Some Blog Awards

A few days ago, I received these three awards from Jon at The Ups, Downs and Sometimes Insane World of Freelance Writing. Thanks, Jon. That is so good for my morale.

I’ve copied his instructions word for word.

"Most bloggers are familiar with the routine, but for those of you who aren’t here’s what to do if you’re tagged in this post.

Pass the award on to seven blogs of your choice.

Link back to the blogger who gave you the award / awards.

Let the new winners know they have received an award by commenting on their blog.

You don’t have to accept the awards. You can take one or take all three, the choice is yours."

There are so many awards doing the round these days, it’s quite difficult to choose blogs that haven’t already received these awards before. I’ve tried not to duplicate all three but I know some of the following have already received at least one of them before, so please forgive any duplications. These are all blogs that I find a pleasure to read:

A Postcard a Day

A Singaporean in London

Behind the Bit

Nicole Humphrey's Writing Space

Gewgaw Writings

Coastal Commentaries

Daisy the Curly Cat

I hope you will click on their links and share my enjoyment of them.

A Poem

I'm feeling a bit down today - some family problems. I'm not feeling much like writing so I looked out a poem from last year. I wrote it while travelling on a stormy day. On re-reading it, it seemed to run a gamut of emotions but end on a note of hope. That's what I need right now.

To Exeter from the coast

On a wild, wet, windy day
white horses surging shorewards,
with sea spray leaping high
as the train roars by.

Birds clustering on the waves
in the wide estuary.
Little boats bobbing the swell,
the train flies pell-mell.

By the river the pub looks bleak
and the cows seek shelter;
rain strafes the sodden sheep
while travelling children weep.

Seagulls sit in the city park,
branches flail, leaves flurry.
Sun breaks out to rekindle passion
as the train draws to the station.

Have you Been to a Swishing Party?

There's been a lot of talk on the TV recently about swishing. Actually I only heard the term for the first time this evening, but when the presenter gave the definition I realised I'd seen quite a bit about it before.

It's the new word for swapping clothes. Apparently it's really big in America, and it's taking off here too. It may be coincidental, but the fact that we're all getting short of cash, or expecting to very soon, could account for its fast growing popularity.

Enterprising professionals arrange events in large premises and charge a small entrance fee for people to bring and buy clothes. Private swishing parties cost nothing but entry is by invitation only to friends, and friends of friends, willing to bring something to swap.

The idea has been promoted by model, Twiggy, in a BBC TV series, Twiggy's Frock Exchange. I saw a bit of one of the programmes and noted that it was furnished with experts who made over many of the items donated for swapping to give them a completely new identity.

Even if you don't have experts like that around, I'd say it's a jolly good way to perk up your wardrobe frequently without breaking the bank.

What do you think? What are the pros and cons? Have you done any swapping and would you do it again?

Had a Great Time but Not Feeling Too Well

Here I am, home again from my wanderings. But I'm not really compos mentos (is that spelt correctly, I wonder?) I have returned with yet another ferocious cold, and it's only two weeks since I felt free of the last one. I knew it was coming before I went, and I'd called two friends to help me decide whether to cry off. They both begged me to come anyway, so I did.

It was probably a mistake. I've been on trains and buses between here, London and Leeds, and can just imagine my germs spreading wide from the south to the north of the country. If you are in the UK and have caught my cold, I can only apologise.

For most of the time I was away, I held the worst of it at bay. I was out enjoying myself with people I don't see all that often. I got plenty of fresh air but didn't stay out late. After lunch with a final group of buddies yesterday, when I got back to my daughter's house in South London, I really started to feel rough. Because there were no more jolly jaunts planned, I guess my mind decided I could allow myself to be sick.

So this morning I prepared for the train journey by buying Lockets lozenges and fresh supplies of tissues, and then tucked myself away in the rear-most corner of the railway carriage. And now I'm home and have loads of catching up to do, while all I feel like doing is tucking myself in with a hot water bottle.

So I'll stop writing for now and promise something more interesting for my next post.

Apologies in Advance

I'm off on another jolly with friends and family and I won't be here again till Thursday or Friday next week. I'd hoped to be able to prepost in my blogs but had system problems yesterday so I ran out of time.

Since neither Kaspersky, nor SuperAntiSpyWare was sorting out my problems, I was advised to download Malwarebyte and run its full scan. That took 9 hours and then I realised it hadn't been updated for a month so I updated it and ran another quick scan. It found and quarantined loads of infections that had been slowing down the system and making IE give me sites I didn't want while I was working in Firefox. I've now deleted all the suspect stuff and things should be better, but I probably can't be sure until I'm back in working mode next week.

Unfortunately my entrecard is going to be on some really good sites while I'm away, and I won't be able to return many drops, if any at all. So apologies in advance to everyone. I promise I'll catch up asap when I get back.

Blog Action Day - Poverty

Today is Blog Action Day when bloggers all over the world are writing to raise awareness of the poverty that still exists despite all the G8 summits and government promises. More important, to remind ourselves that we all need to find ways to help alleviate this poverty, whether it is close to home or half way around the world.

Picture by Jonathan McIntosh

Humanity is responsible for humanity. The ‘haves’ should be helping the ‘have nots’. Here in the UK, there are hundreds of charities that help people who live below the poverty line. Different people are inclined to help different charities because of their focus.

My own passion is to help the homeless. I often buy The Big Issue. This is one charity that, at least gives people who are homeless something to do with their days that might earn them a temporary roof. I donate to Shelter monthly by direct debit. And at Christmas I donate to The Salvation Army, who do such a stalwart job in helping the homeless year round and especially at Xmastime.

Many people in third world countries are far worse off even than the poorest people here. I was filled with admiration for my former sister-in-law when she told me about her holiday this year. She went to Africa with a group from her church. They all forked out over £500 to go to an orphanage in Africa and spend the three weeks of their holiday building new dormitories that are desperately needed. My heart went out to the children in her photos, all of whom had turned up there out of the blue, often abandoned by parents who just didn’t have the wherewithal to feed them.

What do you do about helping those who are less fortunate than you?

Diversifying

When JenaIsle invited me to join Helium recently, I took some time to think about it. I revisited the site and found much better opportunities there than when I looked at it about 18 months ago. And I’d already been considering diversifying and spreading my writing around the web a bit more, so I soon decided to give it a go.

Once I’d joined up I found I was already too busy with other writing projects to start anything specifically for Helium. It seemed like I’d have to put it on hold again. Then I read another of Jena’s blog posts and realised that I could post up any article for which I hold the copyright, even if it had already been published elsewhere.

This is brilliant because I have several articles at Constant Content that have sold once for usage rights only. CC recently changed their policy so that after such a sale, full rights can no longer be offered, so they are still for sale there but only for usage rights, and whoever buys them knows that they might also appear elsewhere.

So I’m starting to post there in the hope of earning a few more bucks while my stuff sits around waiting for a buyer. I also have a few blog pieces that could be suitable for Helium. You probably know that writers earn from readers clicking their work at Helium, so if you’d like to see some of mine, you will do me a favour by reading my articles there. You’ll find the list here.

The only problem I have with Helium is the quality of some of the writing I am asked to rate. Mostly the ideas are great, but many people simply don't seem to understand to concepts of editing and proofreading. With some, it's obvious that English is not their first language so errors are more understandable; others are native English speakers, using either UK or US spelling, both of which I'm familiar with.

When rating, it's easy to say which of two articles is the best, but I'm used to reviewing and giving advice, and it rankles not to feel able to do that. There apparently is a facility but I don't yet know how to use it, or whether it would be welcomed. No doubt I'll get that sorted in time.

The other way I'm diversifying, or trying to, is with socialspark. When I couldn’t get any opportunities at payperpost, I thought I’d try that out. I have found opportunities there, but I can’t seem to find out what to do about them. If there’s anyone out there who can tell me how to accept an opportunity, I’ll be eternally grateful.