photo credit: Mario Spann

Another unexpected bonus of being on your own, is household maintenance.  I have been fortunate in this regard in that my late husband taught me well so I can turn my hand at almost anything.

This weekend I will be fixing the decking boards, getting on the roof to clean the gutters and trim an overhanging tree then using the guerney to clean off the deck and the back patio.  At some point I need to oil the outside furniture but I’m tinkering with the idea of actually painting one set a gloss cream.  My daughters say no, that means I will probably do it.

However there are a few things that I can’t do.  My fridge/freezer has been broken since just before xmas and I’ve been

saving up for the repair guy to come out and take a look/fix it.  I almost had enough when the car battery died and had to be replaced.  The car was due for a service anyway, so in that went and now is purring like a kitten.  You look after your car, it looks after you.

I broke a light bulb in its socket in my warddrobe and after attempting to get the bayonet out (with the power off at the board my husband was a sparky) have bent it beyond all recognition so now need an electrician to come out and replace the whole fitting.  I actually know how to do this, but I’m too scared to do it.  So I’ll stumble around my wardrobe in the dark or with a torch until I can afford the service fee for the electrician.

My pool pump is also kaput so that’s also being saved up for.

People tell you that they’ll be there  ‘If you ever need anything….’ ‘ but when you do, invariably they can’t.  So I’ve stopped asking and am just doing things on my own when I can, the way I can.

Forgot to mention I’ll also be trimming the hedge and back garden with the hedge trimmer if I can get it to fire up.  Should be an interesting weekend.

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I love that the internet allows us to educate ourselves in any way we choose. Check this out History Buffs

Now I’m not that into Presidential history, but I’m blown away that for people who are, there is just a plethora of excellent information for all.

Expect some more on education and how the web, and the classroom, are beginning to really revolutionise delivery and uptake.

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This link was in my twitter stream What the World eats – a photo essay by Time (love Time btw) and I found it fascinating for a lot of reasons.

The amount of packaged foods that are being consumed globally is quite staggering and frightening to me.  The amount of fresh foods in the weekly groceries can almost be equated to the national obesity statistics.

Interestingly, our weekly grocery bills are pretty similar for families, although in some countries the dollar definitely stretches further.

I’m still interested in childhood obesity and will again publish a series of articles on it, and having taken a snapshot look at the diets of some of the westernised countries, it’s easy to see why this problem is not going to go away.

With both parents working just to maintain a roof over the family’s head (so to speak) it’s easy to see why packaged food is so attractive.  Given my own circumstances (widow with three kids working full time) I”m also tempted to just grab some frozen crumbed unrecognizables to throw into the oven at the end of a hard day.  The only thing stopping me from doing so at the moment is that the freezer is broken!

It’s hard, no matter how many cooking shows you watch about how quick and easy it is to whip up a delicious nutritious meal for the family, to come home after a day’s work, decide what to eat, and then have the kids say they don’t want it anyway!

My compromise solution has been to have reasonably nutritious snacks available and to cut down on buying packaged food (quite easy on a single wage really because you can’t afford them anyway).

There is no easy solution to childhood obesity, but having fresh foods available has to be a start.

It’s strictly what I think anyway.

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After many months of toiling with databases, seo’ing etc. I have deleted the old database and am starting fresh, with all the knowledge in tact from my past lessons. There are new things to blog about, new things to learn about, so strictly anything is still possible here.

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