Remember, no smoking in public shared places from July 1st.

Smoke Free England  

Those bloody life coach books just talk drivel don't they?  They are getting worse than the plethora of diet books.

I bet they earn good money for the authors though so they can get the right work-life balance. 

Since my sister had her second child it has prompted me to write a short piece on Chinese folklore that says you are not allowed to leave the house for four weeks, but also that they are foods specific for the occasion and in this instance one of them is Pig's Trotters in Vinegar and Ginger that is slowly cook and supposedly promotes good health for the mother.

Here are some web site links so you know it is not just me making it all up.

Anmum.com - good for expelling wind it says

Momsinmind.com - a bit more explanation on the components and their benefits 

Stomp.com - you even get a picture on this page 

There are soups as well. 

It might sound a bit rough but actually I like it. Reminds me of my childhood. 

Well, I have another baby on the way – I did my bit sometime back – just waiting for the Stork to turn up.  We are in the ‘name’ phase of pregnancy and the growth of the internet in recent years has made ‘what name shall we choose’ far more complicated than flicking through the baby naming books that are handed down through generations.

I’m also reading a book on English history so my mind is thinking all the time – wow, what a great name, not heard Tiberius or Fanny in the local school playground for a while.  Got me thinking – need to do a bit of research into names.  I already have one daughter that will soon hate having to repeatably explain she is named after the daughter of Altas who had a bit of a fling with Zeus (who didn’t) and produced Hermes.  Anyway – back to looking for new names – well old names actually. 

Whilst trawling the web I came across one of those sites that is a great time waster.  It is a cool little online application called Namevoyager .  It interactively maps the popularity of the names from 1880’s to the current date.  It dynamically plots the names as you type. 

Not sure it has helped with choosing a name for the new baby, but you can have real fun seeing how the media and events in the world impact us in choosing a name.   To give you a clue where I’m going with this, try Crystal, Fallon, Kylie, Gay, Ally, Adolph. 

Have fun and do post the names that you look up.