the end of the show allows us to return home, not to merely wait for the next performance. Stand back, life is life...if you don't go out to experience it, (at least a little bit), you may as well be dead.

Things in perspective make perfect sense to perceptive watchers...just watch where you are standing and keep moving, not sitting!!!

lauren6

Crossing the Channel of souvenirs
with bobstays and hearts of clay
drawn between harbour fistula
neath monumental cliff's fray

of samphire scent and castle's ascent
perched in ultimate sanctitude
pharos flames, flags and France
memory's vestibule; the mind's magnitude

dehiscent sunshine of lengthy hours
a Dovorian's blessing every summertime
of Straits à la Manche
betwixt mother-fatherland's prime

England's procumbent corner
garden and home of a national chapter
co-authoring the reigns now read
reminding laterigrade politicians we hold the sceptre!

written by lauren6

I read today a lot about healing, as one of my precious family seem to have replaced my regular position on the operating table today.

Among them was the five elements being used to symbolize different things...

Wood
Direction: East
Season: Spring
Colour: Green

Fire
Direction: South
Season: Summer
Colour: Red

Earth
Direction: Center
Season: None
Colour: Yellow

Metal
Direction: West
Season: Autumn
Colour: White

Water
Direction: North
Season: Winter
Colour: Black

The five elements are usually in a constant state of flux.
These elements can be arranged in a number of sequences, but the two usually encountered are the productive sequence and the destructive sequence.

Productive sequence

Wood burns, creating...
Fire leaves ashes, creating...
Earth contains ore, creating...
Metal melts, creating...
Water nourishes plant life, creating (back to Wood)...

Destructive sequence

Wood draws strength from, destroying...
Earth pollutes, destroying...
Water puts out, destroying...
Fire melts, destroying...
Metal chops down, destroying (back to Wood)...

from the Dao De Jing:

Heaven and Earth last forever.
Why do heaven and Earth last forever?
They are unborn, So ever living.
The sage stays behind, thus he is ahead.
He is detached, thus at one with all.
Through selfless action, he attains fulfillment.

Dao De Jing - Chapter 7

Knowing ignorance is strength.
Ignoring knowledge is sickness.
If one is sick of sickness, then one is not sick.
The sage is not sick because he is sick of sickness.
Therefore he is not sick.

Dao De Jing - Chapter 71

The UEA has come out top for student satisfaction in a list of English universities - just days after a national newspaper named Norwich as one of the ten “coolest” places to study. LORNA MARSH asks what it is that is pushing both town and gown up the popularity ladder.

It might not have been spoken of in the same breath as Manchester, London, Leeds and Brighton among A-level students in the past as one of the most coveted places to study but all that is changing.

Not only has the University of East Anglia been gaining a reputation as a modern academic great, but Norwich - once derided as the home of Alan Partridge - is being touted as cool enough for school.

The image has been backed up by facts and surveys.

Yesterday the UEA scored joint top in a league of more than 100 English and Welsh mainstream universities for overall student satisfaction with the academic and support services it offers.

The second National Student Survey shows that UEA has improved on its result of last year in five of the six categories measured by the survey.

The survey was undertaken in January 2006 by final year undergraduates across the UK, with Scottish universities included for the first time this year.

Only one Scottish university - St Andrews, Prince William's choice - beat the UEA overall along with the distance learning Open University, which also topped the survey last year, a specialist dance and drama college and the University of Buckingham, the UK's only private institution.

Each universities' students were asked to score their satisfaction in areas ranging from teaching and assessment to resources and personal development.

For the second consecutive year, UEA's students have given a ringing endorsement of the quality of staff, teaching and student support.

When it comes to ranking individual subjects, UEA is again top for Film and TV Studies, Biology, Psychology and Economics and in the top ten in the UK for 12 of 19 the subject areas identified.

Professor David Eastwood, the university's vice-chancellor, said: “This is a magnificent performance and reflects the huge commitment of all staff in providing outstanding support - both academically and through other services - to students.

“It is a strong reflection of the quality, dedication and effort that is focused upon meeting the needs of students at UEA.”

The survey comes just days after the Independent newspaper named Norwich as one of its top ten “coolest places to study” citing its vibrant nightlife and the UEA's enviable gig lists as just two of the reasons to take a degree there.

The newspaper said: “All but the pickiest should find something to do every night of the week. What the city [Norwich] does for drinking the UEA does for music.”

Francis Hamlin, spokesman for the students' union at the UEA, said it was a unique combination of factors that made the UEA so attractive, such as its proximity to both the countryside and the city, but that most of all it was the friendly atmosphere afforded by its size - large enough to boast top-of-the-range facilities and a feeling of vibrancy but small enough to feel like a community.

He added: “Norwich is a city and feels like one but it is not manic. I think students feel safe living here and while they can go out to Norwich for its nightlife equally they can sit by the lake and read a book, two very different but equally enjoyable experiences.”

With the UEA offering students the state-of-the-art Sportspark, the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, the world-famous creative writing course, a colourful yet friendly city on the edge of unspoilt countryside, top-notch academic teaching and support and coups such as the Literary Festival and the BA Festival of Science it is no wonder it is finally getting the recognition it deserves.

And if surveys were not enough to convince anyone of the region's appeal the fact that 46pc of students stay in Norfolk after graduating should be.

Famous alumni:

Benedict Allen: explorer

Tracy Chevalier: novelist

David Cummings: musician (Del Amitri) and writer (The Fast Show)

Jack Davenport: actor (latterly in Pirates of the Caribbean)

Charlie Higson: comedian (The Fast Show)

Kazuo Ishiguro: author of Remains of the Day, Booker Prize winner

Toby Litt: novelist

Ian McEwan: novelist and Booker Prize winner

Jonathan Powell: former Controller of BBC One

Jane Root: former Controller of BBC Two

Selina Scott: broadcaster;

Arthur Smith: comedian

Paul Whitehouse: comedian (The Fast Show).

John Rhys-Davies: actor

Strengths and statistics:

Male/Female ratio: 2:3

Price of a pint in student bar: from £1.60

Teaching strengths: The National Student Survey ranked it top for teaching in Film and TV Studies, Biology, Psychology and Economics. External assessment deemed it excellent in Environmental Sciences, Development Studies, Law, Social Work, American Studies, Philosophy and Politics. Plus there is the MA in Creative Writing - the first and still the most highly regarded course in the UK.

Music and gigs: The Independent said: “Its two venues' gig roster is like pop music's roll of honour with the biggest names performing each year and other students' unions wondering how on earth they manage it.”

Recent performances include the Arctic Monkeys, the Editors and the Futureheads and coming up are Embrace, Orson and Jools Holland.

Environment: Located two miles outside Norwich city centre in 320 acres of beautiful parkland, including conservation areas which provide a haven for wildlife. The campus has award-winning architecture by Sir Denys Lasdun, Lord Foster, Rick Mather and others, and many awards for the energy efficiency of its buildings.

Sports: The Sunday Times University Guide 2006-07 (in conjunction with University and College Sport) ranks the University of East Anglia as best in the UK for sports facilities, achieving 54 stars out of a maximum of 55.

Rent: Average £216 a month off campus; from £50 to £78 a week on campus, compared to £93 in London.

Employment after study: In the last survey of graduates three years after leaving (undertaken in 2001), 78pc were in full time employment, 81pc had not experienced unemployment since leaving and 86pc had jobs that fitted their employment aims. Only 3pc were unemployed at the time of the survey.

Break down of degrees awarded: 2004-05: 1st - 9pc; 2:1 - 56pc, 2.2 - 28pc, 3rd - 6pc, pass - 1pc. Compared to national figures: 1st - 10.6pc; 2:1 - 43.3pc, 2.2 - 30.2pc, 3rd and pass - 7.3pc (unclassified 3.4pc)

Drop our rate 3.4pc compared to 7.2pc nationally.

The UEA Careers Centre is encouraging recent graduates living in Norfolk to release their full work potential following a successful funding bid through the Norfolk Learning Partnership and Norfolk County Council.

Some 46pc of UEA graduates choose to stay on in Norfolk after graduation, one of the highest retention rates in the country. Added to this, many graduates from other universities come to the area for the first time or return to it as their home region.

But soon after leaving many graduates are employed in non-graduate jobs, such as bar keeping or shop work, while they decide upon their longer-term career ambitions.

Deborah Lowen, one of the business performance coaches working on the project dubbed Stay Local … Do Different, said: “In my experience, the people who are happiest and most successful in their careers are those who know what they really want and actively explore ways to achieve it.”

The project, staffed by members of UEA Careers Centre and career and business performance management coaches, aims to provide enhanced services for graduates to help them to stay locally through identifying personal capabilities and finding suitable graduate-level work opportunities. Workshops and individual guidance sessions will be delivered as flexibly as possible to ensure that those who are in work can attend.

UEA Careers Centre will therefore be consulting and working closely with employers to put together an information pack 'Getting the Most From Your Graduate' which will be available to all local employers who may consider employing graduates or offering work experience opportunities.

from EDP

When a jump is easier than a mile
a transcending emotion hides a smile
like a blanket offering tender comfort
yet obliterates a merry sun's effort

you may hedge your bets at will
though enclosed you may be still
as furore acts beside itself
is it the audience within yourself?

a clepsydra awaits it's encore
as the hours buckle beneath and pour
where lies insipid inspiration now?
staging a revival somehow?

written by lauren6 after heavy medication

Gratitude has a lot to do with life satisfaction, psychologists say. Talking and writing about what they're grateful for amplifies adults' happiness, new studies show. Other researchers have found that learning to savor even small pleasures has the same effect. And forgiveness is the trait most strongly linked to happiness, says University of Michigan psychologist Christopher Peterson.

"It's the queen of all virtues, and probably the hardest to come by," he adds.

I will surely agree with this, personally, as writing is a tremendous healer, and offers so much more than the modern idea that it requires 'effort'!

...Effort to write, or type, is in your own hands in your own mind, and has the magnificent energy, and ability to transcend beyond anything physical.
It can also do you a great deal of positive good, as this article states; by opening up ourselves, we can learn...relearn, develop and grow from the very simple act of writing, and the expressing of our feelings, the deepest of which for so long hidden in northern Europe, is something my mother and I never held-back from expressing what we feel, I thank her dearly for instilling in me, the need and ability to express all, or politely all, that we feel, which offers quicker healing and understanding of our internal ways, than speaking to acquiescent and overworked doctor's (for example), ever can.

How often have you excitedly written about something you've enjoyed, or hurridly felt the need to tel someone close about a good event? And how much better do you feel afterwards?
Furthermore, the recipient of the good news too will feel a level of betterness!

The expression, is the connection of health.

lauren6

PS: Tell me what makes you happy today?
let's all have a go at sharing happy thoughts!

For my part, I have had some lovely comments about my humble writing of verse on this blog; to those a big thank you...it is a double happiness, because in th past I would write in my book, now I can blog, so technology has benefits...and I would rather SHARE any happiness I have rather than hold it alone.

You are all special!

When hope went all a wenden
faith held firm by riverbanks
as if to reconfirm the elementary course
of coming together in ranks
settling upon mazarine Wensum
extolling it's virtues
endlessly flowing
where all is one, once more.

written by lauren6

Halcyon days to come
my belief is sure
surviving
a night of isthmus health
my faithful iterance
undiminished
like the sun
beside your tutelage
replenished
by the warm waters
that surround our dreams
you empower me
I've so much to give
like the sun's welkin victory.

written by lauren6

Clouds part for sun
boy courts girl
rain kisses drought
where 2 hearts embrace
rich harvests gleaned
as humble spirits overcame
both drought and rain
nature's beautiful reward-
we respected the land,
and love one another!

written by lauren6

Waking up this morning, after a night of heart medication, it's amazing what jumps into my mind from the real world around me...

Firstly, the good news of Liverpool limping, literally, to the Champions League proper. The game showed the now serious nature of risk-taking professional footballers go through, with three bad injuries in two games.

Secondly, a subject I've not written about here before, but one which interests me; football shirts...and frankly, Liverpool's style is far too fussy for my liking, it makes our greats looks slightly Elizabethan! If we can have some of Elizabeth I's power then fair enough.
Arsenal's shirts look totally cool, Chelsea look ok, but Manchester United, oh dear...I am all for simplicity, minimalism, and all that, but for a team that can attract 75,000 gates, can't they afford a decent kit? With respect, the home shirts looks like a team from the old Isthmian League, or...say, Dagenham & Redbridge, Shepshed Charterhouse, Diss Town, Manchester United?? Well, this in no way reflects my feelings for the Red Devils, only your shirts! 50 years since the Busby babes? We'll see...I am genuinly pleased to see Ronaldo and Rooney partnering well...that's good for football, so my post is no longer lopsided~~~

Ah yes, and good morning!!
Sunny and warm, at last~~

Hey, we're like soldiers. Would you go to the Roman army and ask them if they thought they were going to win the battle? If I didn't think we could win, I wouldn't be here.
I'd stay home and get fat.
-Ken Simonton

Been taken care of by medication and cardiology, but grabbed a naughty 5 minutes now...

Iberian feelings...

Clouds as if by magic
dissapated
autumnal morning bows-out
graceful summer returns

my veins expediate
judiciously enlivened
ready to go
proacting la folie

deeper than even I know
a cumulus curtain-raiser
supporting act of the sun
rays energised by you

music entrancing me
tiesto to the fiesta of life
within Iberian arms
rescuing my shipwrecked heart.

written by lauren6

We highlight
all the love
in beautiful revanche
delight in flight
feelings parturient
a frosted summer morn
fed on a morsel
habdabs pre-empty noon
cast this frigorific frame
walking a jetty to jejune
turning sun; the proem
from splayed heart
to twining stem
from evening's end
an antradistinctive start
with love to endue
a kern-like embrace
what a harmonious place!

written by lauren6

A wingbeat grounded
a drumbeat fading-out
a train arriving late
a boat courting it's harbour
a mind distracted
a heart outpaced
a tunnel ahead
a light failure
a North wind
a sinking feeling
a sleepless night
a dream undreamt
a motionless spirit
a soul possessed

this flight of survival
this music of life
this journey of destiny
this seafaring freedom
this belief
this leading pulsebeat
this abridgement of hope
this enlightenment
this Southern warmth
this swimming rejuvination
this envigorating sunrise
this day still unseen
this freespirited movement
this soul set free.

written by lauren6
09:00 22/08/2006

It lives and breaths uncertainty
disrupts sleep
officiously dwelling in dreams
tearing away health at the seams

sleep-walking a tightrope
a semblance of the other side
this nocturnal modus vivendi
draws a restless all-seeing-eye

the night's nidiculous thoughts
entrapped by the onslaught
a leaden blanket of nigrescent pain
grappling the envisionary nightmare, slain

wield to the illusive figure
a niminy-piminy premonition
silencing my garden of resolve
beseeming weariness, a muse to absolve.

written by lauren6
03:15 22/08/06

How and why - such a ceaseless cry
of enigmatic weather
and soraral evening breezes
memories transhume in a slither

a double apparition before 2
the transmigration of being
and of faceless grieving
racing heart fastidiously abeating

without aim, an emotional antipode
brings a life now depolarised
deracination; the inevitable
magnanimity desolately mesmorised

resorbing otherworldly redolence
the crossroads of power
a mediant struggle enswathed
beneath mind's Thai temple tower

this giddy styptic image
a halfmoon incumbent unexpected
-irenic need now invoked
such living hope suggested.

written by lauren6

It came closer,
and so much nearer
to the point of touch
and whispered in my ear
as all else faded
and daylight ceased,
an apparition at half-mast
whose familarity untold
a mistied afterthought
of survival justified.

mid-afternoon...August 21st

Welcome to England indeed, some laughs and interesting thoughts, for kk...

"Boy George is all England needs - another queen who can't dress."
Joan Rivers

Nowehere in the world do supporters love their clubs more than in England. England is paradise to play in.
-Arjen Robben (Chelsea)

England is not all the world.
-Mary Queen of Scots

England has four seasons. But do we have to have them in one day.
-Oscar Wilde

“Thinking is the most unhealthy thing in the world, and people die of it just as they die of any other disease. Fortunately, in England at any rate, thought is not catching. Our splendid physique as a people is entirely due to our national stupidity.”
-Oscar Wilde

“Europeans, like some Americans, drive on the right side of the road, except in England, where they drive on both sides of the road; Italy, where they drive on the sidewalk; and France, where if necessary they will follow you right into the hotel lobby.”
-Dave Barry

“England expects that every man will do his duty.”
-Horatio Nelson [Norfolk's best-known son]

“If I should die, think only this of me: that there's some corner of a foreign field that is for ever England.”
-Rupert Brooke

“England and the English As a rule they will refuse even to sample a foreign dish, they regard such things as garlic and olive oil with disgust, life is unlivable to them unless they have tea and puddings”
-George Orwell

“When all is said, its atmosphere (England's) still contains fewer germs of aggression and brutality per cubic foot in a crowded bus, pub or queue than in any other country in which I have lived”
-Arthur Koestler

This island is made mainly of coal and surrounded by fish. Only an organizing genius could produce a shortage of coal and fish at the same time.
-Aneurin Bevan
Source: in a speech at Blackpool as reported by the "Daily Herald" on May 25, 1945

Bind her, grind her, burn her with fire, Cast her ashes into the sea,-- She shall escape, she shall aspire, She shall arise to make men free; She shall arise in a sacred scorn, Lighting the lives that are yet unborn, Spirit supernal, splendor eternal, England!
-Helen Gray Cone

This was sent to me, and is purely fun yet interesting too; I've answered mine, have a go too...

Your heritage: English, but of French-Italian family roots.

Shoes you wore today: No shoes...no, no shoes.

Your weakness: Philippine garlic nuts.

Your fears: Putting on weight that I've succesfully lost.

Your perfect pizza: Any REAL Italian one, must have black olives though. Portuguese black olives if possible.

Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow
Your most overused phrase: "But" with one 't'~~

Your thoughts first waking up: I'm alive for one more day...any other thoughts remain my own!

Your best physical feature: A gifted spinal fusion of me, myself and hospitals.
Your bedtime: Medicinally-induced 10ish, or high-tension enforced midnight.

Your most missed memory: I miss my grandmother.

Your Pick
Iced Tea or Soft Drink: Iced Tea

Soup or Salad: Soup right now, could be salad tomorrow.

Single or group dates: Both are cool, but if I had to choose, single date with a special somebody.

Slip-ons or Lace-ups: Slip ons. Slip-on tropical sandals...but the weather will beg to differ.

Fruity or Herbal: Herbal.

Jell-O or Pudding: Pudding in my former days...now, maybe not.

Coffee or Hot Chocolate: Coffee, so long as it's continentally bloody strong!

Do You?
Smoke: Nooooo.

Cuss: +_*&

Sing: It has been known...in Shinjuku, Tokyo I was well-away in a karaoke box, to Liam Gallagher's best!

Take a shower everyday: Oh yes.

Still talk to your first love:

Like your job: Yes I do...just wishing for health to allow me to go 100% back into it.

Like(d) high school: Very defintely no, over the teacher's striking years, it was bloody awful.

Get motion sickness: Not usually.

Think you’re attractive: I would never say such a thing.

Think you’re obsessive-compulsive about anything: Compulsive to help close people, to draw, write, compulsive yes...obsessive no.

Get along with your parents: Yes for sure.

Like thunderstorms: Yes, totally...I adore the power and freshness, symphonic wonderment of all.

Play an instrument: Eeeee, not much, but I can play some tunes on piano.

In the past month have you…
Spent more than £100+ on a single item that wasn’t an obigatory item? No.

Had a verbal argument where you screamed at someone: Oh yes!!! On the highways of Essex, a nutter overtaking then pulling-up in front of the vehicle I was in; he got some lip from me, oh yes!

Purchased Cottage Cheese: Nooo, never...but I believe it's yummy.

Surprised someone for a special event: Yes I have; my old school friend had his birthday...I remembered it, which surprised him!

Purchased a new CD: Yes, Tiesto: In Search of Sunrise 5.

Gone to the mall: Yes, last week for Chinese practitioner's help, though he refused to perform acupuncture on my already bad spine.

Purchased an MP3: No, because I was given one for ma-b'day!

Sent your resume out for a new job: Nicht.

Been on stage: Actually yes, many times, but not this past month.

Moved: Too many times, but this month I'm rooted!

Had lunch with a group of ten or more: Yes, with a Welsh crowd of about 50, in which they have a 'tradition' of not allowing anyone out of the banqueting hall to pee until after midnight...these details were omitted from the menu and invites.

Had a cold: No.

Changed your hairstyle: The rain did it for me.

Taken a vacation: No.

Ever…
Played a game that required removal of clothing: Hahahahahaha.

Been trashed or extremely intoxicated: One time, and never again.
Been caught in a lie: Yes, and the bloody telesales company stopped phoning me thereafter.

Been called a tease: Have I??

Shoplifted: No.

Getting Older

Age where you believe your life really began (if not yet, give a guess): Well, somewhere in the teen years, but I think since turning 30 many things are better actually. 30 seems to give added youth, whereas in youth we try or are forced to be adult...so now is the best time in many ways!

Are you really what you want to be now you're grown-up: No, but I hope I'm getting there!

Where would you like to retire to: Portugal.

One fear about getting older: Forgetting anything, anyone...

In The Numbers…
Number of jobs I’ve had in my life: Umm, not too many as I've enjoyed what I've done...I think 4.

Number of people I could trust with my life: half a dozen.

Number of CDs that I own: Approaching 2000.

Number of piercings: zero

Number of tattoos: None...resisted it!

Number of times my name has appeared in the Newspaper? Ah, a few times, not sure how many.

Number of scars: Knees, and surgeries...

Number of things in my past that I regret: Not many, but I wish I had done the things I love sooner...but this is typical of life isn't it!

Two Viking invaders are trudging up the beach in the pouring rain. One looks skywards and says, "So this is England. What's it like?" The other snarls, "Well, if you like the weather, you'll love the food."

There's a technical term for a sunny, warm day which follows two rainy days. It's called Monday.

First cave man to 2nd cave man: "I don't care what you say. We never had such unusual weather before they started using bows and arrows."

An honest weatherman says, "Today's forecast is bright and sunny with an 80% chance that I'm wrong."

A film crew was on location deep in the desert. One day an old Indian went up to the director and said, "Tomorrow, rain." The next day it rained. A week later, the Indian went up to the director and said, "Tomorrow, storm." The next day there was a hailstorm. "This Indian is incredible," said the director. He told his secretary to hire the Indian to predict the weather. However, after several successful predictions, the old Indian didn't show up for two weeks. Finally the director sent for him. "I have to shoot a big scene tomorrow," said the director, "and I'm depending on you. What will the weather be like?" The Indian shrugged his shoulders. "Don't know," he said. "Radio broke."

We've seen such uncertainty
refracting harmful rays
of the opposition unfazed
treaty, signing-away malaise

Like port in Summer
swallowed like a kiss
for all seasons
love is our thesis

Every word so huggable
harbouring a heart
no longer at sea
periegesis! we hereby depart

Passing life's pied-à-terre
two hearts reside as one
in nature's habitual sanctuary
a world paradise noumenon

Yet breath freely we will
like a kiss to glissade
we are the valley's to seas
together embouchure heralds our serenade.

written by lauren6

The opening of the £250m Chapelfield complex has propelled Norwich into the country's top five places to shop and cemented the city's status as the region's retailing capital.

A year after it opened, new figures reveal it is attracting shoppers from as far afield as Colchester and Bedford - turning Norwich into a major commercial rival to London's Oxford Street and the Bluewater shopping centre in Essex.

Chapelfield's management also revealed yesterday that it has hit its target of attracting 10m shoppers in its first year. The flagship House of Fraser store reported that one in five of its account holders regularly travel over 80 miles to visit the city.

And Chapelfield's success appears to be spreading to other retailers around the city. Both John Lewis and the Castle Mall have reported increases in the volume of shoppers over the last year.

“This is not just about Chapelfield. The outlets we offer have combined with the range of independent shops such as Jarrold and the Norwich Lanes and the historical significance of Norwich to create a very attractive city centre,” Chapelfield's general manager Steve Bunce said.

“We have proved Norwich can more than compete with centres like Bluewater and with other cities in the area such as Cambridge.”

Sophie Hallett of Castle Mall said: “For the first six months of the year we have recorded increased footfall in the Mall. But that is what Chapelfield was supposed to do - attract more shoppers to the city.”

Research by retail consulting firm Javelin published yesterday ranked Norwich as the fifth best shopping city in Britain - behind Glasgow, Birmingham, Edinburgh and Manchester but ahead of Newcastle, Liverpool, Leeds and even Oxford Street.

The new figures come against the background of worries in other parts of the country about high street retail trade and after some observers questioned whether Chapelfield would mean Norwich having too many shops.

Rob Barton, manager of House of Fraser, said: “Norwich is a real alternative to central London because people can come here and make a day of it and have a much more pleasant shopping experience.”

Mr Bunce is confident that Chapelfield has had a positive impact on the city a year on from its opening last September.

He said: “We have improved our car-parking, keeping prices and queuing down. We have attracted some retailers to the city who were not represented in Norwich before. Some 70pc of our retailers are new to Norwich and we have improved the area considerably.

“We have attracted more people to this end of town and the clean-up of this area of Norwich has even revealed parts of the city walls which some people had never noticed before.”

There are 80 shops in Chapelfield along with 17 restaurants or cafes - and managers hope to be making use of all seven of their empty units by their first birthday, in September, as four are already under offer.

Newcomers to Norwich such as House of Fraser, Borders bookstore and quirky clothing store Joy have attributed their roaring success to their location within the Chapelfield centre - and have also found their Norwich branch to be among their most successful.

Area manager of Joy, Miles Lanham, said: “Chapelfield is perfect for us because of its late opening hours. Our customers work and want to shop in the evenings. They want retails therapy after work or to pick up a new dress and a birthday present on her way to the party.

“It is our largest store and we are finding Norwich customers have really taken it to their hearts. Some visit once a week.”

Borders Sales manager Nick Mowitt said the Chapelfield approach was good for business: “We have held several events with Wagamamas restaurant next door, promoting their cookery books and bringing in more customers on an evening out.

“We have done extremely well in Norwich.”

from EDP

As the heaven's have truly opened over Norfolk this month, today bares witness to smallscale flooding on local roads and gardens, as the thundery showers turn into tropical downpours of several hours in duration.

Just returning from the beautifully named "pain clinic" I found my garden under a few centimeters of rainwater, which will please the Blackbirds, disappoint the worms, and give the lawnmower another day off.

My pain, in this 96% humidity is surprisingly less, which might be due to these theories on passing weather fronts, which affect the damaged parts of our bodies prior to their arrival. My body was in distress two days ago, and here we are today under it's overbearing influence.

Now my medication will take affect, but the greatest pharmaceutical healers always come after nature has chosen the direction and path!!

lauren6

How the Weather Affects Your Health
by Manfred Kaiser

Do you feel tired or exhausted? Do you suffer from a headache? Why don't you blame the weather? Millions claim that the weather literally gets onto their nerves - and rightly so. Whether we like it or not, you and I are part of nature. We are not robots but biological beings, evolved over millions of years. Despite technology's great efforts to detach us from nature, we are still subject to it, including the weather. Just because there is only limited scientific proof that weather sensitivity exists doesn't mean that you are wrong and doesn't mean that the medical profession should dismiss your plight as a psychological disorder. The sheer number of worldwide sufferers won't be ignored any longer and science is slowly catching up.

A weather-sensitive person reacts with varying intensity to changes in weather elements, such as air pressure, temperature and humidity. These changes can affect a person's well-being and may worsen the symptoms of existing disorders, in particular pain. Some of the effects are: increased irritability and aggressiveness, anxiety, depression, listlessness, fatigue, lack of concentration, sleep disorders, headache and migraine, heart and circulation irregularities, nausea, dizziness, scar pain or phantom pain, and rheumatic pain.

The symptoms vary from person to person and their intensity generally increases with age, lower level of fitness and a body weakened due to illness. Of course, they can also mask or be the result of an underlying disorder that has nothing to do with weather. Therefore, see your doctor if uncertain of the cause.

When my grandfather's rheumatic knee hurts; we will get rain. Many people trust their hips and knees and forecast the weather almost as accurately as can the meteorologists with their supercomputers. But why do some people respond to weather and others don't?

Rapid and frequent weather changes appear to be the main culprits. Weather-sensitive people become irritated a day or two before the change and are often miserable when a weather front arrives. The conditions favor childbirth, so a greater number of babies have their first glimpses of their parents during those weather conditions. Cases of suicides, heart attacks, bleeding ulcers, headaches and migraines all increase. Rheumatics dread the arrival of cold and damp weather, while cold and dry air aggravates asthma symptoms. Expanding air in isolated body cavities may explain some weather-sensitivity symptoms. The weather fronts have something for everybody, it seems.

Some scientists take a different approach in their quest to solve the puzzle. They believe that electromagnetic impulses have an effect on our well-being. Natural electromagnetism, strong enough to cause weather sensitivity, is present in lightning-induced atmospherics (sferics) and charged particles (ions).

What can you do about weather sensitivity? It is likely that we all benefit from the frequent stimulation of changing weather. The modern lifestyle, with air conditioners, humidifiers and heaters, however, blunts the weather 'shocks'. In other words, we are no longer trained to cope with weather stress. Therefore, the best advice is to harden your senses by exposing them to the elements. Spend more time outdoors, in all kinds of weather. European medical professionals go even further and recommend stronger stimulants, such as saunas or alternating hot and cold showers.

One can find so many pains when the rain is falling.
-John Steinbeck

For after all the best thing one can do when it is raining, is to let it rain.
-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

A meteorology professor stood before his Meteorology 101 class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, wordlessly he picked up a very large and empty glass mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.

The professor then picked up a jar of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles, of course, rolled into the open spaces between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.

The professor picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar and of course the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with an unanimous yes.

The professor then produced two cans of beer from under the table and then proceeded to pour the entire contents into the jar, effectively filling the empty space between the grains of sand. The students laughed.

"Now," said the professor, as the laughter subsided, "I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. The golf balls are the important things -- your family, your partner, your health, your children, your friends, your favorite passions -- things that if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full.

"The pebbles are the other things that matter, like your job, your house, your car. The sand is everything else -- the small stuff.

"If you put the sand into the jar first," he continued, "there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for your life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, you will never have room for the things that are important to you. Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Play with your children. Take time to get medical checkups. Take your partner out dancing. Play another 18.

"There will always be time to go to work, clean the house, give a dinner party and fix the disposal. Take care of the golf balls first -- the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand."

One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the beer represented. The professor smiled. "I'm glad you asked. It just goes to show you that no matter how full your life may seem, there's always room for a couple of beers."

Once-Balmy Climate Lured Humans to England Early.

By Ann Gibbons

Scientists following a trail of stone tools and butchered animal bones have uncovered evidence that early humans lived in Britain well before 500,000 years ago, perhaps not long after the first Europeans appear much farther south in Spain and Italy, about 800,000 to 1 million years ago. The early English settlers probably followed a wave of hippos, elephants, hyenas, and other animals drawn to Britain’s then-balmy climate, according to a talk and poster by paleoanthropologist Chris Stringer of the Natural History Museum in London. But when the climate cooled, as it did repeatedly over the following epochs, all traces of human occupation vanished.

Several new sites suggest that humans were in Britain well before the appearance of the 500,000-year-old Boxgrove Man, whose shinbone and teeth were discovered in a gravel quarry in Boxgrove, England, from 1993 to 1996. The sites may help shed light on whether more than one type of human migrated to Europe more than 500,000 years ago and reveal the type of terrain they could inhabit. “This pushes the age of humans north of the Alps back further than previously documented,” says paleoanthropologist Erik Trinkaus of Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.

Boxgrove showed that the earliest known Briton was a member of Homo heidelbergensis, a proto-Neandertal species with deep roots in Europe. The new sites have no human remains, but researchers found tools along the coast of the ancient Bytham River in East Anglia. The tools appear in some of the most ancient river terraces and are associated with insects and animals that suggest a date far older than Boxgrove, Stringer said in his talk. One site with tools may be as old as 700,000 years.

These early Europeans carried a primitive stone tool kit for scraping and cutting. But they lacked the hand ax—a versatile stone tool nicknamed the Paleolithic Swiss Army knife—already in widespread use in Africa. The Boxgrove hominid did wield a hand ax and so may have been part of a separate wave of settlers, says Stringer, who directs the $1.88 million Ancient Human Occupation of Britain program funded by the Leverhulme Trust. Studies of animal fossils paint a portrait of a warm climate that allowed animals now found only in Africa to migrate from northern Europe to England across a land bridge.

Although humans arrived in Britain early, they did not live there continuously, said Stringer. There are no signs of human occupation during several periods, particularly during glaciations. From 180,000 to 130,000 years ago, herds of mammoth and reindeer roamed England, but there is little evidence of humans. Hippos and elephants reappear when the ice caps melt at about 130,000 years, but humans don’t show up again until about 60,000 years ago when Neandertals return. Modern humans came later, but even they disappeared during an Ice Age as recent as 25,000 to 17,000 years ago. “People assume that once people were in Britain, they were always there,” says Stringer. “We’re seeing little pulses of human occupation. They disappeared when it got very cold. There is not a continuous human presence until 12,000 years ago.”

Since the onset of spinal pain and increasing reliance on other sources of healing, I have noticed my own body acting as a kind of barometer foretelling imminent weather conditions and particular changes...most markedly a few weeks ago, just before the breakdown of that lovely heatwave, and the now normal presence of a cooler and wetter summer weather-type...this caused a 'tightening' on my limbs, right down to my right foot, almost to the point of paralysis...movement ground to a halt for hours...until the belt of rain was overhead, whereupon my spine regained some freedom, albeit slight.
This is nothing new at all, but confirms that our bodies can recognise weather changes, very easily, and how humble we are against something so obvious, yet so untouchable, as the very air of our being....

lauren6

Since ancient times, people have made a connection between weather and health. Hippocrates first wrote about the affect of hot and cold winds on people and the possible connection between epidemics and weather conditions in 400 BC. These ideas were further developed by herbalists in the Middle Ages, who prescribed specific plants for use during the different winds. Many of these ideas were discarded as "folk medicine" with the rise of empirical science, and lacking in scientific basis. Centuries later, medical science began a series of experiments that led to a revived interest in the connection between weather and health.

In 1877, S.Weir Mitchell, a Philadelphia doctor wrote an article in the prestigious American Journal of Medical Sciences on "The Relation of Pain to Weather". The article related the onset and degree of pain recorded in a log by a Union Captain, whose leg had been amputated after a Civil War injury, to local weather conditions. He observed that the pain began as pressures fell and humidity and temperatures rose, conditions usually associated with an approaching storm. He noted the pain continued until the pressures began to rise and humidities began to fall as the storm departed.

Seventy years later in Germany, another very similar study confirmed this relationship and really kick-started a new science, called Biometeorology. Formed from the two Greek words "bios" meaning life and meteoros meaning "the study of phenomena up above (thus weather phenomena in the atmosphere)". The new science studied the effect of weather on life (health).

This time the two players were Otto Hollich, a PhD student at the University of Hamburg and Claus Thurkow, a German soldier. Claus had lost an arm in 1945 after heavy shrapnel injury suffered in World War II. He kept a detailed daily log of the onset, degree and duration of pain for five years while the meteorology student tracked the daily weather. The meteorology student used more sophisticated statistical methods than the earlier study but the results were very much the same. He noted that the pain began when pressure fell and humidities rose, the first sign of an approaching storm. The research showed the pain continued until the storm and cold front finally passed, pressures began to rise and temperatures and humidities began to fall.

The pain and weather relationship has since been established beyond reasonable doubt from further controlled studies. After that study, much additional research in both the US and abroad has since established relationships between many ailments and weather conditions. The Germans have taken a world lead in this new discipline. The German meteorological service for years now have provided daily advice and advisories to hospitals, doctors and clinics in Germany on which ailments are likely to be aggravated due to expected weather conditions.

Link

Reported in the Massachusetts Bar Association Lawyers Journal, the
following are questions actually asked of witnesses by attorneys during
trials and, in certain cases, the responses given by insightful witnesses.

1. "Now doctor, isn't it true that when a person dies in his sleep, he
doesn't know about it until the next morning?"

2. "The youngest son, the twenty-year old, how old is he?"

3. "Were you present when your picture was taken?"

4. "Were you alone or by yourself?"

5. "Was it you or your younger brother who was killed in the war?"

6. "Did he kill you?"

7. "How far apart were the vehicles at the time of the collision?"

8. "You were there until the time you left, is that true?"

9. "How many times have you committed suicide?"

10. Q: "So the date of conception (of the baby) was August 8th?"
A: "Yes."
Q: "And what were you doing at that time?"

11. Q: "She had three children, right?"
A: "Yes."
Q: "How many were boys?"
A: "None."
Q: "Were there any girls?"

12. Q: "You say the stairs went down to the basement?"
A: "Yes."
Q: "And these stairs, did they go up also?"

13. Q: "Mr. Slatery, you went on a rather elaborate honeymoon, didn't you?"
A: "I went to Europe, Sir."
Q: "And you took your new wife?"

14. Q: "How was your first marriage terminated?"
A: "By death."
Q: "And by who's death was it terminated?"

15. Q: "Can you describe the individual?"
A: "He was about medium height and had a beard."
Q: "Was this a male, or a female?" [Follows-on nicely from my last post!]

16. Q: "Is your appearance here this morning pursuant to a deposition notice
which I sent to your attorney?"
A: "No, this is how I dress when I go to work."

17. Q: "Doctor, how many autopsies have you performed on dead people?"
A: All my autopsies are performed on dead people."

18. Q: "All your responses must be oral, OK? What school did you go to?"
A: "Oral."

19. Q: "Do you recall the time that you examined the body?"
A: "The autopsy started around 8:30 p.m.."
Q: "And Mr. Dennington was dead at the time?"
A: No, he was sitting on the table wondering why I was
doing an autopsy."

20. Q: "You were not shot in the fracas?"
A: "No, I was shot midway between the fracas and the navel."

21. Q: "Are you qualified to give a urine sample?"
A: "I have been since early childhood."

This would help hospital waiting lists too!!

While most companies refrain from allowing consumption of alcohol
on the premises, there are some good arguments for changing that
policy.

Reasons for allowing drinking at work include:
1. It's an incentive to show up.
2. It reduces stress.
3. It leads to more honest communications.
4. It reduces complaints about low pay.
5. It cuts down on time off because you can cure hangovers, from
the night before, with another drink.
6. Employees tell management what they think, not what management
wants to hear.
7. It helps save on heating costs in the winter.
8. It encourages carpooling.
9. Increases job satisfaction because if you have a bad job you
don't care.
10. It eliminates vacations because people would rather come to
work.
11. It makes fellow employees look better.
12. It makes the cafeteria food taste better.
13. Bosses are more likely to hand out raises when they are wasted.
14. Salary negotiations are a lot more profitable.

This morning I found myself in an unusual situation, partly due to lacklustre reactions to medicines, partly to high spirits yesterday, and not unduly from spinal restrictions, I was unshaven until 9.30am, a ghastly sight on self!

It brought me to a strange thought...now that Beckham appears to have stalled on 94, (or is it 96?) international appearances, will he now assume an appearance as yet unseen on the most famous English footballer...a true beard?
He's been everything else, even 'stubbled', but the full ZZTop...will he?

It was good enough, posteriorly, for the likes of, Sri Aurobindo, Confucius, Sigmund Freud, Uncle Jesse, Jesus, Lao Tsu, Jim Morrison, Karl Marx, Zeus, (In Greek Mythology Zeus had a beard which was removed by Diogenes in their argument over the ownership of the Horn of Plenty. Diogenes then hurled the beard into the sea where it was found by the passing Argonauts. They were able to spin the fibres into the ropes which were used to haul the Wooden Horse of Troy), Che Guevara, Sri Swami Satchidananda...why even David Blunkett had a kind of beard.

In England and America a beard usually means that its owner would rather be considered venerable than virile; on the continent of Europe it often means that its owner makes a special claim to virility.
-Rebecca West

All the men in my family were bearded, and most of the women.
-W. C. Fields

There was an old man with a beard,
who said, 'It is just as I feared! -
Two owls and a hen, four larks and a wren,
Have all built their nests in my beard!'
-Edward Lear

Beards, fake and real, were fashionable in ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome

4th Century BC: Alexander the Great ordered his soldiers to shave to avoid having their beards seized during combat

1587: Sir Francis Drake boasted to Elizabeth I that his raid on Cadiz harbour "singed the King of Spain's beard"

1895: William Gillette's invention of safety razor put beards in greater peril

1960s: CIA said to have considered using depilatory on Castro to rob "El Barbudo" of his famous beard

It all makes you wonder where exactly did barbaric come from???

Your inner thoughts can cause you to be rich or poor, loved or unloved, happy or unhappy, attractive or unattractive, powerful or weak.

What you impress upon your mind, you'll inevitably become. It's a psychological law that whatever you desire to accomplish you must first impress upon your subconscious mind.

Relentless, repetitive self talk will change your self image. You'll affect your subconscious mind with verbal repetition. Constant repetition carries conviction.

When you change your values you'll change your behavior. Start thinking of yourself as becoming the person you want to be. Self suggestion will make you the master of yourself.

If you believe you can, you can.
You can become whatever you want to be.

What ten foods would you give-up from today?

This list included one which I would find hard to never return to; ciabatta.
But can anyone out there tell me what that Glesga special is like, the one where Mars bar is deep fried?

I think beetroot would make my top 10, as would candy floss, coca-cola jellybabies, guinness-cheese etc etc...

When trying to lose weight, an occasional slip off your diet wagon is perfectly fine. No one is perfect and a little indulgence is good for keeping you from slipping down that dark alley known as Binge Street. But some foods not only have no nutritional value, they also aren't worth the damage they do to your diet.

If you’ve been around the dieting block, you probably know that giving up certain foods can make you want them even more. For this reason, nutritionists agree that a healthy, sustainable eating plan allows you to eat practically anything in moderation.

However, there are some foods that just aren’t worth the inches they add to your waistline. (Don’t despair – there’s always a better alternative.) Here are 10 foods that we recommend kissing goodbye:

1. Doughnuts

These are true diet busters because they're loaded with sugar – and then deep-fried. One ring doughnut packs almost 240 calories and 13 grams of fat. Opt for some Jaffa Cakes or plain biscuits instead. At around 40 calories a pop, your waistline will thank you!

2. Real mayonnaise

Thanks to the eggs and oil that comprise this favourite salad spread, just one tablespoon of the real stuff contains 11 grams of fat and 100 calories. The reduced-calorie version has half the calories and half the fat, but you can go lighter still by spreading mustards, relishes, horseradish and low-fat salad dressings on your sandwich.

3. Ciabatta-style pizzas

Ciabatta is a type of bread made with olive oil, so it’s much higher in fat than your average pizza base. Add to this a topping of cheese and pepperoni and you could be approaching 1,000 calories for just one little pizza! Choose thin-based pizzas and avoid stuffed crusts, deep-pan style and pepperoni.

4. Hot dogs

These Bonfire Night favourites can get up to 150 of their 180 calories from fat. It makes you wonder whether they qualify as meat at all. The nitrites contained in hot dogs have also been linked to increased rates of cancer in some studies. For a tasty, low-fat replacement, choose grilled veggie sausages or chicken kebabs instead.

5. Deep-fried cheese

This popular starter option in many restaurants should carry a health warning! Full-fat cheese already contains more than its fair share of fat, most of it saturated. Deep frying boosts the fat and calorie content even higher, making this gooey concoction a serious nutritional no-no.

6. Fizzy drinks

While technically not a food, fizzy drinks are often included among the list of culprits in the nation’s increasing weight problem. With no nutritional value and as many as 12 teaspoons of sugar in each can, most nutritionists see no reason to keep them in your diet. If you can’t give them up, at least choose diet soft drinks, which are calorie free.

7. Cinema popcorn

A super-size bag of this snack, typically popped in vegetable oil and doused in butter, is enough to turn your tummy into a double feature. Believe it or not, some sweets are actually less laden with fat and calories than popcorn. If you must munch at the movies, opt for liquorice or jellies (stick to one serving) – or smuggle in some air-popped popcorn.

8. Crisps and dips

"Once you pop, you can't stop" rings true for many of us! A few handfuls of Pringles or Doritos in front of the TV of an evening usually turns into a whole bagful. Already heavily laden with calories and fat, scooping on some creamy dip will double the damage, and you could easily crunch your way through your entire calorie allowance for the day.

9. Full-fat salad dressing

With around 120 calories and 12g fat per 1oz (28g) serving, full-fat dressings like thousand island and ranch dressing are just not worth the weight you can gain by eating them – even if it’s carrots and celery you’re dressing. Fortunately, there are plenty of perfectly tasty lower-cal alternatives around.

10. Bacon cheeseburgers

Anything that combines two forms of meat with full-fat cheese is not likely to be diet friendly. This heart-stopping favourite at Burger King packs a whopping 400 calories and 22 grams of fat. A Bacon McDouble Cheeseburger from McD’s has 478 calories and 24 grams of fat.

Link

Thought I heard you call
upon imaginary footsteps
shadows touch deeper
now sun departs the day
who am I fooling?
as emotions seek refuge
in words as yet unsaid
gathering to hear the music
"in search of sunrise"
will call upon sentences
already left for dead
ahead of the southern breeze
tomorrow's song unheard
will play a very different tune.

written by lauren6

Leave me alone-
in fields, riversides and thoughts
focus now
in loneliness
we are bound
together
our greatest power
uniting all
that we've ever been
and ever can be
listen now
together we are found
as one
still our greatest hope
leaves us alone
in prairies, estuaries and fantasy.

written by lauren6

Let me be
yours tonight
I'm wondering
if you will
let me be?

written by lauren6

Where can wholeness be found?
behind a tea in the sunset
or disguised in hidden speech
of nature under threat

words thought unspoken
visions pictured unseen
places known unvisited
life lived unclean

confusion the reigning monarch
elitism the governing body
lamenting that which past
meet savagery - our presiding rhapsody.

written by lauren6

I have just tested positive for Tiësto, and his latest superb release, "In Search of Sunrise 5 Los Angeles" which is on constant right now.
Red wine, sunshine, Tiësto and I'm made...especially as my health is deteriorating...this is like my swansong, before a fall befalls failing fallen feelings.

My heart aches, spine breaks yet further, soul cries, emotions die, as the body disintegrates, I let everything go now, and enjoy it all as hopefully, positively, powerfully as I'm given to do.

Tiësto will help me on my trickiest route ever...and I'm loving it.

Tiësto website
Tiësto

Another item of maddening news...I have actually experienced this too, while working...when my boss had to actually restrain traffic wardens from issuing the herse with a ticket!!

That was then
but this is now
yet all returns
to ask us how?

A vicar has forced a company to refund mourners who had their cars clamped as they stood by the graveside of their loved one.

Several family members attending Wednesday's funeral of Joe Malcolm at St Mary's Church in Southampton found they had to pay a £100 release fee after the clamping.

When they contacted the company, Security International Group, they were told they could get a £25 discount but still had to pay the rest.

The company is employed by the church to clamp cars who park there.

The vicar, the Rev Ian Johnson, said a "breakdown in communication'' had led to the problem.

"What normally happens is that on a day of a funeral we tell the company to come after a certain time but because of some problems with the speed of the horse-drawn carriage the burial was a little late finishing.

"The company turned up and clamped the cars. Sadly the clamping company did not use its discretion.

"When I returned from London I spoke to them and they have refunded the money.''

Jamaican-born Mr Malcolm was one of Southampton's first African-Caribbean residents. He came to the country on the SS Empire Windrush in 1948.

Security International Group was unavailable for comment.

Link

A song that means everything today;

Heather Nova: London Rain

I'm coming, i'm coming home to you
I'm alive, i'm a mess
I can't wait to get home to you
To get warm and undressed

There've been changes beyond my dreams
Everybody wants me to sing
There've been changes beyond my grasp
Things i'm sinking in

So keep me, keep me in your bed all day, all day
Nothing heals me like you do
Nothing heals me like you do

And when somebody knows you well
Well, there's no comfort like that
And when somebody needs you
Well, there's no drug like that

So keep me, keep me in your bed all day, all day
Nothing heals me like you do
Nothing heals me like you do

And when i'm home, curled in your arms
And i'm safe again
I'll close my eyes and sleep, sleep
To the sound of london rain

So keep me, keep me in your bed all day, all day
Nothing heals me like you do
So keep me, keep me in your bed all day, all day
Nothing heals me like you do
Nothing heals me like you do

Nothing falls like london rain
Nothing heals me like you do
Nothing falls like london rain
Nothing heals me like you do
Nothing falls like london rain
Nothing heals me like you do
Nothing falls like london rain
Nothing heals me like you do

Oh the lunacy of my past cycling;

Losing control of my PO bicycle, downhill from a church, with the 8:15 bus watching my every motion, I halted abruptly within a hawthorn bush, bloodied bloody silly.

Cycling through wild and very vigourous stinging nettles, barefoot; and soon dancing to their tune!

Cycling down a tiny, steep semi-suburban lane during a powercut, at night and turning off my own cycle lamps while accelerating for 'fun'...fortunately Norfolk's grass banks are very sandy!

Taking just one extra parcel on the front of another bike during 'black ice day', January 1988, and finding that going downhill can actually be performed twice simultaneously without peddling, or even handling a bike! NOT recommended.

Cycling over what looked like a rotten bit of moss-covered wood, soon discovering that it was but a healthy trunk days before, sending me flying head over bike, cracking chin on yet more black ice and sliding for a full 15 seconds to rest beside the milk float...milkman napping.

Racing my dear departed dog to the old railway line, we were neck and neck, downhill, until he decided to cut inside, sending me well and truly over my finishing line aged 9. Scars remain, the memory is warm though!

Pushing my own body to it's furthest distance ever, I managed 42 miles, and stopped, deciding on one field-view photo, a drink and then head-back...only to feel the ground below me become rather 'firm'...and in Stanley fashion pull out a wicked thorn from a deflated tire. The long pre-cellphone walk home beckoned.

Cycling over a rare right-of-way in a sunken surburban development, and pushing uphill on the other side finding the whole frame of my bike sheer in half, breaking in two, and in affect, shattering my spine to it's present state.

"I've got a bike, you can ride it if you like. It's got a basket, a bell that rings and things to make it look good. I'd give it to you if I could, but I borrowed it." -- Pink Floyd, 'Bike'

"Think of bicycles as rideable art that can just about save the world." - Grant Peterson

"When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race." - H.G. Wells

Get a bicycle. You will not regret it if you live.
-Mark Twain, "Taming the Bicycle"

The secret to mountain biking is pretty simple. The slower you go the more likely it is you'll crash.
-Julie Furtado

Consider a man riding a bicycle. Whoever he is, we can say three things about him. We know he got on the bicycle and started to move. We know that at some point he will stop and get off. Most important of all, we know that if at any point between the beginning and the end of his journey he stops moving and does not get off the bicycle he will fall off it. That is a metaphor for the journey through life of any living thing, and I think of any society of living things.
-William Golding

"A bicycle ride is a flight from sadness."--James E. Starrs, The Literary Cyclist [This I would say is a great truth...as the first thing I did upon hearing or receiving bad news, was cycle...and how! -lauren6]

What would you do if you caught a computer virus which meant that you had to go without the internet- both at home and work- for a week?

Only 20 years ago, most of us would have gone for weeks on end without using a computer or some wouldn't have used a computer at all. But today no matter what your profession is, what section of society you are in, you're very much in the minority if you can't get onto the net either at home or at work.

So just how dependent have we become on logging on?

The reality is that the internet has completely changed our lives. Some would argue for the better, some would argue for the worse.

With no internet at work or home for a week, would you call your friends rather than email? Visit a travel agent in person or call them up for advice? Do your grocery shopping in person and visit colleagues at their desks to get work done?

Or would you be down at the local library or internet cafe paying £1 an hour to check your emails and hassling IT at work and anyone else you know at home to come and sort out the problem as quickly as possible?

How long could you go without logging on?

Link

An insect expert has warned that more people will die from wasp stings because the population is becoming more allergic to them.

The alert comes after two men died from anaphylactic shock caused by wasps stings in the Winchester area of Hampshire in the space of a few weeks.

Father-of-three Ron Allan was working in his garden in Itchen Abbas, near the city, when he was stung by a swarm of wasps after disturbing a nest on July 21.

Mr Allan had never previously suffered an allergic reaction to a wasp sting.

Farm labourer Andy Conduct, 53, from Alresford, near Winchester, was also stung five times by wasps in his garden. He died in hospital two days later, on August 7.

He had been stung in the weeks before his death and had been given antihistamine tablets.

Inquests have been opened and adjourned into both deaths.

Matt Shardlow from the insect charity Buglife said this year the wasp population was at normal levels after several years of low populations.

He said wasps would now become more of a problem as their natural food disappears in late summer and the insects become attracted to human products, like ice cream and beer.

Research from the NHS and the House of Commons Health Select Committee has shown that anaphylactic shock rates have soared in recent years, he said.

"There has been a dramatic shift on how people react to wasp stings and the number of anaphylactic shock deaths has risen massively," he explained.

"I think, based on the trend in allergic reactions, we would expect to see a long term increase in the number of wasp (sting) deaths."

Is this shockalism or should we take heed of such warnings?

I watched this, and enjoyed, with great curiosity...

Me: Girl takes pic of herself every day for three years

People's fears at losing our natural and cultural heritage have been highlighted in survey out today.

Vanishing Britain looks at concerns for people and places and is urging everyone to take action by volunteering to help with everything from turning wastelands into community gardens and starting campaigns to support community shops.

The report, which was commissioned by Community Services Volunteers Make a Difference Day, shows that more than half of the people in the area were concerned about losing countryside and green spaces and more than a third fear the loss of village stores and post offices. One in 10 people are also concerned about losing historic buildings.

Younger people were most concerned about losing countryside and green spaces, with more than half of 25 to 44-year-olds expressing concern while just of a third of over-65s said that they were worried.

Rupert Read, Norwich city councillor with the Green Party, said: “I completely empathise and agree with the survey. Economic pressures to pave over countryside in East Anglia is great and we work hard to maintain our green spaces for us and our children to enjoy.

“We're worried about proposals put forward for the Norwich Northern Distributor Road where huge additional retail and business development will take place.

“The countryside between the road and Norwich will be filled with new homes, engulfing the small villages outside the city. The character of Norwich will be destroyed, so we must think very carefully about expansion in this area to preserve our green spaces, which really enrich the quality of our lives.”

Older people showed the most concern for the closure of amenities with more than half of people over 55 saying they were anxious about losing community shops and post offices.

Tara Murphy, a sub-postmistress at Spixworth post office, said: “We are losing our post offices big time. When the Card Account scheme finishes in 2010 a lot more are going to close, including my own.

“Now that people do not have to come to the post offices to pay for their TV licences, we have had increased competition and that's made a huge difference to the amount of money that's going through us.

“It's so hard for the elderly who can't visit a post office miles away when their local post office closes.”

North Norfolk Liberal Democrat MP Norman Lamb has been campaigning to keep open rural post offices open. He said: “Post offices are a vital element of our communities, and it's tragic what's happening to them.

“Until 2008, the Government has promised to subsidise rural post offices, but there is no guarantee that this will continue afterwards. It's a real concern.”

Young people under 24 seem to treasure our national heritage the most, with nearly one in five concerned about losing historical buildings, while one in 10 over-65s expressed concern.

Brenda Ferris, Norwich City Council spokesman for culture, tourism and leisure, said: “I can understand that with a growing population people fear they will lose their building heritage. However, in Norwich we have a wonderful heritage and we protect it fiercely. We're currently talking about ways to protect the city walls - they're going nowhere.”

Vanishing Britain:

Concern over the demise of family life and support for the young and old have been highlighted by the Vanishing Britain survey.

Nearly half of people in the region said they worried about the dwindling support and guidance for young people growing up.

About one third said they were concerned about not spending enough quality time with their family and about a quarter said they were concerned about older people losing their dignity.

Brenda Arthur, chief executive for Age Concern in Norwich, said it was encouraging Community Service Volunteers was highlighting people's fears for elderly people so that we could help overcome them.

Ms Arthur said: “Once people are over a certain age people tend to ignore them and assume that their opinions are not worth anything and they are a burden.

“People should understand that a large number of older people neither need nor want care. They just want respect and for people to realise that they still have a lot to give.”

-EMMA KNIGHTS
16 August 2006

EEN

You don't need to be able to swim to survive stormy waters.

Whatever we may lose, there's always something to gain, somewhere.

Say something nice to someone, once today, and tomorrow you'll (hopefully) feel twice as nice. (It works if we ALL do it!!)

Oh, only for so short a while you have loaned us to each other.
Because we take form in your act of drawing us,
And we take life in your painting us,
And we breathe in your singing us.
But only for so short a while have you loaned us to each other."
~ Aztec Prayer ~

I needed a lift these past three hellish days, and England certainly gave just that, for 45 minutes we watched a team capable of winning the World Cup...all over again!!!!
Well, put it all in perspective, it was a fine performance, and a wonderful start for two men in particular; the boss and captain.
I'm sure Beckham was watching the game, and right behind 'the lads', his heart should never be questioned, even if his international career has stalled and ends here. As for Owen Hargreves, what a revelation...he may be playing for a transfer, but I would credit him more highly than that, as his passion in an England shirt is beyond doubt, and it is one legacy of Sven's that deserves applause, though all the team look 'free' now, let's hope the team play with the spirit shown in the last third of that WCQF and last night.

Congratulations to both Steve McClaren and John Terry...and though I am an ardent Red, how has Peter Crouch managed 8 goals in 12 internationals? He is developing well...long may it continue...and nice to hear Old Trafford cheering his every move...thank you Manchester, you are a great host for internationals, better than the capital's Feebly Stadium.

Also a belated shout for Norwich City's brilliant comeback last weekend, from two down to win 3-2 is tremendous.

So, now that England are back on the footballing map, I would like to hear Prescott's thoughts?

As an artist myself, this caught my eye...

Lionel Shriver
Wednesday August 2, 2006
The Guardian

Maybe 13 really is unlucky - since that's the number of cover designs for my new novel that my publisher has already run through, and not one of them works. Few companies would lavish such care on finding just the right image for a single book, and I admire their perfectionism. Yet these hard-working and skilful designers have consistently turned a deaf ear to the author's entreaties that someone, please, sit down and draft some original art. You would think I was suggesting that they hop aboard the next Nasa shuttle and go collect moon rocks. I fear that, like so many recent art school graduates, most of these technologically nimble professionals do not know how to draw.

Over the course of the 20 years I've been publishing fiction, a none too subtle transformation has taken place in the design of book covers. My first novel used Henri Rousseau's The Dream, into which the heads of my characters were carefully hand-painted, in the same style, peeking through the foliage. (These days, they would probably just bung in photographs.) The cover of my second novel is a piece of original art (aka, a moon rock), with two crossed drumsticks and a joyful spatter of paint, capturing the exuberance and abandon of the main character, a rock'n'roll drummer.
Yet my latter covers have all capitulated to the computer. By the 1990s, designers were glued to their screens. If you scan Waterstone's today, you will be hard pressed to find any covers employing original art. (One delightful exception is Allegra Goodman's Intuition - congratulations to Dial Press - whose watercolour cover is every bit as exquisite as the text inside. You would never believe that a mere filing cabinet could look so beguiling.) For the most part, designers now just drag photos off the web, and play with backgrounds and fonts at the keyboard. That's why a strange drabness, coldness, and sameness is plaguing the aesthetics of book publishing - and at a time when the pleasures of physical books, as opposed to electronic media, are vital to defend.

This is not a problem exclusive to book covers. Across the board, the designers of everyday objects now work in pixels. They don't get chalk dust on their shirts; they don't get paint under their nails. This translates into a curious, ineffable loss of warmth in the look of things. I'm thinking also of the chilly, computer-generated design of CD covers (in my day, album covers - remember Joni Mitchell drawing her own?), and even of commercial packaging. Yet many enduring classics of packaging involved someone sitting down to draw or paint a picture: that inviting blue-and-white striped milk jug on the old Horlicks jar, the striking red-and-green parrot on a bottle of Pickapeppa Sauce.

Surely one of the appeals of the "retro" look is that designers of yore created their own funky folk art. Tolstoy once observed that a real beauty has something wrong with her; a face that's too perfect, too symmetrical, tends to look vapid and lacks mystery. In kind, the appeal of the hand-drafted and hand-crafted lies in their tiny mistakes - the line that's not quite straight, the perspective that's slightly skewed. Aesthetically, we respond to the tender, human feel of error.

I'm not one to complain about the advent of the computer overall, which has made writing so much more convenient. But over-reliance on this clinical technology is estranging in the decorative arts. That's why, at my wit's end this last weekend, I took my cue from Mitchell and hauled out my coloured pencils. I drew my own damn book cover - luminous, one-of-a-kind, and, like one of Tolstoy's real beauties, not quite perfect. We'll see if my publisher bites. Call me a Luddite if you will - at least I tried.

Incarnadine noon
a heebie day
so much I like
so little enjoyed
with time came the link
a place where I can think
by meliorism's vale
I did well
reaching hope's limotrophe
such mendacity survived
a melancholic log-out
for hallow evening now devout.

written by lauren6

In deepest darkest times
a musical drive
hugs and tugs at these emotions
for feelings I strive
now I'm away from it all
a oneness with the river
cleansing a damaged stance
for which time may yet deliver
a flow asking no questions
it's pure touch at water's edge
truer than anything human
so with nature, I now pledge-
my heart and soul, my Godgiven rôle
beside the comforting view
with befallen human expectation
my hurts, my love...is nature in situ.

written by lauren6

It is meant to placate us but it actually drives us nuts. But which is the most annoying telephone hold music of all? An NOP poll commissioned by stressbusting found a clear winner...

Greensleeves is the runaway winner of a NOP poll commissioned by stressbusting.co.uk to find the most infuriating telephone hold music. Almost a quarter (23%) of us find it enraging - four times as many as are most irked by another hold music standby, The Four Seasons by Vivaldi.

The next most infuriating music after Greensleeves, found the survey of 1,000 people, is, respectively, Nessun Dorma, performed by Pavarotti (14%); Simply The Best, sung by Tina Turner (14%); "Memory, Or Anything By Andrew Lloyd Webber" (13%) and The Entertainer (7%), best-known as the theme tune to the Robert Redford film, The Sting.

'Hold music is one of the most stressful features of modern life', comments Peter Freedman, co-editor of stressbusting.co.uk. 'It is meant to placate you but it drives you nuts. When Greensleeves comes on the line, yet again, I feel like smashing the phone with a pickaxe.'

The average person now spends 45 hours a year holding on the telephone', according to The Tyranny of Numbers (Harper Collins), a recently published book by David Boyle of the New Economics Foundation. 'Most Britons now probably spend more time each year listening to telephone hold music than they do making love', comments Freedman. 'And a frightening proportion of this time is spent listening to Greensleeves, surely one of the most irritating tunes of all time.'

Bottom Of The Pops: The Six Most Hated Tunes, In Order

% Finding It The Most Annoying
Hold Music

Greensleeves 23
Nessun Dorma Sung by Pavarotti 14
Simply The Best, Sung By Tina Turner 14
Memory, Or Anything By A Lloyd-Webber 13
The Entertainer/Theme Tune To The Sting 7
The Four Seasons, by Vivaldi 6

Other Music Named As Particularly Annoying
• The Bee Gees
• "Anything by Geri Halliwell"
• Fur Elise by Beethoven.
• Orinoco Flow by Enya
• "All annoying"/ "All equally annoying"/ "It all annoys me"/"I can't remember but it's bloody annoying".

The Most Annoying Music of All Time?

Greensleeves is one of the famous - and most annoying - English folk songs. It is a lover's lament, written by an unnamed gentleman to his "Lady Greensleeves". Legend has it that it was written by Henry VIII during his courtship with Anne Boleyn in around 1530.

'If so', comments Peter Freedman, 'little did he suspect that it would go on to stress out so many loyal British subjects, who were forced to listen to it over and over and over again, while trying to get through to someone on the telephone. Personally, every time it comes on the line, I want to smash the phone with a pick-axe'.

The most famous - and most annoying - lines of all, belong to the chorus, which goes:

"Greensleeves was all my joy
Greensleeves was my delight
Greensleeves was my heart of gold
And who but my Lady Greensleeves".

The simple 18-note melody has been recorded many times. 'Far too many times', feels Freedman. 'We have not researched precisely which is the most annoying recording of it' comments Peter Freedman. 'But we may look into that next.'

What is your most infuriating tele-hold-up?

Why is it that TV commercials sometimes have music that makes you want to buy or download it, but tele-hold-music...never!

Titus Bramble anyone? A determined footballer, but not a reliable driver on or off the field, by any account.
My guess is, judging by his woeful misses, that he took the wrong turning, and should have been heading for Ipswich, not my beloved Norwich!!!

After an evening babysitting their grandchildren Eddie and Linda Sargent were settling into bed when they received a surprise visitor - a Premiership footballer driving a high-powered sports car.

But the self-confessed soccer-phobes were oblivious to the identity of their unscheduled guest until the following day when they contacted their insurers to seek amends for the damage caused when the BMW crashed into a wall outside their family home.

The man behind the wheel was millionaire footballer Titus Bramble, on his way for a night out in Norwich when he lost control of his vehicle on the A140 at Newton Flotman.

Mr Sargent, 55, said: “None of us knew who he was. The police handed us his details for the insurance claim and my wife said 'what a lovely name' and 'wasn't he good looking'.

“It wasn't until we telephoned the insurers the next morning that they asked 'Is that the Titus Bramble?'”

The former England under-21 international, formerly of Ipswich Town and now playing for Newcastle United, was breathalysed, but the test proved negative. After leaving his details with police he left as quickly as he arrived, catching a taxi to carry on his night at a club in Norwich. In his wake he left £3,000 worth of damage to the property and wrote-off his £40,000 M3 model car.

Mrs Sargent, 54, was woken by the noise of the impact just after midnight on Saturday. The couple, who were looking after their grandchildren Archie, three, and Rosie, two, initially feared the worst.

“We just heard an incredible bang,” said Mr Sargent. “I got up to see what was going on and my first thought was that somebody could be hurt.

“The car was full of people and they all got out and went across the road. Titus kept himself to himself and sorted everything out with the police but didn't say a word to us.

“Then they left in a taxi. A police officer told me he thought they were going clubbing.”

The car had careered into a street lamp then went into the two-and-a-half foot high wall at the front of their home, knocking down a section measuring about 24 metres, along with a gatepost.

“The damage is extraordinary. I can't believe a car could cause as much damage as this. I am not angry, it was just a shock and it has caused a lot of inconvenience but it's in the hands of the insurers now,” said Mr Sargent.

Bramble and his passengers, including two players at non-league outfit Felixstowe and Walton United, escaped unhurt. This news came as a relief to his club for whom he headed the winning goal as the team beat Latvian side FK Ventspils in the second qualifying round of the UEFA Cup on Thursday.

A Newcastle United spokesman said: “We understand the accident was of a minor nature and we anticipate that Titus will report for training as normal on Monday.”

A Norfolk Police spokesman said: “We were called to a single vehicle road traffic accident on the A140 a couple of minutes past midnight.

“There were five or six people in the vehicle and no-one was injured, but there was extensive damage to the car and a wall. The driver was given a breath test, which was negative.” [Titus was also given a penalty shoot-out, which also proved negative! -lauren6]

from the EDP

"Misty-mountain-stop"

Where hurt fails to go
emptiness stirs
like a rowing boat
sat on still waters.

-written by lauren6

The eyes and ears, seeing and hearing, are external
plunderers; emotions, desires, and opinions are internal
plunderers. But if the inner mind is awake and alert, sitting
aloof in the middle of it all, then these plunderers change and
become members of the household.

-Taoist quote

Sign in a Laundromat:
AUTOMATIC WASHING MACHINES : PLEASE REMOVE ALL YOUR CLOTHES WHEN THE LIGHT GOES OUT

Sign in a London department store:
BARGAIN BASEMENT UPSTAIRS

In an office:
WOULD THE PERSON WHO TOOK THE STEP LADDER YESTERDAY PLEASE BRING IT BACK OR FURTHER STEPS WILL BE TAKEN

Outside a farm:
HORSE MANURE 50p PER PRE-PACKED BAG 20p DO-IT-YOURSELF

In an office:
AFTER TEA BREAK STAFF SHOULD EMPTY THE TEAPOT AND STAND UPSIDE DOWN ON THE DRAINING BOARD

On a church door:
THIS IS THE GATE OF HEAVEN. ENTER YE ALL BY THIS DOOR. THIS DOOR IS KEPT LOCKED BECAUSE OF THE DRAFT. (PLEASE USE SIDE DOOR.)

English sign in a German cafe:
MOTHERS, PLEASE WASH YOUR HANS BEFORE EATING

Outside a secondhand shop:
WE EXCHANGE ANYTHING - BICYCLES, WASHING MACHINES ETC.
WHY NOT BRING YOUR WIFE ALONG AND GET A WONDERFUL BARGAIN?

Sign outside a new town hall which was to be opened by the Prince of Wales:
THE TOWN HALL IS CLOSED UNTIL OPENING.
IT WILL REMAIN CLOSED AFTER BEING OPENED. OPEN TOMORROW.

Outside a photographer's studio:
OUT TO LUNCH: IF NOT BACK BY FIVE, OUT FOR DINNER ALSO

Outside a disco:
SMARTS IS THE MOST EXCLUSIVE DISCO IN TOWN. EVERYONE WELCOME

Sign warning of quicksand:
QUICKSAND. ANY PERSON PASSING THIS POINT WILL BE DROWNED. BY ORDER OF THE DISTRICT COUNCIL.

Notice sent to residents of a Wiltshire parish:
DUE TO INCREASING PROBLEMS WITH LETTER LOUTS AND VANDALS WE MUST ASK ANYONE WITH RELATIVES BURIED IN THE GRAVEYARD TO DO THEIR BEST TO KEEP THEM IN ORDER

Notice in a dry cleaner's window:
ANYONE LEAVING THEIR GARMENTS HERE FOR MORE THAN 30 DAYS WILL BE DISPOSED OF.

Sign on motorway garage:
PLEASE DO NOT SMOKE NEAR OUR PETROL PUMPS. YOUR LIFE MAY NOT BE WORTH MUCH BUT OUR PETROL IS

Notice in health food shop window:
CLOSED DUE TO ILLNESS

Spotted in a safari park:
ELEPHANTS PLEASE STAY IN YOUR CAR

Seen during a conference:
FOR ANYONE WHO HAS CHILDREN AND DOESN'T KNOW IT, THERE IS A DAY CARE ON THE FIRST FLOOR

Looking at the me
up above
staring at the me
laying below
disbelieving the third
caught in between...

I love the me
that I see in the Sun
lifefilled
and full of fun
I can glow
watching
the ebb and flow
and warm to those
I so surely know
Yet...cold will eat my reserves
and cut me
into thirds.

by lauren6

I greatly enjoyed reading this, this morning...

Confucianism tends to compare men's virtues with natural scenery. Plants such as bamboo, pine, plum, orchid, chrysanthemum, and lotus, as well as spectacular mountains and rocks, were always considered to symbolize certain virtues. Therefore, one of the most common ways to make a Chinese garden more elegant is to incorporate plants, rocks, and garden buildings together. Take bamboo for instance. As bamboo does not die in the winter but remains upright and evergreen even in very cold days, it has come to be known as a sign meaning perseverance and long friendship.

Taoism and Chinese Garden

Taoism, along with Buddhism and Confucianism, is one of the three great philosophies in ancient China. Tao (pronounced "Dow") can be roughly translated into English as path, or the way. It is basically indefinable. It has to be experienced.

Tao is the first-cause of the universe. It is a force that flows through all life. It "refers to a power which envelops, surrounds and flows through all things, living and non-living. The Tao regulates natural processes and nourishes balance in the Universe. It embodies the harmony of opposites (i.e. there would be no love without hate, no light without dark, no male without female.)"

On one hand, garden design in China has been to a large extent influenced by the Daoist principles of wanting to be alone, of humbleness, and the eradication of desire.

On the other hand, Taoism worships nature. It holds that supernatural beings do exist. Accordingly, gardens with a fairyland as the design theme emerged. It was recorded that Shanglin Garden, built for the first emperor of the Qin Dynasty (221-206BC), had already employed the layout of "one lake, three hills" -- a lake surrounded by hills. Since then the layout of "one lake, three hills" was widely used in designing gardens for the royal family, and later for ordinary people.

For instance, there used to be a "Lesser Square Kettle Garden" in Yangzhou, while there is a "Lesser Penglai" in Liu Garden in Suzhou and "Lesser Yinzhou" in the West Lake in Hangzhou. (Square Kettle Garden, Penglai, and Yinzhou are all imaginary places inhabited by the immortal.)

The Chan Sect of Buddhism and Chinese Garden

Incorporating original thoughts of Indian Buddhism with Chinese thoughts about life, the Chan Sect is regarded as a localized religion in China. It holds that intuition, experience, or meditation, rather than logical analysis, is the proper and effective way to understand the world. Human beings and the universe should co-exist in union.

My local MP is an intelligent man of dignity and merit, without question, however, a politician...a man of great experience and respect, should come out with a diatribe such as this, is a gross affront to his constituency and rôle as our servant, as well as his immense professional standing.
It once again creates an enormous divide, gulf even, between constituent and MP, rights and isolation...have's and have nots.

He is, most certainly knowledgeable on the said subject, but this in no way gives him the right to cast aside a whole county which he is supposed to represent.

What annoys me, is that he has only apologised because he was made to.

Can anyone tell me where, now, does the greater good exist in British politics?

LONDON (Reuters) - A Labour MP apologised on Friday for saying that "inbreeding" may have contributed to a rise in diabetes among children in his Norfolk constituency.
Ian Gibson, MP for Norwich North and former chairman of the Commons Science and Technology Committee, sparked anger when he said inter-marriage may have fuelled a growth in the illness.

"If you look at the names in Norfolk, there's a lot that are the same," he told his local newspaper. "There is an inbreeding complex in villages, people inter-marry.
"That might mean more of them have got the same gene which predisposes them to it."

He was speaking after research showed more than 345 children in Norfolk had Type 1 (juvenile) diabetes, more than double the 160 cases predicted for the county.

His remarks caused uproar in his constituency. Dr Ketan Dhatariya, a consultant diabetologist at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital, said the comments were "disgraceful".

"It's an insult to people with Type 1 diabetes and their families and it's an insult to people in Norfolk," he told the Daily Telegraph. "There's no suggestion that that is the case."

Gibson, 67, said he wanted to highlight the need for more research into the role played by genetics in causing diabetes.

"It has obviously caused a lot of offence and for that I unreservedly apologise," he told BBC radio. "Words like in-breeding and out-breeding are very professional, genetic terms.

"We use them all the time, but to the public that has connotations which they don't understand, or feel that it demeans them and I understand that."

The charity Diabetes UK said the incidence of Type 1 diabetes was rising by about four percent each year.

The reasons for the rise are unclear, but are suspected to include genetics, environmental factors and infections.

Snow on the River

Over thousands of mountains, no bird flies

Over thousands of paths there is no trail of footprints.

On a lonely boat sits an old man with bamboo hat and cape,

Fishing silently in the snowy river.

Liu Tsung-yuan (773-819)

Don't love the Heart that hurts you and don't hurt the Heart that loves you.

Don't cry over anyone who won't cry over you.

Good friends are hard to find, harder to leave, and impossible to forget.

Most people walk in and out of your life, but only friend's leave footprints in your heart.

True friendship "never" ends. Friends are forever.

People are lonely because they build walls instead of bridges.

If we are incapable of finding peace in ourselves, it is pointless to search elsewhere.

The bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but of respect and joy in each other's life. Rarely do members of one family grow up under the same roof.

A change of heart changes everything.

Our greatest glory is not in ever falling, but in rising every time we fall.

You only live once - but if you work it right, once is enough.

One generation plants trees, and the next enjoys the shade.

It is difficult to live in the present, ridiculous to live in the future, and impossible to live in the past. Nothing is as far away as one minute ago.

"[Animals] are not bretheren, they are not underlings; they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time."

Henry Beston, Autumn, Ocean, and Birds, The Outermost House, 1928

HUMANS VERSES NATURE

Biological diversity - the range of life forms on earth - is the base of our existence. Myriad creatures, little and big, combine into one massive and intricate eco-system producing oxygen and soil, and recycling water. The world's population remains dependent on a variety of plants and animals for food, medicines, clothes, and shelter as also for cultural and spiritual and intellectual inspiration.

But more than our own dependence, the myriad life on earth - perhaps some 30 million different species -have their own right to life. They are as worthy of respect as humans.

Traditional societies often recognised that we were one strand in an incredibly complicated web of life. Their practices were thus tuned to respect nature. Even agriculture mimicked nature in the diversity of crop and livestock varieties used. Thus Indian farmers developed, through ingenuity and experimentation, 50,000 varieties of rice, and practices like the barnaja, in which several crops, grown together, fulfilled different needs of the village.

Modern agriculture, forestry, and habitat management have ignored our humble place on earth, and, with little understanding of the workings of nature, have attempted to simplify ecosystems to suit our own greedy convenience. Thus single species of trees replace natural mixed stands, and single crop varieties spread over millions of hectares, replace a diverse landscape. But like a mason building a roof by taking material out of the foundation and the walls, this is a suicidal course. As our genetic base narrows, and we become dependent on polluting factories to produce our water and soil and food, we are realising that somewhere we have made a mistake. And so the renewed search for diversity, for co-existence with nature, and for the wisdom that characterised many of our traditions.

Ashish Kothari

Into your arms I breath
within your heart I swim
toward your eyes I'm drawn
around your smile life begins
in your presence I'm healed
beyond words this is felt-
beside you life is warm
reborn unto you I shine.

by lauren6

Painwaves 2the airwaves

Bombscares played
on airwaves frayed
as traffic-flow stalled
our tested patience appalled
by Stansted hinterland
chagrin could understand
the fidgets and nerves
that medical treatment serves
like clouds moving-in
casting chills so foreign
through Borehamwood at 10
unexpectant by then
rain befalls this eastern welcome
though hope shines for their dictum.
London's catch throws me
in medical doses x3
watching paralised 'stability' -
an unhindered crime against mobility
in nothing, I feel nothing
yet...my spirit feels everything.

by lauren6, August 10th, 10:45am

Good morning all...I'm now off to London, the latest saga in my long-running medical history.
Hoping to find some treatments that'll offer me some saving grace.

Keep in touch all~~~

“This is what should be done by one who is skilled in goodness
And who knows the path of peace:

Let them be able and upright, straightforward and gentle in speech,
Humble and not conceited, contented and easily satisfied.
Unburdened with duties and frugal in their ways.
Peaceful and calm, and wise and skillful,
not proud and demanding in nature.

Let them not do the slightest thing that the wise would later reprove.
They should wish:

In gladness and in safety
May all beings be at ease.
Whatever living beings there may be,
Whether they are weak or strong, omitting none,
The great or the mighty, medium, short or small,
The seen and the unseen,
Those living near and far away,
Those born and to-be-born,
May all beings be at ease!

Let none deceive another, or despise any being in any state,
Let none through anger or ill-will wish harm upon another.
Even as a mother protects with her life her child, her only child,
So with a boundless heart should one cherish all living beings,
Radiating kindness over the entire world,
Spreading upwards to the skies, and downwards to the depths,
Outwards and unbounded, freed from hatred and ill-will.

Whether standing or walking, seated or lying down,
Free from drowsiness, one should sustain this recollection.”

This is the text of the Metta Sutta, the doctrine of lovingkindness as transmitted by the Buddha to his close disciples in their time of need, the midsummer full moon in the month of Wagaung, and celebrated each year on this day.

Happy owner, happy cat. Indifferent owner, reclusive cat. - Chinese Proverb

THE "FLY-CATCHING" CATS OF EAST ANGLIA

In these parts of the East coast of England, the floods of the 1950's are well-documented, affecting the coastal areas of Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex.

There were cases of cats being rescued, who developed abnormal behavior problems, particularly of 'staring' upwards into space and attempting to catch imaginary flies. The hullucinatory 'flies' may have been seizures brought about by the horrifying nature of the flooding, which covered great distances inland.

This sad fact, now almost lost to folklore, was very real and unfortunately many of the sufferers failed to ever fully recover.
There are also stories of the "dancing cats" of Japan, but it must be emphasised that these East Anglian felines were suffering from psychological trauma, and not the phyical aspect seen in Japan.

As many will know, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is not unknown among cats, and the Second World War, as reported by vets of the period, saw many suffering from their own form of the human shellshock. The Blitz on London for example, left many cats so badly traumatised, that they could not be tempted away from their darkened corner refuge and escape...there was little hope for such cats.

Some examples were 'limp-flicking' whereby the stricken creature attempted to flick a substance, such as water, away from the body; or an imaginary piece of annoying tape.

So whoever could deny that actions don't speak louder than words?
The human words that propell wars of destruction not only cause ruinous wastelands for millions, but scar and once more tarnish our very species already precipitous name, hurting all in our wake.

Human's need to rise from the bed of acquiescence, and finally take heed from a wake-up call that will not always fall on deaf ears.

written by lauren6

"Happy is the home with at least one cat" - Italian Proverb

"Thou art the Great Cat, the avenger of the Gods, and the judge of words, and the president of the sovereign chiefs and the governor of the holy Circle; thou art indeed...the Great Cat." - Inscription on the Royal Tombs at Thebes

"A cat's eyes are windows enabling us to see into another world." - Irish Legend

When I play with my cat, how do I know that she is not passing time with me rather than I with her? - Montaigne

I have noticed that what cats most appreciate in a human being is not the ability to produce food which they take for granted--but his or her entertainment value. - Geoffrey Household

I love cats because I enjoy my home; and little by little, they become its visible soul. - Jean Cocteau

On the other hand, you have different fingers.

Save the whales. Collect the whole set.

A day without sunshine is like, night.

I just got lost in thought. It wasn't familiar territory.

42.7 percent of all statistics are made up on the spot.

99 percent of lawyers give the rest a bad name.

I feel like I'm diagonally parked in a parallel universe.

Remember, half the people you know are below average.

1Depression is merely anger without enthusiasm.

Support bacteria. They're the only culture some people have.

A clear conscience is usually the sign of a bad memory.

Monday is an awful way to spend 1/7 of your week.

Change is inevitable, except from vending machines.

Plan to be spontaneous tomorrow.

Always try to be modest, and be proud of it!

If you think nobody cares, try missing a couple of payments.

How many of you believe in psycho-kinesis? Raise my hand...

OK, so what's the speed of dark?

How do you tell when you're out of invisible ink?

If everything seems to be going well, you have obviously overlooked something.

When everything is coming your way, you're in the wrong lane.

Hard work pays off in the future. Laziness pays off now.

If Barbie is so popular, why do you have to buy her friends?

How much deeper would the ocean be without sponges?

I couldn't repair your brakes, so I made your horn louder.

Why do psychics have to ask you for your name?

Inside every older person is a younger person wondering what happened.

Just remember - if the world didn't suck, we would all fall off.

Light travels faster than sound. That is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.

The Buddha was asked, "Are you God?" "No," he answered. "Well, then, what are you?" "Awake," said the Buddha.

Chuang-Tzu
If a man is crossing the river and an empty boat collides with his skiff, even though he is a bad-tempered man he will not become very angry. But if he sees a man in the other boat he will scream and shout and curse at the man to steer clear. If you can empty your own boat crossing the river of the world, no one will oppose you, no one will seek to harm you. Thus is the perfect man - his boat is empty.

I have left almost to the last the magic of water, an element which owing to
its changefulness of form and mood and colour and to the vast range of its
effects is ever the principal source of landscape beauty, and has like music
a mysterious influence over the mind.
- Sir George Sitwell, On the Making of Gardens, 1909

I have never seen a river that I could not love. Moving water . . .
has a fascinating vitality. It has power and grace and associations.
It has a thousand colors and a thousand shapes, yet it follows laws
so definite that the tiniest streamlet is an exact replica of a great river.
- Roderick Haig-Brown

When you hear the splash
Of the water drops that fall
Into the stone bowl
You will feel that all the dust
Of your mind is washed away.
- Sen-No-Rikyu

The highest goodness resembles water
Water greatly benefits myriad things without contention
It stays in places that people dislike
Therefore it is similar to the Tao

Dwelling at the right place
Heart with great depth
Giving with great kindness
Words with great integrity
Governing with great administration
Handling with great capability
Moving with great timing

Because it does not contend
It is therefore beyond reproach

In every glass of water we drink, some of the water has already
passed through fishes, trees, bacteria, worms in the soil, and
many other organisms, including people... Living systems
cleanse water and make it fit, among other things,
for human consumption.
- Elliot A. Norse, Animal Extinctions

Don't empty the water jar until the rain falls.
- Philippine proverb

To a gardener there is nothing more exasperating
than a hose that just isn't long enough.
- Cecil Roberts

The many-voiced song of the river echoed softly. Siddhartha looked
into the river and saw many pictures in the flowing water. The river's
voice was sorrowful. It sang with yearning and sadness, flowing towards
its goal ... Siddhartha was now listening intently...to this song of a
thousand voices ... then the great song of a thousand voices consisted of
one word: Om -- Perfection ... From that hour Siddhartha ceased to fight
against his destiny
- Hermann Hesse, Siddhartha

We can't help being thirsty, moving toward the voice of water.
Milk drinkers draw close to the mother.
Muslims, Christians, Jews, Buddhists,
Hindus, shamans, everyone hears the intelligent sound
and moves with thirst to meet it.
- Jeladuddin Rumi (1207-1273)

You could not step twice into the same rivers;
for other waters are ever flowing on to you.
- Heraclitus of Ephesus

Nothing in the world is softer or weaker than water
Yet nothing is better at overcoming the hard and strong
This is because nothing can replace it

That the weak overcomes the strong
And the soft overcomes the hard
Everybody in the world knows
But cannot put into practice

Therefore sages say:
The one who accepts the humiliation of the state
Is called its master
The one who accepts the misfortune of the state
Becomes king of the world
The truth seems like the opposite

“ We all have the clear, wondrously bright field from the beginning. Many lifetimes of misunderstanding come only from distrust, hindrance, and screens of confusion that we create in a scenario of isolation. ”

Threnodial evening

Mordacious drink isn't silly
merely prompting the palindromist
to the disportment of us all
volant thoughts ring of deep limpidity
liminal all-conquering spirits
ex nihilo, a filibustrous swarm
a saving grace against moribundity
midday's parlous coup de main
in righteous salvation, emotions left sheer
one for sorrow in wassailing our substratum
stoically regenerating all that's been taken
upright attention for the torpid spine
without yammering visitation
this journey's end approaching occidental monad.

by lauren6

Don't wish for perfect health. In perfect health, there is greed and wanting. So an ancient said, " Make good medicine from the suffering of sickness."
Don't hope for life without problems. An easy life results in a judgmental and lazy Mind. So an ancient once said, "Accept the anxieties and difficulties of this life".
Don't expect your practice to be clear of obstacles. Without hindrances the mind that seeks enlightenment may be burnt out. So an ancient once said, "Attain deliverance in disturbances".

Zen Master Kyong Ho [ 1849-1912], in Thousand Peaks

Yesterday went all wrong. I shudder at the details of what I thought to be a random appointment, turn into a dispute between two senior doctor's, disagreeing over one medicine or (not) another.
Doctor1 doubled the dosage, while yesterday's doctor dropped one completely, and reinstated another which doctor1 had decided was no good.

Result; my body collapsed. Enough said, as I don't want to bore anyone, or seek sympathy...life MUST go on, and will.

Seemingly wasted, a gnomon now redundant
self-effacing Sun narrates over distant lands
nourishment failed expectation
digestion frozen by noisome atmosphere
what provenance now?
exposed and caught by sudden spindrift
a free spirit released from pain
cast and spilth - the hurt washed ashore
a maniloquent wave in fardel seas
strikes home with eidolon tease
rise against the curse of innermost fear
unfathomable hubristic hubble-bubble
asymptotic comprehension set astride disorientation
where the preponderate Souls dwell sonorously
an unseen symbiosis of deepest emotions
to set sail on volative journey; never to be scuppered.

by lauren6

What do the stars say tonight?
ever-watchful in your attentive eyes
reflecting depth in flickering silence
no words spoken in reaching for the skies
Through sturdy Pines silhouetted before a midnight moon
beckoning the afterglow residing within
a star's heavenly touch lighting-up
over distances great a strong heart nestles therein
Dark of night, light of day
summer traverses our tree-lined souls
guided universally each and every way
dawn is but a shadow of many hidden parts.

-lauren6

We The People by Curtis Mayfield

We The People
Who Are Darker Than Blue
We People Who Are Darker Than Blue
Are We Gonna Stand Around This Town
And Let What Others Say Come True

We're Just Good For Nothing They All Figure
A Boyish Grown Up Shiftless Jigger
Now We Can't Hardly Stand For That
Or Is That Really Where It's At

We People Who Are Darker Than Blue
This Ain't No Time For Segregating
I'm Talking Bout Brown And Yellow Too
High Yellow Gal Can't You Tell
You're Just The Surface Of Our Dark Deep Well
If Your Mind Could Really See
You'd Know Your Color Same As Me

Pardon Me Brother As You Stand In Your Glory
I Know You Won't Mind If I Tell The Whole Story

Get Yourself Together
Learn To Know Your Sign
Shall We Commit Our Genocide
Before We Check Out Our Mind

I Know We've All Got Problems That's Why I'm Here To Say
Keep Peace With Me And I With You
Let Me Love In My Own Way

Now I Know We Have Great Respect For The Sister, And Mother
It's Even Better Yet
But There's The Joker In The Street
Loving One Brother And Killing The Other
When The Time Comes And We Are Really Free
There'll Be No brothers Left You See

We People Who Are Darker Than Blue
Don't Let Us Hang Around This Town
And Let What Others Say Come True
Were Just Good For Nothing They All Figure
A Boyish Grown Up Shiftless Jigger
Now We Can't Hardly Stand For That
Or Is That Really Where It's At

Pardon Me Brother, I Know We've Come A Long Long Way
Let Us Stop Being So Satisfied
For Tomorrow Can Be An Even Brighter Day

1970

This song is superb.
Many late afternoon's/evenings recently have been inspired by this song, which needs a very intent ear, but Curtis has his way with sound, feeling and words...I love this!

He had absorbed the influence and expansive spirit of the Beatles and the Beach Boys, and "Curtis," a lushly orchestrated suite of thematically linked songs like "(Don't Worry) If There's a Hell Below We're All Going to Go," "Move On Up" and "We People Who Are Darker Than Blue," was Mayfield's soul music answer to "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" and "Pet Sounds." A tougher and more baroque version of the musical-uplift he had produced while leading the Impressions, "Curtis" inaugurated the heyday of politically charged '70s soul, which would be highlighted by Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On" and Stevie Wonder's "Innervisions" and "Fulfillingness' First Finale."

The fluency with which Mayfield addressed social concerns marked him as one of only a handful of truly eloquent, conscience-driven American singer-songwriters, and the eulogies that have followed his death have treated him, rather breathlessly, as something of a secular saint -- a kind of American Bob Marley. This sort of hyperbole isn't surprising: Rock critics are invested, to the point of ridiculousness, in the myth of pop music's political relevance, and generally find it easier to amplify that myth than to discuss a piece of music. In Mayfield's case, this is a pity, because his music -- in particular the music he recorded on that glorious sequence of early-and mid-'70s solo albums -- is his great legacy.

Those records were trailblazers of what might be called black psychedelia. Take a listen, for instance, to "Superfly": The lyrical string and horn arrangements that made the Impressions records such sweet listening are gloriously, woozily bloated into shapes amorphous and trippy; the bass is dark and wet, and Mayfield piles on layers of Latin percussion, boosted in the mix and swirling atop his multi-tracked rhythm guitar. Together it sounds unmistakably like the prototype for the funk and disco that would rule the airwaves later that decade, and which, through the alchemy of sampling, haunt the hip-hop and techno tracks of contemporary clubland.

June 3, 1942
Curtis Mayfield is born in Chicago, Illinois.

1958
Curtis Mayfield joins the Impressions, a gospel-influenced R&B vocal group that enjoys great success in the Sixties with such groundbreaking singles as "Gypsy Woman," "It's All Right," "Amen," "People Get Ready," "Woman's Got Soul," "We're a Winner" and "This is My Country."

December 4, 1961
Curtis Mayfield hits #2 on the R&B chart and #20 on the pop chart with "Gypsy Woman".

November 9, 1963
Curtis Mayfield hits #1 on the R&B chart and #4 on the pop chart with "It's All Right".

1970
Curtis Mayfield leaves the Impressions to launch a solo career. His debut album, 'Curtis' —released on his own Curtom label—enters the charts in October. It contains frank, topical songs like "(Don't Worry) If There's a Hell Below We're All Going to Go" and "We the People Who Are Darker Than Blue."

1972
Curtis Mayfield hits #4 with "Freddie's Dead (Theme from Superfly)".

October 21, 1972
'Superfly' tops the Billboard's album chart for the first of four weeks. This soundtrack to a film about a Harlem drug dealer's attempt at a final "big score" delivers two major hits: "Freddie's Dead" (#2 R&B, #4 pop) and "Superfly" (#5 R&B, #8 pop).

August 1, 1974
Curtis Mayfield makes the pop Top Forty for the last time with "Kung Fu," which precedes Carl Douglas's "Kung Fu Fighting" by two months. However, he'll crack the R&B Top Forty a dozen more times between 1974 and 1981.

July 1, 1975
One of Curtis Mayfield's most unflinchingly realistic and downbeat message albums, 'There's No Place Like America Today', is released.

October 1, 1982
'Honesty', Curtis Mayfield's strongest album in years, appears to positive reviews.

August 13, 1990
Curtis Mayfield is paralyzed from the neck down after high winds cause a lighting rig to fall on him at a concert in Brooklyn, New York.

March 1, 1993
People Get Ready: A Tribute to Curtis Mayfield (Shanachie Records) is released. Mayfield favorites are covered by Jerry Butler, Don Covay, Steve Cropper (of Booker T and the M.G.'s) and others.

March 1, 1994
Curtis Mayfield is give the Grammy Legend Award at a ceremony in New York. This same month, All Men Are Brothers: A Tribute to Curtis Mayfield (Warner Bros.)—featuring covers by Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, B.B. King, the Isley Brothers, Bruce Springsteen and Eric Clapton—is issued.

March 15, 1999
Curtis Mayfield is inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at the fourteenth annual induction dinner.

December 26, 1999
Curtis Mayfield dies in Roswell, Georgia.

link

Power: to have the ability to give and help
Alone: total togetherness and connectivity with nature
River: healing
Trees: wholeness, inspiration;centre of the Universe
Music: my left hand
You: the greatest gift ever 'received'
Birds: a flavouring to life's moods; positive. Always a connection to dear people far,faraway.
Indian flute: the sound of crossing all boundaries
Violin: where youth and age, innocence and wisdom all meet; realisation and hope; roots of emotion
Happiness: someone else's smile
Sadness: when someone else's hurt cannot be shared with self (close people)
Blogging: freeflowing river of evolving movement, ideas, expression, learning and fun
Arrogance: hell
Gardening: a new worship, daily service
Words: heart; spoken as and only when necessary.
Now: all that one knows; all that one is

There once was a monastery that was very strict. Following a vow of silence, no one was allowed to speak at all. But there was one exception to this rule. Every ten years, the monks were permitted to speak just two words. After spending his first ten years at the monastery, one monk went to the head monk. "It has been ten years," said the head monk. "What are the two words you would like to speak?"
"Bed... hard..." said the monk.

"I see," replied the head monk.

Ten years later, the monk returned to the head monk's office. "It has been ten more years," said the head monk. "What are the two words you would like to speak?"

"Food... stinks..." said the monk.

"I see," replied the head monk.

Yet another ten years passed and the monk once again met with the head monk who asked, "What are your two words now, after these ten years?"

"I... quit!" said the monk.

"Well, I can see why," replied the head monk. "All you ever do is complain."

Can anyone explain why I have awoken with Esbjerg in my head, to the tune of The Beatles: Lovely Rita Meter Maid? Now both thoughts reside too comfortably in my mind, beneath the drizzle, a sprinkling silencing the usually chattering birds, and the single accompaniment to my ground coffee, almost thick enough to hold steady the spoon that stirs.

The day awaits...

Dreaming permits each and every one of us
to be quietly and safely insane
every night of our lives.
-William Dement

Man is a genius when he is dreaming.
-Akira Kurosawa. Japanese filmmaker

Why does the eye see a thing more clearly in dreams than the imagination when awake?
-Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)

When I consider this carefully,
I find not a single property which with certainty
separates the waking state from the dream.
How can you be certain that your whole life is not a dream?
-Descartes

In your heart, keep one still, secret spot where dreams may go
and sheltered so may thrive and grow.
-Louise Driscoll

A dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world.
-Oscar Wilde

You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one, I hope someday you will join us, and the world will live as one.
-John Lennon

What did you dream about last night, dear friends?

Now, this sounds like a great way to spend a north European winter...anyone tempted?

As winter approaches, insects come up with a variety of strategies to survive the freezing temperatures of the season. Most head for some cover (including our homes!) where they will be partially insulated from the most severe effects of the weather.

But more fundamentally, insects undergo body changes that favor their cold-hardiness. One of the most common changes is that they produce glycerol in their blood -- a natural anti-freeze. Insects also can partially dehydrate their cells which further lowers their freezing point.

Furthermore, to ensure that the insect does not emerge prematurely during a winter warm spell, it goes into a state of semi-dormancy, known as diapause. Diapause can only be broken when the proper environmental signal is received, such as a critical day length or a minimum period of chilling. until the diapause signal occurs, insects remain dormant and inactive.

Although it's only early August, I am already in fear of the cold. Call me what you like, as I am a southerner in blood...half latin indeed, so my broken spine will not enjoy those damp weeks, drizzly days, and unbroken cloudy months of but one degree.

I may be left in awe of the hibernating invisibles!!!

We hope that, when the insects take over the world, they will remember with gratitude how we took them along on all our picnics.
~Bill Vaughan

Deep in the sun-searched growths the dragonfly
Hangs like a blue thread loosened from the sky.
~Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Silent Noon

Now, I'm finally having my strong coffee, and croissant for breakfast, as I need to enjoy food more fully than in past weeks. Hospital food has been very boring.
Last night I made garlic chips, using garden herbs, with black olives, ham, gherkin and onions. Also some red wine too!

This forthcoming week, will once again bring hospitals, doctors, and consultations, so I'm here to enjoy THIS moment.

Try this;

Imagine yourself driving along on a wild stormy night. You pass by a bus stop, and you see three people waiting for the bus:

1. An old lady who is about to die.

2. An old friend who once saved your life.

3. The perfect man (or) woman you have been dreaming about.

Which one would you choose, knowing full well that there could only be one passenger in your car.
This is a moral/ethical dilemma that was once actually used as part of a job application. You could pick up the old lady, because she is going to die, and thus you should save her first; or you could take the old friend because he once saved your life,
and this would be the perfect chance to pay him back. However; you may never be able to find your perfect dream lover again.

What permission do you grant-
to a memory surging ahead of one's self?
when recall fits so perfectly into place
nestled between time and space
It's moulded the past into the present
overpowering and seizing this day
a sunset overwhelmed by a flowing past
today buckled into tomorrow's path
this energy is totally awe-inspiring
captivating, invigourating, let me be smothered
the past sleeps with a future self
thus no journey may be undertaken alone
our Soul; music seeking the Soul in our eyes
has already sown a fresh future
requiring gentle touch; soft of hand
flourishing past; a heartfelt kiss planted before you.

-lauren6

Seoul, the South Korean capital, just means "the capital" in the Korean language .

The name of all the continents end with the same letter that they start with.

In English, "four" is the only digit that has the same number of letters as its value.

The word "trivia" comes from the Latin "trivium" which is the place where three roads meet, a public square.
People would gather and talk about all sorts of matters, most of which were trivial'

Canada is an Indian word meaning "Big Village".

The most common name in the world is Mohammed.

Karoke means 'empty orchestra' in Japanese.

Papaphobia is the fear of Popes.

The first words spoken by Thomas Edison over the phonograph were: "Mary had a little lamb."

The first words spoken by over Alexander Bell over the telephone were: "Watson, please come here. I want you."

The first message tapped by Samuel Morse over his inventing the telegraph was: "What hath God wrought?"

Pogonophobia: The fear of beards.

Good bye came from God bye which came from God be with you. So-long came from the Arabic salaam and the Hebrew shalom.

Before Jets and air travel, Jet lag was called Boat lag. [Do we now suffer from "Blog-lag" too? -lauren6]

The letter "n" ends all Japanese words not ending in a vowel.

Clans of long ago that wanted to get rid of their unwanted people without killing them would burn their houses down--hence the expression "to get fired."

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.

~ Martin Luther King Jr (1929-1968)

Oscar Wilde said it’s bad for your health. Shaw said most of us do it only two or three times a year. Descartes said without it we don’t exist. =Thinking!

Is it possible to think of Nothing?

If you think your indecisive how can you be sure?

Is a second's thought better than a second thought? (l6)

Is thinking about it, more desirable than thinking it off? (l6)

Should we think twice when we are on our third go (third time lucky)? (l6)

How come some people can think creatively better in the shower than they can at their desk?

Will you always come to a conclusion if you jump to one?

Once a thought has crossed your mind where does it go? And where was it before?

Why is it that no matter if we think we can do it or we think we can't we're right?

When someone says "Don't think about it", can we ever forget it?? (l6)

Does the train of thought ever arrive anywhere? And how many passengers on board? (l6)

How do we know if it's later than we think?

What are you thinking right now, dear friends

Well, I'm home and still sleepy as travelling is hurtful for my back, but the change of scene really helped me a lot.
Sometimes it is worth going through a pain barrier in order to reach a pyschological happiness. The mind needs feeding, more than the body, I feel, and yesterday was one such day.

Yes, forever hopeful
even in chilled sunset
Celtic paradise filling my head
temporal mood so tuneful
a tankard of merriment
here for the moment
once cast away,
now revered in telepathic wonderment
Yes! it does return
a dormant, nameless day
shaped and known as 'today'
assuredly a time for all to portray.

-lauren6

As some will know, I am away, (from home), today, and face a gruelling 4 hour journey home soon. This is a quick opportunity to use the net and post here. (Will reply to your lovely comments tomorrow, everyone~~!!)

Yesterday was dominated by spine consultants and physiotherapist's who were not naturals at agreeing, but eventually did so.

Anyway, today I listened to some great speakers and thinkers, on the subject of English language, a welcome change from medical English!

On one table I got these, to share;

"Wit is educated insolence."
- Aristotle (384-322 B.C.)

"Criticism is prejudice made plausible."
- H. L. Mencken (1880-1956)

"Moral indignation is jealousy with a halo."
- H. G. Wells (1866-1946)

"Imitation is the sincerest form of television."
- Fred Allen (1894-1956)

"Happiness is good health and a bad memory."
- Ingrid Bergman (1917-1982)

"Denial ain’t just a river in Egypt."
- Mark Twain (1835-1910)

"The difference between fiction and reality? Fiction has to make sense."
- Tom Clancy (1947-), paraphrasing Mark Twain

"Opportunities multiply as they are seized."
- Sun Tzu

Waterfall
Nothing can harm me at all
My worries seem so very small
With my waterfall

I can see
My rainbow calling me
Through the misty breeze
Of my waterfall

Some people say
Daydreaming's for all the
Lazy minded fools
With nothin' else to do
So let them laugh, laugh at me
So just as long as I have you
To see me through
As long as I have you

Waterfall
Don't ever change your ways
Fall with me for a million days
Oh, my waterfall

by Jimi Hendrix

As I can finally login, at long last, I'll quickly post this, before blog logs me out as a visitor on my own blog!!!

'He's got two great feet. Left foot, right foot, either side.' - ALAN HANSEN

'I don't think anyone enjoyed it. Apart from the people who watched it' - ALAN HANSEN

'England now have three fresh men,with three fresh legs.' - JIMMY HILL

'If England get a point, it will be a point gained as opposed to two points lost.' - MARK LAWRENSON

'To play Holland, you have to play the Dutch.' - RUUD GULLIT

'A game is not won until it is lost.' - DAVID PLEAT

'The lad got over-excited when he saw the whites of the goalpost's eyes.' - STEVE COPPELL

'If history is going to repeat itself I should think we can expect the same thing again.' - TERRY VENABLES

'With eight minutes left, the game could be won in the next five or ten minutes' - JIMMY ARMFIELD

'Fortunately, Paul Scholes' injury wasn't as bad as we'd hoped for.' - TREVOR BROOKING

''I think that their young legs would have found younger hearts inside them.' - JIMMY ARMFIELD

'He's got a brain under his hair.' - DAVID PLEAT

'Ronaldo is always very close to being onside or offside' - RAY WILKINS

'I'd like to see him scoring two or more goals in games which United win 1-0.' - BRIAN WOOLNOUGH

'I think that France, Germany, Spain, Holland and England will join Brazil in the semi-finals.' - PELE

'Fiorentina start the second half attacking their fans; just the way they like things.' - RAY WILKINS

'I'd be surprised if all 22 players are on the field at the end of the game - one's already been sent off.' - GEORGE BEST

'He [Beckham] has two feet, which a lot of players don't have nowadays.' - JIMMY HILL

'The Croatians don't play well without the ball.' - BARRY VENISON

'That's no remedy for success.' - CHRIS WADDLE

'It's sometimes easier to defend a one goal lead than a two goal lead.' - MARK LAWRENSON

'There won't be a dry house in the place.' - MARK LAWRENSON

'For Burnley to win they are going to have to score.' - CHRIS KAMARA

'Barnsley have started off the way they mean to begin.' - CHRIS KAMARA

'Roy Keane, his face punches the air...' - ALAN BRAZIL

'Those are the sort of doors that get opened if you don't close them' - TERRY VENABLES

'...and tonight we have the added ingredient of Kenny Dalglish not being here' - MARTIN TYLER

'Figo is as important to England as Beckham is.' - MARK LAWRENSON