Monday 28 April 2014

Random facts of the day

















Good morning Peeps.  More facts of the day to follow.  I sit here at the computer and see the buds and new leaves on my bushes in the garden and I am heartened.  Warmer weather, dryer weather all means that the fluff bags can go on walks with me without needing a bath every time we get back home.

Facts of the day this week are:

  • A comet's tail always points away from the sun
  • The Swine Flu vaccine is 1976 caused more death and illness than the disease it was intended to prevent
  • Caffeine increases the power of aspirin and other painkillers, that is why it is found in some medicines
  • The military salute is a motion that evolved from medieval times, when knights in armour raised their visors to reveal their identity
  • If you get into the bottom of a well or a tall chimney and look up you can see stars, even in the middle of the day
  • When a person dies, hearing is the last sense to go.  The first sense lost is sight.
  • In ancient times strangers shook hands to show they were unarmed
  • Strawberries are the only fruits where seeds grow on the outside
  • Avocados have the highest calories of any fruit at 167 calories per hundred grams
  • The moon moves about 2 inches away from the Earth every year
  • The Earth gets 100 tons heavier every day due to falling space dust
  • Due to Earth's gravity it is impossible for mountains to be higher than 15,000 meters
  • Mickey Mouse is known as 'Topolino' in Italy
  • Soldiers do not march in step when going across bridges becuase they could set up a vibration which could be sufficient to knock the bridge down
  • Everything weighs 1% less at the equator
  • For every extra kilogram carried on a space flight, 530kg of excess fuel is needed at lift-off
  • The letter J does not appear anywhere on the periodic table of the elements


Honestly, I am not convinced about the soldiers marching over a bridge fact and I am confused by the equator fact but to be fair that doesn't take much!

Happy Monday everyone.






Monday 21 April 2014

Random facts for today




If you read last weeks facts you will know they were on the more gruesome side but this week I have found some more light-heated ones for us:
  • Glass takes 1million years to decompose, which means it never wears out and can be recycled an infinite amount of times 
  • Gold is the only metal that doesn't rust, even if it is buried in the ground for thousands of years
  • Your tongue is the only muscle in your body that is attached at only one end
  • If you stop getting thirsty you need to drink more water.  When a human is dehydrated its thirst mechanism shuts off
  • Zero is the only number that cannot be represented by Roman numerals
  • Kites were used in the American Civil War to deliver letters and newspapers
  • The song, Auld Lang Syne, is sung at the stroke of midnight in almost every English speaking country in the world to bring in the new year.
  • Drinking water after eating reduces the acid in your mouth by 61%
  • Peanut oil is used for cooking in submarines because it doesn't smoke unless it is heated above 450F
  • The roar that we hear when we place a seashell next to our ear is not the ocean (surprisingly...duh) but rather the sound of blood surging through the veins in the ear
  • Nine out of every ten living things lives in the ocean
  • The banana cannot reproduce itself.  It can be propaged only by the hand of man (go on admit it you had a visual too)
  • Airports at higher altitude require a longer airstrip due to lower air density
  • The State of Alaska spands four time zones
  • The tooth is the only part of the human body that cannot heal itself
  • In Ancient Greece tossing an apple to a girl was a traditional proposal of marriage.  Catching it meant she accepted. (and I thought Gypsy courting rituals were strange)
  • Warner Communications paid $28m for the copyright to the song Happy Birthday
  • Intelligent people have more zinc and copper in their hair
 So there you have it, interesting facts.....but some sound like fiction



Tuesday 15 April 2014

What I learned this week


Hello everyone, and how are you all on this fine day?  Today I am on my way to sunny (hopefully) Sheffield for back to back meetings.  Which translate to getting none of the day job done and being given more jobs to do by the time the meeting ends. 

I am writing this on Monday morning so when I say that hopefully I have left a clean tidy house and expect to find it that way when I get home you will know what I mean.....if I don't get distracted with the weeks worth of programmes I haven't been able to watch I will be cleaning.

I can only think of a couple of lessons which is generally the case when I start this post but I am bound to think up more as I go along:
  • Buying a new dryer resulted in me learning that newer tumble dryers sound much quieter than the one that broke and for the first day I kept going in the kitchen to see if it was actually switched on;
  • ..Perhaps the old one has been poorly for a while now and was trying to tell me;
  • No matter what I do my fridge has a puddle of water in the base of it, under the salad drawer, every few days;
  • Buying salad and vegetables in a bid to be healthier doesn't necessarily translate to me eating them;
  • The strawberry tart may not taste as nice as it looks;
  • Unless I tell Hubby how much roast beef I would like on my plate he gives me as much as he has;
  • If I was any shorter I would have needed a footstool to get onto my new mattress and Hubby swinging his legs when sitting on the edge of it is kinda hilarious;
  • Putting Freddy's painkillers in a piece of banana makes for less traumatic times at least twice a day;
  • I can access my workplace's chosen training site from home and it is much easier to do the training at home than it is to fit it into a busy normal working day;
  • Once I start doing some training I can happily do it for 2-3 hours and am enjoying the finance revision some of the session are giving me;
  • I am so so very sad to have just said that and meant it;
  • I am bound to have 2 bruises across my shins this afternoon after venturing up a ladder and using my legs to try and hug the ladder while scrubbing random spots off my bathroom ceiling;
  • I have been very patient with the insulation people who, after a further 6 telephone calls since the 24th March, have still have not been round to put the installation in my attic.  I can see my angry side making an appearance;
  • If Cala and Abi want some attention when I am working Cala will nudge my office bin and Abi will stand on the ream of paper next to the computer and pad about on it to make the packaging crinkle;
  • As Hubby's birthday approaches he will know I am up to something birthday related when I email him at work and ask him to take the 23rd off work - darn it;
  • After berating myself for buying physical books after window shopping for them I have to say the book I bought was absolutely fantastic and then I open the cupboard that has the 40 books that I still have to read.....;
  • The sun is shining today so its a day to put the replacement mirror on my car, get the car cleaned inside and out, walk the dogs and now that Beautiful B is awake do the cleaning.
So what have you learned this week?

Usual rules apply - see below. I would love to hear from you if you also leave comments on my blog.To join in Julie's What I Learned This Week carnival, simply follow these steps:

1. Any time this week, publish your What I Learned This Week post on your blog and comment on my blog hyper linking to your blog.

2. Then go and visit Julie’s blog at From Inmates to Playdates, find her latest “What I learned this week” and link up with the Mr. Linky form at the bottom of the post. Please put the link to your POST, not the front page of your blog.

3. Then visit the other participants and see what they learned this week.

Monday 14 April 2014

Random facts of the day




As you know last week I shared some random facts from my daily calendar.  Here are this weeks selection:

  • Though treatable today through medical advancements, impotence has been considered grounds for divorce in many different cultures for centuries
  • Herman Mudgett, also known as Dr Henry Howard Holmes, was America's first serial killer.  He built a massive mansion in Chicago complete with trap doors, secret passageways, hidden staircases, fake walls, and rooms lined with asbestos that could be turned into gas chambers.  When caught in 1894 he confessed to 27 murders but researchers believed there could be more.
  • In the US at least 7 fatalities and numerous severe injuries have been reported among bungee jumpers using a hot air balloon as a platform.  In 2 instances, no-one noticed the balloon lost altitute making the jump cord too long and the jumpers hit the ground.
  • If you urinate when swimming in a South American river you might encouter the candiru, a tiny fish that will follow the stream of urine to its source, enter the body and flare its barbed fins requiring surgical removal.
  • Bottled drinking water has been marketed as clearner and more pure than tap water but, in a recent study, a 1/3 of bottled water showed significant chemical or bacterial contamination.
  • A 998 storm pelted Quebec in Canada with freezing rain and enveloped the city in a layer of cement-like ice, causing 30 deaths and weeks of electric power outages for millions of Canadians.
After reading these facts which, as you can see, are not light-hearted facts I have already decided to return to a funny daily calendar next year.

Thursday 10 April 2014

Not that I am.....


stressed or anything but this looks appealing right now!  Oh and let's not forget it is Tired Thursday.  Yes I have been travelling again and I am almost sure that I am still recovering from a big drinking session on Saturday for the Grand National horse race.  That is what aging does to you - be warned.  No longer can I spring out of bed at noon after sleeping off a hangover and look as spritely as I did the day before.

I have a procurement where different stakeholders will not compromise with a Commercial Board meeting at 4pm and not much of an idea what to do.  I do need to get something sorted today but it is very unlikely and that is just plain depressing. So the lack of a compromise and the digging in of heels makes me want to tear my hair out.  This is why I didn't have more than 1 child!

In addition, I support on another procurement which is MASSIVE and that is about seriously ramp up.  I have been asked to upskill another team member who is new to the team and when I read that request I almost choked on my pepsi max because I have almost as little experience as he has.  The blind leading the blind springs to mind

So today, I am not sure where to start as I seem to be chasing my tail and not really getting anywhere.  If nothing else, I know how Freddy feels when he chases his tail and achieves nothing.

So, I am going to take a leaf out of Rachel's book and make a list and try and stick to it, hoping to avoid anything else jumping the queue unexpectedly.

As an aside the fact that I work from home and Hubby is at home watching The Masters only makes me want to take a day off and spend it with him reading a really good book.

I really should stop going into WH Smith when at a train station because I always decide to 'window shop' books and come away having bought at least 1.  Yesterday I bought 2 and have read half of one on the journey home.   It is that good I want to lie in bed and read the rest.....

Well, thanks for your advice Rachel, given to me a long time ago, I am going to see if it works for me today and if not then I want coaching tips over cocktails on Friday night!




Tuesday 8 April 2014

What I learned this week


The part that shears off and drives itself through the back of my poor dryer!



Good morning folks! 
 
Another night awake due to pain and now my eyes are tired.  I may need a siesta this afternoon - that will be such a hardship.....not.
 
I've had quite a few lessons this week;
 
  • It is so nice to just be in Sheffield for one day and be home with my gorgeous family for the rest of the week
  • If my tumble dryer is fixed once so it stops squealing and then starts again a few weeks later my gut feeling is right when it tells me that it is kaput
  • You can buy a new tumble dryer for a reasonable price which is handy because money wise this is not the best time
  • When I keep waking up during the night in pain when I try to turn over Hubby does listen because eventually he will take me to the shop for a new mattress
  • As the edges of our bed are quite wide it is possible to get a king size mattress on a double bed frame - HELLO extra space, I'd like to welcome you.
  • It turns out that I am better at winning bets on the horse than my Hubby and brother are - YES!
  • If I can't hear out of my earbuds when watching a film on the iPad chances are that the earbuds are broken or just old
  • When I put a new pair of ear buds in I must remember to turn the volume down so I do not deafen myself
  • It is typical that immediately after a new power washer and attachments are delivered it will rain for days on end
  • It's only Tuesday and I am giddy already knowing that I am out with 3 of my bestest friends on Friday night - cocktails here we come!


So what have you learned this week?

Usual rules apply - see below. I would love to hear from you if you also leave comments on my blog.To join in Julie's What I Learned This Week carnival, simply follow these steps:

1. Any time this week, publish your What I Learned This Week post on your blog and comment on my blog hyper linking to your blog.

2. Then go and visit Julie’s blog at From Inmates to Playdates, find her latest “What I learned this week” and link up with the Mr. Linky form at the bottom of the post. Please put the link to your POST, not the front page of your blog.

3. Then visit the other participants and see what they learned this week.

Thursday 3 April 2014

Necessary Lies....Diane Chamberlain


You all know I like books, love books in fact, right?

No?  Well you do now.  Anyhoo, I used to read a lot of Jodi Picoult's books then along came Diane Chamberlain who, similar to Jodi Picoult, writes novels that offer you opportunity to think about moral situations you may never come across.

Having read a few books about vampires and serial killers I felt like a change.  I know!  However, to know me is to love all different parts of my personality and not a lot about me speaks about how many of those there are more than my wide taste in books.

Peeps....most of my life has been put on hold while I read this book.  I was so disappointed when I was forced to put it down to do silly things such as earn a living.  Diane, yet again, gave me food for thought.

When I reflect on the title of this novel, Necessary Lies, one thought keeps jumping to the front of my mind.....'except they weren't'.

The novel centres on a young 22 year old woman named Jane Forrester who, although recently married to a doctor, seeks to make a difference as a social worker in North Carolina in the USA in 1960; the days when whole families worked on tobacco farms, when white and black people were still segregated and when a person could not go in the same hospital as another just because of the colour of their skin.  Jane is given a crash course in extreme poverty while working with her mentor in the rural tobacco fields. 

On one tobacco farm, the Hart family; a white grandmother, her 2 grand-daughters and a great-grandson live in what is little more than a shack on the tobacco farm.  The father has died, the mother is in a mental institute, the grandmother is ill with Rheumatism Diabetes and they are paid a pittance compared to other farm workers in lieu of property costs.

Jane is thrown into the middle of a moral dilemma when she is told a shocking secret by her mentor while visiting the Hart family.  The oldest grand-daughter is mentally-retarded (don't you just HATE that word) and had her son out of wedlock by 'being promiscuous'.  Jane's mentor explains that to prevent further babies, which the state would have to help support with welfare payments, the girl was sterilised under the pretence of a required appendectomy during childbirth.  Agreed by an illiterate grandmother who signs the required paperwork with an 'X' the girl is not told of the real reason for the operation and dreams of more babies in the future. 

Ivy, the younger sister, 15 years of age, scored a low IQ and has suffered from petit-mal seizures since young childhood.  She takes on a mother's role; trys to convince her grand-mother (who loves biscuits a little too much) to take her medication and looks after her 2 year old nephew who runs rings round all of them.  She has fallen in love with the farm owner's son and they sneak out at midnight to see each other and dream of being teachers together in California in the future. 

Identifying the younger sister as having a low IQ and at risk of illegitimate pregnancy Jane is told by her mentor to complete the documentation to petition for her sterilisation using epilepsy alongside the other issues as reasons for putting her at risk.  While Jane can understand that the family would cope better without more children she finds it reprehensible that the girls are not told the truth nor have the opportunity to agree or oppose the decision.  This, as well as the pursuit of a career as a married woman, causes issues between Jane and her husband and she takes measures into her own hands.

This is where I stop because you should read this book and I certainly do not want to ruin the story for you.  Obviously this book is extremely well written as all of Diane's books and kept my interest throughout. 

Diane Chamberlain explains vividly how Jane is expected to feel as middle class white person in that era but cannot conform to what is expected of her. The insight into segregation based on the colour of a person's skin, the bias and difference in cultures and Jane's feelings when seeing poverty for the first time is only a little of what is a stark backdrop to how people living and working in the same poor community get on regardless of colour.

So why am I writing about this other than to say what a great book I thought it was?

In the Author's Note Diane Chamberlain describes how, while the characters and town are fictional, the Eugenics Sterilization Programme is not.  I cannot believe that I have been on this planet 41 years and never knew that this sort of barbaric practice continued after Nazi Germany fell.  Some of the same people that were disgusted by what happened in World War II felt able to continue such activity under the guise of assisting impoverished families. I would wager most involved would say it is completely different. 

Diane describes propoganda found by Jane in the story and that is too based on fact. While Dianes investigations showed that in the early years of the programme the focus was on sterilising institutionalised people it shifted to women on welfare in the 1950s.  The propoganda may have stopped but the practice continued to 'better' society, to keep the welfare bill down and utilised by social workers it was clearly aimed at some of the most fragile of our society.  Furthermore, boys were also sterilised, some castrated for the same reasons.

This is not a novel, it is not based on fiction but on fact.  Doctors, some of our most educated in society, felt it acceptable to play God and determine who should be allowed to bear a child and who should not.  I can only imagine how women on welfare, with few ways to prevent pregnancy and the stigma of contraceptive use felt under such pressure to accept the operation, both for their daughters, sons and themselves as the only way to cope.  

How many can say that they would not have agreed to the operation under such pressure of life and social workers trained that this was the norm?  How many social workers, women new to a career focus, in a male driven society would have felt able to successfully argue against such practice?  And for how many social workers did that become normal accepted practice over the years?

Furthermore many of these poor people grew up believing they would have their own families, believing they had undergone surgery to remove an appendix only to find out in some terrible ways that they could not have children at a later date. Many women were told that the operation could be reversed only to find out that this was not the case.  

This did not just happen to black people, we cannot put it down to the ways of slavery and segregation even as a barbaric excuse that would be; it happened to white people too but tellingly, in most cases, to people that society did not consider much better than the black people already ostracised.

Compare it to Nazi Germany; little by little the ill-treatment of a certain part of society spread, spread like a disease to include jews, polish, gypsies etc and I see the comparison clearly here - sterilisation starts with the institutionalised and spreads like a disease to those that society does not consider to be worth procreation.  Sound familiar?

The last sterilisation took place in 1974 - two years after I was born!  Dates like this remind me that it was not many moons ago, not an era we expect to read about in our history books. Records were sealed until 1996 and when opened it is clear, and maybe inevitable, that today's values clashed with the values of past.  

Diane details events that have taken place since then in the state of North Carolina and provides an internet domain address where a hearing can be watched in which people personally affected by these acts have a chance to speak out.  I have included that link at the bottom of this page.  

Horrified at what I had read I watched that hearing last night and cried along with many of those affected.  Unsurprisingly many of those considered to be 'mentally deficient' are perfectly well funtioning individuals in society today and have nothing wrong with them.  There was nothing wrong with them when they were young other than being victim to their own circumstance.  And lets face it, even if people have a low IQ is it right for society to place a label on them and determine that all below a stated IQ should be sterilised?

Money does not bring the ability to have a child back, it does not make up for the untold heartache that many of these people have suffered and continue to suffer.  What upset me almost as much as the programme itself is that despite the North Carolina Governor putting aside over $10m in the budget and a bill passing easily through the House the Senate refused to support the plan.  Refused, yet a person accused wrongly of murder and then aquitted can be paid millions of dollars in compensation.  

Why are victims of such a brutal programme treated any differently than an incorrectly convicted person?  Are they any less human?  Is their pain and misery any less?  Did the person incorrectly labelled as a murderer suffer any more than these poor people?  No.  All of them were robbed of a future, robbed of what is rightfully theirs.

If we can pay millions of dollars in compensation to one person why can we not pay what amounted to $50,000 dollars each to a number of people?  The bill was for $10m, less than one person was paid in compensation for an incorrect conviction yet I cannot see a difference; all have been victim to a complete violation of their human rights.  In fact, the only difference I can see is that Senate support could open up any number of claims and place an untold burden on the public purse.  But wait, isn't this what these poor people were sterilised for in the first place?  The burden on the public purse.  Are those in positions of power in todays society once again denying these people?

Of course, as years pass society evolves, ideas evolve, what were once our beliefs are no more, views change.  What was considered acceptable only 50 years ago is considered unbelievable in today's society and some may argue that today's society cannot be held accountable for decisions made in the past but that it can learn from them.  It may be too simplistic to argue that we compensate people for incorrect imprisonment as DNA profiling improves our ability to prove the innocent and that I consider this programme should be treated the same.

I know that some people may read this and agree with the principle; that the burden on the public purse should be protected and I agree with that, it should be protected to a degree.  Some may consider that those who are too mentally disabled to make appropriate decisions for themselves should have decisions made for them and there is an argument there also. What is wrong is labelling that up as protection of an individual when it is no such thing. 

I work in the public sector, I administered benefit to the disabled for the first 14 years of those and you know what I learned? Every case should be considered on it's own merits, every person is different, there are lots of people who are incapable of looking after themselves, that require welfare and help from family and some of those will not be able to adequately care for children. I get that, I really do. As a qualified accountant in the public sector my job, for the last 10 years, is to protect the public purse but that does not mean that society  and governments should use this as an excuse to take such drastic actions to do so.

I believe that it is important that these stories are told.  Stories such as this, 12 Years a Slave and The Maid have served as a way for many to experience, if only in a miniscule way, what some in our society have had to suffer and overcome.  Some argue that films such as these, and similar books, serve to sensationalise such actions but I disagree.  Everyone must learn from the past so that the same mistakes can never happen again.

Schindler's List invoked a powerful response when that was first released; I remember sitting in the cinema as the credits rolled and every person in the cinema sat in silence, crying at other people's suffering.  I saw the same again as the credits rolled and lights brightened in the cinema after watching 12 Years a Slave and some of the scenes were painful to watch.  I cried along with those victims while watching the hearing about the Eugenics Programme last night.  Yes, all were hard to watch and so they should be!  

What we feel does not even come close to what these people have suffered and while we may not all wish to see it in glorious technicolour or read about it we should all learn a lesson from these acts. Using books and film is the use of a popular media to bring history to life for our children who are a more visual generation. I personally watch the more difficult scenes so I never forget what those that came before us have suffered for us. That is my choice. This is my opinion. You are free, of course, to agree or disagree. 

Diane Chamberlain; I thank you, thank you for teaching me about things I cannot easily learn about in the UK, thank you for being brave enough to stand up to any criticism you may have received for writing the novel and thank you for standing up for these poor people.

Watch the Eugenics Hearing: http://www.wral.com/news/video/9755940/#/vid9755940   





Wednesday 2 April 2014

Another day, another train journey

I'm on my way to Sheffield again but there and back in a day which translates to me recovering or suffering from tiredness tomorrow. I could blame getting old but it's probably got more to do with me being a heffalump.

I am armed with the trusty laptop to start drawing up pricing proposal templates on the train which would have been funding evaluations if I hadn't accidently deleted a spreadsheet of calculations in a fit of cleaning up my desktop screen and sent emails. My boss is probably getting used to me asking that he forward the email with the calculations I originally sent to him back to me and yes that may not be a good thing. 

As usual we have a team meeting so I am armed with suitably sugary sweets in case any of us need an infusion of energy by mid afternoon. 

Beautiful B has sent me a college paper to QA and put some nice long words in for her. As I'm teaching her what makes a good report and I only improve the grammar and format and go through the changes with her it's not putting her at an unfair advantage, more helping to prepare her for university in September. 

Yes I do realise this blog is not great evidence of my grammatical abilities.... 

After a long day I have just enough time for a shower and put the new PJ's Beautiful B bought me for Mothers Day on before I settle down to watch Greys Anatomy with her. At least I'm not away from home tonight so she can't text me, as she did last week, and tell me how brilliant an episode it is and what a cliffhanger it was left on. 

She was right though! The cliffhanger made me wish I'd waited a week and watched the two episodes back to back. Bless her. 

And in case you need cheering up:


Just for you Rachel.... Xxx

Tuesday 1 April 2014

What I learned this week...@ ribenamusings



 
Another week, another few days in Sheffield, which has its good and bad sides.  On the bad side staying away from home for 4 days gives me chance to get over the no cooking, cleaning buzz and miss my family and on the good side well no cooking or cleaning.
 
So spending most of the week away from home what have I learned?

  • Never sit on the hotel bed to relax and watch TV for an hour because there is a high risk that I will fall asleep sat up.....on all 3 nights
  • I can have my dinner delivered to my hotel room at 11pm at night when I wake up but I won't want to eat by them but some craving for strawberry ice-cream is easy to give in to
  • There is a high risk that I will wake up at 5am and be working in the hotel room by 5.15am after a quick shower stopping only for 20 minutes while I travel to the office for 7am to wor through to at least 7pm before working in the hotel rooom again
  • The security guards in Sheffield seem much much friendlier than they do in my home town and after 4 months I know them by their first names
  • I should set my alarm to remind me that it is lunch time otherwise I won't remember to eat until 4pm
  • I pack far too many clothes for a 3 night stay away from home because most of them come home nice and clean and without being removed from the hotel wardrobe
  • I really do know how to count so shouldn't take so many clothes away with me but being cautious and knowing I have a tendancy to throw food down my top spare clothes are a good thing
  • If the hotel bathroom has nice shiny floor tiles use the spare towels to make a path to the door so that you don't fall flat on your face when you step off the bath mat
  • I can be lucky and not cause a tremendous amount of damage slipping on a shiny hotel bathroom floor
  • It's possible to work an 80 hour week when away from home and without distractions
  • One of my dogs can sulk when I come home and not give me her usual cuddles because I left her
  • Terry's White Chocolate Orange is plain nasty
  • They sell white chocolate Aeros in Sheffield
  • I cannot eat a full pack of Drumstick Chews without feeling positively sick
  • Munching on fresh pineapple while working is scrumptious
  • After 2 days at home with Beautiful B and Hubby I haven't unpacked my suitcase fully yet which is just plain lazy
  • I am sat here wondering how I am going to dry my clothes now that the dryer is squealing again
  • Having cavity wall insulation can result in nice huge cracks down the rendering at the front of your house
  • Someone other than me is going to pay to repair that!
  • The loft insulation guys still haven't turned up; Hubby is beginning to get frustrated with the 20 boxes of Christmas decorations piled nice and high in our bedroom
  • My dogs like Jolly Ranchers as I found out this week when they emptied my handbag for me
  • Having never being able to keep a plant alive in my 40 years on this planet I am rather proud of the fact that my Parrot Plant need re-potting for the second time....I'm just lost as to where I am going to put it if I do as it will be too big for the windowsill.



So what have you learned this week?

Usual rules apply - see below. I would love to hear from you if you also leave comments on my blog.To join in Julie's What I Learned This Week carnival, simply follow these steps:

1. Any time this week, publish your What I Learned This Week post on your blog and comment on my blog hyper linking to your blog.

2. Then go and visit Julie’s blog at From Inmates to Playdates, find her latest “What I learned this week” and link up with the Mr. Linky form at the bottom of the post. Please put the link to your POST, not the front page of your blog.

3. Then visit the other participants and see what they learned this week.