Background poll 'Nice"

I'm happy to say, most people (57%) actually did do someting nice.

A while ago, I read a theory (I think someone actually researched and proved this) claiming you will feel happy and live a happy life if every week you do five nice things for someone else. The catch is, it doesn't work if you space them throughout the week, you need to do them all in one day. The good part is, the other person(s) do(es)n't necessarily need to know or realize you are doing something nice for them. Also, they don't need to be 'big' things. So it could just be an extra special hug for your kid, serving your partner's favorite food, complimenting a coworker on a good job, giving someone time to cross the road in front of your car, taking the time to really listen to someone, etc. etc.

I would love to share this theory with you, and I have searched everywhere, but I cannot find it anymore.... When I will, I'll let you know. Until then: be aware of doing five nice things for someone else one day, every week!

A thank you from Emma

Last night we received a thank you from Emma's owners. They had taken her to the vet and besides being dehydrated and having two minor infected fightwounds, she was in good shape. She felt right at home again and immediately went to the other cats, which welcomed her. So all is well! ;-)

Teamleden gezocht!

De kogel is door de kerk - ik ga meedoen met de Nierstichting Elfstedentocht! Voorwaarde is wel dat er nog minimaal 5 anderen met me meedoen - 2 x 1,5 uur in mijn eentje schaatsen red ik (nu nog) niet en zo kunnen we elkaar afwisselen (je schaatst dan hooguit een kwartier). Je hoeft niet goed te kunnen schaatsen (kan ik ook niet), kinderen zijn ook welkom, schaatsen zijn te huur op de baan, familie of vrienden graag meenemen voor aanmoedigen (the more, the marrier!) en, uiteraard, sponsoring, we gaan een keer van te voren oefenen op de Jaap Eden Baan - kortom, eigenlijk geen excuus om niet mee te doen.
Dus: wie doet er mee??? Mail me als je je op wilt geven of ook voor vragen.

Emma naar huis!

Het is vanochtend gelukt Emma te vangen in een kattenkooi. Ze is nu terug naar huis. Dag lieve Emma!

Nierstichting Elfstedentocht

Gave actie! Schaats mee op 21 oktober op 1 van de 11 deelnemende ijsbanen en laat je sponsoren. De opbrengst is voor de Nierstichting. Doe mee, individueel of als team, en schaats een sportief bedrag bij elkaar! Schrijf je in op www.schaatsenaan.nl

Ik ben zwaar aan het overwegen mee te doen. Als wijkcoordinator voor de Nierstichting kan ik toch niet achterblijven.... wie doet er mee in een team? wie wil er sponsoren? 2x anderhalf uur schaatsen moet toch te doen zijn met elkaar?

Obesitas besmettelijk

Het klinkt misschien verrassend, maar alles wijst erop dat obesitas een besmettelijke ziekte is. De familieleden en vrienden van iemand met obesitas lopen 40 - 171% kans om zelf ook obees te worden. Wetenschappers hebben tussen 1971 en 2003 zo'n 12.000 personen gevolgd en 37.000 van hun vrienden, naasten en buren. Zij stelden vast dat de vrienden van iemand met obesitas meer risico lopen om het zelf ook te worden: voor vrienden van gelijk geslacht stijgt het risico met 70%, voor de beste vriend(in) met 171%. Voor de partner stijgt het risico met 37%. Uit de studie blijkt ook dat broers en zussen 40% meer risico lopen. Het probleem is dus niet alleen genetisch van aard, maar heeft meer van doen met vervaging van lichaamsnormen. De studie toont ook aan dat geografische afstand geen invloed heeft: de stijging van het risico werd niet vastgesteld buren, tenzij zij goede vrienden waren.

Bron: e-gezondheid newsletter N°423

Actie tegen de graatmagere modellenlook

Elvis lives

Elvis died thirty years ago.... still going strong though!
Nice going or a 72 year old!! ;-)

Geen stijl

Als er werkelijk een kinderachtige site is op het internet, dan is het wel GeenStijl.... nu ook weer de actie van Sire boycotten. Ik zou zeggen: geef meteen even door dat je je ergert aan Geenstijl...

Goede kado's

Weer eens op zoek naar ee kado voor iemand die alles al heeft? Geef een geit, 10 kuikens, 50 bomen, een school! OxfamNovib is druk doende deze actie aan de man te brengen. Onze kinderen kregen met Sinterklaas al schoolboeken en voetballen en met Kerst stuurde ik kaarten waarmee ik mensen kuikens, schoolboeken, voetballen of schoolmaaltijden gaf. Nu kan ik er zelfs een abonnement mee nemen op mijn favoriete tijdschrift (esta).

Vind je zo'n virtueel kado toch een beetje "te", kijk dan eens op kadovooreenkoopje.nl en dan met name bij de sectie GOED koopje. Alle kado's kosten nog geen tientje en ook hiermee steun je diverse goede doelen. Bovendien zie je meteen waar je ze kunt kopen.

Good riddens!

Heinz Barth died yesterday. He is a war criminal (WWII, SS-officer) and partly personally responsible for the massacre at Oradour-sur-Glane. Rob and I visited this monument near Limoges two years ago. An overwhelming experience...

June 10 1944 the Germans visited the small town and left a few hours later, after having shot all the men execution style in a few garages and burnt all women and children alive in the church. All bodies were then burnt and put in a mass grave. The Germans formed a cordon around the buring town to make sure nobody could escape. They left the next morning. Nobody knows why this happened. Six people survived (besides the few having left town that day), among which one woman and her baby. Barth never showed remorse "It was war"...

I believe the world is a better place without him.

Interesting detail: the name of the town on the local train station partially had fallen off during this massacre. A few remained: Ora.......G...e, or "Orage" the French word for (thunder)storm...

Sensible words

"I am sure God won't mind to be called Allah," says bisschof Muskens. "Why don't we all call him Allah? Why should he care how he is called? That is our problem. Allah is just Arabic for God. We created this problem and decided to fight over it."

21 minuten - doe mee!

21 minuten.nl heeft dit jaar een speciale editie:

"Het doel van deze editie is te achterhalen hoe de bevolking van Nederland de waarde en kwaliteit van de Nederlandse democratie en overheid beoordeelt. De resultaten worden op 5 oktober bekendgemaakt bij de opening van de Week van de Democratie, een themaweek die in 25 landen wordt georganiseerd." Doe mee!

Collecting beautiful sentences

Cool hobby: collect beautiful sentences!

Simone de Jong is an artist who collects beautiful sentences. They need to be universal and said in passing by. She collects them while listening to others talking on the phone, in waiting rooms, at receptions, etc. She makes them into sculptures for walls and ceilings. Her most beautiful sentence: "Ik hang de was altijd op alsof het een kunstwerkje is" (I always put my laundry out to dry as if it is a work of art)

Elise's new project 'Emma'

Yesterday, I realized the cat I have been mistaken recently for Mink (our cat) was the cat which flyers announced had been lost since May. She was devouring one of our frogs yesterday and I noticed she is terribly underfed. I decided to give her some food. When I tried to approach her, she fled - she is terrified. In the evening I called the owners, he came over, we put out some food again, she showed up and he confirmed it was their Emma. He also said she was afraid of them so he hadn't been able to grab her, even though he had seen her various times. We decided I would put out some food for her for a while, try to gain her confidence and see if she would let me approach so I could catch her. Or maybe we can put out a cattrap when we know she will show up.

I told Elise about all this this morning. Pauline, who was also there, said "Oh, but Elise has actually petted the cat already!" Elise confirmed. At first she tought it was Mink, but when she saw it was not, she approached her very, very carefully and was able to pet her. This opened up some new possiblitlies for actually catching the cat, so Elise is now in charge of giving Emma her food and try to gain her confidence. In the mean time, we are teaching her (on Mink - the poor thing...) how to grab a cat in its neck and hold on tight. We've pulled out our cat carriage so we can put her in it if she ever does get a hold of Emma. Hopefully our scheme will work! Elise is excited (you should see her eyes shine!!) and determined to help Emma.

We'll let you know if we can save Emma!

Update

As one of my main reasons for keeping this blog is to keep in touch with my family and friends and to keep them up to date, I'll give a little update on myself/my family(life).

Depression-wise I am on the right track, therapy is down to twice a week, the sessions together with Rob to once every two weeks. I can almost go without my afternoon nap, but quiet time in the afternoon is still a must. At the end of September, we will spend our two week holiday on Crete but I am still not sure I will be able to handle this in terms of having enough time for myself to keep myself sane. Maybe I need to re-energize at my parents afterwards, we'll see.

I am working about eight to ten hours a week. Sometimes more, but then I really need to rest for a few days. I am helping a friend with his dissertation and I've become involved in an interesting project. I am working on it with three very talented and experienced men. We are currently proposing the project and hopefully we will know soon if we can actually get to do the work. If so, I really need to shape up soon! ;-) Working really gives me energy and makes me happy. It is great to work with people who value my input - helps to improve my selfesteem. Slowely but surely, I am starting to believe in myself again.

Every now and then I become aware I am doing better: when we were in France in June, I noticed I actually had the energy to play with my childeren for a while, and even better, enjoy it. Dinner, always a difficult time, is more often fun than not. I notice I don't panic so much when there is a disappointment or problem. Our nanny announced she would need to cut down her days due to an internship and whereas this would've thrown me off for quite a bit and quite some time a couple of months ago, I now solved the problem without too much troubles. A problem like this still somewhat 'consumes' me, but at least I am able to postpone solving other problems and I don't spend all my time trying to solve the problem at hand. Some of these things may seem petty to you, but where I am coming from, we're talking major improvements! ;-D

Summer depression

You've probably heard about a winter depression: feeling listless and down in winter. There is another seasonal affective disorder (SAD) (!): the summer depression. This depression is quite the opposite from the winter depression. People suffering from a summer depression have the tendency to eat less and lose body weight, while those suffering from a winter depression eat more and gain weight. Summer depressed people are more often excited in stead of listless. They also commit suicide more often. Hot and humid days are their 'darkest' days (watch out Pittsburghers!! ;-)).