Piece-rate Or Overtime?

Some members of the body’s SPT must be working piece-rate or, at the least, their CEO must have put them on some kind of incentive scheme. [More on this later.]

After the difficulties encountered during this morning’s relaxation routine, recorded on Mal’s Murmurings, any attempt at the day’s second session of breathing was maliciously thwarted; seems like the body resents the imposed discipline. Having listened to at least 99% of this afternoon’s play (on BBC Radio 4), which finished at 3.00pm, my next conscious recollection of the day was a rude alert, some 75 minutes later, when my beloved returned home. I awoke as a groggy wreck; the only problem is, I’d planned my breathing sessions for 11.00am, 3.00pm and 7.00pm, as they say “the best laid plans … blah, blah … blah …”.

Not to be daunted, by my record of abject failure, my evening relaxation routine duly started 30 minutes late. The first in-breath took the full seven count and, the out-breath maintained for eleven; so far, so good.

The second in-breath found me struggling at the count of five, in a ratio of 5/10 and, I felt like giving up. Third breath 6/12, repeated four more times; success of a kind! Next comes the rest part, retaining my upright but relaxed posture and, this time, it started well.

I seemed to retain concentration on the inflow and outflow of breath but, the relaxation and flow was spoilt by a quite frequent need to swallow hard. That’s where the SPT come into the equation; the body’s Saliva Production Team certainly seemed to be working hard to distract me, I certainly believe that they’re on some kind of overtime or piece-rate. I overcame the distraction, dear reader, believing myself the courageous soul I’d like to be!

The trials and tribulations of breathing

Just how difficult can it be to ‘breathe’ for relaxation? Darned hard is the answer. Yesterday, on return from the Chronic Fatigue Unit, I managed two sessions of my 7/11 routine with only a little effort being required. This mornings first session proved a little more problematic, the regimented routine proving too much of a distraction. (See Mal’s Murmurings “Of protracted catnaps and disciplined rest” for all the gory details).

The second session, today, managed to bring my long standing nasal problems to the fore and, the routine was transformed from 7/11 to a disrupted 5/8 pattern.

Come this evening, three attempts to begin the routine ended in an exhausted failure; suddenly it felt like a recipe for stress creation, almost as if my breathing apparatus (as a token of disapproval) had developed a kind of tracheal hiccups. As usual, my beloved thinks I’m being a little hard on myself, recognizing that I’m quite shattered from yesterday’s outing. How can one possibly induce rest and relaxation when they’re really tired?

What's your theological worldview?

I was quite surprised by one or two of the percentage ratings but, overall it pretty well has me sussed! You scored as Emergent/Postmodern. You are Emergent/Postmodern in your theology. You feel alienated from older forms of church, you don't think they connect to modern culture very well. No one knows the whole truth about God, and we have much to learn from each other, and so learning takes place in dialogue. Evangelism should take place in relationships rather than through crusades and altar-calls. People are interested in spirituality and want to ask questions, so the church should help them to do this. Emergent/Postmodern 82% Modern Liberal 61% Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan 61% Roman Catholic 54% Neo orthodox 50% Classical Liberal 39% Reformed Evangelical 32% Charismatic/Pentecostal 21% Fundamentalist 0% What's your theological worldview? created with QuizFarm.com

The birds and the bees

The freshly re-sited nest-box is already turning out to be a real hive of activity. The blue tits, when not busy foraging for insects in the vicinity of a blossoming shrub, seem to be taking it in turns to pop into the nest box. With all these visits being made, I imagine that by now the bottom of the box will be well and truly moss lined and, it won’t be long before we’ll be able to witness home deliveries of food being made to the sitting (brooding) tenant!

More Fish Tales & Taking A Breather

Although I’ve been feeling quite washed-out, for the last couple of days, this morning’s early sunshine led me out to the garden; I re-sited the bird-box (once more), my beloved having recognized some dangers inherent in its current situation. More detritus had gathered on the pond’s surface, following the past couple of days blustery weather phase, so a little more net work was called for but, it was also good to notice that the pond now displays copious bunches of frogspawn after the recent false alarm. One of the baby goldfish was out on a scouting expedition but, it seemed that the ‘oldies’ just couldn’t be bothered to surface. [At least the White Cloud Mountain Minnows, in our aquarium, are currently giving us a better show for the money. The young additions to the aquarium seem to have given the older residents a new lease of life!]

Having carried out my pond check and, fastened the nest-box on the sawn-off end of one of the apple tree boughs, I could rightly feel that my brief spell in the garden had been quite fruitful!

This afternoon, my beloved chauffeuse drove me over to the Chronic Fatigue Unit, at the District Hospital, where I spent an hour with Julie (Senior Occupational Therapist). Most of the session was spent providing her with some background to my condition and, she duly set me some homework, with a few general tips about ‘pacing’. The homework is all to do with relaxation; 7/11 breathing for 6 or seven times followed by a period of rest, total duration (using a timer) 15 or 20 minutes, the routine being carried out three times a day at approximately the same times. It is the discipline of a regular routine that will be the major problem, for me, rather than the exercise itself. By the time our session was finished, a slow stroll back to the car proved sufficient strenuous exercise for the day!

March to New Orleans

"Over five days earlier this month, around 200 veterans, military families and survivors of Hurricane Katrina walked 130 miles from Mobile, Alabama, to New Orleans ...."


Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | 'If you start looking at them as humans, then how are you gonna kill them?'

The helplessness of the long-distance spellchecker

The intended word was EMERGE, instead of which the typed word was IMMERGE. On questioning why the Spellchecker hadn’t spotted the mistake a discovery was made; immerge is similar in meaning to the word immerse, almost diametrically opposed to the sense of emerge.

Of course, were the rather more rare IMM word to be deliberately used in conversation, chances are that the listener would assume the EM word was intended; hopefully the context would enable the truth to emerge. Life gets confusing at time but, as has frequently been said, “the meaning of a word is its use in language”.

Occasionally a difficulty arises as to what is a word and what is language.

Liberal Leftist Christian Fundamentalists?

I think I’ve heard it all now; the Christian Warmakers on, and calling in to, the ‘Jeremy Vine Show’ accused the Ekklesia spokesman and the Christian Peacemaker Teams, in the space of a few minutes, of being both Christian Fundamentalists and Liberal Leftists. They must be doing something right!

Reasons or Excuses

A bit more tidying up of the pond, whilst the sun shone briefly yesterday, followed by a pub lunch; playing about with graphics programmes on my PC today; such minor tasks at times take an undue toll on my energy reserves. Once again you find me making excuses, or should that read giving reasons, for not having contributed anything to the blogosphere! Each time I’ve attempted to put down a few words, they failed to flow and, I simply didn’t have the stamina to work at it.

Beth and Cathy took my beloved out for Mothers Day lunch today then, briefly called back chez nous.

Looking for Signs

Another bright sunshiny day but, the chill factor seems to prevent much activity in the garden pond; the water temperature has rarely attained the minimum temperature (4 centigrade) required for the fishes ‘low temperature’ wheatgerm feed.  I netted out a bit of debris and, that was pretty well the sum of the day’s aquatic activity. After that gentle activity, I did also manage to put out some seed (and replenish the peanuts) on the bird table and, treated the compost bin’s contents to some magic elixir to speed up the decaying process!

I have plenty of seeds ready to create, or intensify, a ‘Butterfly Friendly Wild Flower Meadow’ at the top end of the garden but, I await the right “warm and moist” conditions for sowing them. Perhaps, after our much colder than the norm first three weeks of March, we are entitled to expect a mild Spring. I still await my first sightings of the  red-tailed bumblebee, 7-spot ladybird and, frogspawn for the ‘BBC Springwatch Survey’.

I still manage to rejoice in this day the Lord has made!