Tickled Squirrel May 2020

May 2020 Tickled Squirrel

Hello and welcome to the first of a new online Tickled Squirrel Magazine. We first published Tickled Squirrel when we lived in Spain and all our previous magazines, including Mellow Magazine which we produced for some years before, can be seen online on our website https://tickedsquirrel.com We moved to Scotland a few years ago and are pleased to think of it as our home now. Gretna Green where we live is a lovely part of Scotland as you know, but like everywhere, it has been badly hit by the Covid-19 outbreak, so to help businesses, all advertising is free at the moment, We hope this will give everyone a chance to get back on their feet again once this lock down passes and you can properly get back to work. So here it is, we have been lucky to be able to include some of our favourite writers again, and some new advertisers. At the moment, the magazine is smaller than we would like, but as time goes by, hopefully more businesses and writers will discover us and help your Tickled Squirrel grow and grow. If you have an idea for an article, or series of articles please do let us know. As we always used to say, it is your magazine, so tell us what you would like to see. Emails: [email protected] [email protected] Tickled Squirrel accepts no responsibility for the services, goods or work provided by any advertiser. Although we do our best to ensure the contents is correct we accept no liability for any errors or omissions. No part of this magazine, in part or whole, may be reproduced without prior written permission. Page 2

Please remember that advertisers may be closed due to the lock down so please call them to confirm, even if some of the travel restrictions have been lifted. Page 3

The Story of Chocolate Chocolate, the very thought of it can wake your taste buds and with Cadbury’s Outlet Store and Thorntons on our doorstep it seems like an excellent time to look at some of the history of this wonderful treat. Southern Mexico is credited with the origin of chocolate where the cacao seeds were made into a fermented drink. The Aztecs believed the cacao seeds were a gift from the god of wisdom, Quetzalcoatl. They were so valuable that they were even used as a form of currency. The cacao tree produces a seed with a kind of sheath around 8cms long which hangs from the tree trunk itself, Inside the sheath are 30 or 40 almond shaped beans which are embedded in a sweet pulp. It is believed the pulp, being sweet, was probably the first part of the cacao tree that was consumed before the beans were used in a fermented drink. The original drink was bitter and believed to be an aphrodisiac as well as giving the drinker physical strength. It is still made by locals and is known as Chilate. When it arrived in Europe in the 16th century, after the Spanish conquest of the Aztecs, it was used as a medicine to treat abdominal pain but when the drink was sweetened with honey or sugar, it suddenly became a court favourite. It took another 100 years before it had spread across Europe. Between the early 17th and late 19th centuries, the processing of the liquor beans was laborious and slow being entirely manual and sadly this led to the use of slaves and poorly paid local labour. The industrial revolution added mechanisation to the process and in 1815 a Dutch chemist, Coenraad van Houten introduced alkaline salts to the chocolate which reduced the bitterness. He then went on to create a process which pressed the chocolate to remove half the natural fat making it cheaper to produce and also more consistent in quality. This pressed chocolate led to the transformation of chocolate into the solid form we know today, with people like Joseph Fry making further changes such as adding melted cacao butter. Milk had been added to the mix for many years but in the late 19th century, Daniel Peter invented milk chocolate by mixing powdered milk, a development by Henri Nestlé, into the liquor. The texture and taste Page 4

continued to improve when Rudolphe Lindt invented the conching machine which distributed the cocoa butter in the mix better and led to a smoother result. High quality chocolate was mixed for up to 78 hours, low quality may be just 6 hours which explains why a quality chocolate has a smoother and cleaner taste and texture. Solid chocolate began to be made by several companies including Lindt, Nestlé and Cadbury who started selling boxes of chocolates before the end of the 19th century. Just before the end of the 19th century, Hershey’s began making chocolate covered caramels. Nowadays, roughly two thirds of the world’s production of cocoa is from Western Africa Free Advertising While the world is locked down and businesses are struggling to survive, all advertising in the new Online Tickled Squirrel will be FREE To place your advertisement just get in touch Email: [email protected] WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram: +44 7964 262 288 Page 5

A Few Thoughts For the Day Apologies if you have already had these thoughts. Why do we search for intelligent life in space when we have trouble finding it on Earth? Common sense is like deodorant, the people who need it most, never use it. Do you remember when we had to slap the TV when it didn’t work properly? I am beginning to feel that way about far too many people these days. I am at that stage in my life when I think everyone of my age looks much older than I do. But then I look in the mirror and see my dad looking back. When you clean out the vacuum cleaner, you become a vacuum cleaner Knowledge is realizing that the street is one-way, wisdom is looking both directions anyway. Don’t worry about what people think. They don’t do it very often. Experience is the name so many people give to their mistakes. A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is that they underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools. Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana. Talk is cheap because supply exceeds demand. And finally, from Douglas Adams Imagine a puddle waking up one morning and thinking, “This is an interesting world I find myself in, an interesting hole I find myself in; fits rather nicely doesn’t it? In fact it fits me staggeringly well! It must have been made to have me in it.” Page 6

https://lcmvillas.com Autumn and Winter Holidays in the Sun Covid-19 will end, so look forward to an escape from the autumn or winter weather in the UK with a Villa Holiday in the Costa Blanca. We are putting together some great added features as well at the moment so check out our website. LCM Villas Ltd Helping people find their ideal holiday villa for more than 15 years Do You Run A Small Business? You need to generate invoices, send statements, keep track of payments, manage bank accounts, produce P&L sheets. All this on top of running your business. Our system does all this and much more. It is an online system so you can use it from anywhere with no software to install. Nightly backups are included. Best of all, register now and it will be free for you for life. https://mm-accounts.com Page 7

The Package, A Short Story OK, I know I should have just ignored it, if I had I could have saved myself a great deal of hassle. But I'm nosey, and always looking for anything I can get, so when the phone rang in the middle of the night I was tempted. Let me go back to that night. I was asleep, I do that most nights. On my own, that's common as well unfortunately. Then the phone rang and woke me up. I looked at the clock – 3am. And that's when I made my mistake and picked up the receiver. I think I wanted to shut it up as much as anything. \"Paul,\" a voice said as I picked up the receiver. \"The package is at the left luggage office by Victoria station. It's under your name.\" And the phone went dead. I should have left it alone. I didn't have any idea who the caller was – I tried 1471 and the number was withheld – and I wasn't expecting a parcel. But my curiosity started to get the better of me. I went back to sleep thinking I would go to the left luggage office and collect the parcel in the morning. The alarm woke me as usual at 7:30 and I thought no more about the phone call in the night, until the phone rang again while I was in the shower. The voicemail light was flashing as I went into the kitchen for my breakfast. I pressed the Play button. “I forgot to tell you, you need a ticket number, it’s 1087453, and it’s in your name, Paul McClarance.” The message ended. My first name was Paul, but I wasn’t a McClarance. But then I was curious to know what was in it so I decided I would call at the left luggage office on my way to work, it was only a short detour. The office was not in the station itself but round the side and a short walk, further than I had remembered, and there was a long queue, I almost gave up after half an hour, but then I was still early for work so it seemed sensible to wait. Who knows, there could be something really worth having in the parcel. At last my turn came and I told the man behind the counter the number I had been given and my name. “Have you got the ticket?” The man grumped at me. I apologised and explained I had lost the ticket on the way over but I had Page 8

remembered the number and my name is Paul McClarance. He looked me over for a while before walking to the back of the room and picking up a package. “Sign here,” he pointed to a place on a form he had placed on the counter. I picked up the parcel, it was heavier than it looked, and walked out of the office. I hadn’t gone far when two men approached me, one on either side. “Paul McClarance,” one of them said, “you are under arrest for drug dealing.” I looked at him as he took the parcel from me, not taking it in at first. “Don’t make a scene in public sir, but we will need you to come with us to the police station.” It took me several days to convince them about the phone call, luckily I remembered the voicemail at home and that did the trick. I don’t have a phone in my bedroom any more. And I don’t seem to have the same curiosity any more. By Jay Mellow Media Low Cost Design and Print • Business Cards • Leaflets • Brochures Tel: 07964 262 288 • Magazines Web: https://mellow-media.com • Flyers Email: [email protected] Page 9

Casas Campello When the lock down ends we will be here in Spain to help you find your ideal residential or holiday home in the areas of El Campello and Coveta Fumá. But why wait? Take a look at our website today. Keep Track Of Your Money We all have bank accounts and bank cards, and keeping track of our money can be difficult at times. MM Budget can help. It is a completely free, online budgeting program that is easy to use. You can enter regular incomes and outgoings as well as individual amounts. You can have multiple bank accounts. No personal or bank details need be entered. Why not give it a try? Page 10

A Quiz You might not be able to go out to a bar right now, so here is a pub quiz for you to try at home. 1. Which actress, model and singer served 18 days in prison for tax evasion in 1982? 2. What is Postman Pat’s surname? 3. In ‘Only Fools and Horses’, by what name did Trigger always call Rodney? 4. Which South American country was named after the Italian city of Venice? 5. Which country’s national flag has the most colours? 6. In which present day city is the remains of Carthage? 7. What is the only African country never to have been occupied by a foreign power? 8. What was the original name of the Royal Air Force? 9. Who is the only British Prime Minister to be assassinated? 10. Which novel starts with the line ‘Call me Ishmael’? 11. What is the first name of Professor Sprout in the Harry Potter books? 12. What is Frankenstein’s first name in Mary Shelley’s novel? 13. Which Beatle led the way across the zebra crossing on the Abbey Road album cover? 14. Which group formed in 1977 and named themselves after their financial status at that time? 15. What group with a palindromic name had a hit single that was also a palindrome? 16. How is Gordon Sumner better known? 17. Who was the last prime Minister of the Liberal Party? 18. Which politician once worked as a presenter on This Morning? 19. Which word, derived from the Greek for few, means a form of power structure in which power rests with a small number of people? 20. What colour are the seats in the House of Lords? 21. James Dean starred in three films: East of Eden, Rebel Without a Cause and…? 22. What is the highest mountain in Europe? 23. In which country are the Angel Falls, the highest waterfalls in the world? 24. Which King of England was crowned on Christmas Day? 25. The 1812 Overture was written to celebrate the defeat of Napoleon in which city? Page 11

Flavours And Spices Of India Tips for successful cooking. Use metric or imperial measurements only; don’t mix the two. Use measuring spoons: 1 tsp = 5 ml; 1 tbsp = 15ml. All spoon measurements are level unless stated. Recipes using raw eggs or lightly cooked eggs, must not be given to pregnant women and babies, also elderly people, or anyone recovering from an illness. Ovens should be preheated to the temperatures required. The cooking times are an approximate guide only, depending on what you may be using to cook: for fan assisted ovens, use the manufacturers guide. All fruits, vegetables, and all your equipment must be washed and clean, before you start any cooking. Starters How to start? Or where do you start from? You may be thinking of the wonderful starters you had in a restaurant, or when you are invited to an Indian home for a meal. Onion bhajis, samosas of all kinds, pakoras both vegetable and meat, tikkas, how are they all made. Small savoury Indian snacks are called CHAAT, which literally means `To Lick´, this is because chaat is considered as `finger licking food´. They can be enjoyed hot or cold, some come with their own variety of chutneys or sauces. Here is a recipe that you can try and make them, and enjoy your hard work after, by eating them. Onion Bhajis. These delicious light crisp snacks, are not only very popular in India but the western world has also taken to this snack. There are many different ways to make them and serve the bhajis. Some come in round ball shaped, flat round disc, or in uneven lumps. Cooking and preparation time: 45 minutes Serves: 15-20 Ingredients: 225g or 2 cups of gram flour ½ tsp chilli powder 1 tsp turmeric powder 1 tsp baking powder ½ tsp cumin seeds coarsely crushed 2 large onions finely chopped 2 fresh green chillies finely chopped A handful of fresh coriander finely chopped Water to mix, salt to taste Vegetable oil, for deep- frying. • Using a sharp knife, slice the onions into thin half rounds. Separate the slices and set them aside on a plate, or bowl. • In a bowl mix together the gram flour, chilli powder, turmeric, & baking powder. Add salt to taste. Sift the mixture into a large mixing bowl. • Add the coarsely crushed cumin seeds, onions slices, green chillies & fresh coriander and mix them well together. Page 12

• Add enough cold water to make a paste, and then stir in more water to make a thick batter that will coat the onions and the spices together. • Heat the oil in a wok or a deep fat fryer. Then either • Using a table spoon, scoop the mixture (scoops will give you more quantity of the bhajis) • or make the mixture into patties onto the palm of your hand (flat) • then gently lower the mixture into the oil, - be careful not to burn your fingers in the hot oil. • Do not add too many at a time so as to leave room to turn them often. • Fry them till they are golden brown, turning often. • Remove with a slotted spoon, drain well and serve hot. You can reheat them in an oven for 3minutes just before you serve the bhajis. They should stay crisp and dry. As a tip, you can use the same batter mix in other vegetables, cauliflower, broccoli, yams (sweet potatoes), potatoes, turnips…. etc. This article was kindly supplied by Anil Patel of the Maharaja restaurant on the sea front in Villajoyosa on the Costa Blanca. If you are ever in the Costa Blanca his restaurant is very well worth a visit. RESERVATIONS 96 685 28 46 www.maharaja.es Please stay indoors and stay safe but when this is all over if you are ever in the Costa Blanca, come and see us You will be very welcome. 96 685 28 46 Avda Puerto, 7 Local 6 Bajo Villajoyosa www.maharaj.es Where a Warm Welcome Awaits You On The Sea Front in Villajoyosa Page 13

Sudoku Logic Puzzles In the grid below, place the numbers 1 to 8 in such a way that no two consecutive numbers are next to each other horizontally, vertically or diagonally A man has 53 socks in his drawer: 21 identical blue, 15 identical black and 17 identical red. The lights are out and he is completely in the dark. How many socks must he take out to make 100 percent certain he has at least one pair of black socks? You have two slow fuses that take exactly one hour to burn through but the burn rates are not consistant. You need to use them to measure 45 minutes. You can light either or both ends of one or both fuses at the same time. How could you measure the 45 minutes? Page 14

Across 12. ____ hygiene 57. Endure 1. Broil 13. ____-service 58. Restless desire 5. Falling sound 19. Feel sick 59. Don't go 9. Office notes 21. Liverpool's country 60. Duration 14. Showed up (abbr.) 61. Bakery employee 15. Nebraska's neighbour 24. Dublin's country 63. Refreshing drink 16. Informed 25. Want 64. And not 17. Water (Sp.) 27. Juneau's state 18. ____ damage 29. Again You can download 20. Admiration 30. Emerald ____ these puzzle pages 22. Pronoun 31. Disappointed shout from our website in 23. California city 32. Chair order to print these 24. Doing nothing 33. Health clubs pages (without the 26. Blinding light 34. Tibetan monk background colour) 28. Showers 35. Single thing 33. Poor community 36. Short skirt Solutions to all the 37. Bullring cries 40. Compact puzzles will be found 38. Follow 45. Sickness on page 26/27 39. Sudden fright 49. Young child 41. ____ Baba 51. Cease Page 15 42. Letter before epsilon 53. Lucky dice roll 43. Kind of acid 54. Disparaging 44. Delhi dress 55. Curvy letters 46. Actress Mae ____ 56. Penn and Connery 47. Lustrous fabric 48. Prepared to propose 50. ____ Sea Scrolls 52. Defeats 57. Pay attention 61. Deeply felt 62. Participant count 65. Travel document 66. Wound remainders 67. Achieves 68. Eve's home 69. Cooking herb 70. Miscalculates 71. Scottish loch Down 1. Muffler 2. Zealous 3. Entertain 4. Harvests 5. Small flute 6. Booty 7. Hooting bird 8. Chum 9. Made a difference 10. Sheep mamas 11. Stable female

WOULD YOU LIKE TO CHANGE YOUR LIFE?… DO IT TODAY!! You are unique, you are special, we all are, and I feel sure that we would all like to have the best of everything life has to offer because that makes us feel good, and feeling that way is comfortable and makes us feel safe. Do you know that you have it within your power today to make changes that will bring about the kind of difference you would like to have in your life. It is all up to you. It doesn’t matter how old you are. It is not down to circumstances or environment, but it is down to something that only you can control. It is down to your attitude of mind. Attitude is everything!! We can have the wrong attitude towards most things in life and then wonder why things go wrong for us in our relationships and in our daily contacts, without realising that it all goes wrong in our minds first. The way we are living at this moment in time is down to how we think about things and our mental attitude towards everything in life. We have the ability to make major changes by finding a positive way to view everything. Here are just two examples: MISTAKES: We all make them, but instead of giving the mistake the power to affect our lives by depressing us, turn your thoughts into something positive by recognising that life is a LEARNING CURVE, and use the experience to avoid the same situation in the future. We finally did this as children, why did we stop as adults? FAILURES: We all have them…..none of us has learnt to walk without falling over many times, but even back then as children we saw that the very act of failing was a reason to KEEP ON TRYING. Why should that be any different now that we are mature adults? The answer to that question is that we now CHOOSE to view things negatively, we lose self esteem, we become disillusioned, and quite frankly some of us give up the hope of ever seeing the silver lining, although it is there in everyone’s life if we have the right attitude….. Page 16

don’t refuse to see it. Instead of allowing your mind to bring you down, find a positive way to view everything and watch the changes that will occur in your life as new doors of opportunity open for you as you start to do this. Sometimes we may need help to see how we can achieve this, but once you understand that you have the ability to change your life by altering your attitude towards everything you will benefit by attracting positive people to you and things will begin to improve for you. Everyone has the ability to do this, just put it to the test. You are special enough to deserve only the best, so do it,….. and do it today! Till the next time! If you would like to ask Violet a Violet King. question, please send us an email and we can pass it on. Free Advertising While the world is locked down and businesses are struggling to survive, all advertising in the new Online Tickled Squirrel will be FREE To place your advertisement just get in touch Email: [email protected] WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram: +44 7964 262 288 Page 17

Tech Tips In my childhood, if I wanted to get in touch with one of my friends I had the choice of going round to their house, or going to the phone box to call them - assuming I had the necessary coins. Now, of course, we either call them on our mobile phone, or use one of the many messaging apps we have installed. One of the most popular messaging apps is WhatsApp whose massive user base is due mainly, I think, to the fact that it was the first such app. Sadly, it was bought by Facebook back in 2014. The two people who had developed the system went with it, but it didn’t take long before Facebook’s approach to WhatsApp and their complete lack of respect for privacy led Acton to leave before his contract was up, losing $850 million in stock. The other developer, Jan Koum also left soon after over Facebook’s efforts to weaken the encryption. But what is wrong with WhatsApp? Surely an app used by so many people around the world must be OK? Well, there are a number of issues. As you will know, Facebook has a terrible reputation for harvesting and selling on your data. But WhatsApp says it has end to end encryption so my data is safe, isn’t it? Sadly not necessarily. Do you back up your WhatsApp messages? Most people do. Did you know this is stored in a plain text format? So although your message as it is sent is (hopefully) secure, it can still be read if anyone can access your Google backup. And Facebook has reportedly been trying to weaken the encryption so they could access more of your data. Another issue which has long bugged me is that to use WhatsApp on a computer requires the phone to still be on and I have found in many cases that I have to have the WhatsApp app open on the phone which means the only real advantage I have is it is easier to type on my proper keyboard. Page 18

So are there alternatives? Very much so and here are three suggestions for you to try . . . Signal This was the original secure end to end communication service and it the encryption developed by them that WhatsApp (and others) use to encrypt their messages. Signal has continued to develop their own product beyond this though and it is now one of the most secure systems available. It has a Desktop app that does not require your phone to even be switched on, but sadly not an Android Tablet option. It is now the de facto app for communication by the EU government because of its security, Telegram This started out as a simple messaging app with the emphasis from day one on security. It also has apps for your computer and your tablet so you can simply use telegram on whichever device is best at the time. Session This messenger is a completely different approach to messaging in that you do not even need a mobile number for it to work and yet it works on mobiles, tablets and computers. The principle on which Session works is that it uses a public/secret key pair that allows you to give out your public key and anyone wishing to send you a message can do so, with complete security. Most messengers ask you to share your contact details with them and this can be seen as a security risk - it could also be considered a violation of your contact’s privacy. Session does not ask for your contacts so they need to be added manually. In order to send a message to someone, you need their public key. This can be obtained from the other person using an alternative messaging system such as Telegram or Signal, or by scanning their QR code. My QR Code is shown on the right if you would like to try Session out. Continued overleaf Page 19

Does Your Security Really matter? Very much so I believe, but sadly, it will take some time before most people wake up to the amount of their data they are giving away to the likes of Facebook, and start to make the move to more independent communication apps. If we look at the recent massive growth in Zoom users, even though the app is not secure, has been hacked many times, and is reportedly closely linked with China data gathering systems. One could argue “Does it even matter, I have nothing to hide”. I would recommend you read the book 1984 by George Orwell if this is how you think. The more data a company (or a government) has about you, the more they are able to control you, and make money from you. It is a sad fact, but a fact no less. So add Signal, Telegram and Session to your phone get your friends to do so as well, then see which you prefer. Remember you can add all of these as apps on your computer and they will work there completely independently as well. Give them a try, you have nothing to lose, and a better communication system to gain. Effective Website and Software Design +44 (0) 7964 262 288 [email protected] https://www.bydesignwebsites.com Page 20

Some More Puzzles For You Water Bowls You have a 5 litre and a 3 litre bowl and an unlimited supply of water. How could you use the bowls to measure out exactly 4 litres? Birthdays The day before yesterday I was 25, and next year I will reach 28. This is only true on one day of the year. When is my birthday? And what day of the year is it today? Symbols What mathematical symbol can be placed between 5 and 9 to get a number greater than 5 and smaller than 9? Fishing Two fathers and two sons went fishing. Each of them caught a fish and none of them caught the same fish. Between them they caught a total of three fish, how is this possible? Some Riddles 1. I’m tall when I am young, and short when I am old, what am I? 2. Where can you find cities, towns, shops and streets but no people? 3. What 5 letter word becomes shorter when you add two letters to it? 4. What is so fragile just saying its name will break it? 5. What has a bottom at its top? Some Picture Puzzles - What are these saying? MOONCEON MAN BOARD STA4NCE VA DERS NEAFRIENDED GREEN NV TRAVEL CCCCCC Page 21

Anyone for Sangria Cake? Ingredients 150ml red wine 225g self-raising flour 100g pears, peeled and chopped 100g ground almonds 100g peaches or nectarines, stoned and 1tsp baking powder chopped 3 medium eggs 100g strawberries, hulled and chopped 50ml orange liqueur (Cointreau?) 100g cherries, stoned and chopped 1tbsp granulated sugar 280g golden caster sugar 225g softened butter 1 orange - just the zest Method 1. Tip the peaches, pears, strawberries and cherries into a bowl and sprinkle over 50g of the sugar. Stir and then set aside to half an hour to macerate. 2. Heat your oven to 180c (160c Fan) or gas 4 and grease and line the sides and base of a 23cm round cake tin with baking paper. A loose bottomed tin is best. 3. Tip the remaining sugar, butter, orange zest and 100ml of the red wine into another large bowl and whisk until well blended. Then add the flour, almonds, baking powder and eggs and beat again until smooth. Add half the chopped fruit and 1 tbsp of the liquid from the bowl as well and mix gently with a spoon to combine them. Put the mixture into the prepared cake tin and smooth the top so it is level. 4. Bake in the middle of the over for 1 to 1¼ hours until risen and golden. Test with a skewer into the middle of the cake and ensure it comes out clean. If it looks like the top is browning too much during cooking then cover with some foil. 5. Once cooked, remove from the oven but leave it in the tin for ¼ hour before transferring it to a wire rack to cool. 6. Once the cake is cool enough to handle but still warm, heat the rest of the red wine and orange liqueur with the granulated sugar until melted then boil for a few minutes until it goes syrupy. 7. With the cake the right way up, pour the syrup over it and decorate with orange and/or lemon wedges and any extra small fruits you might have. 8. Enjoy Page 22

Chocolate Roll No Flour? No Problem Ingredients 300ml double cream or Elmlea Icing sugar to dust the finished cake 175g dark chocolate A little butter to grease the tin. 175g caster sugar 2 tbsp cocoa powder 6 large free range eggs ▪ Preheat your oven to 180C or 160C for a fan oven ▪ Melt the chocolate in a heat proof bowl. You can do this in a microwave if wished, using short ½ minute bursts until the chocolate is just melted. Stand the bowl to one side to cool to room temperature. ▪ Separate the eggs into two bowls and whisk the whites until they stand in stiff peaks - use an electric mixer on high speed. ▪ In the second bowl, add the sugar to the egg yolks and whisk these until very thick.. ▪ Pour the chocolate into the yolk mixture and fold it in to blend it. ▪ Add two large spoonfuls of the whisked egg whites and stir in gently. ▪ Fold in the rest of the egg whites using a metal spoon. Try to avoid knocking out the air that you whisked in before.. ▪ Using a fine sieve, sift the cocoa powder over the mixture and then fold it in. ▪ Using a little butter, grease and line the base and the sides of a swiss roll tin (around 23 x 33 cm in size) with non stick baking paper. ▪ Pour the mixture into the tin and agitate a little to allow it to find its own level,. ▪ Bake in the pre-heated oven for 20 to 25 minutes until risen. Remove from the oven and allow it to cool. It will drop a little as it cools, ▪ Dust a large piece of baking paper lightly with icing sugar and turn out the sponge onto it Carefully peel off the lining paper from the sponge. ▪ Whip the cream for the filling until it becomes stiff enough to keep its shape and then spread it over the sponge, leaving a 2cm edge on all sides. ▪ To make it easier to roll the sponge, make a shallow cut along one of the short sides, then starting from this side begin to roll the sponge. Keep the roll tight using the baking paper to help you. ▪ Carefully lift the finished roll onto a serving plate, use two large fish slices or a wide spatula to help. ▪ Finally, enjoy your masterpiece. Page 23

What Is Hypnotherapy? Sadly, many people associate hypnotherapy with the stage and TV shows where a hypnotist gets people to do daft and often demeaning things for the entertainment of the viewers. I say sadly because such a use of hypnosis is like using a Rolls Royce to deliver coal. Used as the powerful tool it really is, clinical hypnotherapy can make changes to your life in ways you have always dreamed of. Just a few examples are: • Remove Phobias - no more fear of spiders, heights, outdoors, flying or whatever phobia you may suffer from. • Improve confidence - pass that driving test, get that promotion. • Stop smoking • Lose weight These are just a few examples but there are so many other ways that clinical hypnotherapy can help you with they would fill a book on their own. What happens when you visit a hypnotherapist? Normally a hypnotherapist will ask you a number of questions to help them Page 24

understand where any problems you may have are coming from. You will then be asked to relax and the therapist will talk to you, helping you relax further and further until you reach a state in which your subconscious mind will allow your conscious mind to communicate with it. This is the basis of all hypnosis. Your subconscious mind has the job of keeping you safe, and it does this by learning what is good and what is bad. In order to protect you from yourself, it also does its best to prevent you from consciously changing the rules it develops. We call much of what your subconscious is doing ‘instinct’. You instinctively know not to put your hand in a fire, not to step in the road without looking and so on. But what if your subconscious gets it wrong? Having a phobia is an example of this. You know consciously that a small spider running across the window frame is not going to hurt you, for example, but if you have a phobia about spiders then the mere sight of one can bring about absolute panic. In this case, your subconscious was ‘taught’ at some point in your life that spiders were scary things. This could have been a parent or someone you looked up to showing their own fear of a spider when you were small. If this is repeated often enough, your subconscious can ‘learn’ that spiders are frightening and so you develop a phobia. No matter how much you ‘know’ the spider isn’t dangerous, your subconscious insists that it is and refuses to change its mind. This is where hypnotherapy helps by allowing your conscious mind to communicate with your subconscious mind and tell it to stop warning you about spiders. Your subconscious is a fast learner, and once it has been told in this way, it will change its rules and the phobia passes away. People I have helped in the past often tell me later that they felt so strange when they reached out to help a spider out of the kitchen - part of their mind was saying “I should be scared” but the fear had completely gone. Another area where hypnotherapy can be used is in past life regression. This is a topic that is full of controversy, but it is a technique I have made use of many times. Whether it is past lives being recalled, or something else, everyone who I have helped “travel” back to their past lives has described the experience as amazingly peaceful and has found their confidence and self worth greatly increased. If this is something you are interested in, I would recommend you read Brian Weiss, Many Lives, Many Masters. He is an American psychiatrist who discovered past life regression when he was working in a hospital and treating a young girl whose problem had baffled many doctors before. He is a good example of a total sceptic who was converted by the evidence of his own experience. Is hypnotherapy dangerous? No. Can you be made to do something you don’t want to do? No, everything the therapist says passes through your conscious mind which would prevent you doing anything you would not normally do. If you would like to learn more about what this wonderful therapy can do, please email me at [email protected] Page 25

Solutions TWO ROPES Because they both burn inconsistently, you can’t just light one end of a rope and wait until it’s 75 percent of the way through. But, this is what you can do: Light the first rope at both ends, and light the other rope at one end, all at the same time. The first rope will take 30 minutes to burn (even if one side burns faster than the other, it still takes 30 minutes). The moment the first rope goes out, light the other end of the second rope. Because the time elapsed of the 53 second rope burning was 30 minutes, the remaining rope will also take 30 minutes; lighting it from both ends will cut that in half to 15 2 817 minutes, giving you 45 minutes all together. SOCKS 40 socks. If he takes out 38 socks (adding the 64 two biggest amounts, 21 and 17), although it is very unlikely, it is possible they could all be blue and red. To make 100 percent certain that he also has a pair of black socks he must take out a further two socks. Page 26

Water Bowls 1. Fill the 5 litre bowl with water 2. Pour as much as you can from the 5 litre bowl into the three litre bowl, leaving two litres in the 5 litre bowl. 3. Empty the 3 litre bowl. 4. Pour the 2 litres left in the 5 litre bowl into the 3 litre bowl. 5. Refill the 5 litre bowl with water. 6. Pour water from the 5 litre bowl into the 3 litre bowl (1 litre will fill it). 7. There will be 4 litres left in the 5 litre bowl. Birthdays My birthday is December 31st and today is the 1st January. So the day before yesterday was before my last birthday and I was still 25. Next year will be after my next birthday so I will reach 28 by the end of the year. Symbols The symbol is a decimal point to give the number 5.9 Fishing If there were only three fish caught and each fisherman caught a fish, then there were only three fishermen. So they must be a Father, his son, and his grandson, so making two fathers and two sons. Riddles Picture puzzles 1. A candle Once in a blue moon 2. On a map For instance 3. The word is SHORT A friend in need 4. Silence Travel overseas 5. Your legs Man overboard Space invaders Green with envy Quiz Answers 1. Sofia Loren 10. Moby Dick 19. Oligarchy 2. Clifton 11. Pomona 20. Red 3. Dave 12. Victor 21. Giant 4. Venezuela 13. John Lennon 22. Mount Elbrus 5. South Africa 14. Dire Straits 23. Venezuela 6. Tunis 15. ABBA with SOS 24. William I 7. Liberia 16. Sting 25. Moscow 8. Royal Flying Corps 17. David Lloyd George 9. Spencer Perceval 18. Anna Soubry Page 27

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