Do You Take A Lunch Break?

According to a recent survey by the Spar store group - workers are taking even shorter lunch breaks.

Due to the recession, workers are taking an average of 35 minutes for lunch with many taking less than 20 minutes for their break, if they're not skipping lunch altogether.

Not only are companies benefiting from the extra half hour or more from their employees but this will only add to the stress and pressure in the long term.

Having worked in the corporate world for many years, I know what it's like to only take as long as you need to grab a sandwich and carry on working while eating it at your desk!  Sometimes it's a because you've just got too much to do, sometimes it's because you don't want to be seen taking a 'long' lunch break.

Frequent breaks are necessary to maintain productivity and keep working efficiently. Not only do you need time to refuel and that means more than 5 minutes to grab a sandwich but taking a break will get the energy levels going again.  If you've been working really hard and running on adrenalin, you need the time to relax.

Not only do you need to make sure you take your lunch break but take regular breaks throughout the day - you'll feel better for it and work more productively.

If you're struggling to fit everything into the time you have available, look at ways of working smarter.

Enjoy your lunch.

I Gave Blood

I have to say I haven't done so for years, having got out of the habit and no longer being sent a reminder but finally I managed to co-ordinate some free time with the Blood Transfusion service running one of their regular donations sessions at the Meridian Centre and went along to give blood. When I worked at Amex it was easy - they turned up a couple of times a year - boards were placed in reception areas letting you know they were coming and you signed up.

It's a relatively painless (no honestly) process - requires about an hour of your time and obviously many people wouldn't survive without transfusions. They take slightly less than a pint - not a whole armful as Tony Hancock's famous Blood Donor Sketch goes and it's not just the blood that gets used.

If you can donate then do. You can find your nearest blood donation session from www.blood.co.uk
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Sofa of Sickness

I ache all over, hot flushes, cold chills, it's painful to cough, my head hurts and I've lost my appetite and spent most of the weekend on the sofa with no energy to do anything. Yes, I've finally gone down with the flu or a horrible cold at least. Hardly surprising as so many people around me have had the dreaded lurgy.

At least working from home I don't have to struggle into work and can do as much as little as I want - as long as I don't have to talk, I don't think my throat can take it. It's sunny outside, so I will make it up to the shop to restock on lemsip or something to ease the symptoms, having first wrapped up in layers, hat, gloves, scarf as I don't want to make anything worse.

Not a great start to the year and although I'm keen to get going, I'll do as much as I can while looking after myself and not trying to do too much and making things worse or prolonging it.

What's For Supper Tonight Then?

I've just had my second Veg Box delivered from a local grower who has recently started delivering to the area.

My garden isn't quite in production yet, so I need something to fill the gap and I'd rather have something locally grown than the packaged supermarket offerings.

You never quite know what you're going to get. I've opted not to receive potatoes but get a selection of whatever else is in season. So far this has consisted of carrots, beetroot and tomatoes as standard, a few courgettes and lettuce. You know, the sort of freshly grown lettuce that you actually have to wash. It comes complete with greenfly and even the occasional slug. Something you never find in the supermarket variety - which makes you realise just how far the clean, washed pristine varieties are from the real grown in the soil variety, to say nothing of heavily doused in pesticide they must be to ensure not a pest remains.

There's usually a variety of leaves - either spinach or chard. Again complete with soil and not having been doused in chlorine and packaged in the modified air of a plastic bag. Nothing that a quick rinse won't sort out.

I remember when I was younger having to wash lettuce before you eat it. How lazy have we become these days that we have to have everything washed, packaged and ready just to open and eat.

Looking forward to see what else might turn up and if I'm not sure I can find out what it is and what to do with it - here.

Smoking Ban - How Will It Affect You.

Of course the big news this month is that while I was away, the smoking ban was introduced in England. Hoorah! Not that I frequent them that often but now I’ll be able to go out for an evening in a pub or restaurant and not come home smelling of smoke. Although the downside seems to be that all the smokers now congregate outside the doors, so you have to walk through them or they are now out in the garden, so if you want to sit outside and enjoy the sunshine, you also have to endure the smoke.

Based on the experience of Ireland and Scotland you'll now have to step over the piles of fag butts outside places of work, pubs and restaurants and on the street in general.

Has the ban made any difference to you? If you're in business - what have you had to do to deal with the change? If you’re a smoker are you planning to give up?

Thanks Dorset Cereals

Now we're into warmer(!) weather - I'm into my morning muesli. The one I particularly like is Dorset Cereals, which have lots of yummy ingredients in several varieties - well worth the extra cost but look out for their special offers.

They have a great website and are actually interested in what their customers think, unlike most suppliers. Yesterday, I sent them some feedback via their site. Not expecting much - this morning I got a very nice email response from them.

Many thanks for your email. We do value all comments from our customers.

As part of our re-launch which took place last year, we moved from a bag to a box, however, this decision was made after a lot of thought. We had used the bag, with the same design, for over fifteen years.

Everyone loved being able to see the delicious recipes. So based on this feedback we made the move to a box with windows.

I completely agree that we (by we I mean all food manufacturers) need to do more in terms of the environmental impact of packaging. We have a very simple objective: to create a packaging format that stands up, is easy to open and store and can when empty be thrown onto a compost heap.

The standing up, easy to open and store bit we have achieved, the throwing onto the compost heap is more difficult.

We are looking at compostible / biodegradable bags and windows. Achieving this isn't as straight forward as it sounds. The most commonly used raw material for these forms of compostible / biodegradable plastic is maize, guaranteeing that this maize is GM free isn't easy.

There are also other issues such as making sure that these materials will keep the recipes fresh. We ARE constantly reviewing what we do and pushing our suppliers to come up with an answer that is more environmentally friendly.

Thanks for taking the time to write to us. We do care about the environment, for example we only use electricity generated form renewable resources, and are doing everything we can to be as environmentally friendly as possible.

Once again, thank you for taking the time to write to us and let us have your views and comments.

Kind regards

Now doesn't that make a difference.

Post-race

Three days after the event and I seem to have recovered well and avoided the delayed onset muscle soreness I was semi expecting. I'm therefore thinking I'm actually fitter than I thought and didn't do too badly after all. OK, I wasn't going for a record breaking time but at least I made it across the finishing line in one piece and was capable of walking the following day.

I went out for a gentle jog yesterday, just to see what was aching and how much. Not too bad, considering - the worst was an ache in my right foot.

I also cycled in to Brighton today, which felt like hard work - whether that was because I was still recovering from Sunday or because I haven't been cycling for a few weeks, so I'm out of practice. The wind didn't help but it was definitely harder work cycling up the hills.

As it wasn't raining and was a pleasant if cold afternoon, I took the opportunity to stop off for tea and cake at the seafront cafe, which happened to be open for the half-term break. That might have held me back on the final hill but it was worth it - ginger parkin always is!

Chill in the air.

1st of November and there's a definite change in the season. It's certainly a lot colder today and for the first time the heating has gone on. Not bad for November which shows how mild it's been up until now.

Cycled into town this afternoon - wrapped up against the cold and still spotted the odd nutters walking around in T-shirts! Some people must have a higher tolerance for the cold. Anyway, although it was fine and windy (as usual) the difference in time has certainly had an effect on the night's drawing in. It won't be too long now until either I'll need to get the lights on the bike or I won't be cycling in quite so regularly - back to the car or public transport to get around.

The cafe is shut down for the winter - at least today they were, so I didn't have to slow down and avoid small dogs, small people and tables and chairs. It was open last week - making the most of half-term with families on the beach - not exactly sun-bathing weather but it was still busy along the seafront - people out walking, cycling and children fishing in the rock pools.

Let's hope it's not a cold, grey, damp winter - lots of days like today.