In A Word – Blisters

Well it had to come I suppose, I have been pushing myself all week to exercise more, and have been doing a good 2 1/4 mile walk at a fast pace every morning, with the result that I now have blisters forming on the balls of my feet.

I decided to slow things down a bit yesterday morning, which helped, my feet weren’t too bad during the day, but then I went on another 4 mile hike yesterday evening which left them sore again.  I was determined not to miss my walk this morning, but knew it had to be done at an even slower pace.  I also wanted to try and take a swim after, to make the most of my workout routine.

I lost track of how long the walk took this morning, but it was a while longer than the 36 minutes of the previous days, helped along with some more good music from my trusty MP3 player, today being a fresh batch of random songs from the same selection.

The walk starts and ends with going down and back up 6 flights of steps from my 7th floor condo, and within 10 minutes of having got back from the walk, I was changed and back down for a dip in the pool.  I managed 20 lengths, then back upstairs again, by this time just after 10am.  It really is nice to be living in Florida where you can do this sort of thing most of the year.  If anything the summer time is hte worst, since it’s just too hot and humid, even in the early morning.

I was feeling nicely energised after the walk and swim, and not very hungry surprisingly, so I made do with an orange and a banana.  I then set to on the internet, catching up with messages and postings on various sites.

Before I knew it, 1:30pm had come around, so I legged it downstairs for a 3rd time to put the sauna on, then grabbed a light lunch of cheese and tomato sandwich, my favorite since I was knee high to a grasshopper.  I topped this off with a yoghurt.

An hour later I headed down to the sauna, then did 20 lengths in the pool, took a steam, and another 30 lengths, before heading up those steps for a 4th time.   That made a total of 70 lengths in the pool, my daily record, plus I think a record for going up and down stairs.

I was going to have some homemade chicken soup for dinner, but didn’t feel like something that heavy, so I made do with some sliced carrots and ranch dip, followed by an apple and orange.

My day of working out wasn’t over yet though, as I went out for another walk to check out the opening times for the local Farmers Market and for a couple of items to Target.  I hadn’t been to this Farmers Market before, but Tim, who I rent from went today and got some real bargains, all important if you are on a tight budget.  We also discovered a nice park around the corner from the market, with several walks and lots of ornamental shrubs and trees.  I guess we covered about 2 miles in total.

So here I am at almost midnight trying to get my daily post completed before the day ends.  I have spent the evening trying to catch up with comments on my Squidoo Lenses and also on Tagfoot.   And so it’s almost time for bed, catch you tomorrow.

My Daily Walk

This week I started my new regimen of trying to get up earlier and to take a walk to wake my body up and get going, prior to showering and breakfasting, just to try and start the day off right, and ideally be more productive.   I know that lying in bed, then getting up, grabbing a bit to eat, checking the internet etc, has led to it being close to lunchtime before I really achieve anything, which isn’t very good when you are struggling to write and establish an online presence to earn a living.

So this morning I managed to wake up just before 7:30am, quickly checked my email, and was out the door for my walk about 8:15am.

Monday I managed a really fast walk, covering the 2 1/4 miles around the block in 35 minutes.  I developed a small blister on the side of my big toe, so I thought for yesterday I would just wear a pair of open sandals that I have walked in before to give my toe a break.  Bad move!  By the time I got halfway around the block I had a blister starting under the ball of my right foot, and by the time I got back a matching one on the left foot.

I can usually walk a long way without developing blisters, but it’s the speed that does it, so today I wore socks and sneakers (as one should) and decided to take things at a slower pace, which worked out perfect.  It still only took 4 minutes longer in total, but of course walking a bit slower doesn’t burn quite as many calories.  Hopefully I can take another walk tonight as well to double my efforts, as well as a swim this afternoon.

Well when I walk alone I usually take my trusty MP3 player with me, loaded with my favorite tracks, and it’s set to play them randomly, so I never know what to expect.  Normally, every time I power my MP3 player on it starts at the same track, but if I hit the forward button it locates something new each time.  Well today I got Deja Vu when it immediately started playing “Highway Star” by Deep Purple., the same starting track as yesterday.  I said to myself “ok, this is a good driving rhythm to start me off even if it is two days in a row” and off I set.  The next song was a slow Country song, “She’s In Love” by Mark Wills, followed by more Deja Vu and another track from yesterday “No Se Tu” by Luis Miguel from the album Romance.   This was followed by another favorite of mine, “News Of The World” by The Jam, a great Brit-Rock band that you don’t hear too much about now, other than the lead singer Paul Weller doing covers on his solo concerts.   Next a song I really like, but little known, “The Mystic Journey” by Arlo Guthrie (remember him from Alice’s Restaurant?).  That was nice and mellow, but then another rock classic, “Love Reign O’er Me” by The Who from the album Quadrophenia.  Absolutely the best Who album musically, aside from Who’s Next which has all the singles that you still hear as themes to television shows like CSI etc.   This took me to the final leg, and the music switched again to Country with another favorite of mine, “My Next Thirty Years” by Tim McGraw.  This often has me thinking back at my life, and what the next years are going to bring.  And finally just as I rounded the side of the building, a long track that I would have to cut short unfortunately.  This is really little known except to Progressive Music fans who like PFM, “River Of Life” from their Live In Japan 2002 double CD.  You can learn more about PFM on my Squidoo lens about them.  It has a a number of video clips, including the full version of this song.

I added below a list of the track that I have on my MP3 player right now in case you are interested.  I think youwill agree that I have a very varied musical taste.

Getting back home I was feeling rather peckish, not really in the mood for Oatmeal, which although it’s healthy wasn’t going to hit the spot today, so I cooked Cheese And Beans On Toast, and English classic meal that works equally well for breakfast, lunch or dinner.

Well this post is dragging on and so is time.  I have had so many interruptions today it’s unbelievable.  I hoped to have this complete by 11am, it’s now close to 3pm Eek! and time for my daily workout in the pool.

I hope you enjoy the music (most of the links have previews behind them) and I am interested to know what you think of the blog, the postings, or if you have a blog too and would like to swap links.

My MP3 Playlist

An Early Morning Walk

I decided (see my last post) that as from today I need to start getting out of bed earlier, and to take a good walk first thing to get me moving and to start the day off right.

So I arranged for Debbie to wake me up around 7am this morning with a phone call, however I woke up on my own around 6:45am instead of my usual 8am.  Do you find too that if you need to wake up early, you don’t always need to set the alarm, your body somehow wakes you up at the right time?

I chatted with Debbie for a while on the webcam before she headed out for an afternoon appointment (remember she is in the UK), then checked some of my emails and Tagfoot messages, and headed off for my “hopefully” daily walk around the lake, golf course and nice homes where I live.  It’s a 2 1/4 mile route around the block, with 6 flights of stairs down and then up at the end, which takes about 35-40 minutes if I “hoof” it and make it a brisk walk.

Well I spent a bit too long chatting and messaging, so it was 8:30am by the time I left, but it was an almost perfect day, partly cloudy, a nice breeze, and about 70 degrees.

When I walk alone I always take my trusty MP3 player with me.  It’s about 3 years old, doubles as a flash drive and only has 512mb of memory, but it’s enough for me, since when I mostly use it, I am either walking or flying, and for both I really enjoy listening to a selection of my favorite tracks.  I have it set to play songs randomly, and although it always starts on the same song, flipping to the next I never know what it might play.

This morning I did pretty well, the MP3 player selecting for me a good driving track to start the walk off right, “Highway Star” by Deep Purple.  That saw me setting off to a good pace (I tend to change my walk pattern to match the music), and it was followed by a slower track that I love, “No Se Tu” by Luis Miguel from the album Romance.  Some of you might remember it as the featured love song from the movie “Speechless” with Geena Davis and Michael Keeton (Romance is a great album of love songs by the way, remade hits of the 50′s-70′s in the style of Nat King Cole, but in Spanish).   Then one of my all time favourite songs, “Cinema Show” by Genesis, from the album Selling England By The Pound.  They use a section of this on their medley of “really old songs” in concert, but this was the original, and has one of the best Genesis instrumental sections ever.  By this time I was 2/3rds of the way around the circuit, and the next random track was also a good one, “China Girl” by David Bowie.  Today I recalled the duet of this between Drew Barrymore and Adam Sandler in The Wedding Singer – a great movie.   Finally, for the last leg, my trusty music machine kicked out “Kill The King” by Richie Blackmore’s Rainbow, which saw me along the straight, across the road, and up the stairs to the front door.

Home, I took a cool shower, made some Green Tea With Lime for later, and grabbed a bowl of Oatmeal for breakfast.

So how did you start your morning today, and what would be on your listening selection if you were taking a walk before breakfast?

Adjusting To Being Unemployed

I have to admit that it was a huge shock when I found out that I had lost my job in mid February, not only because I needed to be employed to ensure I had enough money to cover my living expenses, but because this was without a doubt the worst time in my working career to be looking for a job.   The recession in the USA was starting to hit hard, few companies were (and still are) hiring new people in the IT field, and so for the first week or so I was pretty much in panic mode.

For those of you who are new to my blog, I hope that you enjoy the articles that Debbie and I write and will subscribe to them, either via RSS feed or email.  We are also both on Twitter (Tony / Debbie) and you can follow us there.   Our lives are complicated, with me living in South Florida while Debbie lives in the South of England.  I am divorced with 2 young girls who live 30 miles from me, and child support for them takes a good proportion of my income every month, so obviously losing my job came as a great shock.

For the first few weeks at least, despite my alarm having been turned off, I would still wake up at 6:30am automatically, which really frustrated me as I didn’t need to.  I also wasn’t sleeping too well, waking frequently during the night, and with working to update web sites, my resume and to get my affairs in order until late every night, I was exhausted.  Finally I managed to get into a better sleeping pattern as things settled down.

With the prospect of getting another job in the field that I work in (I am a Senior Analyst/Programmer specialising in JDE World Software – an integrated system now owned by Oracle that is used by larger corporations) being slim, I decided that one thing I ought to do while unemployed is to try and do my best to make a living online.   I figured that if I can earn more money online than I have been doing, and ideally earn enough to make a living, then the future would look a lot brighter.   IT used to be a great field to work in, but in the last 10-15 years the rate of pay has actually decreased, and most companies don’t offer good benefits and definitely no job security these days.  Anything I can do, especially as I am getting older, to get out of this dying field, is a good thing.

Well after a few weeks I managed to sleep better, and right now I can guarantee to more or less wake up between 7:30am and 8am most days, sometimes even later.  The problem now of course for me is how to be productive.  I am unemployed right!  So I have all day to do what I need to do.  Well it’s really not as easy as it sounds.   Let me give you a run down of a typical day for me…

7:30am-8am – Wake up.

8am – Check email, web stats, minor web updates, shower, breakfast.

9:30am – Get some work done.

11am – Debbie comes home from work (4pm in England).  Chat on webcam for a while, work on web tasks together.

12:30pm – Feeling peckish, grab a bite to eat.

1:30pm – Take a sauna/steam and have a swim.

2:30pm – Chat with Debbie.

3pm – Get some work done.

5pm: Goodnight chat with Debbie (10pm in England).

6pm – Grab dinner.

6:30pm – Get some work done.

8pm – Take a walk.

9pm – Watch tv / get work done.

11pm – Off to bed.

As you can see, I get some work done, but in short bursts, and in reality I barely have more than an hour for each burst before I am distracted by something else, like the phone ringing, or new emails coming in.   I am determined to try to get fit and lose weight, so my daily sauna/swim is very important to me, especially as I am living in a community in South Florida where we have a nice pool and sauna, plus the weather is on my side most of the time.  So I don’t want to give that up.  I also need to chat with Debbie, as it’s important to us both, and it’s really hard to be so far apart for months at a time.

The solution is to try and do something to reorganize my days so that I can make better use of them.  I started today, not too successfully, but this is my new plan…

7am – Get up early, quick look at email etc.

7:30am – Take a walk.  I live in a community built around a golf course with several lakes, and walking around the block is 2 1/4 miles.  I also live on the 7th floor of a condo block, and walking down the stairs, around the lake, back up the stairs took 36 minutes this morning, one of my fastest times.

8:30am – Shower and breakfast.  A nice cool shower to clean off, then a healthy breakfast, either something like Raisin Bran or Oatmeal with a Banana, and Orange or Grapefruit Juice.

9am – Get some work done.

12am – Chat with Debbie.  Both of us waiting until 5pm over there in England to chat, so we both get more done.

1:30pm – Lunch, Sauna and Swim.

2:30pm – Back to work.

5pm – Goodnight chat with Debbie.

The evening I can’t do much about, since I want to take my evening walk, and I go with Tim, who I rent from.  It’s a lot nicer walking with someone, and I time the walk to fit in with his schedule.  Fortunately we now have the ability to record television shows automatically, which is wonderful as it allows me to still watch my favorite shows, but frees me from having to worry about when they are on.

The best thing about getting up early and taking a walk is that I feel really energised afterwards.  Doing this early is best in Florida as it soon warms up down here, but it also means that I have worked out by 8:30am and an ready to go and get stuck into my tasks for the day, instead of feeling sluggish having just got up and not done anything.

As far as looking for a job, these days jobs in IT are mostly advertised on the internet, and so I have various searches activated on sites like Monster.com and Careerbuilder.com which send me emails of any new jobs.  Also having my resume active on these sites, the headhunters come to me when they have any openings, but inlike other times when I have been looking for work, this time there are precious few jobs going for people with my qualifications.  In the last week I have found 3 jobs – one in Pennsylvania, one in Texas, and today one in Los Angeles, today’s being the only one that I would say I am well qualified for, and none in any location that I am happy to relocate to.   I don’t see things improving any time soon.

My working day consists of writing articles on here, The Laughline and Squidoo, plus promoting the same on Tagfoot and Stumbleupon, as well as other sites.   As well as posting links, I am actively researching for new ways to promote and cross link my sites, to improve traffic and also affiliate earnings.   Some days it’s good, but the last week traffic has really slowed down unfortunately, and I don’t know why.

If you have any comments on how to better organise my time, or on how you organise your time I would be pleased to hear from you.  Also if you have any suggestions for better marketing my blogs to get better traffic I would like to hear.  I am always open to cross linking to other related sites, and there are many other blogs out there that I would be pleased to swap links with.  Don’t forget that you can use the Share button at the end of this article to subscribe to our feed, and if you can Stumble, Digg or Twitter this I would be grateful.

Iced Green Tea With Lime

Iced Green Tea With LimeWhen I need a boost of energy or I am in need of refreshment, there is nothing that I like better than a large glass of Iced Green Tea with a fresh Lime squeezed into it.   This really is a refreshing drink for summer.  Iced Tea in itself is really refreshing, and it’s also good with a slice or two of lemon, but I like to go the whole hog and squeeze a whole lime into a 16oz glass of my favorite summer time drink.

Green Tea comes from China and is reportedly associated with various health-promoting properties.  It has been shown to promote fat oxidation and also to prevent obesity.  Well that works for me!  Anything that is good for the heart and helps burn fat is a good thing.  Plus adding the juice of a lime, you get a good dose of Vitamin C, which helps to energize you and also to boost the immune system.

I know that a lot of people just have to have sugar in their tea, but I actually enjoy my tea without sugar.  I guess I have a high tolerance for drinking things that are sour to others.

My Favorite Brand Of Green Tea

Uncle Lee's Legends Of China Organic Green Tea 100TbagsMy favorite brand of Green Tea is Uncle Lee’ “Legends Of China” Organic Green Tea, which you can buy online from their own web site or other sources, plus it’s available at my local Walmart, which is where I first came across it.   It’s not an expensive tea, but it’s Organic which is good, and most importantly for me – I love the taste!   A box of 100 tea bags costs under $6 which is pretty good too, so it’s not an expensive luxury.  I have tried quite a few green teas, including Lipton’s (nasty!) and they are mostly bitter or just not to my taste, but this is about perfect for drinking hot or cold.

Lemons or Limes can cost quite a bit depending on the time of year, but last weekend at my local Walmart in South Florida, Lemons were 20 cents each, and Limes only 8 cents!  Naturally I grabbed enough to last a couple of weeks at least, and of course fruit like this does last for weeks when kept in the fridge.

If you would like to know more about the benefits of Limes, I found a useful article at Practice Natural Cures.  If this doesn’t convince you of the benefits, nothng will.

How Do I Make My Iced Green Tea With Lime?

Well I don’t have an Iced Tea Maker so I make mine the hard way (which is really quite simple) by putting a tea bag into a mug, adding cold water, and microwaving for 2 1/2 minutes.  Yes it would be better to use fresh tea leaves instead of tea bags, and to brew it properly, but convenience is important to me.

While this is brewing, I fill a 16oz tumbler with ice, then take a Lime, slice it in half, and use my Lime Squeezer to extract all the juice from it into a bowl.  I find that this type of Lime Squeezer is very effective, but you have to be sure that the limes are not too hard, or you can break it.  If you have a lime that is too hard to squeeze easily, before cutting it, roll it across the counter top to soften it, and then it will squeeze with ease.  I also find that if you try to squeeze the lime directly into the tumbler, it can be messy, so it’s a lot easier to just squeeze it into a bowl.

When squeezed, I pour the lime into the tumbler, then wait 10 minutes for the tea to brew and also cool, before squeezing the tea bag, and then pouring the brewed tea into the tumbler.   Take a spoon to stir, sugar or sweetener if you absolutely must, but the limes lately here have been really sweet, or should I say not terribly sour, depending on your tolerance.  I know I find the Pink Grapefruit that you can get in Florida very sweet, but Debbie still needs to put sugar on them.  Each to their own…

Well that’s it for making the Iced Green Tea with Lime my way, so sit back and enjoy my favorite summertime drink, but don’t disappear yet,  there’s more…

What To Do With The Leftovers

Having squeezed a Lemon or Lime, there is still a lot of juice, zest and smell in the halves that are left.  I place the two halves in a glass of water, and place this in the bathroom, where it gives off a fresh citrus smell for a few days.  You could also dry the limes, and hang them up as room fresheners.

With the tea bag, I sometimes wipe my face over with it, since Green Tea is good for the skin, and I have a very oily skin as it is, my face is always greasy and I have to wash it frequently during the day.  If you rub the tea bag over your face, it not only removes the oiliness, it acts as a light astringent and helps to remove dead skin.  I don’t think you will find this in the beauty tips anywhere else, it’s something that I found, and before you start to think otherwise – NO I am not gay!  Regular guys still need to take care of their skin you know…  Note: If you are going to use the tea bag on your skin and you are one of these people that uses the same tea bag more than once – just don’t use it again having cleansed your face ok…

Do you have any other uses for Limes or Tea Bags?  Or do you have any thoughts, tips or comments on how you drink Iced Tea or make refreshing drinks?  Please leave me a comment, I would enjoy reading the feedback.

See also Iced Green Tea With Fresh Lime – You Have To Love It

Bishops Waltham

Bishops Waltham is a small town in Hampshire, at the head of the River Hamble and close to the South Coast of England that dates back to Saxon times.   Much of the town is unchanged, retaining the historic buildings and shops and narrow streets.   Debbie and I stopped to take a walk through the town in April.  We hope you enjoy the photos that we took, which are in the gallery below.

The town is one of the few in England that has managed to retain it’s character, and as well as many of the Georgian buildings remaining, Bishops Waltham has managed to suppress the influx of larger supermarket chains and almost all of the shops in the town are family run businesses.   The local butcher had a number of protest signs outside because one of the supermarkets is planning to open in the town, which will sound the death knell for many of the local shops.

The ruins of Bishops Waltham Palace on the edge of the town are open to the public in the summer months and are run by the English Heritage Trust.  The palace was used by the Bishops and senior clergy of Winchester as they travelled through their diocese. Winchester was the richest diocese in England at the time, and as such its properties were grand.   The palace was destroyed on the orders of Oliver Cromwell during the English Civil war. Much of the old Palace is still in the town. Apart from the ruins, which are open to the public and well worth a visit, material from the Palace was used as building materials in town buildings still standing to this day.

Click Here for Books and other items about Bishops Waltham from Amazon.

The Sausage Dog Pony

The Sausage Pony

A month ago Debbie came across a news item on the BBC Web Site about a pony that had really short legs, so short in fact that numerous passing motorists on the highway had called the emergency services because they thought it had got stuck in the mud.   You can CLICK HERE for the original article from the BBC.

Since this happened close to where Debbie lives, and she had seen the pony when we drove along the same stretch of highway just over a week ago,  we drove out today to see if we could get a closer look and to take our own photos.

It’s incredibly difficult to get to the field where the horse grazes, and we did see it, however this is the best we could do, since it was grazing in a dip.  You can click on the photo for a larger version.   If you look at the photo below, you can see why we couldn’t get any closer.  There was a railway line in the way, plus fencing, and nowhere to get a higher viewpoint.  As it was, I had to hold the camera up high to get the snap that is shown above.

Sausage Pony from a distance

I really do love my Canon Powershot A630 Digital Camera, the second Powershot that I have owned, not only because it takes great photographs, but because of the fact that you can rotate the LCD screen.


With most Digital cameras, you can see what you are taking in the LCD screen, but you are limited to taking photographs where you can see what is in the screen.   Like many camcorders, I can rotate and angle my LCD screen, so I can hole the camera high above my head, avoiding people’s heads in a crowded situation, and even rotating the LCD screen to face me so that I can take pictures of myself.  Actually 90% of the photos of Debbie and I together were taken this way.

The other feature that I really do love with Canon cameras, is the they record the angle at which you took the shot. So, say you take a photograph with the camera vertical, the camera records this, and provided you display the photograph using software that uses this, the image is automatically rotated. No more of the annoying need to rotate your head left and right when someone makes you watch a slide show.

If you would like more information on the Canon Powershot range of digital cameras, click on the camera image above, or hover over the image.

A Recipe For Victory

victoryA Recipe For Victory

 

Ingredients;

One  large,  good, solid idea

A good pinch of AIM/GOALS

One unique theme

A cool name

One cute logo

A massive amount of effective Support

 

METHOD:

 

Develop the idea over long periods of time.

Keep your aims clear and focused.

Blend in a unique theme and add a dollop of a cool name.  Mix with this in equal parts a cute logo.

Test, test and test again.  Invite friends to sample your product at regular intervals.  Encourage them to tag, tag, and tag some more.

Throw in a helping of Adsense and a pint of Amazon. This will produce revenue.

Blend all ingredients together and add some badges and ample amounts of goodies.

Pour mixture into Foot shaped tins and cook for as long as it takes.

Meantime, cherish, nurture and encourage the taggers in their footsteps.

When the mixture is ready, and only you’ll know when, hit the

GO LIVE BUTTON’

Stand back, admire and be proud in your  VICTORY  because your creation will rise and become the best on the net.

 

This blog entry is a contest entry on Tagfoot

Good News

Debbie And Tony EngagementDebbie and I are pleased to announce that we got engaged yesterday (8th April 2009).   We have known for a long time that we wanted to get engaged, and how we felt about each other, but we just wanted to wait until the time was right before making things official.

I dropped down on one knee in the bedroom behind Debbie while she was looking in the closet, so that when she turned around and saw me it was obvious what was happening.   I asked her if she would marry me, the answer to which was a wonderfully happy “YES”.

A little known fact is that pretty much everything that has happened in our relationship happened on a Wednesday, so it only seemed right to get engaged on a Wednesday as well.   After the tears of joy and lots of hugs etc, we decided to head out to the shops to look for an engagement ring.

Debbie And Tony Engagement RingDebbie knew more or less what she was looking for, a Trilogy ring in White Gold, so once in town we looked around all the jewellery stores until we found one that we both liked.  We narrowed it down to two rings that we both liked in one of the stores, and it wasn’t hard to make a decision.  Fortunately, the ring was even the right size and fitted her finger perfectly.

To celebrate, we went out in the evening to a local Indian Restaurant that we both like, which does excellent food, and it’s only 5 minutes walk from the house.   The meal was wonderful, followed by a walk home, the stars out and an almost full moon shining down on us.

This was a very special day for us both, and we just wanted to share it with all our friends.

Tony & Debbie