(no subject)

There's an article in today's paper that says diet pop is just as bad for you as regular full of sugar soft drinks. Says that it can induce this "metabolic" syndrome and people that drink more than one can of it a day are at higher risk for being overweight. Ah. But if you read the article carefully, they're basically saying that people's diet and lifestyle are the main factors. That they *think* people get cravings for sugar because the sugar substitute in the pop is sweet, too. Bah. That's the old "i'll have a pizza and a diet coke" syndrome, where you don't feel guilty having the pizza because you've got the diet pop too. Ya don't think the extra weight comes from the pizza? I'll admit i rarely drink pop that isn't the diet version, but only because i've got used to the taste. So yeah, it's a bit strange to have a cheeseburger and diet coke but i just prefer the taste. It still all comes back to everything else you put in your mouth. Having said that, it's also suspect that too much aspartame and other artificial sweeteners are not good for you and they add extra sodium to diet drinks to make up the taste so if you've got high blood pressure, or retain fluid easily, it's probably not a good idea to drink a lot of it anyway. I don't have it that much, nor do i buy it for home often, only Once in awhile, and then i will usually drink it all fairly quickly mainly because i find if i have the large 2 litre bottle, it goes flat within a couple of days.

We're going to investigate donating a park bench in the large natural park, Shubie Park in Carole's memory. I'm getting some information from Parks and Grounds sent through the inter-office post. She lived right across the road from the park entrances and used to walk her dogs in there all the time so we all think it would mean more to her to have the bench there.

Have nearly got most of the transportation arrangements sorted. The travel agent is finalizing the Eurostar tickets today. Once all that is done i'll see about the hotel in Paris. I've got the one in London booked through Aeroplan using my points. It's the Best Western Corona down near Victoria Station since we'll be traveling back to Manchester by bus. Oh, the travel agent mentioned that as of November 14th, the Eurostar will be terminating in St. Pancras instead of Waterloo. Anyone heard anything about that? New terminus? It's no big deal, we just have to go back across London to Victoria for the hotel. Because of the time difference, we arrive in London with the clock only an hour and a bit later than the Paris departure time so we will get in before Noon.