Organic-Ally

There is a new editor at Straits Times Forum page I have not been keeping up with news in Singapore for some time for various reasons. Something struck a chord with the recent debate on IQ testing. I asked my son if he wanted to write a piece on 'the heartache of a gifted child'. No. So I wrote 'the heartache of a gifted  child mum' instead. The editor was very good and gracious and let me look at her edits before running it. I am amazed at the lack of reports in Singapore on how difficult it is to parent a gifted child. Am I the only one with this problem? So it was good that after this letter was published, another parent shared how it has not been a smooth-sailing journey for him and his son either. It is a myth that when children are gifted they would be able to sort themselves out. No, they are still children and parents must be there for these children. Also in my experience, the last thing a parent needed to worry about is 'enrichment' in terms...

This is a copy from a column in The Times: http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/life/article4316817.ece I think this is important enough for supporters of ethical trading, sustainable farming, ethical farming, etc. to know. === Last updated at 12:01AM, January 8 2015 This week, Asda and Sainsbury’s fired the first salvos in the new year supermarket price war with the promise of £450 million worth of cuts designed to keep Tesco off the top spot and see off discount stores such as Aldi and Lidl. Great, I didn’t think, but maybe you did. Maybe you clapped your little hands and performed an exuberant celebratory dance, as you may do every time food gets even cheaper, but my heart sank. These price wars always screw everyone over one way or another. As it is milk has already been reduced to 22p a pint in Asda — and you think that’s all you’re paying? As a rule, and because I am tight by nature (I wash up paper coffee filters; I’ve had the one filter going for about a decade n...

I think this is a great example of localism, entrepreneurship in general and how, in particular, many mums start their businesses. We see an unmet need that our child/ren can benefit from our taking the plunge. Mother desperate to make sure her children and their classmates eat healthy lunches after canteen closed launches her own catering firm and becomes school's new cook Localism: The problem with big business is they can only take profit if they trade on a big scale. With the scale usually comes a drop in care and quality. I now do some work locally. I walk to work. I am not paid a lot of money. But I do good work (at least I think so). Fellow human beings benefit from what I do. I don't mind the low wage too much. Entrepreneurship: I meet too many clients who say they or their children are highly qualified 'but there are no jobs'. So they get on to JobSeekers Allowance and wait for an employer to come calling. Even if this means subjecting themselve...

Based on what my numerous clients at the advice agency have told me, it appears that one mode of operation goes like this (note: there are other ways they make money): 'Conditional solicitors' advertise their 'expertise'. Ninety-year-old happily watching her day-time TV sees an advert. O yes, she was injured in a public place, why not give these people a call. Nothing to lose , she thought. Wrong! Solicitors assure her that they will look after her. She's likely to get £x000 in compensation. She signs a piece of paper giving them exclusive rights to act on her behalf. No-win, no-fee. Happy, she hobbled off. About nine months later she comes to me. Her solicitors do not seem to be doing anything. When she chases them up they make unhappy noises and are rude. They won't let her deal directly with the people she is complaining against. They keep telling her she has to wait. Crucial question this: "Can I sack these lawyers?" I check my 'rul...

OK. This was supposed to be my first heart-warming story, but the Ferguson urgency took over. http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/30180472 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2847555/He-crawling-parasites-Sportsman-adopted-stray-dog-followed-Ecuadorian-jungle-wait-four-months-reunited-pet-recovers.html   Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/30180472

Some time ago I said I wanted to start a 'good news newspaper'. I'm sure others have already done that. So, here is a story that warmed my heart. Except that that there is often more to good stories. Some years down the road, we may learn that all is not what it appears to be. Never mind. For now let us just enjoy: Chinese millionaire builds free luxury homes for entire village where he grew up The timing was also serendipitous as I had watched on 'catch-up' TV a programme about Tatler . This programme featured rich Nigerians in the UK, multi-millionaires. My meandering thoughts were just going: if only these multi-millionaires could spare a million or two for their fellow countrymen, how different would Nigeria be? Extrapolating this argument I think of all the ultra-rich Chinese and Russians which are flooding the west, buying up land and homes. What if -- WHAT IF -- each of these would just spare a million each for their fellow countrymen. What a huge di...

I was reminded to write about this after reading another news item today about PPI. Just last week I had an elderly client at the advice agency where I do some work present a letter demanding some £700 for getting his £1700 PPI claim back. Seven hundred eye-watering pounds for something the Client could have got for free. All he needed to do was complete a form to churn out a letter. Go to websites like Adviceguide , Moneysavingexpert  and Which . Worse still, this "claims handler" alleged that the bank had duly refunded the Client and so the Client should cough up the commission within seven days, or risk having bailiffs at his door. The bank however tells the Client that this claims handler is not even a registered claims handler. O dear! Meanwhile poor guy gets sucked further and further into debt while his blood pressure goes higher and higher. Were they a bogus company simply trying to frighten an old man into giving them £700? Who knows? If you know friends, ...

This has nothing to do with anything organic. On Facebook I read huge number of comments about people who cannot 'warm' to Pixie on Strictly Come Dancing. Well, glad I am not the only one who finds something about her so annoying. This is the opposite to 'something about Mary', as in the film starring Cameron Diaz, where there is something about Mary that makes her so lovable. I am not bothered with the argument/gripe that she had had dance training. She clearly has the benefit of 'muscle memory' to help her dance so well. She IS a delightful and competent dancer. If I was watching a programme about celebrities who dance fabulously then she will be loved. Full stop. I know little (ie not a lot!) of Pixie Lott except that she's a singer. I do not know what songs she is famous for, or the genre of music she sings. OK, I'm not really into popular music these days. Why don't I like her? There seems to be something 'put on' (fake) about ...

I had just realized a link from www.organic-ally.co.uk  is not working properly. This is because the original article is now being protected by a paywall although the original article was published before the paywall went up. The critical details are here: By: Anna Shepard Eco-Worrier Published at 12:00AM, February 23 2008 Q Is it better to use tissues or real handkerchiefs? A Hankies all the way. Kinder on the nose, they also save trees and reduce landfill. A tissue is a one-use-only product. Needless to say, if you don’t use the recycled variety, you are using virgin fibre fresh from the forest, which requires a significant amount of energy to transform into a silky-smooth tissue. Under Health and Safety regulations you can’t recycle tissues as they are considered contaminated. Composting them is the best disposal method, but I know that when I have a stinking cold the amount of tissue I get through would overwhelm my wormery. According to the European T...

My family and I went over the pond in the summer to attend my niece's wedding on the Pacific coast. I took the opportunity to shop for fabric. Since I've lost my main source of organic cotton fabric I have been eyeing suppliers overseas. But this particular one does not ship abroad without a great kafuffle. And it's expensive. So I ordered fabric which was delivered to my brother and picked it up on one of the several occasions we met up. While cutting the fabric I was suddenly brought back to a floral pink (yes, I'm afraid) that I remember I loved so very much. My eldest sister worked in an import-export business and she had samples of everything under the sun that a little girl could want: buttons, fabric swatches, make-up, etc. I remember a book of swatches which I took to school when I was about nine years old. I had to show my teacher that beautiful swatch. The fabric Miraleste (the orangey one) is a bit like the swatch from this memory.      ...

I am becoming more like my mother every day. My son is heading off back to school today. I had offered to make him pancakes, but a meeting got in the way. So I thought, "Ah! Pancakes for breakfast then." Of course, being the efficient person that I am, I thought, "Ah! Prepare the mixture the night before." Which I did. Mixture done and stashed in fridge for the next day, I then put a finger into the egg shells to scrape off whatever egg yolk was left and ... just like my mum used to do ... smear it on my face. You can feel the skin tighten. After a few minutes I washed off the eggy film. Has it been any good for my skin. Dunno. But it cannot be bad. If you google egg white face mask, you will come up with loads of ideas and info about this very natural and nutritious face food. That's (1) pancake mixture, (2) face mask and then (3) after removing the membranous bit inside the egg shells I let them dry overnight. When dry I broke the shells into b...

I tried ways of making a viable reusable organic cotton version but they were not very successful.   So very please to read about this: The Indian sanitary pad revolutionary

Wow! I've been away from this blog for such a long time. Been writing my more political ones elsewhere, I'm afraid.   Anyway, this week, several reports on BBC Radio 4 You and Yours on 'sustainable cotton'. Might be worth catching up.    Working in the cotton industry   Fast Fashion: Affordable or Exploitative?   Cotton imports  

This is now one of my fail-safe recipes. I start on this at 5.30pm by turning the oven on to 220C, prep the ingredients, and put the dish in at 5.45pm when the oven is up to temperature. At 6.15pm I remove the lid and let the chicken continue to brown and crispen up for 15-20 minutes, hoping that husband gets home by 6.40pm or whenever to eat it with us. The important thing is to cover for the first two-thirds of cooking to prevent meat from drying out. I used to cook this in a roasting tray and cover with tin foil. I thought this was wasteful of tin foil. I tried buying a lid to fit the tray, but failed. Then while trying to bake sourdough bread discovered my husband's father's mother's enamel roasting tin that is rather ancient, hidden and forgotten in a dark corner in the cupboard. It looks like this, and I am borrowing an image and link from a well-known retailer for which I am not paid: http://www.lakeland.co.uk/13262/Traditional-Enamel-Round-Roaster It's a...

This is based on a post I put up earlier for friends in Singapore. After baking my bread today I came across this article . It does not take all that long to knead, but you must be patient with waiting for the dough to rise. I now gather all the ingredients together before starting and can get a lump of dough ready for first proofing within 20 minutes.   It's cheaper to buy a packet of yeast rather than the 7g sachets. In the UK and if you have room, you could also have bigger bags of flour delivered. Better still if you could get locally-grown and/or milled flour. You need STRONG flour. White, wholemeal, granary, whatever, or a combination. I now regularly use 1 kg of flour, usually a mix of wholemeal and white and/or granary. I normally make one loaf (about 950g wet weight) and turn the rest into rolls of about 70g (wet weight), some of which I take into the advice charity on Mondays just in case we get clients who have gone hungry or are homeless. ...

My husband and I had been thinking of moving to the country when he retires and we dream of keeping honeybees and chickens and growing our own vegetables, etc. Last night we were in Devon to celebrate his mum's 80th birthday. We had a great time but I was nervous about travelling knowing how treacherous the weather promised to be. Thankfully husband drove well (as usual) and I suspect given the weather warnings, only those who needed to travel, did, and the roads were pretty clear. Still the rain beat down. We checked into a riverside inn in Bovey Tracey, rested, and met up at the pub restaurant for the party. When we were leaving after the party the staff told us that the road we arrived by was flooded and traffic was not getting through. So husband, who knew that area well, chose a different route. Once we got into the car the local radio notified us of various flood spots and, of course, that the river had burst its banks at Bovey Tracey. Ah! What do we do? Son in th...

A certain man made this statement: Team GB chief: dominance of public schools is unacceptable . But of course, he must have been quoted out of context. I had to go out to buy some ginger to put into my slow cooker where the glorious aroma of cinnamon and star anise means the belly pork must surely taste wonderful come dinner time. There was a steel band made up of young people (black and white) performing at the town centre. In the sunshine. I found myself thinking: now how would the lives of our young people be different if they are required to be in a steel band, a marching band, a school cadet corp, a competitive sport, etc. for all the years that they are at school. This goes back to my own school days when I spent so much time playing in the school band and orchestra I had no time to get up to any mischief (or pregnant). Every year we had a marching band competition. We had a concert band competition. We played in concerts from the presidential residence to public ...

My cousin and her husband passed through Heathrow early this morning. My husband met them to collect a package of food for me. I was delighted that she had brought fresh food. My son watched me eat a strange red thing which we call "ang koo kueh", or "red tortoise". He watched me tear off the banana leaves from the bottom of this "cake" and said, "Banana leaves." I said, "Yes, banana leaves, completely biodegradable." Son also chose to buy me a large basket of flowers for "Yummy Mummy" this Mothering Sunday. I really appreciated it. However, it came wrapped in yards of a plasticized clear wrap. It is very difficult to find real cellophane these days, the crinkly variety that actually biodegrades when exposed to light and air. I look forward to a week of eating dumplings wrapped and steamed in banana leaves. Yumm!

Some weeks ago I dealt with a young man from the Horn of Africa. I came this close to throttling him. He slumped into my office and started off straightaway with "I want to know what benefits I am entitled to". [Why should he be "entitled" to anything? He has not contributed a penny to the British economy.] He told me he was being given some benefits in another part of the country and so clearly he was "entitled" to those benefits. But his JSA (JobSeekers Allowance) was stopped because the woman at the Job Centre said as a student he is not looking for a job and should not be entitled to JSA. This woman is right. Otherwise every college student would be claiming JSA but these students are not really prepared to leave their courses to work. The point is without his JSA his Housing Benefit (paying rent) and Council Tax Benefit (paying council tax) were also stopped. So this poor chap had to move in with his sister. Previously he had "his...

My clients yesterday included a 44-year-old mother of four who suffers from incontinence and told me that "I am claiming [benefits] for them [husband and sons]". She's one of the thousands the government is trying to move off Incapacity Benefit (she was classed as severely disabled) back into work (JobSeekers Allowance). However because no one in the family works, for her to lose her benefits would mean the family would struggle to survive. This is despite one son and husband also claiming benefits. She "claims for them" in the sense that she is entitled to most. When I probed further she said that she is a bit embarrassed by her problem and so does not feel that she could work. She also mentioned depression. I wonder if the depression is a result of her not working or her reason (excuse?) not to work. Similarly her son who trained as a plumber could not find a job -- and is depressed -- and so has signed on. Before I met this lady I didn't think inc...