Amidst a Flurry of Visitors

I told someone the other day that family and I were "amidst a flurry of visitors" and liked the way it sounded so it became my post. Love sounding like a Jane Austen heroine from time to time. Don't know why, just love the language.

But I digress .... (see?!!).

For those that don't know, I'm a Brit happily living in South Africa but who pines, quite literally, for the friends and family back home from time to time. Who am I kidding, a lot of the time. Imagine my excitement then, that we are having three sets of visitors over from the UK this Summer.

First came my folks, meaning my Mum and my Stepdad, who we've just waved off after a two week stay in Joburg. We had the most fabulous time. The kids adore their grandparents and it'd been two years since we all got together last. WE MISS YOU GUYS!!!!

Well I Never ... No. 2

Three Cool, Useful or Otherwise Interesting Things I Didn't Know a Month Ago.

1. You Shouldn't use Boiling Water to Make Hot Drinks.

gallery.hd.org

I used to be one of those people who hovers over the kettle, waiting for it to boil. Usually because there's a wanting hubby or the rest of a movie waiting for me. Then I read somewhere that boiling water scalds, and if you pour it directly onto your instant coffee or tea bag, it affects the taste. It can also scald the milk. Hmmm. So I Googled a bit, experimented a bit and guess what? It's true. This is how I now make instant coffee; boil the kettle, but then let it stand for 5 mins. Put coffee, sugar and a little hot (but not boiling) water in the cup and stir it up so the coffee and sugar dissolve. Add the milk and then top up slowly with hot water, so the milk warms up slowly. If you can be bothered to stick a pan of milk on (I can't frankly) then warm milk is actually best. Coffee in particular tastes a lot less bitter made this way, and I'm using less sugar now. What does that say for percolators though??

2. Sand Dunes Hum.
They do! http://www.acoollink.com/sand-dunes-hum/ And the bods who spend their days finding out why, er .... well ... they don't know exactly why yet. I'm sure once they get their next multi billion dollar grant they'll suss it out though.

3. Oestrogen Works Like Valium.

Nora Batty

Dr. Oz said so. The reason we get less tolerant as we get older is down to the drop in hormone levels in particular Oestrogen, which amongst many other things, can control our mood. Oestrogen has been in popular use as a drug since the 1960's for many health issues including contraception, tiredness, depression, poor concentration, irritability, mood swings, skin problems, low libido, osteoporosis, heart disease prevention, and others. And men and women are effected pretty much equally by a drop in levels. You don't need an excuse or a reason to be a grumpy old git, it's hormonal my friend.

Happy Fat Penguin, My Friends Shop

Round Snowman

Aren't they lovely? Hand made in the UK by my very bestest best bud (love you, miss you) and shamelessly shoved down your throat promoted here, on my wee blog.

Not that my blog will get her much publicity. Don't hold your breath mate ...

Nativity Group

Bad news though, if you're not in the UK where they're made I should think you'll be ordering for Christmas next year. I may be wrong though, ask her. They're obscenely under priced too!

Christmas is coming .... woop woop!

Ah, gotta love Christmas. Unless you’re Scrooge of course. Or the Grinch. Or that chick in Gremlins who’s Dad died coming down the chimney one year ... That would certainly put a bummer on the holidays for you.

But other than those guys, gotta love this time of year.



Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs

 With young kids it’s hard to ignore or prevent yourself from getting caught up in, the brimming excitement and chocolate-Santa-fuelled mania. I don’t know if the boys will last until the 25^th before they over-frenzy and have some kind of sugared up Pre-Christmas melt down but I haven’t put the tree up yet. I have concerns it will be so loved/played with/pulled/re-arranged that by Christmas Day itself it’ll be lucky to have any needles or baubles left. Baubles. That’s a nice word.

And chocolate on the tree is just going to end in tears. Actually, it would more likely end in the 18month old on the floor, surrounded by wrappers, face covered in chocolate, tree lying on its side whimpering ...

I Found This ..

"I must learn to love the fool in me. The one who feels too much, talks too much, takes too many chances, wins sometimes and loses often, lacks self-control, loves and hates, hurts and gets hurt, promises and breaks promises, laughs and cries.

It alone protects me against the utterly self-controlled, masterful tyrant whom I also harbour and who would rob me of human aliveness, humility, and dignity but for my fool."

Theodore I. Rubin

On this blog and just wanted to post it. It's cool!

New Page!

I've put a new page up and I'm posting about it because I really wanted it be a post. But entitled 'Things That Make Me Lose My Cool' I think it'll get regularly updated in a "and there's another thing that really cheeses me off .." kind of fashion.

So it's better as a page methinks.

Well I Never ... No.1

Three Cool, Useful or Otherwise Interesting Things I Didn't Know a Month Ago.

I've added a number to this post 'cos I think it may be a good one to do regularly. Mainly to stop me forgetting the things I learn. I hearby promise to do a 'Well I Never' post once a month. Or thereabouts. Depending on how I'm feeling. Or whether I've learnt anything new that month or not. .

So with no further ado (drum roll too much?) here's the first.

1. Women Listen Differently to Men.

Okay, this is supposed to be things I didn't know a month ago, but it's now confirmed for me. Comes back to the skill women have to multi task (using multiple areas of their brains at one time) and mens tendency to be better at focusing (using one area of the brain). Also explains why my husband can't hear me talking to him when he's watching his favourite TV show, but his hearing returns to normal in the ad breaks. Whilst I can listen to him, the TV and both kids talking to me at the same time. We smell better too. No, not our body odours, sense of smell. Having said that ...

2. Crickets Can Throw Their Voice.

Or their 'sound' at least, and there's no link here because I couldn't find it on the net but I experience it when I try and catch one in the house. And Hubby told me, so it must be true. He thinks it's to announce there's a predator about, without the cricket giving his hiding spot away. In googling I also found out that the sound is only made by males by rubbing their wings together, other than to warn of predators it's mainly used to attract females. And the ladies can tell from the pitch of the chirp, how ..ahem... big the male is. Turns out 'Crickets Can Throw Their Voice' is the name of a band in Texas also. Who knew? Their fans probably ...

3. How Lightning and Thunder Work. 
I should have really learnt this in school but it was obviously one of those teacher/pupil moments when my mind got bored, wandered and went out the window. And I've worded it that way around, 'Lightning and Thunder' as opposed 'Thunder and Lightning', because I've just discovered that the Lightning comes first. Recently I read this explanation and it was like a proper 'Eureka' moment. I hadn't even thought about how the two phenomenom were linked before I read this. Doh! Lightning actually causes thunder. Simply (follow the link if you want more detail) lightning's caused by static electricity build up, brought about by water and ice particles in the clouds rubbing together on a humid day. And the rapid heating of the air around it (to as much as five times as hot as the suns surface) creates rapid expansion, which makes the loud noise we hear. It all happens in a split second but because light travels faster than sound, we see the lightning first. Closer the two are to each other, closer the storm.

COP 17 - Get Ready for That Ice Age People

For those who don't know (shame on you) the Climate Change Conference being held in Durban, Cop 17, has just finished. It ran a day or so over schedule and according to press achieved "just enough in its dying hours" to make good. The Kyoto Protocol, which holds Developed Nations to emission reducing targets, was extended to 2018. And the Green Climate Fund was agreed on. $100bn a year for developing and least developed nations to help them make change. - What determines what makes a Nation 'developed'?? Good transport? Education? Government in power who don't kill their opposers?

I dunno. A quote I read somewhere springs to mind, something about no big ideas or world changing inventions ever coming as a result of meetings. And my days in the Office Worker World come back to me also, boooooring meetings yada yada yada ...

It comes down to action. I have been feeling greener of late which has much to do with having COP 17 rammed down my throat on TV for the last month or so I'm sure. And it’s cool to see and feel a growing awareness in an already very aware country to green and specifically climate control issues.

But I wonder, can we really make enough of a difference or should our efforts and attention also actually be elsewhere?

Bad News Day

Hubby and I sat down to watch the early edition news on TV this morning, unusual in itself that we were both up before the kids but hubby got up early for work and I stirred and for once didn't nod back off to sleep.

It was quite nice, sitting together - me with my Earl Grey, him with his coffee - sans kids in a peaceful house.

Except it was one of those news editions that makes you despair and shout out to the TV "HAVEN'T YOU GOT ANYTHING GOOD TO TELL ME??!!"

The two main headlines today were both so shocking, it makes you wonder sometimes if us 'good folk' are in the minority in the world.

Coke in a Wine Glass

Life’s been interesting the last couple of weeks. And by ‘interesting’ I of course mean “AAAAHH!! KARMA, WTF IS GOING ON??!!” No matter how hard we worked, how right we did things, they just kept going wrong. Putting out fires all the time and not getting anywhere.

But interesting yes. Due to one very bad step, I found myself off my feet and forced to take a step back from the madness. I had to view it all from the outside fringes of the sofa. In turn, it helped me to realise what was going down in our little family at the time.

As I sit now at four in the afternoon, while the rest of the family sleep, I feel relieved that things have at last taken a turn for the better and life’s stopped being so darned friggin ridiculous. I’m catching up on some blogging and sipping coke from a wine glass. Might seem a bit odd to most but as someone who rarely drinks alcohol (and that’s another post some day) but loves pretty wine glasses, it works for me.

Most of the problems were caused or hindered by family illness and it’s made Hubby and I rethink our health a little. We’re working hard; we have two young boys who are just as affected by our stress as we are. And we never get enough sleep. I nearly typed ‘rarely’ there but that would have been inaccurate. I’ve already made huge changes to my health, weight and diet in the last ten years (see here) and I find it easier now to spot problems connected to my eating patterns, although I’m no better at keeping things up. Always slipping back to my old ways in times of stress and when we’re tired also then we just crave those instant fixes that instant and unhealthy food gives us. A week or so of this and we start dropping like flies ..