Lifesabeachafter50

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Pasta shells in cheese sauce with ham, corn and a simple tomato and taragon side salad

It was nothing short of miracle how I finally managed to get some sleep last night.  A neighbour was having a party complete with DJ and they were playing really laud horrible music all night. Not only that, the DJ’s voice was the most awful I’ve ever heard and he would not stop talking either.

I thought Oh well, they must turn the sound down a bit after midnight.  But NO, they did not. I kept trying to close my mind to the noise and get some sleep but it was all in vain.  

It was pointless trying to get to sleep even though I was really tiered.  So about 2am I got out of bed, put the lights on and made myself a cup of hot milk.

I sat in my bed sipping the milk, waiting for the party to end. I’d been on the computer all day and my eyes were burning but I had all these ideas in my head so I picked up a pen and pad, started writing down some bullet points and outlines for my articles and thought I would complete the task in the morning.

Finally, around 3.30 am there was the long awaited  silence.  I turned off the light and went to sleep.

Didn’t get out of bed until 10 in the morning.  Still tiered but the sun was up so I dragged myself out of bed.

Didn’t start writing until late in the afternoon about 2 pm by which time the sky was covered with dark grey clouds and soon it started raining again.  What a gloomy Sunday I thought!

But to look on the bright side, I had all these ideas outlined for my writing so the writing began in Earnest.

I was just going to write a short blog post of about 600 words which usually takes me about 35 minutes, perhaps 40 minutes with spell check and proof reading.  But I suddenly realised it was 6 O’clock and  I had been typing  for hours! 

No! I didn’t cause another egg explosion! And No, I didn’t burn the dinner either.   I hadn’t started cooking yet. I was going to start once I finished writing.  

In between checking my email, checking what’s happening on  Facebook  and typing, I had written 2000 words! And that was from just one of the ideas I had in my notebook!  Oh well I can dissect it into different posts can’t I?  you can read it here

By this time it was too late to cook what I had planned for dinner and had to change the menu. 

So instead of beef casserole, I had to make Macaroni cheese though I only had pasta shells but really the same thing. And very nice it was too.

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I’ve been thinking about losing a bit of weight for some time now and I decided today was a good day to start.  A Wednesday, which is the middle of the week, my favourite day when I was in full time employment because the week end was getting closer!  I was on my own and I thought I’ll have a couple of days before the week end to see how much weight I can lose on an egg diet!

So I put a couple of eggs in a pan of water, turned on the cooker and thought, while that’s coming to the boil, I’ll quickly check my email……

So I went into my bedroom-come- office and started checking my 600 new emails! deleting some, reading some quickly, filing some more and then got an idea and started writing.

I’ve been doing this a lot recently, I start cooking something, and then I go on my computer, start writing and forget about the cooking.  Fortunately for me, I have a backup in the form of Stephen!, bless him, who is always there to rescue the food.  Even though he moans about it and tells me off.  He always tells me “when you’re cooking, you have to watch it!” as if I didn’t know! And wasn’t it I who thought him most of things he knows anyways?!

Now He’s  telling me what to do or not to do.  But actually we have a great relationship. He being a suspicious, pessimist and I being a pragmatic, hopeful and trusting person. Good combination when  making decisions about things.

Anyway, I went off the track a bit here.  So back to my tale of the exploding eggs:

I had completely forgotten about the eggs! Suddenly, I heard a BAAAANNNNNGGGG!

I thought it was odd.  No one else is in the house, perhaps it came from outside, I was going to ignore it and carry on with my work, but curiosity got the better of me and  I went out to investigate.

As soon as I opened the door and stepped in to the hallway, I could smell a horrible smell.    Sometimes I get that when the wind brings in someone else’s cooking smells through the kitchen window and pushes it in the hallway but this was a foul smell. Not a cooking smell.

Still not remembering the eggs, I went, or rather tried to go into the kitchen.

This isn't really my cooker. I forgot to take a photo so I looked this up in google!

OMG! There were eggs everywhere except in the pan!  The first thing I did of course was to turn off the cooker.  Then I stepped back and looked in amazement.  It’s incredible how far can  two little eggs go when they explode!

I soon realised that I have to get all the eggs off the floor first in order to be able to actually get into the kitchen to clean up the rest….. 

See? I’m not just a pretty face!  I do occasionally use what little brain I have left!

I wanted to get everything cleaned up before Stephen came back because I knew he would give me a lecture about being careful! 

Anyhow, once I started the cleaning, I realised it wasn’t actually as bad as it looked at first.  I just hate doing the housework and this was an extra work I had to do and it wasn’t welcomed at all.

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It’s been a long time since I made a post here, because I’ve been busy building my new business blog, Internet Marketing Success Academy.  But I had to share this little story here because it made me feel good. 

It made me feel good because I helped someone. Perhaps in a very small way but that is something that always makes me feel good, if I can help someone in need of help of any kind

It was extremely cold when I went for my walk earlier this morning.  Once home, I spent the rest of the day on my computer.  Writing, researching and editing videos.  

Just after midday, I looked up and it was snowing hard and fast.  Looked out of the window and everything was suddenly white! Then after a few minutes the snow stopped, the sky cleared and the sun came up.  I still carried on with my work but my eyes were killing me so decided to take a walk up the road to get a breath of fresh air and buy something for my sore eyes.

On my way to the chemist late in the afternoon, I spotted this old man with an orange shopping bag and a walking stick, standing on the pavement.  As I approached, I heard him say “excuse me” in a quiet, almost feeble voice.  I thought “Oh no! he’s going to ask me for money”. I still stopped to see what he wanted.  He said “I’m really sorry, could you help me cross the road please? I’m afraid I might slip and fall”. 

“Of course!” I said.  And held him closely by the arm and we crossed the road slooooowly!

The pavement was quite treacherous! As the quarter inch of fine powdery snow that had fallen a few hours earlier was already starting to freeze over under the clear sky and the sub-zero temperature. But I had my snow boots on and this poor man wasn’t prepared for this.  He said “my wife is in hospital and I don’t want end up there myself”.  

He thanked me a thousand times!  I offered to escort him to his door, but he said he was OK once we were on the other side of the road, he said he didn’t have far to go now and he can manage. 

I crossed back to my side of the road, went to the chemist, got my thingamabob and on my way back I saw him again, on the other side, sloooowly turning into a side road holding on to the rails outside the buildings and looked like he was nearly home.

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It’s only Wednesday and its been an eventful week already.  Some good and some bad events.  What with me quitting my job (good news cus I got what I wanted and achieved my goal),  news of two deaths, my uncle’s and my friend’s mum (I won’t insult your intelligence by defining these!),  trying to find an employment lawyer to validate my final compromise agreement with my employer, some interpreting jobs that just came about and of course I never refuse them because they are so few and far in between, trying to edit a website in html code, and the pain in my neck, remnants of a muscle spasm I had last week and all my other usual chores.

Yesterday afternoon I got the contract sorted and today, since I was going to be in the area, I thought I deliver it by hand to make sure it doesn’t get lost in the post.

So I set off this morning around 11 am.  On the bus, almost lost in deep  thoughts, felt kinda nostalgic, mostly pensive about my uncle as it’s his funeral today – that’s in California so there is about an 8 hour time difference.

All my childhood memories of my uncle were keeping me somewhat preoccupied.  As a young girl, probably around 11, 12 years old, I remember that he and one of my cousins were Tehran’s casanovas.  He was swanky, Good looking, well dressed, highly educated, he was a civil engineer, All that and of course his extreme sense of humour, you know the kind only a stand up comedian possess, made him popular and irresistable to young women.

He used to throw parties that were the talk of the town and drove sports cars that turned heads in the street.

After he finally got married and settled down I used to spend a lot of time at his house with him and his wife.  She used to give me these really pretty nightdresses to wear whenever I stayed the night over and he always made me lough and gave me little pretty presents.  I especially remember a little broach he gave me when I was about 13.  It was a little hat with a blue ribbon and colourful tiny flowers and I loved it.

His son, my cousin would be arranging the funeral today and preparing himself for a speech.  What a difficult job for him I thought, since I know how much he loved his dad and how close they were.  It was so transparent when I saw them together not so long ago in London.

I felt a couple of tears rolling down my cheek and falling on my lap. Can’t believe he’s gone even though I know his memory will live on.

They say when you are about to die, your whole life flashes in front of you.  It may be true, I don’t know yet but I know from experience that this also happens when someone you know and are close to dies. Their life and your memories of them is animated and that I suppose is how in reality they don’t just pass away, they actually become immortal. 

I had a pounding headache but I sudenly realised that the headache is not from all these deep thoughts, but from hearing this guy stting  right behind me on the bus talking really loudly, on his mobile phone, in a language I didn’t even recognise!   I mean this guy was talking without taking a breath.  I noticed he was talking as soon as I got on the bus- this is fifteen minutes later and he’s still at it!

Finally I got so peed off with his voice that I turned around and very calmly and quietly said:  “Are you ever going to stop talking? Or should I lose my temper and use the F word?” 

He stopped almost instantly.  All quiet again I carried on with my thoughts but didn’t miss that a few fellow passengers gave me the thumbs up for shutting this guy up!

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The weight loss industry is chock full of lies, and why not?

If overweight people were to actually LOSE weight and keep it off, the peddlers of diet pills and exercise machines would stop making their billions.

So what are the lies you (and millions of others) may be falling for?

WARNING: I’m not going to sugar coat this, so if you get angry when you learn the TRUTH, well, I can’t really blame you.

The diet industry has been lying to all of us for years, and frankly, I’m sick and tired of it.

Here is the TRUTH behind six of their most common lies…

1. Many so-called “health foods” will actually cause you to GAIN fat…

2. Exercises like sit-ups and crunches are actually the LEAST effective way to lose belly fat…

3. So-called cardio exercise is NOT the best way to lose fat, and it doesn’t even do much to strengthen your heart…

4. Diet pills, fat burner pills and weight loss supplements are a complete waste of your heard earned money…

5. Ab machines will NOT (Repeat: WILL NOT) give you flat six pack abs…

6. The people on TV who CLAIM to have gotten their six-pack abs from the machines they’re selling, are flat out LYING to you.

They got their gorgeous bodies through REAL workouts and REAL nutrition strategies.

So if you’re a woman, how do you lose fat and get a sexy toned stomach instead of a blubberous belly?

And if you’re a guy, how do you get those six-pack abs, instead of a gelatinous tub of gut?

With exercise and nutrition that flat out WORKS.

And you don’t need any special equipment, expensive pre-made meals or poisonous pills.

You also never need to feel deprived. Nor do you need long boring workouts.

This isn’t a magic pill… …this is science.

The name of the program is “The Truth About Six-Pack Abs,”

And it’s chock full of proven strategies that will take your entire body from fat to fabulous faster than you ever imagined possible.

P.S. Have you given up on looking great and feeling great?  If
you’ve tried diet after diet, exercise after exercise, with no
real results, then this is for you.

Stop “trying” to look better and feel better, and start DOING it,
starting just a few minutes from now…

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Have you ever twisted your knee?  It’s a bloody painful affair! 

I know that because even though I have a very high threshold for pain, when I twisted my knee I was in absolute agony.

 For a few days I was constantly in pain and couldn’t put any weight on my knee.  It even hurt when I was asleep and would wake me up in the middle of the night.

 The  pain subsided after a week or so and I thought nothing of it until I tried to run.  Oh how the pain came back again with a vengeance. 

Even the strongest pain killers didn’t help.  This time I thought I am not going to ignore it and neither am I going to suffer.

 I knew that whatever the problem was with my knee was more like a ligament or cartilage problem.

 So I got an MRI scan done pretty quickly.  The report said that I had a torn cartilage, a meniscus tear to be exact. So I was referred to an orthopaedic surgeon.

 A couple of week later, I had an appointment at the orthopaedic clinic. While I was waiting to see a consultant, they sent me to the A&E to get some X rays of my knee. (That’s where I met Elizabeth, the really cheerful and funny Lady described in one of my previous posts).

 Anyway, the surgeon, he said that he didn’t get my actual MRI, he only got the report and obviously he can’t really make a recommendation unless he can see the pictures.

 Then he went on to say it may be quicker to have another MRI than to try and find what happened to the last one.

 I was very annoyed, This whole thing was a waste of time.  Now I have to dedicate more time for another MRI and then wait for the idiots to lose my CD again!

 I was determined to find out what happened to my MRI. So I asked my Dr’s office to give me a copy of  the CD or send it directly to the orthopaedic clinic.  “We didn’t get the CD”  they said “ we only got the report”.   

 I got the phone number for the company who had done the test and contacted them……

“who did you sent my MRI CD to?  Because my GP didn’t get it” I enquired. 

 “oh, it was sent to the hospital”  Anyway, I found out that it was sent to the wrong hospital so I said.

 Well, I had an appointment with a consultant yesterday and he didn’t receive the CD so I now have to have another scan.  It’s a waste of time and money and all because you got it wrong.  Who the hell did you send my CD to anyway?

 What I heard in response was “we never get it wrong” so I shouted, “Well obviously you’ve got it wrong this time!” 

 “Excuse me?”  Said the assistant at the other end.  You said you don’t get it wrong, right?  “No madam, I said we sent it to William Delong!

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The tube train I use to get to work was unusually crowded this morning, This was promising to be a bad Friday and a tiresome end to a long working week. Not only I had to wait for the train  over 15 minutes on a cold, wet and windy platform, it was absolutely chok-a- block when it pulled in.  I had to squeeze myself in. 

To give you a graphic visualisation of how full the compartments were; open a tin of sardines!

 Forget about personal space! We were rubbing against each other!  It got so hot, that I had to take my jacket off.  That wasn’t without struggle but at least made me feel a little cooler.  However, I don’t think it was a brilliant idea because it left me rather thinly covered and as a result I was able to feel everyone’s bulges! 

 We were so closely stuck to one another  I could honestly feel people’s body parts rubbing against me. 

 In particular I could feel something from behind me so I turned around to assess the situation, some people could take advantage of a situation like this! it was actually a nice young man and he had several other people stuck to him on either side of him so he was unable to move.

 Just at this moment the train came to a sudden halt causing me to lose my balance.  In trying not to fall over, although it was not possible to fall because of all the people around, I had to make a 180 degree turn to secure my feet and ended up chest to chest against the guy! Now if I had my jacket on, it would not have been as dramatic as it was.   I mean we were practically stuck to one another for about 30 seconds! Not able to move at all and I’m sure he could feel my bulges as much as I could feel his!!

 Fortunately, he seemed to be just as amused as I was and actually saw the funny side of it.  We looked at one another and had no choice but to giggle really laud.  

 He said “look at us! I’m really sorry” I said “really?  You’re telling me you didn’t enjoy that?”  We laughed again simultaneously and he said “yes I did actually! How was it for you?”  “ I’m not complaining!” I Said.  And we laughed. “I’m just sorry it was so brief!” he said , “ yes, so am I” I said ” I don’t know who you are but felt so close to you for a while!”  Laughter!

 By this time the train pulled into the destination station and as soon as the doors opened everyone practically fell out!

 Even though my short tube journey to work can be quite stressful, sometimes things happen that can make it fun and memorable.  This was one of those things, also what made my day even brighter was the busker at  South Kensington station playing “Take Five” on his Alto Sax, even though he wasn’t all that good a player, it was still very refreshing and so appropriate for me.

 So today was a good day.  Almost like a five minute break from the usual drudgery.  It started well, although it didn’t at first look too promising what with the rainy day and train delays…!

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I met a delightful old English lady with a posh accent at the A&E the other day while I was waiting for an x ray of my injured knee.

The waiting area was no more than a short corridor with seats on either side, not enough seats for everyone. So when she arrived, accompanied by her nurse/carer,
I guessed she was eastern European from her accent, I got up and offered my seat. She sat down and soon another seat was vacated on the opposite side so I sat down.

She had her arm in a sling, and from the conversation she was having with her nurse I gathered she had fallen and broken her arm.

After abut five minutes, she started talking with her nurse about having a party, going home to get a shot of Whisky and apologising to the nurse for having to sit there and wait.

“ is there only one X ray room for all these people?” “ there aren’t even enough seats for everyone!”.

There were 13 people sitting on the chairs and 3 people standing but No one uttered a word. I said “ just what I was thinking”. She looked at me with a sweet smile on her face. Obviously glad that someone was interacting with her.

Then she looked around and said in a rather loud voice “ why is everyone here so miserable?” and the nurse said “ “shush Elizabeth!” She giggled and started signing:

“A cigarette that bears a lipstick’s traces
An airline ticket to romantic places
And still my heart has wings
These foolish things remind me of you”

She didn’t remember the rest of the lyrics, but this was just enough for me to remember the music in my head. I had to look it up on YouTube afterwards, both the lyrics and the song. I’ve got Rod Stewart’s version here which I like the most:

Then the old lady- let’s call her by her name- Elizabeth, looked at this fat man who was standing just outside the seating area in the corner and said to her nurse in a sort of a loud whisper “ look he is so fat, he probably wouldn’t fit on these small chairs!” and the nurse was going “ shush Elizabeth, you’re so naughty!”. I couldn’t help but have a look – he was standing just out of my sight so I had to slightly get up and look round.

Then I looked back at Elizabeth and we both smiled. I said, “You know, you’re right. His jacket alone could probably cover the hole in the ozone layer!” and both burst out laughing!!

It’s never fun to be sitting in a hospital waiting room, but thanks to Elizabeth and her cheerful presence, I really had a great time that day.

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  Did you know

Crackers were invented by Thomas J. Smith of London in 1847.He got the idea from the French bon-bon sweets that he encountered when he was in Paris. 

This was actually a developmnet of his own bon-bon style sweets which he sold in a twist of paper. He noted that these sweets sold well around Christmas time but slumped, after Christmas was over.

Smith began to come up with new promotional ideas. His first tactic was to insert mottos into the wrappers of the sweets ( inspired by fortune cookies), but this had only limited success.

Then came the copycats and he had to come up with a new idea to beat competition, so he started inserting motos into the crackers, usually love poems because most of his initial customers were men who bought the sweets for their other half!

He was inspired to add the “crackle” element when he heard the crackle of a log he had just put on the fire.

The size of the paper wrapper had to be increased to incorporate the banger mechanism, and the sweet itself was eventually dropped, to be replaced by a small gift.

The new product was initially marketed as the Cosaque (i.e., Cossack), but the onomatopoeic “cracker” soon became the commonly used name, as rival varieties were introduced to the market.

The other elements of the modern cracker, the gifts, paper hats and varied designs, were all introduced by Tom Smith’s son, Walter Smith, to differentiate his product from the many copycat cracker manufacturers which had suddenly sprung up.

Tom Smith Christmas Crackers is still in business and makes Christmas crackers annually for the Royal Family of Great Britain.

Talk about one man’s inspiration and 162 years of continuous success!

Sounds like a real cracker doesn’t it?  But actually it’s rather inspirational to think that one man’s simply ingenious idea has been used for over 100 years by millions of people in 4 continent and most those who use it don’t even know where it came from.

Most people give up at the first hurdle, or first little bump they get on their way to achieving success. This man just kept reinventing this simple idea and is still in business today. That is simply Remarkable!

Examples of modern Christmas cracker jokes:

Q: Where do the fish get their petrol from?

A: Shell

Q:  Why did the orange go to the Dr?

A: Because he wasn’t peeling well!

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One of the things that always makes me wonder is how do some people let themselves get so bogged down with problems that they end up with sever depression.

Every one of us has to face daily problems from traffic horrors to stressful work situations to home and family crises to financial burdens.  So why is it that some people can handle all this and others crack like bone china?

I can’t speak for everyone else but I can tell you how I would deal with stressful situations.  Ok I am not going to lie and say that I never get stressed out.  I do and like everyone else I have my ups and downs. But the difference is that I don’t stay down for very long. I may moan and whinge for a while but I get it off my chest and move on. I often see the funny side of things and laugh off a stressful situation.

I was on the bus the other day and this young woman got on with a  double buggy occupied with two babies she had five other children all around the ages of 3 to 7 with her. They were all either crying or talking really load or making some other noise! It was as if she walked in with a super woofer on full volume!  Suddenly the atmosphere on the bus got really tense.

The whole bus was looking in wonder how she calmly ignored all the crying and commotion and while some people were starting to get stressed out with all the noise and were tucking their tongues and rolling their eyes, I was seeing the funny side of it and wondering: how on earth did she manage to have so many kids! She must have been continually pregnant for at least eight years! There didn’t seem to be enough gap between the ages of those children! And I couldn’t help but laugh to myself!

My journey on the bus was pretty short but I must admit as I was getting off, I did actually feel sorry for everyone else who had to endure that racket for long!

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