Broken Key in lock

A few days ago I broke a key in Roberts bike lock, which would have meant getting someone over to the house to try and cut the lock off. It was a brand new giant lock so thick it would take a week to cut off. I had things to do I didn't want to be wasting time sorting this one out. So my frontal lobe started working. I got out tweezers and pliers and tried to pick it out. This was not working because it had a little door that automatically kept spring closing. Then inspiration came and I got some metal craft glue and mixed it and put a very tiny bit on the inside of the tweezers, then put tweezers onto the end of the key in the lock and pressed the tweezers together. The glue had an hour to set so I put masking tape around the tweezers to clamp them together, then left it alone for an hour and came back and pulled the tweezers out and the key came with it. I undone the tape then the tweezers separated from key and rubbed the glue of tweezers. So all was saved.

Flaming hot

All the flames that have been happening in Australia made me want to write something, in prevention of flames. Australian airports should have large warning signs telling tourists the do's and do not's of Australia or even a 30 minute introduction lecture at the airports and ports. Like even telling people not to touch the barrier reef, not to drop litter or cigarette buts and to be nice to every creature and person.

Houses in the bush should made underground. 

Teenagers should have more contact with adults using community festivals as a point of contact. At the festival the teenagers and the whole community should all have a responsibility to make the festival happen. The adults can then pass on knowledge to the younger generation like fire safety and ways of having fun that builds the community instead of destroying it.

Fire safety tips.

1. Soak a wool blanket in water and cover self with blanket if there is no way out. 

2. Roll person on fire in nearest wool rug. Not man made fibers, they may melt.

3. Not to use block type double adapters in electric socket as they become heavy and when half stuck in they ark and make a flame.

4. Try not to stack video tapes next to TV and other players or near heat.

5. When cleaning the oven with chemical cleaners, make sure oven is well rinsed before turning it on.

6. To have all fire alarms working in home.

7. To learn the art of climbing up and down a single rope.

8. To have a turn off after use sign next to gas fire place.

9. To Have fire blanket next to cooker.

10. To unplug computers, telephones, during lightning storm. 

11. When having a fire outside to make sure the ashes are completely wet before leaving the fire unattended. Fires can travels underground burning roots.

12. Making sure electric leads from hand held tools are behind you and lead rests on the back of hand, so if it was to cause shock it will fly backwards instead of round the wrists. No one must be standing behind you when using the tools.

13. Hot oil spill, remove clothing, quickly wipe the oil off with dry cloth and immerse in running water for over twenty minutes.

14. Hot water, remove clothing and immerse in cold water for over 20 minutes.

 15. Hot oil pan fire. Smother with fire blanket or damp well squeezed cotton cloth tea towel.

Hold corners turned towards you and raise high to cover in one go.

16. Garlic skin placed over burns or cuts with dry dressing can help speed up healing. 

17. Cuts, tape cut together as neat as possible and keep dry. 

That's about all I can think of, any other tips you may think of write in the comments box. 

Chauncy Maples Hospital ship.

Today is the launch of the Chauncy Maples hospital ship restoration fund raising website.

Robert created the website for Auntie Janie who is director of the project of restoring the ship. Aunt Janie has spent her whole life writing Health books for Africa and making it her main concern. 

We are very lucky in the UK to have ambulances, that pick us up from where ever we have an accident, no matter how hard it is for the ambulance people to get to us by sea, air or van. Then we are taken to a hospital that is 5 minutes or so away and then helped by doctors at the hospital with in an hour. 

In Africa this is not the case, they are very few doctors per people and hospitals and if you have a broken leg you may have to drag it a few hundred miles to get help. 

So the Chauncy Maples is really great, the ship moves around lake Malawi and helps people that live miles apart.  The ship was originally made in Glasgow by fine ship builders in 1885 and taken in separate pieces to Africa to be assembled there. The ship has been used constantly, till 2003. Which is a good run of over a hundred years. 

I see this project as very important. Much more important then restoring ships for historic purposes or buying a yacht to cruise round the world in.  

The quicker the funds are raised to restore the ship the quicker it can be back in action on the lake Malawi, serving the community.

Janie has lots of photos of the parts of the ship that need repairing, for you to see on the beautiful Chauncy Maples website.

Art can have a heart part 3

More pictures done at the retirement home. This is another Christmas wrapping paper one but can be done with old magazines and Christmas cards or even newspaper. I drew an out line but sometimes they developed into there own picture.

This one could be a cat or a kangaroo.

This is one from the second world war series of colouring in pictures. Catching swans and eating them is illegal as the Queen owns all the swans so she says. They are beautiful birds and should not be caught but when people are caught up in wars they are of course staving to death and will do anything to get something to eat even if it means going to jail for it. I also feel wars should be made illegal and owning birds and animals should be illegal and having a royal family should be illegal and going to jail for stealing food should be illegal and shipping food around the world should be illegal and fishing with lead weights should be illegal because it kills the swans as they swollen little pebbles from the bottom of the river and in that swallow lead weights from fisherman. I found a dead swan when I was a child and it had electric burn lines straight across it. So over head power lines should be ilegal and Nuclear power stations should be illegal as they spill out hot water which boils the fish and sea life as well as many other things they do. Bring back pedal power.

A crab supper, again Christmas wrapping paper picture. I did a little personal survey at the retirement home and asked everyone what there favourite dish was and they all said crabs. Norfolk is famous for crab. But the population of course is depleting as they fish them out of season so there is no time for them to breed again. Is this due to foreign factory ships scooping up the ocean beds. It must be because local fisherman known when the right time to catch the poor unfortunate creatures.

Flower arranging. Another activities that is a favourite. These plastic flowers were all donated to the home for the Lady's to arrange. Real flowers would have been nicer but health and safety say there not good as there is different natural chemicals in each real flower. When you go down the road of health and safety your left with nothing left on the planet.

Doves colouring drawing. Coloured in by a lady who let me know what fully blown epilepsy is like, not very nice at all.

Her mind was trapped in the 2nd world war and she talked in every detail of the bullets killing her friends at the factory she worked at. Not one piece of information was left out the whole war period was grafted onto her memory. So I tried to help her escape with art.

I wonder if there will be a period in time when people don't have to have a memory of war. I certainly have memory's of war that will never go away. Growing up in Ireland the news was a constant spill of war. When I got a to about 8 years old I refused to watch or listen to it. It made me feel sick. When visiting Northern Ireland on a mothers Union shopping trip I got caught up in the war and had to run across a road of an inch of broken glass and firing of army and men to get back to my bus home. I hid in a little book shop for a bit to get my breath back. The whole place was completely ridiculous every shop I had my bag checked before entering the shop and every street had a road block again to be checked. Even the bus was checked on the way into the city. To live that everyday for an entire life time would send me bananas and maybe I would say that dementia in the elderly may have something to do with having to live with a war.

Please stop all the wars they cause so much pain and suffering that we cant cope anymore.

The last in the series of activities for retirement homes and dementia. I do have a whole list of more activities that I did at the home I was at, but they have photos of people in and due to the respect of the family members I have not put any recognisable photos on my blog.

It will be you one day. part 2

More activity pictures of what I got up to in the retirement home. This is the start of the Norwich Cathedral Lantern making. As you can see it did not require a table. I decided to use old electrical wire to join the old cane blind as this process has a bit of weaving in it which is easier then using masking tape and the heat of the home made the tape come off.

This is a painting done of Norwich. The painting was very big so everyone could work on it. They really enjoyed this one and new people to the home totally related to it and admired the picture. The self esteem of the people there lifted enormously after this was finished and the picture was talked about amongst the residence.

Flower pot painting. Also a winner and I took the pots round to every single person even the bed ridden to plant the magic sun flower seeds and bought a little watering can. They loved this one because they could smell the soil and get a little dirty and watch them grow. The plants grew inside till they were to tall to fit in the window then they were transplanted to big pots in the court yard. Then as the weather got warmer they took it in turns to water the plants. Walking outside sometimes was quite difficult when they have been indoors all winter. So I helped them make every step to the plants. After they had been out they looked like they had been for a walk on the beach all full of life and colour int here cheeks. The plants could be seen from there windows and grew so tall they could have been entered into the tallest sunflower competition.

Paper aeroplanes made for the 1940s party. Each one was cut out and coloured in and hung from the ceilings throughout the home.

Norwich St.Johns Cathedral

This is a painting of Norwich St Johns Cathedral that is not far from where I live, it has wonderful gargoyles on the outside and the road goes round the outside. Robert plays chess there for the club. The cathedral also has an amazing view from the roof. The appearance is very old but it is not a very old cathedral.
This painting would appeal to the Pope or a priest.
The painting is revalued for £4500,000,000,000,000.00
The sale of this painting would go towards buying all the empty Woolworth's stores across the UK, to use, to run art and sustainable craft workshops and skill share workshops for adults and children 7 days a week.

Drawing of the Pheasant pub

These lovely cows are a small detail from an enormous drawing done in pen in ink, for Taffeta and Jason at the Pheasant pub in Keyston, Huntingdon. If you need a break from driving across the UK, stop by the pub, it has top class food and drinks all grown very local.

Green houses for schools

I am pleased to say schools are now getting funds to teach children how to grow food. So there is now a demand for these Green houses that can be built with the children. So start collecting your 2 litre plastic bottles and order a Green house. Just get in contact with me by leaving a comment and I will organize the plastic bottle greenhouse team to build one of these beauty's. They are strong and with stand high winds, heavy rain, and the 2 litre plastic bottles were designed to be indestructible. The door can be at the end or in the middle. Please keep the caps on when collecting them this keeps them whole till they are altered for the Green house. If your school has very little storage space ask a parent who may have a garage or shed to store them in. 1400 bottles needed for each house and smaller bottles can be used as bird feeders and scarers.

Omlettle with chocolate, cream and strawberry sauce

Don't mess with the Breakfast Eggy Queen. Gordon Ramsey would be quaking in his boots if he had to work in the same kitchen as me.
This photo was taken at a Badde Manors cafe Christmas work party, where I did an impromptu performance and pretended I had bought the cafe and everyone was now my slave and could not leave. I think they all love it, apart from poor Ben who volunteered to be in the show.
I made the curly tits costume and with great engineering skills they managed to stay up and curly. The fluffy hat is my dag hat made of real sheep's wool. Madam Lash has now got the costume at her house in Palm beach, where it is encased in Sydney's history as one of Sydney's greatest costumes.

Emergency!

Today was spent at the hospital doing a consultation with all the Hospital staff about the hospital arts project in the Children's ward. All the artists including me put there work out on all the tables for the staff to say yes or no to all the work that will be put up. There was positive feedback about my amazing console table and giant dolls house and wooden toys, but the rocking sea creatures might have to be left out as they might hurt other children while rocking. Health and safety seems to rule the roost at the hospital. The staffs input was great they helped redesign some toys to make them even more safer.

Emma had all her paint colours, floor tiles, curtains, chairs, cabinet colours all along one table. There were a couple of lads with amazing designs for the pillars in the restaurant area.
Lisa with her beach drawings that she will be doing with the children on the walls.
Bright coloured broads and beach paintings of Hannah's. Hospital arts volunteers helping the staff choose things from catalogues.

On the tables opposite me was Kate Green and her amazing sea life illustrations.
Here is pictures of her beautiful work.

The Children's ward nearly has all the funds to get the clean bill of health but is short of a few bob, to complete the project. Please donate funds to Emma Jarvis at the Hospital she said any donation is welcome. The whole ward gets completely done up in exactly one month and will be done in one day. Because they of the enormous up heaval in moving all the sick children to where ever they can find space. The art and toys are beneficial to helping bringing the children back to good health and the hospital arts project is run completely on charitable funds.

Junk buster launch

This week Stop Junk Mail have launched a new website that will solve all your problems in one go and reduce landfill. One of these problems is Telephone directory's, Yellow pages, Junk mail, Thomson, Royal mail opt out, etc. This neat piece of technology was designed by Robert  and 149 development. Just one button and you have saved many trees from there death.
People use the web to look up numbers and don't want there limited well earned rented or mortgaged homes clogged up with directory's. How many directory's end up a soggy mess on doorsteps and don't even get looked at and how many hallways end up with piles of unwanted junk mail. How many businesses get junk mail printed in there thousands to save a few penny's and don't even use it and how many scammers send out junk mail to rip people off. All a waste of time and money and trees.
If you are thinking of starting a business the best thing you can do is get in touch with an artist and get everything you need made to top quality standards and then the business will sell it self.
Another good way of marketing is sponsor a performer or festival.
Click here to go straight to Junkbuster.

Dementia activities

A few years ago I was out of work and landed myself in an retirement home that catered mostly for the elderly with dementia. My job was activities person, which was quite a difficult task. 4 hours per day 60 people and tons of paper work. I worked it out as two minutes person per day, enough time to say hello. So I would recommend if you are bored and feel like doing something there is plenty of people who need your attention in retirement homes or maybe a elderly neighbour might need a visit.
These places can seem horrific on first glance but when you get to know everyone they can become a lot of fun.
My motto for growing old is if you don't use it you loose it. But sometimes we loose things when using them to much to. The attention span can be very short for people with dementia but like anything if it is fun then the attention span is longer.
So I had a vast array of activities to keep them all happy and for all the different things that they might be able to do. This one here is an easy one. Tearing up bits of Christmas wrapping paper and sticking it down to make a picture.

This one was inspired by the second world war and survival of the Lady's. Catching a chicken and ringing its neck and plucking its feathers. I did twelve drawings of the Lady's catching various birds to eat during the war period. They coloured the pictures in. The pictures then decorated the activities room.

Easter bonnets were an old favourite and can be done with one hand if the person has had a stroke or with barely no hands if both hands were completely arthritic.

This is a lantern made by everyone it took nearly a year to make with an old cane blind and paper. The final piece had fairy lights put in it and a hole in the top to let hot air out. This was suppose to be Norwich cathedral as all the people new and still remembered the landmark of there city.

Musical live entertainment is the most important part of a retirement home. It involves everyone including staff. Cheers up moral and a fresh reminder of the old days singing round the piano. This lady was an all time favourite and she did lots of instant costume changes and came with her dance partner doll. The musical entertainment that was brought in varied from bands that had been around for nearly a century to one man shows with lyric hand outs. If your a musician and feel you have no where to play your music there is a wonderful audience all waiting for you in any retirement home. Please book in advance so they can spread the entertainment out and don't be disappointed if you get canceled due to a bug going round the home.

Scams or Salad.

Today I was reading the Stop Junk Mail blog and was taken by one of the story's about a lady that was scammed out of £50,000 by nasty scam letter people from all over the world.
These scams all start in the backs of women's magazines and the readers digest magazine. With the words luck, win, prize draw. Most people ignore these silly advertisements or have a giggle at how insane they are, but some people actually fall for the nasty scammers and send them cash. The Think Jessica campaign has been set up to help people who have a relative that might be scammed or just to warn people not to get scammed. The Think Jessica Campaign have also set up a petition asking the Government to help stop the postal service sending scammers letters to scam people with mental health problems or dementia. I think this could go further then people with mental health problems. The scammers are so good at what they do they could scam anyone.
There is no such thing as getting something for nothing or winning anything.
My mum played a very good trick on me when I was around ten years old, which rid my appeal to gamble. She took me and friend to the beach where the slot machines always hang out or the one arm bandits. I had a hand full of change mostly 2 pence pieces that I had saved up. She then left me and my friend there and said make sure you have 14 pence for the bus home and told us which bus to get. I had been traveling around Dublin on buses with friends or on my own already since I was 4 years old those were the days when kids had more freedom. So me and a friend were in the one arm bandit places putting are change in the things that are suppose to pay out but are always on the edge but never do and low and behold as you imagine the 14 pence soon disappeared and I had to walk a long way home.
Later on in life when I was in Australia to my horror pubs had these one arm bandits and in the 7 years I was there they built a giant casino which increased the population of gamblers. Then the pubs that had great live music started to get rid of the live music ( which is usually put on by musicians for love not for money) and replaced the musicians with one arm bandits. So the sound in the pubs was not beautiful music but horrible gambling machine noises.
In Geelong where my Godmother lived the council wanted to put a Gambling den for children down on the sea front. She campaigned and said would it not be better to have something educational and beautiful. She made beautiful carved and painted bollards of historical figures that went along the coast line for the children to follow on the way home from school instead. Now the bollards have become a tourist attraction and created more tourism and less potential gamblers.
It is very easy to get addicted to gambling if you have hardly any money and it is very tempting. My advise is if you have £30 get a council allotment and start growing vegetables. There is more gratification in growing vegetables and you get rewarded with produce to eat.
In Norwich there is a man at the local allotments who has divided up his allotment into small sections for beginners to start growing. He gives constant advise. My boyfriend tried it and came home with huge vegetables and his crop was a complete success on first attempt. My friend in Glasgow has got her first allotment and she said the other growers are all helpful and friendly.