Thanks Davey! I think the best thing to do once it's gone is just forget about it and pretend it doesn't exist. If possible start a new one.

Skip

Go off on 'silences'? Halucinate after a while?

She was sitting in a field getting off her tits on magic mushrooms, more like!

Just say no.

Beadle

Aruna, coconut oil:

you have to order it over the internet

No, actually, you don’t. Go into your local wholefood/healthfood shop and, if they don’t stock it, tell them they can get it from Suma. (www.suma.coop) … trying not to advertise here but we don’t sell to the general public so maybe I can get away with it!

Cath, I suspect the truth is that your friends are deeply and secretly jealous that you have this skill and dedication. Celebrate your differentness!

Dee

Aruna, I think I actually do have hermit tendencies too. I've done plenty of the whole extra-sociable party thing, but even as a little kid I used to love going off and finding hiding places where I could be on my own! Sometimes I do love just holing myself up in my room. I've rediscovered that side of me over the past couple of years. I wish I could afford to live alone!

Dee, I think a lot of people do envy creative people who spend solitary time dedicated to their craft (not that I could be included in that category - I procrastinate too much).

Cath

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Oh yeah, and you've all inspired me with this healthy eating talk. I've revisited Julia Ross' The Diet Cure and realised loads of things I'd forgotten so I'm getting back on track and going on a healthy eating mission from now!! JB, I'd highly recommend the forementioned book if you're getting into finding out more about all that kind of stuff. It's not just about physical health either - hey, Jamie Oliver's school dinners stuff recently proved the affect what we eat can have on our states of mind.

Yes Cath, believe me when I say, i've been three weeks into a detox diet, having very little carbs and plenty of greens, fruit etc, very little diary, lots of water and a serious cut down in booze - and not only have I lost a bit of weight quite quickly, I feel terrific. It's like having an extra lease of life.

I tend to get all my info off the net though, as I'm not yet rich enough to spend money on expensive health books. Love it - the pauper's way to pultritude.

JB

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I love that word - pultritude. It means 'beauty', but is one of the ugliest words to describe it I've ever heard!

There's another Practical Place you could Patronize on your Pauper's Path to Pultritude: Your Lovely Local Library!

(sorry, got a bit carried away with the alliteration-fest - my Friday brain finds things like that entertaining.)

I know that involves going outside, but surely libraries are an exception to us hermit writers?

Having said that, Ross' book does involve spending shitloads on health food supplements (which work!), but it's still well worth reading just for all the other food info.

Cath

Pulchritude is even uglier!

What does that mean?!

Beauty

<Added>

from 'pulcher' which is Latin for beautiful, I think.

Longer and uglier as 'pulchritudinous'.

Yikes, takes me back to Latin GCSE.

Ah, yes, Latin O Level. Did you do Cambridge Latin, with Caecilius and his pals being asphixiated at Pompeii?
Emma

I did indeed...Caecilius est in horto, Metella est in atrium, or something...and then we graduated to the long and very tedious works of Pliny. It's a blur.

We did Catullus and the one about Aeneas and the fall of Troy - who's that by? About twice in the two years I had a flicker that if I could just get beyond having to treat the whole thing as a crossword puzzle, I might find something of what I could get so easily out of Shakespeare and Donne and Keats. Other than that it was a ghastly grind. I only passed by learning the translations by heart, and being able to recognise a hypocaust system.

Emma

Oh Dido and Aeneas, we did that, too. And yes that's how I passed as well. I had a great memory in those days. Now I have trouble with a basic shopping list.

It was terribly confusing. Everyone gets on kick! I knew oil is a fat, period! But, the processing can make a big difference.

All of this is wonderful…need advice for people my age