I recently read an interesting piece by Alison Flood, who reports Oxford University Press (OUP) are replacing the sexist language in example sentences in the Oxford English Dictionaries (OED). If you don’t know, the OED is the source used by Google and Apple. So when you look up words on those platforms, chances are, that’s […]
Wealthy is as Wealthy Does
There’s a proverb of sorts, Beauty is as Beauty does And according to Walt Disney (video has sound) at any rate, it means being kind and doing something nice for someone who feels down. Every single day. Because beauty is about what’s on your inside, not the outside. And you can Google to your heart’s […]
The Pleasure and Pain of Healthy Habits
My last Transplant Clinic appointment was less pleasant than I’d hoped, and now I’m back to contemplating the nature of choice and healthy habits. And complacency. It seems that after my last transplant biopsy, a small piece of vital information slipped through the cracks. Not that I can honestly say it would have changed much, […]
The What, Why, and How of Pleasure
When times get tough, one of the first expenses cut is pleasure. In the face of all other considerations, it becomes frivolous and wasteful. And yet, without pleasure, life can look and feel very grim. The other day I was watching one of a series of news reports by Geoff Thompson on Australia’s housing affordability […]
Public Bathroom Benefits
A while back, someone told me that most people are too lazy to travel more than one or two cubicles in a public bathroom. And the longer the run, the cleaner the end is by comparison to the beginning. I don’t know about men, but women don’t often find bathrooms with more than three cubicles. […]
How to Respect All People
Respect politeness, honour, and care shown towards someone or something that is considered important Cambridge dictionary When I was young, all the people I came into contact with were “ordinary” people, just getting on with their lives. I didn’t think surviving to adulthood was anything that commanded respect, so I didn’t see why I should […]
How to Solve the Time Management Mystery
I was chatting about the Time Management Mystery with some creative friends the other day Actually, we were whining about how we have so much to do, and not enough time to do it in. And speculating how some of the creatives we’re inspired by manage their time. For the most part, all of us […]
Thank You Mrs Sparkle
A curious thing happened today. DB and I went to our local village fair, and among the things we do every year, we went into the Church to look at the Art and Craft Exhibition. One of the pieces was an arrangement of hand-made bears, with a sign saying something along the lines of: These […]
Remembering and Forgetting
Not long ago, Katy got in touch. And I was remembering that she taught me one of the most important lessons that I have ever learned. At the time we were the best of friends but lost touch around about 20 years ago after I moved to London for a while. We both had the […]
The Joyful Memories from Gifts of Love
I took advantage of the recent gloriously summery weather to catch up on some washing, starting with the towels because they take the longest to dry. As I hung them on the line, carefully stretching and straightening them out so they dry square (and are easier to fold neatly), I realised I hadn’t bought any […]
Understanding Choice and What To Do With It
A while back, almost at the start of this blog, I talked about a place for setting goals for choice. And when it came down to it, understanding choice – consciously making choices, not having them thrust on me. Mind you, that also came with the intention of getting good at cryptic crosswords and I […]
Creating a Happy and Healthy Home
Recently there have been a lot of changes in the Blaelock Household, with the aim of creating a happy and healthy home. Mainly leading out from the transplant rejection scare, and consequently a need to redesign my working and sleeping environments. Happy and Healthy Sleeping Environment We started the sleeping environment upgrades a few months […]