For some months I was in a club with a very big membership – people who have difficulty sleeping. I’d been having trouble getting to sleep, and I’d been waking up in the middle of the night and then not being able to get back to sleep again. Being a supporter of gentle methods, that’s where I started to try to deal with the problem, with transformational breathing, meditation, herbal…
I’m having an interesting sports experience that I’d like to share with you. For the last three months, I’ve been doing Pilates on a ‘Megaformer’ machine at Community Megaformer studio. I take two courses per week, on top of my usual routine. The Megaformer is often confused with the ‘Reformer’, but the Lagree method is different. (Lagree is the name of the Megaformer designer and coach). With Lagree, you do,…
Do you know Vienna? I’ve just spent a few days in the Austrian capital. I walked in the footsteps of Empress Sisi and Crown Prince Rudolf, and I admired the fabulous palaces and magnificent gardens. I also had the good luck to see Madame Butterfly at the Vienna State Opera. In Vienna, the grand story of Europe is still ever-present in the 21st century. If you’re planning a romantic/cultural getaway…
Located right next to China, Hong Kong and Macau have led their own lives for nearly two centuries in the one case and four in the other. Hong Kong was a British colony, more or less, for 155 years; and Macau was under Portuguese administration for four hundred years. About twenty years ago, they went back to being – almost – Chinese, as Chinese administrative regions enjoying a special regime,…
Santorini has a reputation for being the romantic destination par excellence. I dreamed for a long time of its villages of white houses and its blue domes, perched high above steep cliffs, and the laid-back lifestyle shown in so many Instagram photos. I wanted it to be my turn to immerse myself in this much-hyped world; I imagined myself tasting cheap and delicious Greek cooking every day, experiencing the authenticity…
So you’ve adopted a healthy lifestyle and decided to keep it up? You don’t want to carry on nibbling just anything that comes along, but you’re even less keen to pay inflated prices for healthy snacks. Let me pass on some healthy recipes that are easy to make. Energy Balls Half a cup of stoned dates Half a cup of sliced almonds A quarter cup (15g) of cocoa powder 1…
A medieval town in the north of the Flanders plain, Bruges is a true open-air museum. With its winding streets, its authentic little squares and its picturesque canals, the town seems to be right out of a fairy story. The Venice of the North is small, and lends itself easily to a day’s excursions on foot, in a boat or in a horse-drawn carriage. After dark, you can appreciate the…
Far from the cliché that too often bundles it in with Indian cuisine, the Ayurvedic diet is based on a set of principles that focus on the individual and his or her particular physical and mental characteristics. Here is a summary of its central principles: Another way of looking at nutrition and digestion The principle of Ayurvedic diet is not to put foods together in categories but to concentrate on…
I’m opening my address book to share my choices for fine dining in luxurious surroundings, in one of the world’s most beautiful cities. I don’t know if it’s Istanbul’s palette of colours that inspires me the most, or the secrets of its past, but its atmosphere is unique. The first bit of good news is that Istanbul is a wonderful place for food. The second is that the views are…
A month without drinking alcohol – that’s the challenge set by the Belgian Foundation Against Cancer for their “Tournée Minérale”. Starting on February 1st, 100,000 people committed themselves to giving up alcohol for one month, and to making a donation for research. Live well without alcohol Last year, the first such event attracted 120,000 participants. By combining activism with fun, it showed many of them that they can survive without…