Notes

12 WORK MATTERS
Debbie Mason, 24, is a stewardess with Virgin Atlantic. She told Sue Wheeler about her life on Richard Branson's airline and what it takes to get on in this high flying job.
Some time ago, I was working in an office when I saw a picture of Richard Branson and read about him starting a new airline, Virgin. I sent him a letter saying I was interested in working for him. After a successful interview, I began their four-week training course. The personnel officers say it's usually obvious at the start whether somebody has the right qualities or not. Personality is very important. You have to be flexible, attractive, and able to smile when duty calls -even if you don't feel like it. Obviously you don't need airline experience, but nursing, or other work with people, is useful.
The training course is really common sense Although the practical side includes things like life-boat sessions in a swimming pool, fire fighting in a smoke-filled room and learning how to deliver a baby. In reality, though, you end up dealing mainly with travel sickness. The point is you have to be prepared for Everything.
I work on flights from Gatwick to New York or Miami. Only 10% of my work involves serving people. The emphasis is on safety and that's what we're here for. Before every flight there's a briefing where the crew are asked questions on first-aid and safety.
Those who claim that working in such a job makes you look much older than you really are have a point. I also think this job ages you. On flights to New York I'm on board from 2:15 in the afternoon Until nearly midnight our time. I have to drink eight pints of water per flight to prevent my body from dehydrating, but it is nearly impossible to consume that much. So my skin is probably suffering. But I think these are minor disadvantages. When we get to New York it's only 6:55 pm American time and we usually go out and have a party!
I fly about four or five times in 28 days, which means I work hard for two or three days, then take time off. I get at least eight days off every month, so it doesn't feel like most other fulltime jobs. I get four weeks holiday a year, three of which have to be in the winter. But as one of the advantages of this job is being able to fly with any airline for 10% of the normal cost, I can afford to go to far away places in search of winter sun.
It's a sociable job on board and off. There are only 220 crew members in total so there is a close relationship among us. This means things are very friendly and I think it's obvious to the passengers that we're having a good time, which helps them relax. When people leave Virgin to work for other airlines they often miss the intimacy of a small company and come back. But Although the social life with Virgin is fabulous, outside ft is non-existent. Friends and family know my time off is precious, but even at home I'm sometimes on standby. The job puts a strain on any romance. Happily, my boyfriend works for Virgin too, and we choose to work a 'married roster' which means we fly together all the timee It's either this or taking the chance of bumping into each other once in a while.



13 LAYING INSOMNIA TO REST

When the task at hand is to get a good night's sleep, trying hard is not the way to succeed. Twisting and turning in search of a comfortable position in bed makes your body do the opposite of what it is supposed to do at night. Instead of slowing down, your heartbeat races. Instead of relaxing, your muscles twitch. You watch the clock and wonder what you're doing wrong.
Ten million people in the United States alone are seeking medical help for chronic insomnia - difficulty in falling asleep or staying asleep. For years it has been called a symptom of a number of psychological problems, such as depression, that somehow alter the body's sleep pattern. Sleep specialists agree that psychological problems are a cause of insomnia, but also say bad habits can have the same effect. These include too little daytime activity and, ironically, its opposite, too much exercise.
"Insomniacs usually begin losing sleep over some problem, such as a serious illness in the family," says psychiatrist Robert Watson. "But unlike other people," he adds, "they continue to have trouble sleeping - for months, even years." According to Joyce and Kales, two psychiatrists at Penn State University in Pennsylvania, insomniacs present a consistent personality profile. They take things hard, feel they haven't lived "the right kind of life," and are nervous and tense.
Psychiatrists say insomniacs share another trait. Thomas Coates of the University of California says, "another characteristic common to insomniacs is that they spend an excessive amount of time thinking about sleep." Contrary to the image of bad sleepers as workaholics, Coates 's study indicates that insomniacs spend more time relaxing than others do. He thinks their relative inactivity during the day may alter the body's "clock." Instead of signalling the brain to slow down at night, the clock calls for more activity.
Sleeping late on weekends can also disrupt your body's clock. This is a bad habit Robert Watson makes patients change at the Sleep Disorders Centre. He tells them to rise at the same time each day, even after a night of poor sleep. "After a while," he says, "sleep improves."
Even though it tires you out, exercise won't guarantee a sound sleep. If it is too strenuous1 especially just before bedtime, it can drive your pulse too high, causing a restless night. Joyce and Kales use moderate afternoon exercise, along with methods such as psychotherapy to treat severe insomniacs.
What is the best thing to do on occasional sleepless nights? Forget sleeping pills. They can actually cause insomnia after three days, by altering the brain's chemistry. Watson recommends drinking milk or eating cheese or tuna, because they are rich in natural sleep-producing aids.
"There's something to the old-fashioned remedy of drinking warm milk before bedtime," Watson says. Warming it won't make any difference, but it will help you relax


14 ACUPUNCTURE

Acupuncture, the method of treating diseases by using needles, is based on the Chinese model of health and disease. In this model, there are three main systems in the body. The first two of these are the circulatory and nervous systems as in the western view but, additionally, there is a sort of energy movement.
The Chinese believe that all forms of life are controlled by two basic movements of energy. One is outward moving and the other is inward moving. When an outward movement reaches its limit, it changes direction and starts to move inwards. Similarly, when an inward movement reaches its limit, it changes direction and starts to move outwards. The operation is like a pump, and this constant pumping movement may be seen in almost every form of life - the human heart, for example.
Understanding this idea of energy movement is important when looking at the theory behind Chinese Acupuncture. In this theory, there is a life force which consists of inward and outward moving energy in each person. Inward moving energy tends to increase activity and the other produces calm. The health of the body depends on the balance between the two. If this balance is disturbed, diseases occur.
The Chinese also discovered that this movement takes place around the body along 26 channels called meridians. Each one of these is connected to a different part of the body and has a different funefion. Diseases also occur when a meridian is blocked. To help unblock energy channels, doctors place needles in different parts of the body, but to cure the disease the needles have to be placed in the right place and have the right depth.
The earliest acupuncture needles were made of stone. These would have been used when the first books were written about acupuncture 4,500 years ago. The Chinese later used needles made of bone and then of different metals such as iron and silver. Today, they are made of steel.
The Chinese first believed that the needle itself cured the disease. However, this was before it was discovered that there are certain points along the meridians which are connected to various parts of the body, such as the stomach and the heart.
There are over 800 different needle points in the body. The doctor examines the patient and decides which part of his or her body are over-active or under-active; in other words, the doctor finds out where
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there is too much or too little energy. When the acupuncture points have been found, needles are placed in the skin at various depths. They are then left there for different periods of time, which might be as short as a few seconds.
A major recent development has been the use of acupuncture in medical operations. In such cases, it is used Instead of anaesthetics, in order to take away the pain felt by the patient. In China today, this use of acupuncture is extremely common in both major and minor operations, even operations on the heart.
In the East there are nearly three million doctors who regularly use acupuncture. It is taught in several Russian universities. And even in Europe and America there are thousands of doctors who have now learnt how to use acupuncture. The West, however, uses only one part of the technique intensively; that is, the use of needles to relieve pain during operations.


15 MAISIE'S AMAZING MENAGERIE

An ambulance and the RSPCA were both called to the home of Maisie MacDonald yesterday in the centre of Glasgow. A doctor visiting the house in answer to an emergency call discovered the most bizarre collection of animals who share the house with Maisie. While the ambulance was speeding to the loc~il hospital with 83-year-old Maisie, a team of RSPCA vets and Edinburgh zoo-keepers were trying to solve the problem of who would look after Maisie's pets during her stay in hospital.
John Mclnnes, the Head Keeper at Edinburgh Zoo, had this to say: 'I have never seen so many different kinds of animals in anybody's home. I am staggered that anyone could look after so many creatures, especially at the age of 83! Maisie has done a wonderful job and none of the animals has been neglected in any way.’
Alan Marsh, 32, an assistant keeper, said, 'She has close to two dozen cats in there and four fairly big dogs, but they're not interested in fighting. It's unusual to find such placid animals as these. They live mainly on the ground floor. The rest of the house is huge. There seems to be something different in every room.'
RSPCA Inspector, Bill Miles, told our reporter, "We are making every effort to keep Maisie's pets alive and well Until she is released from hospital. I think we will have to consider the possibility of fostering many of them with families around Glasgow! The others can be taken to the zoo."
So what exactly did they find in Maisiets house? There were cages of birds of all shapes and colour going up the three flights of stairs. A goat and several families of rabbits shared a room on the first floor. The bathroom had been taken over by a pair of mallard ducks and a Canada goose, a giant fish tank in another bedroom housed a collection of terrapins and salamanders. Yet another fish tank held a pair of baby alligators. But the top floor was the most surprising of all. A fully grown tiger was living in the attic! However, the zoo-keepers reported that it was as tame as a kitten and they had no trouble persuading it to get into the van to go to the ZOO.
From her hospital bed Maisie, suffering from a broken hip, said, 'tMy animals are my whole life. I was cleaning out Rajah the tiger's room this morning when he got too playful and knocked me down. I managed to drag myself out and called one of the dogs. I often send him to the post office with a note to get things for me, so this time I sent him with a note asking for help. Everyone has been so kind, but I'm terribly worried about my pets."


16 MARGARET MEE

Artist, adventurer, explorer, botanist and rain forest conservationist are some ways of describing Margaret Mee, a remarkable woman who spent the last 36 years painting the Amazon flora.
In 1956, at the age of 47, the already accomplished artist made her first Amazon expedition to observe, collect and paint the flowers of the region. Thus began a series of 15 expeditions, the last of which was in May of 1988, successfully to fulfill her dream to paint the flowers of the rare moonflower cactus that grows along the Rio Negro and flowers for only one night a yean
It was an inspiring sight to watch this frail-looking woman setting out on an expedition in a dugout canoe with only one Indian guide. She experienced many hardships and deprivations on expeditions but always returned full of enThusiasm and with many notebooks and sketches, as well as plant specimens to grow carefully in her home in Rio de Janeiro Until they produced flowers to paint.
She was one of the greatest women explorers of this century. She became known beyond the botanical community and Brazil when, in 1968, she published a beautiful folio book of her paintings entitled 'Flowers of the Brazilian Forests' to be followed by another in 1980, 'Flowers of the Amazon'. Her paintings are distributed around the world in botanical institutions, private and public collections.
She fell in love with the Amazon ecosystem as she studied and painted its flora. However, the period during which she worked coincided with the time when the Amazon rain forest was being destroyed. Consequently, Margaret Mee became one of the leading defenders of rain forests and her recent lectures always had a strong conservation message, born out of a deep understanding of the complex ecosystem.


17.YOUR HELPING HAND CAN
TURN DESPAIR INTO HOPE

It is difficult for people living in a prosperous country to imagine what it is like to grow up in one of the poor countries in Africa, Latin America and Asia.
In many developing countries, millions of children die from malnutrition and disease before they even reach adulthood. For those who survive, life is cruelly hard. They live in the most basic kind of hut. Their water for drinking, washing and cooking comes from the local river or stream. They have to work from dawn till dusk, almost from the time they can walk. And for much of the year they go hungry. An average family income is $ 10 to 15 a month. Worse still, they lack the opportunity to improve their lives because there is no education or training in practical skills. This is what we in 'World Family' are working to change - and we need your help to succeed.
What We Are Doing
In 25 countries of Africa, Asia, Central and South America we are giving poor people a chance to improve their own lives through setting up small-scale development projects. We are helping to build schools, dig wells, provide medicines and - most important of all -teach the skills the people need. To give just one example, in the Embu area of Kenya we are helping to equip and run a mobile clinic to improve child care; providing textbooks for the local school; helping to build tanks to conserve rainwater; and training local people in agricultural and income generating skills.
We know that we cannot really help the world's poor by giving them handout. Nor can we impose preconceived Western solutions on them since the solutions which are forced upon people turn out to be useless in many cases. Our approach is to help people solve their problems in their own way.
What You Can Do To Help
Today we are asking you to join our worldwide family and to hold out a helping hand to a child who urgently needs it. You can do it now, by agreeing to sponsor a child. Your sponsorship can give them the chance to go to school or provide some of the other things that many of us take for granted. That is, we never question the availability of these things because we have no doubts about their existence. In addition to this, it can give their families the chance to learn basic hygiene and health care. And it can start their communities on the long and gradual process of raising their living standards.
Because you are sponsoring one particular youngster. you'll have the joy of seeing the difference that your help makes. You'll see the child growing up - learning, developing and gaining in strength and confidence over the years - through letters, photographs and regular progress reports.
You can play a vital role in our work. As a sponsor, the help that you give will go towards practical development work to benefit a whole family and community. That's because we realise that we cannot improve the life of an individual child without supporting and strengthening the family, and raising the living standards of the community as a whole.