Retirement makes me smile

Our neighbours came back from their holiday to warm Bali, Indonesia. So far so good

What’s even better is they brought some fresh vanilla pods back. Yes, that’s right, for one reason I don’t understand, I always have to travel to Germany to get some fresh vanilla pods. No such thing sold in Belgium.

So I am quite happy with the vanilla pods, especially because they are amazingly cheap compared to the ones we buy in Germany. Unlike Germany that has to import the vanilla pods, Bali grows their own vanilla pods.

It’s well worth the journey as our neighbours stuffed their suitcases with vanilla pods…

Anyway, it was raining today, so we already made fresh pancakes using fresh vanilla pods: yummies!

Fresh Vanilla pod pan cakes

Technorati Tags: bali indonesia, belgium, germany, journey, neighbours, pan cakes, pancakes, suitcases, vanilla pod, vanilla pods

Are you just retired and now need a credit card?

As we all know, a credit card is very useful and handy as it saves us having to carry cash around and in some cases you can earn points to exchange for gifts, cash, airmiles, gasoline, hotel rewards etc.

As a retiree, one has to be very prudent in spending money and should ensure that the credit card charges are fully paid up at the end of each month before the interest kicks in.

So where do you learn all about credit and ensure that you find the best offer ever?

At allaboutcredit.net you will be able to find credit card offers of most major US credit card companies and banks with details of annual fee, interest rates etc.

This is a great resource for you to do your research and find a card to meet your exact requirements and preferences.

If you have a bad credit history, there are also credit cards specifically tailored for people who fall within this category.

The good credit cards will be the ones that offer flexible programs that will allow you to have credit line increases and also rewards.

Finding the right card for you takes time but it is all made easy for you at allaboutcredit.net so shop smart for your credit card and save a bundle in the long run.

As said in my previous mussel post, I have been cooking some delicious mussels these days

Cooked green lipped mussels in a simple veggie stock added some wine of course…

Ok, delicious is what my wife said, but she tends to be subjective (sometimes…)

She also said that mussels are not that good for your cholesterol, nor is too much wine…

Well, seems it’s not easy to get yourself a balanced diet, but I am working on it Meanwhile I am not taking my stupid Celebrex painkiller. I mean: why subdue your entire body when the arthritis pain is only in your pinky?

Tomorrow I have to go and by that green lipped mussel cream my fish seller told me about in one of my previous posts a few days ago. Life can be so busy when you are retired, and so it should be

Technorati Tags: arthritis, arthritis pain, balanced diet, celebrex, cholesterol, fish seller, green lipped mussels, pinky, veggie stock, wine

Now I finally got to retire , one of my ultimate goals is to get a degree that I did not manage to acquire when I was younger.

If you are looking to enroll in university courses look no further than University of Bedfordshire during their clearing process.

They are opening up their clearing vacancies from the 14th of August for one month so it runs until mid September.

The University of Bedfordshire Clearing 2008 team will be on hand to answer any questions that you may have.

Go to http://www.beds.ac.uk/clearing to get more info on this great opportunity.

Today no smileys as we went to a memorial service of our friend who passed away from cervical cancer. Although it sounds much better when you say brain tumor.

If you had an active social live or you have a big extended family, funerals seems to become part of life once you retire.

I notice it the most when we go to our senior gatherings: husbands suddenly don’t join because they are sick and a few months later they are no more. Few months after that a lonely widow returns to the gatherings and it’s up to the rest of us to bring some warmth into a cold period of their lives

Technorati Tags: brain tumor, cervical cancer, cold period, extended family, funerals, gatherings, lonely widow, smileys, warmth, widow returns

Quite funny this world is sometimes I find…

So I go to the fish-shop buying my green lipped mussels. The man behind the counter, a few years younger than me, looks at me and says:

- you have arthritis as well? It doesn’t show though, how do you do it?

So I say:

- well, it’s only in my little pinky.

So he says: then you should apply a cream which I use as well.

I wrote down the name on a paper because oh well, my memory tend to have some lapses every now and then and I was in a hurry to start cleaning the mussels and cooking them

Technorati Tags: arthritis, fish shop, green lipped mussels, hurry, lapses, memory, pinky, Smiley, smiley pictures

These days my little arthritis pinky is getting worse: sometimes suddenly I feel a sudden pain (that’s why I said suddenly as well…).

Actually it is as if somebody is poking my little finger with a needle INSIDE my finger. That’s the best way I can describe it.

So I went to the doctor and he prescribed me Celebrex, which is a painkiller.

Now I cannot be taking painkillers for the rest of my life.

So in order to get the fluids between my joints running again, I also need to take a food supplement called Glucosamine. Blur when I heard it, my pharmacist wasn’t of course. Seems with 1 out of 2 people, this Glucosamine gives you some extra connective tissue.

Yes: "some extra" only, so when you don’t have it, you cannot get it….

Since I don’t believe in popping pills in my body, I did some Google-ing and found that green lipped mussels for arthritis also contain a high amount of natural Glucosamine. Which means this evening we have mussels on the menu

Technorati Tags: arthritis, blur, celebrex, connective tissue, food supplement, glucosamine, green lipped mussel, green lipped mussels for arthritis, joints, little finger, painkiller, painkillers, pharmacist, pinky, rest of my life, sudden pain

Today’s unhappy smiley face is dedicated on the 41 year old woman who got buried today in our little town…

You guess it right, she died from cancer and has been going in and out of remission for years…

It started with a stomach cancer and seems that one spread no matter all the chemotherapy she underwent…

But 41 really is no age to leave this planet.

How many people need to die still before any government starts tackling healthy food, healthy water and healthy air?

Cancer are just cells that get bizerk and the easiest way to go bizerk is coming in touch with poison or call it:

• pesticides
• herbicides
• preservatives
• medicine
• …

If people start dying around my age, that’s frightening to say the least, so if people have to go around 40… that’s a clear reason for an unhappy smiley face for the rest of today…

Technorati Tags: cells, chemotherapy, healthy food, herbicides, medicine, old woman, pesticides herbicides, poison, remission, smiley face, stomach cancer, unhappy smiley face pesticides

Most of us at one time or another has had a credit card or multiple credit cards that we used for our daily or weekly purchases.

It is very convenient and as such it is widely used all over the world.

However, it is very prone to fraud all over the world and that is why it is important that card holders educate themselves on credit card fraud protection.

This will save you lots of stress and worry later on as credit card fraudis very prevalent.

So where is the best way to get all the information that you require? You just need to go to credit-score-online.com and there is a host of information on credit score, credit fraud, credit bureaus and even a section on good and bad credit cards.

To avoid credit card fraud, first you should check your credit report and rating and obtain your free report to look for indications of bureau fraud or report fraud.

Educate yourself by reading and finding out as much information as you can on this.

You can also sign up fraud alert on report to prevent identity theft.

There are many preventive measures you can take so get smart and be a step ahead of credit card fraudsters.

Yesterday we had again another weekend without having a BBQ.

Not that we don’t want to, just that the weather is cold (the BBQ fire could help out…) and more sadly: it’s raining all the time.

So we did the next best thing: baking cookies and other goodies in the oven. Like that the house get’s warmer and it almost feels like having a BBQ when you grill some meat and add some potatoes in the oven:

Meanwhile mother-hen is doing fine, just that when she comes out of her nest to eat and drink and you know what, she gets attacked by the other chickens and the rooster still thinks he has to father her eggs… which she rigorously refuses!

If it keeps like that, I will have to go and fix a separate box for her. I gave mine to my son as his chickens started to hatch and mine kept on laying eggs…

Note to myself: never give away anything anymore in future…

Technorati Tags: bbq, cold, goodies, gril, oven, potatoes, raining all the time, weather