Shiva's and Metta's Mother's Sutra

Sometimes I think, hey Singapore is heading in the right direction and then like buses things come around which say to you, no, you are still living the totalitarian dream. Like the leader of the opposition who has been harried relentlessly, just like his predecessor before him, so the point where he can will no longer be able to practise law in Singapore any longer. JBJ was reduced to standing outside hawker centres distributing The Hammer. The remaining forests are now under threat. It is unlikely that the voices of the people will be heard and the forests saved. That Massive Attack is told that they are under investigation for flying the Palestinian flag. I mean the list does go on. A cool band like MA performs here - in all honesty I was astounded they were allowed to perform. I was wow, Singapore is maybe getting to be a bit cool. But no, no, the sun has risen, the spell is broken and the actual form of the beast is revealed. And there it stands...

Well, I think, I believe, in likelihood, I will have lost most of the belly fat - and possibly be toned at the end of these 18 days. I THINK. It is now the last few pounds - possibly 6 or 7, and I am just doing what I've been doing over the past 3 and something months. I will also start reducing my calorie intake and stop eating at 7 pm at night. I think that 10 hour fast is a good one.  Ma cooked yesterday - making white radish soup with pork bone. A simple, hearty meal which has a light broth with a musky taste. I love it when she cooks. I am always astonished how good it tastes. I am in awe of it. It makes me happy to no end that I am almost at the end of the line. When this last bit all goes, just continuing up keep with be easy and I would have done something with the past 4 months - as well as up ended my entire life. The pool was closed yesterday for maintenance. How was I to know?  We got Ma's Singpass sorted and then we will get the...

Perhaps the only thing that I have done with any consistency, apart from look after Ma, has been the exercising. The running, sit ups, stretching and swimming. In 19 days, I will have hit the 4 month or 16 week target. Why is the 4 month target important? Because that is when the body has taken the weeks of effort you have put in and it has bedded in. I am now aware that it will not be the revelation which I hoped it would be. I won't have the physical appearance which I had hoped 16 weeks would bring, but I am also aware that, as I have said a million times in the past 14 weeks, that it is correcting decades of neglect. I did not understand how much I had neglected my body - especially during the Covid lockdown.  I was thinking, as I plunged into the pool yesterday, and as I took in the silence and the peace and the luxury and the wonder of the place... that - well, first this is my usual holiday - well, not entirely usual - but that for decades too, I struggled with my own story....

Over the last few outings we have been braver and going further afield. The Rollator has really opened up possibilities and we have now gone to two great places in the last two days. Today it was Geneo. Amazing vaulted ceilings reminiscent of gothic cathedrals. It was genuinely impressive. And we had a really nice meal at the Great Nanyang outlet. I don't know what you can call it. It isn't a restaurant. Cafe I guess? After that, I had a nap and then went for a swim. Then we went to Sheng Siong. Ma made dinner. It rained loads.  Ma is doing well. After a tough week last week, she seems to have come round a bit. It rained loads today. I have just decided I will start cutting down on the amount I eat to help with the last bits of the weight loss. But its going really well. Just very content with everything.  I watched The Royal Tennanbaums  and I have no memory of it at all. I fo...

Well, I just listened to an hour long talk about the most current up to date science of aging and I did learn new things. Like how the epigenetic markers work. That as we get older, these get more confused and the more confused these get the more dysfunction takes place in cell, until it gets very garbled and the cell stops functioning like a cell. But I also learned that aging cannot be stopped as such. We haven't been able to reverse the age of cells in a living organism, especially one which is as complex as a human being. But what we can do is we can compress the disease part and we can get it to take place as close as possible to death itself.  It was interesting. And the old standards which have been observed and repeated through the millennia - diet, exercise, meaning, stress and sleep. All of these are contributors to a better, healthier form of aging. I was watching this for Ma, but then I realised this is also useful for myself. Some time along the way, I also did think a...

I'm listening to the recent US-Iran mess in the Persian Gulf. Danny Haiphong is giving a run down on the latest madness. I don't know what the US thinks it is doing. They are all mad of course. Trump has senile dementia. He cannot string two words together, never mind hold a strategy in his mind. His cabinet is delusional and fanatical. Raised on American exceptionalism, they don't seem to understand what their own limitations are. The Arabs hate the Persians. It doesn't make a difference if they are supposed to be part of the ummah. The rest of the world is looking on helplessly. Europe is going up in flames. To be honest, the state Barcelona and Madrid were in I was surprised it didn't happen sooner. It's a mess. The forests in Ireland are also burning. I do not know how much more serious it needs to get before people say this model of development is on a hiding to nothing.  It is literally unsustainable.  Oh yesterday I ate at what must be the singularly WORS...

I am currently back at looking at neurodivergence and positive conduct. I have been giving this a lot of thought over the past few weeks, if not years, possibly even months. I have also been thinking how anthroposophy can shed some light on the behaviourial aspects of neurodivergence. But first, I need to clarify the different kinds of neurodivergence. Autism : Where children have sensory processing leading to understanding behavioural cues. This then creates anxiety when they are misunderstood and this, when exacerbated results in issues around self regulation - explosive reactions, stimming, mutism, withdrawal.  Testing for autism is possible, although it is important to note that no two autisms are alike and there is no one or two or three sizes fits all solutions. Each strategy must be unique as is the child. Complete honesty and co-operation is required by the parents/ guardians.  Challenges here include how does one set boundaries without further inducing anxiety which i...