Monday 27 June 2016

Switzerland sadly leaves Euro 2016

The friendly footy crowd at Paddy's on Saturday afternoon
It was so sad to see Switzerland get beaten by Poland in the first Euro 'last 16 clash' on Saturday.

They went out in a heartbreaking 5-4 penalty shootout, especially miserable for the fans following the spectacular scissor kick of Sheridan Shaqiri in the 82nd minute. Wow, what a strike - for me, the best goal of the tournament so far. 

We were enjoying the game at Paddy O'Brien's Irish Pub in Winterthur and the whole place erupted, it was fantastic. And then the TV screen showed the square behind Manor in Winterthur, just 500m down the road, jumping up and down with delight. It was a great moment.

I am going to miss cheering the Swiss team on. It's just not the same supporting England in public here. Although I am looking forward to seeing the England game from the comfort of my on home later on tonight. Come on England!!

Friday 17 June 2016

There may be hope for us insomniacs

I’ve suffered from pretty chronic insomnia over the past few years and it’s got me down, real down. The only thing that keeps me going (apart from my gorgeous family) is the fact that I’m not alone. Apparently a whopping 25% of us suffer from sleep disorder on a regular basis.

With my particular ‘disorder’ I have no problem getting to sleep but I often wake up at either 2am or 4am (on a good night) and then I am completely unable to get back to sleep. When the alarm goes off I drag myself out of bed and the morning routine of getting my two young daughters ready for school is pure torture. However, it constantly amazes me that by mid-morning I am feeling so much better and can manage the day adequately (although I’m sure it would be a different story if I had a full day at work) Evenings are a write off though – I am desperate to crawl into bed soon after saying goodnight to my daughters (c 8.15pm) I worry that my body will one day conk out from a build-up of sleep exhaustion and also stress about the affect it will have on my mental health in the long run.

However, there seems to be reassuring news on the horizon. Research now suggests that sleeping for a continuous eight hours is a recent invention and our body clocks are much better suited to two shorter bursts of sleep each day.

In an article published in the Conversation, Dr Melinda Jackson, a psychologist who specialises in sleep disorders at RMIT University, and Siobhan Banks, sleep researcher at the University of South Australia suggest that so-called segmented, or bi-modal sleeping actually used to be the norm.

“Interestingly, the appearance of sleep maintenance insomnia in the literature in the late 19th century coincides with the period where accounts of split sleep start to disappear,” they explain. So perhaps striving for eight hours could go some way to explain why 25% of us suffer from some sort of sleep disorder.

This isn’t the first time a two sleeps a day regime has been suggested as an alternative, potentially more beneficial sleeping pattern. In the early 1990s, psychiatrist Thomas Wehr conducted a month-long experiment to test the theory, where a group of people were left in darkness for 14 hours each day. By week four, a distinct new two-phase sleep pattern had emerged with the participants sleeping for four hours, waking for one to three hours and then falling into a second four-hour sleep. Wehr concluded that people were much better suited to a split sleep pattern.

Experts argue the research suggests segmented sleeping suits our body clocks better. And it could even make the mid-afternoon flop a thing of the past because ‘it provides two periods of increased activity, creativity and alertness across the day, rather than having a long wake period where sleepiness builds up across the day and productivity wanes.’

So next time you can get away with a sneaky little afternoon nap, go ahead, it's good for you – the scientists agree!

Tuesday 7 June 2016

Deutsch Welle - a great way to learn German

I’m in love with Harry on a fantastic new website I’ve found called Deutsch Welle. Well, I’m not in love with the man himself because he is arrogant, bad tempered, rude and ignorant. But he is teaching me German. Well, his story, Gefangen in der Zeit is teaching me German. And all the people he meets as he has a multitude of accidents, gets arrested and ends up in a psychiatric hospital!

This is the second great story I have been following on Deutsch Welle – the first was equally entertaining, called Mission Berlin about an English speaking girl who learns German on her way to save Germany’s history from the Time Terrorists.

As well as all these fab stories you can also follow general big news stories at your German level, with a translation in English and a host of many other resources, all made possible with the support of the European Union. As far as I understand there are also similar websites to teach other languages which I will explore when I have finally mastered German.

Seek out and enjoy!

http://www.dw.com

Learn German with Harry here.

Wednesday 1 June 2016

Switzerland breaks records as Gotthard tunnel opens

The world's longest and deepest rail tunnel has officially opened in Switzerland with a flamboyant ceremony.

The 57km (35-mile) Gotthard tunnel, which took almost 20 years of construction work, will provide a high-speed rail link under the Swiss Alps between northern and southern Europe.

Goods currently carried on the route by a million lorries a year will go by train instead and Switzerland has said it will revolutionise European freight transport.

View today's amazing opening ceremony on the Beeb here.

A clip of the tunnel as it was created from January:

The tunnel has overtaken Japan's 53.9km Seikan rail tunnel as the longest in the world and pushed the 50.5km Channel Tunnel linking the UK and France into third place.