Organic-Ally

 It's been another year of ups and downs. A recent trip to Montalbano and Godfather country (Sicily) to celebrate 25 years of marriage was certainly an "up", despite a burst tyre three minutes before reaching our first hotel (the "down"). However, I would place the highlight of my year as learning about goalball and watching it played 'live' at the recent "Blind Games" (IBSA: International Blind Sport Federation).  Back in August I decamped once again to a university in the Midlands to teach EAP (English for Academic Purposes) to incoming international pre-Master's students. Seven weeks away. I really do enjoy teaching these students. Most of them come from university cultures where they do not question the authorities and certainly not their professors. They were used to quoting their professors in order to get a good grade! Talk about stroking egos.  Imagine their surprise when I tell them that, "Look! Teachers do not have all the a...

  I've just suffered a most horrendous fortnight of coughing fits that kept me up at night, and now the headaches. But let's talk about WeWork. A few weeks ago, for some unknown reason, I saw on TV a documentary about WeWork (which has since filed for bankruptcy ). I've seen this business being advertised on TV but had zero interest in it. Picture source But there I was having afternoon tea with my family with the TV on in the background, and listening to previous employees of WeWork talk about its founder Adam Neumann. Within minutes I turned to my "boys" to say, "It is a cult." Grounded in my research in sociology of religion, I saw that WeWork functioned essentially as a cult. Its leader could do no wrong. What the leader says, goes, and information is not triangulated, tested against other sets of evidence. If an employee has a problem, "Adam will solve it." Those are just some of the warning signs. Alarm bells should have been ringing. For...

  R eading what Michael Lewis says  about the childhood of Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) gave me the shivers. https://www.stockvault.net/data/2012/03/06/129760/preview16.jpg In his description of a child who was so bored with school, I saw my son. The main differences were that (1) we intervened when he was six; (2) I decided against pursuing an academic career to ensure making professor by age 60; and (3) we prayed for wisdom. I cried a lot. O, how I cried.  Thankfully, our son appears to be a well-adjusted adult now, because his emotional development finally, in due course, caught up with his intellectual growth. Here's an extract with the focus on the childhood/education of SBF. “Childhood was a funny thing for Sam,” said his father. “He was never comfortable with kids, or with being a kid.” By the time Sam was eight Barbara had given up on the idea that his wants and needs would be anything like other children’s. She remembered the instant that happened. She had been at Sta...

 I come from a country where we started each school day by reciting the national pledge, either in front of the flag in the classroom or in a school-wide assembly. We pledged, "as one united people" to build a "democratic society", "regardless of race, language or religion". Why do we want to do this? "To achieve happiness, prosperity and progress for our nation". I always thought that it sounded like "The Lord's Prayer". Not my will, but yours be done, O Lord! After school exams we were often herded into the assembly hall where we learned to sing Mandarin, Tamil, Malay and English folk songs, whatever ethnic/racial groups we belong to.  https://www.sg101.gov.sg/social-national-identity/multicultural/ Primary school children celebrating "Racial Harmony Day". Seriously, after nearly 20 years of such practices -- some might call this indoctrination -- multiculturalism has become part of my DNA. One day a much older classmate...

 In sharing university campus accommodation with blind and partially sighted athletes at the 2023 World Games, I learned of a most amazing game called goalball . This comes amidst my contemplation of Martha Nussbaum’s “capabilities framework”, which suggests that instead of making everyone “the same” to achieve equality, we start with assessing the individual’s capabilities, and then decide on the resources needed to make that person function at their fullest (God-given) capacity. Athletes arriving with guide dogs and sighted supporters to help them navigate unfamiliar terrain Goalball is a very physical game. Players use their whole body to stop their opponents scoring goals stretched across the width of the pitch. Bells inside the 1.25kg ball allow players to “see” where the ball. If you watched them ‘live’, as I did, you might notice the incredible way players catch and block the ball as it bounces and rolls. You might even forget that they are blind. By embedding bells, ...

This morning, late as usual to the social media scene, I finally cottoned on to something that was a Twittering: storm in a T-witter cup . Elon Musk -- somehow he is "Elon Musk", not "Mr Musk, or just "Elon" -- has apparently restricted the number of daily Twitter posts that us lesser mortals are allowed to read. The numbers 500 and 600 had been bandied about. But a helpful (?) page here . Following my recent post on how social media, professional SEO and content writers are driving me, a hobbyist seller, out of business simply because I cannot afford to pay to be "found", I wonder if this could be "good news" to some. The jury is still out. I am merely hoping for the best (ie my best). This brings me back to my academic muse Henri Lefebvre and his exposition on " rhythmanalysis ". We carry on as if life is normal; we do not note the ticking of our heart, for example, until something goes wrong.  Isorhythmia (harmony) gives way to...

The following from an article  ( Why is hay fever so bad this year? The pollen bomb’s to blame ) in   The Times . I am not happy with the way many phenomena are now described as a 'bomb' when innocents are suffering from real bombs somewhere. The less important bits have been struck out, while the important bits are magnified, to make it easier for you to read. Dr John Bostock had tried everything — cold baths, opium, doses of mercury and even bloodletting — but he could get no relief. Every year at “about the beginning or middle of June”, the 46-year-old would be struck down by “the most acute itching and smarting, accompanied with a feeling of small points striking or darting” into the eye. It was March 1819, and Bostock, a doctor from Liverpool, was describing the first recorded case of hay fever to the Medical and Chirurgical Society. Nowadays the symptoms are far from unusual.  According to Allergy UK , one in four adults and one in eight children suffer from allerg...

When I started Organic-Ally years ago, I had wanted only to change the world, that we learn to "dispense with disposables". Seriously! One string bag at a time. One organic cotton hankie at a time. Here's what I did:  Organic-Ally Hankie Gift - Father's Day Special I found suppliers of organic cotton string bags, and organic cotton hankies. I placed my orders. I set up a "free" website, but this lacked a lot of functionality. So I paid for a website. I bolted on a free shopping basket software, but this only allowed me to take cheque payments. Imagine my shock when the first order dropped into my Inbox. We had gone away on holiday and I came home to find an order with a cheque enclosed. I did not even have the right type of envelope to despatch the order. So I migrated to a paying service. Then I integrated payment service providers and had been doing much the same since then. How did we find customers on the internet? At that time there were a number of ...

Since I started Organic-Ally  to reduce paper usage by using cloth hankies instead, there has been many developments, some good, some not so good, with regards to protecting our environment. Reducing the use of paper has been one of the effects of numerous campaigners. This post shows how one person tried to make a point and people have become very aware of how we are mis-using paper. Stock picture (Office365) However, I do wish to note how there has also been a reversal , again as a result of a successful campaign to reduce the use of plastic. Many of the mailers I once received that came wrapped in plastic now comes in paper envelopes. Is this a good result? I hope to be saying more about this later. Meanwhile, let me take you back to 2008 to show what we can continue to do to make a difference where paper is concerned. Let me also plug the use of my cloth gift bags here!! 😃 Adapted from:  https://www. independent .co.uk/climate-change/news/how-to-cut-your-paper-footprint-...

  Growing up in Singapore, I never went to bed without my laam jaam . It's a long cylindrical pillow which translates from Cantonese as "hug pillow" (or "hugging pillow"). My mum had a more sophisticated term for it. She called it a "Dutch husband", her take -- as a woman -- of what was known in colonial Singapore as a "Dutch wife" (feel free to google this term). I don't remember how or when I outgrew it. When heavily pregnant I requested my dear sisters who were visiting to bring me one, and they did. Recently I had been waking up every morning with pains down my thighs. They always seem to be on what appears to be "acupressure" points. Poke your finger or thumb at the correct spot and the point goes right through you. So began a daily ritual of finding/discovering where those points are on waking, and massaging with my fist until the pain eased, before getting out of bed. While hunting for some missing bedding last week, my s...

  I was just wondering whether to have a rant about this and came across (yes, it is a Mailonline article)  I booked a seat in a train's quiet carriage to work and was disturbed by a mother who let her two-year-old run around screaming - was I wrong to ask them to keep it down? On long journeys I always book on a quiet coach with the aim to either relax and have a snooze, or do some serious thinking/reading work. Why on earth would people with young children book on the Quiet coach, you might well ask.  On the last occasion, I first found someone sitting in my Reserved seat. My son tells me this happens to him very often on GWR. This man, doing a crossword, was sitting in my window seat. A young woman was sitting in HIS Reserved aisle seat. When I got on the train the young woman looked apologetic and asked if she was sitting in my seat. Well, yes, and no. She moved, but the older crossword gentleman was living up to his hobby, "Do you want me to move?", he asked gruffly....

  For those of you old enough to have watched the old TV comedy series Drop the Dead Donkey you might remember a character (the news presenter) who talked often of how she was abused by her grandmother. Image by wayhomestudio on Freepik I cannot understand how grandmothers could be evil, but then there are mothers who are evil, too. I was on the bus home from the university and feeling tired. As usual I whipped out my phone to read another instalment of the book on my phone. But there was a voice shouting, "Me want Mummy! Me want sit wif Mummy!" Where was "Mummy"? After faffing about for several minutes while the bus was stopped, she had proceeded to the back of the bus, sitting just behind me, facing towards the back of the bus. As "Me want Mummy" got louder and more persistent I looked up to observe that a girl, quite a big girl, about three years of age, was strapped to a push-chair at the front of the bus, in the care of her grandmother. Behind me set ...

I had some time on my hands. Looking at the pile of Christmas cards I was hoarding, I thought I should put my plan into action and made these.  They are not difficult to make and would keep some young ones occupied for a little while, if you do not mind cleaning up glue-y fingers. The materials required are: Old Christmas cards Ribbon which I had salvaged from Christmas crackers, some glue, a pencil, scissors and something to draw the circles with. I used a cake cutter. Then it is just a question of deciding which parts of a card or cards you wish to use. You will need at least three circles to make a 3-D bauble. I used up to five circles. Four circles seem the best compromise. When you have cut out the circles, fold them into half. When you have a good half circle, use this as a template to make it easier to fold the other circles into half. Then decide on which way you wish to glue them. I wanted one that included the names of the people who sent the card, but I made a mistake an...

  Writing this while still in the middle of reading Mrs Harris goes to Moscow , having been rather enchanted by her achievements in Mrs Harris goes to Paris , and New York  by Paul Gallico.   Together with her best friend Mrs Butterfield, they encounter a paper salesman in Moscow, after they discovered that loo paper was in short supply. The salesman grumbled: “Paper! … There ain’t enough of it to go round. Everybody wants paper! You can’t buy it, you can’t find it and there won’t be enough trees left to make it …. “Wrapping paper! Greaseproof paper! Wallpaper! Paperbacks! Paper towels! Nobody blows ‘is nose into a good old-fashioned ‘andkerchief any more. No, you got to blow it into paper what comes from those poor blinking trees. I tell you there ain’t no end to it! Blotting paper, legal paper, lining paper, paper napkins, paper cups and plates, …! Paper hats on New Year’s Eve!” Reusable Gift Wrapping So just in case you don't already know, you can can find subst...