Obesity worse than smoking - so say doctors

So, does this mean I can start smoking again? I think not.

But there is a lot in the media here about how a very high proportion of the population are overweight and the majority (of the population) will be classed as obese in a few years time. The lead in to these stories is that 'obesity is worse for health (I suspect the NHS coffers) than smoking'. I think now they feel they have smoking under some sort of control then the next thing on the list is bad diets and obesity. Lets hope they don't bottle out (the way they did with the Tobacco companies) and do make the food companies change their practices.

So, I suppose you don't really want to hear what I've been eating, do you? Well, what I will say is that it has been relatively healthy - apart from a couple of visits to an Indian restaurant - and that it is really easy to get healthy, take away and food to go here now. I have been having a lovely time!

Macbeth was - as you will see from my previous comment - excellent, with a splendid cast of actors, some scary special effects and three quite spooky witches in nurses uniforms.

I had a drink with Jan yesterday, and it was good to see her before I go. But her mother is in her final stages of dying and so we could not spend too much time together since she had to get back to relieve Ed who has been looking after Lee while Jan is at work. Jan says she is very lucky to have had this time with her mother and both she and Lee have had long discussions and wish Lee would simply go to sleep and not wake.

Today feels a bit like waiting to start a journey. The flight is at 9pm and I have kept my room till 5pm and will leave at 4.45. But I feel restless and can't settle to anything. All the bags are packed, I just have to have lunch and then a quick shower and I'll guess I'll be ready about 2 hours ahead of time. I think I better get something to read!

This is the end of this blog - till I travel again. Thanks for logging on, reading, commenting. Talk to everyone soon I suspect. In the meantime, love and hugs all round. Ann

Lovely London

Hello everyone. I do hope all is well with all of you and yours. I am in London now after a rather difficult week in Skopelos. It was entirely my own fault, I did it to myself and have no one to blame but myself. I have always hoped that when I go in the last week of the season that I will not meet a vulnerable animal(s). Well this year was one of those years when there were a family of kittens and mother around and I just got very stressed about them and how they would survive the winter. Although I tried, and my friends tried in various ways to ensure their survival it looked not only that we would not succeeed, but that I was also in danger of losing my good friends over this feline family.

But, when the going gets tough you do really find out who your friends are and I ended the week not only with all my friendships intact and the kittens futures ensured but two of my friends who had not been close for some time seem to have resolved some difficulties to the extent that I wish for them what they give to me.

And Skopelos is still beautiful.

Now I am in London having stayed (and shopped) with Candice - thank you Geoff for taking me to the hotel and I am sorry not to have been able to say goodbye to you. I have had dinner with Maggie and Steve and am trying to track down Jan so I can have a final lunch with her. But tonight I go to what has bveen called the very best production of Macbeth - with Patrick Stewart (Star Treck) and am looking forward to that. Meantime I am off to do a bit of my own trecking - around London.

It has been a great trip and wonderful to have seen everyone here and I am so looking forward to seeing everyone on my return. Someone asked me the other day 'Which do you prefer NZ or England' and I had to say that I loved them both and would be very happy to stay in either. I love things about each area (and Skopelos) - scenery, animals, nature, culture, - and I have good friends in each (so I always miss someone!). But I do feel I am truly blessed to know all of you and know you are all 'on my side'.

So, I am off to do, hopefully, the last bit of serious shopping!!! Have fun my dears. Love - lots of it - to all. Ann

A bit hit or miss

Mmmmm - well, this BLOG might get to you or it may not. This is the first time I have got as far as actually being able to type something in. The reason for this is that - it is all Greek to me - literally. Everything else on the screen is in Greek apart from what I am typing (and when I first started using this machine, even my tytping was in Greek - which was no good at all since there is no literal translation!!!). So, it is a bit hit or miss whether this will actually get to you.

Yes, the island is magical as always. I wondered whether I would feel like that or not. NZ is beautiful, there is sea, sand, sun, beautiful landscape and so I wondered not only why I was going to Skopelos but whether it would 'work' for me. Well I wasn't here 10minutes before I knew. There is something about the island that just melts myheart. I don't expect this would happen with anyone else - but it does with me. So, it will be no hardship to be here for a week.

I have been out with both Mimi and with Heather and it is splendid to see both of them. I have plans to see each again and in fact I shall have lunch at Panarmos with Mimi today and dinner with Heather this evening. Tomorrow I have the keys for Mimi's new house in Glossa and so shall beetle up there in my little red jeep tomorrow and spen the night there. I am so looking forward to it - I want to see the stars in the Northern hemisphere in all their glory. So I am hoping for a cloudless night tomorrow.

I have done all the things I expected to, I have visited Glisteri and swam/snorkelled, had coffee at Stafilos, lunch at Agnondas (although all tavernas are closed so I took my own lunch); I have visited the monasteries, driven the roads I like etc , eaten my fill of good Greek food - all the things I wrote about last time and won't bore you by repeating.

The island is closing down for the winter, so many places that I would normally frequent have shut up shop already. Partly this is because everyone on the island has made enough money early this year. There was a film crew here for most of the summer - they were filming Mama Mia with Peirce Brosnan and Meryl Streep - and the money they had to spend far outweighted anything a horde of tourists could offer. But I like the island quiet so it suits me fine. It is interesting to be almost the only tourist here. It is also interesting to go out with Mimi now she is a councillor in the local government - everyone wants to speak to her! Very interesting.

OK sweets, I am off to lunch now. Bye for now. Love & hugs. Ann

Ann sends her regrets

Ann had a great start to her visit. Beautiful weather, going out with people, swimming, even seeing a Daisy lookalike. Unfortunately, however, the island's internet cafe (which has another Daisy lookalike), has closed for a week or so and Ann might be out of contact. She's going hunting for alternatives, but it's a small island! So we'll have to wait and see.

Getting ready to go to Skopelos

Candice and Geoff are at work and I am home alone (!) However, the most mischief I will get up to is packing the wrong stuff in the wrong bag. I am having a general tidy up today and tomorrow because when I return from Skopelos (Friday 12th) I am off to London on the 13th for the remaining time till I leave on the 17th for Auckland (Candice says there is a shop she just MUST show me on the Saturday!). So, I am making sure all clothes are clean, packed ready and waiting.

I had a very pleasant weekend with Ed and Jan, visting Jan's mum, Oxleas woods, Blackheath farmers Market. They are such a very pleasant couple to be with, very gentle, caring and thoughful. Jan is now vegan so I fed very well and felt better for even two days of good vegan food.

We went to town for dinner on the Saturday evening (wonderful dosa's Elisabeth) and coming over Blackfriars bridge the city looked absolutely beautiful. But, even better, when we were leaving and all the lights were on, it looked fabulous and magical. I never fail to be impressed by the view of London from the river either upriver or down, there is always something interesting to see. Jan and I will be getting together, probably for lunch, before I leave for Auckland since she works in town.

We were visited each evening at Ed and Jan's by the foxes who come to the garden to feed. There are two adults and the cubs of one of the adults. Foxy - the mother of the cubs is unafraid and I have some lovely pictures of her. Talking of pictures, I am totally frustrated at not being able to post pictures for you to see as I go around. The lead (from the camera to the computer) is not working and so I bought a card reader (where you put the memory stick from the camera into it/it is plugged into the computer via a USB lead) but this does not load onto Candice's computer - and in fact caused a major problem when I tried to load it. So, sorry, no pictures till I get home.

Yesterday i spent the day at Rowhill grange being pampered. A swim (25-30 lengths), a spa, a jacuzzi; time for tea and a relaxing read before my facial, then lunch and lastly the hairdressers. Blissful.

Last night I had dinner with the Leharnes who were as rumbunctuous as ever and kept me entertained for a good few hours. Thomas has done brilliantly in his GCSE's and is going on to do A Levels before going to University. He says Cambridge to do Environmental Chemistry/Geography. A bit like his father I think. Rebecca is, as always, Rebecca, indomitable, cheerful, funny and full of life. Lovely to be with, as is the whole family. Steve and Maggie are coming up to meet me on the Sunday after I come back from Skopelos.

Tonight I will have dinner with Andy and Lena the father and mother of Eleni, who came to stay with her boyfriend Paul last year - some of you will remember? I am looking forward to this since I haven't seen Andy since we left England in 2003.

Now I am off to book tickets for the theatre for when I return from Skopelos. Mmmm Patrick Stewart in Macbeth? I've seen the RSC Seagull and King Lear in Auckland so no point is going again. Ah, well, pleasures to come.

And then, my dear, it is off to Skopelos for me - where, I hope, the next blog will be from. Till then, take care of each other. Lots of hugs. Ann

In the interests of cross-speciesism

Woof, woof, woof te kana, woof woof.

I can tell you about this species called humans. I can tell it in my language, perhaps they will understand, perhaps not. But I know YOU will.

Tail wag, tail wag - welcome.
Dance-woof-woof - walk.
Bark-woof - sausage - dribble dribble.
Tertiary education - snore, snore.
Pant, pant smile - treats
Grrrrr, growl - Blobs
Huh, Huh, Huh - meat, quick
Cringe, hide - bath - Ugh!

Simple folk these humans - what more do you need to know!

Signed: High Princess Mordomenia (commonly known as Daisy)

I wonder

I often wonder what on earth Madam and the Caretaker are talking about. Cyberspace...the Unconscious...Rights and Responsibilities...Existential this and that...CSI...They sometimes discuss quite unintelligible things such as the the tertiary education commission, strategic development, capital/debt ratios, transferable skills - well he does, as she nods off seeking solace in a glass of pinot gris. Transferable skills, for example...what might they be I ponder. Well,actually, now I know. You learn how to do a blog defending canine rights (very successfully, I might add) and then you transfer that skill into reflecting on the day to day life of probably the world's most beautiful dog.

So today I'm feeling very suspicious as to why the Caretaker is looking so cheerful. It can't be the weather - sadly, his very favourite subject - because we have been having an horrendous storm. It can't be the food - sadly his second favourite subject - as even he seems to be getting bored with peanut butter sandwiches and icecream. It's not the company of me and the Blob - she tells me she has been making him very anxious by the strategic placement of bird feathers around the house so that he spends half his time looking under chairs and behind cupboards. If he looked carefully he would see that the Blob is blobbier than usual. It could, of course, be quality assurance in tertiary education - a subject which, very, very, sadly, makes him almost orgasmic - but, according to his diary, that's a week on Thursday. The most likely thing is that it's me...the most perfect companion, golden, gorgeous, graceful...but that would apply all the time. Humanoids are very strange. Blob and I often say, I wonder what they're thinking. If only they could tell us. Do you think they have emotions? Why are they so obsessed by food? Do they do anything without a reward? I wonder. If any of you can help us understand, we would be very grateful.