Charity Begins At Home...

I was watching TV earlier on and I had a knock at the door. I've been expecting company so opened the door, and to my annoyance there was a little old lady with a tray full of poppies asking for money for the British Legion!!

Now I'm not against this charity, I do think that the people who fought for our country deserve support (even if some of them are cantankerous to say the least, but that is another story) but why come door to door? This is not the first charity this month to knock on my door, and along with bags asking for clothing and stuff and "begging letters" from other charities I seem to be getting (seems to be the only post that gets sent to me properly as post I actually want seems to get posted to the wrong people or gets badly delayed!) is a bit of a cheek really.

If I want to donate clothes/bric-a-brac/clothes/my time/etc I will approach them and ask them if there is something I can do to help.

Dogs and fireworks...some advice

As you may be aware, Guy Fawkes night is getting ever closer, and if you have dogs (and indeed any other pets) this can be a time of great stress for them, with all the flashes and bangs going on.

Here are some tips to help you at this time.

• KEEP YOUR DOG INDOORS!!! I know that sounds like something obvious, but keep your dog indoors, if your dog does not like fireworks than you could have a traumatised dog if they are left outside, obviously not a good thing. Baring this in mind, make sure you take your dog for a walk to make sure they have gone to toilet before the fireworks start.
• TURN ON A RADIO OR TV FOR BACKGROUND NOISE. The sound of a radio or TV could distract your dog from the various noises of the fireworks.
• FEED YOUR DOG AN HOUR BEFORE IT GET DARK. If you do this and maybe add a little extra and maybe make it a dish with white pasta or potato then you can feel the dog and make them a little sleepy.
• DO NOT PET OR MAKE A FUSS OF YOUR DOG IF THEY GET A LITTLE SPOOKED. I know this sounds harsh, but doing that reinforces the behavior making them think it is right to be scared. Act as if nothing is wrong, and your dog will pick up on that.

There are other things you can do too, like getting "Fireworks CDs" where you play the CDs for longer and louder durations thus desensitizing the dog to the noises or getting a DAP (Dog Appeasing Pheromone) Plug-In that can help calm down your dog. Both of these methods need to be done a few weeks in advance to get a good effect.

Oh and one more thing...I know how stupid this is going to sound, but DO NOT TAKE YOUR DOG TO A FIREWORK DISPLAY!!! Yes, I know.....but there are people who do it and wonder why thier canine companion suddenly goes loopy! Leave them at home, and when you leave put some music on or the TV, and don't make a big fuss about going out or they will pick up on your concerns.

I hope everyone has the fun they want with fireworks, and that eveones dogs have a relaxing few evenings too!

UPDATE

A really good place for information about this is http://www.dogsandfireworks.com/ where you can get some advice, download a free MP3 file that can help desensitize your dog, and you can also donate to the Dogs Trust, a brilliant charity for all out canine companions. (Many thanks to Karen Wild for pointing me toward her site, it's brilliant!)

Ultimate Trumps!

A very good friend of mine has decided to start making his own Top Trumps style card games under the brand ULTIMATE TRUMPS.

Nig Hewitt, the man who runs collector's site Ultimate Top Trumps has decided to have a go at making his own Trumps, and they are really rather good!

This is the mailout he has done to announce the first set to go live, "Countries Of The World"

As you can see by the images this looks like a great set, quite educational too...for a look at a slideshow of the cards back and front (the back makes up an image...wonder what it is?) then GO HERE and see what you think, the pack comprises of 32 9cm x 6cm cards and each pack costs £3.50.

The pack will be available very soon, details will be here when released.

Help charity...help yourself?

I heard something that shocked me today, and I thought people should know.

Charity Bullying UK (Follow on Twitter: @BullyingUK) was in a meeting today for 30 mins speaking to a company (we shall call them XYZ, this is made up I will not give the real name of the company as it may cause grief for Bullying UK which is not what I want to happen, they are a brilliant charity and deserve all the support they can get) in regards to helping promote them, and it wasn't until the last 5 minutes that XYZ "offered to help them" for £1,200!

£1,200 may not sound like a lot of money to some people, but when you bear in mind that Bullying UK raise roughly £50,000 annually and that money is all used to help 500,000 kids being bullied all across the UK, so £1,200 is a sizable chunk of money and means 12,000 kids would not be helped.

I know some people are going to read this and think "So what? They have money put aside to do this kinda stuff!" look at it this way, surely charities should put as much money into helping the causes they champion than splashing out ludicrous amounts of money on PR because a company wants thier little star to shine. I know a lot of charities spend stupid amounts of money on things...recently a charity spent a stupid amount for a logo change (when asked they said "Less than £100,000"! Make of that what you will...could have been £99,999.99!) which is a waste of money when you bear in mind Bullying UK did thiers for less than £500!!

Companies, when you say you want to help a charity, be clear about the fact you want to help yourself unless you are going to do something for a charity for free.

The Postal Service = Pure Garbage!

I have just about had it with the excuse the United Kingdom has for a postal service.

They have just recently taken a vote as to whether they should strike around Christmas time because of modernization of the Postal service. I guess most of you will not be surprised to know that the majority voted for industrial action...which means that if you want something to get to people for Christmas you should have posted it last Christmas.

Thing is....the postal service is nothing but a joke anyway. I am constantly having issues with things being posted...either parcels "vanish" (I guess that the very nice people at the sorting office guess it's something they want and decide that it should be posted into their pockets/rucksack and taken home), the items delivered and received in very poor condition where the post(wo)man is trying to force more than one parcel into my letterbox at a time instead of knocking on my door to let me know....or like today they don't even bother posting the parcel/letter and leave it 2 foot away from my front door!

The postal service is garbage...maybe if they improved the way they worked then things would be better for them to...right now they are over priced, lazy god for nothings.....perhaps the postal service needs another company to give them competition, mabye we will get a better service then.