Keep That Holiday Fitness

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 554, 5 January 1929, Page 18

Keep That Holiday Fitness

rl Doctor’s Advice

That the tonic effect of a well-spent holiday should gradually wear itself out is, unfortunately, in the nature of things. Too often, however, this effect expends itself not gradually, but rapidly, and this very frequently from causes which need not. and should not, be operative. It is, indeed, not too much to say that the whole of the profit side of the physiological account is frequently dissipated in 4S hours. This happens to people who tarry so unduly iu the mountain or valley of their enjoyment that they are obliged to hurry home by forced marches, and spend sleepless nights in unventilated, microbe-laden trains, to arrive home in a state of physical exhaustion so profound as utterly to unfit them for the daily round, which is hilled to begin ou the morrow. Watch Your Diet

The only sensible way of finishing a real holiday is to come home by easy stages, leaving a full day, or even two, in which to get up steam for the coming common task. To drain the cup of your holiday to the dregs is to deprive it of half its virtue.

Then there is the question of food, i During a holiday spent in the open | air, with plenty of exercise and plea- • sant companionship, the gods give i good appetite, and one is tempted, both in quantity and quality, to alter one’s usual regime. This is altogether as it should be. There is no more reason for monotony in diet than there is for dullness in any other direction. Change in environment not only justifies, but demands, a change in nourishment. But the foods which we eat on holidays are pleasing to the palate, and as they have seemed to suit us we are all too apt. to continue them when holiday conditions give place to our ordinary sedentary routine. Keep your holiday food for holiday times, and when you return home re vert to the Spartan simplicity which alone befits a sedentary life. Back to Normal The object of a holiday is change; the object of change is recuperation.

Send Flowers Messengers Without Words

“When in doubt, send flowers’’ is a very good maxim. Flowers bear our messages more gracefully than the most effusive notes, they are gifts which cannot fail to please the most critical, the most well-provided. Flowers stand for congratulations, for sympathy, for kindly remembrance. It is with flowers we express appreciation, and offer encouragement. Send these charming offerings to the friend who makes her debut on the concert platform, the actress whom you admire so much, the child dancer who had had her little success at a matinee. How much heart-burning is there “behind the scenes’’ if one lucky one has received more floral trophies than another. For a Birthday

On the occasion of a birthday, a silver or a golden wedding, a lovely sheaf or a basket of flowers is an appropriate form of good wishes. For a silver wedding they are tied with silver ribbon, and gold for a golden wedding. A visiting card, with a few wordsof congratulation or greeting, is all that need accompany such gifts. An invalid should be the recipient of many floral presents. Those who call to make anxious inquiries, and the friends who are permitted to visit the convalescent, ought to be the bearers of flowers. In the former instance, “With kind inquiries” should bo written on the visiting card attached.

ft is a happy thought that the fragrance aud beauty of floral wreaths should show our sorrow at the loss of a departed friend or relative; although in these days some people prefer “No flowers, by request.” Funeral flowers should be ordered to reach the house from which the cortege sets out on the morning of the funeral. Conspicuously attached to them is a black-edged mourning card with the name of the sender.

A Simple Arrangement

It is a mistake for anyone but an experienced florist or gardener to attempt to wire and arrange flowers with any elaboration for a wreath or bouquet. Better'lay them in a full sheaf, choosing those with the longest possible stems, and let them fall naturally against a background of fern leaves, asparagus fern, or other foliage. Use wide, rather stiff ribbon if they are to be tied. Bind it about the stalks, tie a broad bow, and leave two hanging ends with the corners cut on the cross. A visiting card can be pinned to the ribbon. Wipe the stems quite dry, fold the sheaf in a large sheet of new tissue paper which completely envelops it, and pin at the corners to avoid crushing. Flowers should arrive looking as though they, had just been gathered with the dew of the morning upon them.

When ice is not procurable, to cool the head of a feverish patient cut a strip of cucumber, peel rather thickly and lay the inner r;*rt on the forehead. it has a deliciously cooling effect.

If when putting hot fat to set for dripping you add to it a Lablespoon of boiling water, all lumps will sink to the bottom, leaving the dripping clear*, and white.

We recuperate when we relax and afford rest to those nerve-cells which we employ in our workaday lives, while exercising those which usually lie idle.

It is impossible for anyone who toils for his daily bread to be physiologically a perfect sphere. He shows bumps in some parts, with correspond ing dents in others, and the object of recuperation Is to restore tlie curves of the constitutional outline to something approaching the original normal. “Are you going to take a holiday this year, or does your spouse accompany you?” is a gibe whose sting resides in its essential verity. Real recuperation is possible only in an atmosphere of complete change.

When making a lettuce salad mix with it a few leaves of finely-chopped mint; the flavour is delightful.