We all need advice, but not everyone is good at giving it. In fact, some people should have the equivalent of a restraining order taken out on them so they can’t ruin your life with bad advice. For example, on my very first day of school my mother said “don’t break a leg!” and that was precisely what I did. Since then I have given mother’s advice a wide birth… But then again, some people were BORN to give advice, and one such person gives his really quite worthy advice at the following article. Check it out if you are constantly being hassled by stupid people at work who mistakenly believe that you have time to cater for their annoying demands!http://www.eniginadvice.com/2010/07/08/stop-those-office-distractions/ Of course, there is no getting away from the demands of the work place, and the irony is that sometimes you spend so much time communicating, going to meetings and answering questions that the work doesn’t get done. Which defies the point, surely, but what can you do? Not much, unless you want to alienate everyone around you and be known as the big bad working wolf. The answer might be to stay behind at work, or get to work extra early, or work through your lunch-break, or using time management software. In truth, nothing can completely cure this problem, but the advice given in the article should definitely go some way to easing it. Take it from me, I’ve been trying it out this week and it works a treat!

The fact that they contain so much fatty cheese to induce a heart attack? Wrong!

I read this rather interesting article on Yahoo News, where a pizza delivery guy actually saved the life of a customer when he began to suffer from a heart attack as he was waiting for his pizza delivery. Heart attacks are very serious, in fact a few weeks ago I had a pain in my leg and thought there was something wrong with the Leg vein , losing my cool thinking there was a clot. But now I know there is one person who didn’t.

Christopher Wuebben, 22, of Colorado, formerly of Illinois, was a paramedic until he was laid off so he was able to administer first aid and CPR to George Linn when he began to suffer from cardiac arrest. Mr. Wuebben had to act fast when he arrived at Mr. Linn’s house with the sole intention of delivering a pizza, as Mr. Linn’s wife screamed for help when he began to go into cardiac arrest.

John Keiley, Mr. Wuebben’s boss said “Chris told the woman that he was trained in CPR and knew what to do,”Keiley, owner of Johnny’s New York Pizza, said on Tuesday. “He got him on the floor and brought him back to life before the fire department showed up. He’s a good kid who was very nonchalant about what he did and hopefully this will work out for him.”

Keiley also added that Mr. Wuebben was offered positions from at least one local fire department and one local hospital, so he could easily working once again in his chosen field.

Who knows where the future of Great British television lies? Leg vein treatment documentaries? Or perhaps Blind Date will make a come back with the ever ginger Cilla bursting back on to our screens? Who knows. I don’t, that’s for sure. I barely watch it and when I do all I seem to be seeing is the same thing over and over–

It’s frightening.

Does anyone else not think what has happened to TV in recent years is a bit strange? Allow me to demonstrate the state of British TV as I see it:

1) Day-time / morning: it used to be chat shows in the morning, now it’s property programmes with young and (perhaps too) eager presenters. And not just ‘how to sell your house’ but ‘how to do up your house’ and even ‘what to do when someone does up your house wrong, allow us to fix it for you!’

2) Simultaneously, playing at exactly the same time as the property programmes, are antique programmes, usually featuring either David Dickinson or people closely resembling him.

3) Day-time / early afternoon: more of the same, with a new kind of programme creeping in–cookery / chat show style programmes and–guess what? Yes! Not antique programmes, oh no, but…wait for it…AUCTION PROGRAMMES. And what a change that makes!

4) And repeat until early evening–

What a state! Where has the variety gone? Surely we could do with some comedy?

Or, dread the thought…maybe this is comedy?!

And who knows when these terrible trends will end and what kind of mentally tortured state we will be in when they do. Only time will tell–

The house wasn’t on fire. Actually what had happened was this: in my stupidity I had gone to bed without turning the heating off. It being the start of summer, the two powerful forces of man-made heating and mother nature had combined to create a formidable force of heat!

Once I’d woken myself up and calmed myself down I sat down to get to work. But alas there was an email waiting for me, and it had this link in it.

Everyone knows it’s rude to ignore an email link.

The link came from a die-hard energy saving friend of mine. He was going on about this company called Enigin who know even more than he does about saving energy (which is a lot). And I had to agree it was interesting. The purpose of this post seems to be to tell the world about a brand new invention they have out – one called the Eniscope, which monitors energy and generally makes your life cheaper and easier. After researching it a bit I was impressed. And if it means I don’t wake up thinking I am on fire then I may just well have to get me self one of these.

Everyone feels that they can get more done if they spend all their time doing so. Skipping things like watching TV and playing video games may be positive as instead of sitting on your rear end you could be at 100% productivity and get some extra things done, like extra revision projects.

However this could blow up in your face if you misuse this. Sooner or later, you could end up skipping breakfast or lunch in the hope of getting an extra hour in, or sleeping a few hours later to finish off the project. This will straightaway be more costly to you as you will lose concentration and sleep, which will cause you to crash out and get nothing done the next day.

I am currently getting ready for my upcoming exams, but I have to take careful precautions revising for them. I know people who do “all-nighters” and revise the entire night. I’ve done it before, but never the night before an exam. If I tried to do it before an exam, I will fall asleep in the exam room, so while I would have 100% productivity revising the night before, I would have 0% or even minus productivity. I’ve also skipped lunch, in favour of revising and have paid dearly when I flop over the desk not being able to continue. I may spend hours revising and just stop when it feels like there is a rock in my head stopping me from absorbing any new material.

The blog by Enigin is perfect because you have to be careful and you could lose productivity by overworking. In terms of revision, it is better to take long breaks, eat well and healthily, so eat lots of fruit and drink lots of water, and try not to revise during the night all the time, definitely not before an exam.

I am constantly loosing things; the last thing I lost was a brochure on Newport property . I don’t mean every now and again, or every so often. I mean that if I put my car keys down then some force of nature will make it impossible for me to find them again five minutes later. That’s all it takes! The problem wouldn’t be so bad if the force of nature wasn’t located deep inside my head–

And let me tell you this used to stress me out enormously. I mean really stress me out. I’d go all crazy and start looking in places where they couldn’t possibly be. I’m serious. I’d look in the bins, I’d look in the oven. I’d even look in the fridge and really expect to find them there! On extreme occassions I’d call my friends and blame them. I knew it wasn’t their fault, of course, but blaming them certainly made me feel a lot better. If only for five minutes.

I was a nightmare for years, until one day, on my nineteenth birthday, my girl friend said to me “look, just calm down and you’ll find them, ok?”

I stared at her with menace. “What do you mean?” I asked. “How will that make any difference!?”

She grabbed my wrist and said “it will, trust me”.

And so I started to calm down–

That was when I felt it for the first time. Suddenly I could think rationally about where I left the keys, instead of just swearing at inanimate objects as though it was all their fault.

Can you guess what happened? Yes, I found the keys. I found them fast. All because I was able to stay calm. So, it may sound stupid, but take my advice all you people who’d loose their head if it wasn’t screwed on: just calm down a bit, OK? It’s the best way to beat the angry monster.

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Ah, London: glorious, full of interesting things, place of creativity. Or is it? While it may be the capital of the UK, and considered by many to be the thriving epicentre of all things great and monetary and fashionable, some, in villages throughout the rest of the country, believe that London is ‘too busy’. Shockingly, they rarely visit the capital, and some are even scared to mention its name any louder than a whisper–

Here are some things about London that need to be said. Along with some advice if London is a strange and new thing to you.

1) London is actually a very friendly place. But friendly has a limit. Don’t expect friendliness when in the underground, for example, because you’ll be all out of luck. Another thing: keep an eye out for Londoners in a hurry. They hate nothing more than to be slowed down by non Londonites! Failure to comply may well result in hair loss …

2) Don’t wreak havoc on the escalators! When using escalators, always stand on the right-hand side; this is so that speedy pedestrians can rush down on the left.

3) Don’t be afraid to ask people questions. If you’re lost just ask! Many Londoners will be only too happy to help.

4) Work out your route before you arrive at a busy London terminal. Trust me, you’ll have enough to do with taking in all that new culture. By planning you’re making life a lot easier on yourself and a lot less stressful.

1. Family is all that matters. This has been the main lesson taught to me by my Nonna. She firmly believed that a man is not a man if he doesn’t spend time with his family. This was the case with my Nono (grandfather) who I suspect was firmly trained by his wife to be the best possible father. I now know the importance of family is and what I need to do. Respect of my wife, my kids, and my own parents are what make me a man.

2. Sugar never hurt anyone. When I was a youngling, my Nonna used to give me a spoonful of sugar every day. Although my mother despised this, my Nonna managed to sneak in at least one spoonful per day. This was one of my favourite treats when I was growing up. And now, I continue this tradition. I don’t eat a spoonful of sugar anymore, but I do give myself a sweet treat every day.

3. A good pasta sauce takes all day. Most people will prepare a simple pasta sauce within 10 or 20 minutes. Pasta is always great as a quick meal. But my Nonna taught me that a true pasta sauce takes all day to make. She would start every Sunday morning at 6 o’clock sharp. The ingredients would go into the huge vat of sauce (enough to feed you all week) and then is slowly simmered throughout the day, adding meat as you go. And it was worth it!

4. Wine is fine any time! My Nonna was a firm believer in the healing power of red wine. This is why I drink my fair share every day. It is perfect for any meal (maybe not breakfast) and during the day time while you sit outside on a summer day.

My main reason for not being bothered is this: is the birth day that special? A day filled with pain, misery and blood (not to mention all kinds of weird liquids that come from all kinds of weird places). If I had the opportunity to exchange the birthday for another day, I think I would make it the day of conception. That just seems to make more sense to me, since that’s the day when everything started.

But even people who don’t particularly like their own birthdays like to feel special, you know? The last thing I want to get on my birthday is a feeble-looking text. A badly written one at that. Could there be anything more impersonal?

Maybe it’s just me being old-fashioned, but I’d like to receive a few more phone-calls on my birthday. That’d be nice. Text messages are all good and well, but they aren’t the same as hearing someone’s happy voice proclaiming how important your birthday is for them and the rest of humanity, are they?

And it isn’t just text messages, no. In fact, text messages seem astoundingly polite compared to messages cropping up on Facebook. It might seem that people think of you extra fondly when they write to you on Facebook, but here’s why it’s the opposite: Facebook tells them and anyone within a million mile radius it is your birthday. Hence, there’s nothing particularly special about someone ‘remembering’. Because it isn’t remembering, and that’s the point.

It is indeed a slippery slope. We have only ourselves to blame for this descent in to the darkest recesses of human debauchery and behaviour, of course: after all, we decided to start watching colour TV and colour film, and we did so without thinking twice. And what would the stars of the olden-days say if they could see us now!?

This is my theory as to why some old people are often so bitter and angry and filled with a hate that does not diminish, even when their feet are met with slippers and their mouths are met with pipe; and especially as to why they funnel their fury in to the ears of the younger generation: they are annoyed, quite rightly, with how the black and white films of old, films of class and elegance, have been replaced by mediocre romantic affairs as provided by waste-of-space-staples Sandra Bullock and Sarah Jessica Parker. I mean, it’s truly worse than tragic, they may as well be a walking advert for Botox Manchester. Films now just aren’t the same. And it isn’t just this new world of colour that has impregnated the minds of old people with a rage so mean it would make the Devil seem like ’not a bad guy’, it is films which harness the nasty and opposing facets of technology and progression, thus making films as different in every single way as they used to be when the classic old black and white days were in full throw.