For indexers everywhere

I found this lovely snippet in Glenda Browne's excellent The Indexing Companion

"Ruth Pincoe was born to be an indexer. Her family was so organised that the milk jug in the fridge had a note that said 'See also back shed'."

Going forward ...

If you - as I do - hate the management-speak term "going forward" you should go to a blog called The Standard, and in the post for 7 Sept you'll see a link to Joe O’Connor's wonderful rant which Chris Laidlaw played on National Radio last Sunday. Drop everything and listen - it's wonderful. By the way,  have you heard our politicians use the term? Key has done it without conviction, and another politician whose name escapes me used the phrase 5 times in an interview on Morning Report about 2 months ago. Sigh.

Gentle weightlifting for the over-50s

I heard about an easy weightlifting exercise for older people, to help build and maintain muscle strength in the arms and shoulders. It seems so easy, so I thought I'd pass it on.  Recommended as a 3-day/wk regime.

Begin by standing on a comfortable surface, where you have plenty of room at each side. With a 5kg potato sack in each hand, extend your arms straight out from your sides and hold them there as long as you can.

Try to reach a full minute, then relax. Each day, you'll find that you can hold this position for just a bit longer. After a couple of weeks, move up to 10kg potato sacks. (I'm at this level now).

Then try 50kg potato sacks and then eventually try to get to where you can lift a 100kg potato sack in each hand and hold your arm straight for more than a full minute.

After you feel confident at that level, put a potato in each of the sacks.