What links Prince William with Leonardo da Vinci?

Answer: They were both left-handers.


You know the feeling when you wake up in the middle of the night in a strange hotel, jet-lagged and hung over on charter flight brandy, and you crack your head on the mirror-fronted wardrobe as you try to locate the bathroom?  Well, apparently that is what being left-handed is like.  Only it's constant.


So upset are left-handed people by the lack of sympathy from the 90% who are more dextrous and adroit, that they have declared 13 August International Left-handers Day* . Their aim  is not only to show how hellish life can be in a discriminatory world built for the convenience of smug right-handers, but also to trumpet how wonderfully they overcome the obstacles.
Apparently left-handers have more elastic brains, we are the superior 10% of the population, for instance, do people realise how difficult it is to write a cheque when the stubs always get in the way?
You wonder how they cope in those Eastern cultures where left hands are earmarked for lavatorial duties and are not even allowed near a cheque stub.


Left-handers always boast about famous left-handers, such as Lewis Carroll, Cole Porter, Picasso, Einstein, Marilyn Munroe and Leonardo, whose left-handedness is clear in the cross-hatching on his self-portrait (see left).  However, that still leaves plenty of famous people are aren't left handed.  And what about Jack the Ripper, the Boston Strangler and Tiny Tim?  All left-handers, but they don't get boasted about.


It is thought that humans are genetically coded to be born right-handed, suggesting that something goes wrong to produce left-handers. It is thought that left-handers are more common in groups of individuals with a history of alcoholism, suicide attempts, epilepsy and migraines, that left-handers are likelier to suffer from asthma, insomnia, allergies and diabetes, that they are likelier to have car crashes and, as if that were not enough, that they have less life-expectancy.  Doesn't sound too attractive, does it?  But then, is it any wonder with us left-handers having so work so hard just to carry out normal activities?

Left handers have trouble using can-openers, scissors, soup ladles, potato peelers, saws, cameras, hockey sticks, fishing rods and microwaves. Unless left-handers are reading, say, Arabic, Hebrew, Persian or Pashtun, many find reading books, a nuisance.  Even men's trouser flies are designed to be opened with the right hand, and asking a stranger for help is not always appropriate.  Some might think it even cheekier than a left-handed compliment.


I've always said that life is very difficult for a left-handed, short, shortsighted person (me) - and no wonder!

* http://www.lefthandersday.com/
Also see: http://www.stanleycoren.com/e_left-handed.htm

Beauty Column - taken from a very old magazine

Mark Antony named July in honour of Julius Caesar.  It was later called Hay Month and Harvest Month on the French calendar.  July is indeed the fruitful season and time to take advantage of all the produce of the land that will add to comfort and beauty.


Try an Air Bath for Refreshment
For most of our lives we are covered by layers of clothing.  Except for brief moments, the skin on our bodies seldom has a chance to breathe without obstruction.  An air bath is a delightful and rewarding respite from all the hours of swaddling confinement we undergo.

Exposing the body to air is an ancient custom, practised by those who have found a sense of refreshment in leaving the body unclothed for a period of time each day.  This is, of course, more easily practised in warmer climates, but even in colder areas you can use the spring, summer and autumn to advantage.

The effect of air and sunlight directly on the skin is most agreeable.  With today's scant bathing suits the young can experience this benefit more fully than those who dress more modestly.  But few people swim daily, and for an air bath to been entirely effective, the body should be completely uncovered.
Fine a private place in your home.  Of course a terrace screened from view would be ideal, but it is not sun we want as much as air.  Even an open window will serve admirably.  
There is something absolutely delicious about air bathing, or permitting the body pores to breathe without restriction every day.  The results are similar to an invigorating exercise or a stimulating bath.
An easy, practical way to air bathe is by simply sleeping without restricting nightwear.  Usually this is merely habit, anyway, and since there is bed clothing surrounding you, what need have you of additional covering.  Deeper and more tranquil slumber will usually result from sleeping nude.  And sleep seems to come more quickly when you're unhampered by clothing in bed. So throw your window open wide, retire for the night, and allow your pores to be refreshed and renewed by additional oxygen intake.


Suntan Lotions
The damage done to the skin during the summer months from overindulgence in the sun is inestimable.  Moderate amounts of all types nature are desirable and rewarding, but constant or too frequent dalliance with summer sun, when the rays are more direct, can destroy body tissue to such a point that a person can age several years in appearance in a few short months.
Treat the sun as a friend but don't embrace it on a daily basis.  If you do, not only are you damaging the skin you ordinarily pamper, but you're also courting disaster in the form of skin cancer.  Too many women now in their fifties are paying for the overenthusiastic sunbathing that became a favourite pastime when they were in the teens and twenties.

Dry, leathery skin results from too much tanning.  In fact, sometimes a tanned animal hide appears to have as much life as the complexion of those women who have overexposed themselves to the sun's ultraviolet rays.
If you insist upon sunbathing to acquire a tan, there are some applications which will promote it and get you out of the sun that much sooner.  At the same time, they offer some protection to the skin in helping ward off the dry-cooked appearance that can result from too much sun.


Suntanning Cream
1/2  cup sesame seed oil
1 egg yolk
1 tbsp wheat germ oil
1 tbsp lemon juice
mint leaves
Put all these ingredients into the blender, except the mint leaves, and whizz until thick.  Add 1 tbsp of mint juice crushed from the leaves, or made by beating one or two tablespoons of water with a handful of mint leaves in the blender before beginning.  Rub into the body before exposing it to the sun.


Barley Paste for Sunburn
If over-enthusiasm for a tan has made you incautious and the results are an uncomfortable sunburn, an old-fashioned barley paste can be very soothing and help to reduce the redness.
Grind  75g of unpearled barley, and mix the powder with 25g of raw honey. Mix these together and add the unbeaten white of one egg, to make a smooth paste.  Gently rub this into the affected area and allow to remain on overnight if possible, or most of the day, for the best results. 
Remember, the old-fashioned methods of beauty care are longer lasting than modern cosmetics, which can have uncomfortable side-effects.  At the same time, the home-prepared remedies and treatments require longer to be effective.  Nature will do its work perfectly but it won't be rushed.

Peaches and Cream Skin Softener
There is something absolutely beautiful about a bowl full of fresh peaches and real cream.  The fruit looks sun-kissed and warm and alive with colour, and the ivory richness of the cream crowns the fruit.  Why not wear it and eat it too?  This nutritious and beautiful dessert will then do twice as much for you.  Fresh peaches offer you a feat of Vitamins A, B and C, along with calcium for serenity and magnesium for good skin.  Add to that Vitamin D from certified fresh, raw cream for lagniappe*, or a little something extra.
Mash to a pulp a tablespoon of a completely ripe peach and mix in enough cream** to make a thick application.  Lie down and apply a generous layer of the fruit and cream to your face and neck.  Allow the mixture to remain on the face for thirty minutes.  Remove and rinse the face in warm and then cool water several times.  Gently pat away the excess moisture without rubbing.   Do not use soap.
And, since this is an edible cosmetic, get double duty by doubling the quantity, your weight permitting, adding a dollop of honey, and eating it after your facial.  You'll tingle outside and in!

Strawberry Paste to Refresh the Skin
In July, pour all of summertime's wealth into your body.  Too soon the fruits of summer will be gone, and you will be left with tasteless foods which have lost much of their vitamin and mineral value because they have travelled enormous distances.
Pick a basket, or pick up a basket, of little, red, ripe strawberries to eat and to use as a cosmetic.  Make Strawberry lotions and custards and paste, and prepare bowls of strawberries and honey and milk
Use the berries in every conceivable way, and if you're in a hurry, just bite the end of one and rub the rich red juice onto an oily skin or a skin that needs moisture, bleaching, cleansing, or reviving.  Rinse away after it's dried and note the colour in your complexion.

Refreshing Strawberry Paste
1/6 oz gum tragacanth***
rose water, orange water or elderflower water
1/2 lb fresh, ripe strawberries
Soak the gum tragacanth in enough rose water to soften to a thin mucilage.  Chop and crush the strawberries,.  They must be ripe for their formula; no half-ripe or too-firm berry will do.  Mix the berries with rose water to form a liquid paste.  Beat in the tragacanth.  Store in a capped jar in the refrigerator when not in use.
Gently massage the paste into the face and neck area at night, in order to soften and tone the skin.  Rinse away with warm water in the morning (you might want to protect the bedding by using an old pillowcase).
Strawberries, along with citrus fruits and some vegetables, are an important source of bioflavonoids(****), which are used effectively in treating skin haemorrhage among other ailments.  This condition is caused when blood vessel walls are so fragile they erupt and leve spidery red lines across a face.  Since this is a frequent cosmetic misery, it would be very wise to add these luscious fruits to the diet during their season, and when their all-too-brief appearance is over, sustituting other sources of the important bioflavonoid.

Freckles
At one time, when freckles (*****) weren't as casually accepted as today, women fought them off with various concoctions they brewed or had made up and gave them names to lessen their supposed blight.  Sun Kisses and the Kisses of Apollo were two favourite expressions meant to take the sting from the freckled face.  
Beauty books soothed heavily freckled young girls by telling them a few freckles under the eyes increased their beauty by enhancing their expression and calling attention to their eyes - or that Cleopatra was " with Phoebus's amorous pinches black". Over the years, more charming than accurate explanations have been given of the little rusty wonders that will allow themselves to be bleached a bit, covered somewhat - but disposed of never.
One 19C explanation suggested freckles consist of iron in the blood combining with the light of day.  The minute iron portions supposedly found themselves outside the usual tract of skin and deposited themselves just under the surface of the top skin.  When exposed to light, the particles immediately turned darker and thus freckles were born.
Today, dermatologists aren't overly concerned about freckles, so matter of factly are they accepted.  And their explanation is that they are small accumulations of pigment which have not been evenly distributed throughout the skin.  Sunlight does in fact tend to darken them, so avoiding heavy doses of the sun will help prevent the deepening colour that seems to distress those overly burdened with this pigmented spotting.
Fading freckles are about the most one can hope for.  There seem to be two types.  'Cold', or winter freckles, as they have been known for some time, are the more permanent type.  Summer freckles appear only in that season and intensify or diminish according to exposure to the sun.  They tend to disappear in winter.

Winter freckles come to stay.  Lotions and bleaches will help soften the colour of both summer and winter freckles.  If they freckles really distress you they can be 'painted' with a camel's hair brush dipped into lemon juice every night; the dried juice should be allowed to remain until morning.  Rinse the face and apply a thin coating of salad oil.  If the skin shows signs of irritation, add plain water or rose water to the lemon juice to weaken it.  Discontinue the use altogether if it becomes uncomfortable.
Buttermilk or yoghurt are two excellent skin bleaches but, as with the lemon juice, they must be applied daily in order to be effective.

 Nettle Hair Rinse
Fortify the hair for its dose of summer sun, seawater, and chlorinated pool water by shampooing weekly with strengthening herbs.  Hair that is in good condition, with strong roots and sturdy strands, will be more resistant to the summer's assaults on it.
Nettle wash is a prized formula for promoting tissue strength and improving hair texture and its use has brought praise for its virtues down through the centuries.  In addition to other qualities, it also  an excellent wash for removing dandruff, and at the same time it improves the colour of the hair.
Mix together half a cup each of sage and nettles and cover for later use.  Pour two cups of boiling water over a quarter cup of the combined mixture for each rinse, allowing it to steep until warm.  Strain and use after shampooing and rising the hair thoroughly.  Place a small basin beneath the head and pour the nettle/sage since over the hair several times.  Then massage the hair well and pour one last rinse over it.  Wrap a towel around the heat for five minutes or so before drying the hair.

* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagniappe
** could this also work well with natural yoghurt?
*** http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragacanth
**** http://www.chiro.org/nutrition/ABSTRACTS/bioflavonoids.shtml
***** http://www.freckles.org/

Roll over Beethoven


Who started boogie-woogie?


Boogie-woogie is a style of piano-based blues that became popular in the late 1930s and early 1940s, but originated much earlier, and was extended from piano, to three pianos at once, guitar, big band, and country and western music, and even gospel. While theblues traditionally depicts a variety of emotions, boogie-woogie is mainly associated with dancing.^[1] The lyrics of one of the earliest hits, "Pinetop's Boogie Woogie", consist entirely of instructions to dancers:

Now, when I tell you to hold yourself, don't you move a peg.

And when I tell you to get it, I want you to Boogie Woogie!

It is characterized by a regular bass figure, in the left hand. The bass figure is transposed according to the chord changes.

For the rest of the article see:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boogie-woogie

Another interesting site is: http://boogiewoogie.com/index.php/history/ and to listen, go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dn3mnrm8-YA

BUT HERE ARE SOME ALTERNATIVE THEORIES - Taken from letters to the daily paper some years ago:

• Anyone ready to testify that boogie-woogie piano started with Chopin's A Flat Major Polonaise ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFvqvZOtCF0 )should first listen to Mozart's Piano Concerto in D Minor (K466), first movement, bars 108 - 113 ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtTqpqGIIYU ).  There is the real seed of boogie-woogie piano - some half a century before Chopin.
• Not Chopin but Beethoven was the first to write down boogie-woogie.  The syncopated section in the last movement of his last piano sonata ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEFkmmAAE4Y )was where piano jazz really began - Vienna, 1822.

How to adapt your make-up with age

Way to glow
As you get older you need to work to achieve a radiant glow.  It all starts with good skincare, so look out for products that give you a dewy, moisturised complexion.  Then use a gold-coloured illuminating primer on your cheeks, forehead and the bridge of your nose.  Avoid matte face powder as it looks too tough.  It's nice to have a little shine.


An ace base
If a product makes your skin look drier or more wrinkled, it's not the right one for you.  Always test foundation on your face before you buy; it can look nice on your hand but the texture and colour of your face are totally different.  Apply a creamy concealer with a foundation brush on any dark spots.  And on days when you don't want to wear too much make-up, opt for a sheer tinted moisturiser.


What a cheek
Use a pink or peach powder blusher on your cheeks to make your face look fresh and radiant.  Take your index finger and line it up with your iris, then start applying your blusher from the pint on that line level with your nose, brushing up from there towards your ear.  Never bring the cheek colour too close to your mouth or nose; it will just make that part of your face look droopy.  There's a 90 year old woman who uses one of the cheek colours all over her face under foundation for added radiance, and she looks brilliant.


The eyes have it
Your eyes appear to shrink as you get older, which is very annoying.  Always use mascara.  It's a myth that you should switch to brown mascara as you get older.  It is not necessary; black will make your eyes look more sparkly.  Eye shadows can look heavy so stick to one colour in a shade lighter than your skin tone.  use a pencil liner to give your eyes a little strength.  Blondes are best with charcoal or dark green, but brunettes can use black.


Take a brow
Don't make your eyebrows too dark and don't over-define them; the lighter and softer the better.  If you're brunette and were using a black pencil when you were younger, switch to a brown or grey.  Use a little peachy iridescence on the brow bone, but nothing too frosted or sparkly. Alternatively, when you have finished applying the blusher, sweep the little bit of the powder left on the brush under your eyebrows.


Lip service
As you get older you need to use a nourishing, non-drying lip-gloss or lipstick.  You can wear any colour apart from dark brown or deep purple.  A medium pink tone with a touch of red suits most women, although some women can wear bright orange and look amazing!  You should change your li0p colour the same way you change your shoes, so you have different looks for different occasions, such as dark red lipstick for special occasions.

Coda:  I heard recently that the best thing for avoiding ageing our skin would be to cut down  on sugar - difficult if, like me, you love chocolate!

Indomitable women left their mark on history's page

Ask most Devonians to name a dozen or so notable men from the county's past and they will probably dash off a list that includes Sir Francis Drank, Sir Walter Raleigh, Joshua Reynolds and Charles Kingsley.

Nancy Astor

But turn the question around and invite a similar list of remarkable women and few will be able to come up with more than three - Plymouth's first woman MP, Nancy Astor; Torquay-born, thriller writer Agatha Christie; and multi-millionaire Dorothy Elmhirst who with, her husband Leonard, turned over their Dartington estate to progressive education and rural regeneration.


Could it be that the struggle to add to the trio is simply because there were not that many remarkable women?  Certainly not - as Exeter-based historian Dr Todd Gray reveals in his book*, which explored the lives of a whole host of females who made an impression over the past six centuries, but were neglected by historians.


But historical evidence does survive to show that something significant can be discovered of their lives and Dr Gray spent nearly 15 years uncovering it in Devon's three record offices and from other sources.


His compelling account includes the 'Amazonian Sirens' of the River Teign, who fished in the 18C without any help from their menfolk; Exeter's first women strikers, who demanded an increase in their factory pay during WW1; and individuals such as Mabel Ramsay, the Plymouth doctor and committed suffragette, who promoted women's interests in the 20C.  During WW1 she helped establish a Women's Imperial Hospital in a French chateau and served as a Red Cross surgeon.


There was also Elizabeth Holman, the 19C Devon navvy who donned male attire to achieve independence by gaining a higher wage, and Exmouth's Ann Perriam, who was eulogised throughout Britain as a 'Warrior Women'.


Joining her first husband, gunner's mate Edward Hopping, on navel ships she worked as a seamstress and, during battle was a powder monkey, which involved carrying gunpowder to the gun.  She was part of Nelson's fleet at the Battle of the Nile, and in recognition of her service, the government awarded her a pension of £10.  Returning to her native Exmouth, where she remarried and sold fish in the streets of the town, she lived to be in her 90s.


There was also Exeter-born Mary Evans, who rose from a moderate background to become the wife of Benjamin Disraeli and an effective campaigner.  

Mary Evans

She was also known for her offhand remarks.  On one occasion she responded to a comment about a woman's pale complexion by remarking: 'Ah, I wish you could see my Dizzy in the bath!  Then you would know what a white skin is.'
When Disraeli resigned as Prime Minister in 1868 he asked Queen Victoria to create his wife Viscountess Beaconsfield.  By that time his wife was ill with cancer, from which she died four years later.  Among her papers were two lines of text which indicated how she saw herself, which read: 'A spirit I am - And I don't give a damn.'


The Queen allegedly said, after first entertaining her to dinner, 'she is very vulgar, not so much in her appearance as in her ways of speaking'.  It may be, says Dr Gray, that she kept her Devon accent throughout her life.


Other, less familiar, women in the collection are the Victorian innovators Caroline Skinner and her sister Emily, who in 1878 introduced a new concept to Devon by opening 'The Hotel of Rest for Women In Business' at Babbacombe, Torquay.  While shopping in London's Edgeware Road, the spinsters had been struck by the 'tired and wan faces' of the lowly-paid assistants who served them.  So they hit on the idea of bringing them to Babbacombe for a short holiday and 'how charmed and refreshed they would be by the pure air and sight of the blue waters of the beautiful bay'.


The sisters rented a small collage for six guests near their home, and over the years their House of Rest went through several incarnations at a succession of buildings named Ferny Combe, Ferny Hollow and Ferny Bank.  Eventually as many as 600 women from all over the country - from shop assistants, milliners and dressmakers to teachrs, typists and cashiers - visited 3each year, usually for a stay of a fortnight or three weeks.  The Rest House, which sparked imitations in Sweden and Germany, continued until 1971.

Aggie Weston

Just as the Skinners were actively working in Torquay for the welfare of businesswomen, two other unmarried women were similarly involved in looking after sailors in Plymouth - Agnes Weston and Sophia Wintz.  Born in the first decade of the Victorian era, they became internationally lauded for their pioneering work in developing Sailors' Rests.
A dedicated building was opened in Devonport in 1876, and it proved so successful that another followed in Portsmouth in 1881.  'They deserve to be regarded as amont the leading women of Plymouth,' says Dr Gray.  'Neither was born there, but both were buried in the port with full naval honours.'


During WW2, women were implored to keep the country going while men were fighting overseas, and Devon women certainly did their share in a variety of occupations.


Some helped the Home Guard on Dartmoor by going out on mounted patrol as observers, while others drove taxis, became bus conductors, collected salvage and worked as gardeners.  But perhaps the most surprising of all were the 'Women Guerrillas' at Plymouth.


In April 1942 nearly 20 women becan  training in hand grenade and musketry drill.  Each woman was a Civil Defence Warden and one say: 'We are wquite prepared to tackle Tommy Guns, if they give us a chance.'


* Remarkable Women of Devon by Todd Gray http://www.stevensbooks.co.uk
/todd_grey_books/RWD.html or http://www.amazon.co.uk/Remarkable-
Women-Devon-Todd-Gray/dp/1903356598.
Also: http://sigbi.org/torquay-and-district/2011-historian-reveals-
remarkable-women-of-devon/ and http://www.devonhistorysociety.
org.uk/2011_01_01_archive.html and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophia_Wintz

How to ...
Deal with Neighbour Disputes

Problems with your next-door neighbour?  Resolve the issue before it escalates with this easy guide ...

1. Common Complaints: Thousands of people throughout the UK suffer at the hands of their neighbours, from small irritating bugbears to extreme situations that can involve the police.  The most common issues for complaints are loud noise or music, untidy or littered gardens, harassment or abuse, a lack of privacy, overgrown plants or trees and boundary issues - all of which can cause a great deal of stress for the victims.
2. At the first sign of trouble: When problems arise, mention them to your neighbour, keeping the tone of the conversation as friendly and light-hearted as possible.  If you're unable to approach them, write them a letter.  Bear in mind that your neighbour may not be aware that their actions are causing you distress.
3. If the problem escalates: If talking to your neighbour doesn't resolve the issue then you should keep a diary, noting the date, time and description of the problem.  While this may seem a little excessive, should the dispute escalate and you have to involve other parties, this information will prove invaluable.  Contact a local community conciliation or mediation service to help resolve the issue.  Community mediators work with both parties to help find a resolution without having to involve solicitors, usually free of charge.  Contact the UK Mediation Directory, see http://www.intermedial.org.uk/  for details.

What next?

• Noise - if a neighbour continues to make loud noise despite having been asked to stop, contact an Environmental Health Officer (EHO).  They can investigate, measuring the level of noise and assessing whether it qualifies as a nuisance.  If so, they can approach the neighbour on your behalf to try and resolve the issue.  If this fails, they can serve them with an abatement notice, which legally requires them to stop.  Non-compliance to a notice is a criminal offence and may lead to hefty fines.
• Harassment or abuse - if you are being constantly harassed by a neighbour, whether it involves dumping rubbish in or around your property or something as serious as verbal or discriminating abuse, you can contact your local authority or police to act on your behalf. Depending on the seriousness of the offence, your neighbour could receive fines, an ASBO (or their planned successor) or even be prosecuted.
• Overgrown plants or trees - if your neighbour refuses to cut a tree or large hedge that is overhanging your garden check with your local council first to see if there are any tree preservation orders on the offending plant.  If not, you can trim a tree or hedges to the boundary line between the two properties, but you must check with your neighbour first to see if they want the cut branches - if they do, you must return them.  If not, you are responsible for disposing of them.  In both cases, however, you cannot reduce the height of the plant.  It's best to contact your solicitor before you do anything or visit  http://freespace.virgin.net/clare.h/index.htm  for more information and advice.
• Party Wall - if you live in a semi-detached or terraced house, the walls that you share with your neighbour are called party walls.  If your neighbour plans to start any major structural work such as damp-proofing or building an extension, they must give you written warning of this two months before work is due to start, so you can ask questions about the build.  If you choose not to give your consent to the works, the 1996 Party Wall Act requires that you and your neighbour jointly appoint a chartered surveyor, or that you each appoint your own surveyor, to agree on and follow the work as it is carried out.

Seek Legal Advice: If you and your neighbour are unable to reach a resolution via mediation or with the help of a chartered surveyor, you must seek legal advice.  First, contact your home contents and buildings insurer to see if legal expenses cover is included in your policy.  If it is, you are eligible for free legal advice, so call them directly.  If not, call a solicitor.  Make sure you have tried everything before you involve a solicitor, as legal conflicts can be stressful and extremely expensive.

See also: http://www.communicationandconflict.com/ownership.html

How to mix modern furniture with old

Switch off the head.  Logic tells us that you can't put a Georgian table in a room with plastic chairs from the 1960s.  But you can.  In the end they are just shapes and colours and forms, and they either talk to each other - or they don't.   Having too many preconceptions, following fashion, knowing too much history - all these things get in the way.  Rid yourself of those preconceptions and you can start putting things together that didn't start life together.

An unlikely match.  It's quite easy to create a Georgian interior with Georgian furniture because the colours, scale and design to together.  It's not so easy mixing pieces from difference centuries.  But that's not to say that you shouldn't have fun trying .  Look for something that unites them.  It could be a simple element like colour that ties them together, or their scale or their form.  Suddenly they'll work, and then it becomes very exciting.

Distressed is often best.  A piece of Louis XV furniture is most likely going clash very badly with a piece of Scandinavian furniture from the 20C but if the surface is crumbling and the gilding is drying ... then  it starts to get incredibly interesting.  There is nothing  like a bit of faded grandeur, seeing a piece of furniture that belonged somewhere amazing in a much more humble situation, like an aristocrat on hard times.

Get the backdrop right.  White walls and floors are wonderful, they make everything look good.  So what if they get dirty, you just paint them again!  If you keep things generally simple, when you do  introduce a small amount of colour it just sings.  People spend so much money on new floors and it isn't necessary, just gloss-paint the floorboards and put matting or a rug on top.

Less is more.  Minimalism decreed that everything had to be hidden away, but that's so unnatural.  You shouldn't deny yourself what some people call clutter.  However, minimalism has taught us to appreciate space and to think more carefully about what we put into it, and not to fill  all of it.  Space can make as much of a statement as a pice of furniture you might put in that space.

Know where to look.  Budapest is a great place to find 20C furniture because so much of it was made there.  But shopping is eastern Europe and the fleamarkets in France is quite expensive now.  One of the best places to go in this country is the antiques fair that held every other month on the show ground in Newark (dmgantiquesfairs.com).  Go with a bit of imagination and you can pick up really interesting places.

Be bold.  Experiment.  Play around with colours and textures and shapes. Mood boards are great because they enable you to move things around until they work.  People move into houses and expect instant perfection, but the best things always evolve.  Finally, don't follow fashion!  Don't buy into it!.

A few ideas:
http://howelondon.com/
http://inspirationforhome.blogspot.co.uk/2011_03_01_archive.html
http://www.ivillage.com/home-decorating-ideas
http://www.housetohome.co.uk/galleries
http://www.lauraashley.com/home-and-furniture/inspiration/icat/inspirations1/

50 Great DIY Tips - Especially for Us Girls . . .

1. Recondition kitchen appliances with bath enamel
(definitely going to do this with our old fridge/freezer).
2. Typists' correction fluid conceals scratches on paint and enamel surfaces.
3. Clean stained or discoloured grouting with bleach on a toothbrush.  Also good for mould on walls and window frames.
4. Treat scratches on furniture with cod liver oil.  Leave 24 hours, then polish (that'll also help get rid of the smell!)
5. When drilling into a slippery surface cover with insulating or masking tape to avoid slipping.
6. If sawing plywood, stick masking tape along cutting line to prevent it splinteering.
7. Loosen putty with paint stripper left for 20 minutes.
8. Dip screws or nails in beeswax polish or petroleumn jelly, or press into soap, to lessen resistance when fixing, prevent wood splitting and stop rusting.
9. Loosen rusted screws or nails with vinegar left to soak into the head.
10. To tighten a loose screw, remove it, glue a matchstick into the hold and replace.
11. To stop plaster cracking when hanging a picture, sticky tape spot before nailing.
12. If nailing timber which might split, nip off point of nails with pliers and place 'space' end across the grain.
13. To remove old laminate, cover with foil and iron over. Laminate should peel off.
14. Remove cement splashes or paint drips from bricks by using another brick to rub off.
15. Before laying, leave linoleum or vinyl in heated room (or in the sun) for a day, so the roll becomes more pliable.
16. Cut vinyl generously as it's apt to shrink. Lino shouldn't be tacked down for a day or two as it can stretch.
17. Don't risk damaging a wall by removing old tiles if they're not cracked. Lay new ones on top.
18. Treat stains on enamel baths by rubbing in salt on a soft cloth dampened in white spirit, vinegar or paraffin.
19. Dents in stripped furniture rise if you leave a damp cloth on them overnight and iron over it the next day.
20. To remove burns on wood furniture, try rubbing with silver polish.
21. Fill tiny cracks or scratches in wood with a child's crayon.  Rub in, then use beeswax polish.
22. Treat water and alcohol stains on polished surfaces with cigarette ash and castor oil
23. White ring stains on wood respond to a vigorous rub with toothpaste, a mix of salad oil and salt, a dab of mayonnaise of Brasso.
24. Cigar ash with olive oil works on white rings where furniture has been French polished.
25. Treat white heat marks on a varnished surface with a meths and linseed oil mix.
26. Coat cheap second hand furniture with linseed oil.  Leave a week, then polish with beeswax.
27. Renovate leather furniture by rubbing with two parts linseed oil to one part white vinegar shaken together.
28. If a bolt refuses to budge, try a dose of coca-cola or ammonia left to soak in for a few seconds.
29. Locks won't stick if powdered graphite is puffed into the mechanism.
30. Rub a creaking hinge with petroleum jelly, a lead pencil or washing-up liquid.
31. Restore gilt picture frames with a mix of one egg white and one teaspoon bicarbonate of soda.  Apply with pastry brush and wipe off with neat washing-up liquid.
32. A metallic paint applied over primer on bare wood picture frames gives an antique look.
33. Store patch-up amounts of paint or leftover wallpaper paste in screw-top baby food jars.
34. If you're only doing a little painting, put the tray inside a plastic bag, which will mould itself to the tray when you pour paint in, and tie the end.  Throw away bag when you finish.  This saves time cleaning. (Make sure it isn't a bag which has had holes punched in the bottom for safety!).
35. To stop drips down your arm when painting a ceiling, push brush handle through a paper plate or an old sponge.
36. To stop paint splashes, stick wet newspaper or cling film on window panes. Vaseline on glass keeps the line from straying when painting.
37. Loosen pipe joints or radiator valves before painting by smearing on petroleum jelly.  They'll tighten up easily when the paint dries.
38. To remove stubborn patches of old emulsion, paint over with cellulose wallpaper paste. Leave on ten minutes, then remove.
39. Before using a new brush, work bristles to dislodge loose hairs.
40. Hair conditioner added to last rinse keeps brushes supple.
41. For a thorough cleaning, suspend paint brushes in paraffin.
42. Don't buy expensive wallpaper strippers, use warm water and washing-up liquid.
43. Paste the wall, not the paper, when working behind radiators and guide paper with a padded coathanger.
44. If picture pins or screws in walls are to be used again, insert matchsticks where they have been.  They will pop through paper, marking positions.
45. If bubbles in wallpaper haven't flattened after 24 hours, prick and, using a cocktail stick or cotton bud, apply adhesive, then smooth down.
46. If wallpaper seems stiff, let paste soak in for two to 15 minutes.
47. Block gaps between skirting and flooring with an acrylic sealant, draught excluder or timber beading (or newspaper?).
48. Stop gaps around windows with non-setting mastic compound.
49. It's easier to skim over artex ceilings than remove them, in case they contain asbestos, asbestos is safe so long as it's not disturbed.
50. For lots more ideas see Channel 4: http://www.channel4.com/4homes/how-to/walls-ceilings, also  http://www.diyfixit.co.uk/ and http://www.ultimatehandyman.co.uk/index.htm

And another site: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/property
/renovatinganddiy/7375847/Women-only-
DIY-course-Sisters

-are-doing-it-for-themselves.html  and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXenwjmJrc4 (I find youtube useful for so much inspiration!)

The Plot Quickens

Learn from the masters


Ali Smith compares the short story to a stone thrown into a pond "if you throw a stone into the water, you see concentric circles.  You know that something has been changed or moved and in a movement it's going to be gone'"


Suggestions include getting ideas, writing about what you know, writing autobiographically and then letting your imagination take over:

• Think about incidents in your life - or the lives of people you know - and change the reality; what if this had happened, instead of that?
• Were you , or was someone you know, given a piece of advice in the past that has affected, directed or blighted life since?  If you speculate on the motives of the adviser, or the outcome had the advice been followed/ignored, can you come up with a story?
• Newspapers are a good source of ideas.  The 'news in brief' section often reports on strange and curious events - and what about the small ads? 'For sale - Wedding Dress. Never worn'.  Can you be original and get away from the obvious of the owner being dumped at the alter or a tragic death?
• Look at photographs in the press and in the weekend colour supplements, and turn around that old saying 'a picture is worth a thousand words' by writing those words.  Look at the story inspired by Vermeer's painting The Girl with a Pearl Earring.
• As you travel - by bus, train or plane - observe the greetings and farewells; the lone traveller with her heavy suitcase; listen to fragments of conversation and let your imagination fly.

The Essentials

Once you have a storyline, write it down in summary form and start to plan. In a short story you need five things: the characters, the setting, when it happens, who is telling it and, most importantly of all, the plot.

First, the characters: A short story can be defined as a turning point in a fictional person's life, and it differs from a novel where the characters can develop slowly over many chapters.  Here, they must spring to life in a few lines.  You may need to keep physical descriptions brief, but it's effective to let them reveal themselves through their actions rather than make direct statements about them, "When James saw people shaking tins for charity collections he always crossed the road,", gives us a better understanding of James than "He was mean".

Teachers of creative writing urge their students to "show, don't tell", for showing what's happening through the actions and reactions of your characters creates pace and movement. 

Dialogue is also very effective in bringing people to life, but bear in mind that it must add to the story of move it on.  If it doesn't serve a purpose, it's redundant.
Here's an important tip about writing dialogue: Don't try to use a variety of 'saying' words unless they add flavour to the incident.  If your character is angry, of course she can shout; two women talking during a church service will almost certainly whisper, but "said" is usually all you need.  The reader absorbs the repetition and it is less intrusive.  Open any modern novel on a page of dialogue and you'll see that often a passage flows smoothly without loss of understanding when very few such words are used.


Where and When


use your setting to provide a background and to create atmosphere. Where does your story take place and when did it happen?  The more you know about this the more confidently you will write.  Initially you could work through the five senses and jot down anything that comes to mind, but in the final piece a few well-chosen words and phrases are more effective than long descriptions of scenery and locations.
Do avoid those over-worked describing words like 'fantastic', stunning' and 'lovely', which actually tell us nothing.  Instead choose adjectives that help your reader to see or share your experience of the scene.  Tune in to the associations of a word and let them work for you: hovel, house, mansion - three ways of naming a dwelling but what different pictures spring to mind!
If the story is set in the past, you will probably feel comfortable telling it in the past tense, although the use of the present can give a feeling of immediacy and involve the reader closely in the action. 
Another decision you'll need to make involves the teller, for every tale has a teller in addition to the author who wrote it, is thee a narrator, someone outside the action who relates the events, or will the story have more impact if it's told in the first person - "I" - which was the method chosen by Edgar Allan Poe for his best-known horror story The Fall of the House of Usher?


Finally, we come to the plot.  The novelist EM Forster said that story is a series of events strung like beads on a string (this happened and then this happened and then ...).  Plot is a chain of caquse-and-effect relationships that constantly create a pattern of unified action and behaviour.  Plot involves the reader in the game of 'Why?'.


Stories that involve a twist in the tale are examples of carefully contrived plots and those written by a master of the genre, Roald Dahl, are both intriguing and amusing.  How easily we smile with Mary Maloney as the police tuck into the leg of lamb with which she killed her unfaithful husband in Lamb to the Slaughter!  There's a market for twist stories and if you lucky enough to have that kind of mind, it's worth developing it.


Beginnings and Endings


A short story needs a lively opening, something that captures the reader's attention and makes them read on, it doesn't have to be dramatic, but it does need to start moving forward immediately, giving the background that leads to the climax or turning point in the story.  Sometimes stories start just before the big scene and then unravel at a more leisurely pace.

Ruth Rendell, queen of crime writers, lures us into her terrifying tale An Outside Interest with this chilling confession: "Frightening people used to be a hobby of mind.  Perhaps I should rather say an obsession and not people but, specifically, women.  Making others afraid is enjoyable ...".  It ends with the words: "Her rescuer, her murderer.  Then what was I?" leaving us to decide on the extent of the man's guilt.
Open endings invite us to speculate, and not all readers will reach the same conclusion.  They can add subtlety to your writing, reminding us how unfathomable human nature can be, but you can't just stop becuase you've run out of ideas.  The ending must be carefully paced.
The reader should sense that the narrative is winding down and not feel cheated by a sudden halt.
The most over-worked ending of all is " ... and then I woke up and it had all been a dream".  To teachers of creative writing this signifies an unplanned story, one that ran away with the writer who ran out of time or words, or simply never thought the plot through to the end. Don't use it!
A student once reminded me that Alice's Adventures in Wonderland ends in just such a way, and of course 100 years on it remains a universal favourite. But my defence is that children's books are the exception that proves the rule.


Titles


Look upon the title as a label that sums up the theme of the story without giving away the ending.  If your story is published you might find that the title has been changed, so don't spend too long agonising over it.  Susan Hill sometimes uses the name of her central character as a title - Ossie and Missy - in her collection A Bit of Singing and Dancing.
Once you've finished your story, put it aside for a few days and then read it with a critical eye.  Tighten up the language, pare it down, make every word earn its place.  Does your story, like Ali Smith's stone create a circle of ripples?  Has something changed or moved? Will the memory of it linger in the mind of the reader once she's put it down?  If it does, you've written a successful short story - possibly a winner!


Further info:
Creating a Twist in the Tale (ISBN 1-85703-558-5)
Creative Writing (ISBN 1-84528-101-2)
Writing Short Stories (ISBN 0-415-30387-7)
Also:
Website of the National Associaiton of Writers' Groups (www.nawg.co.uk)
and another website: www.theshortstory.org.uk.