WHAT DID YOU DO THIS WEEKEND ?

Helps you to remember what you have done on the weekend of January 29. You never know if you need an alibi ! If you participate please put the little logo on the top of your post and leave your link.

I can't say that my weekend was very exciting, so for all readers who have written in the comments that their weekend was so boring that there was nothing to write about, I can assure you that my weekends are not better sometimes !

On Saturday I got a phone call from the store where I had bought my light therapy lamp, that they had got ten pieces and I could pick up my new and hopefully working lamp. (story here ) So I quickly drove to the store to pick it up. I installed it besides my computer and



here it is ! In the afternoon I went over to Dominique to help her to pull out her table to a bigger size as she had invited her brothers, she has 5 and their wives together with her mother. Imagine having 5 brothers ! She was the only girl. We set the table chatted a little and then I went home for supper and a crime story on TV.

Sunday morning I used my lamp for the first time, when I settled down at my computer with a cup of coffee. I switched it on for one hour and it works very well. Now I get my daily dose of daylight, even when it is dark outside. It is one week that I have used the lamp and honnestly I feel like a freshly charged battery (if ever a battery feels something).



Of course since I have the lamp the sun is shining as if payed for, as Pookie shows you here, so I went for a little walk to the Waterloo antique market, but it was so cold and windy that I didn't stay long.



Although there was this "beautiful" rusty pram top, besides the mirror, I didn't buy anything.

When I came home our friend JC was there, he had arrived at 11 and wanted to leave at 1 pm, finally we were still chatting at 3.30 pm. He is more of our son's generation, but that doesn't matter. There is always a lot to tell. I also could see little grandson Toby on Skype when he was drinking his bottle. What a nice invention. It's just as if I was there in the same room.



He is now 9 weeks old and has already been in a swimming pool ! When I think that I learned swimming when I was 13 !!

FRIDAY's FAVE FIVE

more participants at Susanne at Living to tell the Story.

1. On Monday after acqua gym we discussed about the benefits of light therapy and if it would be worthwhile to buy a lamp. As Dominique had already one, she said that it helped her very much during these dark winter period. It's true that lots of people have the winter blues. Therefore after having lunch together, I went with Dominique to different stores to see what was on the market and of course also to compare prices. She found a wonderful alarm clock, which wakes you up slowly with increasing light and to the sound of bird chirping. It also can be used as bedside lamp.

2. My friend Chantal also suffered from the rain and darkness and proposed to do some window shopping in a very big antique store, where we could walk around and look at pretty or ugly things without getting wet. After that we had a cup of tea at home and of course again we talked about light therapy and she said that she already has a lamp like that when it wasn't on the market in Belgium yet and her mother had bought it in France in a pharmacy.

3. I decided to buy my lamp. Not so easy, they were sold out in 3 stores ! Finally I went back to the first store, got the last lamp which was exposed, bought it and asked Mr. G. to install it besides my Computer. He of course grumbled about "again a useless thing" but after all the explanation he then heard from different sources, he found it good too.

4. In the morning I started my computer, took a cup of coffee and switched on the lamp. The light was bright but not steady and waggled. After a while it got steady, but then there was a strange noise which really got on my nerves. It was damaged ! I took it back and asked to change it, there was no problem besides one .... no lamp in stock ! They ordered it for me and I have to wait.

5. In my painting class they had taken away the Christmas decoration (it was about time) and had put up these building paintings. We all got the impression to paint in the middle of the Grand'Place in Brussels ! It looks very nice !



Besides lamp hunting I worked on my Blog book. Other Bloggers have told me that it is very easy, I don't know what I am doing but my book composition takes time !

TRYING OUT LIGHT THERAPY

Already before Christmas I started to see the world in black and often had serious lacks of energy. It hasn't happened to me since 6 years and I was quiet worried that I didn't feel my good old self when I got up in the mornings. In the past I had suffered from seasonal depressions, but that always happened from October on, finished in January and it's quiet a long time I haven't had it anymore.

People who know me are not used that I am suddenly feeling like a motor without petrol. My friends said that as I am a sunshine person it's probably because the winter is so dark this year and we don't have enough light. More and more people also talk about light therapies and energy light lamps are the big hit this year !

My friend Dominique has such a lamp. As she doesn't need it for the moment she lent it to me so that I would get my dose of light which apparently I need. Today I used it for the first time. I put it on my little table and suddenly the room was full of light ! I didn't know how long I could use it and also wanted to know a little more about light therapy. Wikipedia gave me the answer (as usual).

"Indian medical literature dating to 1500 BC describes a treatment combining herbs with natural sunlight to treat non-pigmented skin areas. Buddhist literature from about 200 AD and 10th-century Chinese documents made similar references"
Again, we the Western sophisticated world has only discovered this recently and makes it popular as if they had invented it. Suddenly these lamps and light boxes are "in" and become more and more popular and a new money making market has been created.

Because : The medical applications of light therapy also include pain management, accelerated wound healing, hair growth, acupuncture, improvement in blood properties and blood circulation, and sinus-related diseases and disorders.

That's absolutely great, probably next week I can show you my hairs hanging down to my heels, no cat scratches on my hands anymore, a terrific blood circulation (hopefully through my brain too) and no colds ! And according to the Indians and Buddhists I will have a skin of a 20 year old !



Rosie doesn't seem affected by my light therapy !

PS. Reading your comments I have to precise that this therapy has nothing to do with the sun or sunlight, or sunshine, it's just the brightness.

SHOW & TELL

More participants here

Since I came back from my 2 weeks sunshine vacation in Egypt end November, the weather had been awful here. Just a weather to hang yourself. Rain, cold, colder, coldest snow, glaze etc, and it is still not finished which makes now 4 months ! The days where it was nice and the sun was shining I can probably count on my fingers. To keep me in a good mood and avoid to look outside I created a little "happiness corner" which when I look at it makes me feel good, creative and happy for the day.



and here it is.

Cats, a laughing Buddha with happy kids climbing over him who is very kitsch but makes me laugh, fake sunflowers, a yellow cat candle, a little fountain which is supposed to be "Feng Shui "(whatever that is, but very in fashion nowadays) and a special lamp which is made for light therapy. It was created in the Scandinavian countries where daylight in winter lasts sometimes only two or three hours and makes people depressive.



Here are the little things in detail. I had to switch off the pump of the fountain, because the noise got on my nerves. Now it sits there without running water.



besides the dresser which contains linen and jewlery is a posh cat hanging at the lamp.



very posh !


the lamp has several colors which you can set following your needs or mood. From night club red light to sunny spring days, the lamp does everything !



I don't remember what I wanted here.

This way I made it through winter and am looking forward to spring now. It's nice to be retired and a little crazy, but only a little. Now it is allowed, for years I had to be serious !