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Hey, Rusty!
Lovely afternoon - quiet in the park, apart from a few fellow walkers and their dogs.
No, definitely not a scam!
Baby Sensory rooms are also well established in many reputable Nurseries.
They are believed to be very stimulating for the child.
I think that going to a class sounds a good idea for mum, too - helps her meet other mothers and their children living in the area.
Now, I must check on the tennis - see what has dared happen in my absence!
I have a thought........maybe Maria could keep her numerous "medications" in Serena's "panic room"?


Hello, Pigale!
It's warm here by my standards - 20C - but perhaps not hot enough by yours?
Rain was mentioned for 4pm, but no sign of it yet...neither here , nor in West Ken.
So tennis progressing nicely!

Elle, I would settle for 20 with nice sun and no wind if it lasted more than 2 days - but would prefer it between 25/30 !

At present it's barely 18 and windy - at least we had some nice sunny spells today!

Good afternoon, Pigale!
It is wet and coldish here, Pigale, but we had some very nice weather recently.
I have stopped watching the Tour de Suisse as it is not being shown live here, but hours later.
I will wait for the "proper" Tour starting!
It is starting in France this year, at Mont-Saint-Michel, which is one of my very favourite Tour places.
Very beautiful, like something out of Disney!
The chicks are growingly very quickly, aren't they!

Good evening, Elle.
I like that about storing "Maria's meds" in the "panic room".
Had a wee chortle to myself!
I am now going about with a silly grin on my face!
Have you checked up on the Baby Sensory people?
It seems a bit of New Age flapdoodle to me?
I never believed a word of the "five a day" fruit malarkey, years ago, and you never hear of it now.
But, all that apart, if it is fun for babies and Mums, why ever not!
Laura has done well with the "wild cards"!

Hi Rusty

You do hear about 5 a day, though the emphasis is more on vegetables than fruit, especially dark green leafy veg like cabbage, currently being savaged by the diamond-backed moth.
I've always thought the pronouncements by Govt bodies as to what we should eat most suspect. I remember when some people were forbidden to have more than one egg a week. Your body needs cholesterol and makes it if you don't eat enough. I will never take statins as I think they're poison, especially for women. The overall death rate for older women does not change if they take statins, though the incidence of heart disease and strokes does reduce slightly. This must mean more deaths from other causes. I would take them if I were a man who has already had a heart attack or stroke.
I never took contraceptive pills or HRT either. Boons though they undoubedly are to some, I think we mess with our hormones at our peril. HRT is no longer so freely prescribed.

Good evening, Rusty!
Yes, I was pleased that both Laura and Heather got wild cards - I don't know as much about the other Brits.
I hear that Jonathan Marray also got a wild card for the Men's Doubles.
I had forgotten all about him?
If I'm remembering correctly he and his then partner, Frederik Nielsen, won the Doubles a few years back. Aren't they best friends?
I don't think they've played together recently?
I don't know with whom Marray is to play this year?
"Five a day?"
I still see this "advertised" as being good for us?
I can't say that I ever knew just how much of each "section" we are meant to eat ?
Some varieties of vegetables are supposedly good for warding off cancer, though?
Didn't your GP tell you that broccoli and sprouts did that? I must have go that from somewhere!

Hello, Elle!
The Jeep may have done.
He does not believe in the fish oil supplements, and Vitamin tablets etc.
Waste of money he says.
I have not heard of 5 a day in a long time.
Several years ago, I read about a community of monks on Mount Athos in Greece. They grew their own food.
And a huge portion of their diet was lentils.
They were incredibly healthy folk and cancer was practically unknown.
They also fasted regularly. They were possibly the healthiest people on Earth, and the experts said it was the lentils and austere lifestyle that did it. It was certainly a very interesting read.

Hello, Rosalind!
Yes, kale and broccoli are reputed to be very good for us.
When I was a wee boy I remember my auntie having a wheezy cough and went to the doctor, who told her to have a few Woodbines cigarettes and that would sort her chest out!
It is many years ago now, that my GP put me on a dispersible aspirin after they thought I may have had a mini stroke. Still on it, and now they think that aspirin may be another weapon in the war against cancer.
Statins get a bad press. I think the jury is still out on their benefits and side effects..

Hi, Rusty!
That is interesting about the monks.
There is an increasing emphasis now about taking pulses to offset cancer....the lentils must have helped keep the monks cancer-free.
And taking dispersible aspirin is also now considered to be anti-carcinogenic, although one has to have been taking the drug for about ten years and between the ages of 50 and 64.
It then has a lasting effect.
Or so I have read.
You sound as though you will qualify for that!
I agree with Ros about statins...I also would never take them; and especially now that they are appearing in the News as possibly harmful, after all the previous hype.
I 'm not above taking a daily vitamin tablet though!

Hello, Elle!
I take a statin, not sure what for!
Your daily vitamin won't harm you and may be helping, so that's the main thing.
If you type "Mount Athos monks diet" into your search box, there are many articles.
This is a quote from CBS News.
"They live long lives with shockingly low levels of cancer and heart disease. Alzheimers is virtually unheard of."
Maybe worth you having a wee browse?
I think the article I read several years ago was in The Times magazine, I think.
Oh, and they don't allow women in the monastery!