Garden lighting.

I have recently given my garden a make-over and was sitting outside on my patio the other evening admiring my handiwork, or at least peering into the darkness and trying to spot all the new flowers I had planted.

Evenings are the best time in my home city to enjoy the garden. It is Summer time and the South-easter blows all day, making the garden rather unpleasant. However at about 6pm the wind dies down and then it is a real pleasure to sit out on my patio with a sundowner and enjoy the fruits of the day’s labours. I realised though, that to enjoy my garden to its fullest,  I would need to invest in some  lighting.

In my travels I came across an interesting company called quoizel lighting. If you are a fan of period pieces this is the place to visit. I felt as if I was in the Palace of Versailles as I viewed their collection and then I was transported into the 1920’s with their Tiffany lamps, which were the vogue then! They have a vast range of lighting fixtures, from ornate embossed glass table lamps which seem to belong in the 17th Century,  to more contemporary, but rather decorative styles, which would not really suit my surroundings. If I was doing a play and need props, this is the place I would go to, though!

Back in my garden, while I was gazing out at the lawn, enjoying the pink and white roses which did shine a little in the dark I began to plan my next painting. I have never much enjoyed painting flowers and I decided this was the year I would get over my hang-ups and give it a go. My studio needs a revamp though and I may also have to invest in some fine-art lamps to better view my paintings.

I came across some hinkley lighting fixtures which were intriguing. I have always liked old-fashioned lamp posts -they remind me of London parks like Regency Park and Buckinham Palace. I would love one of these in my garden though I fear it is far too grand for my small suburban garden and would look horribly out of place.

2008 Honda Fit fits the bill!

Economists say this is the right time to buy a new car. Prices have never been better, you can get a good trade-in and you, the buyer has the advantage over the second-hand coar dealer who has got too much stock. Of course, the question is, what brand of car would suit me? I have 2 large boys, a large dog and a husband to cart around.

I decided to have a look at the 2008 Honda Fit which seems to suit my needs best. I thought it was a strange name for a car at first, but after reviewing it, found that that title fits it perfectly.  As my mother drives a Honda I am familiar with the brand. Her first Honda dated back to 1985 and lasted her 20 years! She now owns a Honda Jazz but I am sure she would have bought the Honda Fit if it was available at the time.It is a smallish five-door hatchback sedan . The base model comes standard with air conditioning, power windows, mirrors and door locks, as well as an AM/FM stereo with a single-disc CD player.  There is a a Sport model as well which would suit me better than my 80 year-old mum!

Hondas may look small on the outside but have great leg-room on the inside. The Honda Fit can carry five passengers and there is even room for a bicycle!

The technical side of vehicle shopping generally bores me silly but I do like my cars to be fast off the mark and Honda Fit reviews say that the model gives a “peppy performance”.

The 2008 Honda Fit has high seating which is great for people with back problems! The back seating area is roomy allowing space for up to three adults comfortably.
2008 Honda Fit reviews give the Honda a good safety record, given that it has more safety features than in the previous models, including side curtain airbags, front-seat, side-impace bags and anti-lock brakes.

2008 Honda Fit reviews say that the Honda Fit was not designed for looks, but fuel economy and spaciousness are its main benefits, and it manages to avoid looking like the offspring of a mpv or station wagon which is to its advantage if you want to impress your children’s friends!

Born to shop-NOT!

Some women are born to shop and are content to stroll around the mall for hours, check out the latest fashion trends,  testing perfume, looking at handbags and trying on countless pairs of shoes with Eiffel towers for heels. I do not fit into that category, and would prefer to sit at home and shop for everything I need online. At my age, I know what colour and make of lipstick suit me, and sadly there is only one brand I really like that fits that bill. Even though it is often way above my budget I adore Clarins lipstick!

So I was thrilled to discover that there is indeed such an online shop which offers me everything I need in the way of make-up and beauty products as well as office furniture and pets!

When you get to my age you wish someone would invent something like Polyfilla cement which you could use to fill in all the cracks on your face. So far, no-one has done this successfully, but some companies have come pretty close.

The ageing woman has certain realities to face. First off, she is largely invisible in a crowd. Bright red lipstick does not look good on her anymore, so she can’t attract attention to the thin, puckered zipper-like thing that seems to have taken the place of lips. One thing I have learnt is that it is very important to match your skin-tone or you may end up looking like something out of the “Mummy” or a side-kick to the “Grateful Dead”.

As a life-long user of skin-care products I can only vouch for the particular brand I use which has served me well over the years. However I have recently become interested in organic products.

The older I get, the more interested I am in a more permanent solution to disguising the inevitable facts of ageing. As a 40-something woman I remember swearing to a friend that I would NEVER have any kind of face-lift or de-creasing treatments done. I would have rather put a hot iron to my face and tried to iron out all the problems rather than succumb to that vainer-than-vain idea! However a decade later I find myself more and more attracted to the idea of looking younger, especially as the world seems to regard women of my age invisible! I am seriously contemplating doing a chemical peel, to undo all those years of tanning by the pool with baby oil! When I look at before -and- after pictures of women who have taken this step I am pretty sure it hurts, but then as they say, no pain, no gain. But come hell or high water I want to look younger before its too late!

Nelson Mandela’s “Aides” concert

Was it only me, or did Nelson Mandela’s appearance on stage in Hyde Park seem somewhat orchestrated?

What concerned me most was the prompting from his female companion who held his arm throughout the process. She guided him onto the stage, and then, in a loud stage-whisper, said “Wave to them, Pappa”. Of course, the crowd went wild,  cheering him like a hero. After he had read his speech which was obviously written for him, his aide again prompted him: “Wave now, Pappa”.

Yes, he is nearly 90. A man of that age certainly does need help to get around. The question I found myself asking,  though, is why he is seen as such a hero, saviour, “Father of a Nation”. I came across this article which asks similar questions about other so-called “heroes”

I also found myself questioning the nature of the Fund Raising effort – Mandela is good at stirring up guilt amongst particularly white -oriented countries. Showing pictures of babies with aids, starving children. Laying the guilt trip. Is that why the concert was held in London, I wonder. It must have raised a good deal of money. A phone number was given out where you could send Mandela a birthday message. It would cost you R20. My question is of course, who is getting that money – the telephone companies? Is it really going to where it is meant to go – Somehow I doubt it. If all the money received from these concerts were really reaching the AIDS patients, I am pretty sure there would be a decrease in the number of people suffering from this disease.  I have a sneaking suspicion though that a large portion of it may  actually be going to Mandela’s  “Aides” – those cronies and sycophants surrounding him.

There was just something strange about the woman accompanying him that night…..

Time for a new Waffle-maker

Why would you want to compare waffle-makers? I suppose with elections looming Americans may have a tough choice here.
Maybe it will come down to this- which one looks best in your cabinet.
If you fancy a dark, sexy, slim-line, rather serious model, look no further than the Krups 65475 WaffleChef Waffle Maker, which according to reviews,”works great, looks attractive, stands on end, cooks 4 waffles at once.” Sounds like a good deal to me.
I suppose the VillaWare 5555-15 Pooh and Tigger Waffle-Maker could give some stiff opposition, making waffles that “turn out nice and brown” – what more could you want? And it’s nice and cheap too at a mere $40.
I guess if you prefer your waffle on the lighter side, have a look at the Hamilton Beach 26200 Flip ‘n Fluff Belgian Waffle Maker, which makes a waffle which is “easy to handle (cool-touch exterior),wonderful, airy, and delicately crispy.
Another of the Hamilton Brands, round and white on the outside gives you waffles whcih turn out perfect, crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside. And it has a lovely wide smile to greet you as it stands firmly on your cabinet.
You may find you are disappointed with the Toastmaster TWB2 Cool Touch Belgian Waffle Maker, though. It seems that it got some bad reviews -69 Users “Dislike It ” mainly because if you “overfill it a lot, and it gets all over the white, well then that will take a little scrubbing with a scrub pad.” Will that bring out all the white again, one might ask? I doubt it as the Waffle Iron is decidedly black all over, and will certainly stay that way, no matter how much scrubbing you do. Pity though – seems like the Price is right – at $17, maybe you can buy a whole lot – just throw them away if they get dirty and replace it with another one in your cabinet…..

Earn money with social networking!

Yes- it is actually possible to make money with social networking. I was intensely sceptical about this a year or so ago when I first discovered Digg and StumbleUpon as a major networking force. Since I became an active stumbler I have made many friends and contacts and have discovered some amazing Art sites – my particular passion in life.

As a struggling artists myself – unknown and invisible in the vast matrix that is the artnet and also having the major disadvantage of being older than the average stumbler (I am 55 years old) – I have been forced to find ways of making money other than selling my paintings which only appeal to a small niche. The world of successful artists is growning ever smaller, as paintings on the wall are no longer trendy. Performance art, or “extreme art” is much more successful. You have to resort to foul means to get noticed in the Art world – hanging a dog up by the neck in a Gallery and watching it die seems to create the necessary sensational response and suddenly you are a “name”. Now I don’t intend to ever resort to such disgusting behaviour ever – I personally think that person should be put away in some kind of institution. So, having taken that stand I will probably never be “Known”.

So, rather than risking my personal integrity, but nevertheless wishing to make at least some small money to cover my networking account, I was interested when I received a link offering to pay me for stumbling other peoples’ Stumbles and Diggs. This intrigued me as I am quite an addict at this. I love reading the weird and whacky articles and sometimes there are some brilliant articles on environmental issues as well as the endless US political shennanigans. Something for everyone, really. I signed up for “Subvertandprofit” and was sent a few links to stumble and Digg. , don’t get too excited – you won’t earn huge bucks here as in the beginning you will only be sent a few links to stumble. But I am beginning to notice my account is gradually looking fatter and what is better than earning money for merely reading. You must be careful to add a comment though, otherwise you can get banned I believe. This has not happenend to me, but I don’t get many offers anyway, so have been careful.

Please follow this link if you want to give it a go – you have nothing to lose and will learn a lot of interesting stuff in the process.

Good Luck and Success to YOU!

Life Lock protects you against ID theft.

Life Lock

Students and old-age pensioners particularly, are easy victims for Identity thieves. Even bloggers who use credit cards or get tons of junk mail on the Internet are at risk. Purchasing groceries from your local store, online at home or when you’re buying your movie ticket, you are vulnerable. If your identity is stolen, you can spend many frustrating hours alerting your bank, informing your creditors and proving your credit-worthiness.

That’s because stolen identities are used over and over, with most victims only discovering the theft after they’ve been turned down for a loan. LifeLock will prevent this from happening.

LifeLock works by setting free fraud alerts on your behalf.

A fraud alert is activated when your ID is stolen. Your creditors, ie. your bank or clothing store where you have an account will confirm whenever a purchase is made that the purchase is in fact being made by you and not someone else.

With your fraud alerts in place, creditors, lenders, or other prospective users of your consumer report must take steps to prove your identity before they can:

• Issue you with a new credit card
• Increase your credit
• Grant a loan
• Create new accounts

After a fraud alert has been activated, any creditor offering you increased credit, or wanting to use your credit file to grant you new credit or an extension of credit in your name should contact you before proceeding. Any attempt to obtain increased credit on any of your accounts will be checked to determine whether the application is legitimate and not the action of an ID thief. Most of the time, when someone else is trying to use your identity to get credit, the fraud alert set up by LifeLock will stop them.

Some LifeLock reviews tell it like it is.

Kim Barnes relates an incident which happened while she was on a family vacation. Her husband received a phone call asking him if he had applied for a new credit card. Someone had been attempting to steal his identity and open a credit card account fraudulently. LifeLock was activated and the thief was stopped in his tracks.

Earl Laurie from Colorado had seen a news report about LifeLock on TV. On the show the CEO gave out his social security number. The reporter tried to use it to open new accounts and couldn’t. Earl then signed up with Lifelock. Later, he heard from that the Navy and the VA had lost his private information and someone had tried to open two credit card account under his name. They tried to steal his identity, but LifeLock came to the resue and saved him at least $30,000 and his good credit.

LifeLock will also check your credit details every 90 days unless otherwise directed by you.

LifeLock will also remove your name from pre-approved credit card and junk mail lists. Stats show that this is one of the many ways that thieves hijack identities. Plus, who needs junk mail? You can do this for free yourself, but if LifeLock does it for you, your ID is guaranteed up to $1,000,000.

LifeLock is certainly worth considering if you are an active consumer. Come hell or high water, your ID will be protected.

Post it today!

In the days before blogging, actually meant writing a letter on a piece of paper, popping it in an envelope and posting it in the mailbox down the road.

Then we would wait excitedly for a reply from a lover or a friend, check our mailboxes every day to see if he/she had replied. As bloggers, we are aware of making regular posts, but how often do we think about writing an actual letter? And if we do still indulge in that rather quaint way of communicating, what about updating that tired old mailbox on your front wall. There are some unique and different new mail box designs available.

From a slimline high tech-look for your modern loft apartment to the multifunctional or single slot-type mailbox, it is worth giving it some thought, or that precious letter may go missing. Friends of mine have been hinting very subtlely that perhaps I should do some thinking on this. As they enter my gate, they make a pont of closing the wooden door on our old wooden mailbox, remarking at the same time that it is a wonder that I don’t lose more mail. They are right of course. The door is jamming and getting old – in winter it tends to swell up and not close properly.

My mailbox is about half the size and depth of a shoebox. As a result the newspaper delivery guy has to fold the paper over twice to try and squeeze it behind the door. Mostly, though, he just throws it over the garden gate, where it is invariably snapped up by our dog. If it doesn’t get eaten it often gets rained on. Depending on the force of the delivery guy’s throw, it often travels through a prize flowebed on its trajectory path, decapitating a rose or two on the way.

So, this year, come hell or high water, I am going to treat myself to a new mailbox, preferrably multifunctional, with a tiny slot for the bills, a dog and weather-proof one for the newspaper and one for the fun stuff. Maybe I can even get one that has an automatic eject mechanism which detects junk mail. Now that would be really cool!

Welcome to Come Hell or high water

It has been one of those days – perhaps names of posts are self-fulfilling! Well – I had already written this post yesterday and published it. I saw that my bookmark was not working and went to add it – something happened in WordPress at that moment and my whole post went missing – so Hell happened! True to the spirit of this blog however, I will try and rewrite it as before, though I doubt it will be quite the same.

Anyway here goes.

We have all known people in our lives for whom nothing seems to go right. They are the type to invest in the stock market when stocks are high, only to see them plunging they very next day. They may have scrimped and saved their whole lives to buy a house. Finally they manage to get enough together to put a deposit down. Unfortunately they buy when the market is high. They sadly watch as the value of their property goes steadily downhill over the next 5 or so years.

Now this discussion is not about finance but about the attitude that people like this can develop as a result of their bad luck. Most of the ones I know have become at best, cynical about life, at worst, bitter.

I could put myself in the former category. In my early twenties I had a run of bad luck – I was sharing a house with other students of my own age and our house was burgled at least 5 times in a period of 2 years. I had all my best jewellery stolen, a beautiful coat I had saved for over 3 months , my best quality clothes and boots. The thief had good taste! Our new Hifi system was also taken . My car was broken into and a radi0/tape was ripped out. To top it all we were not insured. In the course of the next two or so years, I seemed to be dogged by ill -luck. My boyfriend had an affair, and I had a beautiful guitar that I hadn’t even paid off stolen from the boot of my car.

I moved town and met my husband to be. The first years of our marriage were taken up with bearing and bringing up our two boys. We moved into a new house, full of hope and expectation of good things to come. Sadly when we moved into our new home, we did not realize that the neighborhood was about to undergo a complete overhaul. We had been attracted to it in the first place because there was a pretty little canal running alongside our road past the back of our property, and just around the corner from our new house, a stone castle turret peeped its head above the misty trees. I had already fallen in love with the street before I had even seen the house we were to buy. When I saw the name on its gate I knew we had come “home” – the name, “Selborne” was the name of the school my father had been Headmaster of in my old home town.

However, the next few years were somewhat of a nightmare as we had one burglary after another, due to increased building activity in the area, the value of property was static and we barely had enough funds to cover the bond. However we had learned our lesson from previous thefts and this time we were covered by Insurance.

At this time I was also suffering from Post-natal depression aggravated by a previous episode of reactive depression, and had to be medically treated. Psychotherapy helped me tremendously during this time as I began to see a pattern in the number and types of burglaries we had had. I joined a Philosophy group and began studying meditation seriously. I began to see that I needed to change my attitude to possessions and belongings. I began to give things away to charities – I gave clothing to various organizations and I became a much more giving person. I joined a choir and sang in old age homes for free. I read a lot of self-healing books and began to live much more consciously.

To cut a long story short, sometimes life can give you a few hard knocks before you get the message – in this case the message for me seemed to be – let go – money and possessions are not that important – be generous – share – nature is generous – emulate it! I began to look for abundance in Life and I found plenty – it was all around me. Fruit burst from buds in Summer, flowers grew where builders had previously flattened the flowerbeds. My own garden proved to be my inspiration at this time. I took up painting and painted my garden and those of my friends. I saw how abundant Nature is – always. And its recuperative powers are amazing. It recovers quickly even after severe abuse.

I really started appreciating how nature never lets you down – with a little bit of attention , some water and food it provided me with plenty of sustenance, both psychic and physical. I soon became a keen gardener – I planted fruit and nut trees and vegetables and it was good exercise too.

And I have come to realize that some things you can’t control – the weather, the state of the economy, the people in power, the type of people who visit your neighborhood. And accidents do happen. You can’t prevent them. You can however, control your attitude towards these things. Now when bad things happen I see them as opportunities for growth – perhaps try something different, get a handle on something I have been avoiding or not attending to, tweak that part of my psyche that needs tweaking. Re-write a blog post that mysteriously disappeared..even if it means the family eats a bit later than usual..

This blog is a challenge – come hell or high water I will remain positive, turn negatives into a positive – but I will make sure I am insured…..

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Come Hell or high water

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