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Squidoo has changed the way its Angels operate again. Now that there are more categories and sub-categories for lenses, Angels look after a particular sub-category – mine is Growing Plants. It’s a subject in which I’m interested so I enjoy looking at these pages and have given out blessings on several. I’m pleased to say that so far I haven’t come across any lenses violating the site’s Terms of Service.

I’m really happy that my page called My Father – In Memoriam has received a Purple Star. I am so pleased because it’s such a personal and emotional subject. I’ve also had several pages blessed, including one of my earliest lenses – Dartmoor, Devon. The lensmaster and angel MakingaMark is the one who blessed it and also put a link to it on her own page called The Best of the UK.

Bournemouth Pier

I just spent a week’s holiday (vacation) staying at my best friend’s house in Bournemouth on the English south coast. I was very lucky with the weather because it was hot and sunny all day, everyday and the good weather continues still.

We didn’t do anything very special but we had fun, caught up on gossip, went shopping, sat in the garden, and enjoyed ourselves. As we’ve been friends for over 30 years, we have a lot to talk about and we share so many memories.

Now I’ve had a break, I’ve come back with ideas for new Squidoo pages. I finished a very long but excellent novel while I was away so I might write a review of it. I bought about eight new books so there might be more reviews I can do of some of those too. I’ve also been looking through an old book in which I wrote recipes that people gave me. I haven’t made some of those for years so I’ll probably try some of the old favourites and put them on lenses if they are suitable and good.

Most of us cannot understand how anyone can be so evil that they would buy and sell children in the sex trade.  How paedophiles can brutalise children for their own selfish gratification is beyond any understanding and certainly any kind of forgiveness. If I had my way, they’d be castrated without anaesthesia. I’d probably have them cast out into a vast wilderness as well, to fend for themselves, far beyond any kind of help.

We can’t wave a magic wand to abolish this evil trade but we can help to fight it. Find out what you can do – read Best of Child Trafficking on Twitter and see how people on Twitter are are getting together to support the charity Born2Fly – read about it here.

Find out why 09-09-09 is an important date for your diary and for children all over the world then use your own Twitter and other social networks to spread the word.

Saffy, aged about 5 years, running as usual

Next month Saffy, my springer spaniel, will be 12 years old. Springers live for about 14 years and she’s already looking like an old dog. Her face has a lot of  grey hairs among the red-brown. She’s got arthritis in her hips and can’t jump into the car anymore. She can put her front paws on the seat and then I have to hoist up her back end.

When she was younger, she could run for hours. We used to go to Westonbirt Arboretum where we would spend maybe 2 or 3 hours. Saffy ran the whole time in huge circles around us as we walked and looked at the trees and views. When we were ready to go, she’d jump in the car and sleep for the 20 minutes it took for us to get home. Then she’d be ready to run and play again.

She has always been crazy about balls but never much interested in food so I had to use a ball to train her. I wouldn’t throw it till she sat or came or whatever. If we forgot to take a ball when we took her for a walk, she’d keep sitting expecting us to produce it and throw it. I can’t tell you how much emotional blackmail that inflicted on us. She did  train us not to forget the ball, though!

Nowadays, I never take the ball with me and she walks quite slowly. She hardly ever runs just for the joy of it. I feel so sad when I see her plodding along and remember the way she would run and run and run. My partner still takes a ball when he takes her out but she will only chase it a couple of times, then she won’t bring it back but carries it around in her mouth instead.

When she was younger she never bothered about the weather. She didn’t care if it was pouring with rain, snowing, blowing a gale or extremely hot. Whatever the weather was doing, she still enjoyed racing around. Now she doesn’t like the cold, I expect it makes her arthritis worse. She hated going for a walk when we had the snow in February and would take a short cut then stand next to the path home rather than following me and our other dog, Henry, a cavalier King Charles spaniel.

She still seems happy enough and contented. I don’t think she is in any real pain either. She eats well and wags her tail enough to convince me she still enjoys life – just at a slower pace than before.

You can read about the time Saffy was in danger of losing her front leg or even her life when she was just a year old in The Saga of Saffy’s Paw.

I’m so sad that these  compliments gave me a real lift even though they came from two elderly women and not two hunky guys. Oh well, when you reach 60, you have to take your compliments where you can find them. The sad truth is that at my age there are very few ’suitable’ men that are attractive. Who wants a man that has to take his teeth out to clean them or needs to clip the hair in his nose and ears more often than the little that remains on his head?

As part of the baby boomer generation, I don’t feel my age. I’m still 28 inside – probably the age I had most fun. I haven’t started putting a blue rinse on my hair but I do use ultra violet instead and a colour called Dragons Blood on my nails. I’ve always been outrageous and dressed in my own style and I continue to do that.

Thank goodness I lost the weight I put on in my 50s. If I was fat, I’d look really ridiculous! That was the only time I dressed like other people because I didn’t want to be noticed. I hated being overweight.

I can remember when I was a child and teenager and somebody of 60 seemed ancient. They dressed in old-fashioned ways and just behaved like old people. At least the ones I knew did. I guess being in our 60s has crept up on my generation. We never thought it would happen to us and now we reject the idea of being old.

Logitech Mouse

Copyright Red, Used under the Creative Commons License

My right arm is very painful at the moment and I’m certain it’s RSI (repetitive strain injury). I had it before about 5 years ago and cured it by buying an ergonomic mouse and keyboard.

The keyboard it the kind with the a support for the wrists along the bottom and the keys for the left and right hands angled away from the centre. The mouse held my hand on the side with rather than flat and parallel to the desktop. Within a week or two of buying these, all pain was gone and I’ve been fine since then until the last week.

Unfortunately, my mouse stopped working properly and needed replacing and I just could not find another like it. I had to buy a regular mouse instead. Now I’m in pain from my wrist up to my shoulder. The only way I can use my computer is with my lower arm well strapped and with a small rolled towel for support under it.

I’ve seen lots of mice on eBay that claim to be ergonomic but nearly all of them just don’t change the angle of the hand which I believe is the problem. I’ll have to go to a big computer store and try some. In the meantime I shall struggle on – there’s no way I can give up using my computer as I’m a complete addict!

Bournemouth Gardens in the centre of the town.

I can’t believe I haven’t posted here for so long. My excuse is that I was still fed up with all the online politics but didn’t want to write about it anymore. On a happier note, I’ve also been away for a week staying with my best friend in Bournemouth, a popular seaside town on the south coast.

It was very cold there and it actually snowed one night and the snow hung around most of the following day. It is very unusual for Bournemouth to have snow because of the warming effect of the sea.

My friend lives in a house on the east side of the town about 10 minutes walk from the beach. Neither of us went down there, though, too wet, too cold and far too windy.

We did some shopping, more window shopping, saw friends and relatives and talked a lot.

Bournemouth Beach in August

Obviously, at the moment I am thinking of Squidoo but it’s not confined to this kind of network or business. It happens in hospitals, large factories and all kinds of institutions.

People are happy to gossip about problems to co-workers or other members, even sometimes to friends and family outside although they can get bored quite quickly with this kind of conversation.

Once it’s brought out in public debate or reported to a watchdog in the case of hospitals and other vital public institutions, then the whistleblower can be shunned by other members or workers.

Logically, you might expect everybody would be delighted to bring problems into the open so that management has to respond in some positive way. Or, if they don’t, at least everybody can see the abuses are tolerated and not considered serious.

I believe that the more highly you regard an organisation, the better you want it to be and will inconvenience and even embarrass yourself by reporting abuses of the system. Not many people enjoy arguing and even risking the work they have done there and so they think long and hard before acting and speaking out.

In my experience, the practice of killing the messenger (metaphorically not literally!) is something that is not universal amongst all members. Some are glad that a few people have spoken out and are relieved to be able to add their voices to the campaign for improvement. However, many are defensive and seem to take it as a personal criticism of themselves.

Obviously, in an organisation like Squidoo, abuses don’t have the potential for life or health threatening consequences that could occur in hospitals when management or medical staff are not doing their jobs properly.

A case in point is the sloppy way many contract cleaning companies were performing in UK hospitals which was implicated in growing numbers of MRSA cases, the antibiotic resistant infection. Whistleblowers and subsequent investigations have led to an overhaul of the system and far more emphasis is laid on the importance of keeping hospitals spotlessly clean. It has also led to patients being empowered to ask doctors and nurses to wash their hands when they forget to do so between touching different patients.

Even when the consequences of abuse, incompetence or sloppy working practices aren’t life threatening, reputations can suffer and, by association, this can effect members and employees as well as the organisation itself.

When you are next tempted to castigate whistleblowers for the actions they take, remember they have probably gone through a lot of soul searching before going public and that they have the good of the organisation at heart rather than malice or a wish to cause trouble.

Named after their American bald Eagle, Liberty’s Raptor and Reptile Centre is located near Ringwood, in Hampshire, UK. As it’s located on the edge of the New Forest National Park, it makes a great place to visit while you are also visiting the Park.

It has a large collection of birds of prey like eagles, owls and vultures as well as reptiles – snakes, tortoises and lizards. There are displays of the raptors flying and you can even have the experience of flying these beautiful birds yourself with the centre’s Hunting Day Flying Experiences as long as you are over 16 years of age.

Bearded Dragon, Aquarium Animal Photographic Print
Buy at AllPosters.com

The raptors include African Hooded Vulture, Bateleur Eagle also from Africa, Common Kestrel, Crested Caracara from South America, Great Gray Owl, Mackinders Eagle Owl from Africa, Rock Eagle Owl from India and Pakistan, Siberian Eagle Owl, Snowy Owl from the Arctic tundra, Southern White Faced Owl from Africa, Spectacled Owl from South and Central America, Turkey Vulture from North and South America, and the Western Screech Owl from North and Central America.

Reptiles include Bearded Dragons from Australasia, Common Green Iguanas from Central and South America, Giant Tortoise from the Galapagos, Green Water Dragons from Southeast Asia, and Leopard Geckos from Pakistan, East and Southwest Asia.

The centre is open from March to October.

The carpet in the hall needs shampooing, the net curtains could do with a quick rinse through, the inside of the windows at the back need cleaning – they’re not desperate, you can still see out of them! These are not hard jobs that will take ages, just boring.

I’m going away to my best friend’s tomorrow for New Year so I think they will all have to wait till I come home. Then I’ll go into a cleaning frenzy, soap suds and fresh smells everywhere.