If you’ve never tasted fresh organic peas, or you can’t remember the last time you tried it, now’s the time to do it, because they’re in season. If you live in the northern hemisphere, in a temperate climate, go get some right now and try them out! Don’t cook them. Just open the pods and eat the peas raw. They’re delicious, and highly nutritious!
If you’re eating mature peas, their taste will be a little floury. If you’re lucky, you’ll stumble upon some maturing peas, which are smaller in size. Their taste is unbelievable. It’s sweet and crunchy and even though they taste like candy, they’re really good for you.
I last wrote about CFR (Caile Ferate Romane) — the government-run railroad company — in 2006, and — in spite of the repeated government bailouts and consulting firms who have been called in to help them re-structure, and the IMF directives for their improvement — things have gotten no better.
Ligia and I rode on an InterCity train today, from Cluj to Medias, in what was supposed to be 1st class. In my last article on the matter, I concluded that at least 1st class on the InterCity still meant something. It did, back in 2006. Now it no longer does.
This is how the 1st class wagon looked back then.
1st class no longer looks like this
Now they’ve done away with the glass dividers, and with most of the tables between the chairs. They’ve also faced most of the chairs forward, so they could fit more of them into the wagon. It looks like you’re riding in a bus. They’ve killed 1st class.
Another thing which I dislike is a cheap populist move on the part of Romanian politicians, whereby they granted old folks the privilege of riding 1st class for free. So what you end up with is paying 1st class prices for the questionable privilege of being stuck in the same wagon with a bunch of rude, loud (and smelly) old people from all walks of life, who love to complain (loudly) about everything during the trip.
I can understand the need to make travel more affordable for older folks who live on a limited income, but when you also kill 1st class in the process, which is the place where you make your better profit margins, that’s just not smart, nor is it in any way polite or respectful to the people who pay their own way for 1st class and expect to get clean, deodorized wagons and a little peace and quiet during their travels.
Things have gotten so bad with the CFR that 1st class is no longer a luxury — it’s almost a necessity. Riding in 2nd class or 3rd class on most trains means putting up with ungodly stenches, filthy chairs, smelly people and bathrooms you’d rather burn than use. Any way you split this hair, the people in charge of the CFR end up looking like a right bunch of ninnies.
To top things off, 1st class seems to also be the place for the conductors to take their uniforms off and relax after making their rounds — and talk loudly while they’re at it, with no regard for the passengers — as was the case today. Because obviously what the tired business passenger wants while they’re trying to sleep is to hear a conductor’s country bumpkin accent, complaining about cellphone rates. That’s the CFR way…
It seems to me the CFR management has had tons of time to turn the company around. They’ve been offered countless opportunities to mend their ways. But the more time and opportunities they get, it seems the more determined they are to run the company into the ground. It’s a painful realization for me, because I like train travel, and I have had wonderful experiences traveling by train as a child — you know, back when 1st class was actually a luxury, 2nd class was clean, and 3rd class was presentable.
I’ve been a proponent for telecommuting for years, and I’m glad to see more proof — such as this article, which presents research from Sweden, where they’ve found that long commutes (around 45 minutes) make you 40% more likely to divorce, and also re-inforce gender-based stereotypes, where the man will usually have the better job and do the long commutes, while the woman is forced to take a lower-paying job closer to home.
According to the study, 11 percent of Swedes have a journey to work that consists of a 45-minute commute or longer. Many commuters have small children and are in a relationship. Most are men.
The risk of divorce goes up by 40 percent for commuters and the risk is the highest in the first few years of commuting.
And more Swedes are travelling farther distances to work.
“The trend is definitely pointing upward. Both the journey to work and the working hours are getting longer, “ Sandow told The Local.
The study was based on statistical data from two million Swedish households between 1995 and 2000.
This article in The Economist echoes the research, and offers additional arguments:
Ms Lowrey ends up running through the whole litany of traditional commuter complaints—that it makes us fat, stresses us out, makes us feel lonely, and literally causes pain in the neck—and finds research to prove that the moaners are, more often than not, right. “People who say, ‘My commute is killing me!’ are not exaggerators,” she concludes: “They are realists.”
I put together a short video demonstration of our water ionizer, as a quick introduction to the idea of ionized water and its main benefits. A few months ago, I laughed at the idea of ionized water. I thought it was a foolish concept. After all, the acid-base chemistry of our body would cancel any ionized water. I thought it wouldn’t have any effect, and who knows, it might even be harmful. But my mother had bought a machine, and she went on and on about its benefits. She said we should get one as well, and once Ligia and I tried it and saw its effects on our body, we’d be sold.
Well, I am sold on ionized water now. We drink alkaline water daily, and wash our faces with acid water. Our bodies went through a process of detoxification, and from time to time, we still feel the effects of eliminating toxins (headaches and slight nausea). Most of the time though, we feel great, much better than we did before. Our complexion has improved as well. My face is much smoother. Ligia says the same about hers, and I agree, although she’s always had great skin.
If you’re a skeptic, I understand, having been one myself. The only thing that will convince you is to try drinking alkaline water for yourself and see the difference on your own body. You don’t have to buy a machine. See if there’s a health store in your area that has a water ionizer and is willing to sell it to you, and drink it for a few weeks. Keep a daily journal of what’s going on with you, and make up your mind afterward.
A lot of people prefer to get bottled water, thinking it’s pure. There’s been plenty of research on this, so you don’t have to take my word for it — purity is a foreign concept to bottled water, which contains more impurities than tap water. Given the way it’s kept in plastic bottles, whose chemicals leech into the water over time, and the harsh conditions in which it’s kept (cold or hot, depending on the weather), it’s also possible that it’s harmful to the body, its chemical make-up having been altered. Water isn’t just water. Simple as its chemical formula is, it just isn’t as simple as H2O. Water is basic to all of the chemical reactions in our bodies, so it’s a reactive substance. Water also needs to have minerals in it, in order to be properly absorbed by our body, and to benefit it. Do you think that a reactive substance like water does well when kept in toxic plastic containers over long periods of time, and subjected to cold or hot conditions — temperatures which facilitate various chemical reactions?
Ionized water isn’t a recent discovery. It’s been around since the 50s, and it’s regularly consumed in countries like Korea and Japan. If it’s been around that long, surely that in itself lends it a bit of credibility. A hoax usually doesn’t stick around for 60 years or more.
You can, of course, remain a skeptic. You’ll be in good company, since the folks at Wikipedia have done so. You can also be skeptical of the skeptics, like this man. Or you can choose to believe the testimonials of those who’ve tried the water, folks like me or like the ones in this video (with whom I am not affiliated in any way, shape or form):
The thing is, even if you choose not to believe anything about ionized water, surely you can use logic to reason the following out: alkaline cancels out acid, right? Then it stands to reason that at the very least, alkaline water should help in those situations where the stomach is overly acidic (ulcers, acid reflux, upset stomach, etc.) So if you’ve got one of those conditions, the logical thing to do is to drink alkaline water instead of taking antacid tablets, and see how you feel. You may just discover that it will make a bunch of other pre-existing conditions go away, and that’s not a bad deal, is it?
Here are a few photos of the particular model we have, the Chanson VS-70. I’m not saying it’s superior to other models and that you should get it above others. It’s a good model from a good brand, which we liked because it’s an under-the-counter unit, and it has seven electrolysis plates, coated with platinum. Other models are counter-top units and have fewer plates. Price-wise, the Chanson brand is also less expensive than other brands on the market, so they’re a good deal.
At this morning’s breakfast, we had fresh strawberries from our garden. It was the first ripe batch this season, picked just minutes before we ate them. No artificial ripeners or chemicals used in our garden, I can tell you that!
Forgive the inferior quality of the photos; they were taken with my mobile phone, a Nokia X3-02. (If you’re thinking about getting it for its 5 megapixel camera, don’t.)
Raoul Pop 