23 April 2012

Tips from Successful People

A favourite saying which has guided, inspired - or simply cheered, them time and again throughout their life - small and useful details that can make a difference to a person's quality of life.

  • Get a facial ... and a cleaner (Anne Robinson, TV presenter).  But remember that having a cleaner doesn't mean that you never do any housework as there are so much cleaning which gets done 'as it happens' - you're not going to leave a puddle of milk on the floor 'for the cleaner to deal with' if she's not coming 'til tomorrow!  However, a regular facial sounds an excellent idea - perhaps tied in with a massage too?!
  • No regrets - no self-pity; no over-sentimentality (Terry Waite, British religious adviser who, while negotiating for the release of prisoners in the Middle East, was captured and spent 1,563 days in captivity, almost four years of it in solitary confinement).  What Terry had to deal with puts into perspective any regrets or self pity which we ordinary mortals may have experienced.  If Terry can feels like that, then we can at least try!
  • If you love something, then set it free.  If it comes back to you, it's yours, if it doesn't, it never was. Our friends, lovers, children, belong only to themselves and possessive, controlling relationships are as harmful as neglect. (Alison Willcocks, head of Bedales School).  Very important to remember as a mother, it's difficult to let go - but we must.
  • Get out of your chair and move. Travel turns your life into an education, it makes you think for yourself and helps you challenge everything you were ever taught. (Anite Roddick, founder of the Body Shop).  It's life-changing visiting other cultures and reassessing attitudes (even in our own country).  I also wondered if 'get out of your chair and move' was a suggestion that we try to be more fit, something which I vow to do fairly often.
  • Make major decisions from the heart. Make decisions because they 'feel right', they must come from deep inside your being, even though you may need to explain them away. (Prof David Cantor, director, Centre for Investigative psychology, University of Liverpool).  Someone once said to me: Jenny, if you've been thinking recently using just your heart, then start using your head; and if you've been only using your head to think, then it's time to think from the heart'.  Advice which I've tried to remember to follow ever since.
  • Appreciate the work women do.  Women do two-thirds of the world's work, invisibly, unrecognised and often unwaged.  By telling ourselves about it, we strengthen ourselves.  So,  if a man tries to intimidate you, step back and visualise all the women's work, without which he couldn't even be! (Margarette D'Arcy, playwright).  Sounds good advice!
  • Weed with love in your heart.  When overwhelmed by the weeds in your garden - encourage them to grow and even flower. Look at them with love and appreciate the wonders of nature.  This way, you will avoid grinding your teeth over them   and if you one day decided to reduce them, you will do so with sympathy, not soul-destroying rancour (Rachel Billington, novelist).  When I'm not sure if it's a weed or a plant, I remove all except one, then see how it grows.  If it isn't a 'thug' and take over, then it's welcome to stay.

  • Beware free advice as free advice is usually worth roughly what you pay for it.  (Lord Puttnam of Queensgate, film-maker and chairman of the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts).  A difficult one to remember.
  • Don't forget the flowers.  If you have two pennies to spend, spend one on bread that you may live; spend the other on a flower so that you have a reason for living. An old chinese saying. (Dannie Alise, doctor and writer).  An important point - one very cheap pleasure I have is cutting nice pictures out of magazines and sticking them in scrap books, then when feeling like something soothing I leaf through the pages and feel uplifted.
  • Don't go east.  Jet lag can infallibly be avoided by following these simple rules: Go west by day; Don't go east; if you must go east, go by night; set your watch to the arrival time before take-off; 'think' arrival time (never think what time it is where you came from; on arrival, behave as if you had been there all along, to go work, a party, whatever.   This way tiredness and 'body time' cancel out.  (Peter Jay, well-travelled journalist).  Yes, had a big problem when I flew to Tasmania many years ago, it took about a week to get back to normal - but had no problem when flying west to get back home.
  • Use your luck to help others.  If you're lucky, you must reckon you are privileged and you must use your privilege to hel other people.  If you want to be happy, make use of such opportunities whenever you find yourself. (Lord Longford, campaigning Labour peer). I've found that giving probably gives me as much, if not more, pleasure than the people who are on the receiving end.
  • Never be afraid to leave a job. It's soul-destroying to waste to many of your waking hours (Lesley Grant-Adamson, novelist). A difficult one which I wish I'd read many years ago, it would have made quite a difference.
  • Exploit the inevitable.  A pragmatic piece of advice as, however difficult it seems at the time, every cloud has a silver lining (Sir Arthur C Clarke, science writer).  One to try and remember.
  • Get the happiness habit.  You can get hooked on happiness, just as you can on nicotine, it's just a question of taking a regular, daily dose of the stuff (June Thomson, author).  Also on the lines of 'smile and world smiles with you - cry and you cry on your own'.
  • Don't let anyone else become your whole world.  If you do this you will be heartbroken one day.  There is no suffering greater than a broken heart.  Spread your love among several people so that no-one has to groan beneath the weight of it all.  This is the kind of love that makes it easier for others to love you in return (Louis de Bernieres, author).  Good point!
  • Learn to love solitude as it's immensely useful.  It means you never get bored or dread being alone.  It's vital to teach to your children - to cultivate their own resources, so they never fear aloneness. (Angela Huth, author).  Perhaps an important one to remember as we prepare for old age.
  • Never miss an opportunity for kindness.  'I expect to pass through this world but once; any good thing therefore that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to any fellow creature, let me do it now; let me not defer or neglect it.'  Attributed to Stephen Grellet (1773 - 1835).  I think it's wonderful (Jilly Cooper, writer).  yes!
  • Be dogged. Starting things is easy - a business, a novel, a war, a baby. Keeping them going is a lot harder, it's just as important as imagination (Prue Leith, cook, novelist and chairman of the Royal Society of the Arts).  One I find difficult to follow, it easy when the enthusiasm's there, but to carry on day after day is much more of a challenge.
  • Make sure that everyone you love knows it.  Make the most of every moment.  (Stuart Prebble, chief executive, ONdigital).  Why we like Valentine's Day, Mother's Day etc as they remind us.
  • Have close friends of all ages.  In these long-lived times, have close friends of all ages. So many people are left alone after surviving their contemporaries.  To stick only to your own age-group is one of the most uncivilised customs of today.  (Ronald Blythe, writer).  Something I was told many years ago, it keeps the mind open (like a parachute, the mind works better when open!).
  • Distress, not stress, is the killer.  It isn't stress that kills you, it's distress. enjoy the stress.  Realise that distress is the killer. (Joe Ashton, MP and director, Sheffield Wednesday FC).  Insufficient stress makes us then find it more difficult to cope with stress when it comes.
  • Ask friends what you do well.  If you're wondering what to do with your life, ask ten friends to tell you just one thing which they think you do well.  List all these positive aspects of yourself and you'll have the outline of the next step in your life. (Charles Handy, international management guru).  Must try this one ...
  • If in doubt, dont, as second thoughts are often best.  Don't write an angry, apologetic or flattering letter which you may have cause to regret.  Don't do anything for a dare, or to impress - it will end in tears.  Don't go with the crowd if you feel it's against your nature.  (Sir Ludovic Kennedy, broadcaster).  What mothers used to tell their daughters many years ago, but it doesn't just apply to girls out with their boyfriends!
  • Carry on the conversation once you are married.  The best bit of advice about marriage is: don't do it unless you can't bear not to.  The best description of marriage is from RL Stevenson: 'Marriage is one long conversation, chequered by disputes.  Two persons more and more adapt their notions to suit the other and, in the process of time, they conduct each other into new worlds of thought' The only real essential is to carry on the conversation that you started.  (Libby Purves, journalist).   And not just about which DIY jobs are going to be done this weekend!
  • Never take a job you can do. Learning new things while stryhing to do the impossible makes work exciting, prevents boredom and encourages creativity.  (Elizabeth Filkin, parliamentary commissioner for standards).  But don't take on a job that's so difficult that you can't cope and then your self-esteem will plummet.  Tackle a step at a time.
  • Think before you sink or Don't spit in the well, you might need a drink of water.  This old Russian proverb means: do not discard people who have upset you or behaved badly, friends, anyone - you might need them later (Nina Petrova, actress).  Be nice to people when you're on your way up, you may well meet them when you're on the way back down ......

From Seize the Day (Chatto & Windus, ISBN 0701169389)

22 April 2012

In this country we have the worst of both worlds when it comes to water*:
privatised companies but no competition.  


And most householders in England and Wales receive bills where the price is fixed, depending on a home's 'rateable value'. Council Tax bandings are based on the value of a home in 1989, based roughly on how much your home could be rented out for.  
With Council Tax banding you can challenge your banding if you think it's too high (see www.mse.me/council) but there's absolutely no facility to allow challenges to the rates-based water bills.
But it's not all bad news as we can take some action ourselves.  
Apparently, it's often worth having a water meter, with the rule of thumb being that if there are more bedrooms in your home than people it's probably worth changing to a meter.  
As water bills are mainly based on house value, a large, sparsely populated home is likely to be disproportionately costly.  Plus, as meters are free, switching should be worthwhile (except in Scotland where you have to pay).  
Not everyone will save, so try online calculators at the Consumer Council for Water (ccwater.org.uk) or at uswitch.com/water, or ring your local water company to ask for their formal calculation, but first take note of these points:  
  • If your savings are going to be minimal, don't switch.  
  • You're allowed to switch back within a year (or a month after your second measured bill, whichever is later), so you can change your mind.
  • Some people say that having a water meter could put off house purchasers, but meters are likely to be rolled out across the country some time, so this isn't really a problem. (When we moved into this house, some five years ago, the water bill would have been £1,400 per year, so we immediately had a water meter installed and our bills plummeted to about £600 a year, so well worth the change)
Take regular meter readings to keep the bills more accurate.  
Also, there is a scheme called Water-Sure, which gives reductions for people in receipt of benefits who either look after more than two children or have a medical condition which requires higher water usage.  To see if you qualify for the Water-Sure Tariff which caps your bills, see ofwat.gov.uk.

If the water company won't give you a meter, for instance in blocks of flats, ask for an 'assessed tariff' which is a rough assessment of how much water you're likely to use, and thus how much you'd pay on a meter.
And, if you live alone you may also be eligible for a lower Single Occupancy Tariff.  Many people make substantial savings with this option.
ALSO: Water bills usually assume that what goes in must come out and therefore roughly 90% of the water used will manifest itself in sewerage.  
Yet if you live in a small town or village and have a 'soakaway', ie a pit of gravel that collects surface rainwater, you'll send less water through the sewers and should ask for money deducted from your bill.
The same goes for anyone on a meter who has a swimming pool in their garden.  If you're pumping a large volume of water from an outside tap that isn't being washed away down the drain, yh ou're due a discount.
If you're not even connected to the mains sewerage, and have a septic tank or cesspit, you don't have to pay sewerage charges at all.  If  you water company makes a fuss about giving you a rebate, contact the Consumer Council for Water.


Top Thirteen Water-Saving Tips:
  1. For meter users, saving water automatically saves money.
  2. For those who are billed, a big chunk of home energy costs come from heating water - use less and you cut that, too.
  3. 'If it's yellow, let it mellow; if it's brown flush it down' is a good mantra to remember, if you can.
  4. Bathe together, it could be fun!
  5. Whilst running the tap to temperature, store the water. Fill up empty bottles while you wait for it to cool down or heat up. Plus stand a washing up bowl in the shower to collect excess water (we use a silver (coloured) plastic bucket - looks chic). Use what you get for flushing the loo, or for garden and house plants.
  6. Save up washing up, dishwashing or clothes-washing.  Wait until the sink, dishwater or washing machine is full for maximum efficiency.  A good excuse to delay chores!
  7. Water the garden with water from sink - or even from washing machine and baths - if possible.
  8. Mulch the garden plants. Cover them with wood chippings or leaf mould to retain moisture for longer, so less watering
  9. Fit dual-flush buttons on your loo. It's easy to do and there can be good savings.
  10. Shave and save, just use one mug of water while shaving to get rid of hair, don't use a running tap.
  11. Turn the shower off until you're ready to rinse.  If you're stepping outside the flow, turn the tap off. Same applies when brushing teeth.
  12. Install one - or more - water butts in the garden. As well as being useful for water plants, also good for washing off vegetables, cleaning boots etc.
  13. Don't miss out on freebees: to help cut usage, water companies offer a mass of water-saving freebies, including save-a-flushes, bath buoys, shower timers, efficient showerheads and more, see MoneySavingExpert.com.
Now, all we need to do is to persuade our other halfs to join us in these water-saving plans ...
We saw/used one of these when in Scotland recently! The loo cistern fills up via the tap.
from: http://oddity.quirkdesign.co.uk/2010/08/25/unique-water-savers/

Other interesting and helpful sites include:
http://www.yorkshirewater.com/save-water-and-money/free-water-saving-pack-and-tips.aspx
http://www.futurefriendly.co.uk/tips.aspx#4
http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/england/In-your-home/Water?gclid=CMvBrpmTya8CFZARfAodUAuSYQ
http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/england/In-your-home/Water/Water-saving-links
It doesn't just come out of the tap!


* According to Martin Lewis, creator of MoneySavingExpert.com

20 April 2012

De Montfort Island (or Fry's Island)

The local Torbay Bowling Club had a return match today against The Island Bohemian Bowls & Social Club touring team.  This team is based on an island in the middle of the river in Reading, where, in 1163, a duel was fought between The Duke of de Montfort and the Earl of Essex.
This postcard shows where the club meets and the island's history, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fry's_Island. For more information about the location, see: http://www.thames.me.uk/s01155.htm


From what I gather, The Island Bohemian Bowls & Social Club won...

The Weight of the World

According to the newspaper this week, approximately 1.6 billion of the planet's population are now overweight - and here is a guide to the countries helping to tip the scales:


America (70.8% overweight)  Boston Emergency Services in 2011 unveiled an ambulance for the obese.  The vehicle is equipped with a stretcher than can hold 850lb and a hydraulic lift with a 1,000lb capacity to ensure the safety of the sick and stem back injuries amongst crews hoisting hefty patients. Police officers are now trained to search obese suspects 'up the folds'.
Australia (63.7% overweight)  Royal Adelaide Hospital recently announced a refurbishment to help staff cope with an influx of obese patients: bigger rooms with ceiling-mounted lifting apparatus, reinforced wheelchairs and beds, and larger CAT scanning machines.  
Brazil (51.7% overweight) Along with an expanding economy comes expanding waistlines. Brazil is currently on track to be as obese as the US by 2022. Brazilians' natural sweet tooth certainly doesn't help - they lather sugar on already-sweet fruits like pineapple, and cafezinho, the national expresso-like coffee, is more sugar than liquid - and nor do their ideas of body image.  As one commentator put it 'American men may focus on breasts, but the Brazilian man has always wanted something to grab on to'.

China (24.5% overweight) More than 325 million Chinese are now overweight or obese, a figure that could double in the next two decades.  Fitness and slimming is a £700 million industry.  Sales of weight-loss teas are rising sharply, and traditional Chinese treatments like acupuncture and fire-cupping are more popular than ever.  Not that this makes things any easier for a Western slimming groups, which have great difficult assigning nutritional 'points' or calories to dishes like 'desert boat sails on green (camel's foot simmered with hearts of rape).
Columbia (48.3% overweight) Perhaps the most exercise-friendly country in the word.  Every Sunday morning in Bogota, the roads are closed to cars to allow free reign for cyclists, roller bladers and joggers to safely exercise across the 120km of the ciclovia.
Finland (58% overweight) 73% of the country exercises regularly, helped by a government initiative that awards cash prizes to towns that lose the most weight.  As part of the same programme, the Finnish government also encouraged shoe companies to make non-slip soles standard, so people wouldn't be deterred from walking in icy weather.
France (50.7% overweight)  Contrary to the bestselling book, French women do get fat.  
Jamaica (55.3% overweight)  In Jamaican culture, a skinny - or 'meagre' - woman is considered unattractive, whilst heaviness is a sign of happiness and social harmony.  This is why many women bulk up with black-market 'chicken pills', ie chicken feed with appetite-boosting arsenic.  Side-effects include diarrhoea, dermatitis and - eventually - cancer.
Nauru (94.5% overweight)  A tiny island in the Pacific that qualifies as the world's fattest nation, Nauru's life expectancy for men is 59 years and for women 64.  Phosphate mining, long a source of wealth, has left the island virtually incapable of growing vegetables.  So islanders rely on processed Western important - and a lot of them.  People in Nauru many only eat once a day but the plate could be 4" high.
Malaysia (44.2% overweight) Schoolchildren have had their body mass index printed on their report cards since 2011, to help parents keep track of their children's weight.
Mauritania (36% overweight)  A local saying goes, 'The glory of a man is measured by the fatness of his woman'.  A third of women over 40 have said they were force-fed as children, to tall into local standard of beauty.  The process of called gavage,  A French word that describes the fattening up to geese to produce foi gras.  A quarter of the 1.5 million women in the country are obese, contrasting sharply with most sub-Saharan countries.  
Mexico (68.1% overweight)  Since 1980, the percentage of overweight or obese Mexicans has tripled, and diabetes has become the leading cause of death.  In some areas of the country, it's easier to get a soft drink than a clean glass of water.  The vast majority of Mexico City's schools lack drinkable water; the consumption of soft drinks has increased 60% over the past 14 years.  The average Mexican eats 433lb of bakery goods per year, compared with only 156lb of vegetables.
Nauru (94.5% overweight)  A tiny island in the Pacific that qualifies as the world's fattest nation, Nauru's life expectancy for men is 59 years and for women 64.  Phosphate mining, long a source of wealth, has left the island virtually incapable of growing vegetables.  So islanders rely on processed Western important - and a lot of them.  People in Nauru many only eat once a day but the plate could be 4" high.
Nigeria (26.8% overweight)  'Fattening Rooms', where women are encouraged to eat large amounts throughout the day, are popular in Nigeria, especially before weddings.  A key ingredient is garri, a porridge made from cassava tubers.
Qatar (72.3% overweight)  With a GDP of $181.7billion and a population of just under two million, per capital, Qatar is the richest nation of Earth.  And it's fast becoming the fattest, too.  Sweltering temperatures of up to 41C make walking - or any kind of outdoor activity - unbearable.  Society and family life revolves around five large meals, interspersed with snacks of tea and cake.   It's predicted that within five years, 73% or Qatari women and 69% of men will qualify as obese.
Saudi Arabia (69% overweight)  Girls are banned from participating in sports in Saudi state schools.  The stance of the official Supreme Council of Religious Scholars is best summed up that the 'excessive movement and jumping' needed in football and basketball might cause girls to tear their hymens and lose their virginity.
Sweden (53.3% overweight)  Obesity is on the rise in Sweden, but at a markedly slower rate than in other countries.  In fact, the Swedes are now on track to overtake the Swiss as Europe's slimmest people, thanks to a recent craze for high-fat, low-carb dieting.  Endorsed by health authorities in 2008, the diet is now followed by a quarter of Swedes and its popularity was partly to blame for neighbouring Norway's famous 'great butter shortage' of 2011. 
Tonga (90.8% overweight)  Poor health and obesity are blamed on imported food like spam, corned beef and 'turkey tails' (a ban on the latter was recently lifted to ease membership of the World Trade Organisation).  Tonga's late king, who died in 2006, was once the world's heaviest monarch, weighing 440lb.  He tried to persuade Tongans to get fit by offering cash incentives and taking up - in his seventies - bicycle rides around the island (he shed 154lb).
UAE (68.3% overweight)  When the UAE football team failed to qualify for the 2010 World Cup, one of the defenders blamed the team's addition to fast food.
UK (64.2% overweight)  Despite the Government's three-year-old Change4Life campaign and health Secretary's call for the population to cut 5billion calories from its diet. obesity in the UK is getting worse.  It causes an estimated 9,-000 premature deaths a year, and if current trends continue, 90% of British children will be obese by 2050.
Zimbabwe (25.5% overweight)  In 2004, the Zimbabwean government came up with what they called the 'Obesity tourism Strategy;.  As Zimbabweans starve, overweight tourists would be encouraged to visit the country and work on farms seized from white farmers, losing weight in the process.

  • $375 million - the cost since 2000, to airlines, of fuel to compensate for the additional weight of their passengers (350million gallons).
  • Proof that portions are getting bigger: a team of Cornell University studied 52 paintings of The Last Supper made over the past 1,000 years and established that, over that time, the size of the meal depicted had grown by 69%; bread size alone grew by around 23%. "We think that as art imitates life, these changes have been reflected in paintings of history's most famous dinner".

17 April 2012

MIDDLE AGE TEXTING CODES:

ATD -at the doctor.

BFF -best friend fell.

BTW -bring the wheelchair.

BYOT -bring your own teeth.

FWIW -forgot where I was.

GGPBL -gotta go, pacemaker battery low.

GHA -got heartburn again.

IMHO -is my hearing aid on?

LMDO -laughing my dentures out.

OMMR -on my massage recliner.

ROFLACGU -rolling on floor laughing and can't get up.

TTYL -talk to you louder!

Go Brazilian?

Recently, at Westcountry Embroiderers, we learned how to do Brazilian Embroidery.  No, I'd never heard of it before either!  So, here was my first effort which, unusually, I actually finished:






NB the blue marks will disappear once it's heating/ironed.
See also: 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazilian_embroidery
http://www.jdr-be.com/
http://www.needlenthread.com/2011/01/brazilian-embroidery-inspiration.html

16 April 2012

Walk in the Park

Now having achieved 'bus pass age' I go to Torquay by bus as the parking isn't easy.  On the way home last Friday I hopped off at Torre Abbey Sands to have a look as have never been there in the five years we're lived in The Bay.
These these photos were taken whilst crossing the park.  It was a typical sunny April day, complete with clouds, and although there were plenty of people on the beach there weren't many on this park which is just behind.










At present Torr Abbey itself if closed for refurbishment for a couple of years but it's ok to visit the park and the Spanish Barn (http://www.torre-abbey.org.uk/directions.php?v=1)


This is some of the artwork which was on display:



12 April 2012

Easter 2012 Trip

After 18 months of hardly leaving The Bay, last week we set off on an expedition.  
There were two purposes to this trip: 
  1. to look around the Derby area for a suitable place to buy a property when ours is sold; and also 
  2. to attend the opening of David's daughter's art exhibition in central Edinburgh 
Day 1:  A leisurely drive up to Derby, to stay with my daughter and son-in-law (230 miles).
Day 2:  Woke up and glanced out of the window to see that son-in-law had painted the top of their new garden wall white - or rather it wasn't, it was snow!  


We were ill-prepared for such weather as the previous week had been warm and sunny.  We didn't even have gloves with us, although had had the presence of mind to pack our coats.
We looked at estate agents and then drove round suitable areas.   In town the pavements were slushy, wet and windy which wasn't much fun and subsequent, driving around the countryside was hazardous and we didn't feel like getting out of the car and exploring.  The wind was making the sleet, and sometimes even snow, fall horizontally.  
We did wonder why we were planning to move 'up country'!
That evening we sat round the fire and looked at the many details which we'd picked up that day - what a lot of properties are on the market at the moment!

Day 3: Fortunately, by the next day the snow had disappeared as quickly as it had arrived, because this was the day to motor up to Edinburgh (290 miles) which was enjoyable the weather was mostly light cloud or actual sun shine.

In southern Scotland, there were slight remains of previous snowfall in crevices on the hills.  As it was rather picturesque I risked annoying the driver by taking a few quick pics.  Again, we had a pretty smooth journey, arriving just before nightfall.


Day 4: After a good night's sleep, we drove over the Forth Road Bridge (no toll these days!) to Fife, for a day out with the relatives.  Unfortunately not the best of weather as it was showery, although we could at least see where we were going.  
After a good lunch and peruse at Blacketyside Farm Shop (http://www.smartcommunityfife.org.uk/directory/listing/blacketyside-farm-shop/), we drove to three of the quaint, picturesque fishing villages on the far south east coast of the county: Pittenweem, Anstruther and Craill.


This is our walk around Craill:


(please turn your head 90 degrees to look at this and then guess its purpose!)


At each village we stopped and had a wander, finally having tea and cake at the Fishery Museum in Anstruther  (http://www.scotfishmuseum.org/).


Day 5: Took a picnic into Edinburgh, to David's daughter's, so it was three daughters and us for a lovely lunch, followed by a trip to the National Portrait Gallery of Scotland (http://www.nationalgalleries.org/portraitgallery) and, after a quick coffee in St Andrew's Square, at look at the artwork 'Invisible Fields' (From the majesty of nature to the intricate workings of the human body, continued advances in science and technology enable us to see and understand our world like never before. Using a variety of cutting-edge imaging techniques, scientists and artists will capture your attention and stimulate your imagination, revealing sights usually invisible to the naked eye. Invisible Worlds will take you on a unique and intriguing journey through the wonderful (but often unfamiliar) realms of the very big and the incredibly small, the near and the far. It will reveal some of the complexity and beauty of nature – in fields as varied as biomedical imaging and astronomy – with a selection of striking images that straddle the borders between science and art. Look closely, you may never see the world in quite the same way again!) 


Pics below: left - grains of sand ; right - how we women strain our feet when wearing high heels!
WITH IMAGES FROM:
• The National Maritime Museum, Astronomy Photographer of the Year (2009–2011)
• The Royal Photographic Society, International Images of Science Exhibition 2011
• Nikon Small World Photomicrography Competition 2011
• NASA, Incredible Photos from Space
Scroll upScroll down)

and 'field of jeans and kilts' (http://www.edinburghfestivals.co.uk/venues/st-andrew-square-garden).

Day 6: Drove to Glasgow, to see more relatives, in Pollockshields (http://www.pollokshieldsheritage.org/) and, whilst preparing Easter Sunday lunch watched hundreds of people in the Sikh parade to celebrate Vaisakhi (http://www.searchsikhism.com/festivals.html).
We enjoyed a delicious late lunch of Scottish roast lamb, roast chicken and all the trimmings, before driving back to Edinburgh, leaving the relatives to their traditional egg-rolling in the park before the rain set in.
Day 7: Up, not too early and had delicious lunch, as always, at The Bridge, Ratho (http://www.bridgeinn.com/), followed by meander along the canal tow path (http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/ratho/ratho/index.html).
In the evening drove into Edinburgh (no parking fees) for the special opening of 'Dead Kitch Twisted Beauty - Angels & Demons' (http://www.list.co.uk/event/246339-sharon-woods-dead-kitsch-twisted-beauty/)*, which didn't disappoint.  It was great to see Sharon's work decorating the space - and so many enthusiastic people.  Unusually for a first exhibition, many items were sold, even on the first evening, and so she was so happy.
Day 8:  Wended our way gradually back to Derbyshire, arriving just in time for dinner.
Day 9:  Popped down to town to see estate agents and visit areas where we might like to live.  This is fun but very tiring.
Day 10: Drove back home to Torbay, calling in to see relatives in Somerset.


It was really great to see so many people, although unfortunately did miss some as they were away for the Easter break.

This was the sunset when we got home.



* Demons and angels. Dolls and monsters. Rogues and sweethearts. These are the citizens that populate the mysterious cityscapes of Sharon Woods. Some approachable, others impenetrable, the subjects are intriguing, alluring, and grotesque, wearing whispers on their lips and concealing secrets in their hearts.
Assembled as an installation of furniture and photography, Woods sets a scene that is at once both playful and unsettling, pieced together from dead kitsch and twisted beauty.
Welcome to her world.
Sharon Woods is an artist who lives and works in Edinburgh.