Should Bike Lessons be Required to Get a Driver's License? (Poll)

Should Bike Lessons be Required to Get a Driver's License? (Poll):
This could make roads safer for cyclists, and almost certainly have the added benefit of 'creating' new cyclists by showing more people how fun and convenient biking can be.

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All the posts are provided by me and any comments l provide are my own view of the markets and are not the views of the article writer and or news provider.

To Blog or not to blog, that is the question… Tracey Bailey of 'Mum in Meltdown' asks herself the question...

To Blog or not to blog, that is the question… Tracey Bailey of 'Mum in Meltdown' asks herself the question...:

So to blog or not to blog, that is the question I asked myself nearly 18 months ago! Should I, shouldn’t I?

My life had drastically changed over the previous year, long term illness had seen to that. I went from being a professional Qualified Driving Instructor running my own business into the land of the ‘non-working’ (and NOT through choice!).

I had loved my job, it was fun, enjoyable and different every day. I was seen as a professional, not just someone’s mum or wife. Don’t get me wrong I love being both of those and it’s what my blog is based around, however, that’s not what I want to be defined as – I am more than that. I have a brain, ideas, I am creative and my mind is always on the go. I am my own person.

But let’s face it life is never simple, it likes to throw the odd curveball at you just to see what your made of. So, after being diagnosed with M.E / Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (you know- that 80’s ‘Yuppie Flu’ thing...YES it’s real people, I can vouch for that!) my whole lifestyle changed. I could no longer physically work. I could no longer earn money and contribute financially. I had to rely on and become dependent on others.

This as you can imagine did not go down very well. My mind was still whirring. I needed desperately to keep my brain engaged and active and be something other than just the ‘ill me’, even if it was just in the virtual world. That’s when I took the plunge and started a blog. I had a lot to say and share, although to be honest I never really thought anyone would actually want to read it! But I blogged for me, my sanity and to put down in black and white what was going through my head.

My blog name was, and still is, perfect for me- I was (and still am) a Mum in Meltdown. I don’t necessarily feel the need to post daily, I will post when I have something to share or just get off my chest. I have since added a page for my M.E journey in the hope of raising more awareness of this ‘invisible ‘ illness that I, and thousands of others, live with every day( my symptoms are real people…….REAL). I have also added a craft page documenting my return to the knitting craft after many years, with the hope of improving, learning and hopefully selling in the near future (see I told you I had a creative side!)

I have also become totally obsessed engaged with the social networking side of blogging. Twitter and Facebook are fab for information, gossip and a good old virtual chat! Now I know that sounds a bit sad to some of you- but hey, some days that can be all I’m physically capable of, so each to their own and all that.

I see no sign of me giving up my blog anytime soon. I don’t earn from it (YET!!! But wouldn’t that be nice) but it documents my life and state of mind at the time. Even if no one were to read it I would still feel better in myself having written it all down and cleared it from my head.

I love what I get from it…………………………………….MY SANITY!

I BLOG THEREFORE I AM!

So in the virtual words of good old twittersphere  #thatisall

http://muminmeltdown.blogspot.com

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Love, Loss and Light at the end of the tunnel - how blogging got me through tough times.... by Morgan Forester of 'Letters From the Edge of the Platform'...

Love, Loss and Light at the end of the tunnel - how blogging got me through tough times.... by Morgan Forester of 'Letters From the Edge of the Platform'...:

             "For a man who no longer has a homeland, writing becomes a place to live"

T. Adorno

I remember exactly how I felt the minute I closed the door behind me after moving into my new flat in Prague.  After a heart-wrenching break-up that was drawn out over many months back in England, I'd seen my ex-partner off at the main train station known as "hlavní nádraží" so he could travel on to his new partner.  In that moment as I stood in my new surroundings, I was in 'emergency mode'.  Minute by minute it was my job to survive and stay the right side of the edge of sanity.  I was filled with a caffeine-like alertness to the loss I'd been through.  I felt like I was in shock after surgery.  As though they had removed a ventricle and replaced it with a machine instead.  Except I would need to remember to keep breathing, to put one foot in front of the other to keep moving, lest the machine also forgot how to do its job.

That was late summer 2010.  Gradually the temperature dropped and sunny days became a thing of the past.  The Czech autumn turned into a very harsh winter and soon I was facing Christmas.  It bore down on me with a pressure and shame that only being single in a family-obsessed country can generate.  Ultimately, I was saved by a nasty cold forcing me to stay in bed and look after myself, which got me through to a day or so before New Year's Eve.

  

In my lemsip haze, I made a decision to send a sort of 'message in a bottle' to the universe to test my idea that I should pursue writing in some way.  I told myself that I would write to a journalist and if I got a reply, I would take that as a sign.  I picked up an old article I'd saved from a newspaper and sent an email to the author.  A day later, I received a generous response, telling me that he sensed I must know how to survive tough times,  so I should go ahead and test the waters with my writing.

Having had that one little positive indication, I followed in the footsteps of other blogs I read, namely www.belgianwaffling.com or http://mccookerybook.blogspot.com/  and set up a blogger page.  I called it, 'Letters From the Edge of the Platform' in reference to the train station-related beginning of my move here.  Bit by bit, I began to uncover a greater priority in my life.  My day job was just a day job.  And woe betide anyone who rubbed me up the wrong way, because I would get my revenge in an internet instant with a blogpost full of descriptive venom for their atrocious behaviour.  

I realised that this frivolous-seeming occupation was in fact helping me develop another side to myself.  I began to love what I could do with words and marvelled in, "the soft and soothing attempts of scrolling through my brain for just the right match of word for my mood [...] The sense of wistful wallowing in a field of language."  Writing had become my new companion.

I also gained another companion.  I got invited on a date, which turned into other dates.  Before I knew it I was writing a blogpost entitled, "Love and other tragedies", beginning: "God save me - I think I've fallen in love. This is not very 'me'.  I'm meant to be dynamic and fiercely independent and cynical."  That 'love' (or tragedy) turned into a relationship and I tentatively started to explore the prospects of where this whole new lifestyle could lead me.

So far, I have known highs and lows in equal measure, including paid writing work and a wonderful holiday beyond my wildest dreams but also having to move out of my flat and find somewhere else to live just as I thought things must be looking up.  Did writing a blog 'save me' from great hardship?  Certainly not.  Did it bring a little light at the end of the tunnel with which to see my way through the next challenge?  Thankfully, yes.

Photo credits:

Katya Evdokimova  www.begemotfoto.com

Letters From the Edge of the Platform:

http://lettersfromtheedgeoftheplatform.blogspot.com

" The Roving Giraffe News Report " provided by Ace News

Challenging Our Free Right To Strike

Challenging Our Free Right To Strike:

Two women strikers on picket line during the “Uprising of the 20,000″, garment workers strike, New York City. Strikes, ladies tailors, N.Y., Feb. 1910, picket girls on duty (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I am not a person that believes in strike action per se but when it comes down to ” Free Rights ” l am firmly behind the people in their action’s! This is not just a case of preventing people striking it is the effect it will have on the way this country will look to the world, during the Olympic‘s! So my reason for posting this article from the Telegraph thanks to Ben Brogan being acknowledged. Is simply l do not believe that we have the right for the wrong reason to prevent anyone from striking for what they believe is their God-given right of ” Free Will”

BREAKING: Jeremy Hunt just spoke to Jim Naughtie on the Today programme about how the government is dealing with the Olympic security challenges and the planned strike action by border staff. He said the deployment of further troops to guard the security of the Games was not promoted by further failures by G4′s but simply because he didn’t want to “leave anything to chance”.
He stressed that G4’s failings were with the management not the workers, and that it was important not to “demonise” those working at the Games.
On the border strike, he said “we can be very confident of the provisions we have in place”, but added that he thought the eve of the Olympics was “the wrong time to strike”.

Related articles

• AUDIO: Transport strike ‘will be minor’ (news.bbc.co.uk)
• Court action considered over Olympic eve strike (independent.co.uk)
• Jeremy Hunt urges border staff to work on (independent.co.uk)
• Olympics 2012: Home Office asks High Court to rule that border guards’ strike is illegal (telegraph.co.uk)
• Troop influx patches up security… now for the travel crisis (independent.co.uk)

Filed under: Ace News Desk, Ace Social News, Olympic Games Tagged: G4S, Home Office, Injunction, Jeremy Hunt, Olympic, Olympic Games, Strike action, Today

" The Roving Giraffe News Report " provided through Ace News Service

Federal Food Aid Recipients Double Their Money at Local Farmers' Markets

Federal Food Aid Recipients Double Their Money at Local Farmers' Markets:
The evaluation report three years after Double Up Food Bucks started giving incentives to SNAP (formerly food stamp) recipients

" The Roving Giraffe News Report " provided by Ace News

TED: Michael Norton: How to buy happiness - Michael Norton (2011)

TED: Michael Norton: How to buy happiness - Michael Norton (2011): At TEDxCambridge, Michael Norton shares fascinating research on how money can, indeed buy happiness -- when you don't spend it on yourself. Listen for surprising data on the many ways pro-social spending can benefit you, your work, and (of course) other people.

My Feedback on this Video -
In part l agree with a lot of what Michael says in this video and the fact that by giving of ones self is a way of making other peoples lives better, but personally it is the feeling we get of love that makes us a a person feel happier. Then as long as we expect nothing back in return for what we give our happiness stays with us and we continue without being promoted to continue to give of ourselves more and more.

A saying l would like to share with you is that is it not what we give that matters,be it a thought or a penny.It is the reason why you give that will show you how you feel. If you give only to receive you receive nothing more than the feeling,you should have given more.If you give what you can afford you will receive more from within yourself and find the true meaning of happiness forevermore. ED    


" The Roving Giraffe News Report " provided through Ace News Service

How do you count the world's hungry people?

How do you count the world's hungry people?: Calculating hungry people around the world, let alone predicting how that number is likely to change in the future, is no easy task.With the increase of the population growing at an alarming rate there will eventually become an uncontrollable number of starving people, in need.

" The Roving Giraffe News Report " provided through #Ace News Service