It's a hard life!

Life gets more and more complicated. Well, that's how it seems if you listen to all the health advice that' going around. First they tell you sugar's bad for you. Ok, yes, I'll go along with that; I've not taken sugar in tea or coffee since I was about 16. But then they start going on about fructose - fruit sugar. So, despite all the government advice about getting your five-a-day, fruit isn't all that good for you either. And certain vegetables such as carrots, which they always used to say we're good for improving eyesight, should be avoided as well because they contain too much fructose. And if you start to think about smoothies, well, forget it. Getting your fruit in that way is even worse because you don't take time to digest it and the fructose hit is faster and more dangerous. 

Pretty soon we'll just be drinking a little bit of water and perhaps having the occasional bowl of porridge. 

And then there's the question of exercise. They tell you that you should get 150 minutes of moderate exercise a week. But then they say that if you spend the rest of your time sitting around all the benefits of those 150 minutes of exercise are lost. So what is a body supposed to do? Clearly you walk around all day, eating your occasional bowl of porridge and sipping water. 

But then, make sure your water doesn't come from a plastic bottle as all sorts of nasties can be transferred from the plastic into the water. Now, that's bad news for all the people you see with their supermarket trollies full of stacks of bottles of water. An Italian friend of mine tried to convince me recently that you see this in Spain and Italy because the water coming through the taps is undrinkable! Really? I thought that had been solved years ago but she maintains that in Sicily she gets sand coming through her taps! 

All in all, as I said, life has become extremely complicated. There are just too many things to be taken into account. 

Even buying a secondhand car has become more complicated than it used to be. It's not that I'm thinking of buying one; it's just that I read recently about the problem of people using their cars as security for loans - loans that they then pay back at extortionate rates of interest. The average amount for these so-called "log-book" loans is £1286 but some people borrow up to £19000. A crazy amount and they can end up paying back up to eight times what they borrow. If they fall behind in the repayments their car can be repossessed. The trouble is that sometimes cars are sold on before the loan has been repaid. So you can buy a secondhand car with a loan attached, although you won't know this. And then, if the borrower defaults on the loan your secondhand car can be reclaimed by the loan company. How weird is that? Now, it reminds me of something. Years ago someone explained to me one of the dangers of buying property in Spain: occasionally the property would come with a loan attached and the new owner of the property became liable for the loan. Scary stuff! 

Pretty soon I'll have to start living in a cave, preferably one above the flood plain, where I can walk about all day and live on water and porridge!! 

It's not all gloom and doom though. Little by little I am learning to do new tricks on the iPad that Father Christmas brought me. Today I am trying to post my blog via the iPad. 

Well, that didn't work. Maybe I need to get a special blogger app. So it's back to emailing what I've written to myself, opening the email on the net book and posting from there. 

At least I've learnt how to do letters with accents on my iPad. That's a start!