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On the tribulations of an expatriate in Europe
Saturday, May 31, 2025
Joy at the Presence of the Lord
Friday, May 30, 2025
Which Schengen country has the highest visa approval rate?
Lives in Sweden (1994–present) 2y
Highest visa approval rate among Schengen countries have:
Lithuania granting 98.7% of applications.
Estonia granting 98.4 percent of applications.
Finland granting 98.3 percent of applications.
Other countries with high rates of applicants granted are:
Iceland, Latvia, and Poland.
“As for the most difficult, Belgium leads the way with a relatively high 16.9% of applications refused – the highest rate anywhere in the Schengen Area - but this still means that 83.1% of applicants are issued with a Schengen Visa. Next is Malta, with 14.8% refused, followed by Sweden with 10.3%, Portugal on 10.1%, France with 9.6 %, and Norwaywith a rate of 8.7%”
How much weight can you lose in a week with one meal a day?
Fitness Coach and dedicated practitioner of holistic health 20h
If you are like me engaged in years of clinical observation, you can intercept philosophical and transactional fallacies from a great distance. If you have the means and the associated affective temperament, you can advance a corrective.
Speaking of Corrective, I shall spend a brief moment addressing what fitness trainers pretend does not exist in the world of health and fitness. I can take liberty to interrogate fallacies in the wellness space because I am a research scholar in Health Education. I can see the health field as though looking through it; and the general public is going around in circles without the faintest clue.
It is obvious, if you are paying attention, that so many people are tortured around the vortex of weight loss and food consumption. Which actually is the simplest thing in the world if you are balanced. That could start another conversation - I know.
But why not deal with that conversation. Because, that is the missing link. Everybody seems to be stuck on everything else except the central concept of BALANCE.
If you could resolve the gravitational disorientation engendered by the absence of balance, you would be shocked to discover that so much is organized around that hidden yet magical conception of balance. There are so many examples one could advance to explain this.
To provide context with regard to an organized locus of control let me share the following:
As a trained dancer, it is clear to me that before I can execute movement in space that requires direction, spatial configuration, energy, force and temporal dynamics, I must first be organized around a defined center. Since dance is an art, I have no choice but to express reverence for the principles of selection, omission and emphasis. Only then can I effect consonance and resonance in my aesthetic expression.
To be centered is to inhabit a specific state of orientation. If you are existentially sensitive, you understand that with absolute immediacy. If you are superficial, sensorially unaware it goes over your head. Deep awareness is acute. Most people exist devoid of it.
If you are a trainer, instructor or coach, you are remiss if you fail to explain to your students and clients why they are doing what you are directing them to do. You should not expect them to comply with your directives without understanding why. There are clear reasons most people in the United States are out of form. Some Americans already understand why. Most others are completely inured.
IF YOU ARE TRYING TO EAT RIGHT AND LOSE WEIGHT, YOU ARE IN THE REALM OF ART.
The problem is that you are unaware of that. Look around you. Most humans you see are ordinary. The idea of internal re-organization is what people do when they are on a self-developmental course-correction. Most people couldn’t give a flying fuck. They are not going anywhere! The reason they are not in a hurry to get healthy is, in the main, because they have subconsciously pledged allegiance to the herd. Imagine the power of mimesis - of mimetic desire. But the tragedy of mindless imitation.
There are those who believe that they should lose weight and be in top shape. They are convinced they deserve it. To which I say: No you don’t. What makes you think you do? If you live in America, you should work twice as hard to be in good shape - harder than Europeans, Australians, South Americans and others. You live in one of the worst places to eat food and you probably, like a lot of folks, lack a sense of measure. Looking and feeling healthy works against you in America. The Food and Drug Industry has you hooked and essentially inextricably bound to their tentacles.
Which is exactly why you must rise above America itself, transcending it, to find yourself. If you cannot do that, you have not even begun. Sailors understand that to fix the ship when something goes terribly wrong, you must, of necessity, get off the fuck’n ship to fix it.
I used to have friends while at the University of Rome who would remark: L’Italia e rovinata, andiamo via. It loosely translates: Italy is fucked, let’s get the hell outa here. Problem was, Italy is among the most gorgeous places on the planet and the food is amazing. Dove andiamo? Where shall we go?
These are places where being overweight is considered an aberration just as overeating is considered obscene. Quite the reverse is the case in America. Pizza in America is laughably gross - yet a thin crust in Italia; drinks are humanly normal size in Italia but grossly super, super-sized in America with tons of sugar; yet the daily allowance is 25 grams of sugar daily for women and 35 grams or so for men daily. People easily down up to 100 grams of soda in one sitting in America. Are you serious?
With such bizarre nutritional behavior, what could the trajectory possibly be?
America is not a classical culture, it is not an aesthetic environment and certainly not body-aware. And finally, its anti-intellectualism robs its populace of the lyricism of beauty’s appreciation. Beauty is form. And if that is true, then the real conversation has not even begun.
THE FUNDAMENTAL RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN FOOD CONSUMPTION AND HEALTH
THE STRATEGY OF ONE MEAL A DAY (OMAD)
The stringent modality of food consumption known as OMAD has been around for thousands of years. Modernity and industrial human evolution in dynamic transaction has changed the old practice. The practice existed for as long as it did because no choice existed for many. And, it worked at a very organic level. People could practice temperance in an atmosphere of food scarcity.
If you are interested in One Meal A Day, ask yourself why you should embark on plying its path. Plying this course can be an inexorable travail for an unbearably great number of people. Frankly, I am fascinated by people’s fascination with the practice - because there is, truthfully, NOTHING to it. But that’s beside the point.
Here’s the point. If you are ONLY seeking to lose weight by the application of this modality, I would counsel you to seek a different modality and here is directly why: You will not get anywhere ultimately unless you acquire a philosophic and psychologic understanding of OMAD and the larger contextual scheme within which the practice exists.
You are, no doubt, puzzled by that claim. As you should be. Let me share this. People will try anything to lose weight when they are desperate. But desperation is not enough. A lot of trainers will say: Do this and this and this. But what they almost never ask new clients to do is Gain a Clear Conception of THIS. You see, losing the weight is not ultimately the goal. It always SEEMS so.
What your object should be, is to adaptively BECOME the type who has a mastery over weight management, power over food-related impulses and unquestionable personal control.
It is important to be advised that although OMAD features as a great alternative to arbitrary, unregulated consumption, it requires an understanding of key features of how it actually works. This is a stringent practice that is designed to curb consumptive dysregulation and does, in fact, help take people out of the circularity of eating for the sake of eating.
If you are the type of person with a penchant for constant mastication which is a proclivity toward chewing on food all day long, this is not going to work. If you are the type who complains about low blood sugar and dependent on food to lift your blood sugar every other hour, look elsewhere because this is not it.
One Meal A Day, like fasting proper, requires disciplined comportment around food. I should remind readers that many people consider OMAD as a form of fasting, by the way. I DO NOT. I see it as a lifestyle and a simply intelligent one.
An interesting tit-bit for those petrified ones reading this, is the following: People who are not initiated often wonder how they could possibly eat one meal a day. Until they do. You see, built into the human psychic system is the capability to go without food for an inordinate length of time. You wouldn’t know it but the idea of eating 3 times a day is a modern invention that has no actual utility. For my part, it is completely unimaginable to me. It makes no sense to me on any level - biologically, psychologically, intellectually. That’s just too much food to put the human body through. Even if the consumption were rather small tiny portions, why three times?
DISCIPLINARY DEFICITS AND ITS PERILS
I will be the first to break it to you and I will. Did you know that you can still gain weight on OMAD. Yes it may seem unprecedented but it’s true and here’s why: Adaptation is a bitch! Neuroscience has begun to understand adaptation and its workings. The term is neuroplasticity. Neural adaptation is a gradual decrease over time in the responsiveness of the sensory system to a constant stimulus. There comes a time when you get used to eating one meal a day to the extent that it simply becomes a habit. That’s a great thing because it explains the fact that it is completely possible to lose weight, change a habit, form a habit, etc.
It is also possible to ramp it up and start packing in more food even if just once a day. Bear in mind that people can sometimes use eating a single meal a day as excuse to over-consume. If your body gets habituated to one meal a day and then you ramp up your food intake, you are going to gain weight. The object is to recognize that you must remain disciplined regardless of being on the OMAD regimen. This problem is rife within intermittent fasting. People can begin the fasting and find themselves feeling entitled to elaborate consumption because they are fasting. Bad idea.
Still, it is important to bear in mind that losing weight is principally contingent upon the classical equation: Reduction of energy consumed ultimately equals expended energy. This is what’s great about OMAD. You will need consistency. The progress is also gradual. If it took you years to gain weight, you are a fool to expect massive weight loss returns in a week - like THIS question demands. Many questions about weight loss are outright puzzling - making some people sound as though they live outside their bodies.
OMAD AND WEIGHT LOSS
Which brings me back to the question we are tackling: How much weight can you lose on OMAD? I have had to lay the narrative down for the uninitiated as a set of guiding principles. Weight management must be understood and initiated as a lifestyle. There are really no isolated diets as such. And there are no mechanically conceived numerics by whose measure you must judge intelligent food consumption. Being healthy is not a game of numbers; but rather the acquisition of intelligent behavior. In essence diets are not the problem. The requisite IMPULSE MODULATION is the central paradigm at the core of the weight loss drama. Simply: Weight Loss is Behavior-Bound. It’s a habituation to a newfound MINDSET.
If weight loss is to be experienced as a revoking of a body-type for another more ideal kind, would it not follow that the psychology of the bearer must, as a material consequence, lead the way? If that were not the case, I am not convinced that the intention ever existed to propagate the change. You must first reformulate self-conception and the associated behavior reformation as a principled purpose toward which an outcome is directed. It is clear that the reason a lot of people toy with weight loss and fail, is because they are not equal to the desired intent. Form a mental image of that for a trifle moment. Doesn’t that make sense?
In your estimation, what is the point struggling to lose weight when the self-concept and the behavioral patterns that engendered the weight gain remain exactly the same? Result is invariably inextricably bound to highly defined and specific Causation.
You see, a lot of people are overweight not just because of the love of food; but more likely because of a pathological relationship with food. Pathological fixation is not love. It’s a circular pattern of addiction. You must first BREAK THE BOND to heal the relational misalignment.
Thenceforth, you are free to choose a balanced relationship with consumption. If it were merely effort-bound or predicated upon the will, most people questing for weight loss would’ve had no problem at the first try. In a fractured state, we are not healed. Our choices are disembodied. To organize our choices around a clearly defined center, we must be WHOLE.
CONCLUSION
If I were to compose a weight loss symphony in 3 movements, the first stanza of the first movement would stipulate a psychic restructuring; the second movement would be to fabricate an infrastructure for the intent; and the final movement would evolve a nutritional landscape upon which the intent would ultimately thrive.
Best wishes,
Godfrey Silas
What are the best ways to live in the old age when nobody wants to take care of you?
Survey after survey shows, the greatest fear for someone in old age is being alone and having your life slowly fall apart. It is a terrifying prospect that until you get there, you want to avoid even thinking about it.
Every family has an excuse, there is no end to the reasons why you can’t take care of Mom, or god forbid Dad as Dads are always way more difficult and all but useless once they are no longer earning money and have few home skills other than having a drink at ‘5 O’Clock somewhere’, but the reality is it is a global problem now, not even the Chinese or Japanese or other Asians are taking care of their parents any more. Everyone is ‘outsourcing’ the care of their loved ones and it is a frightening prospect to say the least to find yourself increasingly unable to take care of yourself in a very expensive landscape with diminishing funds. And let’s face it, everyone has diminishing resources especially the longer you live.
Unfortunately, we all must face the prospect of being alone or unwanted or your family just cannot take care of you.
Old angry and drinking alone, look like anyone you know including maybe yourself?
Having gone through this many times with relatives including my Mother and others, at some point it happens. Unless you have so much money you can paper it over or so many relatives, (eg children) who all agree somehow to pitch in to take care of you.
The ‘best’ way of course is planning as others have noted. I have several friends who have sold their properties and now live in retirement homes. I personally have not planned in this manner. Am I taking a risk that my partner will not be there for me? Yes, I suppose so.
Like others I exercise every day, I have children but don’t expect anything from them. In the end the best thing you can do is find a space that is simple, yours, no debt, have some steady retirement income that is enough to live on. Savings if you can manage it.
My experience is the layout has to be something you can do over and over no matter what shape you are in . If you lose your sight gradually, if you lose your mind, if you lose your ability to walk well. Go through the stages in advance, plan and then when you need to, make that move. Most importantly, it must be one level, not a single stairs if you can avoid it.
Be in control, get your mob phone pre programmed by numbers so you can call anyone and everyone that you need. Whether it is 911 or your kids, your diminishing number of friends, your doctor, your relatives.
Stay active in your mind at the minimum, walk, walk and walk again. Never stop walking and moving.
Go until you cannot, no planning can overcome giving up. Never give up. You don’t have to. You can do this for you.
After all, in the end it may be all you have left is you.
As an undertaker, would you prefer to be buried or cremated, and why?
Now this is an interesting question! I apologise for having taken so long to respond, but I sincerely wanted to do a bit of canvassing to find out. I typically work closely with about a dozen different Funeral Directors in my local community and on an international basis, I'd say another ten. My response includes virtually all of the Funeral Directors I had the chance to speak with, and as I've only dealt with four Funeral Directors outside of the UK since you posted the question, the demographics will be negligible. One was in the States (Orlando area), one in Chişinău, in The Republic of Moldova, and two in Bucharest, in Romania.
For the most part, the FD's in the UK were all either Anglican (Church of England), or Catholic. There was one Free Church/Methodist.
Seven of the FD's preferred cremation and their cremains to simply be disposed of in the most expedient manner, such as 'strewing' (dumping?) them in the local crematorium's gardens. In the 'industry,' the local crematory is often referred to as our local 'Bake 'N Shake.'
Two of the FD's said they preferred cremation, however, they had rather nice sentimental preferences for their cremains; One wanted his to be saved until his wife passed, then together, they'd like to have their cremains interred at a church cemetery, so their children and grandchildren could visit them as a marker of memory.
One FD stated that he'd indicated in his living will that upon his demise, he requests burial and that his wife's cremains be placed within his coffin with him. I asked why he preferred burial over cremation. His response was relatively practical; he had purchased a grave plot thirty years earlier when they first married and he hated the idea of it "going to waste." (his exact words!).
And one FD, who has always been rather acerbic in his responses to questions he finds (in his opinion) to be absurd, stated that he definitely preferred to be cremated and his ashes 'dumped' in the sea. He then added that this was only because his mother-in-law repeatedly tells him that she's looking forward to the day she can dance on his grave!
In Bucharest, both FD's were adamant that a burial was 'de rigueur' in Orthodox culture. I accept this despite the fact that there's (finally) a number of crematories in Bucharest.
And the american FD, almost with a breath of indignation, insisted that he wanted 'The Full Monty,' resplendent with the most magnificent of coffins (caskets, as they call them in the u.s.), (preferably hand rubbed Mahogany), ‘deep-embalming,’ including hairdresser, and cosmetic artist, the perfect arrangement of soft pink lighting to highlight how beautifully natural he will look in his thousand-weave Egyptian cotton lined casket, The Last Supper inlay inside the Casket's lid, and 'a memorial pocket, or tray' filled with personal supplications of love and adoration by survivors. And a gold memorialised 'casket key.' And he wanted a full funerary cortège, which includes multiple flower cars, late model Cadillac Hearse, (I prefer our Rolls Royce ones here in old Blighty!), and police motorcycle escorts. And he added, with a flair, that the chapel would include a moving slide pictorial, live music quartet, velour covered chairs at the graveside, a marbled grave liner, or vault, with bronze plating, and the casting of earth, during the service (ashes to ashes), to be done with a sterling silver repository and spade. And finally, the FD pulled out a ring binder and flipped to a page showing the catering options available for wakes. He says he insists on the 'Eternal Rest Epicurean Platinum' catering package which provides, during viewing hours, a medley of hors-d'oeuvre options, including jumbo prawns, crudités, Kosher canapés, and a Ferrero Rocher tier.
Hope this helps!
Fr B+
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