Betty's blog

Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother- The Official Biography- William Shawcross   Generally, I found this an interesting book. The first fifty years of the Queen Mother's life were interesting as I didn't know that much about her life during that time, and indeed my knowledge of that period of history is a little vague. The last ten or so years were interesting, as I remembered some of the events quite clearly, and it was interesting to contrast the world as it was then with the world she was born in to. I did find the long lists of charities she supported and official engagements a bit dull and repetitive. I also felt that, as it was an official biography, it was a bit...sanitised. (This could also be because Princess Margaret burned a lot of her mother's letters- if they had been in the royal archives, perhaps there would have been some more revealing insights. Also the QM seems to have been quite discreet, so it is probably impossible for anyone outside of her...

Following Dar's post over at An Exacting Life, I thought that it was high time to revisit my (unread!) book collection, which I listed, err, some time ago here . I have actually managed to reduce the book collection quite significantly...but sadly not by actually reading them! I went through them recently and decided that I was very unlikely to actually read or use many of them again- especially books of seventeenth century documents! (Only really useful if you are doing a degree in history). Many of the books are now waiting in a cupboard for someone to buy them from Amazon... I'm going to make a concerted effort to finish at least one physical book per month- and those that are worth selling will be listed on Amazon and join their friends in the cupboard! There may be some that I decide are not worth ploughing through- straight to the cupboard with them... So, here is the updated list: Physical books (all non-fiction) 1. The Lady in the Tower: The Fall of Anne...

Here are my New Years resolutions- hopefully nice and specific, not impossible and fairly easy to tell if I have done them...they also may change as the year goes on, if I realise that they are impossible or foolish. 1. No alcohol. It may be a sign of age, but over the past couple of months I have had a headache and then felt sick for about a week after even one modestly sized glass of wine. As I rarely drink, this should not be a problem...maybe. I drink in the English style- nothing for months, and then a party with much, much wine- i.e. binge drinking. Yey! 2.  Horse riding- pass ABRS Equitation 5 and Stable Management 7 and 8. (Information  here  and  here , if you are interested). Update- since I made this list, I've passed Equitation 5- just about. Not going to aim to pass 6 this year though, as I don't think I will improve enough. 3. Exercise- do more. Nothing crazy- yoga twice a week (yes, that is  exercise!), swimming twice a week, walking twice a...

I used to read a lot when I was a child/teenager. We'd go to the town library, I'd check out the full allowance of books (which I think was 8, but may have increased to 12 later on) and by the next time we went back to the library (probably the following week), I'd have read them all. Now that I have to do things like go to work, feed myself, wash clothes etc etc, I probably don't read that many books in a year. (Although I do read the newspaper on my Kindle most days).  This may also be influenced by the fact that if I really get in to a book I find it hard to tear myself away from it to do anything else, such as sleep, and end up knackered and living in a bit of a mess. (Moderation...what's that?! So rather than watching stuff on BBC iPlayer at bedtime, I am going to start reading, but limit myself to 10.30pm lights out to try and impose this 'moderation' thing on myself. (If I am really tired or it is a boring book, I may fall asleep with book on face, a...

I thought that I didn't have many clothes (3/4 of a wardrobe and two small drawers), and so when one of my friends started this blog earlier this year about her wardrobe and clothes buying habits, I smugly thought to myself 'I'll count my clothes, I bet I have about fifty items.' I was SO wrong. I had 118 clothes/bags/pairs of shoes etc, 80 of which were clothing, 11 bags and 27 pairs of shoes. I may have forgotten to count dressing gown and coats. I've got rid of some stuff and added some stuff since then, but it's probably a pretty good estimate. Anyway, lest this descends into a weird counting game (which, as this this blog post points out, is a somewhat pointless obsession in some parts of the internet), I'm going to move on from the numbers...to, err, percentages. Apparently, 80% of effects come from 20% of causes (the Pareto principle ). This has been applied to many things, not least clothes- you will wear 20% of your clothes 80% of the time. You ...

I really don't understand economics. If I try and think about it for any length of time my brain starts to hurt. (Despite watching Stephanie Flanders' series on Marx, Keynes and...erm...the other one). But what I really, really don't get is why everyone seems to expect growth to continue forever. Given that we live in a finite world with finite resources (other than the sun's energy, which whilst technically finite, is probably beyond the power of humans to use up. Probably.) it doens't make sense that everything can continue upward, if growth relies on us consumers consuming more. Apparently, we are already using 1.5 Earths worth of resources- using resources faster than they can be  replaced. ( http://www.footprintnetwork.org/en/index.php/GFN/page/world_footprint/   )How is this sustainable?! And 'the news' tells me that people might have a to face the fact that their standard of living is not better than the standard of living of their parents. I...

On a whim I'm jumping on the blogging bandwagon...so this may be the only post that ever gets written. I have no plan and no theme...so this may degenerate into photos of the menagerie doing 'cute stuff'. Anyhow, I was watching Sky News paper review this morning, and one of the guests (whose name I  can't remember) picked this story to talk about:  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2225987/Angela-Epsteins-furious-attack-Government-My-family-losing-child-benefit-just-earning-100k.html  The guest was very unsympathetic to the view in this article- which I am too. Not so much because as a non-child owning person I resent paying for other people's children (which was the view of lady on t'telly) but because I am flabbergasted that you could perceive that you need an extra £1,700 per year when you earn £100K. I'm not sure I could manage to spend £100,000 per year! (Ok, that is a lie- I would have a horse and a great big shiny horse box). If we acce...