Pirate day!

In the last nine years since Cap'n Slappy and pal Talderoy got national press recognition that turned a goofy idea celebrated by a handful of friends has turned into an international phenomenon: September 19 - International Talk Like A Pirate Day : D

Pirate re-inaction has really taken off in the last 10 years, I have no doubt its popularity has been helped along by the blockbuster Pirate of the Caribbean movies by Disney. What ever our reasons we all love pirates! What a great excuse to dress up, drink rum and otherwise party like pirates every September 19th (and sometimes for days before and after)! Thanks to FB and its "official" pirate language setting its so easy to really get into the swing of things : )

Foxy fun

Check out this smiling fox, who was captured using an abandoned conveyor belt as a play slide.It was originally posted at Metro UK.

Loving life: The fox zips down its makeshift slide Picture by Duncan Usher.

The four-legged scavenger was spotted by photographer Duncan Usher while he was in the German village of Bursfelde, taking pictures in an unused gravel quarry. According to Usher, the fox loves to speed down the chute and actually trotted back to the top several more times while he was taking pictures - was he having fun or relieving an itch from worms? Either way its a cute photo ^_^

Most UK residents hate the thought of returning home late at night to find the dreaded urban fox rummaging through their bin - I personally chase them off when they come sinffing around our chickens. But I still love the sneakiest of our British wildlife and it seems this little character would be most welcome by many others too : D

Another animal recently partaking in human-esque activities was one clever orangutan from Japan, who used a wash cloth to clean his face and cool down during the heat of the day. The amazing footage was captured by a stunned guest visiting the Tama Zoological Park in Tokyo and the clip has since gone viral across the world.

Uncooked bones? Yummy!

If you have a dog (or cat) this lengthy post on how easy a natural diet for your pet is, improving both health and vitality, might be worth a read!

Recently my dog Monty was ill. It happened twice and it was for a couple of days before he was feeling better but both times were weeks apart. We couldn’t work out what was making him ill, he was sick, had bad mucusy poo and was feeling sorry for himself. After a couple of vets check ups it’s a still a mystery but we have solved the issue by examining and changing his diet.Monty is a 9yo German Shepard dog who weighs 43kg. He has been a multi handler kennel living working dog most of his life and his previous handler did not care for all his needs adequately; he came to us very underweight, no appetite and with bad teeth. He was a misery and although recently has become solely a pet and after 18months life of riley with us he still isn’t a foodie. I worked with him for a year but the past 6 months I had to give up security due to my pregnancy so since then he has been a pet dog.

Whilst Monty was ill he was fed a bland gentle diet of rice pasta and chicken. I then started researching dog food ingredients, we then slowly moved him onto a higher quality dry dog food. It seems that factory produced dog food is not a load of tripe – its worse! Several of the big brands are mostly cereals, CEREALS! Dogs are carnivores, not omnivores like us – they do not need vegetables or any kind of wheat products. The higher quality dog food is better but still has a lot of wheat fillers. Regardless of this for Monty the better dry food worked wonders, his energy levels rose and he was happier, even his coat looked better. He also pooed less and had a much better stool. The only problem was the cost. By far the best dry dog foods would cost £60 or £70 for a month for to feed a dog of Montys stature.

A neighbour of mine feeds her dogs – both GSD – for £20 each month on the best and most nutritious diet available: Raw food. Its a third of the price and twice as good for him, it consists of raw meaty bones left over from the butcher, imitating natural evolution of dogs diet. I took some advice from our neighbour and after a little research gave it a go, turns out it is dead easy! Everything I have read promotes this raw diet as the most natural way to give your dog the nutrients he needs, not only that but it aids digestion and cleans his teeth.

Imitating nature means that it is so easy – lots of people ask how much and how often to feed and how to know if your dog is getting what he needs. The general consensus is he will tell you! As long as he is at a healthy weight and you are feeding 3% of your dogs weight daily and 70% of that as raw meaty bones he should be fine :) Feeding an additional small amount of muscle meat (organs like heart and liver) once a month gives the additional vitamins he needs.

Lots of people are put off by this diet, maybe they are squeamish or think its not healthy for their dog (or cat!) to have un-cooked food but just remember dogs are not people they don’t need all that rubbish that is in store bought food. We have ordered one month supply of local chicken carcasses and tripe - both are frozen so easy to store. Its so easy, we simply defrost it every day for him and he wolfs it down, he really enjoys it and I highly recommend it!

Race for life

Everyone thought I was mad when I announced I was doing a fun run at 7 1/2 months pregnant but it was only 5k and I walk that at least once a week with the dog! I prepared a novelty costume (ofc!) and signed up a couple of gullible folks to tag along and boy did we have a good time! Thousands of women dressed in pink and silly clothes to walk jog or run 5 or 10k, there were pyjamas, lots of tutus and even a bumble bee : D Lots of people had memorials on their backs, my granddad was only 46 when he died of lung cancer and my father-in-law beat stomach cancer back in 2005, 1 in 5 of us will be directly effected by cancer in our lives.

I raised £200 from my sponsors and everyone loved my oven, although some people didn't get it at first, thinking I was a robot or just a pink box lol I'm glad I went, I had such good fun at the Race for life 5k event in North Weald, Epping. the local newspapers took plenty of photos and Heart Essex were there too, Sue from the breakfast show said my costume was the best one she had seen all year and that is saying something as she has been at over 40 events this summer!

FB chat via MSN messenger

When I was at college everyone was on MSN messenger, you logged into a chat function with all your friends (via email) there to chat with, it is safe and easy to use. You can share pictures and links, catch up with news and talk about gigs and parties. Social networking hadn't engulfed the populous, My-space was a new thing and and Facebook wasn't a household name so MSN messenger (often just called MSN) is what those who were "down with the kids" used to communicate online and for many years it reined supreme.

Unfortunately few people log into MSN on a regular basis anymore. Plenty of people check their FB and emails every day but enless your looking for sometime to chat with and kill time you don't log into MSN. After years of service it had become superfluous to requirements, this was even more evident when facebook launched its own chat feature. This enables you to see who is browsing online (as I mentioned for most people thats every day) and chat in the background but unfortunately the FB chat feature is a bit of a nightmare. Your window flashes when you receive a message and anything else you may be doing is frozen, which happens too all the FB tabs if you have multiples open. This is supremely annoying if you have people buzzing you often, and don't even think about talking to 2 people at once!

But huzzah here is a life saver from MSN, in an attempt to take back some of the online chat glory, the FB chat link feature in Windows Live Messenger Wave 4. You link you email and FB accounts together, enabling you to see all your FB friends who are online in the MSN window, you can then send them messages from MSN that they receive on FB. Enless they also use this feature and then you both chat in MSN like you used to without the hassle and fuss of logging in separately, freezing your tabs or blocking up you FB browsing.

I live away from my home town, following my DH all over the country (and abroad) on Military postings so for me sharing news and photos online is the main connection to family and friends back home, it can get pretty lonely and I for one think it is fabulous! Way to go MSN :)

Public Sector Strikes

Today hundreds and thousands 0f Public Sector Employees including Teachers and Civil servants are striking against recent government action against pensions. Various department pensions have been reduced prompting employees to pay in more and work for longer. Many supporters believe the only benefit of working in the public sector has been the pension scheme and that there is anger that this is now under threat.

Some of the disruptions include but are not limited to school closures for a third of schools in England and Wales with more than half the total disrupted. Delays at airports and on trains, and even some coastguards are on strike but The Maritime and Coastguard Agency say all coastguard stations are "operational and appropriately manned".

Labour leader Ed Miliband says the strikes are wrong because negotiations are still ongoing. But he says parents and the public have also been let down because the government has acted in a "reckless and provocative manner". Both sides need to "put aside the rhetoric" and "get round the table" to stop this kind of action happening again, he says.

Do the public sector employees think they're the only ones who are struggling? I understand the cuts to pensions in public sector jobs are an important part of people’s well being but the fact there haven’t even been any negotiations make it a selfish disruption to everyone else’s lives. The widespread opinion of the private sector is that at least public sector workers get a pension.

There are cuts everywhere; in the military pensions are reduced and family services cut, with no chance to strike or defend their future. Entry level soldiers only get £13K starting pay, who spend more than a third of their working life in awful and dangerous conditions away from family fighting for this country. These strikes will only harden public opinion, as it's the average hard working family that's affected.