Yet I am cherishing my life of freedom and as far as I can see grandchildren have the potential to interfere with that big time.

Take my nextdoor neighbour. Her son is an only child and when she got to 50, she decided to give up her job as nursery nurse to look after his children while he and his wife went to work. That’s a very noble aim and one I can understand – until I found out that she wasn’t getting paid. “Oh he’s very good to me,” she said, “he buys me the odd bottle of very nice red wine which I love.”

WHAT!! She does a job that saves him a minimum of £200 per week, and gets the ‘odd bottle of wine’ in return? And let me say straight away that her son has a very good job as head of department in a school, he’s not on minimum wage by any means. On the other hand, they live pretty much from day to day and freely admit they have no savings as they spent it on – guess what – his university education.

It’s not all his fault, if you’re offered something, you take it, but I do think he should have perhaps paid for them to have a holiday abroad every year or something to the same value.

I read recently that lots of young people with children rely on their parents to carry out cheap babysitting, whether for social reasons or work reasons. Let me say quickly that I have no problem with the occasional kind act of babysitting, but hey that’ll be on my terms thanks, and never ever take it for granted.

There’s eems to be an idea or misconception that one day, I as a relatively intelligent woman with a fairly fulfilling and demanding job, will, as soon as one of my kids pops out a sprog, suddenly turn into a grey haired granny in a bonnet who can’t wait to give up everything in order to have them visit whenever possible – and preferably overnight.

Let me say now, that I waited 26 years to have my house to myself (and my husband), to have a cream settee, only my own mess to clear up and so on. I don’t relish the idea of giving that up again. I sometimes hanker after a pet, but tell myself sternly that they’d be a tie, and I’ve been tied down to responsibilities for something or someone for the majority of my adult life. There’s no way I want to start again.

I’m sure I will love any grandchildren that come along, and now and again I will invite them around for tea, or maybe to take them for a walk in the park. But my life will NOT be available for hire.

We were Guides for About.com in 2001 and then ran a successful website business together so we get along well, and recently we decided to bring together our musings and rants about everyday life. Not being ‘girly’ types we get annoyed by all sorts of things and we hope your find our  musings  either:

• Enjoyable
• Amusing or
• Thought provoking

Whatever – please feel free to comment. We look forward to reading them.

Corrugated cardboard and some silver and/or gold spray paint together with beads, glitter and ribbon can make striking and original decorations for your Christmas tree.

Draw stars, Christmas trees, moons, etc onto the cardboard then cut out the shapes. You might like to make the shapes in different sizes.

Spray them with the silver or gold paint – do this in a well ventilated room. Leave them to dry.

You can glue glass beads or pretty buttons to some of the shapes. You can also coat them with a thin clear paste and then sprinkle glitter on them.

Make a hole in the top of each shape and thread ribbon or thread through so you can hang them on the tree.

Gingerbread Christmas Tree

Traditionally, this recipe is made into gingerbread men but you can use different shaped cookie cutters to make it into stars, Christmas trees or other shapes. Before cooking, remember to pierce a hole at the top of each one so you can thread ribbon or strong coloured thread through them to hang on the Christmas tree. Makes 25 cookies.

Ingredients
12oz plain (all purpose) flour
6oz soft brown sugar
4oz butter
1 egg
4 tbs golden syrup (corn syrup makes a good substitute)
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
2 tbs ground ginger

Method
1. Preheat the oven to 190 deg C (375 deg F) and line two baking sheets (cookie trays) with baking parchment.

2. Sieve (strain) the flour, spices and bicarbonate of soda into a large bowl.

3. Rub in the butter till the mixture looks like fine breadcrumbs then stir in the sugar.

Gingerbread Man

5. Warm the golden syrup slightly, must so that it’s a little more runny, then beat in the egg. Cool, then beat into the flour mixture until it forms a soft dough.

6. Turn out onto a floured board and knead lightly until it’s smooth. Roll out to a thickness of about 1/4 inch. Cut out shapes with cookie cutters – don’t forget to make a hole in each one.

7. Put the shapes onto the prepared baking trays and cook for around 7 to 10 minutes. They should be golden brown when done. Leave them to cool on the baking trays for about 10 minutes then cool off completely on cooling racks.

You can decorate them with a simple icing. Beat an egg white until frothy, not stiff, then gradually add sieved (strained) icing (confectioners) sugar. Beat after each addition and stop when the icing is stiff. Add colouring if required. You can spread or pipe the icing onto the cookies.

Thread ribbon or strong thread through the holes and hang on your Christmas tree.

Recommended Book

A Baker’s Field Guide to Christmas Cookies – Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk

There are a number of advantages of organic gardening:

• You can make your own compost from garden and kitchen waste
  All home grown fruit and vegetables are free of chemicals and safe to eat
• Chemical pesticides can kill benefits insects like ladybugs that prey on aphids and bees that pollinate garden plants, fruit and vegetables
• Using natural bulk compost and manure keeps the physical structure of the soil in good condition so ensuring on-going fertility
• Improvement in soil structure encourages beneficial creatures like worms which again lead to increased fertility
• Chemicals lead to a loss of bio-diversity in the garden because they kill creatures never intended to be affected by them, for example, slug pellets can kill birds and toads if they eat a poisoned slug or snail
  There is an additional danger from slug pellets to children and pets

If you have decided you want to garden organically, the articles below will help.

1. Ten Tips for Organic Gardening
2. Make Your Own Compost
3. Crop Rotation for the Vegetable Garden
4. Know Your Garden Soil
5. Garden for Wildlife
6.

Swansea is second largest city in Wales. Although the city name appears to be of Viking origin, no evidence exists of any settlement until the 11th century when the Normans built a castle later destroyed by Owen Glendower. The major attraction is the beautiful Gower Peninsula just to the west of the city centre.

Gower Peninsula

Swansea is not only industrial but also a popular centre for tourists with its easy access to the Gower peninsula, a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and the landscape more than justifies the designation as it has really beautiful scenery both inland and along its coast. It also provides a range of habitats for many different and endangered flora and fauna.

Archaeological remains abound . The bones of exotic animals like lions, hippopotomus, mammoths and bears have been found in nearby caves. Iron Age forts and Neolithic bural chambers also exist. Bishopston, on the Gower Peninsula, stands near one of these, Parc le Breos. This is a multi-chambered tomb and contains the bones of about 25 people and was built about 6000 years ago. Nearby Cathole Cave shows evidence in the form of flint tools of habitation during the Paleolithic and Mesolithic periods.

The Gower Peninsula is more than a place to appreciate for its wildlife habitats or history. It’s also a place for families to have fun on its many beaches. There are sandy beaches and rocky coves, the most accessible with facilities like car parking and shops are Swansea Bay, the first one you reach on the south side of the peninsula after leaving Swansea, then further west, Caswell Bay, Oxwich Bay and Port Eynon.

Museums and Art Galleries

* The Swansea Museum, Victoria Road, opened in 1835, is traditional, exhibiting collections on natural history, archaeology, Egyptology and Swansea and Nantgarw china.
* The National Waterfont Museum, Oystermouth Road, presents the story of the impact of industrialisation on the Welsh people in a very accessible way.
* The Maritime and Industrial Museum housed in a turn of the century warehouse in the Maritime Quarter , has a number of historic vessels moored outside in the Marina. It tells the story of the city’s industrial development from earliest times and includes a collection of vehicles ranging from horse-drawn carriages to lorries. A working woollen mill has been brought to the museum from Neath.
* The Egypt Centre on the University of Wales Swansea Campus has the largest collection of Eygyptology in Wales.
* The Ceri Richards Gallery, also on the University Campus, hosts touring exhibitions.
* The Dylan Thomas Centre in Somerset Place is a celebration of the life of this Welsh poet. It hosts a Dylan Thomas Festival in October and November as well as other events.
* The Glyn Vivian Art Gallery, in Alexandra Road, puts on temporary exhibitions although there are excellent permanent collections of Swansea and Nantgarw china and works by Welsh artists like Augustus John.

Swansea’s History

In the Middle Ages Swansea’s economy developed around coal mining and shipbuilding. It also gained importance as a port until, in the 18th century, it was the largest port in Wales. By this time metal smelting was contributing to the city’s industrial growth which was further enhanced in 1798 by the opening of the Swansea Canal.

Swansea’s industrial base was widened further in 1918 when the first oil refinery opened nearby and the port expanded to take oil tankers. This development as a port, certainly in modern times with deep draught vessels, was despite the limitations of the range of tidal rise and fall – reputed to be the world’s greatest, thereby necessitating locks.

During the Second World War the city was bombed heavily and much of the centre destroyed. Amongst buildings lost was the home of Beau Nash, who was born here and went on to become the most fashionable figure in 18th century Bath. The wartime bombing led to a complete rebuilding of the city centre with modern pedestrian precincts and, in the Docks, a marina and centre for the arts.

Find a toilet in Swansea

We’ve all seen the sites that make you think “Uh oh, amateur hour”. It’s easy for beginners to make some basic mistakes that give their sites an amateurish look. So how do you avoid giving that impression with your first website? Here are 20 tips to help you.

1. Look at lots of good and bad sites. Try to list what makes them look good or bad.

2. Keep your pages simple. Look at the way good magazines layout their pages.

3. Do not use a vivid colour or frantic pattern for a background. Most people will find it hard to look at any pictures or read text if the background is too distracting.

4. If you don’t want a plain white background, make sure that your text is still readable. A dark or medium blue background with black text will make what you write illegible and nobody is interested enough to strain their eyes – there are plenty more websites out there that they can read.

5. A black background can work but you must make sure your text is white or another very light colour. It is probably best not used for pages where you are trying to give people quite a lot of information.

6. If you use a graphic for a web page background, make sure it is pale and text is readable on it. You must also check your page with different monitor resolutions because it might not work well in a different resolution to the one you use.

7. Don’t go crazy with fonts. Choose ONE easily readable font like Verdana, for example, and use it throughout the site. You could use a more decorative font for headings if you feel you absolutely must.

8. Don’t use lots of big pictures on one page. It will take longer for that page to load and people won’t wait around for slow loading pages.

9. Make sure that any pictures you do use are relevant to the subject of the page and add something to it.

10. Make sure that all pictures are reduced in file size.

11. Learn how to wrap text around pictures and other graphics, long pages with large empty areas alongside graphics just scream amateur.

12. Don’t put your text in a graphic. If you do, it will probably slow down page loading and it will also mean search engines won’t be able to read it so won’t index your page.

13. Try to avoid frames unless you have a good reason to use them and you understand them. They can sometimes hinder rather than help navigation, stop people linking to individual pages on your site and can stop search engines indexing your site.

14. Make sure your menus are consistent throughout your site and make sure that all your pages are accessible from your menu. It’s surprising how easy it is to forget to add a new page to it.

15. Don’t try innovative ideas with your menu. Stick to tried and tested ways of displaying it. If people can’t find your menu or work out how to use it, they won’t stay on your site for long.

16. Never, I repeat, never put ‘under construction’ signs on your website. Nothing screams ‘amateur hour’ louder than this. When people do this, what do they expect? Are they expecting people to come back periodically to see if it’s finished? If they are expecting that, then they are fooling themselves. Don’t do it.

17. Don’t put lots of little icons from various companies dotted around your pages unless you are getting paid to do so. Leave off things like ‘this site was designed to be viewed in Internet Explorer’. Why do you want to give free publicity to Microsoft – do you think Bill Gates can’t afford advertising? Even if you are getting paid or expect to get commission from affiliate advertising, make sure the ads look good on the page and aren’t annoying. Some flashing ads can actually send people off a site in double quick time no matter how fascinating the content.

18. Don’t use a web counter, they really don’t give you any useful information and experienced web users know that. Instead use something like sitemeter.com which has a free package giving you useful information about your visitors like their location, the referring website, top entry and exit pages, etc. Although you have to display a small sitemeter graphic if you use their free package, you can choose a very small one that doesn’t display the numbers if you don’t want visitors to see them.

19. Check and double check your text. Poor spelling and punctuation look bad and, in the worst cases, make an article hard to understand. Remember the best selling book, ‘Eats Shoots and Leaves’. The title comes from a story about a panda that eats shoots and leaves but a wrongly placed comma changes the sense, ie ‘the panda eats, shoots and leaves’. You should know the difference between it’s and its, their and there and that separate is not spelled seperate – a misspelling I see all over the web. Also, please don’t go mad using exclamations marks – one occasionally is OK, if you must, but not at the end of every other sentence and certainly not several at the end of any sentence.

20. Don’t expect a website about you, your family and pets to become a cult attraction. Only your friends and family will want to visit it and maybe not all of them. If you want to do a website, choose a subject that is likely to interest a variety of people even if it’s a minority interest like bungee jumping, camel racing or tiddlywinks then make it the best website on the subject that you possibly can.

Adding pictures and other graphics can lift your pages, add colour and life as well as make them easier to read. They can give novices to building webpages a real headache, though. Here is a simple guide.

The very first step to adding pictures is to make them the correct size for the space on your webpage. This means don’t just click on the picture in your html editor and push it to the right size because doing that doesn’t reduce the file size. If you do that and have a jpg that is 2mb, for example, even though the picture looks smaller, the file size will still be 2mb.

Use a picture editor to reduce the size of the picture which will reduce the file size too. The free Google graphics management program Picasa has a really easy way of reducing the size of pictures and other graphics. Large files take a long time to download when a page opens and people won’t usually hang around and wait for it to happen so it’s really important.

If you want text to flow alongside the picture, this is the code to align right for example:

<img src=”../graphics/blackpool_tower.jpg” width=”250″ height=”314″ alt=”Blackpool Tower and beach, Blackpool, Lancashire” hspace=”10″ vspace=”10″ align=”right”>.

I’ll unpack this tag:

img src=”../graphics/blackpool_tower.jpg” – this says where the picture can be found on the server, it’s in a folder called graphics and the name of the picture file is blackpool_tower.jpg.

width=”250″ height=”314″ – this shows the size and, most important, the picture has been changed to this size before uploading on to the server. While on the subject of picture file sizes, you usually don’t need more than 72 resolution for pictures online and this helps to keep the file size down.

alt=”Blackpool Tower and beach, Blackpool, Lancashire” – this is what people will read if they browse with graphics turned off so they don’t see the picture. They will know what the picture showed. It is also a useful way getting more keywords on to your pages naturally for search engines.

hspace=”10″ vspace=”10″ – this put a 10 pixel space horizontally (hspace) and vertically (vspace) around the picture so text doesn’t go right up to the edge.

align=”right” – unsurprisingly this aligns the picture right. You can have align=”left” instead, if that suits your page better. When you do either of these, the text will display alongside the picture.

Don’t forget that even if you are using an html editor, you can always change the code yourself. For example, you could copy and paste the tag above and substitute your own folder and picture file name. You could change the hspace and vspace to another number and align left. You would, of course, change the alt to your own picture title.

Trying this kind of thing in your code will help you understand more about using html and what happens when you make changes. Even making mistakes can be helpful as long as you eventually understand what the mistake was and what effect it had.

Whether your website is for your business, to give information on a subject you love or just because you want your own website, it is very disappointing if it doesn’t get an audience so it’s worth taking the trouble to get presentation and content right.

Pictures
Many beginners don’t understand the difference between the size pictures appear on a webpage and their file size. Always remember that a digital picture is computer file, usually a .jpg so, to reduce the picture, you must reduce the file size. To do this, you need to use a graphics editor, Google Picasa is a good free option.

The reason that this is important is because a big jpg file will take a long time to load on a webpage and most people will not wait. They will become impatient and click away on to another site that loads quickly.

Similarly, if you put too many pictures on a webpage, it will take too long to load. How many is too many? It depends on the file sizes of your pictures. If you feel a need to use several pictures, you could convert them to thumbnails with a larger picture opening in a separate window when somebody clicks on one of them.

Text
Most people find it more of a strain to read text on a computer monitor than on paper. This is something that anybody who writes webpages must consider. Visitors might not read a long essay, even on the most fascinating of topic, simply because it’s not a good way to present information online. If your topic demands this kind of format, consider giving a ‘print’ option so that visitors can print off the article without all the surrounding ads and banners if you have them. There are also ways of breaking up text to make it easier to read on a screen.

• Use short paragraphs
• Use sub titles where possible so people can find particular information quickly.
• Use bullet points

Don’t make pages too long, people don’t like scrolling down too far unless the page is particularly fascinating. Split a very long page into two or even three pages but make sure you split on natural breaks.

Spot the Spelling Mistake!

Spelling and Grammar
How many times have you looked at a website and seen spelling and grammar mistakes? My guess would be that you have seen this many times.

If you want your site to be taken seriously, you must check for errors. When people see mistakes like these, it can raise doubts in their minds about just how much faith they can put in any information on the site.

Almost everybody has Word, Word Perfect or similar programs with spelling and grammar checkers. Just paste your text in one of these, if you have written it elsewhere, and run it through the checker.

Layout and Design
The way you layout and design your webpage can have an impact on whether visitors read the information on it and whether they go on to other pages on the site.

• People are accustomed to finding menus in the top left of a page or along the top. Don’t decide to be innovative and put it in the bottom right corner of your page or other unlikely position because many people will never notice it and certainly won’t look for it there.
• Don’t put links to other pages on your site in a way that makes them hard to find. For example, nobody is going to spend time hovering their mouse over words or images that might possibly contain a link. Make links obvious.
• If you have a three column layout like this page, don’t write a very short article and then put so many ads in the side columns that they go way below the centre column content. Trust me, nobody will scroll down to look at ads. It looks ugly and amateurish. It shows that you haven’t considered how people use the web.

Flash, Fireworks and Other Technical Effects
Personally, my heart sinks when I’m looking for information and visit a website with a Flash opening page. It’s even worse when I don’t have the option of bypassing it. Then, when I find that the whole site is done in Flash or uses other technical effects to present information leaving me to watch what appears to be little more than a slide show, I quickly decide I’ll find the information elsewhere.

If you must use technical effects, make sure they are appropriate to the presentation of your subject matter and that people can opt out of them and see the plain vanilla version. Not everybody is on a fast, broadband connection or using a fast computer with plenty of memory. If your site causes their computers to freeze, I promise, they will never come back to your website nor recommend it.

The Final Check
When you build your webpages, as you load each one on to your site, check them online. Read the text looking for mistakes. If you aren’t good at spotting them, get somebody else to check too.

Ask yourself if the page looks as good online as it did on your computer. If the answer is no, then fix it. Your webpages could be online for years so it’s worth taking the time to get them right.

Check all your links. Personally, I never type in a link, I always copy and paste but, even so, I always check them by clicking on them. Links that don’t work are annoying for visitors and give a bad impression.

1. Clear glass doors can be dangerous, especially for children who may run into them. Put tape or stick a picture or poster on them so it  is easy to see when they are closed.
2. Never wear just socks, with no shoes or slippers, around the house especially for going up and downstairs. You are much more likely
   to slip in them.
3. Make sure that the handles of pans on the top of the stove don’t stick out over the edge. Not only can young children pull them
   off, adults can knock them off too.
4. Never leave oil or fat heating in a pan for even a short time. It can easily overheat and cause a major fire.
5. If a deep fat fryer catches fire, the most dangerous thing you can do is try to put it out with water. Instead, turn off the heat and then cover the flames with a lid or damp towel. Don’t attempt to move the pan until it has cooled right down and there is no further danger.
6. Don’t use polystyrene ceiling tiles. They are a major hazard in a fire as they catch light and then drip burning polystyrene so spreading the fire more quickly.
7. If you have toddlers, put a child safety gate across the kitchen doorway to stop them coming into the kitchen. If this is a problem
   because you have to keep climbing over it, fit a garden gate with a latch instead.
8. Another tip for those people with toddlers: if you want to keep front or back doors open in the summer but don’t want your toddler going outside alone, again use a safety gate.
9. If you have a garden pond and young children, the combination can be dangerous. Either fill in the pond, you could make a bog garden
   if you want moisture loving plants, or put a very strong grill over the pond. If you choose the grill, make sure there is a wide overlap over the edges all round the pond so it won’t slip if a child falls on to it.
10. Keep garden and DIY tools well out of the way of children. Hang them up or put them on shelves well out of reach.
11. In a thunderstorm, unplug all electric appliances.
    They can be damaged if your home is struck by lightning even if the socket is switched off.
12. Never put things on the stairs to remind you to take them up or down because people can trip over them.
13. Don’t put sharp knives in washing up bowls ready to wash later. You may forget and cut your hands when you do wash up.
14. Similarly, never store sharp knives in the same place as other knives because you may not notice them.
15. Keep plastic bags out of the reach of children.
    If you store them, tie a soft knot in each one so a child can’t put the bag on his/her head.
16. If an electrical appliance catches fire, first switch off the electricity, then smother the fire with a thick blanket or rug. Never throw water on it because there could still be some electricity in it.
17. Never store easily flammable material, eg newspapers, paint, under the stairs because if there is a fire, they could help the stairs to catch fire more quickly and prevent escape.
18. Make sure all dangerous substances like bleach, disinfectant, pills, medicines, etc, are in childproof containers and that the tops
    are on properly.
19. Never leave matches and lighters within easy reach of children.
20. Check that cables on electrical appliances are in good condition and not frayed or damaged – if they are, don’t use them.
21. Keep your water heating temperature down so that scalding water never comes out of the taps.
22. Always run hot and cold water together into a bath. This is especially important if you have young children.
23. Don’t use damp kitchen towels to pick up hot dishes. The water in the cloth will transmit the heat to your hands.
24. Put childproof locks on doors where dangerous substances or tools are stored. If you don’t have locks, put an elastic band over adjacent
    knobs or handles.
25. Use smoke alarms in your home and check the batteries regularly.