On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918, the First World War officially ended.
On the anniversary of Armistice Day we stop and take a couple of minutes to remember everyone that lost their lives, in WW1 and all other conflicts.
Photo by Clare Ellis for the UK Ministry of Defence
Thank you.
The marshal training day that I attended earlier on in the year included a useful section on fire safety. All aimed at trackside and dealing with car fires but for someone who has no training at all and never even held an extinguisher, it was invaluable. We all had a go at using the powder and foam extinguishers to put out two cars on fire, which was really scary, but I was glad my first attempt was under controlled conditions!
From this introduction I was keen to get further training & luckily the chance came up at work to be a fire marshal. In practice this will most likely involve herding an office full of unwilling engineers away from their warm desks out into the cold, windy, wet car park (false alarms and tests always seem to fall on days with bad weather!), but it is a great chance to get properly trained in fire safety.
One day last week I attended an excellent training session, with theory covering all aspects of fire, from the basic ‘fire triangle’ to other stuff that I didn’t know, like the different fire extinguishers.
There was a lot of useful information about fire safety in the home as well as the work place, I guess a lot of it is transferable (for example signs of fire behind a closed door). I was pleased that our fire plan from being little at home came in useful as I actually could say ‘yes’ when he asked if anyone had one. Granted I don’t live at home anymore, but still at least Mum had drilled something useful into us 🙂 [Touch the door, if its hot don’t open it & shove towels along the bottom of the door. Break the window (with double glazing quite how we were going to do this I don’t know!), throw mattress out, leaving bedding covering broken glass & jump!].
Above all else, a lot of what was said and the pictures/videos shown, made you stop and think. Those fire doors I used to prop open in my old flat because they banged and were heavy? Yeh they were like that for a reason, to stop the whole place going up in minutes. Ground floor fire on a hot day with windows open? Check the room above as the smoke is likely to be just as thick there. If someone is sleeping don’t wake them up if the smoke is too low as they will sit up and gasp, filling their lungs with toxic fumes. Keep all doors closed to at least slow down a fire and try to contain it a bit. Also use the back of your hand to check the temperature as your reactions are quicker than the palm of your hand. Besides you don’t use the back of your hand as much if you do get burnt.
The list goes on, these are just a few things that have popped into my head as I’m writing this post. But as you can see, none of those things are rocket science, yet I can’t be the only one who hadn’t thought of them! Even for the basics I think fire safety should be something everyone has to do, as a child at school and again once you’re an adult.
I found the theory about fire extinguishers interesting because I didn’t know about the different types of fire extinguisher, other than the small amount that relates to racing cars (powder to knock the fire down, foam to seal it). Powder isn’t a good idea inside a building so I’ve got to remember not to rely on the same as when marshalling!
The session really made me think about my actions & what I would do in a fire. It occurred to me there is all this legislation in the work place covering the precautions against fire, and procedures to deal with fire, but what about at home? Is remembering to close the doors and having a fire plan enough to protect our loved ones and our homes? Perhaps its time we all had fire extinguishers and fire blankets? I’ll at least be testing my smoke alarm!
I really want to go to the 2012 London Olympics just because its so very rare to be able to go to these kind of events 40 miles down the road. But jeez they make it difficult don’t they?!
A ballot for tickets is really the only way to do it without crashing ticket companies like the rush to get Take That tickets late last year, so I can understand that. But the fact that they take the payment before telling you what you have managed to get is unfair, nevermind that the only accepted payment in Visa. Luckily I have a Visa card but why should others be forced into getting a product/service that they didn’t want just to buy tickets?
I’m going to apply for an opening ceremony ticket just because I think it would be great to be there for that. But I think I’ll make do with going to the free events like the marathon if I do go to anything else!
Firstly like everyone else it has been awful to watch the destruction and devastation caused by the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. My heart goes out to everybody effected, it must be awful to have to live through that.
Author Keris Stainton has proved how useful social media such as twitter and blogs can be with Authors for Japan – the result of an appeal to fellow authors to donate something to be auctioned to raise money for the British Red Cross Tsunami Appeal. By the looks Keris has been inundated, with 170+ auctions live on the website at the moment.
All sorts of literary based goodies are up for grabs, from signed books to dedications to mentoring and critique sessions if you are writer too. The website is http://authorsforjapan.wordpress.com/ incase you missed it 😉
I’m amazed watching it unfold, every time Keris tweets about the latest count of views or comments (mostly bids), I am pleased that those people involved have been able to do something to help the people of Japan.
So please click on that link, have a nosey, bid if there’s something of interest and pass it onto your friends 🙂
I promise not to post charity appeals every week!
This country, in case anyone hadn’t noticed, is in crisis. The nation is in huge debt and the current coalition government are doing all they can to reduce this. Granted I think they are going totally the wrong way about it in most of the things they are doing, but that’s for another discussion. Basically what I mean is that we are all having to suffer in a variety of ways.
One thing that’s kicked up a storm over the past few months is the row over an increase to tuition fees, with students protesting all over the UK. I wrote this post on the 15th October and it’s just as relevant today, when the vote was taken in the House of Commons. They decided (by a small majority) that the fees in England should be increased.
As a 17 year old I made the choice that I wanted to go to university (well I’d made that decision about 10 years before that but without considering it properly) as I wanted a career in engineering and the only way to make that happen was to get a degree. Of course there are apprenticeships but I’m not great with my hands so the academic route was the best option for me.
Now why should every Tom, Dick and Harry who work hard and pay their taxes have to pay for me to do that? Nobody thinks they should pay for the lazy benefit scroungers, only the people in true need as they are unable to work or whatever their particular circumstance is. So why should every kid who comes out of college wanting to put off the real world for another 3 years, get their university life paid for?
I don’t think anyone should have to pay for other people’s further education, we should all take responsibility for our lives and pay our own way.
I think loans should be made available from a central loan company (like the Student Loans Company only actually capable of loaning students money) for every student regardless of their background or parents wealth. It should not be down to the parents to have to fork out even more money for their children, they’ve spent enough on getting them to 18!
There should be loans to cover the tuition fees & living costs that are only repaid once the students leaves education (either with a degree or not) and is earning above a certain limit AFTER tax (I’d set it at about £20k a year). If a student decides to leave early they are still liable to pay back the money that was borrowed and if a student graduates and lands a job earning £100k a year they still pay back what they borrowed. The loans should be interest free and should be collected as they are currently, straight from your salary so you barely notice its going out, except the money should go straight to pay off your loan not the annual payment that is currently made.
I think the media play a massive role here. They should be showing parents, children, teenagers, mature students – everyone basically – that if they want to further their chosen career it can be done and will cost X amount but it will be worth it! Investing in your future by taking out a student loan shouldn’t be cast along with other debt as it currently is, it should be shown what it is in financial circumstances – a ‘good debt’. Your student loan does not affect your credit rating or likelihood of getting a mortgage. The repayments are low enough that they shouldn’t affect your ability to pay the bills. At the end of the day, if you are doing a decent degree, with a goal in mind so you work hard and graduate with something that’s actually useful (no David Beckham degrees aren’t useful ;)) you will earn enough to make it worthwhile.
For example my background: I went to uni at Oxford Brookes when we paid just over £1k a year in tuition fees with a £4k loan. My family had a low income so I got a grant for the fees. I worked part time throughout my degree as the loan doesn’t cover rent in Oxford as well as your food bills and had to take out credit cards and overdrafts. I graduated after 5 years (I did a sandwich MEng degree which involves 4 years of teaching and 1 year working in industry) with about £20k of student loan debt and almost £10k of other debts. Now this is a bit extreme as I wasn’t good enough with looking after money whilst at uni but I guess the magnitude of debt is roughly what current students will be graduating with. Now £30k is a lot of money but as a graduate engineer I should be earning between £22 – £26k a year. And that’s the starting wage – it varies greatly company to company but suffice to say after a 40 year career that £30k will be money well spent.
Equally people I lived with in my first year did 6 hours a week of studying and the rest of the time partying. Taxpayers definitely shouldn’t be paying for that!
A few weeks ago I was looking through Martin Lewis’ excellent website MoneySavingExpert.com when I came across the forums on there. There is all kinds of advice available and several money making/saving threads and challenges. One is to make £10 a day so I thought I’d join in, after all every little helps!
August went really well & I beat my target, so I’ve given it another go in September. Unfortunately it hasn’t been that successful as I haven’t got round to listing as much on eBay as I’d planned. Still here is the link to my listings if you’re interested. Also this month I have Avon to add to the total as well as extra shifts at the gym/outdoor pool. Oh and I’m proof reading a paper for a friend. Phew, anyone got a few extra hours to add into my days?!!
I’ve recently started as an Avon rep, concentrating on a few streets in the Bicester area. So far I’ve been working hard to try and get round all my 160 houses every 3 weeks (that’s how often the books change) so I can maximise sales in the run up to Christmas!
It’s amazing what you come across when delivering and collecting catalogues; I’ve met some lovely people & some cute pets. I’ve also met rude people who seem to think I put the book through their door solely to annoy them so don’t think manners apply when speaking to me! Thankfully the nice people far outweigh the rude and so far I’m really enjoying it.
I’ve set up a facebook page, and considered a dedicated twitter feed but then decided that I will just mention it from my usual twitter feed. I’ve also taken advantage of some fantastic offers on Vistaprint website & ordered a load of stationery, which looks fab if I do say so myself!
Today I submitted my first order to Avon & so I’m really excited (hence the bitty blog post!)! It went in with only a couple of hitches so now I wait until it gets delivered next week – it’ll be like Christmas! The hard bit is not to spend all my profit as the stuff is sooo tempting!
If anyone does want to place an order I’m not going to say no – I’ll deliver free of charge in the Bicester area, please contact me for delivery charges elsewhere. Also feel free to ask any questions about any of the products & I’ll do my best to help 🙂
Some of you may have answered this already but please vote on this very official poll – to prove Jay wrong, and to prove it is indeed the norm to put some kind of coin in some kind of wallet/purse/bag when giving it as a gift. And that I’m not a crazy daft person 😛
PS pretty please can more than 8 people vote, apparently that’s not a big enough sample!
What do Chicago, NASCAR at Indy, a red Camaro called Claire, Juan Pablo Montoya, The Untouchables, Transformers 3, Ghostbusters & Virgin all have in common??
If you followed @SRT40_USA on twitter you’d know!
If not, fear not as tomorrow (well by the weekend at least!) I’m going to play host to a guest blogger, namely @SRT40 to do a post all about his trip the US last weekend 🙂
……is the news that Robbie is rejoining Take That woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀
AND THEY ARE TOURING*!!!! 😀 *apparently
It took me a while to decide that this was the best news ever.
A few months ago it was rumoured they were supposed to have gone into the studio when Mark Owen had to go do a Robbie and go off the rails as revelations broke he was an alcoholic serial cheater shocked everyone (just like the Ronan Keating stories). Robbie’s supposed to do stuff like that not clean cut Mark! But back then I didn’t think it was the best news ever, just quite good.
I’ve never liked Gary Barlow, for no reason whatsoever. He is Take That. There would be no Take That without him, none of my favourite songs would have been written without him, Robbie wouldn’t have been so spiteful about them without him…but in my old age I’ve found myself warming to him :-O
I haven’t liked Take That’s comeback stuff as much as their original stuff (yes I still listen to Take That and Party 18 years after it was released) and wasn’t fussed about going to see them on tour despite rave reviews. That was until a performance during the Circus tour was televised over last Christmas. It was breathtaking & I regretted being stupid about not wanting to see a 4 piece Take That. The performance was amazing! They sounded great, looked great & the show they put on – just wow.
Given that I thought Robbie would never tour again due to the effect on his mental state each time, I thought the one and only time I’d been to see him was my lot. So I’m so excited already at the thought of the combination of a brilliant show from Take That AND Robbie will be performing AND that will be in the same concerts!!!
I’ve already checked out the major ticket website companies, but stories that the concerts haven’t even been agreed shows I *might* be a bit premature in my excitement.
Still. The Best News Ever!
😀
Kayleigh's Bits & Pieces 