Category : Home and Garden
Any parent, the first time one especially, knows that the prime missing resource is sleep. You throw your energy into keeping your child warm, clean, fed and safe and you subjugate your own needs – it is only natural after all to so do – for those of the child.
Of course this brings great joy to the parent, it is, we all know, a very happy time. Ask any new parent how they feel and you will receive responses like “great, superb, I feel so refreshed and vitalised”…. or will you? Are you more likely to see mew parents wandering around like extras on a George A Romero film set? Do you see jaded expressions on their faces as if they have just emerged from a World War 1 trench somewhere in Northern France after a week’s German shelling and rain…….. Well in my experience it is somewhere in between, though nearer the latter examples than the former.
So what is the solution for these ‘walking dead’??
Well there are multiple resources for new parents in print and online and the greatest mistake made commonly by these disenfranchised souls is that the minute it appears that baby is going to leave them alone they go, phew and open a bottle of wine and try to have a bit of time to themselves before the next demand is uttered by the supernaturally sleepless child. What they need to do is sleep when the baby is sleeping – it is the only way to catch up, to conserve energy and to be able to muster ones forces to fight the fight that comes with every waking moment.
The worst thing, perhaps is that once you have had something like toothache or Chinese water torture for a while and it stops, your inner psyche tells you that it is continuing, like tinitus almost, a subconscious assumption that the source of distress is still ongoing – this is what babies do to you. The more you try to relax, the more you slip into a warm, happy place just for a moment you can be sure that you will either hear, or imagine some calamitous scream from your baby’s room.
This is what baby monitors are for. They are undoubtedly the 20th Century’s greatest invention. They come in a variety of functions and settlings, which I shall skirt over later, but the essence is that they can be placed in the baby’s presence and the parents are able to ‘rest’ assured that the child sleeps.
DECT cordless telephone technology has been utilised so as to form a link between the child’s transmitter and the parents’ receiver. You can generally adjust the sensitivity of the monitor so that it only transmits when a certain volume is reached. Hence the parents do not need to sit in the living room listening to every burp and fart from the sleeping child, but rather will only be notified when the child is in distress. Sensitivity settings are down to each parent’s choice. Unfortunately I have yet to find a baby monitor with a do not disturb setting.
The baby monitors I have personally inspected this week are made by either BT ( the telephone people ) or Philips ( the Dutch people ).
There must be many things that strike a first time parent hard – lack of sleep, never a moment to yourself, – that sort of thing.
You go through stages of shock, wonder, awe, desperation and joy, all in the space of a few moments.
If you have a large extended family around you then you will, of course, accept help from sisters, mothers, inlaws, brothers, friends – anyone you know well enough to trust your most precious thing to – your child.
The trouble is that many of us these days no longer have such a resource on our doorstep, many people move away for work or love and many people are just too busy these days to really help out with your childcare.
So what to do?
I have found that there is a time for the nursery and a time for proper childcare and finding a good nanny can be a huge weight off your shoulders.
Naturally I would not advise looking in the personals for such nanny help. Although there may well be perfectly respectable people there it is highly recommended to use the services of a bona fide, offsted approved nanny agency. It is reassuring, to say the least, that a prospective nanny will have had a full criminal records ( CRB ) check done on her recently as well as you have the assurance that the nanny agency has taken steps during the screening process to ensure that the nanny will be suitable, experienced, dedicated and trustworthy. Going through an agency such as this gives you a kind of insurance policy on your childcare, meaning that in the event that the nanny/ childcare is unavailable a suitable replacement may be found for you at short notice.
TigerLily Agency provides a great emporary and permanent positions for Nannies, Mother’s Helps, Nursery Staff, Maternity Nurses and Housekeepers over the whole of the UK, it is a Nanny Agency founded on the princlipes of care and attention to detail which is why I feel relieved when as I call the nanny agency to let them know about my next planned ski trip ( no kids 
) to Verbier.
In an update to this thread I have been warned by many people tha buying off plan is a very risky business. In noway referring to ready2invest, but in general off plan property overseas investments can lead to tears, financial loss and heartache.
In this world of such financial uncertainty there are no safe bets and certainly the acronym TNSTAAFL ( there’s no such thing as a free lunch ) has stood the test of time.
However, a certain amount of money kind of fell on me and my normal consumer urges had been subjugated by a Christmas frenzy of purchasing. I now had finally gotten hold of a mini laptop, am Advent of sorts, which, via its 8.9inch screen, afforded me just the sort of mobile computing I had always dreamed of. This, coupled with the gorgeous Samsung Omnia ( now not sending emails again ), made my digital life complete. I own a decent bicycle and car. Come to think of it I don’t really need anything. Well, I am in dire need of a nice and cheap NSD or epoxy longboard for my surfing, but I am on the case for that as it happens… suffice it to say I don’t really lust after anything at the moment so rather than looking for things to turn me on I looked for investment…
Well, stock markets are kind of in the crumble so investing in a portfolio base on the FTSE is not something to consider. Similarly House prices in the UK are still heading for further devaluations so the traditional – no lose – option of bricks and mortar is no longer the solid banker as it has always been seen as.
A friend suggested that it may suit my lifestyle to invest in a property abroad so I started looking into it. I had a fair few grand left me by an deceased relative which needed to be put down somewhere before I succumbed to the constant entreaties in my ears to buy a plasma TV with bluray and freeview and millions of MHz refresh rates and all that. I like to travel, I love the sea more than anything, I love to get away and I had some cash calling to my baser instincts,.
So I started looking into the reality of owning a property abroad, and the more I thought about it the more excited I became. Not only at the financial prospect but the idea of having to go out and buy, again, all the lovely things to go in the new place. My main criteria would be, sun, beach, cheap food and good local music. I am a great lover of the Middle East and Arab cultures it must be said, I have enjoyed their history, their food, their sun and their company to a great extent so I was easily swayed by ready2invest into considering some off plan investment in one of these countries.
Morocco looked perfect, it is a beautiful country, I have travelled extensively there and even came closer to death there than any other country previous or since ( it must be good then!). It is an Arabic culture infused with French influences, they have a superior cuisine as a consequence and french is widely spoken. What is more, Morocco has a flourishing surf culture and hashish is cheap.
So I started looking and was amazed at what could be found. The first place ready2invest offered me up was not far from Agadir, on the best surf coast in Morocco. The Gardens of Falafel or something they are called and the deal was superb. An impulse purchaser always I jumped at the opportunity and have not looked back since, it is a pity that the Euro is creaming the Pound Sterling at the moment, but it still represents a good spend of money.
There you go, money invested rather than blown….now the Moroccan surf pad needs a TV, Stereo, ………..
If you want to find information on ready2invest, Google them
The ipod iphone delirium continues and I see normally sensible people go weak and jibbery over these gadgets. The Nokia N95 continues to offer a far superior OS and performance than the iphone.
But do you think they will ever ( Apple that is ) start supplying the iphone for the home, a cordless telephone that looks like it is an iphone.
Well, I saw this picture and wondered…
To tell the truth I am not certain that I actually believe this to be true.
Cats have never really turned me on to be sure. Like many people I find them to be slightly sinister, lazy, manipulative and condescending. I have never owned a cat nor will. I have never, to my knowledge killed one either but I may one day. You see, an old friend Takis Kontogiannis of Rethymno explained to me his suprise when he was first in England seeing cars evade cats. He said to me :
” ha ha, I could not believe it, in Greece we try to hit them, in England you try to miss them, why?”
So Cats, what is it about these felines which provoke such adoration. I mean I am totally cold about them but many people go weak at the knees at a little purring.
So I will set out to try to find what makes these cat people tick, What is it about them? They are mostly girls of course but even some blokes like cats – why? .
So many questions I need answering. I am going to interview Rob soon, an apparently red blooded, normal male ( hmm I think he may be veggie maybe that is a clue ) who loves cats. He even has a blog all about cats to Cats at Planetmeow. Maybe we can explain the inexplicable if we read his musings.
With home security in the news more and more these days it is not just sufficient to insure your property, you need to take preventative measures in order to reduce the likelihood of criminal attack and to discourage potential burglars at the same time.
The installation of a Burglar Alarm System can go a long way in giving you peace of mind whilst securing your private property from criminals.
Traditionally burglar alarm systems have been hard wired installations which require quite a lot of work to install. However recent developments in wireless technology has brough a range of easy to fit and reliable wireless burglar alarms. These are far easier to assemble, fit and implement that their predecessors. No longer does one need to route cables all around your guttering.
A typical alarm of this sort now comes with the following components : Door Contact, PIR Detectors, they are easily programmable and require very little time to configure.
Personally I spend my evenings patrolling aroung the house with a sawn-off pump action shotgun, a squeezee bottle full of pH1 H2SO4, a cordless drill and cable ties. (the blowtorch is available for use after I have aprehended any miscreant). Luckily my mate up the road deals in garden antiques and has a nice acid bath for body disposal.
I don’t think we have a red light district here in Brighton, of course I have seen cards in the phone boxes (these appear to have vanished now ) but that is the only real evidence I have that there is a sex industry in the town.
Apparently other towns have red light districts where prostitutes ply their trade on the streets.
The recent conviction of Steven Wright the famous Radio 2 DJ, well known for his Sunday Love Songs hour, for the murder of 5 prostitutes in Ipswich has raised public awareness of these vulnerable professions in our midst. The town of Bournemouth has even taken the step of supplying personal alarms to its legions of streetwalkers.
Chief Superintendent Bob Boulton, head of Bournemouth and Poole Police, said prostitutes are vulnerable because of the very nature of their job.
Chief Supt Boulton said: “Offering personal alarms is just one of a range of steps intended to increase safety. We also offer personal safety advice, and there are outreach workers available who provide support and advice to the working women.”I’d like to re-assure everyone in Bournemouth, working women in particular, that we are committed to keeping them safe, and I’d urge anyone who has any worries or safety concerns to contact Bournemouth police straight away.”
I dont know if they are likely to roll out this in Brighton as, for some reason the ‘ladies of the night’ either fear the streets or have cozy bordellos to work from. Maybe there just is not the same level of urges amongst Brighton residents, who knows. For sure a personal alarm per Hooker is a nice idea to be sure.
If they really want to protect themselves they could opt for the ‘prototype’ *above* Personal Alarm Shoe for Prostitutes which have a built in personal alarm, emitting a piercing noice and also contain a GPS transmitter to allow them to be located in case of emergency.
My garden has long been rather overgrown, there are voraciously rampant brambles which creep, like invading armies over any unclaimed ground, extending their tendrils over discarded itmes as if, even, to saprophytically suck the goodness from them.
Disconcerted, rather, by this, I stormed in one balmy spring morning with a hefty machete and cut back the offending vegetation. True I will have depleted our winter blackberry supply, but it revealed at least a further 10 square meters of garden.
What to do with it though? I considered a new wendy house as I have long wanted to get a good one for the kids
and for me to use in the evenings, sitting in there, with laptop stealing a neighbours internet connection with a scotch and a cigar sounds nice
But this would not do, I wanted a touch of class in that corner, a touch of the old world, I have seen some wonderful garden antiques of late in a friends warehouse, all manner of solid stone urns and pedestals; beautifully weathered and lichen covered stuatues in terracotta, marble and bronze.
I want either a birdbath or other similair architectural feature in the garden………I must have it.
I should mention Dans Website : garden antiques.
Builders need to wear decent safety or rigger boots during the course of their work. Theirs is one of the most hazardous professions when comes to feet.
There are all manner of menaces out there which can be broken down into three main areas of danger:
- Sharp Objects
- Slippery or uneven surfaces
- Heavy Materials
Sharp Objects
One of the nastiest injuries commonly affecting builders, or construction workers is impalement. Commonly this is a protruding nail of piece of metal. For this reason many specialist safety boots include a metal midsole as standard.
Heavy Materials
Crushing injuries are also a common occurrence on sites where heavy materials are transported. Bricks, Pipes, Furniture , even girders. Of course well made safety shoes will not protect you from all injury, but well constructed, well made shoes with good padding, steel toecaps and a rigid exterior.
Slippery or Uneven Surfaces
As, in a place like a building site, even with the best project management, it is likely that you will find discarded materials, or be forced to climb over piles of gear to get somewhere, it is important the footwear you choose will not only protect your feet from the dangers described above, but allow a reasonable amount of nimbleness and agility to prevent you from other potential hazards such as tripping or slipping.
So you will see from the information above that good care should be taken. Some shoes such as have specialised structures aimed at protecting feet from
Rigger boots are a safety boot used by tradesmen and construction workers generally in heavy construction work and strenuous working conditions. Rigger boots are superb safety footwear for any weather as they go nearly a third of the way up the leg and are, hence, able to keep ones feet dry and the bottom of your trousers protected and clean by tucking them into the work boot.
In general most rigger boots have similar distinguishing features such as breathable water resistant leather, fur lining, pull-on loops, steel toe cap and mid-sole ( to prevent impalement type injuries ) and are shock absorbent and oil and chemical resistant. All of these rigger boots are a standard S3 and comply with EN345-1
The very best in safety boots from Online are covered by the top brands such as Dewalt, Dickies, JCB, Dr. Martens, Makita, Sterling Safety and PSF – these offer comfort, protection and durability.
It is also a very good idea to check that whatever boots you buy are European standards for safety footwear EN 345-1, EN347-1.
I have a relatively spacious flat with a nice garden, my two children have ample room to run around and play, indeed they could be said to have taken over the better part of our living area with their various toys, games and activities.
That is why I started looking into the option of adding a Conservatory to my abode. We decided that loosing a few square meters from the garden would be little sacrifice compared to the benefits of an extra room, and one which would be dedicated to adult tastes.
So, I started investing Conservatories online and found a wonderful array of possible solutions. With prices from as little at under a grand I was immediately interested, and soon found myself in the process of ordering a superb looking “lean to”.
The unit was delivered within a week and the construction was a painless process, it looks good and there is more space in the house, now I am out of it….
This was several months ago, and now I sit in my leather armchair, glass of whisky in hand, the rain makes a wonderful sound as it patters lightly on the conservatory roof and the double glazing ensures that the racket from inside the house doesn’t spoil my moment.
