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For the avoidance of doubt... Yes... I definitely have an opinion... |
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** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** Welcome to my Blog!! About me: I'm not really a blogger... But I do like to put the world to rights and you can bet I have an opinion on most things. I'm a little Welsh dragon that left the Land of My Fathers far behind me. I've flown far and wide.... and ended up in the land down under This blog is filled with all the stuff that's going on in my life, and in my head, which can be a little cookey on times, so you have been warned!! And let's not forget my opinions and musing - I have a few of those as well. So pull up a pew, grab a hot, steaming mug of something yummy, and maybe a cake to: Life is always better with cake don't you think. And read... ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** I just starting blogging with the following groups: ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** I also write a Xmas Blog that kicks off 1st December.... "Invalid Item"  ....tag along for elvishness and merriment
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| "30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS" - Motivational Monday! Actress Ethel Merman, born on this day back in 1908, once said "I can never remember being afraid of an audience. If the audience could do better, they'd be up here on stage and I'd be out there watching them." How does this quote relate to your blogging? Do you write for any particular audience? I think this is a great inspirational quote. To me it says, “at least I’m brave enough to try, to put myself out there, and that makes it good enough for others to read,” so it’s quite powerful. I’m the first to admit I’m not the world’s best writer. I’m still learning after all, and with each blog entry and prompt I get better. I think it would have been the same for Ethel Merman; each night she was on stage she’d have learnt something new, and grown in confidence. Her attitude was probably similar to mine - if you don’t like it you are free to leave the theatre, or stop reading, and if you think you can do better go ahead and do it; the people that stay, that continue reading, that enjoy it, they’re who matter. We can’t please everyone now can we and our audience will continue to change. I don’t have a particular audience in mind when I write, unless it’s for a competition, but that’s not to say that I’m not cognisant of the fact that others may read it; for example I’d put a trigger warning at the beginning if there’s something that may unsettle a reader. For competitions, I think you need to be aware of what the judges are looking for, and to understand the rules; if the prompt is about zombies will another dead rising story peek their interest? Possibly not, but a voodoo based story that includes zombification might. Other than that, I definitely write for me. I write the stories I like to read and honest blogs based on my opinions. Yes, I’d like it if others also enjoyed it, but that’s not why I write; it’s a happy by product. I have to be honest about who I am. I accept that everyone will have different opinions and perspectives on a piece of writing – the world would be boring if we all liked the same thing. My writing, and opinions, certainly evolve with each comment/review I receive, whether it’s a case of “yeah I see what they mean,” “hmmm, good point I might try that next time,” or “nope they completely missed the point.” I’ve learnt so much from WDC because of all the reviews, and I love hearing/reading other people’s perspective on the blog prompt for "30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS" ; there are always some that validate my own perspective, as well as those that shine a light on something completing different, but just as compelling. In life I’ve found that it’s sometimes just as important to disagree, as it is to agree, especially for personal development and growth, as long as I'm always respectful to others and honest about who I am, I’ve done my part. ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** |
| "30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS" - Sunday News:I love McDonalds' Chicken McNuggets. I would probably still eat them if you pulled a gun on me . Your grubby gun-toting fingers won't dare pull a trigger on my enjoyment. What food item would make you stare down the barrel of a gun and be like "Nah bruh, I'm busy here on this..."? I think this is an insane story. I mean it could have so easily ended in tragedy - and over battered chicken... seriously...I honestly don't think there's anything I'd continue eating if someone put a gun in my face. I'd more likely hand the nuggets over and offer to get them a chocolate shake. This did get me thinking: if I had to pick, what would be my last meal/snack on earth? Lets face it, it probably would be if I said no to some nutter with a gun. I love my food. I should be about five times the size I am. So, with so much to choose from what would it be? Would I go fancy and french, spicey and asian, or rustic and Italian... I can tell you now it wouldn't be jacket potato (I had to stay in hospital for six weeks prior to having Theia and I had to have jacket potato every other day). I have flashbacks when I see one now. Guy loves pizza. He was in heaven in Rome with all the street pizza stalls. Me, I could take it or leave it. Most likely leave it. I think I'd keep it simple. BBQ tiger prawns, with the heads and tails still on so I get the pleasure of pinching and twisting them off. They wouldn't have to be coated either. I once had a bucket (an actually bucket/pail) full of them in a side street cafe near the waters edge in Spain. So yummy. If anyone did approach me with a gun and demand I hand them over, maybe I could just throw the heads at them.... ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** |
| "30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS" - Creation Saturday! You're all talented writers, of varying backgrounds and abilities. As we near the halfway point of the month, take some time to look back at your entries. Create a poem inspired from your entries this month. Any style or form (or none at all). Pull lines from all of your entries thus far and see what happens. Obviously you're free to add/subtract words from lines that don't seem to fit the narrative you've come across when compiling your thoughts; this isn't meant to be a summary of the month to date, but a writing exercise. Resolutions are meant to be broken, I seem to fail before I start. Question - do you write through your fingers? Answer - No, I use my heart. I am my own person. The government does not have a say In how I live my life, or how a run my day. Welcome to my world, It’s full of tambourines and violins. But am I on the road? No, I’m happy in my own skin. If you put me in a corner, I’ll be positive and make lemonade. I love it when a plan comes together And all the demons’ I have slayed Calennig, Kalends, and Hogmany, I'll sing loudly "Auld Lang Syne" Why waste money on fancy tea cubes, When I have many shoes to buy. My final confession is simple, I want to travel the globe. But for now, it’s off to bed I go, As poetry hurts my frontal lobe. ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** |
| "30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS" - Fun Fact Friday! On this day in 1854, Anthony Faas of Philadelphia, PA, was granted the first US patent for the accordion. He made improvements to the keyboard and enhanced the sound. Do you play or have you ever played any instruments? If not, what's one you'd like to learn? Bonus Points today for sharing a favorite song of yours with us that names any instrument in its title I've tried a number of instruments out over the years, but I never really stuck at any of them. I played the recorder in both my infant, and junior schools from about the age of six to ten. There were a couple of school concerts I played in - particularly at Christmas I seem to remember, and I even played the treble recorder for a little while, but my little fingers hurt from all the stretching. I got fed up or fell out of love with the recorder - in other words I got bored - which is pretty much how it went with the other instruments... I had guitar lessons for about three years when I eight. I originally learnt in Saudi and was taught Spanish guitar. I loved it. It was a group class and it seemed to work for me - although the guitar was almost bigger than me and this made carrying it to school and getting it on the bus interesting. When I went to boarding school I had to get a new teacher - obviously - and I never really liked him. He kinda creeped me out, so that only lasted about a year. I tried my hand at the flute around eleven or twelve years old and then I switched to the clarinet at aged thirteen; I even did an exam with the clarinet. I played clarinet for about three years - mainly to get out of school classes; each music lesson use to take place during normal school hours, so you could cut certain classes... somehow mine always seemed to fall on French... it's a mystery. And we got to have two 30 minutes sessions a week in the evenings to "practice", which got us out of homework/prep in the classroom block (the joys of boarding school). I wish I had tried harder and stuck with one of them. I still have my clarinet and guitar upstairs. I took them with me when I moved out of my parent's house thirteen years ago and I've been lugging them with me ever since, through every house move - maybe I'm still holding out dreams of actually learning to play them again someday. I want Theia to learn to play something - my preference would be the drums.... purely so I get to have a play, but Guy isn't so keen. I used to enjoy reading music. I actually enjoyed music lessons at school, and although I am VERY rusty I think I could pick up reading music again fairly easily. My memory would need a little jump start though. I was trying to think of a song that I liked with an instrument in the title.... Does "all about the bass" count.. probably not as I think it's about the sound and not the instrument, and anyway it's not my favourite, it's just good to sing along to in the car. I've settled on "Violins and Tambourines" by the Stereophonics, largely because I love the deep voice of Kelly Jones, and because they're a Welsh band and well I have to support the local boys right? Since we're on Fun Fact Friday I'm going to end with my own, additional fact about this song. The band actually collaborated with David Arnold for this record; David Arnold is famous as the composer for James Bond, and in typical James Bond fashion there was a 36-piece orchestra used on it. ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** |
| "30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS" - The Wildcard Round! How often do you organize yours? How do you have yours set up? Are your folders arranged in any specific order? Guide us on a virtual walking tour of your port. Well, like Fivesixer   I organise my port about once a year; twice if I'm procrastinating a lot one evening - "Hello NANOWriMo... I'd love to write 1600 words this evening, but I really need to...um... re-categorise my short stories...yeah that's it." I seem to flit between thinking I should have all of my competition entries in a book, to having them as individual items. I'm "lucky" in that I am no where near my port limit yet. Another way of looking at it is I have been very distracted and lazy in 2016....The first thing I think you notice in my port is that I like pictures. I have pictures for each item and folder. It makes the port more colourful and interesting; in my opinion. And it's quite small. There aren't mountains of entries. Just a few. My bio-block is short and to the point - I honestly don't know what to put in there, so it's very brief, and anyway if you want to know me a bit more there is extra info on the biography tab. And there's of course my picture of the little Welsh Dragon, which is what I am: Little. Welsh. And a Dragon - NOTE: I do not bite, however I have been known to scorch when provoked. That being said my invitation is genuine, feel free to dive in and read a few things - I'd love to hear your thoughts. I've my three highlight items at the top. I love this feature - it's such a great way of introducing people to your writing. I do change these sporadically, when the mood hits me. I probably should update it soon as it currently has my Christmas blog highlighted.... I'll add that to my to-do-list for January. The other two are short stories I've written. One:"Broken" , was for the 100 words or less competition for Newbies from way back in 2013, which I placed 2nd (I think - it may have been third), and the other one; "Invalid Item" , was an entry in the "Daily Flash Fiction Challenge" competition from 2015, which I won. I'd really recommend the Daily Flash Fiction competition - it's a lot on fun!! I'm a folder person. I like organisation. Organisation makes my brain happy. So it's no surprise that I have a few of them in my port; there may be (definitely is) a few nested folders as well. The categories are simple and make sense, at least to me. I also prefer writing short stories and flash fiction compared to poetry so those folders are at the top of my port:  "Flash Fiction Competition Entries" is where I keep all of my entries for things like "Daily Flash Fiction Challenge" and "The Dialogue 500" . It has about fourteen stories in the at the moment, all of which are under 500 words. It's probably my favourite folder. I like the little puffs that are in there, particularly "Invalid Item" and "Invalid Item" . I often revisit them when I need a little boost, as I'm rather proud of quite a few of them. "Short Stories" has my short stories - or more accurately short story, as I only have one in there at the moment. There were a few more, but I didn't like them so now I'm down to just the one. "Kiddies Corner" is a work in progress really. It has the start of my Grandpa Dragon series that I'm writing in memory of my dad, who passed away this year. The idea is that Theia will get to know her Grandfather though the stories. There is a draft of the first adventure up there, and I intend to finish it in the first quarter of this year. The others will come later. "Poems" is my least favourite folder because it holds my poetry - which I think I'm awful at. There are three poems in there for now. I have other ones I could add, but... I don't like them... "Tis That Time of Year" is the fun and games folder. I created it a few years ago at Christmas and added a few polls, word searches, and crosswords associated with Christmas. I don't see many of these on WDC, but I love them. I love campfires stories as well, but haven't found one to join yet - maybe I'll start one this year. "Blogs" does what it says on the tin really. It holds this blog and my Christmas one. I have toyed with having a book review or TV review blog as well - as I have LOADS of opinions on TV shows.... "A Little Bit Of Me" keeps all my letter and signatures in order. Things like my entries for "Dear Me: Official WDC Contest" . I'm in the middle of my 2017 entry so it's currently hidden. I do that a lot. I have lots of hidden items all over my port - even hidden folders. "NANO" is everything NANOWriMo related. In 2016 I actually managed to enter the four Nano-Prep competitions - which surprised my greatly. Nano is HARD. At least for me, but I enjoy it none-the-less. I may merge these into the 2016 collection - or expand and work on them in their own right at some point, so I can move them to the short stories folder. My final folder is my "Work In Progress" collection. At the moment there are only two items in there; "Origin" , which is a scifi story I started ages ago.... I should probably finish it at some point, and "Invalid Item" which charts my trial and tribulations during IVF and trying to meet Theia...it was written in diary form and most of it is currently still in my note books - I got distracted with having the baby.... lolI've loved this deep dive exercise into my port. I've discovered quite a few projects for 2017 to keep me entertained. Hopefully you'll get to know me a little better through this entry and my port, as I think you can get to know a lot about a person from what they create. I can't wait to see what's in other peoples port and how they organised them. ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** |
| "30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS" - War Chest Wednesday! Vincent Van Gogh said, "If you hear a voice within you say 'you cannot paint', then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced." What is your 'you cannot ____' voice always ragging on you about, and how good are you at silencing it? This reminds me of something Jay O'Toole  said in the comment section of his blog entry "It's Time to Be Crafty!" ; 'when it comes to painting something, it often comes down to desire and the ability to evaluate the creation. I've never seen a child in Kindergarten, who was not an artist with tempera paints. When we are small, we are free to express ourselves with many and varied media. As we grow older the opinions of others either encourage or discourage the natural ART, that is in us.' and it's so true. As small children we think we can do anything; we are only limited by our imagination. As we grow older we start to listen and believe what others tell us, and doubt and disbelief can easily set in as we are still easily influenced and manipulated by those we perceive as knowledgeable. It's not until much later in life that we come to the realisation that most of this "fact" and "knowledge" is just "opinion" cleverly disguised, but by then the damage has already been done - or has it...? I have many "you cannot......" moments that my voice of internal doubt harps on about, but I'm lucky in that I'm incredibly stubborn. When someone tells me that I can't have something just because (within reason of course) I have a habit of saying "Yeah... watch me." but I've only learnt to do this as I've grown up into adulthood and found my own footing. When I was about six I announced that I wanted to be a pop star. I loved to sing. I sang solos in church and at the Christmas services. I was in the choir at school. I was quite pleased with this career decision and thought it was a great idea. However, this dream was quickly squashed by my aunty who responded with "Oh don't be so silly. You can't be a pop star." There was no real reason about "why" I couldn't be a pop star. I just couldn't full stop. This had an impact on me. I really believed it. And, I believed that it was because I couldn't sing. Now, I'm sure that my aunty was just trying to "manage my expectations" , but instead, what she actually did was knock my confidence. It really upset me. I didn't want to be a silly little girl. I wanted to be clever. So, I stopped singing.... well in public anyway. It wasn't until I was about eleven, and was told by my music teacher that I had a nice voice, that I started to sing again, although my confidence was still shot to pieces. I was pushed for solos again, and landed a part in the school musical. I had to work very hard to overcome my insecurities - I didn't want people to laugh at me and tell me I was stupid for trying to sing. I did it. There were occasionally slip-ups or squeaks that got giggled at, but I also got a lot of support. I still don't like singing in front of people. I'm very "aware" of singing to my daughter when other people are in the house. It's not uncomfortable, just strained. However, when it's just me and her, and my husband, I don't care and sing away to my hearts content. I'm not a great singer, I will never be compared to Kylie, but I CAN sing. I CAN hold a tune. And why should I miss you just because I won't ever have a record deal. This feeling isn't unique to just singing, pretty much anything new and I have a level of apprehension about it, and I think that is a very natural emotion, but I try not to let that apprehension (or internal voice of doubt) get the better of me - usually this involves me "talking" over it, and giving myself a pep-talk - some times out loud. I always remember something my mother said while I was growing up "You will never know unless you at least try," and it's something I often say to my niece, along with "just because that happened last time doesn't mean it's going to happen this time, and if you do nothing, then nothing is going to happen." Trying something new is scary and you might not be great at it, certainly not straight away, but that doesn't mean you can't/won't learn, or that you won't find it fun. Why do we have to be great? Why can't we just be? Some times I think we concentrate too much on being perfect or brilliant, rather than just enjoying it. Why do you have to be the next Van Gogh to paint? Why do you have to write a best seller to be a writer? The answer is we don't - we just have to pick up the paint brush or pen.... Life is too short not to live it. ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** |
| "30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS" - Talk Tuesday! What's your favorite way of passing the time when your internet connection is interrupted for an extended period of time, especially when you had a lot you planned on taking care of online? Or, if you prefer- real talk- how addicted to the internet are you? Did someone say the internet was down? SOUND THE ALARM - PRESS THE PANIC BUTTON - LIFE AS WE KNOW IT IS OVER. It's hard to remember a life without the internet, especially for my generation and all subsequent ones, although I did in fact have an internet, and largely computer, free childhood. These days everything is linked via the world wide web, or that's what it feels like. Our lives are so deeply rooted in the ether that a downed internet connection can send us into a state of panic. I mean how will my niece upload the latest selfie to  and announce to the world what she is doing on  . How will I cope without my online community here on WDC... I use the internet for a lot - it's very convenient. The things that use to be time consuming and laborious now can be done from the comfort of my own home and at unsociable hours when I can't sleep, or while I am at work (on my breaks or down time obviously). Here is a list of the key things I use it for: Work - I cannot do my job without the internet. I need access to customer portals to access and download their works packages. I need it to ask them questions in relation to their requirements both via the portal and email. I need to email colleagues who are based all over the country/world to get a solution together, and finally I need to access the portal to upload and submit our response. Yes, there was a time when it was all done manually, by post, but those days are long gone. These days even a slow connection will send me into a panic - especially on submission day. And I'm not unique - all of my colleagues are the same. Banking - I can check my bank accounts, pay bills, transfer money, and generally control my finances without having to trudge along the high street and into each individual one... which is very useful as they seem to have shut most of the high street banks. Food shopping - it's one of the things I loath doing, but know it's a necessary evil. The supermarkets in the UK are designed to make you part with your money - all the sale items and general merchandise that you don't really need always seem to end up in my  , but not if I shop online. It's perfect when the weather is crappy, or in the new year when we're all watching what we eat, I can sit back while semi-watching something on the TV (that's probably streamed or downloaded) and order the week's food shop. I don't have to get cold and wet; I don't have to play bumper cars in the choc-a-block car park; I can let other people ram into each other with heavy, uncontrollable trolleys; AND I can actually stick to the shopping list... for once. This is actually one of my New Years' Resolution to try and help us stick to a food budget. General shopping - but why stop at food. You can buy nearly everything online these days and get them delivered; clothes, shoes, toys, kitchen appliances... even birthday and Christmas cards. I can't tell you the number of times Moonpig or Funky Pigeon has saved the embarrassment of nearly forgot birthdays or anniversaries... And it's been invaluable for sending cards in Australia. I mean, yes, there is something nice about a hand picked card, and I do do those, although the amount they end up in the dinning room draws, unsent, because I've forgotten stamps is quite staggering. Staying in touch with friends - the world is a small place these days, or at least it seems. Everyone, or most people, have a passport and regularly take holidays, and people are jetting off all over the place, sometimes permanently. So places like Facebook allow us to stay connected with the people who matter. They also allow us to make new friends along the way. Take WDC for example, I have met some wonderful friends and writer here that I wouldn't have had the pleasure of if it wasn't for the internet. However, I do think it also limits us to a degree. Interpersonal skills seem to have diminished with the rise in technology. We stay in contact with each other, but have lost the art of communication, at least on the physical, one-to-one level. And while we have hundreds on "friends" to poke or comment on our witty statuses, we have few to have a coffee or glass of wine with... I can count those on my hands, and probably just one hand really. Booking holidays - like the banks we no longer have to use our Saturday mornings on a dreary and bleak January or February to book a week of summer sun. It doesn't take us hours of comparing our hand written notes, magazines, or haggling with agents to get the best deal. We can visit their websites in our pyjamas, read reviews from other holiday makers, and design a vacation that fits us without feeling like we need to buy this extra or that. We can even just pants it if we want and just jump on a plane and worry about accommodation when we get there. And there are even comparison website to help us further, who "guarantee" the best deals - these however are often a smokescreen, and we can very often get the same or better deals by going direct - particularly with hotels in the UK. Studying/research - you can't study without the internet. It is impossible. Even homework is set online these days. As well as pupils' lesson plans. I used to study through the open university and would have to submit assignments through email to my tutor. These days I write online. I research my characters, their histories, their surroundings and locations, look-up police procedures and the jurisdiction of agencies. I have even been known to research ways to die... and the effect of poisons on the human body. All of which would be painstakingly slow if I had to go to the library or track down and interview people. These days experts are only a few button presses away when you need to pick their brains. And of course competitions - they can be entered frequently and easily - my writing has improved since joining WDC. All of this is before I even start to think about playing online games, downloading a new book, or streaming a new film or TV show. And as for going to the gym and losing the baby weight - there is an app to help with that... I've heard of digital detoxing and think it's great - in theory, and for small amounts of time... see the panic is already setting in... We are actually implementing elements of it at my house:  Dinner will be at the dinning room table and no phones are allowed!! Even my niece, who's hand seems to have been replaced by a iPhone, thinks it's a good idea. And we're buying an alarm clock rather than using our phones, so our phones can be charged and left downstairs - it's going to be a digital free bedroom!! (Apart from the baby monitor...).We're also thinking about how we want Theia it interact with technology. It will be a huge part of her life... there's no getting away from it, but we still want her to enjoy the simpler side of childhood too; like painting, crafting, baking, playing outside, and swimming. I love to read. I can spend hours lost in the pages of a good story; that's probably my favourite pass time when the internet is down, that and playing board games. I want her to enjoy that as well. The truth is the world is so intrinsically linked to the internet, because of how easy it makes our lives, that we're all addicted to it. It's like amputating a limb. Our life is now a series of 1's and 0's. But, while it helps us, it shouldn't define us. Getting the balance right is difficult, but something I'm always striving for. ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** |
| "30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS" - Motivational Monday! Late actor Bob Denver (known for playing Gilligan on the tv show Gilligan's Island ), who would've celebrated his 82nd birthday today, once said "You know, I have no worst experiences." What do you think? When have you had to turn a potential "worst experience" into something positive? I think its very hard to turn your worst experience into something positive, especially when it's raw. I have had many experiences I would rather not have. But the one I've picked for this blog is the fact that I was bullied in school. There were only six girls in my year and because I wouldn't fall in and agree with this one particular girl I was picked on by the group... A lot... Add the fact that I went to a boarding school and so had to share a dormitory with them, meaning I sometimes had to fall asleep listening to them talking about me and saying why they didn't like me, and you get a very unpleasant time. In fact it was horrible for about three years. At first it really upset me. It was lonely. I would literally cry my self to sleep some nights. There were occasions I would walk down a corridor and get barged into. They thought it was funny. It was a group mentality. They used to egg each other on. It just so happens that a similar thing was happening to a girl in the year below me as well. This seems to draw me and Lisa together and we became best friends. It was still difficult during class and at night as we had to endure the bullies on our own but at least we had someone to walk to school with and talk to about it. I remember one school disco - haha those were the days - the bullying had been quite bad in the lead up to it, but Lisa and I decided to go anyway. The girls all sat in their groups, on the tables at the side of the room, and Lisa and I huddled in the corner on the opposite side. The girls were glaring. It was intimidating. Eventually we got bored and decided to dance. We could see the girls pointing and sniggering out of the corner of our eyes, but we held our ground and ignored them. So what if the cool kids were laughing at us... they were just standing there like lemons... Their faces suddenly changed when Lisa's brother and his friends came over to dance with us. They were a few years older and cute by 14 year old's standards. It was great. We had a blast. We learnt not to let others' opinions stop us from doing what we wanted and from having fun that night. A very valuable lesson. The bullying continued, but we realised we could cope with it and ignored it. It became sporadic when the girls lost interest. It's funny, but regardless of how unpleasant it was, after coming out the other side, I wouldn't change it. It shaped me into the person I am. I'm stronger for it. More independent. More empathetic to others feelings. I don't know who I would of been if I didn't go through it and I like who I am. I genuinely do. It's been 25 years and Lisa and I are still friends - that's another huge positive. So I think I have to agree with Mr Devner... I don't really have any worst experiences... Or at least none that's would give up if it meant changing who I am now. ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** |
| "30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS" - Sunday News CES 2017 (Consumer Electronics Show) opened this week in Las Vegas, Nevada, and here are some of the weirder items on display and potentially coming to a store or online shop near you. Any thoughts or opinions on any of the items? Anything you might be interested in? I have to be honest - I mostly just laughed and rolled my eyes with all of the "products" on this list. I mean do they really solve our problems or make our lives easier? I'd suggest that if the answer to these questions is "YES" then you may need to re-evaluate the way in which you live and GET A LIFE!!! Here are my thoughts...  Kérastase Hair Coach - because everyone needs to "understand and improve brushing patterns". My favourite part of this device is the "microphone that listens to your hair as it's brushed". Seriously if you're worried about your hair being damaged GO TO YOU HAIRDRESSER. There's no price listed as it's a prototype, but I'd assume it's going to be north of $100/150... how much is a hair cut? Love Box - $100 seems a lot of money for something that's nothing more than a gimmick that will be amusing for about 5 minutes and then spent the rest of it's life on the back of a shelf, or in the bottom of a storage box... Seriously, I see no point in this what so ever. Catspad - actually I don't mind this too much and I've seen similar things over the years; usually the automated, pedal ones that the pets operate - Indy would just get fatter if we gave her one of those though. The idea isn't to bad, but I wonder how lazy you've got to be to not just get up off the sofa and feed your pet.... I mean, yes, it would be useful if you were stuck in a traffic jam or going to be really late home from work, but how often is that likely to happen; and if the answer is "often" maybe you shouldn't have a pet. The Tea Cube - yes, it's true, certain types of tea need to be brewed at different temperatures, otherwise you risk scorching the leaves and getting a bitter taste - think green or white tea and boiling water... Apparently there is now a cube that can tell you if the water is too hot for your leaves.... The fact that there have been kettles that can do this for you and they've been around for a while seems to be forgotten. I had one of these kettle a few years ago it was great - I just selected the temperature I wanted and the kettle heated it to that level. I didn't need to have an app to tell my what temperature I needed because, well, I have a brain that is capable of remembering things that I find useful.... Smarter FridgeCam - seriously.... there are smart fridge out there, just get one of those... or you know.... write a list.In summary - no, I will not be rushing out to part with my hard earned cash in exchange for any of these creations. I have shoes to buy, which seem more important and useful... ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** |
| "30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS" - Creative Saturday! Develop a new New Year's Eve tradition. It can be serious or humorous; possible or impossible. This is actually something that Guy and I have been speaking about as usually we don't do much to celebrate the New Year, but we wanted to start some type of tradition for Theia. Of course Theia is only little and wont be able to "see in the new year" for quite some time, so we have time to come up with something. Guy is Australian and most of his family live over there. We always get bombarded with early Happy Birthday's, Merry Christmas' etc.. and New Year is no different. This year we decided to watch the live feed of the fireworks over Sydney Harbour bridge - I have to say, I think they were better than the London ones, which felt a little flat. It was fun to sit around the TV and count down. Theia didn't have a clue what was going on. She just liked the music and the dancing. We plan on keeping that tradition with Theia, that way she will get to "see" a New Year in - sort of. I'd also like to do something from my Welsh heritage. Calennig is an old, Welsh, New Year tradition where a gift is given on New Year's Day. Years ago children would go door to door in the village, carrying a skewed apple pierced with corn and sprigs of evergreen, spreading good wishes for the health and prosperity for the coming year. Sometimes there would be singing involved. For their efforts the children would get small gifts of food or money. I'm not going to drag Theia around the street - as our neighbours would think I was strange and loopy, but I'll build a Calennig apple sprig with her, and Guy and I will give her a little gift of food and money. There is a very similar Italian tradition - Kalends - where sweets, honey jar, gold, silver, money, coins and/or lamps are given. Each gift has it's own meaning: honey brings sweetness and peace; gold and silver bring prosperity, and lamps illuminate the year ahead with light. This is something that might appeal to Guy and his Italian ancestry. And of course there is Hogmany - or more precisely "Auld Lang Syne" which is sung across the UK (although it is seen as a Scottish tradition) to remind us of old and new friends. It roughly translates to "times gone by", and my New Years', even a quiet one at home, isn't complete without singing this. We're not really that big on resolutions, but we always pick a few, and it's normally the usual - loose weight, get to work on time, and stop spending so much money. But rather than pick something that is wrong with our life or needs improving I would rather pick something new to learn or a new place to visit. So that is what I am going to encourage Theia to do: to try a new sport, to have a go of painting, or learn to swim. I'm really keen on traditions and want Theia to remember the fun we had with all of them as she grows up. ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** |
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