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Welcome to this week’s Femail page - with most of us still in shock
at the still unfolding tragedy in Burma and the appalling manner in
which it is being handled by the ruling Junta. The winds in our neck
of the Chiang Mai woods were stronger than anything we have
previously experienced, what it must have been like in the Irrawaddy
delta and in the other seriously affected areas, we just cannot
imagine.
Our hearts go out to all those desperate people, in the hope that
the military regime which has wrecked so many lives for so many
years will, in this desperate situation, remember that they, too are
human beings, and let in the aid and the experts who can deal with
the tragedy.
There doesn’t seem much else to say right now, except to wonder why
no public protests against the junta’s callous behaviour seem to
have yet been organised in this city, with its tens of thousands of
Burmese students and workers. In the summer, when the riots in Burma
were a major news story, peaceful demonstrations were held at the
Three Kings’ Monument in support of the Burmese people. Perhaps this
is the time to join together again; although we can offer little in
terms of practical assistance, we can at least show support,
sympathy, solidarity and love to those who have lost everything. |
Chiang Mai Expat Ladies’
Lunch Group meets at Chez Marco’s
The recent monthly meeting of the Chiang Mai
Expat Ladies’ Lunch Group - this time at Chez Marco’s, all smiles, including
Marco in the background!
The by now infamous, (sorry, girls, only joking), Chiang Mai Expat Ladies’
Lunch Group met again last week, this time at Chez Marco’s, the last minute
worthy replacement for The Elizabethan Room, which was unexpectedly closed
due to acute illness of an unmentionable type contracted on a trip
up-country - we all hope that everyone’s recovered by now. Rather fewer of
us than normal were able to attend; as a result, rather than arranging a
pre-agreed menu at short notice, it was decided that it would be kinder to
Marco to just order from the lunchtime list. Some of the ladies arrived
during a burst of heavy rain, which didn’t dampen the atmosphere inside the
restaurant at all! The food, as usual at this well-known venue, was
excellent and good value, and the conversation was non-stop, also as usual.
Next month, due to present organiser Sally’s UK trip, there will be no
formal meeting, but if anyone wishes to meet up at Chez Marco’s, they will
be more then welcome. Thanks go to Marco and his staff from everyone present
for the last minute arrangements.
Abs exercises - the truth!
John Bailey
First, the bad news; all those sit-ups you keep trying to do, and
all those gadgets with wheels or frames and special “rocking” movements -
forget them! You’ve wasted your money and your effort. Yes, you were
exercising your muscles, but not your abdominal muscles, and also you were
at risk of straining your back!
Now, the good news; there is a way to exercise your abdominals which, if
correctly executed, will cause no strain to your back, and you don’t have to
buy any more equipment to do it! The principle is as follows - the only way
to exercise your abs correctly is to shorten the distance between your
sternum and your pubic bone. Put simply, you contract your abdominal
muscles, thereby bringing both parts of your skeleton closer together. A
small, concentrated contraction done correctly will be enough.
In case you weren’t sure, your abs are a series of 8 linked muscles,
attached both to the sternum and the pubic bone, the upper 6 above the waist
and the lower 2 below. They are not particularly strong, but are an
important as part of the group of muscles around the midriff which combine
to give you core strength and correct posture. When you accumulate excess
fat around the stomach area your lower back is placed under strain and
begins to bow - not a good sign. Consequently, the abs are used less because
your posture is unbalanced.
This is how you correct the problem. Lie on your back on a flat, hard
surface - a tiled floor is good - hands by your side, and legs stretched
flat but relaxed. Slide one hand under the arch of your lower back. Relax
and breathe in and out twice. Whilst breathing out, push the small of your
back towards the floor, removing your hand when you are comfortable with the
feeling. Let your knees and head come up as you push down. Hold the
position, with your spine flat against the floor, and then relax. Repeat the
exercise 8-10 times, slowly and carefully. This simple routine is the
building block for all abdominal exercise, whether aimed at the upper or
lower group of muscles. Admittedly, it takes a while to condition the
abdominals, but the benefits to your entire exercise regime, not to mention
your shape, are enormous. And, to any men who may be reading this, over a
period of time abdominal exercises do wonders for your six-pack! Next week,
more on abs exercises and core strength.
“Scrapbook box” workshop at Raintree Centre
The next workshop at the Raintree Centre will demonstrate how to make a
scrapbook box! This, we suspect, may well confuse ladies from the UK, but we
have been told by a reliable source that scrapbooks are the thing in the
USA. In fact, Scrapbook Day in the USA falls on May 3-4, and scrapbook boxes
are a special representation of that particular hobby. The workshop will be
held on two days, Thursday May 29 from 7 -9 pm, and Saturday May 31, from 10
am to noon, and will be sponsored by the Raintree Centre. It will explain
how to make a scrapbook box, which, for those who’ve never seen one, is a
small cube made of paper containing around 12-20 picture of a maximum size
of 4 by 4 inches. Three square pages nest one inside the other, with their
four corners cut out and the flaps folded up, and each page is slightly
smaller than its predecessor. The pictures and their journalling are
attached one to the other onto the flaps of each page. A lid is then made to
hold the cube together; when this lid is lifted, all three pages flop down
and the pictures can be viewed. Ingenious! And fun to make…
Participants should plan to attend both sessions, and bring with them 12 -
24 photos, (4 by 4 inches and smaller), any memorabilia you would like to
include, (such as ticket stubs, coasters from a restaurant, etc), a pair of
sharp scissors, a 12 inch ruler, a pencil a good eraser, some narrow ribbon
and any scrapbooking items you want to use. The cost of the workshop is 100
baht, to cover the cost of materials provided. To sign up, or for further
information, please contact 053 244 920, or email adminassistant@cmcchurch.
Are you eating California’s dead pets?
A recent report states that for many years all of the dead animals in
California have been added to the feed of chicken, fish, beef, shrimp, etc.,
which we humans eat every day. Virtually all of the animals killed in
shelters and veterinary clinics, road kill, medical laboratories, feed lots,
deceased wildlife, etc., are sent to one company, West Coast Rendering in
Vernon, CA, where they are piled up and left to decompose for days before
being “rendered” into a saleable product.
“Rendering” means that these dead animals are cooked in a giant stew pot for
an hour, at just above boiling, and then the fat is drained off this soup
and put in drums for shipment to cattle feed facilities in California and
elsewhere,” said Leo Grillo, founder of the largest care-for-life cat & dog
sanctuary in the world, D.E.L.T.A. Rescue, of Glendale, CA. “The rest is
ground up into a powder and loaded by tractor into either a container or an
open grain truck, which is later used for grain and feed transport.”
“Our D.E.L.T.A. Rescue Humane Investigation Unit followed trucks to American
companies where the powder, now called ‘protein meal,’ is added to
farm-animal feed. We also followed containers to the ports where they are
loaded for shipment to Asia to be added to feed for the farmed fish and
seafood that is shipped back to the United States and elsewhere, and is sold
in supermarkets. Check the labels of the seafood in the stores - ‘product of
Thailand, Vietnam, etc.’”
Los Angeles County has contracted to provide its dead animals to the same
rendering plant for decades. Four years ago, when Grillo informed the Los
Angeles County Board of Supervisors of where their own Los Angeles County
Animal Control’s dead animals were going, supervisors were divided. Some
said that they didn’t know about it, but did nothing; others said that the
practice was perfectly legal.
Grillo continued, “What lawmakers need to realize is that these dead bodies,
along with all their cancers and other diseases, viruses, veterinary
treatments, experimental laboratory drugs, chemotherapies, toxins and
bacteria from decomposition, are being fed to us. Yet we still wonder where
all OUR cancer is coming from. ‘Chronic wasting disease’ in deer, which are
also rendered, is caused by the same virus as ‘mad cow disease!’ Does that
tell you something? And if you’re a vegetarian, don’t think you’re safe: egg
producers feed their chickens these same dead animals, and fertilizer used
at vegetable farms contains the same ‘animal by-products.’ With the rash of
food-borne diseases in America and worldwide lately, it is clear that we are
being poisoned by the food we eat.”
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