When does life begin?

I don't usually refer to political topics on this blog as it's mainly a sort of online family newsletter but my attention was drawn to one of the headlines from the New Scientist on my iGoogle page today, Where does life begin? especially in the light of the recent Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill.

People were asked this question in a survey and were given a list of possible answers to choose from:

A. At the point of fertilisation?

B. At detection of foetal heartbeat?

C. At implantation of the embryo in the lining of the womb?

The survey was undertaken by an IVF clinic in Atlanta and the results make very interesting reading.

Only 22.7% selected answer A, then came B with 23.5% and finally C with 15%.

There were 12 categories in all.

The article continues,

Not surprisingly, Roman Catholics had the highest proportion voting for "sperm-egg" fusion, around 31%. By contrast, a third of Jewish respondents, 29% of agnostics and 27% of Muslims opted for foetal heartbeat. So too did 38% of IVF patients.
Geographically, only 13% of UK respondents opted for "sperm-fusion", with 43% choosing "foetal heartbeat".

Snow in Autumn

What a surprise to wake up to snow on the ground this morning! It was very cold though when we walked back from the Grumpy Mole last night after a delicious celebratory dinner. The garden looked so pretty I just had to get out there with my camera and take a few photos.

These polyanthus are doing a grand job despite the snow.

And just look at this little cyclamen - the word indefatigable comes to mind!

And yet, despite the wintry covering, our large beech tree still looks magnificent with lots of beautiful Autumn leaves left.

Manchester . . . and back

Can you believe it - after thinking about it several times during the week, and reminding others not to forget - guess who forgot to put their watches back on Saturday night?? Luckily nothing was lost by this (apart from an extra hour's sleep!)

After a leisurely breakfast - one of the best things about staying in an hotel, I think - we set off to visit a local beauty spot, Lyme Park.

It was a glorious, bright but cold morning as we left Manchester and arrived at our destination but about 10 minutes after we'd begun climbing the up the hill to 'The Cage' to admire the view, the heavens opened and we were soaked.

The photo shows the really leaden sky - this sort of weather in these sort of places always make me think of a scene from Wuthering Heights or Jane Eyre or similar novels where the heroine finds herself on some bleak, barren moor in the middle of terrible weather. You expect to bump into some romantic hero complete with riding breeches at any moment!

We 'repaired to a local hostelry' as they might have said in one of these novels; had a lovely warming lunch and also took the opportunity to change into dry clothes.

The weather on the journey home was also very mixed and we saw a splendid rainbow - the second one that day. The photo doesn't do it justice but it's not bad considering it was taken through a car window and travelling at speed.

Manchester

We had a lovely weekend in Manchester visiting Simon. Traffic was dreadful almost all the way so the journey took a lot longer that we planned and consequently it was a bit of a scramble to get to Mass on time - not helped by the fact that Manchester City Council (or whatever they are called) have decided to do a lot of re-surfacing work in the middle of town and several roads were closed - and being Manchester, of course it was raining too! Never mind.

We've taken to going to Mass at St Mary's, (the Hidden Gem) in the middle of city. If you are ever in Manchester it is well worth a visit for the magnificent interior. They don't like you taking photos but you'll find lots of lovely photos on the website here.

After Mass we had a lovely meal in a nearby restaurant serving meals from all over Asia (or so it seemed!)

Then to the theatre for a very good production of Antigone at the Royal Exchange Theatre - so much 'angst' and all that shouting! - I don't know how the cast manage 8 performances a week and still have any voices left!

The auditorium itself is a very modern 'capsule' within the lovely old building and the architecture works very well - the beauty of the original building remains intact and the modern structure within blends well and doesn't detract at all from the rest of the surroundings.

The pictures are just taken with my phone's camera so are not terribly clear but I think you can get the general idea.

Could be worse ....

It could be worse, I suppose - at least it only says 'There's probably no God'! Mind you, this is known as the Atheist's bus advert and I would have thought this is more of the Agnostic's bus advert.

The other thing is - why does not believing in God mean that you don't need to worry? I think that my belief in God means that I don't need to worry. After all, if we believe in God, we trust him to look after us and that whatever is put before us in life comes from Him, don't we?

Anyway, with one son an atheist and two brothers who are keen bus enthusiasts at least this post will appeal to almost all my readers!!

Patience for patients ....

I like to think I'm a fairly patient sort of person ... I'm usually quite happy sitting waiting for an appointment/bus/train (insert example of choice here!) Provided I am actually sitting - I'm not keen on standing around for too long.

Today I had a dental appointment and I left the surgery after an hour having run out of patience altogether. I obviously don't have an endless supply, after all!

I had arrived a few minutes early as I really dislike rushing into anything at the last moment. I sat patiently as people around me were called in to see different dentists/hygienists and subsequently leave the surgery.

Eventually after about half an hour, I politely asked by how long the appointments were running late. I knew there was a mistake straight away as the receptionist asked who I was waiting to see and then disappeared with my notes in her hand.

Computer 'glitch' apparently was the cause of the problem, it hadn't registered that I had checked in. Now don't you think that one of the receptionists who could see me at all times would have asked themselves (and me) what time my appointment was or if there was problem?

Anyway, still being patient and understanding I agreed to wait a few more minutes as the dentist would see me in 5 minutes.

I'm afraid that after having sat there for an hour, I actually ran out of patience and approached the reception desk and requested another appointment on another day as I could wait no longer.

Sorry about the rant. I look forward to a better experience next week - I hope!

'Noises Off ' and Noses on ....

We've had a lot of social events in the last week - a very enjoyable dinner at the local Golf Club in support of our Parish Golf Day to raise funds for our parish school's new building; a company dinner at a local hotel and a trip to the theatre. This last is the 'Noises Off' referred to in the title of this post.

This was an hilarious farce which we went to on a 'works' outing' organised by Atkins. We went with friends and arrived early enough to have a delicious Italian meal before the performance in a nearby restaurant. As I said, the play was side-splitting - I really felt as if my sides were splitting! We all said we hadn't laughed so much and for so long for a very long time. In fact I was reduced to tears, and I wasn't the only one.

As for 'Noses on' I got a clean bill of health from the 'chest man' at our local hospital. He told me I had a 'good pair of lungs'. I must say I had never doubted this for a minute! He suggested my persistent cough may well be caused by 'post-nasal drip' (they've got names for everything, haven't they??) which means that I'm probably allergic to something common like house dust - no chance of eliminating that then!!!

Not standing much chance of eliminating the cause, it just leaves treating the symptoms and I think I'd rather put up with a cough than start spraying things up my nose every day from now on!

I'm just glad my nose is not on the scale of the little fellow pictured above - just think of the 'post-nasal drip' he could suffer from - more like a 'post-nasal deluge'!

Autumn - no words necessary ... !

Shame about the wheelie bins but at least they're the right colours!

Another day off ...

Well I'm pleased to report that the new phone is living up to expectations. Mind you I very nearly messed it up big time! Having set it up and played around with it for a while, I decided to see if I could download Skype to really make it an amazing piece of useful equipment .... NOT a good idea! I managed to download Skype and that was fine but I also succeeded in losing all the BT pre-sets.

After a lot of experimentation (and quite a bit of anxiety) I finally managed to restore the original settings. I've now removed Skype and hopefully learned my lesson - leave well alone!

We had an enjoyable evening last night joining golfers from the parish for the dinner after the Parish Golf Day. I must say, I didn't envy those playing golf in awful conditions yesterday. Never mind, lots of smiles afterwards and hopefully a tidy sum of money raised for our parish school's building fund.

A glorious day today weather-wise and I spent a happy hour or so this afternoon planting about 100 tulip bulbs in the new raised beds - roll on Spring!

A new toy ...

Anyone who knows me knows I'm a bit of a 'gadget girl'. Well, I've got a new toy! I got home on Friday afternoon to find a note on the mat from the postman to say that there was a parcel to be collected from the sorting office.

I just about managed to contain myself over the weekend but 'hotfoot-ed' it to the sorting office almost as soon as they opened this morning.

The parcel lay on the back seat of the car while I was at work (burning a metaphorical hole in the seat!) but as soon as I got home, I plugged it in and it's charging now. I'm also a great reader of manuals. I know that is really strange but I like to know as much as possible about something before I try it out.

This new smart phone is linked to our Internet account and the beauty of it is that it has wi-fi so I'll be able to access the Internet when I'm at home and out and about at no extra charge. Funnily enough many of the big coffee shop chains now have wi-fi access as well as hotels, airports, railway stations etc. .... Not that I need much of an excuse to pop into a coffee shop!

I'll keep you posted as to whether or not this phone lives up to the hype.

A quiet weekend ...

It's been a quiet weekend this weekend as both Adrian and Mark have been away on a company trip to Lisbon. I've been alone. Note I said alone, not lonely! I've been used to spending various periods of time without my husband, thankfully usually only for a few days at a time, for most of our married life and you do get used to it after a while.

It's not so often that Mark goes away though, and to have them both away at the same time is a very rare occurrence. I must admit I quite liked being on my own, just for a couple of nights though it was lovely to have them both safely home again. (Even though they arrived home at about 1.30 in the morning!)

There's something very liberating about having nobody else to fit in with for a little while; eating what you like and when you like, going to bed and getting up as early or as late as you feel like.

Back to normal today and that's very comforting. I'm not sure how much I'd enjoy being on my own for much longer than a weekend. Knowing that it's only a temporary separation makes a big difference.

We don't see billboards like this around here!

My sister-in-law sent me this animated graphic along with some other super photos and I just had to share it with anyone who hasn't seen it yet. Enjoy!