January 7, 2015

*Absolute lowest limit of exercise: Time constraints shouldn’t keep anyone from working out. A Dec14 New York Times article recommends that just a regular one-minute burst of high-intensity interval exercise embedded within a 10-minute workout can improve fitness, blood pressure and blood-sugar control. This minimum but healthy regimen is perfect for busy, sedentary, overweight people, the equivalent of pedaling as hard as you can on a stationary bike for 10 minutes interspersed with three 20-second “all-out” intervals followed each time by 2 minutes of slow, easy pedaling for a grand total of 10 minutes of total exercise time, with one minute of that being the intense interval training. A minimum of 3 of these 10-minute sessions is required per week for a total of 30 minutes per week. The one-minute bursts don’t necessarily have to be cycling. Sprinting up stairs or even running very hard in place is just as good. Tip: It’s important to warm up for 2 minutes and cool down for 3 minutes.

*Simplify searches for cheap flights: Best free mobile apps to book flights with ease: Skyscanner’s interface is so-well designed that you constantly know what you’re doing and where you are in the app. Kayak’s convenient straightforward app has an option to search for flights with 1-2 days on either side of your target date. Orbitz’s popular app has many more twirling clock icons loading vital information than its competitors. Triplit, acting as a trip database, logs an entire itinerary in a single, easy-to-use interface, including flights, hotel reservations, addresses, maps and events you’re planning to attend. A similar data base app is TripCase that has a great feature indicating the weather conditions for your approaching trip. Two tips: To save money on airfare, shop online only from 8 p.m. Monday evenings to around 8 p.m. Thursday evenings; best time of all is around 3 p.m. on Tuesdays. Also flight prices can change in an instant, so it’s wise comparing the flight data shows on an app with what the cost actually is on the airline’s own website to guarantee that you’re getting the best deal.

*Bring back or request from your home country: Put “good quality” in front of each of the following items: Tampax; children’s books; the Sunday edition of the New York Times; durable safe toys; sunglasses; extra sharp cheese; Parmesan; chocolate; specialty teas; maple syrup; reasonably priced red wine; one bottle cooking sherry/cognac; cotton underwear; earplugs; towels; Teva water shoes; hiking shoes; Lugol’s Solution (iodine); Lodoral (iodine), Tums, Diamtomaceous Earth (flea control); newer prescription medications; Afrin nasal spray; deep-woods insect repellent with 95% DEET; stainless steel/non-toxic cookware; Epsom salts; shampoos and conditioners; perfume; probiotics and supplements like Vitamins B, C and E; any kind of aspirin PM (note the PM part); concentrated colloidal silver; homeopathic meds; anti-itch gel; oregano oil; portable DVD player; GoPro camera; waterproof camera; noise-cancelling headset; sugar free toothpaste; Branston mixed pickles; Vegemite and Marmite (considered gels-don’t put in carry-on!). Note: In the USA, shop at Costco, which has the best deals.

*Netiquette: Be thoughtful and save costs, time and irritation for your recipient who is drowning in junk and other unnecessary digital communication. It’s understandable not using time-consuming voice mail, but when emailing there’s no need to write “Hello,” “Hi,” “Dear” or sign off with “Sincerely;” nor do you need to acknowledge receiving an email. Only older people appreciate a thank-you message; most others don’t want replies clogging up their inboxes. Use www.getsidekick.com to track when your email has been opened. It’s rude to send people copies of emails if they don’t really need to know. Recipients of carbon copies don’t need to respond. Avoid typing in all caps in emails. Text messaging or communicating through Twitter, in which you don’t need to greet or declare who you are, are less formal, more efficient and faster than emailing. It’s not polite to ask a recipient for information – a store’s hours, weather conditions, the events and schedule of a festival, directions to a restaurant, a business phone number, where to find a newspaper article, etc. – that wastes their time and that you can easily find yourself on the Internet. The sender of such irksome questions is already using the tool that has the answer to what they want to know, so just send them the link lmgtfy.com (“Let Me Google That For You”). In other words, look it up yourself.

*Minitips: Vegetarians beware: many non-fat and low-fat yogurts contain gelatin made from animal tendons, ligaments and bones. In rural Java 3 km west of Bali master carpenters cost Rp75,000 per day, master stonemasons Rp65,000 per day and complete vegetarian meals (vegies, tahu, tempe, beans, etc.) wrapped in leaves cost only Rp1000. Use a tinted primer if you’re painting with dark colours. Always travel in the off-season when the prices for airfares, hotels, restaurants and car rentals are substantially lower than traveling during peak time; leaving for Java one week before the start of Idul Fitri can makes a huge difference in price and availability of transport. Hubud of Ubud host around 30 free events per month for members, from professional talks to peer-to-peer knowledge exchanges to networking and social gatherings. Occupational fraud schemes are most commonly committed by the accounting department or upper management; executive frauds being particularly costly. Sia-sia hemat tapi hutang tumbuh is the Indonesian equivalent for “penny wise, pound-foolish.” A quick way to google a map is just add the word map to the end of your query, like Gilimanuk map. The biggest energy drain using air conditioners are leaky ducts. It’s not wise to look after peoples’ pets long term; they’ll eventually dump them on you and you’ll feel guilty if you give them away. Don’t wash or dry a small number of items as they don’t get as clean as they would in a full load; also a dryer’s moisture sensors may not work. Tip for women: men who initially pay for everything may be less generous than they appear. Because of the cancer causing toxins are released, never drink from an Aqua bottle that has been exposed too long to sunlight. If you’re diagnosed with a serious medical condition, always get a 2nd and 3rd professional opinion. You’ll spend less on food if you shop with a list. When buying something, think about whether you’ll still have it in 4 years. The British Medical Journal estimates that smoking one cigarette takes 11 minutes off the life of an average person. Money is the most egalitarian force in society, conferring power on whoever holds it.

*When should old medicines be thrown away? Drug expiration dates are 1-5 years, so to be safe once a drug is a year or so past its expiration date, it needs to go. Except for tetracycline and other antibiotics, which can become toxic and cause kidney problems after their expiration date, expired drugs don’t cause harm, but they definitely become less potent over time. The first step is to check the dates on all bottles and containers in your medicine cabinet and around your house at least once every six months. Throw away meds if you can’t read the label or dosage or if meds have a strange colour, exude a weird odour or if the contents have separated. If you dispose of old drugs yourself, don’t flush them down the toilet or sink drain, as the chemicals will find their way into waterways and the environment. To properly dispose of out-of-date drugs, mix the pills, tablets, liquids and capsules with cat litter, sawdust or coffee grounds, then put the mixture in a sealed plastic bag or wrap with newspaper and toss in the trash. Note: Some meds become ineffective before their expiration date if not stored properly in a dry place with the caps always tightly closed. Aspirin, for example, loses its effectiveness when the pills come into contact with water, so don’t store aspirin in the steamy bathroom.

*Neglected vegetable: Don’t judge a vegetable by its humble origins growing wild in swamps. The tropical kangkung, a VERY simple and affordable plant to grow in moist soil, requires very little care and is rich in iron and other minerals. Grown commercially, the rumours about the vegetable being grown under unclean conditions are untrue. Called ‘Water Spinach” or “Chinese Spinach,’ it’s an important staple in many Asian cultures, especially for the poor. Two kinds: semi-aquatic kangkung air, scientific name Ipomoea aquatica) and ‘Land Kangkung’ (kangkung darat or Ipomoea Reptans). The latter flourishes naturally in Bali, its tender stem shoots and leaves used in a simple stir-fry, a delicious soup, eaten raw in salads or as a green vegetable supplement for almost any meal. Just go out in your garden and pick it fresh before each meal. You can begin harvesting it within two months from when the seeds are planted. It can be harvested continually through the wet and dry seasons, but grows better in the rainy season. If given enough water, kangkung can be easily grown in containers placed in a bright sunny location. The plant readily roots from cuttings, so give cuttings or seeds away to those who are interested in planting the vegetable in their garden. Sold in Bali for Rp2000 per bunch (ikat kangkung); in Java, Rp500 per bunch. Note: kangkung and sawi (spinach mustard) will keep in the refrigerator, but bayam (another spinach variety; amaranth) will not.?

*Health warning! It’s definitely not safe to eat dog meat served as soup or saté with rice in Warung RWs (pronounced ‘airway’). Other names for these dog meat stalls are rintek wuuk, rica-rica warung, guk-guk and “B1.” Consuming dog meat is usually associated with the Minahasa, a Christian group of northern Sulawesi, and Bataks of northern Sumatra, who consider dog meat to be a festive dish reserved for weddings and Christmas. Hidden RW stalls, which cater to homesick immigrants of these ethnic groups, can be found in the back lanes of Denpasar where the flesh is discreetly served to these homesick ethnic migrants. There are 50 or so of these types of specialized eateries dotted around Bali. If dog meat is available, they hang out a “Buka” sign; if not, they hang a “Tutup” sign. Warung RW are technically illegal but still operate with impunity. Two reasons why these warung should be banned. Firstly, much of the dog meat sold comes from poisoned dogs. Even if the stomach and intestines are removed immediately after death, there will still be some poison in the meat, which can be very dangerous to your health. Secondly, the dog is a companion and guard animal, not a food animal. Many of the dogs killed are stolen or poisoned family pets, which causes the families great sadness. Sometimes the dogs are beaten to death in a horrible manner before they are eaten.

Please send your budget ideas, bargain deals and moneysaving tips to pakbill2003@yahoo.com.
Copyright  2015 Bill Dalton
You can read all past articles of The Frugal Balinist at? www.BaliAdvertiser.biz