Link4Change - Chris Ogle

For a good few years I have been a fan of really focusing on looking after what I put into my body. I'm not fanatical about it and I live by the moto " everything in moderation ", and " My body is a temple ". Below are things that I have tried and have worked into my daily routine :- Always shop at local markets and look for fresh food (not used supermarkets since 30th Sept 2013) Cook all my own food... but I still go out and sometimes just eat whatever I fancy (once or twice a month type of frequency) I don't bash myself over the head for having a piece of cake or a cookie or something. I eat it and I enjoy it. I exercise regularly, Yoga, at home body workouts, Cycling and my first love Table Tennis... will be doing much more of that again this year coming I now rarely drink alcohol... and if I do... it is with great company and only in small quantities I am aware of my body and how it works. If you are not interested in your body and how it

This isn't a religious post It is however an expansion on the parable recorded as one of Jesus teachings.  The other day whilst driving around, this parable came to me as something to ponder in relation to my own journey... how does it resonate with you? If you remember the story, a merchant with two sons. The younger decided he wanted to go off and make his fortune and so asked the father for 1/2 his inheritance and off he went. Things didn't go too well for the younger son... lots of drinking... women, wine and song. After a while the young lad was starving and scratching around for just enough food to eat and it dawned on him that the workers on his fathers estate faired better than he was doing. He decided to return to his father, and ask if he could work on the estate with the other 'hands'. He would at least not want for food and a place to stay. The father was so overjoyed at his sons return (presumed dead) that he killed one of the calfs and organised

This year back in early May... I decided that I would get my bike serviced and try and see how it might work reducing the car usage back to the absolute minimum. So I committed to myself to using pedal power as opposed to fossil fuel for June / July and August to see how things might go. The spin off benefits of course obviously exercise for one... a daily bike ride (or collection of short ones) of 2 or 3 miles plus the odd longer one thrown in will give me a good cardio workout and also useful for the larger leg muscle groups. Many of us have bikes which we rarely use and I was no different I think the last time I rode a bike in earnest was maybe 3 years ago and even then only very sporadically never getting really back into it properly. So 2 and a half weeks in how is it going? Well I'm really enjoying it. A daily visit to my mums at the moment is being substituted with a bike ride whenever possible, the long days means I can really do the journey after 9pm which is

The other week I wrote a blog about " How is your mum doing? " ... this is a second piece about the same subject. This time we are to look at the situation from the mothers (elderly persons) point of view... how does she feel in the situation of being a much more frail version of her former self? I have no doubt that in almost every case the person who needs to be cared for is desperately unhappy with their dependency on other other people. Pride, dignity, often a life of significance and status in their networks now reduced to incontinence, double handed plastic drinking cups, zimmer frames and having to be washed and cleaned by others. Have heard the saying 'It takes a village to bring up a child"? ... Here's another one... "it takes a village to look after an old person"... with young children the parents have youth on their side and if they are fortunate family close by to support and assist... when it comes to old people... it seems to them

A long time ago an idea was created to control the masses.   They called this democracy. A great idea at the time. Provide people with a 'pseudo' element of being able to influence how they were governed. Fabulous idea.... and so a predecessor of our modern day democracy was born. The reality however is that this isn't democracy at all. I have often heard people say. You must vote ... people died to provide you with the ability to vote. To be a part of deciding who will govern our country. Why must I vote?   I am sorry to break this to you... the people who govern our country have not been the people who sit in parliament, nor have they been the prime ministers of old... this election will be no different. We see in this election for the first time in a while, two more polarised candidates (Conservative / Labour) than we have for many a year... however in the Ted Heath / Michael Foot days this was normal. We have just forgotten (or we weren't born). Sorry