Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Whoops, done it again

The good news though is that my orchid, my mother-of-the-groom's present from April, is flourishing under Husband's tender ministrations. (I have kept well away from it.)

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I woke in the middle of Friday night and thought, 'Oh, fiddle.' Ladies, if I say I've been drinking a lot of cranberry juice since then, you'll know what I'm talking about, won't you?


To stop it getting a hold, I called the out-of-hours service on Saturday morning. I spoke to a lovely nurse who asked me lots of questions and then said, 'Do you have a temperature? Are you hot?'


Well, I'd been roasting in the night, but, quite honestly, at my age, that isn't entirely unusual.


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Doing the ironing last week I was listening to The Material World on Radio 4. The first piece was about recycling hazardous household waste. The presenter made a big assumption when he said that people who care about recycling are likely to already be aware of potential dangers. In a battery?

These things shouldn't be taken for granted. Not when I'm out here.

Apparently in May of last year the EU agreed a battery recycling law. So they'll be pleased to hear that, since earlier this year, I have been collecting used batteries in a special little box provided by one of the big DIY stores. When it's full I can take it to the store for safe recycling. (Apparently it's still being trialed so is not available in every part of the country.)
The other item on The Material World was about the search for Homer's island of Ithaca. The latest theory is that it could be that a peninsular on the west of Kefalonia was an island before the channel separating it from the main island was silted up. For the next two years, a huge research project into the geophysics and geology of the area is being undertaken.
Isn't it lovely that money is still being spent and research being done for no practical reason? Simply for academia. To prove that an island written about hundreds (thousands) of years ago really existed. I like that.
(I should add that the machinery that will be used will itself be undergoing trials so there is a practical benefit to the sponsor.)

3 comments:

Welshcakes Limoncello said...

Glad about the orchid. Yep, remember the cranberry juice [which we can't get here]! Re batteries, we've got special bins for them all over town but people just fill them up with other rubbish. Yes, great about such research - that restores my hope.

sally in norfolk said...

I have wantd an orchid plant for months but afraid to buy one as they are so expensive and it may die too quickly..... you must give me some tips on how to look after one ???

Liz Hinds said...

What no cranberry juice in Sicily, Welshcakes?! Regarding the bins, we had the same problem in church when we tried to get people to put paper in one (for recycling) and general rubbish in another. Can't people read?!!

Sally, get Geoff to do it! That's how I keep mine alive: get my Husband to tend it.