Journeys, discoveries and surprises in this week's newsletter
Taking the road less travelled, listening to deadly choices and concocting kind deterrents in your revealing Heyday newsletter this week.
This week’s blog celebrates the unexpectedly memorable experiences you can have if you stray off the beaten tourist track when you’re visiting somewhere new.
In it I recall discovering how the locals do their laundry in a historic watery city; navigating a spectacular, but barely there forest track on a deserted island (that’s me in the middle of the forest in the pic), and stumbling across a wildly colourful festival in a surprising spot in a teeming Eastern metropolis.
Find out where each of these encounters and adventures happened by CLICKING HERE
Cue tenuous link to this week’s
FRIDAY FUNNY
Letting yourself get a little lost can be one of the joys of diving off the tourist trail Losing other stuff maybe less appealing (and definitely slightly more worrying when you’re in a deserted forest - read THE BLOG to discover how we made sure we stayed on track, literally).
Loss of a different sort was the challenge facing lovely Heydayer Tina when we met.
Find out how she coped with finding her way through a double life whammy by CLICKING HERE
SMART SAVE TIP OF THE WEEK
You already know that I have a gang of delicious grand-girls who often come round to play. What you won’t know is that this is the time of year when I also get a lot of much less welcome visitors - ants. And particularly, for some reason, the flying variety. Urgh!
As I’m always on the look out for planet kind versions of chemical cleaners and sprays, this effective, eco-friendly ant deterrent scores three times over by being equally child friendly and having another hidden purpose (revealed below).
Fill a jar with orange peels.
Completely cover the peels with white vinegar, then put the top on the jar (with a piece of parchment paper between the lid and the jar if it’s metal, because the vinegar will erode it.)
Leave for two weeks, then strain the liquid and put it back in a jar or bottle.
Mix 1 part orange vinegar with one part water in a spray bottle and spray wherever the pesky ants are getting into the house. This doesn’t kill the ants, they just hate the smell of both oranges and vinegar, so they simply steer clear.
Here’s the extra, extra bonus - this is also a great, fresh-smelling, all-purpose cleaner.
THIS WEEK I’VE BEEN……LISTENING TO
Granted a podcast exploring all the different things that could prove deadly and how they might bring about your demise doesn’t sound like the most entertaining listening proposition. But in the hands of co-hosts Adam Kay (former doctor, now comedy writer and author - he penned the best seller This is Going to Hurt) and Radio 1 DJ Matt Edmondson, The List of Absolutely Everything That Might Kill You turns out to be a delightfully entertaining, amusingly informative rummage through the potential deadliness of things as diverse as vending machines, hippos and marathons.
In each episode the hosts each choose one possibly lethal thing to add to the list, and present their lightly researched reasons for their selection, with plenty of incredulous, surprised, challenging, witty banter between the two men. As a summary to each of their selections, the show’s resident expert statistician, Professor Jennifer Visser-Rogers calculates exactly how dangerous each thing is, and which, more deadly one of the two, will be added to the lethal list (followed by obligatory crowing from the winning presenter).
So if you fancy finding out whether theme parks are more deadly than hot air balloons, or if lightening is more likely to kill you than a lawn mower, this is the podcast for you.
Find THE LIST OF ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING THAT MIGHT KILL YOU wherever you get your podcasts, including podtail
Couldn’t resist finishing off by referring back to the theme of THIS WEEK’S BLOG with these
WORDS OF WISDOM
from 19th century American poet, essayist and lecturer, Ralph Waldo Emmerson
This time next week, I’ll be preparing to head off to my sister’s wedding, so expect some pre-nuptial excitement. You have been warned!
Have a lovely week whatever you’re doing.