Category Archives: health & happiness

sweet dreams …

14 Wednesday Mar 2007

Posted by in health & happiness, life stuff, love

≈ 7 Comments

pillows2.jpg

. . . are made of this?

More and more couples in the US are ordering separate master bedrooms in their new homes to help ensure a more harmonious marriage, research suggests.

What do you think? I’ve always thought having separate bedrooms (what the heck, separate suites) would be a fabulous way to live together with an intimiate other. You’d still get all the togetherness and sharing stuff, and of course you could still sleep together anytime you both wanted to … in fact, wouldn’t that be even sexier than always having to sleep together due to lack of space? You could take turns inviting each other over when you felt like having company, and when you felt like reading half the night or just having a comfy whole-bed-to-yourself experience you could do that too.

Well, if it’s good enough for royalty . . .

Meanwhile, the article also makes some good points about conflicting schedules, sleeping habits, etc. getting in the way of an otherwise happy relationship.

the talking cure

23 Friday Feb 2007

Posted by in health & happiness, life stuff, musings

≈ 1 Comment

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From today’s Grauniad.

Illness – even cancer – is the body’s way of communicating, but doctors don’t have time to listen. Psychoanalysis may take years to make you better, but it beats quick-fix therapies.

My GP in Canada was fond of saying that he treated people, not just symptoms, and it’s true that I’ve never met another doctor like him. He was well-known for being an excellent diagnostician and I think the main reason for that was that he took time to listen to what his patients were actually saying to him.

I think the article raises some good points about how health care systems tend to pigeon-hole patients far too much, though I’m not sure that everyone would benefit from psychoanalysis. Still, sometimes just being able to talk and feel like someone is really listening can make a world of difference in how we feel both physically and emotionally. It’s odd how in most western societies we often ignore the obvious connection between physical and mental well-being.

on being incensed…

10 Saturday Feb 2007

Posted by in health & happiness, home, life stuff, rants

≈ 23 Comments

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Gaaaaaaa! I hate incense!

Or to be more accurate, I am incensed about being incensed to distraction, making my eyes water and the vile stink of it making me feel totally nauseous. Perhaps it’s a throwback response from being forced to go to church as a child? Whatever.

The problem is that there is a souvenir shop directly below me (I live on the third floor – fourth floor US/Canada). Last spring they started selling incense burners and put a table outside and suddenly clouds of incense started wafting into my living/diningroom. Okay, it depends on which way the wind is blowing, but some days they may as well be burning that shit on my diningroom table!

So I spoke to the owner of the shop, asking him to please either use less incense or at least not burn it during ‘lunchtime’ (in Spain this is approx 2-4pm) as when I have my balcony doors open it makes it impossible to eat. He basically told me to piss off. So I did – and called the police.

The police came over and I explained that I’d tried being reasonable with the shop owner but, in fact, I didn’t think he had any legal right to place things outside his shop on public property that might annoy the neighbours. And the police actually said I was right and said they would talk to the shop owner. After that the problem subsided.

Until today.

The first really spring-like day of the year – it’s 21ºC and sunny and I opened up all the balcony doors to let in some lovely fresh air . . . and got a noseful of fucking nauseating incense instead! So I’ve had to close the doors and it’s awful feeling so shut in like this. f_cross.gif

(though I do think those little dragon-egg incense burners are rather cute)