Experiment, week 10. This week’s five things which have made me happy or for which I’m grateful.

1. Sleep. I like my sleep; I always have done. But for some reason my sleep pattern seems to be easily disrupted these days with too many nights when I either can’t get to sleep or, more often, when I wake up in the wee small hours and can’t get back to sleep. But this week I have had several good sleeps to make up for the bad ones, and I feel so much better for it.
2. Central Heating. Last weekend our central heating boiler decided to stop working. Although we have a warm house, boy did it cool down quickly. But we survived; indeed it took both of us back to our childhoods in unheated houses when one heated one room and were glad to snuggle down in bed and get warm. And fortunately we have a backup immersion heater (so there was always piping hot water) and a gas fire in the front room so we could heat that room and watch TV accompanied by two cats and two laptops. Anyway the boiler got fixed during the week and it’s great to have an all-round warm house again — I was surprised how quickly the house did warm up too.
3. Jake. Earlier in the week we went to see the Patron of the Anthony Powell Society. I knew his cat, Jake, had been under the weather recnetly but was gald to see he was back to his old self. Jake like attention. He also likes sitting on people. Not on their laps but draped across their chest and shoulders. I think I spent half the time we were there with this large tabby cat draped in vrious poses across my torso.
4. Prof. Alice Roberts. As I posted on Friday I’m delighted that Alice Roberts has been appointed as Professor of Public Engagement in Science at University of Birmingham. Yes, OK, I’ll admit it: I think Alice is very sexy. She is also an excellent scientist and a brilliant communicator so this is a well-deserved appointment.
5. HMS Victory and the National Archives. I’m going to write a separate post about this, so come back later for another instalment.

Experiment, week 9. This week’s five things which have made me happy or for which I’m grateful.

1. Birthday Wishes. It was my birthday earlier this week. I’ve now had 61 of them. Making a big thing of birthdays is not something that’s in our family tradition. So I’m not one for getting huge bundles of birthday cards. But I was touched by how many of my friends on Facebook remembered and wished me well. Thanks, everyone!



2. Daffodils. I’ll probably say this again several times over the coming weeks, but daffodils are one of my favourite flowers (as long as they don’t come in shades of pink!). And I noticed on Friday that our local supermarket had the first spring daffs in: small yellow and orange narcissi. Delightful. And a reminder that Spring can’t be too far away!
3. Frosty Mornings. The weather here in west London has been unseasonably mild all winter; more like March than January. But in the last few days it has definitely gotten colder. It was very nice to go out yesterday morning in bright, clear sunny weather following a hard frost.
4. London Taxis. The London black cab driver generally gets a bad press — but rarely from me. I’m a Londoner and although I have a reasonable knowledge, for a layman, of what’s where in central London I have to admire the London cabbie’s knowledge of everything. I know they have to work hard to learn it all, but I really don’t know how they ever manage it! An of course many never do manage to pass “the knowledge”. I appreciate their skill every time I get in a London taxi — and that was three times yesterday!
5. Freedom Pass. For those who don’t live in London, this is the London “bus pass scheme” for geriatrics. I finally got mine a few weeks before Christmas, but it was really only yesterday that I started to appreciate what an excellent scheme it is. Not only do you get free bus travel, and (mostly) free tube travel but also much of the rail network in Greater London is also free outside peak hours. And it also covers local buses across most of the rest of the country. Brilliant!

And, for once, there’s a list with no mention of food at all.

Kate’s Listography this week is for us bloggers: she asks us to write about our top five tips learned so far on our blogging journey. OK, so here are five top tips …

1. Write about whatever grabs you. It’s your blog, you can write about anything you like and in any way you like. But it will be most successful, and enjoyable, if you write about things that grab you, that interest you. Don’t write about something just because you think you should. Your passion, or lack of it, will come through in your writing and that’ll affect your readers interest. And writing about things that interest you will give the blog your personal stamp. It will also keep you interested and writing. If you find a niche market along the way, so well and good.

2. Write readably. Be careful with your style. What you write needs to be readable and intelligible. But the style it doesn’t have to be formal; probably better if it isn’t. Don’t write long meandering sentences that your readers can’t follow — nor long meandering posts! Don’t ramble: make sure your argument is coherent, concise and developed. Style variations and surprises are useful, but don’t overdo them. Like this! See!

3. Think about your audience. Who are you writing for? What message are you trying to get across? I find that as I write a blog post I’m always writing it “for” someone specific; not always the same person: a particular friend, my wife, even myself. That will help you develop and angle your story; and it gives the writing a more personal and readable edge. This, for instance, I am writing with Kate in mind: ‘cos she set the challenge and I know she’ll read it. At other times I will be writing for a specific friends. And there will be times when you are writing for yourself: as a way to help you develop your ideas — that’s fine as long as you don’t always do it and you know when you are doing it.

(Of course, if you’re writing a formal entry, say a scientific article, you may need to write more formally and in the third person. That’s fine if that’s your niche. But it isn’t for most of us.)

4. Try to think up snappy titles. There are two aspects here. The title of your blog itself and the titles of the individual posts. Your blog needs to be called something memorable and informative. “Fred’s Blog” doesn’t help anyone. “Blue Cats in Custard” at the very least is arresting and makes people curious. It’s all about marketing.

The second aspect is something I consider I’m not very good at: snappy titles for posts. The post’s title is the first thing someone will read, and if it doesn’t grab them they may read no further. So the title, and the first sentence, need to grab their attention as well as providing some clues about what follows. Titles also help the search engines index you, so people will be more likely to find you. If they’re amusing too then so much the better.

5. Design. Good design is paramount. If your page doesn’t appeal to people they won’t read it more than once. Keep it clean and uncluttered. But also try to make it some reflection of you. You don’t need a designer to do this for you — just a bit of time to fiddle around with the various style combinations your blog hosting service offers. Personally I don’t like loads of white space, fancy fonts or twee backgrounds. Develop a design (it may take time) and stick to it. Use one typeface you like and stick to it — except for occasional emphasis. Restrict variations in font size and weight. Avoid flashing things, pop-up boxes and adverts (especially ones you can’t control): they all distract and annoy the reader. Occasional pictures in your posts help break up chunks of text and provide some context and interest. But don’t overdo the pictures: more than two or three big images and they should be put somewhere like Flickr and linked (using thumbnails if necessary).

Bonus Item 1. Don’t expect instant success. If you track the number of hits you get to your blog you can get an idea of whether you’re going in the right direction. But don’t expect thousands of hits a day to happen instantly. Unless you have a lot of luck, a large advertising budget or a major sponsor people will take time to find you. Just keep writing. Encourage people who respond to comments. And, if you’re doing it right, slowly your audience will grow.

Bonus Item 2. Re-read what you’ve written before you post it. Check your spelling and ensure it all makes sense. Bad writing is one of the biggest turn-offs of all.

So there you are: seven top blogging tips. Hmmm … maybe I’d better take some of them to heart myself! 🙂

Experiment, week 8. This week’s five things which have made me happy or for which I’m grateful.

1. Sparrowhawk. Earlier in the week we had a male sparrowhawk in the garden. This is something I see a few times a year. This one was fluttering about as if it was injured, although clearly it didn’t have a broken wing. It sat on the fence for a couple of minutes and looking at it I think it had just damaged a few flight feathers — maybe by being blown around in the high wind or by going headlong into a thick bush after something to eat. Anyway if flew off, albeit a bit unsteadily, across the gardens after a few minutes. Which was just as well because I didn’t much fancy trying to catch it; let alone find a vet to treat it! Like all the hawks they’re magnificent birds.
2. CPAP Humidifier. Those of you that keep up with goings on will know that I have Obstructive Sleep Apnoea and have to use a CPAP machine overnight to prevent my airways collapsing. It’s a nuisance, but generally no more than that. One thing that does happen though is that because of my sinus trouble and general catarrhiness I do get very dried out and bunged up at nights, often because I end up breathing through my mouth. To counteract this the hospital have given me a heated humidifier to attach to the CPAP machine: basically a small water container with a tiny heating element. It’s early days, but it does seem to be make a difference. I’m getting less dried out and I’m probably sleeping better. This is good.
3. Lamb Curry. Yes, I know I always post about curry. But I do like my hot curry. This week’s variety was Lamb and Chickpea. Made with an especially tender piece of lamb neck fillet and a big slug of Patak’s Vindaloo Paste (which I actually reckon is more like a gentle Madras; in fact I’m not sure their Madras paste isn’t hotter). Served with avocado, banana, mayonnaise (yes they really do work!) and Noreen’s special lemon rice. And a couple of beers.



4. Sparrow Chirp. The House Sparrow is in decline, apparently. Not here it isn’t. The population of sparrows did crash about 10 years ago, but ours have steadily recovered. We regularly have at least a couple of dozen in the garden, both front and back. But then we do feed the birds. Quite often on opening the door we are assailed by the constant chirping of the sparrows — they’re social birds and they do need to keep in touch with each other; it’s the sparrow equivalent of texting! It’s lovely to hear them. But no wonder we see the sparrowhawk around!
5. Duvet. As you’ll have noticed, I do like my sleep. And there’s nothing better than snuggling in a warm duvet, especially if one has gotten chilly going to the bathroom in the middle of the night!

Experiment, week 7. This week’s five things which have made me happy or for which I’m grateful.

1. Royal Institution Lectures. Every year for almost 200 years London’s Royal Institution has put on a series of Christmas science lectures for children. And every year for the last 30 at least they have been televised. I won’t say I have watched them every year because there have been some awful series recently, especially when they were covered by commercial television. But thankfully they’re now back on BBC TV. This year there were only three lectures; there used to be five or six. And while I won’t say they’ve been dumbed down (though they probably have) they are certainly less imaginative and with fewer useful demonstrations than they were in years gone by when people like Sir David Attenborough and Prof. Eric Laithwaite were the lecturers. But they are still worth watching, even for me as a scientist. This year’s lectures, given by Prof Bruce Hood, were all about how our mind works; they’re still available on BBC iPlayer if you want to catch them.
2. Parrots. I’ve written before about the Ring-Neck Parakeets which regularly visit our garden. I continue to find them an attractive, delightful and somewhat comic addition to our fauna.
3. Lamb Curry. Last night I cooked a nicely hot (well I did use a good quantity of Vindaloo Curry Paste!) Lamb Curry with Cauliflower; Noreen did the Lemon Rice. It was consumed with a couple of bottles of my favourite Adnams beer. I’m getting better about not over-eating and always having a second helping, but curry remains one of the things which I cannot resist overindulging in. What could be better for New Year’s Eve?
4. Sensible Consultants. Last Thursday I had my annual (joke — it slips by 3 months every year!) check-up at the Royal Brompton Hospital for my Obstructive Sleep Apnoea. Although I know there isn’t too much they’re ever going to do, I never look for ward to it. I’m clearly on their “stable and we don’t need to do anything” list as for the last few years I’ve been seen by a very nice Malaysian consultant nurse; but I realised she wasn’t on duty this year and wasn’t looking forward to an interview with a young know-it-all male Registrar with poor English. But I actually had a very pleasant ten minute chat with a sensible (and not unattractive) female Consultant. I do wish all consultants listened as well as she did and were as sensible and measured in their approach. Thanks, Michelle!



5. High Street Kensington Christmas Lights. On the way home from the Brompton Hospital on Thursday I detoured via High Street Kensington to pick up Noreen who had been shopping (for my birthday present!). And along High Street Ken there are what I think are some delightful, if subtle, Christmas lights. They’re small clusters of yellowish fairy lights hanging in the trees, for all the world looking like mistletoe growing on the trees. They would have looked even better after dark. The photo isn’t good as it was a grab shot taken through the car windscreen in failing light, but hopefully you get the rough idea. If nothing else they’re imaginatively different, and they worked for me! I also like lights in trees.

Has 2011 been a “Rose Bowl Year” or a “Landfill Year”? Well it’s certainly been a funny year — but then aren’t they all?! All sorts of strange goings on in the world, both good and bad: earthquakes, tsunami, nuclear meltdown, Libyan meltdown, Egyptian boiling but not quite boiling over, Eurotrash banking and government, to name but a few. More than enough has been written about all of these, so here’s my rather more personal end of year review. Yes there were good things and there were those which really ought to have been dumped unceremoniously in a landfill site. Overall it’s probably a draw.

Let’s get rid of the landfill candidates first.

Colonoscopy. As I blogged at the time I had to undergo this back in February, and ended up in hospital for 3 days because of complications. All is OK now, but it wasn’t too much fun at the time.

Summer. What summer? Last summer in London was so dismal, wet and not very warm we hardly even sat outside with a drink, let alone sitting out all evening as we often do.

Holiday. Well we didn’t get one. Having spent a lot of money on the bathroom (see below) we really couldn’t bring ourselves to shell out for a holiday, and in the run up to the Anthony Powell Conference (also see below) we were also struggling with the logistics. Part of the problem is that the holidays we’d really like to do are fairly expensive.

Major Fails. At the beginning of the year I set myself a number of objectives for things I wanted to do during the year: go out for the day at least once a month, get out regularly and do more photography, get the house tidied up, go swimming regularly, do more family history and more cooking. And guess what? I failed at all of them. Why did I fail? Was I too over-ambitious with what I could achieve? Yes, maybe I was over-ambitious. But I can’t help feeling the underlying cause was at least in part due to my depression. And of course a large dose of innate laziness.

Depression, Diabetes & Weight. This has mostly been another big fail. Yes my depression is a bit better and I’ve been able to halve my antidepressants; but I don’t really know why this has happened. If anything my diabetes is worse; certainly my blood sugar levels have crept up, which is not good, although my GP doesn’t seem especially concerned. I managed to put back on a lot of the weight I lost a couple of years ago. Luckily not all of it and I think I’m beginning to slowly lose a bit again. Maybe there is hope for this in 2012?

So now to the events which are worthy of the Rose Bowl.

Noreen’s Retirement. Noreen finally retired in early April. I say finally as it seemed a long time coming despite being some months early. I have to say I’ve enjoyed having the two of us together so much; I won’t pretend it didn’t get kind of wearisome at times being at home alone (well except for the cats, and they sleep most of the day). I won’t say we’ve achieved a lot — the house is still a wrecked jumble sale — but at least we’ve been able to share things more, not have to set the alarm most days and go to bed late without it mattering. Oh, and I’ve been made lots of mugs of tea! 🙂

Anthony Powell Conference. The Anthony Powell Conference has to be the pièce de résistance of the year — as blogged back in September. It took a lot out of me — it took a lot out of both of us — and I certainly needed several weeks to surface again! But it was worth it. It was our best yet and people are still talking about it.

Hypnotherapy. I’ve been having regular hypnotherapy sessions all year, with the objective of cracking both my weight problem and my depression, which seem inextricably linked. Have we succeeded? No — I’m a hard nut to crack largely because my mind is so analytical and so quick it sees through a lot of what is about to happen when it shouldn’t and so doesn’t let go easily enough. Have we made progress? Well I think so: the depression, although still present, certainly seems to be less intrusive. And the hypnotherapy has certainly been interesting and enjoyable. Am I hopeful of further success? Definitely, otherwise I wouldn’t keep doing it.

Senior Railcard & Bus Pass. Yes, at last I am eligible to get something at a discount! I clocked past 60 last January so I got my Senior Railcard. And then in November I ticked past female retirement age (delayed in the general move to harmonise the retirement age at 65 prior to raising it to 67 or 68). So in November I got my Granny Card which gives me free bus travel and more.

New Bathroom. Noreen having retired we considered whether we wanted to move house, but on balance we decided against the idea. So instead we had the guys in to gut and rebuild our bathroom, which hadn’t been touched for over 25 years. The work seemed to take forever — well we would have it done across Easter and a Bank Holiday! — but we now have a great new bathroom; more space; a better shower and a few nice extras like warm towels.

Photobook. Also in September, more or less coincidentally with the Anthony Powell Conference, I published the photobook I’ve been planning for a while. In a way it grew out of printing our own Christmas cards as postcards of one of my photos. Everyone seems to enjoy these, so I thought to do the book. I enjoyed doing it and basically did it because I wanted to, not because I thought it would sell. I’m delighted by how many people also seem to enjoy it. Interestingly although I had been planning it for a while, I suspect it would never have seen the light of day if I hadn’t been energised by the hypnotherapy to take that extra step.

In the next few days I shall be doing a private review of my achievements and disappointments this year and planning where I want to go next year to make 2012 my Best Year Yet. You’ll probably find out bits of it as 2012 unfolds.