Health & Education
The Good Drinker – Winning the Week
Since the end of ‘dry January I have been working on a process I learnt from the book, The Good Drinker, by Adrian Chiles. In my opinion, there is little point in dry January, unless I am going to learn from it and reduce my booze intake. Educating yourself on alcohol is more interesting than it sounds. Reducing Intake In Chiles’s book, there are examples of people he has met on the drinking journey. These are individuals who like a ...
The End of Dry January
I always find that if I get into the habit of not doing something, I can get quite good at it. After about a week of not drinking, I have got myself out of the habit and I go in search of chocolates instead. The downside of this is that I am also very good at getting back into habits. Dry January knocks me out of habitual boozing but by spring, as a bit of warmth sets in, off I go again. By autumn, something alcoholic passes my mouth on most ...
Dry January – What’s the Point?
I kicked off my annual month of abstinence on New Year’s day. Initially, I was going to do what I have done for the last two years and leave it until February. However Jennifer wrecked that with a dramatic breaking news announcement that she was done with booze for a month. Led by the Stronger Character Of course, I could have just said “bully for you” and let her go alcohol free whilst I waited until February. There is a slight ...
The Nurses Strike
It was just a couple of years ago that nurses were being lauded as national heroes. It was a fair accolade too, considering many of them were on the front line of a health crisis. Covid Pots and Pans! It is worth remembering that during the early stages of Covid, no one knew if there would be a vaccine. PPE was also in short supply increasing workers risks. This meant NHS staff were frantically trying to keep people alive whilst sticking ...
Measuring Happiness Against Economic Growth
My dad gets delivered the New Scientist magazine every week. It keeps his 89-year-old brain chugging along and stops it from getting lazy. He then hands them down to me to try and get my woeful scientific brain out of neutral and into first gear. Science fascinates me but I am not very good at it. I read some articles and my brain is saying, “Yep, yep…getting it…yep…yep…oh fuck, it’s gone!”. The best way to explain it is to ...