All Posts by Philip Hambly

When I’m 94…

Will I Still Be Mobile When I’m 94? If you got to 64 in the 1960s, you were a bit of an outlier. From birth, people of this generation could hope for on average only 50 years of life. Admittedly that figure includes a high level of infant and child mortality. Nonetheless, in that era sixty was […]

Have You Forgotten Yet?

Have You Forgotten Yet? Funny but also tragic. The way political leaders stand solemnly at events, such as the D-day commemoration. Looking sad and remorseful, lamenting the tragedy of war. Then shortly afterwards, they are weaseling around trying to start another one! Bombing Syria Invading Iran Confronting China perhaps It seems our politicians aren’t troubled by long term memories But then they […]

Now Try Something Extraordinary

Now Try Something Extraordinary Take a deep breath. Count to ten. Let the breath out. Now, it probably doesn’t feel like you’ve just completed an exceptional feat. But holding your breath is a very unusual ability in land-living mammals. Strangely, we humans are the only ones who can do this. All other terrestrial mammals are on automatic so they can’t stop […]

Fear Inc.

Fear Inc. Imagine you are at the checkout in a supermarket.As he sees your purchases, the cashier starts to look concerned. He starts asking pointed questions about your diet. He doesn’t seem to like your answers. He refuses to scan any more of your items and calls a supervisor.The supervisor berates you about your terrible […]

The Perfect Trap

The Perfect Trap Brain surgery was never on my list of careers. Reading Henry Marsh’s book “Do No Harm” makes me glad that it was never a remote possibility. The extreme levels of stress they have to cope with would be unbearable to most people. Their patients are often terminally ill, and a risky operation is the […]

Hey, Teacher…

Hey Teacher! If you think about it, schooling quite a strange business. Taking young children away from their parents. Shutting them in a building for hours every day. Filling all of their impressionable minds with the same information. It sounds a bit like mass kidnap and brainwashing! We based our school system on the Prussian education, which in turn was […]

Hemmingway Fitness Secret

Hemmingway Fitness SecretI love this photo of Ernest Hemingway and his first wife Hadley Richardson with their son Jack. It was taken in 1925 before he wrote his first novel and became well known. A time when they were, to quote the man himself “…very poor and very happy”. That winter they had moved out of […]

Rockstar Health Tip

Rockstar Health Tip When Keith Richards (guitarist in the Rolling Stones) was younger, he had one strange habit. He would often stay awake for days on end. Regularly 3 or 4, sometimes a week. His record, if I remember right, was 12 days without sleep! During recording sessions, he remembers feeling sorry for those around him who had […]

Here Today…

Here Today… I shouldn’t really be sitting here writing this as I have mountains of stuff to sort out. We’re moving house next week. Trying to sift through what is junk and what needs keeping is quite a task. We’ve been in our current place for over ten years and there is a significant accumulation of debris. What strikes me […]

My Diet Confession

My Diet Confession It’s not that I was living on doughnuts. But a few years back my diet wasn’t that great. Lots of sugar. Tons of carbohydrate. Liberal doses of caffeine. And quite a bit of Coke, Pepsi and other sodas.The reason it got this way was that I became disillusioned with the ever contradictory advice coming from the nutrition […]

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