Which supplements should you really take? The experts\u2019 guide<\/a><\/p>\nLast week we heard the claim from scientists that just five minutes of daily vigorous exercise can significantly cut the risk of premature death, but how many people will do themselves damage while taking that vigorous exercise? <\/p>\n
Talking about how running can prolong life makes no sense if you don\u2019t also factor in how it increases the likelihood of injury. And I can tell you that the nine months I spent in tree, warrior and downward yoga poses were not worth the mid-summer I wasted in the corpse pose.<\/p>\n
Parking mad<\/p>\n
I try to make my own mind up about things, to not buy into popular narratives mindlessly, but, every year, the task of renewing my parking permit with the council confirms the worst about local government waste. It shouldn\u2019t really be a task at all: government agencies should, between them, be able to work out that I\u2019m still living in the same place, drive the same car and want to carry on parking in the same zone. Instead, every 12 months, I get an email reminding me that I need to renew my parking permit.<\/p>\n
I log in to the shoddy website and get asked to provide some identification (which hasn\u2019t changed in years); it fails to recognise it or take the alternative of a council tax bill (which I pay through the same website); and then I have to photocopy the documents and post them \u2014 to a city 160 miles away. Someone there is presumably paid to receive the letter, open it, and write back to me to say my permit has been extended for another year. It\u2019s good to know where some of my London council tax is going: supporting a pointless job in Sheffield.<\/p>\n
Ticked off<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve always wanted to visit Berlin and, last week, I found myself there for work. The problem was, I only had a morning to myself and consulting friends on what to do with the limited time was presented with endless options. The suggestions included the Neues Museum (\u201cstunning ancient art \u2014 Nefertiti! \u2014 in David Chipperfield\u2019s best building!\u201d); the Caspar David Friedrich paintings at the Alte Nationalgalerie; a boat tour of the city; the Stasi Museum; a three-hour guided tour; the Brandenburg Gate; a tour of the Olympic stadium and the Checkpoint Charlie museum.<\/p>\n
Paralysed by choice, I found a nice caf\u00e9 to consider and research the options. Before I knew it, I had consumed two coffees and a large breakfast, and spent several hours watching the world go by. And you know what, it was great. In a world where we are encouraged to tick off sites and experiences from an interminable list, just sitting around in a new place felt like a luxury. Five stars.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Berlin Philharmonic\/Petrenko review \u2014 turbocharged but where\u2019s the soul?<\/a><\/p>\nLess is more<\/p>\n
Social media post of the month \u2014 @sofarrsogud.bsky.social on Bluesky: All I\u2019m saying is they could\u2019ve spelled \u201cefficient\u201d with fewer letters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The good news is that I\u2019m finally in tune with the zeitgeist. The bad news is that it\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":122044,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[6647,102,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-122043","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fitness","8":"tag-fitness","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122043"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122043\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/122044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}