Day 5

Looking at the forecasted temperatures for the week ahead in the UK gives me the chills. One thing I don’t miss about the sprawling metropolis, which is my birthplace, are the long cold winters. Yes the snow fall has come early this year in Northern England but the cold and the rain will be around until April at least; does this kind of prolonged winter have a negative effect on those affected ? How do residents of communities as far away as Canada for example deal with the extended periods of snowfall which make UK winters seem mild in comparison? I remember reading an article many years ago which referred to S.A.D. – “Seasonal Affect Disorder.” This is something which would explain a lot for many people, so with my hot beverage for company once more I’ll Search-“seasonal affect disorder” and see what we get. Wow! This really is a hot subject out there with 1.63million results.

Basically from all the stuff out there we can glean the following interesting facts and statistics:

SAD is something which can affect you at the same time each year and could make you feel moody anxious grumpy and, of course, sad; you may lose the desire to do your usual stuff; you may sleep more and get drowsy during the day. You may crave high carbohydrate foods such as pasta and bread and subsequently put on a few pounds around the middle. In countries with long and clear cut seasonal changes it is reported that 6% of the population could be affected with SAD. Another fact to note is that 60-90% of those affected are women. Children are not so susceptible to the symptoms. In warmer climates such as Cyprus and those nearer to the equator the condition is rarely seen. Have no fear you are not alone and there seem to be ways to combat it.

 One type of remedy is that of light therapy and would be used for the whole season. Essentially there are two types of the therapy; ‘Bright Light’ which involves sitting in front of a custom made light-box for half an hour each morning. The other is ‘Dawn’ therapy which is a light source which comes on at a predetermined hour and behaves like a sunrise increasing in brightness as time goes by. There are also portable light sources which can placed on your desk at work at these are compact and unobtrusive. The downside of course is that the therapy needs to be used every year for the whole of the winter season. Of course the most drastic and life changing remedy would be to emigrate to warmer climes; not for everybody!

Get a light-Be happy.

Day 4

Okay, so this is a really big day for me (no I’m not ordering a large cappuccino) I’m giving my completed 67ooo word manuscript to my wife for comments; I’ve told her to be brutal and given her a red pen! This is the culmination of two years ‘hard-ish’ graft some days and nothing on other days. But to see all this effort in print- if only in spiral bound A4- gives me a feeling of satisfaction tinged with slight apprehension(the red pen of course). In all seriousness this is a good thing, after all, the point of writing is so that others can read it- I never actually thought that I would ever get to this stage considering the number of times which I’ve re-read and changed whole sections each time. If this is how it feels to print the first manuscript then it must be truly awesome to actually have your first novel published. I wonder how many budding authors are out there and how many submissions actually result in publication; it must be a scarily high rejection rate, and for good reason. Personally, I really enjoy writing and have started my second work of fiction albeit scribbled down in my big yellow A4 pad- I find it easier to first let my thoughts flow through the pen to paper and then modify as I transfer to my laptop. In this way I use my written notes as a template which I can add to or subtract from as necessary. The first couple of pages can be viewed on my other blog: http://writeronanisland.blogspot.com. Please comment as to whether you are interested enough to read any more. Thanks for looking.

Day 3

Well if you’ve come this far then I hope that ,at least, you’ve left a comment. If you haven’t then please comment as to why not...J.

Today hadn’t started as planned; when you leave home five minutes later than usual it seems as though the whole city has done the same! You then find every single useless driver ever born in front of you the whole way to school. To cap it all coffee shop time is being steadily eroded...road rage!!

Anyway I’m here now and naturally my usual parking space has gone (not happy today)! The second choice of parking up becomes my only option, and like everybody else I simply park on the yellow line-have no fear. Entering the coffee shop I somehow feel that the dynamic is all wrong; the barista nods to me and starts to prepare my cappuccino. I look to my usual seat and feel as though I’ve crossed into a parallel universe, a topsy-turvy world of inaccuracies and anomalies: somebody else is in my exact soft leathery seat with their own laptop, happily tapping away. Never seen him before but if I had been on time... ‘Cappuccino medium’- the call stops me from descending into coffee- shop-rage. So why do I feel so aggrieved. Well we are all creatures of habit and we like our ‘places’ ; if your boss at work decided to move your desk to another part of the office you would most certainly kick up a fuss; if somebody took your regular(unassigned) parking spot you would curse and slander that person beyond reason. So, much like a dog who urinates up a lamppost or your car tyre we are just being territorial.

 The hard chair accommodates me but the small rectangular table is barely big enough to fit my laptop and coffee cup side by side. My new laptop (finally) runs for at least 5 hours on one charge so I set myself up and consider the stress of my short morning so far. Stress is a killer and it really is no joke. Search-‘Stress kills’

Your stomach is knotted; your muscles may be sore or tense; you feel exhausted most of the time; you have high blood pressure; regularly feeling low and unhappy… these are all symptoms of stress and can damage your immune system so much that your body could be open to heart disease, diabetes, respiratory problems, and cancer. When we are stressed our cells alter their shape and ‘get sick’ thereby allowing weaknesses in our immune system; this in turn opens us up to all manner of infections and disease. ‘Free radicals’ are able to take hold and nobody likes ‘free radicals.’ The American Medical Association reports that 75% of all sickness is directly related to stress.

Relax… give way to other drivers, don’t worry about being late, don’t worry about those unpaid bills, let others sit in your seat and above all … love each other.

 In other words try to avoid stress at all costs!!

Have a chilled day people.

Day 2

Okay, so maybe I was a little bit biased in my last post regarding the benefits of coffee...nothing wrong with a positive spin to start the day, is there? Maybe I’ll balance it up later, but for now a warning about emails. I am the curious type and in a mad moment of weakness and said curiosity taking hold of me, I clicked on one of those “free download e-book,” links; no obligation of course but get ready for many more similar rubbish emails- oh dear! For example: “check out this site friend”—“make $1000 per day”--“give up your day job with this money machine”—well if these guys are making so much money why would they be trying to make 10 or 20 dollars on selling the aforementioned money spinners? The obvious answer is plain to see –there are no free lunches! You can of course click on the “remove me from list” link but this only seems to create an “undeliverable” email message (and probably puts your details on more lists!). Usual coffee usual leathery sofa and the sun is already warming the pavements outside-still no rain with today’s’ mercury expected to reach 28 Celsius; scarily warm for November...socks in bed not needed yet.

 Search “negatives effects of coffee”...well the bottom line on this is that more than three cups a day is not good and if you can’t function first thing in the a.m. without it then ... you need help! So there it is, all balanced up.

Oh no, my ‘favourite person in the whole wide world’ has just walked in and he’s walking over to contaminate my ‘me-time.’ The chairman of the PTA is not a bad guy but he does go on...and on...and on, until he’s completely eaten away my time with my coffee and sofa. Have I started the newsletter? Well of course Mr Chairman! Did you get photos of the talent show? Yes Mr Chairman of course Mr. Chairman- now please go away! He stays and tells me about his cat catching some virus and shedding all of its fur. I really couldn’t give a crap but he doesn’t sense my complete indifference and continues to prattle on about vets fees and the need to buy pet insurance for future diseases! I stifle a yawn and check my watch; thank the gods, it s time for me to go. Almost 8:50 as I step out of the coffee shop I breath in a mouthful of... second-hand cigarette smoke which has just come from the inside of a really attractive thirty something female; she won’t have that lovely complexion for much longer  if she carries on with the burnt offerings. This is a topic which needs its own time and date...watch this space.

Day 1

Routine is good,routine is healthy,we all need it and this is a great excuse to do what I do three mornings a week.We all need a little 'me-time' in a public place as opposed to just sitting at home and having 'me-time.' It's 7:30am and I have to be at work by 9am or thereabouts. I use the word 'work' loosely and is in no way intended to imply that any kind of hard graft is involved; my hours are 9am til 12 noon, three days a week on alternate days...See what I mean!
Cappuccino consumption three days a week roughly equates to four hundred euros per year. 'Yikes!' I hear you say, but lets put this into perspective:Coffee in moderate quantities is really good for you. I'll 'Google-it' in a minute.
'Cappuccino ready'
'Thanks Chris'
I drop a few cents into the tip cup( Its the thought that counts)and make my way to my regular soft leathery settee where I always sit...always.

My laptop really is a piece of crap; the lid hinge is about to give up creating intermittent screen flicker(oh my eyes!!), the battery only charges to 21% then miraculously uses this up in three minutes. The RAM is barely able to handle the typed word, causing regular screen freeze, etc etc.The point has been well made for the desperate need for a new laptop but my apologies for going off the beaten track.

The coffee is steaming, the laptop is plugged in and the skies are increasingly darkening overhead; the floor to ceiling windows provide an unobstructed view to the world. November usually brings little rain but this year looks more than promising. What do I mean promising? Yes, that wet stuff is what we need here; the parched land has been deprived for too long and if water cuts are to be avoided then we need a sustained deluge. Enough of the clear liquid let's talk about the dark velvety brown liquid. How did we ever live without the Internet? Search "coffee benefits"
The froth on my cappuccino gently caresses my upper lip as I carefully sip through it and make contact with the good stuff below. I'm not an "eat froth from the spoon" kind of guy, in fact I think that the only purpose for said topping is to insulate the hot beverage and to protect it from kamikaze flies; so if a small fly should get stuck in the froth, removing it is simple and avoids contaminating the actual coffee- brilliant!
Going back to coffee benefits, we can glean the following interesting facts:

A study of 126,000 people in the US over a period of 18years has shown that two cups of coffee per day can lead to:
1. 25% reduction of colon cancer
2. 80% reduction of liver cirrhosis risk
3. 50% reduction of gallstones risk
4. risk of type 2  diabetes reduced by single digits( 6 or more cups reduced this by 54%).

Apart from this ,as if all the above wasn't good enough, coffee can help to reduce headaches, improve your mood and even help to prevent dental cavities. All this makes 400 euros per year sound cheap and I for one won't be giving up the drink of the Gods any time soon!! 

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