Ripples

This is just a test

This is just a test to see if I can get a post from my T3 into TypePad via hblogger...

[Posted with hblogger 2.0 http://www.normsoft.com/hblogger/]

Permutations

As you may know, I like to have a cup of coffee in a nice café or coffee bar every once in a while, well quite regularly actually, and to be truthful this means at least once a day. And as I'm a creature of habit, I have my preferred spots. So for example, every morning I start off my working day with a "cuppa" in a simple chain coffee bar on the underground floor of a shopping gallery, where I emerge from the metro. There is a second place in the shopping centre near my office where I tend to have my noon break cup. And a third place sees my visits either at noon or after work, before I go home. This last place, the café of a a luxury hotel, is one of the most expensive in town (currently €3.20 for a cup, which is not cheap for Brussels standards), but it has this marvellous Paris brasserie style terrace, which is also heated, meaning you can find me there in the middle of winter sometimes...

As I'm a regular at these places, I know most of the people waiting there. These last days, I observed a few funny things. Yesterday at noon, I saw one of the waiters of the expensive hotel having a beer at Place #2. I supposed the prices at his place are out of a simple waiter's league... Anyway, it's curious seeing the "casual" version of the man who's always nicely dressed in the Café's black and white waiter's attire.

And then, today after work, I saw one of the people working at Place #1 having a beer... on the terrace of the expensive hotel! Life is full of such nice coincidences...

Have a nice day

One of the work colleagues of my beloved is trying out a little experiment. He remarried and moved recently. His new house has no garage, so he rents one a few blocks away. Every morning, on his short walk to pick up his car to go to work, he passes a bus stop where a few people are waiting. And since he usually comes by at the same time, it's always the same people. So, as an experiment, he started saying "Good morning" as he passes them by. In the beginning, nobody reacted; In fact, I suspect they must have been rather surprised. By now however, he reports that four out of the five respond, with just one still ignoring him.

It may seem a strange thing to do in an urban environment, and city people certainly aren't used to this. But I wonder if the fact that someone comes by and wishes them a nice day, even if they only know him from sight, would affect these people's moods, be it just a little bit? While it's clearly unfeasible to walk around a large city greeting everyone, still there may be occasions like this we're missing the chance to have a positive influence on people...

Anyway, whoever you are and whenever you're reading this, have a nice day!

Eat to Live

I've written before of my (until now successful) weight loss efforts. The book that made a decisive difference was Joel Fuhrman's "Eat to Live", which I read as an eReader ebook on my Palm. For those of you still hesitating, I'd just like to let you know that eReader recently substantially dropped the price of this ebook. One less reason not to read it...