Seen this afternoon, Election Day in the U.S., in Paris, this shopwindow, where they still had Halloween decorations on
Vote, vote, vote!
I hardly ever post anything about politics, but the whole world is looking at America, and so am I.
November 4, 2008
October 2, 2008
Sixty-four
I turned sixty-four, (one of my favourite songs by the Beatles) last week and between the gifts, the get-together with my daughter and the walking, I have been pretty busy.
It’s been a year of change. It started badly, with having to admit that I did have high blood pressure, that my triglycerides were too high and my cholesterol out of order. Not to mention the pounds that had added up during the last… ten years. I didn’t mind the last so much, but the high blood pressure represented the first regular medicine I had to take. Talk about getting old.
Four years ago my body failed me when I found myself with breast cancer. But just when I started feeling that this was behind me, I had to accept a daily pill.
I must admit that I hate taking medicine and seeing doctors. So, this was a blow but when the doctor suggested that if I didn’t take the medication and if I didn’t try to mend my ways I’d be a good subject for CVA, I figured that it was time to do something.
There I was lucky, because I joined a programme, which, besides a thorough checkup, offered a three-day session, during which you were offered advice for starting up exercising and changing your way of eating.
My daily pill
So I did make a lot of changes to my way of life.
My goal at the time, was to stop taking my high blood pressure medication one day and to avoid having to take statins to fight cholesterol. Those two things may never happen, since my blood pressure is OK WITH the daily pill, and although triglycerides are back to normal, cholesterol is still a bit high.
But on the really positive side, I have rediscovered exercise!
As I am the queen of gadgets, I purchased a pedometer. And several pedometers later, here is the queen of pedometers, discovered by Sara, a faithful member of ElderExercise
The queen of pedometers for the queen of gadgets
And I started walking, and walking… and walking. And what seemed almost impossible at the beginning, has become my daily routine.
The doctor also prescribed brisk activity of some kind. I told you earlier about purchasing a reclining indoors bike, which, I must admit is OK. Except that I don’t enjoy pedalling as much as I enjoy being outdoors and walking. So I save the bike for really rainy days. And I must admit that ever since I got back from Normandy, I haven’t used it yet. But I know there’ll be days.
I do try my best to have at least three brisk walking sessions a week, –between 30 and 40 mn each–, four sessions the weeks I am lucky 
Another thing I do is record my daily progress on my Google calendar, for my record and also at ElderExercise, one of Naomi’s brilliant ideas.
I am also having a one-hour weekly Feldenkrais session, but I did that before starting the programme, and have added a stretching session, which has done me a lot of good.
I have added a weekly splash at the swimming-pool and hope this good resolution will hold out throughout the winter…
This has had the most wonderful effects on my mood and on my health. I have gone down from size 20 to size 16, and I am not out of breath when I climb up stairs any longer. I used to complain about joint pains all the time, and although they are still here when I get up in the morning, they subside as soon as I get moving. Quite a lot has happened since I wrote this post, back in August 2006
At the top of Durham Cathedral
So should I thank cholesterol and high blood pressure?
The down side of all this is that I can’t keep up with everything. In other words, you have noticed that I am not as faithful a commenter on your blogs as I used to be and that I don’t post much on my own blogs. Off walking
June 2, 2008
Time flies!
It can’t be the first time I entitle a post ‘Time flies’. Well, the older I get, the more I feel it. Is it because I am slower, or because I like taking up new things with new toys?
Is it the (almost) daily exercise? It might be a bit of all these things put together.
I just realised that I still have photographs that I took last summer in Manchester, and that I haven’t processed, sorted out or uploaded yet.
And there’s this new toy I got that takes up a lot of my time.
My brand new Flip Ultra Video
and the time it takes to process the video clips I take with it
So of course, I try to combine everything together,
All set to do Word Time 6 and bike at the same time
Or I walk and use my Flip while walking.
Because of flickr video feature, I have gone through the photos I have accumulated through the years and fished out a few clips that I took with my video camera and am trying to tame iMovie to edit them and upload them.
Like this one I took last September with my Lumix FZ8, when I went to Chaumont sur Loire with my friend Sarah.
In a hammock with Sarah*
I have no idea where my second foot had disappeared, but I swear it was there.
So between one thing and another, I just don’t have much time for blogging, although I am also posting once a week at ElderExercise.
I do try to read blogs as much as I can, but that’s still not much! Sorry about this. 
* The music is an extract of Franz Schubert’s Sonata in B flat performed by David H. Porter, copyright free music (public domain music).
April 20, 2008
Back home
This is just to let you know that I’m back home after a great eight-day trip, with wi-fi indeed, but not in my room. So the only thing I did was check my mail and certainly had no time for blogging.
Angel at Norwich Earlham Cemetery
Leo and Elly are wonderful guides to their native Norfolk and we went through churches, cemeteries, zoos, aquariums and museums (I’m sure I am forgetting a few things!) not to mention a wonderful performance of Brahms German Requiem at the church of St Peter Mancroft and a great evening at the Theatre Royal where I enjoyed Cats and meeting Elly’s Mum, a great lady!
St Peter Mancroft, Norwich
I took loads and loads of photos and will be uploading them on flickr, some of them being already there.
And sorry to have missed a weekly episode of my Wednesday Window!
February 17, 2008
Jardin des Tuileries in winter
In the course of my recent stay in hospital, I was advised to go for longer walks to get my daily dose of exercise and, three times a week, to add a 20 minutes fast-walking period in the course of those walks.
So far so good. In fact, I find that it stimulates me and it’s been relatively easy to comply for the last week or so, because it hasn’t been raining at all.
Last Wednesday, I crossed Jardin des Tuileries which extends from Place de la Concorde to Le Louvre. I found it amazing that this is what it looked like at 12:01 pm
Empty and misty
and exactly 5 minutes later not exactly from the same vantage point, but pretty close,
Crowds rushing towards Le Louvre or Place de la Concorde
Probably rushing to lunch!
The only thing that I find difficult in my new programme, is to find room to blog, as I keep one blog in English and one blog in French, and even more difficult to come and visit you on your blogs.
So please forgive me, and give me some time to get more organised! 
