Babi a Fi

If you live in Wales, today is the last day of opt-in organ donation. From tomorrow, December 1st 2015, the presumption will be in favour of organ donation rather than against it. In other words, instead of having to opt in to become an organ donor, from tomorrow you will have to opt out . Lots of countries use the opt out system, including Spain, Austria and Belgium, so it's not exactly groundbreaking. It is new to the UK though and it's exciting news for the nearly 400 people waiting for organ transplants in Wales. Across the UK there are over 7,000 people on the waiting list, and about 1,200 die each year because of the shortage of suitable organs. The new system is aimed at improving that figure by increasing the number of potential donors. Because, while polls suggest 90% of the Welsh population supports organ donation, only around 30% are actually signed up as a donor. It's effort and, as we all know, humans prefer procrastination. From a post with mor

On Monday we had a really interesting seminar at work delivered by Mariam Elmirghani from BAWSO , a women's aid service specifically aimed at BME communities, to commemorate the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women (Nov 25th). After that we finished off the budget scrutiny session from last week. On Tuesday I had school governors at Maendy Primary, then the once weekly excitement of food shopping. Thursday I spent pretty much the whole day cleaning the house, though looking around today you'd never know it. My mum had Marianna on Friday night so Anthony and I could go to the Torfaen CLP (Constituency Labour Party) Christmas dinner in Blaenavon. On Saturday we just stayed home and recovered... On Friday night. ☆ READING:  December 17th 1949 issue of Picturegoer magazine. I scanned it in for the blog , then sold it on eBay. One down, 70-odd to go... ☆ WRITING:  About Anthony's deceptive nature... Read more HERE .

I recently found out that Anthony has been lying to me for years. Not over the usual things, like whether or not he actually bothered to empty the bin or if, in fact, he did bask in the glow of the central heating all day when I specifically told him to turn it off. (It's what jumpers are for.) Nope, this was a lie over a rather odd issue for a man in his 20s - his age. When we met I told Anthony, with about 75% seriousness, that I would never date anybody younger than me. In turn, Anthony told me that he was born in July '88, about three weeks before me. Crisis averted. Over the next few years I brought up that '88 birth date countless times. From form filling, how annoying it was that we had been in the first cohort to take the compulsory Welsh second language GCSE, how cool it was to have been born in the year of the dragon. You know, all the important things. What I'm saying is that Anthony had countless opportunities to come clean. Because the truth is

I reviewed this bouncer back in February, but it deserves an updated post. The bouncer is designed for babies from birth to six months, with its comfy seat and vibrate function which is meant to keep infants both relaxed and entertained. Marianna is now 11 months old and refuses to be parted from it, even though her legs stick out the end and you can't help but question how comfortable it can be. But, it can do this, which cracks me up every time - My original review: The Tippitoes bouncer is super bright and colourful, with a vibrate function, rattle toys, and it plays music into the bargain. :) It went together pretty easily and, after some hassle trying to work out how to get the batteries in, Marianna seemed to really enjoy it right from the get go. The chair plays rock-a-bye baby, as well as wave and running water noises. The electronic tone is much less annoying than on many I've heard too. It retails for around £40 on Amazon , but my mum managed to pick up a f

December 17th 1949 issue of Picturegoer , initially a monthly magazine between 1921 and 1925 before returning as a weekly in 1931. The best bits of this issue are ideas for accessorising your Christmas party dress ( page 19 ), and the letters page ( page 3 ) featuring a letter from across the pond asking, ' Why do English film companies let American distributors of their pictures put out such trashy and misleading advertising material? Take The Blue Lagoon , for instance. This charming picture was advertised by sexy posters which gave the moviegoer the idea that he would see a semi-obscene saga of illicit love .' There is also a great article on 'What Price Glamour?' ( page 9 ). The writer argues that Hollywood has seen ' a significant shift from the synthetic to the real '. Gone are the synthetic blonde bombshells of the Jean Harlow variety, and in their place are stars who, Picturegoer claims, wear hardly any make-up at all like Olivia de Havilland , Ingrid

All the cool kids (well, blogs) have one so, naturally, I had to get one too... What is a Media Kit? A Media or Press Kit is basically an introduction to your blogging brand. Normally one to two sides of A4, it sums up what you are about - and what you have to offer potential collaborators. What Should It Include? At its most basic, a media kit should include an up-to-date photo, a short bio, and preferred contact details. Your blog logo or header, what you're looking for from those reading it - advertising, review opportunities, sponsored posts, etc - and your social media statistics are also must haves. When it comes to the latter, don't feel you have to include every network you're signed up to. Pick and choose which ones show off you and your blog to its best advantage. Other good ideas of things to feature are your blog traffic figures (monthly page views and unique monthly visitors), your DA ( Domain Authority ), and your reader demographics. You can cull

Not too long ago my mum came across her old Nokia, complete with the shiniest, goldest, most awful fascia you've ever seen. It got me thinking about my own phone history, which resulted in this post... Philips C12 My nan gave me this phone after winning it at bingo in 2000, back when I was 11 years old. I was so excited in spite of the fact I had nobody to stay in touch with on it. (Even if it was only 12p a text!) You could get your daily horoscope on it though, so we all used to check it out on our way to school. Nokia 3310 Next up was the trusty Nokia 3310, the phone of choice for seemingly everyone. It had cool clip on covers available at every market stall (like that gold monstrosity which kicked this post off) and Snake. Who didn't love Snake? Sagem myC-3b Mine was silver and blue. Things were simple back in the day (2004) and I was a huge fan of this phone because of the way it fit in my hand, and the satisfying snap it made when you opene