“The hardest thing about being a writer is
convincing your wife that lying on the sofa is work.”
JOHN
HUGHES
My real man has been away and this was an ideal opportunity
to (no, not that) finish the next book in a series I am writing on useful key
recipes without the distraction of programmes about the war, power tools and
other manly noises.
Said real man calls all my writing endeavours “sitting on
the settee” even when I rather sportingly sit on a hard wooden chair at the
table. He is proud of my having had a
real book really published and of my other writings but he doesn’t understand how
physically hard work it is. I do – it
hurts!
So I wanted to tell you about a very handy little programme
I downloaded which has helped immensely plus a cunning plan I have put into
operation.
Firstly the useful programme. I have been experiencing all sorts of eye
problems recently from itching, blurring and soreness to sudden pains like a
needle stabbing my eye. Of course this
worried me so I looked up “eyestrain caused by computer work” and discovered,
ta da …
Their argument is that a computer screen is designed to replicate
working in bright sunshine and that this is not natural for us for so many
hours a day so it adjusts the brightness automatically making it warmer at
night.
I downloaded f.lux, which is free incidentally, about a week
ago and oh golly gosh my eyes feel
better - get it here.
So now to my cunning plan.
I have not only realised, but been told over and over again, that I
should get some exercise and I agree that sitting about all day, even if I am
waggling my fingers a lot, is probably not enough activity. On the other hand it is pouring with rain, I
don’t drive and where we live has nothing much to look at. Also, of course, I am busy thinking and
writing. So I have made a promise to
myself and so far so good. Every time I
have to stand up, whatever the reason – I will walk up and down stairs five
times and then do the exercises I am going to tell you about.
These exercises were recommended to me a while back by a
great physiotherapist when I had not one but two frozen shoulders.
Important
I am going to try to explain these two exercises which work well
for me but I recommend that you look into them further before having a go. Certainly
don’t rely on what I say because I am a cheffy food writer type thing and not a
doctor but I do really recommend further investigation.
Exercise 1
I think this is called a neck retraction and what I do is,
standing tall and straight and looking forward I drawn my head back and bring
my chin down slightly. When I do this I can feel the top of my spine
stretching. I do this ten times for a
count of 10 each time just after I’ve just gone up and down the stairs as
mentioned above. My physio told me this
would also help counteract a windows hump.
Exercise 2
I don’t know what this is called. Whilst standing with my arms hanging loosely
at my sides I roll my shoulders kind of backwards and downwards whilst squeezing
my shoulder blades together. Then for good measure I pull my chin back as
above. I do this ten times for a count of 10 too.
I do apologise for using the word “exercise” so much, I realise
it can be upsetting but I'm trying to help.
Key Recipes
The book I have just uploaded to Amazon (see my previous post about how to do this) is the third in a series I am writing, each book giving one key recipe with numerous ways to
use it and lots of other useful information.
The idea is that readers will be inspired by the information I give them to go on to create their own
delicious meals.
This one is about soup and
gives 50 recipes for soup plus others for stocks, garnishes and accoutrements
and looks like this - look inside here.
One other thing …
If you’d like a free copy of
my “219 Cooking Tips & Techniques you
might find useful” (it’s a big sexy 77p on Amazon but you might as well
have it for nothing!) pop over to Sudden Lunch! and click the link in the
sidebar. There is an option to sign up
for my Sudden Lunch! posts to be delivered straight to your inbox, it’s not
compulsory but you might like them!
