Baby Proof Your Home!!

If you have one of these for the first time then the chances are that you have not looked around your home from knee height in a while. If you have a particularly mobile one, then they can move at a surprisingly fast rate.

Once one of these starts to move around, then it is only a matter of days before they have mastered the shuffle, the super-crawl and the turbo-toddle.

Sometimes, some parents may have had quite a docile one already and so they have had a relatively easy time. But the next one which comes is a real surprise.

If you turn around even for a second, then they are off. The main objective is to have a taste of all those tempting objects which have only been observed until now from an infuriatingly safe distance!

If it can be picked up, it can be tasted.
If you can do it undisturbed, try to isolate your little explorer in one room and make that room as safe as possible.

Baby Proof!


The best way to do this is to install a baby gate before they start to crawl around and keep it closed.

• Examine the room at ankle height and cover up any exposed sockets with blank plugs so that wet fingers can not investigate them.
• Remove all fragile ornaments and all things with small parts.
• Look at things which might be head height when your little terranaut stands up. When the attention is diverted, it is always really easy to walk in to things.
• Look for low tables with table cloths which could be pulled off easily. Remove them completely if possible.
• Put baby covers on all furniture with sharp corners.
• Anything that can possibly be climbed will be climbed, given time. Remove all fragile ornaments from higher shelves, especially if these look particularly tasty!
• If possible get rid of all loose flexes or fasten them down in some way so that they can not be pulled out and tasted.

It only takes a few weeks for them to be sitting there, innocently gurgling at you to running rings around you. Don't be deceived. It might look like they are gurgling directly at you, but in reality, they are looking right past your left ear at a ceramic ornament on the shelf and wondering what it tastes like!

Be prepared

How to Survive Google's New Privacy Policy

From the 1st of March, Google will implement a new privacy policy across many of its products.
The aim is to give you a more personalised searching experience - whether you want one or not!

Every time you perform any search through Google's search engine, and click on any of the results, Google will keep a track of your search clicking activities and will tailor the results it gives you next time to suit your interests mores.

This is already annoying, if, for example you have bought a pair of trousers from M&S and then every single web site you go on for the next few days shows you nothing but adverts for trousers from M&S. But you already have bought trousers, so why would you want to see them everywhere you go?

The way to stop this is to log in to your Google account and go to 'Account Settings'.

Find 'Services' and you will see a link whick lets you 'Go to web history'.

From this page it is possible to click on 'Remove all web history'

You can also 'Pause' your web history on the same page. This stops it from gathering any more information about you.

This should stop any more information being kept about your internet activity.

How to Survive Being Ginger

Picture attribution Melbourne Weekly Eastern

There have been a number of news articles recently about people with ginger hair suffering because of their hair colour.

There has been someone teased so badly that his parents removed him from school and a poor woman who has had a childhood photograph circulated and has received actual hate messages on her facebook page.

At first I did not understand this at all. It is hair. In many cases, ginger people have thicker hair per cm than other hair colours, and it looks much shinier than normal. So, in essence, what we are talking about is a beautiful, thick shiny head of gorgeous colour hair.

But of course, people are ignorant and lazy and stupid and it is 'fun' to mock something which is different or strange or in the minority, so it is very easy to believe that some people are mercilessly taunted for nothing but their hair colour. Even reading that sentence back seems ridiculous, but it happens everyday, so it is something that many have to live with.

A search through Google is not very enlightening either. The first four pages of a search have websites which seem to do nothing but make fun of ginger locks. They are in this category : the ginger survival guide. This page amounts to nothing more than race hate and should, in my opinion, be removed from the internet. It is a treatise on how to 'cope' in the presence of Ginger kids and ends with a chapter on how to kill a ginger person. Reading this drivel made me realise that this is a serious problem.

What about in the past? How much did Boticelli love ginger hair? A lot. As did many of the Renaissance painters. Ginger angels, women, men and gods are perfectly common in hundreds of paintings. Why? Was ginger hair more valued perhaps, because it was rarer? Like gold? In fact, the ancient Greeks died their hair ginger to denote courage.

Muslims are not allowed to dye their hair back to its original colour, but are allowed to use Henna. So many older muslim men, especially in India have red hair and beards.

Many famous and influential people in the past have had red hair. Queen Elizabeth I, Winston Churchill, Boudicca of the Iceni, Vincent van Gough - there are many long lists on the internet.

Recently, Prince Harry, Nicole Kidman, Geri Halliwell, Lindsay Lohan, Rupert Grint, Emma Stone, Lily Cole and a host of other people have flaming red locks. Marilyn Monroe was a red-head!

And many people dye their hair in various shades of red every day.

So it is really difficult to know what to say to people who are undoubtedly suffering.

Some people find it easy to embrace their looks in general no matter whether they fit stereotypical, media-depicted versions of normalcy. Others struggle with their self image no matter what others tell them or however realistically they fit the mold of good looks.

So, How to Survive Being Ginger?


I do not think it is a good idea to hide from something as fundamental to your identity as your hair colour. It may be a solution for a few years, but surely not for the rest of your life. If people are teasing you, just imagine how much satisfaction they would derive to know that their teasing is working.

There is a story where two people with ginger hair who lived in a house together found out that their house was being called the Ginger Palace. Instead of being upset, or lashing out, or hiding from this, they decided to hold a party where only people with red hair were invited and this has become a major tradition for them.

The fact is that bullies and idiots will always pick on difference. But the important thing is to hold your head up high and be the person you are and show all the idiots that they are the losers.

But just learn to live with the nicknames about your hair and your skin and your freckles. You know that everyone you meet will have some comment to make about your hair so next time someone says 'Carrot top', just laugh. Carrots are green on top anyway!

How to Survive an English Yellow Box Road Junction

A yellow box road junction is there to ease the flow of traffic. A driver should not enter the space in the yellow box unless their exit is clear.

If the red car was going to go straight ahead, then they can go straight on without stopping, but if it was turning right, then it has to wait until the road is clear.

This is so that no car stops the flow of traffic by holding up the oncoming traffic.

Some councils police their yellow box by having cameras installed and issue fines for those people who break these rules.

Case Study One: Extremely Taken for Granted

My new consultancy service was launched last week and the first person has given permission for me to write up their case study here.

Simply book a time slot and briefly tell me the problem and I will call you for one hour to discuss whatever issue you may have.

Extremely Taken For Granted

I will call the first person 'Sam'. And this is Sam's story.
Sam owns three houses. The plan was to let them out and build up enough income and savings to buy more houses and to set up a property business buying and selling property. The problem is that Sam's family have been living in the houses instead! So there is little or no rent coming in and Sam is paying three mortgages as well as rent on the family home. This has been going on for over ten years which means that Sam has paid out hundreds of thousands of pounds, literally in mortgages with very little return.

To top it all, Sam has been unemployed for the past three years and has now built up a large credit card debt just to pay for everything. The family do not offer to help with anything and do not offer to pay their share of the money and do not even question how Sam pays thousands of pounds each month in property bills alone.

I asked what Sam has done to try to get the family to pay their share. Sam said: given deadlines for them to move out, threatened to stop paying the mortgages, given ultimatums but nothing ever happens.

I asked what happens when the deadlines come?

Sam said: Everything goes quiet for a bit and then it all carries on like before.

Is there a Solution To This Problem?
It is so difficult when family members take you for granted like this. At the beginning, Sam was wanting to show that Sam could cope with the extra payments. Trying not to reveal a vulnerable side, especially to family members has cost Sam greatly in financial terms.

Then, as the years roll by, and everyone settles in to the new way of life, the roles are reinforced by repetition. the dependants become more needy and it becomes harder and harder to find a way to get them to move. Now, they maybe do not even think about how much money it is costing because they just take it completely for granted that it will be taken care of.

Giving weak deadlines and not sticking to them or following through with the threats meant that all credibility was lost and everyone knows that they are empty threats. But also, how could Sam stop paying the mortgages on the property since that would be self-destructive and would result in all the property being lost as well.

I wondered how Sam would feel about now laying all the cards on the table and sitting down with the family members and showing them exactly how much money was going down the drain each month. they might be shocked into action. But once again, Sam said that it would be difficult to show a weakness like that.

We discussed whether Sam could stop paying an extra, expensive rent each month and start to live in one of the other houses as well. That sounded like a possibility which would save some money.

Or tell the family that one of the houses was being sold and actually follow through by registering with an estate agent. There is enough room in the remaining houses for everyone to have rooms. The sale could let Sam start fresh and pay off those debts.

It is clear where Sam stands legally, but family matters always prove a lot more delicate if harmony is to be maintained, but it is completely unfair if one person has to carry everyone else like that, especially if that person is not able to cope themselves.

Sam is going to try some of the suggestions we discussed and book another call next month. I sincerely wish Sam luck.

How to Survive on a Budget

The first step is to work out what your weekly or monthly budget is.
This could be your pocket money, or your monthly allowance or your income.

Many people these days use online banking. If you do, download the last statement for the last complete month and open it up as a spreadsheet. If you do not have online banking, and your bank sends you monthly statements, then enter it into a spreadsheet. For pocket money or allowances, enter the amount that you regularly receive.

Now sort the spreadsheet into types of transaction. This will separate your income from your regular outgoings and your extra expenditure. From this spreadsheet, it is now clearly easy to where the money goes every month.

As Mr. Micawber famously said

"Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen pounds nineteen and six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery"

From which you can see, if you spend more than you earn, then you will be miserable!
So, now you know how much of your income goes out on things that you can not avoid, like rent/mortgage, travel, utility bills, kids etc. And after this, whatever is left is your budget for the month. I hope there is something left.

Look carefully through the monthly expenses. Are there any items that can be easily reduced? Do you pay too much for insurance? Can you cut down on any other bills by switching to another company? The moneysavingexpert website is very good for searching for money saving deals.

If you have been following my budget food posts, then hopefully you can make some savings with the week's food budget to opt for cheaper alternatives, or to cut down on waste.

Once you have made as many savings as possible, then work out an amount of money which you can safely spend over the month.

For food expenses, to live within a budget the key is to plan. You can not plan every single meal or allow for emergencies and unexpected invitations, but in general, you know that you will have three meals a day and these can be planned in advance. This way you can decide how much you will spend on your food budget for the month.

A good way to live on a budget is to leave all debit and credit cards at home. Because we are survivors, we do not cut up our cards or anything so drastic, but we stay prepared for all emergencies. If we only carry the exact money in our bags or pockets that we need to spend, then it will be much harder to overspend. It really feels like spending if you have to hand over the actual money instead of just giving your card. For some reason, the card seems to be detached from you and your bank account. So even people with not very much money happily hand over cards to buy things they do not need. But if you really have to give someone £58 in cash, then you actually feel it!

So, cut down where you can.
Work out how much you can reasonably spend per week or day and carry that amount with you.
It is very easy to get out of the spending habit if you have to use cash.

Next Post: Why should we budget? Download your free spreadsheet

Budget Food: Scrambled Egg on Toast

Carrying on my budget food theme, a quick and easy breakfast to make is scrambled egg on toast.

For one person:

1 egg             13p            My eggs are free range because I refuse to support caged hens. So they are 13p an egg.
Splash of milk if you like.    5p
Seasoning.          1p
1 slice of toast      5p
Knob of butter for the toast and to cook the egg.         10p

Toast the toast.
Whisk up the egg in a bowl and add seasoning and a splash of milk. This makes it much lighter. Leave out the milk if you are a purist. Cook in a frying pan and turn out on to the buttered toast.

Total cost of the breakfast: 34p

New Coaching Service Launched

If you are looking for advice or help from a highly qualified mentor and life coach, then you are in the right place.

The Service


I am here for you if you want to talk through your life issues, problems with being taken for granted and problems of over spending and debt.
In fact, anything that you would like to discuss.

Book a 1 hour session with me at only $25 or £15 per hour, give me a UK time at which to call and I will phone you.

There is no need to leave your real name or even to talk about specific things. sometimes it just helps to talk things through with someone else to get a clearer picture in your own mind of what to do.

Remember:

• Career problems,
• Family problems,
• Problem friends,
• Trouble with money,
• Just how to Survive Life,

Book now!
At present, this service is available in English only.

Budget Food: Tortilla - Spanish Omelette

Ingredients:
1       medium onion          6.5p
1       medium potatoes     10p
3       eggs                        39p
1       knob of butter           20p
seasoning to taste

Preparation:
Finely chop a medium onion and gently fry it in a frying pan. We want it to soften and not go brown.
Peel two small or one medium potato and slice it as thinly as possible. Add this to the onion in the pan and cook both of them gently until soft. Depending on the potato, this should take between 10-20 minutes. If the potato is not cooking, then add a splash of water and simmer with a cover until done.

In a bowl, break three eggs and beat together. Add seasoning to taste.

When the onions and potatoes are done, and slightly cool, transfer them to the egg and mix.

Wipe the pan and add some butter or oil. Add the whole egg, onion and potato mixture and cook gently for around 20 minutes. Turn the mixture over and cook on both sides until the egg is completely cooked.

Total cost 75.5p

Budget Food: Chewy Cookies

The first budget food recipe I have researched is those big fat chewy cookies which you can buy in supermarkets and from stalls. These can cost up to £1 each in some places, so I was wondering how much it costs to make them. The prices are from Aldi and are correct on the 10th of February 2012.


This is the recipe:
250g    self raising flour                     9p
125g    butter                                 59.5p
200g    sugar                                  47.5p
1         egg                                     13p

plus anything else you like such as chocolate chips, raisins, dried fruit, etc.

Preparation:
Preheat the oven to Gas mark 3/170 degrees C. Grease a baking sheet lightly.
Melt the butter and add the sugar. Stir until it is well mixed and begins to be a little lighter in colour. Wait until it is cool then add the egg and mix again until it is creamy and light. It does not look like cake mixture, just a little lighter. Then mix in all the flour until it is a smooth consistency.

Drop largeish amounts of the mixture onto the baking sheet with a tablespoon taking care to keep them around 5-6cm apart because they will spread out in the oven.

Bake for 15 minutes. The chewy, soft consistency comes from underbaking them slightly. They will be large, flat slightly sticky cookies when they come out, but when cool, they are fine.

Using this recipe, I made 17 medium sized cookies for £1.29.

That is 7.6p per cookie.
(Include energy costs if you can work them out for the length of time that the oven is switched on).

You know that these cost around 10p a cookie, after energy costs. So make up a batch and go out and sell them for 50p each. 

Budget Food

These times are very hard for a lot of people. Someone who is living on benefits must survive on around £60 a week. So, in this series on budget food, I have decided to see how to live on less.

All my prices are based on shopping at Aldi, which is the cheapest supermarket in this area. Once in a while I will also do a comparison with other supermarket prices.

The objective is to make more things at home, rather than buying things which have been ready made, like pre cooked meals, and just to see whether it is possible to have a happy variety of foods and how much they cost us to eat.

I don't plan to preach about healthy eating or what you should or should not be giving to children. There are a lot of other websites like that around. We all live in the real world and do the best we can. We all eat chocolate and cake and unhealthy snacks from time to time because we enjoy them. This is meant to be purely an exercise in the cost of the food.

Misheard Song Lyrics

Which songs are these lyrics from?

Suck a little green pea soup

This is the doggie moggie age of Aquarius

Which songs have you been singing which turn out to say something completely different?

Famous Failures

There is nothing to fear but fear itself

The world is full of famous failures:

James Dyson

He famously tried to develop his famous vacuum cleaner 5000 times. This means that he failed 4999 times. What would have happened to him if he had given up on the 4998th time? Failure just was not an option for him. He just kept going until the end result was the right one and he had the design which was right.

Even then, he failed to get anyone to accept his new design! No-one wanted it. They did not want to manufacture it, they did not want to distribute it.

It is only by going through this type of failure that we now have the Dyson Vacuum Cleaner.

No-one wanted it here, so he went to Japan, where it won an award. He has his own manufacturing company, he has a knighthood. He did not face the fear, and rejection and failure by hiding in his room, shivering under the duvet. Perhaps for him, it was not a failure, but just another step towards his goal.

The way we survive massive failures like this, is by having self belief. By not letting our reactions go overboard when we have failed.

Do not forget that the world and our view of the world is very much made up of how we ourselves perceive it.

If someone is walking along the street and something terrible happens to them. What happens? Let us say that they fall over, or they do a huge sneeze which causes all the snot to erupt from their noses. For the person, this might be a hugely humiliating experience because they are the superstars in their own world. But for other people around them, who are also the superstars in their own worlds, it is just something minor happening to someone walking past.

It could be a short anecdote when they get home and tell their friends, but that is all.

Re-examine your failure and see what you have learned. Is it just a question of trying again somewhere else? Do you have to adjust something? Re-write? re-design?

From our failures sometimes, come our best successes.

Poem about being taken for Granted

There is a bag on the floor.
It is staring at me with its zippered eyelashes surrounding its mono eye.
Winking at the only one it knows will PICK IT UP!

Will zip it up and hang it up upon the hook which was put there JUST FOR IT!

This hook which hangs upon a DAY of arguments and shields the fragile silence which befell after the BANGING of the hook up on the wall.

This hook is the result of FIFTEEN YEARS.
Of silently following the wake of possessions like a little tug boat.
Flotsam and jetsam on the living room floor...
And bathroom floor...
And bedroom floor...
And kitchen floor...

Fifteen whole years and just one day
Of 'OK! Stop nagging! I'll do it!'
One tension-filled day, and then...
One EMPTY hook.

Copyright Survival Jones 2012. You are welcome to reproduce any or all of this poem, but please include an attribution and a link back to this page.