Posted on Thursday 31st January, 2013
Food has always been my best friend and my worst enemy. I grew up in a household where it was plentiful, fresh and delicious. I also spent 12 years at boarding schools which served up some of the most hideous, vile filth that has ever masqueraded as comestible.
... Read further about Downsizing for DummiesPosted on Thursday 31st January, 2013
I surprised myself, as well as my friends and family, by opting to use the Cambridge Weight Plan to kick-start the weight reduction process. For those unfamiliar with Cambridge, it consists of a number of meal replacements - in my case three per day - as well as a simple meal of white meat or fish with green vegetables or green salad. There was to be nothing red on the plate, no oily fish and certainly no fruit. This is a diet that involves almost no carbohydrates, no fat and no sugar. The object of the exercise is to put your body into a state of ketosis - a posh word for starvation. In so doing, the body learns to burn fat when it needs energy rather than reaching for a Mars bar - deep-fried or otherwise.
... Read further about The Road to CambridgePosted on Thursday 31st January, 2013
To say that the first few days were difficult is something of an understatement: my mind roved madly from one subject to another, never able to settle and concentrate properly. My mood swung violently and I was often irritable.
... Read further about Feeling the BurnPosted on Thursday 31st January, 2013
As it turned out, the end came much more quickly than I had expected: I made a visit to Pani Ewa on October 22. During our meeting, she presented me with a cerise-coloured ribbon, embossed with the Cambridge logo. This was cut to the exact length of my waist on the day that I had first consulted her - 112cm.
... Read further about Farewell to Cambridge - or is it Au Revoir?Posted on Saturday 25th August, 2012
Phillip Connolly is an old school friend of mine who has always seen things from a different perspective. He is a firm believer in the idea that disabled people's resilience is a vast reservoir of unused potential - and the key to achieving equality. In the first of two blog posts he discusses his notion of 'liberation technology' as a new way of dismantling the barriers that confine people with disabilities.
... Read further about Let's come together for 'Liberation technology'
You may think this isn't the most complimentary name for a blog.
So apart from the fact that these are my initials, why GAS?
Well, firstly it's also an abbreviation for Greetings and Salutations - and I hope this will become a suitably friendly corner of cyber-space. In the Irish language, it means someone who is "astonishing or entertaining" - perhaps this is something to which I aspire rather than how I choose to describe myself. Lastly, it's a verb: "To talk, sometimes excessively". Some would say this is an extremely apt description of the blog's author!
Anyway, I hope it will be a place that you visit often.
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