Why We Think Black Cats Are Lucky...

If you get a copy of this weekend's Daily Mail (Saturday 7th Nov) you should see my feature about superstitions in there. So if you want to know why we avoid walking under ladders, why it's best not to open an umbrella inside or need to know how to get rid of a wart, then go out and buy a copy:)

Soul and Spirit

If you happen to be passing a newsagents please grab a copy of November's Soul and Spirit - not only is my feature about Native American Astrology in there, but it is also accompanied by my 15-year-old daughter Becky's wonderful illustrations. This is her first commission for her art work from a magazine editor and I am immensely proud of her! Well done, Bex!
Talking of illustrations, below is a photo of my other daughter, Georgina, dressed up as a wailing banshee for a Halloween party. Becky worked her Photoshop magic on the photo, the results of which are below:


Original Photo
















After Becky's Photoshop Magic


Spooky or what?

Not one, Not Two, but Three....

It's getting to that time of the year again when the annuals hit the shops in time for Christmas stocking fillers and my lovely, lovely editor, Mary at It's Fate has included not one, not two, but three of my features in the 2010 It's Fate annual. They are; Charm School - a feature about how to be more lucky (pages 106 -109), Handwritten Prescription - about palmistry (pages 110 - 113) and Treat Yourself - an item about natural medicines (pages130 -133) and the rest of the annual is pretty good too! It's packed with information from astrological reports to angels to unlocking the messages behind your dreams. For just £4.99 for a whopping 194 pages the It's Fate 2010 annual makes a great stocking filler!

My New Addiction...

We're in the process of buying our first home (having always rented before), and as such I have found myself becoming obsessed with property programmes. Homes Under the Hammer (BBC One, 10am, in case you were wondering) is now part of my morning schedule - did you see the one about the maisonette in Wiltshire and the bungalow in Derby? I think they paid far too much for the bungalow personally, but hey, they wanted a pond and they don't come cheap, or so Martin Roberts, HUH property guru informs me. Then of course there is To Buy or Not To Buy, followed by the wonderful Nick Knowles on the fantastic DIY SOS and 60 Minute Make Over, where (the title kind of gives it away) they give a home a make-over in, yes, you guessed it, 60 minutes. Just when I thought it couldn't get any better, the other day whilst looking for a new fix to my addiction, I discovered the lovely Welsh warbler, Aled Jones fronting a property programme! I know, THE I'm-Walking-in-the-Air-Aled-Jones! I fell in love all over again as Aled showed a couple a selection of suitable properties to buy and then excitement at the prospect of seeing the 'mystery house', which I have to say is always a bit of an anticlimax and I did keep on expecting the snowman to appear and whisk Aled off for a quick aerial shot, but he didn't, which was a bit disappointing, but hey, you can't have it all.
So I now feel quite at home talking about things like countersinking, HIP reports and could probably get a job as an auctioneer if I so wished - I've always fancied banging one of those gavels and saying, 'going once, going twice, sold to the lady with the teeth.' The only problem is that I can no longer leave the house for fear of missing a property show, so if someone would be kind enough to do the shopping, take the dogs out...

The Art of Whistling...

The seven year old has just discovered how to whistle. All very cute and harmless you might think, but now my life consists of one long game of, 'guess what I'm saying now, Mummy?' as she whistles various phrases, of which all sound the same to me. The house now sounds as though it's been invaded by a bunch of the Clangers as every response to a question results in a series of high pitched whistles. Songs are no longer sung, they're whistled and because whistling is more infectious than yawning (it's fact - hear someone whistling and before you know it, you too are whistling Suspicious Minds by Elvis) before long every member in the house is whistling along - some more in tune that others, I hasten to add (the husband can't carry a tune in a bucket, let alone whistle anything that slightly resembles a song).
Not content with being able to whistle, she has also taught herself to wolf-whistle passers by. Again, all very cute and harmless until she wolf-whistles a man in Sainsburys, old enough to be my grandfather, then hides in the clothes department, leaving me standing there blushing and protesting that it wasn't me and him thinking all his Christmasses have come at once!

The Cervical Cancer Jab

I'm sure you've all read the awful news about Natalie Morton, the 14 year old girl who died shortly after receiving the new cervical cancer jab, not to mention the 1300 young girls who have reported suffering adverse reactions to this injection, including long term paralysing. I have two teenage daughters and because they are not in a State school we had to apply to the local medical centre to make an appointment for the cervical cancer jab. Whilst I was flicking through the Sunday papers at my mums the other day, I happened to spot a small item about the adverse reactions some young girls' had suffered from having this vaccine and alarm bells starting to ring, making me investigate it further prior to allowing them to have the jab.
What I discovered was astounding: the same vaccine, Cervarix, has been refused a license in America because the licensing committee felt the drug hadn't been tested sufficiently enough. Furthermore, Dr Richard Halvorsen, author of The Truth about Vaccines, says: "The HPV vaccines have been introduced at breakneck speed and, in my view, without adequate testing. It is already the most profitable vaccine ever made and the worry is that it is being introduced too rapidly, for the financial gain of its manufacturers and with too little regard for the health our young women. These parents may never know for certain whether the vaccine caused their daughters' disabilities."
And even more alarmingly, Dr Halvorsen says: "I would not encourage my own daughter to have it. At the moment we know far too little to be sure - and we know far too little to roll it out on a national scale."
So, a doctor, who has studied the affects of vaccines thoroughly in his profession, would not allow his own daughter to have this vaccine! That's all I needed to know. I cancelled the appointments at the clinic. Unfortunately, we all too often put our trust in the advertising campaigns, believing, quite naturally that the drugs they are promoting to save lives will do just that, save lives. To my knowledge, no one informed parents of the risks associated with this vaccine. Remember the thalidomide vaccine in the 1960's? One of the biggest cases of drug testing tragedy to date. This 'safe' drug was responsible for over 10,000 human birth deformities. I would urge every parent to thoroughly research the effects of any vaccine or drug before they sign the form allowing their child to be injected. Don't just accept that because the school nurse, GP or government say it's safe it will be.

Ho, Ho, Ho, Hee, Hee, Hee....

I've spent much of today researching something called Laughter Therapy and have been invited to take part in a laughter therapy workshop in order to experience it for myself. For those who haven't heard of it before, LT is just what it says - therapy by using various techniques to make us laugh, and this got me wondering; just as not everyone likes the same type of music, not everyone is going to find the same things funny, surely? What might be hilarious to one person, might be unfunny to another, so I wonder how they go about making a room full of people all erupt in to laughter? Personally I love observational humour, I love those clips on UTube of people falling over, I love jokes, even those awful knock-knock ones. My children make me laugh out loud on a daily basis with their wonderful pearls of wisdom and robotic dances and my day to day life makes me laugh - a lot (is that a good thing, I wonder?)
Apparently, laughter is not only good for the soul, it's also good for your health. According to studies, laughing strengthens your immune system, increases your intellectual performance, boosts information retention, keeps you young and helps you to live longer. I'm all for that. Now, have you heard the joke about the two nuns driving down the road when....oh, hang on, that's a bit rude and my mum might be reading this;)