25 very random things

1. I'm not a natural blonde ;)

2. The only vegetable I won't eat is Okra (yuk yuk yuk yuk YUK!!!)

3. I can't eat wheat, dairy or soya :(

4. I was in an American documentary about childbirth which went out to 12 million viewers (but I never got to see it).

5. My favourite number is 2, I was born on 22nd, husband on 2nd and daughter on 2nd.

6. I had teeth when I was born.

7.I am crawling my way through a degree in Nutritional Medicine, which I will finish in 2012, just in time for the end of the world.

8. I see dead people on a fairly regular basis.

9. I love travelling, and hate staying in one place for too long.

10. I am terrible at throwing things away.

11. I was a bit of child prodigy, but peaked at age 11 and it's been downhill ever since.

12. I hate filling in forms and birthday cards and always make a mistake.

10. I love singing, horse riding, walking and being out in the fresh air, communing with nature.

11. I love scalding hot baths.

12. I talk a lot, and can't shut up once I get going.

13. I have written the first few chapters of about ten books so far, but my dream is to finish one and get it published.

14. I love cooking, but NEVER stick to a recipe.

15.My nickname is 'Mrs. Doolittle' as I love animals and think I can talk to them.

16. I once sat next to the marketing director of Playboy Enterprises on a plane to America. He was one of the nicest men I have met, and wrote to me for years afterwards. Our postman used to look at husband with respect at Christmas when the Playboy card came.

17. I have been kissed by Richard E. Grant, Uri Geller and Midge Ure.

18. I am addicted to computer games, especially Solitaire and Backgammon.

19. I have a secret passion for trashy Murder mysteries like Murder She Wrote and Diagnosis Murder.I also adore American Comedy like Friends, Frasier. And I watch Neighbours!

20. When I was younger I was a New Romantic, and had blue, red, pink green and orange hair (though not all at the same time).

21. I was a porker when I was young, and my nickname was 'Tank' (thanks to my sister Deb).

22. I am 1/8 Italian.

23. I used to be a church chorister and once sang in Lichfield Cathedral (the highpoint of my singing career apparently)

24. I love scorching hot weather and being warm - I put on a polo neck in October and don't take it off till March (I don't wear the same one obviously)

25. I am probably an alien.

Back from the mists of time

Well, it's been a while. Can't really offer much explanation other than I couldn't be bothered and didn't have much to say. Not sure that last part has changed much, but I felt a rush of warmth for my old blog, and wanted to breathe some life into it, so here goes.
Anyway, I'm still here, and, can you believe it, still studying. I can't believe it either, but there it is. Time flies when you having fun, as they say, but not, apparently when you are studying via distance-learning. It's like purgatory. At least I'm still here, I believe some of my fellow students have dropped out, or worse. It's not for the faint-hearted.
Plus I have been diverted by the charms of Face Book, but it's becoming too much like hard work. At least on here I know no one is likely to read my blurb, it's purely between me and the cosmos. (but don't let that put you off - I don't mind the odd comment or two).
So if you would care to join me on my last few months of the longest journey of my life, please do.
I'd be glad of the company.

My Poor Neglected Blog!!!

A recent comment prompted me to check on my blog, which has received scant attention this year.
I just seem to have been overtaken by so much stuff!! Will try to think of something interesting to comment on in the next week. But don't hold your breath...

Vote organic

I was in Tesco's the other day, and overheard a very old man ask his equally ancient wife if she wanted the organic broccoli, as there was none of the 'normal' broccoli left. 'Organic? Ooooh no! I don't want any of that stuff!' she said, as though he had offered her pink sprouts from the planet Zarg.
I was stunned. Did this woman not realise that for probably the first fifty years of her life, she had eaten nothing else, because back then, there was only 'organic' produce?

This just confirmed to me that organic produce has had probably the worst marketing campaign since the Sinclair C5. In reality, it should need no marketing at all - it's just stuff grown as it's always been grown, for hundreds of years, until scientists discovered pesticides, allowing farming to become big business. Instead, it is thought of as the food of sandal-wearing hippies, or neurotic filmstars.

I always buy organic produce, not just for the taste, but for ethical, environmental and health reasons. I just object in principle to the direction farming is taking, with intensive farming, and GM crops, and the only way I can try to change this is to buy organic produce.

I'm aware of all the negative press, about how goods from abroad can't be guaranteed to be organic, etc. etc., but we all need to pressure the supermarkets to stock 'real' food, which has been produced in the way nature intended. I come from a farming background, so I do know what I am talking about. I know that the spray commonly sprayed on vegetables was so toxic that one needed radiation-style protective clothing to handle it.


I know it's expensive, but at the end of the day, we're just to used to having cheap food, clothes etc. Clothes are cheap because they are produced in third world sweat shops, food is cheap because it is factory-farmed. I prefer quality, and would rather go without than eat rubbish.
I believe a chicken should cost a tenner to produce - when I was a child, chicken was a treat we had on high days and holidays.I happen to think a chicken's life is worth more than £1.99, and would rather have an organic chicken once a fortnight, than a battery farmed bird two or three times a week. Also, if you cook as our grandparents used to cook, ten pounds is quite reasonable: roast on Sunday, curry on Monday, then use the carcass for a stew on Tuesday. Ten quid doesn't seem quite so bad for three family meals, does it? A lot cheaper than a pizza each, anyhow.

I make no apology for getting on my soapbox about this - it's my blog, and I'll moan if I want to!
But I would urge everyone to look beyond the price, and realise that food is probably the single most important purchase we make, so don't we deserve to buy the best we can? Buying organic, or free range from supermarkets may not be the perfect solution, but not all of us have access to local organic farmers, or can grow our own veg. At least when you buy an item of organic produce, you are effectively casting a vote, to say: I care about what I eat, I care about how it was produced, and I care about animal welfare, and I care about the environment.'
The quality of the food we eat is of paramount importance. It's all about the transference of energy. If a chicken has been raised in a cage the size of a shoebox, and had a miserable existence, what can its flesh offer you if you eat it? It certainly won't enhance your own existence.
Food doesn't have to be 'organic', but just look for food that has been grown in a way that Nature intended. Try buying from a local farmer, and yes, you will taste the difference, and feel it too.
Ignore the negative propaganda churned out by non-organic farmers, and MP's taking back-handers, and don't forget how much money some of the 'high-rollers' in intensive farming would stand to lose if we all went back to farming organically. If enough of us do it, maybe we can turn the tide, and return farming to the wholesome picture of rural industry that it used to be.
Vote with your food, now.

Happy New Year!

I can't believe it's the 18th of January, and I haven't blogged for almost a month!
Still don't have much time, but just wanted to wish all a Happy New Year before it seems too
ridiculous.
I have been v.v.busy moving house etc., and am now back to studying hard again.
We still have boxes to unpack, but that's nothing new. When we moved out of our last place, we found boxes which had been moved three times, and had never been unpacked.
Maybe one day we'll open them and find out what's in them ( I wasn't organised enough to
label stuff back then).

All the best, everyone, will visit my regular blogs very soon - I've missed you!

Christmas Unwrapping

I've done nothing for the past few weeks but pack stuff, unpack stuff, then wrap stuff up again for Christmas.
If you want to keep your stress levels down, I do not recommend a house move the week before Christmas, particularly if you blithely decide you can move yourself. Given that it took two full-size removal lorries to move us out of our previous house into our rented hovel, I think we were being a trifle optimistic. In the end, it took two weeks, about 25 car loads, five large van loads, blood, sweat, a few tears, some very good friends to do it, but we managed it. (You really find out who your real friends are at times like these - it's amazing how many 'bad backs' came on the day before!)

Still, we survived, and I'm finally back on-line, so just wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, especially, Chelley, Jag and Raven. Have a great time, y'all!

Happy Bert Day!!

It's the 1st of December tomorrow which, as all of my nearest and dearest know, is Bert Day!

For those of you not in the know, Bert Day is named after the Sultan of seventies smalzch, the Prince of piped musak, the Emperor of Easy listening, the ultimate King of Swing - Bert Kaempfert!!
Who? Yes, well, he's no longer a household name, but I bet there isn't a single person alive who hasn't hummed along with one of his toons while in the lift at the shopping mall, or shimmied in the supermarket to his 'Swinging Safari''.
I grew up in the Seventies, my parents were big fans, and his music seemed like the soundtrack to my childhood, particularly at Christmas. We had a family tradition on 1st December that the first Christmas song of the season was always 'Sleigh Ride' by Bert Kaempfert. It was always a cause for huge celebration - even the dog used to go mad when it came on - and Christmas would then officially begin.

When I moved in with my husband, I brought with me a collection of things I couldn't live without, including my cat, all of my books, my piano, and an ancient scratched copy of Christmas Wonderland by Bert. Being the most trendy, most 'happenin' dude alive at the time, he could barely conceal his horror when, on 30th November, I reverently slid Christmas Wonderland out of its sleeve in preparation for the 'big day'.
'What's THAT?' 'You can't be seriously expecting me to listen to that!' were some of the more repeatable comments he fired at me. It was like I'd asked him to wear crimplene trousers.

I just ignored him, knowing that Bert would work his magic, and he'd be hooked.
He indulged me on 1st December, thinking that would be it, not knowing that I had also made a tape for the car, and Bert would accompany everything we did for the next 25 days.

After about a week, he stopped complaining, and I even started to see his toe tapping when he thought I wasn't looking. By the next Christmas, he was the one foraging in the LP cupboard on 30th November. The next Christmas, he was the one horrified to find that Bert was too scratched to play on our superduper new hifi system, and who then spent weeks trying to find a copy on CD, which he eventually had to have imported from Holland.
I didn't say anything - Bert had worked his magic.

The secret is that on that album, Bert has managed to capture every Christmas emotion going, happiness, excitement. jollity, anticipation, even poignant sadness, and it's impossible not to feel something Christmassy when you listen to it. It's just a winner.
I'm not sure how easy it is to get hold of these days - we have burned a zillion CD's to keep us going into the next generation - but if you happen upon a copy, just buy it.
It's canned Christmas, and you'll never look back.