DON'T GET ME STARTED ON IKEA!

Cardiff IKEA Restaurant

Whilst working at IKEA(but in her own time)Ariel has broken her wrist and a toe. Due to this she was unable to work and she had to go to Human Resources for an interview because she had too much time off work and they told her that she should not do things in her own time that might prevent her from working( having accidents!) and she received a warning.
She was off work due to diarrhea on the 21st of this month but went back to work the next day because she was afraid that her supervisor would be angry with her.She told her supervisor she was still unwell when she signed her return to work form AND THE supervisor knew she was still unwell but allowed her to work ........ in the restaurant. Ariel was called to a meeting to discuss her absence and I went with her as her representative.
The restaurant manager asked her the same question a total of 5 times-if she felt she had been fit to work when she returned .I encouraged Ariel to have the situation clarified, I advised Ariel that the manager was intimidating her to say she felt well enough to return to work. How Ariel FELT was irrelevant, the law states that she should not have returned within 48 hours of the symptoms. In the interview, Ariel who is 17 was bullied by the front of house manager in the meeting and the front of house manager said that I could only ask for clarity and an adjournment, I was not allowed to discuss the bullying behaviour. When I tried to discuss it the front of house manager told me it was not my place to give her feedback on her behaviour so I advised Ariel to ask for clarity on the intimidating behaviour and she said that she understood what was happening.
Ariel confirmed that there was a culture of intimidation and bullying in IKEA Cardiff restaurant to make people return to work before they were ready, that was why she returned the next day even though she still felt unwell. Others have told her it is better to come to work ill and be sent home.This last Monday when Ariel returned to work after a 3 day Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme Expedition she was told off by the supervisor and intimidated by the supervisor about her absence even though IKEA knew about her involvement in Army Cadets and the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme when she first started in the job.

Who remembers this report?

LINK

Ikea's filthy kitchens of shame

Nov 1 2006

Katie Jones, South Wales Echo

Customers at Cardiff's Ikea restaurant were served food on filthy plates from an 'unacceptably' dirty kitchen. That was the conclusion of a damning inspection report at the flagship store. Internal safety inspectors also found soap was missing for staff to wash their hands. And chicken which was past its use-by date was being served. Ikea says all the findings have now been addressed but customers are shocked. Regular user Darryl Beaver, 46, of Barry, said: 'It's disgusting.'

So IKEA Restaurant Cardiff WANTS their restaurant workers to work, even one day after having diarrhea, and their absence for diarrhea is investigated EVEN when the supervisor and the front of restaurant manager knows the employee has had diarrhea.

Will I ever feel safe eating in IKEA again?

MISS PIGGY

After a weekend of not blogging I am back, I still have my cold, but I'm back!
I now have swollen eyes, probably conjunctivitis, so not only do I feel like poop but I have piggy eyes. BUT the sunshine we are experiencing is set to last all week which also means that if I go out I will not look too stupid wearing sunglasses to cover the piggy eyes!

Talking of all things piggy........
Ariel decided yesterday, by her own volition,to clean out the piggy boys! Well the piggy boys got to play in their run for a little while but I wonder if it was really worth all the whitterring.The main whitter was related to the fact that their pee was wet(!) and their poop smelt(!) but Ariel and Fiona did appear to be enjoying themselves playing on the floor with the guinea pigs like 6 and 7 year olds.

Due to the very unseasonal rain(YES I know I live in Wales), Beauty spent much of last week in the house either watching videos or playing on the computer so I don't know how she will take to that foreign object in the sky, THE SUN. She may not be too impressed with having to go out to play when she has been allowed to play on the computer so much in the last week. Even when we do go out she is still not too eager to do anything more that be pushed in her wheelchair/buggy. Last time we went out we visited Barry and The Knap beach and the buggy was not an option but I did have Fiona and SnoWhite with me so if there had been any issues they would have been able to scoop Beauty up and deposit her back in the car.

Beauty however was thrilled with the beach and loved every minute of it. The Knap is a pebble beach and she enjoyed scrabbling up and down through the stones whilst we collected drift wood.
Beauty is not good with noise so the best time to take her to most places is early evening, it is quicker to get there because of less traffic, less people around(noise) and Fiona and SnoWhite are definitely out of bed!Remember, students get up in time to watch Hollyoaks.

WE HAVE SUNSHINE

And I have a cold !
It is the middle of bloody summer and I have a a really sore throat, swollen glands and a headache.........I am not impressed.
Beauty is blissfully unaware, life goes on and she is bouncing around like the pop corning guinea pigs. She is enjoying watching Disney sing-a-long songs on YouTube so all is well in Beauty world though I personally would enjoy a little less volume.

Oops!

I would make a rubbish cyber bully, I have spent the night worrying that the people who comment on my blog might think that yesterday's blog was about one of them and it wasn't. I was writing about a major league blog that doesn't even know that the likes of me exist and the reason I didn't write their name was because I didn't want them to think I was being mean about them. The people who write on my blog I admire and respect AND I especially enjoy their sense of humour.

I seems that the waters are receding in parts of the country which is good news but the rains continued again today which is not such good news for those in the Oxfordshire area as they still face possible floods. It is going to cost millions to clean up all the mess and I feel so sorry for all those people who do not have house insurance. When I bought the house 11 years ago I took out house insurance and whilst I have only claimed on it maybe 3 times it has always been such a comfort to know it is there.

Some local news

Burglar jailed after leaving card
A burglar has been jailed for 30 months after leaving a probation office appointment card at the scene of his crime.
Swansea Crown Court heard police were led straight to the home of Larry Black, 21, after finding the card.
Black, from Portmead, admitted theft, burglary, various motoring offences and taking a vehicle without permission.
The court heard he stole five samurai swords, cash, a DVD player and a £100 gold necklace from a home in the city.

Oops!
I bet someone feels silly.

THE SUN IS SHINING

'Fat library man' bullied online

Facebook and the university have condemned the cyber bullying

A university student has been telling how a social networking website was used to set up a group which aimed to target him with bullying and hate.

Graham Mallaghan, 36, who also works as a library assistant at the University of Kent, said the Facebook group had existed for weeks before he knew of it.

It was called "for those who hate the little fat library man".

More than 350 people joined, some of whom have sent personal apologies to Mr Mallaghan now the group has been shut.

One of them read: "My behaviour was everything but mature and responsible."

It appears that cyber bullying is alive and kicking!
I am not too keen on commenting on other peoples blogs because I have witnessed a lot of cyber bullying and I do not want to get involved. The worst cases that I have witnessed usually involve very educated people or very religious people and the purpose of their blogging appears to be a vehicle to show how clever they are or to compel you to believe what they believe.
I once commented on a TV show and the person who the show was about wrote to me and said she was mis-represented on the show and I put what she said on my blog and said I was sorry about the way that the show portrayed her. I did comment on her behaviour which was portrayed as very childlike but I would never bully someone on-line as I was bullied a lot growing up(even if I hadn't been bullied,bullying is still wrong.)
One blog I read which is written by a very intelligent person used an example to prove a point in an argument and I so wanted to say But this example can just as easily be used to prove the other persons point of view but I didn't because it would have left me open . If I were to have explained the situation to the individual I honestly believe they would have been shocked to see how the situation could have been perceived. The writer of the blog involved has a bee in their bonnet about a certain subject and regularly tries to prove their point of view is the RIGHT one but because the subject matter involved cannot be conclusively proved one way or the other, I as a not-so-clever person believe that we should accept the possibility of either conclusion for now.
Remember what I wrote about the WWI and men who were shot for cowardice but it is obvious that the men were obviously suffering from mental health problems? When the jury is out I think it is better to accept all possibilities because I am tired of hearing 10 or 20 years down the line AH BUT WE WERE MAKING DECISIONS ON THE KNOWLEDGE WE HAD THEN.
There were doctors in WWI who were convinced that the men who were being shot were suffering from mental health problems but because they couldn't convince the powers that be , an out-dated medical opinion was used to legitimise the killing of these men.
The clever people out their could probably rip this argument to shreds but just because they are better than me at debating doesn't mean to say that they are right and I am wrong.

Definitely too deep for a Tuesday morning!
We have some sunshine at last, however Beauty and I went puddle jumping yesterday on the way to the shop so whatever the weather she is having fun. Thankfully we have had no flooding here just the relentless rain.
The prediction for Belle in Florida is 34 degrees with a little rain and Anastasia in Austria is 26 degrees with a little rain. I am sure that a little rain with them will be a nice respite.

The piggy boys are such funny little things. They have a 2 tier hutch to give them extra space to run around but until recently only Mouth has been going upstairs. Now however they are both going upstairs because I have put their food up on the top floor. Previously when Mouth went upstairs Chunk would start wheeking constantly and not shut up until Mouth came down, Chunk maybe the smaller piggy but he definitely seems in charge-a bit like Beauty I guess! Mouth seems to HIDE a lot upstairs in the little cwtch area, I don't blame him-I guess he just wants a quiet life.

At the moment the volume on the smaller computer is not working ( I think it is a speaker problem)but this does not seem to bother Beauty, when she plays games and watches videos she knows EVERY word and is constantly singing and chatting along. I see a career for her as a TV presenter, you know the type of sports or commentator on royal or big events who talks non-stop about anything and everything involved with what they are watching. I have 6 weeks of this........ as my girls will confirm I prefer a quiet life and never watch daytime TV or listen to the radio or CDs( and dislike TV music video channels intensely). I feel for Beauty every school morning when I take her into the school hall and we are hit by a cacophony of noise-she sticks her fingers in her ears(do you think they would mind if I did too?).

IT IS PERSISTING IT DOWN.

It is the first day of the school holidays for Beauty and the rains persist........in fact it is persisting it down now! Beauty is having a lie in but later I shall take her for a walk in the rain and puddles as she loves water AND she has a Scooby Doo umbrella and red and white spotty wellies. Oh well, no need to worry about sunburn this summer!

I am working on a piece of art at the moment called The Boomerang Child, I am using acrylics on canvas. It is a housewarming present for SnoWhite when she moves out (AGAIN) on the 1 August, it seems that children in Australia who keep coming back home are called boomerang children so I am painting a landscape of Uluru with a boomerang in the sky. I shall have to paint something for the other girls as I painted yellow roses(her favourite flower) for Snowhite's 21st birthday. On The Boomerang Child I only have a gecko and a turtle to paint on the boomerang and the painting will be finished.
As thank you presents for Beauty's teachers and teacher's aides I made them collages on canvas complete with hand shapes in fabric of Beauty's and the teachers and teacher's aides hands. For the boys in her class I gave them packets of emergency services toys, there were fire services and police packs.

Yesterday I put the piggies in the run in the living room to play whilst I cleaned out their hutch, Fiona and Beauty were on the computers happily occupied so I didn't anticipate any problems. However, Fiona suddenly squealed and I turned around to find Beauty no longer at the computer but standing in the piggy run in the living room frightening the life out of the piggies!
The piggies survived.
On Saturday night Fiona was holding one of the piggies whilst she was watching TV, suddenly Fiona squealed(yep she seems to squeal a lot) and dumped the piggy on the sofa and ran! Well Ariel thought the piggy had bitten her and I thought the worst that the piggy had died BUT NO the piggy had peed on her! Fiona wasn't happy when I laughed and she shouted YOU WAIT UNTIL ONE OF THEM PEES ON YOU.
To which I replied AFTER 27 YEARS OF NURSING AND CHANGING NAPPIES A BIT OF PIGGY PEE OR POOP IS NOT GOING TO WORRY ME.
which impressed her even less!

Last night whilst watching TV Beauty went very quiet and so I got up to look for her, we have a barn door on our living room and the door wouldn't open so I looked over the door and there she was on the floor unraveling a toilet roll. I shouted at her to stop it but before I could stop her she went from 0 to 60 in 5 seconds and unraveled the whole roll in front of me and then because she knew she was being naughty she sprinted as fast as her chubby legs would carry her. She is definitely cheekier than her sisters, they would never have done that!

ANOTHER POSTCARD FROM HOME

GUESS WHAT THEY ARE QUEUING UP TO BUY?

IT IS LATE AND THEY ARE TIRED.



ANY SECOND NOW!



GUESS WHO IS BAKING AGAIN?



ARTERY CLOGGING BUT SO NICE



Mmmmmmm!




LOLLIPOP MAKERS



SNOWHITE



ARIEL POSING AGAIN!



THE WEDDING PARTY



ARIEL, SNOWHITE AND S



AGAIN



SNOWHITE-CHECK THE NEW DO!

The rains continue but I am grateful that we haven't had any flooding.

Pupils were sent home from St Richard Gwyn High School on Friday

There has however been flooding at the bottom of my sister's road and at my nieces school, they live in Barry which is only a few miles away. A lot of the guests at the wedding that SnoWhite and Ariel went to yesterday also had difficulties getting to the wedding as they came from up around the border -Hereford, Gloucester and Worcester which has seen a lot of flooding. The only problem we are experiencing is so much rain is causing next doors garden to smell( the dog poop neighbours!).

Torrential rain left several parts of Barry under water on Friday

SnoWhite cried last night when she read that a certain young man from Hogwarts had died. However, if it had been a different young man from Hogwarts who had died she would have been inconsolable. Enough said as Ariel hasn't yet read the book.

I realise that when I talk about my arthritis - back pain- Dercum's it must sound like I am a complete moaner........Sorry! I never though about it that way.
I actually do not consider myself to be sick-I only think of myself as sick when I have a cold or something viral. I am lucky to have Fiona and SnoWhite to watch Beauty when I need to lie down because of the pain in my back or joints. As I have a day bed off the kitchen where I lie down I still feel as if I am part of everything that is going on and I usually lie down until the pain killers kick in. I do have a wheelchair but my back only feels better if I lie down for at least an hour, there appears to be as much pressure on my back sitting as standing. Even the piggies go quiet when I lie down but the moment I sit up on the bed to get up they start wheeking like crazy, their hearing is so good they know when I am moving. Oh it is so nice to be loved that much! With Beauty as long as she has plentiful supplies of 'you-gut', pizza, fish, crisps and chocolate she is happy but she is just as happy for her sisters to feed her as me thank goodness.
The minute I start sounding like the hypochondriac widow in Pollyanna please let me know!

THE WEEKIE BOYS

THANK GOODNESS IT IS OVER.

No more Harry Potter books to queue up for at midnight!
I have tried many, many times to read a Harry Potter book but I have always failed, after a few pages I seem to lose interest and fail to complete reading the book. I think it is because my children have told me(in detail-repeatedly) exactly what happens that it holds no interest.
However, as a mother, I feel that J.K.Rowling has finished the books well. If she had killed off any of the characters my children LOVE I think I would have been very unhappy with her.
My children know my feelings regarding people who hurt or upset them, for instance, Ariel will be doing a course at DEEPCUT(yes DEEPCUT) and I have previously told her that if anything happens to her I will hunt them down for the rest of time , she doesn't think it is funny!
Back to Harry Potter, I have traipsed the length and breadth of the British Isles with their love of Harry Potter, from an interview in an Edinburgh Park with the BBC ,to an interview in the Cafe where the first book was written, to a TV documentary in Surrey and to a premier in London. Just one more film to go.........however I think the love of Harry Potter will live on!

My parents were heavy smokers and one died of a heart attack and the other cancer, I think it was because of seeing them smoking and their illnesses I never smoked, not even once. I think that having lots of children has had the same effect on my girls, whilst I think they will all have at least 2(though SnoWhite insists she will have none-we shall see!) I don't think they will have large families. I see Anastasia with 2 boys and a big slobbery dog, I see them as Berber jacket wearing,green wellie wearing and jeep driving. I also see Belle with 2 boys and a slobbery dog(Woody of course) but I see them wearing American football shirts and Cons and driving a truck. SnoWhite I see marrying a Ron Weasley look-a-like and having LOTS of red, frizzy haired babies and the children all wearing flowered wellies(even the boys!), rainbow coloured clothes and driving a VW BUS! Ariel I see driving a hummer whilst wearing a baseball cap and a white track suit with a girl and a boy called Chaneese and Dwayne. Whereas with Fiona I can see little girls dressed is clothes made from Laura Ashley and Cath Kidston fabric in a big country house with lots of animals and driving again a VW BUS but there is a blank as far as a man is concerned! And for Beauty I can see no further than her being permanently attached to a computer at the moment but things will change. Well those are my predictions anyway, I am sure that reality will be completely different.

I BLAME BEAUTY

We were awake this morning at stupid o'clock, I was awoken to the music coming from the Beauty and the Beast video-well I suppose it could have been worse!
Last night I watched a TV program Nazi Pop Twins-it was a documentary about Prussian Blue who are a nationalist folk duo in the USA. There is no way that I agree with the ideologies promoted by the family but I was more concerned with the psychological damage all this propaganda appears to be having on the girls. They just do not appear to believe the things their mother believes and their mother was just not able to accept this. There was also one point when the mother called one of the twins a C_NT, I was just stunned that the mother would use this word on camera. School boys, drunk men and Brit Flicks are the only time I have EVER heard this word used and as a nurse I have not led a sheltered life but hearing this word used by a mother in the context of family life was shocking.

SOME KIM AND AGGIE PICTURES







I have a some photographs of a certain bedroom that Kim and Aggie might like to see!

I also watched Kim and Aggie last night, Fiona and I LOVE watching How Clean is your House and of course Anthea's Perfect Housewife but I wonder sometimes why we bother because we watch half of the show behind our hands it is so bad. Kim and Aggie appear to concentrate on really filthy houses and Anthea on very cluttered and untidy houses and I definitely agree with the analysis on Wikipedia

The show is light-hearted and often camp, falling more into the entertainment category than the factual genre. Much of the appeal comes from the almost voyeuruistic pleasure of seeing how untidy some people let their houses become (many have not been cleaned for years), though the cleaning tips add some practical value to the show.

Every time I watch the program I have a huge impulse to hire a skip to sort out my garage( and SnoWhites bedroom). From the 1 August all of SnoWhites possessions will have' left the building' and I will have plenty of space to allow me to store my art supplies in the back bedroom whilst I sort out the front bedroom as an art studio, I cannot wait(for the art studio of course!).

Yesterday I walked up the Wash Powder and cleaning aisle in ASDA(WALMART) and I nearly choked at the fumes that were coming from the products, surely it cannot be safe for the shop employees to work with these fumes or for them to be used in homes?
Here is something I found on the BBC website
I use the Ecover, soda crystals plus borax.

Clean Home, Clear Conscience
link

Looking for a chemical-free cleaner? With naturally derived ingredients, such as coconut soap and chalk powder, you'll know you won't be killing off the local wildlife, but do they actually work? We put our favourites to the test.

Ecover Cream Cleaner £1.25 for 500ml from supermarkets How eco is it? It’s made from chalk dust and plant-based ingredients, all of which are biodegradable. The containers are 100 per cent recyclable. Is it any good? Marvellous. It’s probably as good as a traditional cleaner but without the chemical nasties. A quick squirt on a grimy hob shifted even burnt-on marks. Baths and sinks come clean, too, with only a little elbow grease and, once you rinse them clean, look really quite sparkly. This felt the closest to a traditional kitchen/ bathroom cleaner and, although you do need give it a good rinse afterwards, it produced the best results. Score 5/5

Soda Crystals From any supermarket How eco is it? As eco as you can get. Is it any good? Not so much a cleaner as a handy natural solution for breaking down grease (such as in the U-bend of a sink). It can be used as a water softener for laundry, too. We used it instead of bleach on a blocked sink by simply pouring a couple of cups worth of crystals down the plug, swiftly followed by a kettle of boiling water, and it did the trick. Got a waste disposal unit? Emptying half a cup and some hot water into it every few weeks will stop grease and smells building up. Score 4/5

Liquid Soda crystals £1.49 for 500ml How eco is it? It contains no phosphates, enzymes or bleach and is bio-degradable, too. Is it any good? Pretty impressive. Just squirt it on and leave it for a few minutes to work, then get scrubbing. You don’t need a massive amount of elbow grease to shift grimy units and burnt-on mess on your hob, and you can also use it to get rid of caked-on gunge in pans (though you can’t use it on aluminium ones) and stained chopping boards. Score 4/5

E-cloth Cleaning System Kitchen/Bathroom Pack (one general purpose cloth, one glass/polishing cloth), £4.99 How eco is it? The cloth contains loads of tiny fibres to shift grease and grime and no chemicals at all. Is it any good? It’s worth having in the cupboard, but you will need another all-purpose cleaner to tackle every job around the kitchen and bathroom. It came up trumps on lightly soiled worksurfaces, glass and stainless steel, where it left surfaces clean and quite sparkly, but was less impressive on a grubby hob. Score 2/5

Simple Green All Purpose Cleaner £9.99 plus £4.99 p&p for 1L of concentrate (makes up to ten 500ml trigger spray bottles when diluted – works out at £1.49 for 500ml) How eco is it? No bleach, ammonia and phosphates. Comes as a concentrate, which saves on packaging and transport costs. Is it any good? Yes. It may not smell as gentle and lovely as some of the fragranced cleaners we tested (it’s like a more traditional cleaner though the lemon is much nicer than the original), but it does do the job if you leave it for a handful of seconds to work. Just spray it on and get to work – you don’t need to rinse afterwards. Because it’s a concentrate, you can change the strength of the mix for different tasks. Score 4/5

Yesterday when I went to pick Beauty up from school I sat and waited as usual in the hall for her and suddenly she came squealing HERE I AM into the hall being pushed by JOHN the teacher's aide at 50 miles per hour in her wheel chair! WHAT A STAR!

I BLAME SNOWHITE!

Sorry I didn't blog yesterday girls but I was too exhausted.
The lease on Snowhites flat runs out on the 31 July so she has been looking for a new flat with little success. However, earlier in the week Fiona, Ariel and I stopped and looked at flats to rent in a flat shop in Cathays and found a couple of 2 bedroom flats for her to see. 1 was in Column Road and the other Wordsworth Avenue and on Tuesday we got SnoWhite and her mate to view them and they took the one on Wordsworth Avenue. I think they are very lucky to get the flat as it is quite special, it is a garden basement flat in a Victorian house in a tree lined street and it has a small garden at the front and quite a large paved garden at the back. The lounge/ dining room is very big and there are 2 double bedrooms and SnoWhite's bedroom has a door that leads out onto the back garden. The living room floor is being re-laid and the kitchen re-fitted before they move in and it is just as cheap as the rental on living in a shared house.
I have promised to paint SnoWhite a picture of a boomerang for the flat because she is a boomerang girl who always ends up coming back home! She came to house sit when I went on holiday in January and never went back to her flat-let's hope that a 2 bed flat share works better. I think that SnoWhite may want to be on her own but she gets lonely when she is in a flat on her own.
On Tuesday night she stayed the night at her mates house in Roath and I had to pick her and her mate up to get them to the flat shop to sign the contracts by 12 mid-day but when I got there they were still asleep so we got to the shop a few minutes late.AND then she didn't have her cheque book so we had to go to my house and then her flat to look for it-luckily we found it in the flat. We also went to the bank in Roath twice and the bank in Canton once to get cash for the deposit and the flat shop fee. AND SnoWhite insisted on going to the baguette shop on Senghennyd Road because they had a better vegetarian choice of baguette! We just got to Beauty's school in time to pick her up without being late.
By the time we got home I was seriously considering batting her around the head or hiding all her WESTLIFE CD's.
Fiona watched Beauty whilst I lay down and I took some pain killers for my then very painful back and joints and I passed out for approximately 3 hours! Most days I lie down a lot due to the pain in my back but if I nap it is usually a very short nap of about half an hour and then I feel lots better. Well after my long sleep yesterday I was walking around like an old woman-no I wouldn't say I walked, I hobbled.

Tomorrow is Beauty's last day of school before the summer holidays, there is no play scheme this year so I see our summer being filled with visits to the beach, the park, the farm, the museum and St Fagans-all the places that Beauty loves to visit.

We have had sunshine now for 2 days and it is very pleasant. I was sat in the car yesterday waiting for SnoWhite to come out of the bank and the smell of the heat in the air reminded me of the summers when I was young ,playing on the field behind my house.

AND THE RAINS CAME DOWN...........

Has anyone else seen this?

Buffy star's joy at Torchwood job

James Marsters will be playing another dark character

Former Buffy star James Marsters and ex-Neighbours actor Alan Dale have spoken of their excitement at starring in the BBC TV series Torchwood.

Marsters, who played Spike in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, said he was "a big fan" of the Doctor Who spin-off.

And Dale, who used to play Jim Robinson in Neighbours and has recently been in The OC and Ugly Betty in the US, said he was "thrilled" to be in the show.

Filming for the new Torchwood series is currently under way in Cardiff.

The alien-chasing series, starring John Barrowman and Eve Myles, is expected to be shown in 2008 and Marsters is set to guest star in the first episode.

I have strict instructions to let SnoWhite know if I hear of (or see any filming) as they are filming the next series of Torchwood at the moment! The final of Doctor Who was filmed in SnoWhites friend's street in Roath, the scene where Martha is caught by The Master. I did see some filming at the Royal Infirmary but that was a while back now.

I have a Doctor Who question. If The Doctor and the Master were able to 'store' their 'essence' in a watch, could a ring do the same thing? Remember The Masters ring that a woman picked up from The Master's funeral pyre?

Sorry .....Enough Doctor Who/Torchwood.

WEATHER REPORT-The rainy season continues, I am almost tempted to go on holiday to escape the bad weather but I know there is no way that I could cope with the high temperatures elsewhere in the world at this time of year, unless of course I went North. Even now Helsinki is a pleasant 21 degrees and Oslo is 18 degrees- I have always fancied visiting Norway.

PIGGY UPDATE-The piggies are growing daily and are very sweet and very happy. Whenever I enter the room they go weeking crazy and demand to be fed and they really seem to enjoy cuddles. Mouth the larger piggy is such a baby really, when I sit him on my lap and give him a cuddle he slowly creeps up to my neck and snuggles in and starts to purr- I think I forget that they are still only a few weeks separated from their mother. I have no really knowledge of animal psychology but can guinea pigs miss their mothers?

Beauty appears to be a walking advert for Hello Kitty at the moment, her sisters who love her very much keep buying her Hello Kitty things that they see in town. Her latest present is a Hello Kitty water bottle from H&M, H&M seem to be doing all things Hello Kitty at the moment which is keeping Fiona happy. And talking of Fiona, yesterday evening Fiona went for an interview at IKEA- if she gets a job then that will be daughter number 4 to work for the company!

PIANOMAN UPDATE-Still enjoying the pain relief! Still not happy with the no mobile phone rule. Today or tomorrow he should be moved from Coronary Care to a ward. From today he is able to have non-family visitors-Let The Fun Begin! 'A' the Branch P visited Sunday, he still only looks 19! Let's hope I miss the visit from the friendly neighbourhood GP. I will keep you all informed-thanks for the phone calls, it was good to hear from you.

Time to get Beauty out of bed for school! She doesn't fall asleep until midnight but if I put her to be earlier she will be up at stupid o'clock- she is like a University student with her love of bed EXCEPT she does get up a little before Hollyoaks comes on TV in the evening!

More news later from the less than exciting life of a middle aged woman in Wales!

BEFORE YOU RUSH TO THE PHONES AND PHONE HOME...............

Pianoman man has had quiet a nasty heart attack but he is in Coronary Care in the Heath and seems to be doing really well. He is sat in his bed smiling blithely, for once he appears to be pain free and he is enjoying the feeling due to the REALLY STRONG drugs he has been given.
Fiona made the comment, he has had cancer, he has had a stroke and now a heart attack...........what more could happen? The only thing that I could think of was be run over by a car whilst you are running and break your neck-oops! Runningman's done that!
Perhaps now Pianoman's mother will get the help that she needs whilst he is in hospital and Pianoman will listen to someone else about not eating crap.

Due to all the excitement(!) I forgot to tell you about the Oops incident. On Friday night Beauty accidentally pulled down a door curtain and she dragged the curtain to SnoWhite and handed her it and said Oops!. Well I was thrilled,by saying Oops she knew it was an accident and it could be fixed, it also seemed like she was saying' I didn't mean this to happen, please don't be angry with me and please fix it'. Now that is definite improvement.

Beauty's teacher is back after her operation, looking good(thank goodness) and Beauty's little tormentor has finally been moved from her class after biting her a third time. Bite 3 looked quite nasty- whilst I understand the situation, I really do not believe it should have come to bite 3, if I had put her in the same situation 3 times and allowed her to be bitten 3 times by the same individual them social services would have been pretty p*ssed. Why is it different with school?

JUSTICE

I have read reports where people have been imprisoned for things that I did not believe needed a custodial sentence yet cruelty like this should surely receive a custodial sentence if only for 2 weeks.
So he has been banned from owning and breeding dogs and given a suspended prison sentence and ordered to pay costs but where is the punishment?

Puppy cruelty farmer is sentenced

Peter Hughes kept dogs chained up in waterlogged conditions

A farmer who illegally bred dogs in "cramped, cold and dirty" conditions has been given a suspended prison sentence and banned from keeping dogs.

Peter Hughes, 71, was found to have 64 dogs at his sheep farm at Halkyn, Flintshire, but a licence for only 12.

Hughes admitted causing unnecessary suffering, breeding without a licence, and breaching his pet shop licence.

His three-month jail term was suspended for two years, and he was banned from owning a dog for 10 years.

He was also banned from applying for a licence to breed puppies for 10 years, and was ordered to pay £6,000 costs.

The court officials found dogs chained up in waterlogged conditions, many with infections and ulcerated feet.

Prosecuting barrister Chris Moss said council officials and RSPCA inspectors found 64 dogs in "generally filthy and unhygienic conditions" and many with health problems.

QUEENS AND HISSY FITS!

Why couldn't the Queen be normal like the rest of us(well like me anyway!) and have a hissy fit.

The BBC has apologised for creating the impression – in a promotional trailer shown at yesterday's BBC One autumn season launch – that the Queen stormed out of a photography session with Annie Leibovitz.
The BBC and RDF Television, the producers of the BBC One series A Year With The Queen, would like to clarify that the clips shown in a promotional trailer on 11 July were not intended to provide a full picture of what actually happened or of what will be shown in the final programme.This was an important photo-shoot prior to the Queen's visit to the United States. In this trailer there is a sequence that implies that the Queen left a sitting prematurely. This was not the case and the actual sequence of events was mis-represented.
The BBC would like to apologise to both the Queen and Annie Leibovitz for any upset this may have caused.
BBC Press Office

I thought it was so funny. Here was the Queen having a strop like the rest of us AND then the BBC says Sorry She Was Mis-Represented.

Why can't she be real? Why can't she get stressy?

Hands up- I admit it- I had a hissy fit yesterday.

A hissy fit of all hissy fits and I am sure I scared the builder/repairman who ever he was-GOOD!

I went to pick Beauty up from school and when I got back someone was parked on my hard standing which is part of my house. At first I thought -OK I WONT SAY ANYTHING and I didn't because there was enough room for me to park without blocking my other neighbour. However, the van owner who was parked outside of my house came out as as I was taking Beauty in AND he had a hissy fit because he couldn't open his rear doors but there was plenty of room for him to get out and park 1 second away in the communal parking opposite. Now his getting pissy at me set me off.
I told him not to get upset with me as he shouldn't be there any way and anyway how was I meant to get my disabled daughter into the house.
To which he produced a string of abuse and of course that was like a red rag to a bull and in a very unladylike way I said Don't talk to me like that you little Sh*t head
He then flounced off like a 6 year old-he must have been about 20.
I shouted at him Are you going to move it then?
To which he replied NOW-IN A MINUTE!
Anyone not living in Wales will probably need a translation of NOW-IN A MINUTE
Some English speakers in Wales use some very unusual phrases
for instance BY YUR or B YUR (by here)
or BY THERE or B THERE (by there)
How can something be BY HERE or BY THERE, it is either here or there?
My girls have a favourite WHOSE COAT IS THAT JACKET HANGING THERE ON THE FLOOR? (heard at a church dance) So NOW - IN A MINUTE doesn't mean NOW but IN A MINUTE- why?I don't know, I have asked why this is said but when I have the person I have asked looked at me as if I were speaking a foreign language!
Anyway-all ended well as he moved his van NOW-IN 5 MINUTES!
However, just to be sure I got SnoWhite to go out and take his registration number just in case he decided to get up close and personal with my car.

Due to the rain there was no school sports yesterday but it wasn't Beauty that got upset but Fiona who wanted to watch and take photos, oh well perhaps the sun will shine again soon.Well it seems that Belle in Florida will be having nice weather as it is forecast to be 34 degrees today and for Anastasia in Vienna it is forecast to be 26 degrees but by Tuesday it is meant to be 39 degrees- at least some of the family are having nice weather! No wonder I like to go to the Canaries in the winter, it is the only summer I seem to get.

ANTICIPATING AN INDIAN SUMMER

Beauty may not be normally developing in many ways but in some ways she is a typical 6 year old. Yesterday she learnt the trick of swallowing air(does that sound familiar girls?) and making herself belch and I couldn't get her to stop.So in the end, each time she belched I went Argh quite loudly which made her stop and laugh,after about 5 times she stopped belching all together. So Belle which of your sweet little sisters does that remind you of? How are the Kansas Crows? I hope you had a good time in Kansas.

Yesterday I mistakenly thought the British summer had started,it was sunny all day and then late evening and through the night it started to rain. Even as a child I remember most summers having sunny days and rain showers at night but then perhaps that is just a south east Wales things. But the rain didn't stop , it continued all through the night and it is still raining and overcast so no sports day. Obviously Beauty does not anticipate in the same was as a normally developing child and she is not disappointed BUT I am.Sad Woman!
As a child I used to love things such as Sports day and School trips and Christmas parties and to nave them cancelled or postponed was a terrible disappointment. Perhaps tomorrow.

WHAT?

Fat taxes 'could save thousands'

Tax would apply to foods high in fat

More than 3,000 fatal heart attacks and strokes could be prevented in the UK each year if VAT was slapped on a vast range of foods, say Oxford researchers.

A 17.5% rise on fatty, sugary or salty food would cut heart and stroke deaths by 1.7%, the study in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health said.

One of the researchers declared the time was right to debate a "fat tax".

HOW?
How could 'FAT TAXES' save thousands?
Supermarkets such as ASDA(WALMART) and TESCO bring punters into their stores by advertising their LOSS LEADERS.
For example, supermarkets have their VALUE RANGES where everything is cheaper to bring the punters into the store. But the price of the products is below the market value so even if you added extra taxes it wouldn't hurt the punters pockets and who is to say the addition would even be passed on to the punter!
So what should the government do to deal with the situation?
Insist that all produce is LOW FAT, LOW SUGAR and LOW SALT-make all food a HEALTHY OPTION.The only people to benefit from a fat tax would be the government and can you see those added taxes being passed onto the people in the form of health care to counter act their unhealthy lifestyle?
PLEASE!

Did you know that IKEA sell a Mexican Chili Wrap in their restaurant which has over 2,500 calories in it?

Look what NHS Direct says

How many calories do I need a day?

The recommended daily calorie intake varies depending on how old you are. For the average adult this is about 2000 per day (women) and 2500 per day (men). These calories should be made up of foods from the main food groups.If you're trying to lose weight you could start by eating 500 less calories per day. This should help as long as your diet is well-balanced and you're getting lots of exercise.The recommended daily calorie intake is different for children, pregnant women and older people. See your GP for advice.

Over 2,500 calories in a wrap should be made illegal.

That is just criminal.

WHAT IS HAPPENING?

Sameh, 16, has documented the lives of a family who have been living in a tent for five years in the West Bank.

Yesterday evening I copied 2 articles off the internet regarding Israel and Palestine, I did this because I can honestly say that I really do not have any idea of the DETAILS of what is going on in the area.In the words of the great Keith Allen-THANK GOD I AM AN ATHEIST(well in my case a humanist!).

My family seems to be an equal mix of Catholic and other Christian religions, with friends who are Muslim, Wiccan(do you say Wicca or Wiccan!) and other Earth related religions so I am adequately aware of what is going on out there in certain religious communities but I wasn't really prepared for what I read about religion within the context of the Middle East.My mind is such that what is going on just does not make sense and I cannot seem to make sense of what people are doing.
When I did go to church, the actual doctrine seemed to be in my brain but at the far reaches as I didn't want to have to confront it because it didn't make sense.So what did matter for me? A supreme being that loved us and cared about us-Living a good and productive life and helping others AND REALLY that was about it.
My feelings haven't really changed since I have become a humanist. I do not believe in a supreme being which is because I cannot prove this supernatural being exists (If I could prove then I would be different)BUT I do believe in living a good and productive life and helping others.Surely living a good and productive life and helping others should be the main focus of your life whatever religion you are?And I really do not mean this in a Look at me, Look at me in a goody 2 shoes kind of way. Just in a THIS IS WHO I AM kind of way.Some of the best people I know go to church, to the synagogue or to the mosque or even strip naked and dance under the full moon(with my fat-never going to happen) but some of the best people I know also do none of the above.

I cannot believe that a supreme being would want us to hurt each other in the way that we are, it's just not right.