It's that time of year again

For the 23rd time in a row, it's Lent Time. Starting from midnight tonight, finishing on Easter Sunday, 20th April, forty-six days distant. I shall limit my food and drink intake, toughen my body and feed my mind with philosophy. The goal is to achieve that annual cleansing, strengthening of will and re-focusing on the Higher Purpose.

This year, I will be abstaining totally from alcohol, meat, sugar (other than that found naturally in fruit and vegetables) - and then the easy stuff that I've either stopped eating anyway, or have massively cut down on. Cakes and biscuits, salt snacks, confectionery. The will to stop doing something is the easy bit. The will to do something outside of the routine is harder.

Physical exercise - an average of 10,000 steps a day. I have a pedometer, but a smartphone app like NoomWalk does the job just as well. And sit-ups... last Easter, I ended Lent on 50 sit-ups twice daily. Rubbish... Starting soon after New Year, I've built up my sit-ups to 100 twice daily - and that's before Lent's even begun. I'll continue that 100 twice a day as a bare minimum. Since New Year, I've trimmed a whole inch (nearly 3cm in fact), so my girth around my fattest part is now 39 inches, down from over 40 inches (99.2cm from 102.2cm). A long way to go to my target, 36 inches.

And reading matter... This Lent I shall be reading Wiesław Myśliwski's Traktat o łuskaniu fasoli ('Treatise on Shelling Beans'), for some Polish metaphysical folk philosophy.

"How many issues and happenings are the work of chance, and how many of our conscious actions? A treatise on what is important, more important and most important."

I know that fellow blogger Paddisław is joining me this Lent, along with Paweł and Martin - do join in if you are a regular reader. Fasting in contemplation is good for body and spirit.

To celebrate the end of the Carnival, I drank a bottle of Lyme Bay Jack Ratt Vintage Dry cider, which I washed down with a bottle of Lyme Bay Sparkling cider. The former was the better of the two, a cider that captured the essence of a drizzly day on an English beach, a quiet, contemplative cider. still and dry.

I'll raise a glass of New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc to those who stuck it out with me at Easter time!

This time last year:
Future Trends in the Economy

This time two years ago:
Communist Poland's secret rail disasters

This time three years ago:
The Cripple and the Storyteller: a short story

This time four years ago:
Dogs begin to bark, hounds begin to howl

This time six years ago:
Another light dusting