Category Archives: health & happiness

free rice

14 Monday Jan 2008

Posted by in culture, fun stuff, health & happiness, life stuff

≈ 25 Comments

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FreeRice has two goals:

1. Provide English vocabulary to everyone for free.
2. Help end world hunger by providing rice to hungry people for free.

This is made possible by the sponsors who advertise on this site.

Whether you are CEO of a large corporation or a street child in a poor country, improving your vocabulary can improve your life. It is a great investment in yourself.

Perhaps even greater is the investment your donated rice makes in hungry human beings, enabling them to function and be productive. Somewhere in the world, a person is eating rice that you helped provide. Thank you.

Over on this post it was suggested by the lovely alejna that I check out FreeRice, but I thought it was just another vocabulary quiz site that would make me feel stupid, so I was putting it off until I felt more like a bit of a challenge. Then yesterday I was reminded about this by bob’s yer uncle, a new visitor to casa az, and afterwards Nog and I spent quite an enjoyable half hour or so playing it together … and got up to about 2000 grains of rice.

So why not try it out?

It’s refreshingly addictive! And you also get to help feed the world.

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cat ear cleaning time

31 Monday Dec 2007

Posted by in animals & pets, health & happiness, home

≈ 5 Comments

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Always soooo much fun!

During Sunny’s last trip to the vet’s I was reminded about doing a monthly ear cleaning. Apparently Sunny has very waxy ears and Azar had quite a bad ear infection a couple of years ago, so not doing regular cleanings is very remiss on my part. Anyhow, today was the day (decided that the end/beginning of the month is the easiest time to remember) and everyone is recovering well – including me. 🙂

With Azar I have to sneak up on him when he is sleeping and get at least one ear done before he fully wakes up and starts doing his Tazmanian Devil thang. Sunny is easier to deal with and is so doggy … although he squirmed a bit, as soon as I finished doing his ears he went directly to his food dish and waited for his ‘after trauma treat’ (it’s just so cute and trusting when he does that!). Meanwhile, Azar has just come out from sulking under the bed.

Well, that’s it till next month. It’s one of those things where the anticipation is actually worse than the reality (especially now that I’ve improved my technique) and this post is to remind me of that so that I won’t put off the regular cleanings anymore.

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terry pratchett

13 Thursday Dec 2007

Posted by in books & writing, health & happiness, life stuff

≈ 7 Comments

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Pratchett has Alzheimer’s disease

Author Terry Pratchett is suffering from a rare form of early Alzheimer’s disease, it has been revealed.

He said: “I would have liked to keep this one quiet for a little while, but because of upcoming conventions and of course the need to keep my publishers informed, it seems to me unfair to withhold the news.

“I have been diagnosed with a very rare form of early onset Alzheimer’s, which lay behind this year’s ‘phantom stroke’.”

He added: “We are taking it fairly philosophically down here and possibly with a mild optimism.

I first saw this on Paul Kidby’s website yesterday, via a post on Ask h2g2. Mr Pratchett is also quoted as saying he would prefer it if people “keep things cheerful”, but it’s hard not to feel sadness and concern. 😦

13º celsius

06 Thursday Dec 2007

Posted by in health & happiness, home, sevilla

≈ 16 Comments

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At least that’s what the new bedroom heater thermostat says.

Which means that is the usual temperature in casa az during the winter – and believe me, that is cold! Hence this new heater stuck on the wall next to the bed, plus another one in the living room. To paraphrase Scarlett … “As Bob is my witness, I will never be cold again!” (obviously paraphrasing, as anyone who has seen recent(ish) photos or the Sevilla Tapas blog can confirm that I clearly don’t ever go hungry).

So after about 14 winters of shivering at home, even after putting on three sweaters, it has been decided to heat casa az as much as is possible, given that the balcony doors don’t close properly (all six of them – double doors with several single-paned glass panels each) so that it’s often warmer outside than inside, especially at midday. And hang the expense!

Last winter Nog and I often stayed warm in the evenings by watching films on his laptop in bed, which was quite cosy. But now that we have the nice big television we’d rather watch stuff on that. Then yesterday we were both feeling a bit under the weather (I think I’m getting the cold that he’s almost recovered from) so we made up the Ikea sofabed in the evening, brought out the extra duvet and piled up cushions and pillows behind us … and it was fabulous! Really comfy being able to stretch my legs out in front of me and the cats loved it too. And so we did it again tonight – I think this is going to become a new cosy winter habit.

What do you do to stay warm?