Wednesday, August 30, 2006
Flickr
In true procrastination mode (I really should be devoting more time to sorting out the piles of junk I have collected over the nearly nearly 25 years of my life)... I have upgraded my flickr account to a pro one. Its really cheap and worth doing if, like me you are annoyed by the fact that with the free account you are only allowed 3 photo sets. The upgrade also allows me a larger upload limit per month etc... Anyways I have posted a few more photos of various bits and bobs. Possibly not that exciting, but you can have a look if you want.
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
mooncup???
I think perhaps this blog entry is only of direct relevance to ladies...
I have been a convert to the mooncup for nearly 4 years and in that time I think have only successfully managed to convert 2.5 people to the ways of the mooncup… most people seem to be grossed out by the thought of it, although theyre all missing out bigtime in my opinion… when flicking through the guardian today I read an article in the ethical living section: Is it OK to ... use tampons?
I then remembered all about my loverly mooncup and thought perhaps I could do a bit of online promotion for this most useful of items… The guardian article linked above mentioned a recent article in the Times extolling the virtues of the mooncup, so I found it and have decided that it is far more eloquent than I am about these matters.. I think I’ll paste it below. Not sure if that violates some sort of copywrite but im not claiming that theyre my words… it’s a bit long I suppose… but in summary, the mooncup is the safe, environmentally friendly and cheap alternative to tampons or sanitary towels… and in my opinion everyone should have one.
The Times. August 12th 2006
One small step for women
Serena Mackesy landed on an alternative to tampons and is now a happy devotee
Eighteen months ago, I was in a supermarket loo. The usual hell-hole of overflowing sanitary bins. Looking up, I saw a sticker on the back of the door. “You can stop using tampons!” it said. “Mooncup reusable menstrual cup. Safer. Greener. Cheaper”. It had a website and telephone number. I checked it out and came away £18 lighter in the wallet. The stickers come with the cup when you buy one. And there can be fewer higher recommendations than a satisfied user guerrilla-sticking your ads.
If you can cope only with references to “wings” and being able to ride/swim/dance at that time of the month, stop reading here. Because menstruation is a messy subject. And the usual methods for dealing with periods have significant drawbacks.
Tampons and towels leak, no matter what the advertisements say. The sticky strip on the underside of sanitary towels is either too sticky or not sticky enough, and you’re perpetually aware that you are wearing them. Tampons have been known to cause toxic shock syndrome, a rare and occasionally deadly Staphylococcus aureus infection. There are only 40 cases a year in the UK, two to three of which are fatal, but half of those are associated with tampon use, which gives pause for thought.
In addition, unless you hunt down organic tampons, you are putting chlorine-bleached, deodorised (Tampax advertises one of its products on the strength of its deodorant content) rayon inside your body. As tampons soak up moisture, they dry out your vagina’s natural self-cleaning mechanisms, leaving it prone to thrush and vaginosis, a smelly bacterial infection. Vaginosis is treated with antibiotics (which can also result in thrush) and if left untreated can lead to infection during and after childbirth.
Then there’s the discomfort. In the first couple of days of a period you can be changing the tampons every couple of hours; by the latter days, insertion and removal can feel like rubbing yourself with sandpaper.
Furthermore there’s the environmental impact. The average woman uses nearly 17,000 disposable pads and tampons in a lifetime. An estimated eight billion of these end up in Britain’s sewage system, causing 70 per cent of blockages in the system. And once fished out, what’s not incinerated becomes landfill. Or ends up on our beaches. Nice.
And then, there is the Mooncup. Menstrual cups, made of latex, have been around since the 1930s, but this one, made of the same medical-grade nonallergic silicone used in, among other things, replacement heart valves, initially hit the market four years ago. It is not dissimilar to a diaphragm. Roughly 5cm (2in) long, it forms a light seal with your vaginal walls and can hold up to 30ml of fluid at a time, roughly a third of the entire average menstrual flow and three times the quantity that a tampon can hold.
And it’s reusable. A Mooncup lasts for years, just like a heart valve. As long as your hands are clean, you just empty it, flush it out (or wipe it round if you haven’t any water handy) and reinsert it as often as you would a tampon. And give it the odd boiling, in the manner of sterilising baby bottles. That’s it. Yes, I know. Most people’s initial reaction is “Yuk!” But think about it. A body is only a body and though we’ve become squeamish about menstruation, not helped by the you-need-an-applicator school of tampon marketing, menstruation is not going to go away. There’s a certain skill involved in getting something as pliable and bouncy as a Mooncup to fold neatly into four and to go up inside you without it shooting across the room. But in my case it took only three goes, and if you remember the grim horror of the first onset of your periods, three goes is nothing.
Much has been written on women’s chatroom pages on the internet extolling the virtues of the Mooncup and, if you trawl hard enough, there is the odd negative story to be found, such as the odd complaint of leakage. However, this is simple to sort out: the cup has a stem at the bottom that needs to be trimmed with scissors to fit the individual user. One user — who admits that she has an unusually narrow, long, vaginal canal — found that her Mooncup formed such a tight seal that she ended up in casualty getting it removed the first time she used it. But even she recommends it. I can’t think of another product that seems to have inspired such affectionate enthusiasm in its users.
I have become a proselytiser since I got my own. As well as its being a healthy option — associate specialist obstetrician and gynaecologist at Dumfries Royal Infirmary, Heather Currie, says it is a good thing — the practical advantages of using a Mooncup are manifold. No leakages. None of those panic moments when you realise that your tampon needs changing and you have to find a loo, right now. And not only does your handbag become a tampon-free zone but you can also go travelling for months at a time without carting supplies around (and if you’ve ever looked for tampons in a third-world country, you’ll know what I mean).
And you save money. For example, if you use just one box of 30 Tampax tampons a month at £4.50, that’s £54 a year, as against £18 for several years’ use — and there’s no environmental pollution. I wish that someone had told me about the Mooncup years ago. I wouldn’t say that periods have suddenly become a pleasure, but they’re no longer the pain they once were.
The Mooncup costs £17.99 (www.mooncup.co.uk), inc p&p, 01273 673845; or from Boots (www.boots.com)
I have been a convert to the mooncup for nearly 4 years and in that time I think have only successfully managed to convert 2.5 people to the ways of the mooncup… most people seem to be grossed out by the thought of it, although theyre all missing out bigtime in my opinion… when flicking through the guardian today I read an article in the ethical living section: Is it OK to ... use tampons?
I then remembered all about my loverly mooncup and thought perhaps I could do a bit of online promotion for this most useful of items… The guardian article linked above mentioned a recent article in the Times extolling the virtues of the mooncup, so I found it and have decided that it is far more eloquent than I am about these matters.. I think I’ll paste it below. Not sure if that violates some sort of copywrite but im not claiming that theyre my words… it’s a bit long I suppose… but in summary, the mooncup is the safe, environmentally friendly and cheap alternative to tampons or sanitary towels… and in my opinion everyone should have one.
The Times. August 12th 2006
One small step for women
Serena Mackesy landed on an alternative to tampons and is now a happy devotee
Eighteen months ago, I was in a supermarket loo. The usual hell-hole of overflowing sanitary bins. Looking up, I saw a sticker on the back of the door. “You can stop using tampons!” it said. “Mooncup reusable menstrual cup. Safer. Greener. Cheaper”. It had a website and telephone number. I checked it out and came away £18 lighter in the wallet. The stickers come with the cup when you buy one. And there can be fewer higher recommendations than a satisfied user guerrilla-sticking your ads.
If you can cope only with references to “wings” and being able to ride/swim/dance at that time of the month, stop reading here. Because menstruation is a messy subject. And the usual methods for dealing with periods have significant drawbacks.
Tampons and towels leak, no matter what the advertisements say. The sticky strip on the underside of sanitary towels is either too sticky or not sticky enough, and you’re perpetually aware that you are wearing them. Tampons have been known to cause toxic shock syndrome, a rare and occasionally deadly Staphylococcus aureus infection. There are only 40 cases a year in the UK, two to three of which are fatal, but half of those are associated with tampon use, which gives pause for thought.
In addition, unless you hunt down organic tampons, you are putting chlorine-bleached, deodorised (Tampax advertises one of its products on the strength of its deodorant content) rayon inside your body. As tampons soak up moisture, they dry out your vagina’s natural self-cleaning mechanisms, leaving it prone to thrush and vaginosis, a smelly bacterial infection. Vaginosis is treated with antibiotics (which can also result in thrush) and if left untreated can lead to infection during and after childbirth.
Then there’s the discomfort. In the first couple of days of a period you can be changing the tampons every couple of hours; by the latter days, insertion and removal can feel like rubbing yourself with sandpaper.
Furthermore there’s the environmental impact. The average woman uses nearly 17,000 disposable pads and tampons in a lifetime. An estimated eight billion of these end up in Britain’s sewage system, causing 70 per cent of blockages in the system. And once fished out, what’s not incinerated becomes landfill. Or ends up on our beaches. Nice.
And then, there is the Mooncup. Menstrual cups, made of latex, have been around since the 1930s, but this one, made of the same medical-grade nonallergic silicone used in, among other things, replacement heart valves, initially hit the market four years ago. It is not dissimilar to a diaphragm. Roughly 5cm (2in) long, it forms a light seal with your vaginal walls and can hold up to 30ml of fluid at a time, roughly a third of the entire average menstrual flow and three times the quantity that a tampon can hold.
And it’s reusable. A Mooncup lasts for years, just like a heart valve. As long as your hands are clean, you just empty it, flush it out (or wipe it round if you haven’t any water handy) and reinsert it as often as you would a tampon. And give it the odd boiling, in the manner of sterilising baby bottles. That’s it. Yes, I know. Most people’s initial reaction is “Yuk!” But think about it. A body is only a body and though we’ve become squeamish about menstruation, not helped by the you-need-an-applicator school of tampon marketing, menstruation is not going to go away. There’s a certain skill involved in getting something as pliable and bouncy as a Mooncup to fold neatly into four and to go up inside you without it shooting across the room. But in my case it took only three goes, and if you remember the grim horror of the first onset of your periods, three goes is nothing.
Much has been written on women’s chatroom pages on the internet extolling the virtues of the Mooncup and, if you trawl hard enough, there is the odd negative story to be found, such as the odd complaint of leakage. However, this is simple to sort out: the cup has a stem at the bottom that needs to be trimmed with scissors to fit the individual user. One user — who admits that she has an unusually narrow, long, vaginal canal — found that her Mooncup formed such a tight seal that she ended up in casualty getting it removed the first time she used it. But even she recommends it. I can’t think of another product that seems to have inspired such affectionate enthusiasm in its users.
I have become a proselytiser since I got my own. As well as its being a healthy option — associate specialist obstetrician and gynaecologist at Dumfries Royal Infirmary, Heather Currie, says it is a good thing — the practical advantages of using a Mooncup are manifold. No leakages. None of those panic moments when you realise that your tampon needs changing and you have to find a loo, right now. And not only does your handbag become a tampon-free zone but you can also go travelling for months at a time without carting supplies around (and if you’ve ever looked for tampons in a third-world country, you’ll know what I mean).
And you save money. For example, if you use just one box of 30 Tampax tampons a month at £4.50, that’s £54 a year, as against £18 for several years’ use — and there’s no environmental pollution. I wish that someone had told me about the Mooncup years ago. I wouldn’t say that periods have suddenly become a pleasure, but they’re no longer the pain they once were.
The Mooncup costs £17.99 (www.mooncup.co.uk), inc p&p, 01273 673845; or from Boots (www.boots.com)
Friday, August 18, 2006
Cycling in london: Lessons learnt
Possibly because my name is Sarah Telford, I managed to make a complete mission out of cycling the 2 miles from London Waterloo to Euston. I attach a map of my route below, admittedly the detour to London Bridge was intentional.
Lessons learnt:
1. Do not cycle along the southbank at lunchtime, during the school holidays, unless a) you prefer to walk your bike or b) you wish to reduce the numbers of tourists, children and/or joggers in London.
2. Do not cycle in London without a map (preferably an A-Z)
3. Do not rely on direction from maps attached to bus stops (they seem to be very vague)
4. Do not cycle through Parliament square unless you like traffic lights, huge volumes of traffic, security cordons, being shouted at by police, tourists etc… getting lost and going in totally the wrong direction is preferable to prolonging the agony that is Parliament Square.
5. Passing through Pimilco (on the way to Euston) it would be wise to stop and seek directions from tourists on the pavement clearly studying an A-Z. The unwise decision is to take a random side road and see where it goes.
6. Sighting Battersea Power station does not mean one is close to Euston.
7. Neither does passing by Chelsea Pensioners Hospital.
8. Remember that many busses and taxis would prefer cyclists to be small squashed speed bumps rather than annoyances in the bus lane. As such be on guard, and possibly invest in a wing mirror.
9. If, on fearing for ones life or sanity, one decides to walk along the pavement with bike, do not expect pedestrian members of the public to greet you with smiles or appreciation for the excess space you are taking up… this is of particular note at traffic lights.
10. Interestingly despite Cambodians hardly ever obeying any traffic rules they are far more considerate towards cyclists than people in London town.
Lessons learnt:
1. Do not cycle along the southbank at lunchtime, during the school holidays, unless a) you prefer to walk your bike or b) you wish to reduce the numbers of tourists, children and/or joggers in London.
2. Do not cycle in London without a map (preferably an A-Z)
3. Do not rely on direction from maps attached to bus stops (they seem to be very vague)
4. Do not cycle through Parliament square unless you like traffic lights, huge volumes of traffic, security cordons, being shouted at by police, tourists etc… getting lost and going in totally the wrong direction is preferable to prolonging the agony that is Parliament Square.
5. Passing through Pimilco (on the way to Euston) it would be wise to stop and seek directions from tourists on the pavement clearly studying an A-Z. The unwise decision is to take a random side road and see where it goes.
6. Sighting Battersea Power station does not mean one is close to Euston.
7. Neither does passing by Chelsea Pensioners Hospital.
8. Remember that many busses and taxis would prefer cyclists to be small squashed speed bumps rather than annoyances in the bus lane. As such be on guard, and possibly invest in a wing mirror.
9. If, on fearing for ones life or sanity, one decides to walk along the pavement with bike, do not expect pedestrian members of the public to greet you with smiles or appreciation for the excess space you are taking up… this is of particular note at traffic lights.
10. Interestingly despite Cambodians hardly ever obeying any traffic rules they are far more considerate towards cyclists than people in London town.
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
Rather lax
I think I have been rather lax on the old blogging front of late... I've now made it back from Ausland... it was a really lovely holiday... at somepoint i might sort out my flickr account and upload some photos in an organised manner... Jack was highly entertaining. He taught me many things, one of which being that in Pirate language 'Hairy Willy' means dried fish... he has the book to prove it... I'm sure you can imagine many incredibly mature conversations about hairy willies...
aside from that I watched Valient - a kids cartoon about carrier pidgeons in WWII - on repeat (yar, Herr General)... did lots of cycling up and down hills, found the cheese factory, found the distillery, was entertained by primary school sports day, was locked in a chicken house, went on some loverly walks, made and ate cakes and pizzas, spoke to a class of 7 year olds about Cambodia (this mainly revolved around eating flys and burning poo as a means of reducing the numbers of trees cut down)... etc...
Then home via Singapore and a Sushi with Markyboy back to Heathrow with no trouble on the airport security front. In fact Singapore airlines didn't seem to object to my 3 pieces of handluggae weighing over 20kg, which was most most fortunate.
Spent the last weekend in the Lake district with Anthony, feeling as if I was in Swallows and Amazons. Seriously that is a legendary film... must dig out the video... When we went sailing I had to restrain myself from trying to land on an island and start exploring and setting up camp... (un?)fortunately my sailing skills would not really have allowed it I rather think...
Lake district was tres nice... I forget how nice England is...
Now back in the big Winch... considering doing something constructive with my time... current thought is sort out the many boxes of junk (can I purge myself of any possessions???) I posses and perhaps redecorate (read pollyfill the holes) in my bedroom walls...
Not sure what I'm doing in October... Laos, Nepal, Timbucktu... who knoweth.... in the meantime I shall become practiced at being a lady at leisure... perhaps I should join the WI?
tumdiddlium
I will try and think of more unexciting events to write about. In the meantime overandout!
x x x x x
aside from that I watched Valient - a kids cartoon about carrier pidgeons in WWII - on repeat (yar, Herr General)... did lots of cycling up and down hills, found the cheese factory, found the distillery, was entertained by primary school sports day, was locked in a chicken house, went on some loverly walks, made and ate cakes and pizzas, spoke to a class of 7 year olds about Cambodia (this mainly revolved around eating flys and burning poo as a means of reducing the numbers of trees cut down)... etc...
Then home via Singapore and a Sushi with Markyboy back to Heathrow with no trouble on the airport security front. In fact Singapore airlines didn't seem to object to my 3 pieces of handluggae weighing over 20kg, which was most most fortunate.
Spent the last weekend in the Lake district with Anthony, feeling as if I was in Swallows and Amazons. Seriously that is a legendary film... must dig out the video... When we went sailing I had to restrain myself from trying to land on an island and start exploring and setting up camp... (un?)fortunately my sailing skills would not really have allowed it I rather think...
Lake district was tres nice... I forget how nice England is...
Now back in the big Winch... considering doing something constructive with my time... current thought is sort out the many boxes of junk (can I purge myself of any possessions???) I posses and perhaps redecorate (read pollyfill the holes) in my bedroom walls...
Not sure what I'm doing in October... Laos, Nepal, Timbucktu... who knoweth.... in the meantime I shall become practiced at being a lady at leisure... perhaps I should join the WI?
tumdiddlium
I will try and think of more unexciting events to write about. In the meantime overandout!
x x x x x
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