So today is my 60th birthday.  For some it is a BIG birthday, but for me 50 was that...  In my view, 50 is the 'half way there' mark, so 60 is just 10 years further on.  As my friends will all attest, I am 100% sure that I, along with many in my generation and absolutely all of those in coming generations, will live to be 100 years old and more.  I take this understanding from the pace at which technology, science and medicine is racing forward...  As incredible as it... Read full post

By TOM HOLLAND

The American series "30 Rock" has been airing in the U.K. for several years now, and most of it carries perfectly well across the pond. But comedy depends on context, and I was surely not alone among my countrymen in raising an eyebrow at one plot twist. Jack Donaghy, the fictional head of NBC (played by Alec Baldwin), decided to run the network into the ground and, to that end, scheduled a series of shows guaranteed to shed viewers. His great triumph was a concept so... Read full post

In taking a holistic approach to one's health and physical fitness, one has to look at diet. All the current data on healthy eating is pointing to what has been called "lean green" which refers to leaning in the direction of vegetables and away from a diet heavy in meat.  Many doctors are also promoting the recognition that our bodies are the healthiest when we are slightly alkaline in our food intake rather than acidic.  http://www.acidalkalinediet.com/Alkaline-Foods-Chart.htm... Read full post

Did you ever hear of Nemo 33, the deapest man made swimming pool in the world, a place in Brussels (Ukkel/Uccle)? Being of a curious nature, I went to have a look. You can only swim one hour at lunch time and one hour in the evening. Apart from that the place is for real divers, not for tourists like me. It's very easy to get to from my place : the ring and then exit Ruisbroek to the left and at the first roundabout left : the 33 meters deep swimming pool.
 
A multilingual... Read full post

The American website RateBeer (just like last year) crowned the Belgian Trappist Westvleteren 12 the best beer in the world. There are ten Belgian beers in the Top 50 (eleven last year). Rochefort 10 is number seven. Westvleteren 8 is number seventeen. Belgian restaurants and cafés also get good rates. One restaurant I like very much, called 'De Heeren van Liedekercke' in Denderleeuw, Oost-Vlaanderen, has been rated the best beer restaurant in the world! That's where I had my first... Read full post

Monday
Aero House (12:30pm) & Ultimate Conditioning (1pm) @ Crunch, Chelsea
Arms, Abs Assets @ NYHRC, 21st & Park
Just Dance @ NYHRC, 23rd & 6th
Tuesday
Functional Training (8:15am) & Cardio Sculpt (9am) @ Equinox, 63rd & Lex
Cardio Sculpt (5:15pm)  @ NYHRC, Cooper Sq. 
Ass & Abs (6pm) & Funk (6:30pm) @ Crunch, Lafayette & Astor Place
Wednesday
Step Challenge (12:15pm) @ NYHRC, Cooper Sq
Hardcore (6pm) & Arms, Abs, Assets (6:30pm) @ NYHRC,... Read full post

Just saw this great set of videos from a series orginally broadcast on the BBC in the 1980's, called the Way of the Warrior.  It features our school of karate, Goju Ryu, in the traditional Okinawan form.  'Karate' translated means 'the of the empty hand."  Hence this amazing fighting style...
Here are the links to the first four parts of the series. Each segment is about 10 minutes long and really interesting to watch, particularly the detail around sanchine kata in Part... Read full post

"On Thursday afternoon a small group of players led by Steve Fehr, the union’s special counsel, met for about an hour at the N.H.L. office in Midtown Manhattan to discuss penalties for teams caught hiding hockey-related revenue." [NY Times]  
This particular sentence caught my attention in reading through today's article about the potential of a 48 game schedule this season.  It is telling that such a discussion is even needed!  That owners would/could stoop so low as... Read full post

7 grandslams, 4 olympic medals and twice she won the Diamond Games in Antwerp. This might have been the reason why Venus Williams was chosen to play Kim's very last match against her. If Venus had won, she would have taken home the racket full of diamonds, that up to now only the French Amélie Mauresmo possesses, since you have to win the Diamond Games three times to own one of the most beautiful rackets in the world. It was the 14th time Kim and Venus played each other. Kim invited... Read full post

The New York Times states that "Bettman was hired 20 years ago Wednesday [today]. Since his first full season as the commissioner in 1993-94, 2,224 regular-season N.H.L. games have been canceled because of lockouts in 1994-95, 2004-5 and 2012. That is 9.7 percent [of all league games scheduled under his tenure]"! Incredible at best; intolerable at worst... 
20 years is a long time...  Boards of companies large and small, governments, and other institutions around the world all... Read full post