Organic-Ally

  On this day last year (2020), we first clapped eyes on our new home. We had driven through the rain and came across a signboard on the motorway that said something like “Tier 4 residents should stay home”. When I first stepped indoors I saw the space beside the staircase, which the owners had reversed from the original position, and thought, “perfect place to put in a lift”. Unbeknown to me, the husband was thinking the same thing! After a burglary in our previous home, I was really keen to move. We had also come to a point where we needed to think of moving while we still have the energy to form a new friendship network locally. Either that or risk being moved into a nursing home when our physical and/or mental health fails (usually after a triggering episode like a fall or serious illness). When this happens, we will not have a choice of where we prefer to go. Someone else will be making that decision. Dire, you think. But my research in ageing has led me to think the b...

PLEASE remind your friends to dispose of their face masks with care:   (see  " Correctly dispose of PPE to stop new wave of plastic pollution "  ) Source:  https://www.mcsuk.org/news/face-coverings What else is there left to say in a year in which everyone has been touched by some effect of the pandemic? Let me dwell on the positives. My husband and I spent the best part of six months straddling 2019/2020 making once/twice-weekly bus trips to the local hospital to support a friend whose   mental health , for no apparent reason, took a huge hit. Friends rallied round, prayed, and supported the family. We saw no apparent progress for weeks and weeks and weeks. Suddenly from about February he began to show improvement, to the point of being discharged -- just before the first lockdown. It would have been impossible to continue to make those visits post-lockdown. As Christians we are thankful to God for answered prayers. As ordinary human beings, we are thrilled to ...

An unusual year all round. January to March: Most of this period was spent in Singapore where I was officially an "academic visitor" with my own small but adequate flat. I had access to a dining hall with the widest choice of food, which resulted in my putting on five kg by the time of my return. April to July: Returned to the husband, now fully retired. Felt a bit remiss that I was not around for his numerous retirement celebrations. But as I had been writing about since Sociology 205 (Sociology of the Family): a spouse's retirement has a huge impact on the stay-at-home spouse. I decided to forgo employment to help us transition through this period and I think there was a lot that we had to learn. We've enjoyed many walks around the park -- brisk walks to lose some weight -- and I am delighted to see how he who was 'limping' has now acquired a more healthy gait and weight. I've also lost those five kg. We spent quite a lot of time planting, and ...

I'm feeling pretty relaxed now, and at the same time a bit excited. It's Christmas eve!! Just finished my annual felting project. I like to have a new bauble every year for the tree. Since I was gifted a felting kit a couple of years ago, I'd made a 'bauble' without bling to mark the passing of years. This year I left it very late and decided to do a baby Jesus, not on a sphere but like a little 'hanging pillow' -- I don't really know what else to call it. And did. Woke up this morning thinking: that old scarf of my husband's -- the one where the silk had become 'hole-ly' and the stitches to the wool part had become ragged and loose -- I could perhaps use that for my project. And did. Last year, I managed sort of felt a camel shape from a decoration bought from The Leprosy Mission (TLM). This year I looked for a clipart. Is it simple enough for me to transfer to felt? And it was.    I did the baby Jesus side. Then I started fel...

A few customers have taken me to task for using plastic when despatching orders. Let me explain. Some items are sold as 'Gift Packs' and so come in a presentation pack. They also contain instructions for use in the case of Pocket Pouches (how to fold the hankies back into the pouch). Sometimes, especially when the weather is wet, I wrap the whole order in re-purposed plastic. This is plastic salvaged from a dry-cleaning business. You see, when the paper envelopes are damaged and orders get wet, I also get complaints from customers. At other times this plastic is used to ensure that your orders do not exceed the one-inch depth as the postage jumps from 79pence to £2.95 (yes!) when it exceeds that depth. I trust that you will agree that if I am charging £1.20 for shipping, it is not fair for me to ship it at £2.95. If orders are not tied down this way and items move during transit to more than one inch, the recipient has to pay the difference (£2.95 - £0.79) plus a sur...

Update 1st January 2021:  Avoid using wood burning stoves if possible, warn health experts But a growing body of research reveals air pollution may be damaging every organ in the body , with effects including heart and lung disease, diabetes, dementia, reduced intelligence and increased depression . Children and the unborn may suffer the most. Update 23rd May 2018 : Scandal of 'killer' wood burning stoves and the question - is the political class’s obsession with global warming rotting their brains? "So generous was the Northern Irish scheme to businesses, offering £160 for every £100 they spent on wood chips, that firms used it to heat disused warehouses and long-empty offices, knowing the more they spent on wood chips the greater their profit would be. Some users of the scheme kept heating systems running flat out night and day because they made such a profit from the subsidy scheme." Update 26th January 2017 : Wood stove fad is blamed for pollution...

Dear Organic-Ally customers and supporters I imagine that, like me, you are getting loads of emails from retailers that you had bought from ages and ages ago asking for permission to continue to send you emails. The irony is some of these have not bothered you for some time but because of new legislation coming in on the 25th May, they are obliged -- or are taking the opportunity -- to ask anyone who is still on their database whether or not it is OK to contact you (but they  already have!) and please could you confirm by ticking a box or clicking on a button?? I am really stuck. I don't actually collect and store any sensitive information from my customers. I don't store credit card details. Third-party providers take care of this. Then once a year, before Christmas, I turn to PayPal and Nochex (payment service providers) for email addresses. As such, these are actual customers who had made a purchase in the previous year. (I do not harvest data by pretending to send o...

This post is long overdue. I am starting on a second round of reviving bak choy. So I hope you enjoy this. Step 1 Buy some healthy looking bak choy from a (Chinese) supermarket. Lop off the leaves about 1½ inches from the bottom. Immerse in little containers like these. If it's terribly cold, I use water that is just warm to the touch. Put them on a window sill or somewhere with lots of light. And warmth where possible. In the picture above, you can see bak choy in different stages of regeneration. The green leaves traps energy from the sun and soon you will find roots, or root nodules, at the bottom of the stumps. Be patient. It may take more than a week to root. Meanwhile, refresh the water at least once every two days. You will find some bits getting sodden and looking like it's 'rotting'. Remove those bits, clean up the plants under running water and return them to the containers with fresh water. Step 2 When the roots are visible and clearly thriving...

A friend complained about aches and pains and that all his doctor told him was to exercise. "I'm in too much blooming pain to exercise!" My GP too has been telling me to exercise from some six/seven/eight years ago when he decided that I was suffering from early-onset arthritis. Last year I suffered a frozen shoulder from which I am still recovering. I also suffered a pain in my thigh. Said to the GP, "If a pain in my upper arm was caused by a problem in my shoulder joint, does a pain in my thigh means problems in my hip joint?" He nodded. Bah! I thought. His advice? "Exercise." For some strange reason, I decided to do 'lunges', left and right, morning and evening. After several weeks, the pain eased. In July I resigned my membership at the gym at which I did aqua aerobics three times a week where possible. Started walking briskly round a nearby park instead. There is also an open gym and I do a few minutes on each piece of equipment....

Update 23rd May 2018 : Scandal of 'killer' wood burning stoves and the question - is the political class’s obsession with global warming rotting their brains? Update 26th January 2017 : Wood stove fad is blamed for pollution I have spent quite a bit of my younger life in cities full of diesel cars. The fumes from these cars made me quite ill. As such I could not understand why the UK government was giving incentives to drivers of diesel engines. "Diesel was supposed to be the answer to the high carbon emissions of the transport sector, a lower emitting fuel that was a mature technology – unlike electric or hydrogen cars. In the early 2000s the Blair government threw its weight behind the sector by changing ‘road tax’ (vehicle excise duty) to a CO2-based system, which favoured diesel cars as they generally had lower CO2 emissions than petrol versions. It inspired British car makers to invest heavily in a manufacturing process that most countries outside Europe have...

For personal reasons I would like to highlight invisible disabilities. I live with someone who has Ulcerative Colitis. Recently I was physically quite 'disabled' in that I could not move my arm very much in any direction. Yet I was too embarrassed to use priority seats on public transport. This link here is a good reminder: 10 things you need to know about Crohn’s and Colitis

My ex-colleague at Accenture came up with the best quip: is my husband tired of being given the cold shoulder? It was soon after Christmas 2015 when I noticed that the intermittent pain in my right arm was getting more frequent. I am right-handed. Went to the GP in January 2016 and for the best part of this year I had been suffering a lot of pain, loss of muscle strength and spent many hours in hospital and clinic waiting rooms. Not nice. I had to give up that bit of my voluntary work which required a lot of note-taking. My right hand was so weak that I could barely sign my name, let alone write. Even working at a computer took a great deal of effort and I had to stop after every hour or so to recuperate. (I took on a new voluntary role to teach 'laptop' to senior citizens. Instead of note-taking, all I had to do was point and talk, and occasionally pressed a button or two. It gels with my desire to help older people cope with loneliness by connecting them via the inter...

I have been helping out at a children's holiday club run by my church. I have been so amazed by some of the talent shown by my six-year-old charges. One played football very well. A couple of the girls showed superb abilities in their colouring. I was quite taken aback because my son was still drawing stick figures when he was eight or perhaps even ten. His colouring was quite atrocious. No amount of  'colour within the lines' had any effect on him. He dreaded doing art and sport most, I think. With the exception of three-dimensional art. He is fascinated by origami and has created some most spectacular origami structures. When I looked at them -- they connect and can be manipulated and transformed -- I realized that this was not origami as in 'folding art'. This was origami as in 'paper engineering'. Back to these talented young people. I hope that they have the space and support to develop those innate talents that they clearly possess. Jus...

I have been very lazy and had not kept up with posting here. The last few years saw me kind of trying -- but not too hard -- getting back into academia. Nope. Still unsuccessful in convincing a university to take me on. The writing is doing a bit better as I had been getting published in various academic journals, including some with quite impressive 'journal impact factor'. Healthwise I had been suffering a pain in my shoulder connected to my writing arm. Sometimes it hurts a lot and I cannot do a lot of things I used to do. A real 'bummer'! Two things of significance in the last three months: I am coming to an age where I could have been researching myself. Yes, I will soon qualify for retirement housing and I could have been one of my own research respondents. (I studied sheltered housing for the elderly for my PhD.) How's that for extreme 'navel-gazing' as some anthropologists are sometimes accused of doing? I am enjoying teaching computer sk...

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...