SCULPTURES IN PARIS

The most beautiful small sculpture gallery in Paris must be the Atelier Brancusi just outside the Pompidou Centre. The works are simple, minimalist, neutrally coloured and soothing. You can also see his workrooms and tools - and it is free. Check opening hours before going and spend a long time gazing and gazing and being moved and uplifted.

PUTTING THINGS OFF

Organisation versus procrastination: the everyday problem. Here's a sonnet I wrote about it, though I am an inveterate list-maker (I have a list of lists most Mondays!)

NO PRISONERS
An army of small chores waits by your bed:
if you get up, they'll snipe at you, attack
your weak outposts, excuses. Turn your back,
lie doggo, plan your strategy, feign dead.
Prioritise, put the least urgent first;
procrastinate: do nothing for today;
run up some ship-shape lists, stow them away ...
now take a recce - have the troops dispersed?
Your life will float above the Plimsoll line
without those paper waves, red-crested bills,
appointments, emails, car tax, dentists' drills
waiting to probe your rotten depths - and mine.
     Whar shall we do with all these brave new hours
     before weeds bayonet the lotus flowers?
    


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WHAT A SUMMER!

The whole country has had a huge party: Jubilee, Olympics, Paralympics, Proms - all a riotous success and in the worst weather for 100 years. I will remember the River Pageant for ever: the spirit was tremendous despite the cold, or maybe because of it as we huddled together for warmth and ate multiple sausage rolls as fuel. I had on seven thermal layers consisting of ... but you don't want to know that do you?

LOSE WEIGHT AND KEEP IT OFF

Ten years ago I was dress size 14 (U.K.) and rising steadily. I reduced to a size 8 and have stayed there. I decided on a daily sensible intake of food and drink (10 units a week of alcohol) which I could sustain indefinitely, I exercised more and I did not worry about how long it would take or how much I would lose. Little treats were and are still part of my regime. It took 18 months to arrive but there has been no problem maintaining this weight.

Here are 2 do not's and 2 do's.
1) Do not think about food and drink more than is absolutely necessary.
2) Do not set a target date or weight.
3) Do eat a little less and drink less alcohol than you were consuming.
4) Do take a bit more exercise each day until you reach a workable amount.

Remember: a chocolate bar gives enjoyment for a few seconds; being slimmer will give pleasure for life.

 

Good luck!!!

DOG IMITATES STATUE

I love it when dogs behave naturally like humans and sit at the driver's wheel in a car as if they are about to turn the ignition and set off to some canine haven.  Here is my neighbour's dog trying to look like the statue - or, maybe, Pygmalion-like, hoping it would come alive so that it can become an object of adoration.

Garden Centres

I have ambivalent feeling towards these places: lovely plants and flowers but all imprisoned in pots and placed in military rows. I wish they would leap from their ranks and files, rise up out of their containers, march towards my garden on their root-like legs and settle higgledy-piggledy in my borders. I only hope they are not allergic to weeds.

SEA BATHING

There is nothing, absolutely nothing, quite like a dip in the surfy briny. Waves roll in and you can either mount up over them or be knocked down by them, in my case the latter.  In the middle of this inclement summer, the sun came out at a remote Pembrokeshire shingle beach called Abermawr and in I plunged, to emerge reinvigorated - and disastrously hungry for sausage rolls and fruit cake.  Will I sink next time if this goes on?

Government Health Warning: those of a sensitive disposition may wish to look away before viewing this photograph of me in my shortie wetsuit. Too late? Sorry!