The title is sort of misleading. I have been conveniently forgetting my age since I turned 25, so I wasn’t too keen on 2007. But then ‘31′ is a milestone, so here I am revelling in my acquired wisdom & experience. <<– gagging

I received my first birthday greeting last week from Rose. Then a number of text messages from Pinas on the weekend and this morning I was woken by 4 beeps from Dubai & from local friends. I also received a surprise email greeting from Angel & some online cards & other emails. My 3-year old niece, Princess, also left a birthday song in my voicemail (I will upload it soon) which made me cry! I haven’t seen her and her family since she was born, I miss them. Actually, I miss a lot of people. But at least those who matter the most are here with me.

I received the sweetest surprise from Kelvin a few weeks ago. We were horsing around & posing for pictures when he suddenly grabbed my face & planted a smacker on my lips. I didn’t capture the kiss but I love how our picture turned out.

You know, 31 isn’t so bad. I have a supportive husband and the sweetest & pogi-est boy in the world! What more can I ask for? Well, perhaps a chin liposuction? :-)

Hi everyone! This is auee saying, “Hello World!”

This is Kelvin’s Spaceship drawn in his dad’s Father’s Day card. And yes, that’s my chicken-scratch (kinahig ng manok) handwriting.

My 3-year old loves to doodle but mostly only circles and lines, in fact even his square looks like a circle. Nope he’s no Van Gogh (yet), perhaps he’ll become an abstract painter?

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Let’s face it we’re all suckers for space. We want space when we’re sitting or standing in the crowded train and we all want more space at home. If you’re lucky enough to have a garage and then I’m sure you’ve been trying to use it for something else other than parking your car. Actually even with my little shed at the back garden, I have been wanting (read: nagging) my husband to buy some metal pegboard to organise it a little. If he ever gets around to actually doing that, then I can enter the shed with a less trepidation.

In keeping with my store of noteworthy forwarded emails, here’s another nice one sent to me recently.

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In April, Maya Angelou was interviewed by Oprah on her 70+ birthday. Oprah asked her what she thought of growing older. And, there on television, she said it was exciting.

Regarding body changes she said there were many, occurring every day…like her breasts.They seem to be in a race to see which will reach her waist, first.

The audience laughed so hard they cried. She is such a simple and honest woman, with so much wisdom in her words!

Maya Angelou said these:

“I’ve learned that no matter what happens, or how bad it seems today, life does go on, and it will be better tomorrow.”
“I’ve learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way he/she handles these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights.”
“I’ve learned that regardless of your relationship with your parents, you’ll miss them when they’re gone from your life.”
“I’ve learned that making a “living” is not the same thing as “making a life”"
“I’ve learned that life sometimes gives you a second chance.”
“I’ve learned that you shouldn’t go through life with a catcher’s mitt on both hands; you need to be able to throw some things back.”
“I’ve learned that whenever I decide something with an open heart, I usually make the right decision.”
“I’ve learned that even when I have pains, I don’t have to be one.”
“I’ve learned that every day you should reach out and touch someone. People love a warm hug, or just a friendly pat on the back.”
“I’ve learned that I still have a lot to learn.”
“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

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I chopped off the part where it says “send this to a million people or you will turn into a toad”.

Ever heard of Makaton Signing? I’m sure teacher Julie is familiar with it. We all know what sign-language is. Well Makaton is a simplified version. It uses a combination of pictures or symbols and signs from modified Sign Language to express what you want, but like with Sign Language the user is encouraged to mouth the words as they sign. The goal being speech will develop and then the pictures go, until finally the signing is dropped.

I first learnt about Makaton Signing from a newscast. A number of private organisations were offering Makaton Signing for babies and toddlers. In one segment, they showed an 8-month old baby girl “asking” for her hat. They read her a book and she was signing the words for the pictures she saw, like ducks and dogs. It was really amazing. Imagine as parents to babies we don’t really know what they want or feel, but with signs they can “tell” us. I didn’t give it much thought because I’m sure it will be expensive & besides, we talk to our son a lot. That was in 2005.

2006 and my son turned 2 but his speech was very delayed. He was diagnosed with glue ear, which I’ve already blogged about here. One of the speech therapist’s recommendations was the use of Makaton Signing. I couldn’t attend any of the classes and my husband, unfortunately, wasn’t able to keep up either. Thankfully my son’s nursery staff were already being trained on it.

Kelvin’s speech has improved greatly since then due to a combination of events. It’s just really nice to have this Makaton Signing as backup. Whenever he’s trying to tell us something or he wants to make a point, he’d often sign to us. And because the purpose of Makaton is to make signing simple & easy to understand, the signs are actually what you’d normally expect for the words the person is “looking” for.

When Kelvin attended a group session in a speech evaluation class, the facilitators were really happy to see him signing. He didn’t need any encouragement, it was second nature.

As staple of his telly-time, I always schedule BBC’s Something Special, so he can learn even more. This show is brilliant. It’s aimed at kids with learning disabilities or infirmities, but toddlers will really enjoy the colours, the pace and activities being shown. Unfortunately sometime back, their main character, Mr Tumble, got in trouble. One time he was supposedly signing for “i’m happy to see you”, apparently he was actually signing “i’m effing you”.

I thought I’d share this with fellow mums. Makaton Signing is easy to learn. Their website offers a lot of handy materials to get you started. Imagine being able to “talk” to your little angels even before they turned 1, that’s really something special.

Hey, this is not a paid post. :-)

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With the United Kingdom’s penchant for sports, you are bound to see a number of betting agencies every where. You might even come across two to three betting shops in one street. About two or three years ago, the biggest thing on the internet is online poker which predictably became online casinos where you can indulge in a hobby and earn some serious money, oe yes lose some, too.

Bet365 is one such online casino and is currently looking to get some market exposure for their new addition to their service – a sports betting competition site from around the globe! So it’s not just cricket or rugby, football and races are also on offer. Now that the world of F1 is heating up, you might want to check it out yourself.

Consulting a GP always make me apprehensive. For the 6 years I’ve been in the UK, I have yet to meet a GP that inspires confidence & trust. They’re often aloof, cold, crude, rude, inefficient, arrogant, I can go on for a long time.

Perhaps it’s the area we’ve lived in. I’m no bank manager or actress. Even if I earn better pay than nurses, it doesn’t mean I can live in affluent areas like Chelsea or Surrey. Most often than not, my GPs are very old, some probably just won’t retire. So perhaps their attitude problem & lack of empathy is typical of Filipino public servants’ lack of enthusiasm in their jobs.

Whatever. The bottomline is even if I don’t pay for my consultation, my taxes are feeding them & their families.

Anyway, since April my face have been very dry. I think I tried at least 3 different moisturisers but to no avail. I developed some pimple-like bumps, too, which are sometimes itchy esp. if it’s windy. So the GP gave me Daktakort. Hubby was insisting I ask for a BUPA referral straightaway. I was hesitant as most of the time, our GP doesn’t like giving private referrals & we often end up arguing. It’s really pathetic as we’re entitled to it. Apparently, they’re allowance is deducted for every patient that goes private (I have a side-story on this later).

Anyway, after a month I went back, I wasn’t any better. The symptoms comes & go. You know what the great GP said when I asked him what we should do about my skin? He said “go to a beautician” with a smile that says he’s very pleased with himself.

It took a lot to hold back my karate-chop. I told him to refer me to a BUPA dermatologist. Long story short, I saw the private doctor & he asked about any tests I’ve had. I nearly choked when I controlled my guffawing-reaction. So I am to have 3-sessions for a skin allergy patch test soon to find out what causes my skin to breakout. But he did mention that since I have a history of asthma & I am prone to all sorts allergy, which I already know.

It’s always the case with the GPs that we’ve seen & heard about. They prescribe something without telling the patient what they have or what the meds are for. They rarely do investigative tests for symptoms that they feel are not likely to kill you. I really have had enough of them, but I cannot bypass them to see any specialists - NHS (gov’t) or BUPA (private). So until I earn enough to ditch GPs (which will be never) I have to grin & bear it.

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side story
I have a feeling I already mentioned this in one of my older posts but I’ll repeat it again. My neighbour whose husband is suffering from debilitating arthritis was referred by our GP to see a NHS specialist. This specialist told them the husband needs a critical test done but the NHS waiting list is too long. So his suggestion was he sees them as private patient only for the test (£200+) and then continue with his consultation on NHS. Now the couple returned to our GP to ask for such referral but they were refused (a couple of times). The GP maintains they need to wait on NHS just like everybody else because going on private means they will bump some poor soul from the NHS list. They were gobsmacked. How will they affect the NHS list when the private session will be done on a weekend? Besides they were going to pay for it themselves. So what is the GP’s problem?

Last I heard my neighbour is filing a complaint in NHS. But isn’t unbelievable?

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Britain is known for producing some of the greatest talents in the music business. They’ve produced sounds that revolutionised the world’s taste in music. Now tourdates.co.uk, one of Britain’s fastest growing music website, has just launched the unsigned music charts. Check out their website and check out the buzz. Check out the unsigned chart with free music downloads.

Here is their recent Press Release:
tourdates.Co.UK, Britains fastest growing new music website, has launched a chart for unsigned bands.

The site allows new bands to upload promotional tracks, announce gig dates and create profiles to promote themselves alongside major artists such as the Artic Monkeys and The Twang.

Tourdates Jarrod Robinson says, there are some fantastic unsigned bands in the UK and we wanted them to know how much our community likes their music, an unsigned chart seemed the perfect answer.

Chart results are announced on the site at 19:00 every sunday, the sametime as the No1 single of the week is announced on BBC’s radio 1.

Caution: Photos galore ahead.

Hubby, his aunt and I put up a border and prepared the soil. We probably got rid of half-a-sack worth of stones & pebbles. By the end of the first day, I was aching all over. Hubby had to applied efficascent oil all over my body, it was sooo painful to move.

The following day I worked from 9am til 12 noon. Both hubby & aunt were gone. Thankfully, the day was slightly overcast so it’s not too hot to continue my planting.

This photo was taken right after I finished the last box of seedlings. As you can see the day was beginning to hot up. Kelvin was my lone helper all day, fetching water for me & basically trying not to get in the way too much.

On the second week, the plants started to bloom. I kept the cards of their names but I forgot to take note for this blog. Anyway, the red flower above and the bright yellow below are of the same family. Their like sunflowers in that their petals clam up when the sun goes down. At first hubby didn’t want to buy these but I sneaked them in our trolley anyway - I win!

We bought two of these lavender bush. Buy 1 get 1 free kasi. And I know they’re easy to grow. I am hoping these will last at least a year with minimum care. They do smell great, but since they’re so small, I have to put my nose really close in order to see what the ‘fuss’ is about.

These plants are yet to bloom. Out of maybe 24 seedlings, I think 6 of them will die. They’re wilting right next to their healthy siblings.
So that’s my quickie garden. I’m serious about these lot now. I just bought a plant stand from ebay so I can start with potted plants, too. I’ve got some healthy money plants I’ve managed to grow indoors that I’d like to propagate(?) and I’m really keen on starting a mini-herb garden. We’ll see how it goes.

Taken with my point-and-shoot low-tech digital camera, SONY Cybershot DSC-W30 (6 megapixel).

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