Ages ago, when St. Hallmark created Valentine’s Day, I’m sure he intended it to be a celebration of love and appreciation. Unfortunately, modern times have convoluted this original and liberating message. Being in a romantic relationship is no indication of how full someone’s life is, but contemporary Valentine’s Day has made the 14^th of February for couples only. Here is a list of few things to do if you find yourself alone on Valentine’s Day:

1. Emotionally eat. This is how all the best people deal with overwhelming emotions that are completely self-manufactured. Hang out with Ben & Jerry—they understand and so does double chocolate chuck. There is nothing that goes better with pie than another pie. Spoil yourself, you deserve it. That bathrobe is looking a little tight. Undo that belt and get yourself another bowl. Good.

2. Watch the saddest movie you can find. Suggestions: Requiem for a Dream, Sophie’s Choice or Schindler’s List. In fact—just turn off all your lights and make it a day-long marathon.

Read the rest of this entry »

Before I start, I’d just like to say Happy New Year to everyone reading my blog. Ok, now on to this weeks Saturday Six, as it is the start of 2011, I thought it would be a good opportunity to ask you about your New Year’s Resolutions, so here we go..

1. Name 6 New Year’s Resolutions you are hoping that you can keep?
   

There we go, one question with six answers for you to have fun with…

Ok, that’s it, thanks for taking part and I’m looking forward to everyone’s answers. Don’t forget to hit the “Tweet” button to ReTweet this weeks Saturday Six.

Anyone using Twitter can be part of the process by tweeting me a topic, I will then pick one randomly and the chosen topic will be used and the tweeter will have a DoFollow link to their website or blog as a thank you.

If you would like to nominate a topic then simply tweet me @BlazingMinds with your nominated topic and the hash tag #Sat6

Happy New Year everyone and may 2011 be truly amazing

There’s always a massive build up for the two days of the year where we get completely stuffed with either chicken, turkey, duck or something else, but it’s amazing how quickly those two days fly by once that have arrived.

For me this year has been a really special Christmas with an opportunity to spend the two days with my sis, niece and nephew. The fun of hearing them at 3:30 in the morning moving about and wondering if Santa had been and then finally getting up at around 6:30 in the morning, going down stairs and seeing the look on their faces as they see a room full of presents that Santa has left them, it’s priceless.

Then it’s on to clearing up all the wrapping paper and playing with the toys with them as the Christmas dinner is ready to be served on that special Christmas table-cloth with Christmas crackers ready to be pulled with the obligatory party hats, bad jokes and gifts.

For me this has been the best Christmas ever, it’s also been the most fun and happiest in years. And all this is down to having a close and loving family that I cherish, love and adore.

Now if next year is anything like this year, then I can’t wait, bring it on!

Related articles

• Boxing Day After Christmas (socyberty.com)
• Santa brings Christmas to hospitalized kids ()
• So… Christmas is over, for now anyway (cyndamoore.wordpress.com)

I must of been mad today, as I ventured out in to the cold, -9°c, to do my last minute ditch attempt at grabbing all those Christmas presents that I haven’t had time to get, due to working through the week.

To be honest, it wasn’t really that bad, only my road to the main road was like an ice rink, but thankfully I know how to handle my car on the snow and ice, so no slipping or spinning of wheels for me then

The only problem was the cold, even with anti-freeze in the windscreen wash bottle, my wiper jets had frozen up and I had to pull over at the nearest garage, get a hand full of snow and place it on the windscreen to clean it so I could see where I was going, yes I know there are water taps at the garages, but even these were frozen!

Read the rest of this entry »

Over the weekend I had a little time to do some Guest Posting on two fantastic blogs, Dragon Blogger and Basic Blog Tips. Every once in a while I get the urge to produce a guest post on some of the blogs that I read and have been kindly asked by the owners to post on, time is precious, so I can’t do it as often as I would like to

Anyway, if you haven’t read my two posts, which are based around the Christmas themes, then please stop by and read them also, don’t forget to comment on them as well as read some of the other brilliant posts on the blogs, so here they are, hope you enjoy reading them

Where Has the Christmas Spirit Gone?

Pondering on my ramblings the other day and the fact that our kind host Justin DM’d me on Twitter, I realised that it was time to post up a guest post here on DragonBlogger, so as I was driving home today, I wondered why there wasn’t as many Christmas decorations up as there usually are this time of year!

Blogging Through The Christmas Holidays

There comes a time, as with all holiday breaks, that you do need to take some time off from blogging and though it goes without saying that blogging can be very addictive, we all need to say to ourselves “STOP!”

So there you have them, hope you enjoy my Christmas based posts and Merry Christmas everyone

Those readers of my blog living in the UK will know of the winter weather we have been getting and November was the start of the snow that has spread cross the UK.

When I was young I remember that every Christmas was white and the fun of knowing that Father Christmas was on his way with wonderful presents and cosy nights in front of the fire with my parents, waiting for the next day to come only to go out playing in the snow and making snowmen, oh hang on do we have to say “snowpeople” now?

With all the snow that we have had with the recent November snowfall  it feels like Christmas already, that wonderful warmth as you walk through the front door after a day at work and the Christmas tree in the corner of the room, waiting for the presents to be placed gentle around the bottom of it under the glistening decorations, that have been passed down a few generations.

Glasses of mulled wine to keep us warm and wondering what to by those relatives that you never know what to get them each year, socks, jumper or even a gift voucher.

Now that it’s the first of December today, the question that is pondering on a lot of people’s thoughts is, “Will we get a white Christmas?”

It’s a question that I’m like to be yes, I know that there has been a lot of disruption through the end of November with the snow causing major problems in the North of the country and I dare say those that are living in Scotland and the surrounding areas are indeed sick of the snow, but remember how much you loved it when you were a child, don’t you think that children should have that same wonderful feeling as well

Ok, kids these days do seem to prefer to sit in the house and play on their games consoles or computers, but my message to them is, get out there and enjoy life, you’ll have plenty of time to sit in a chair in a room when you are old and frail, make the most of life before it passes you by.

And my message to those that have grown up too quickly is, find your inner child, believe me it keeps you young, mine loves to come out and play in the snow and have a laugh with life, we only get one chance at this wonderful life you know.

So come on everybody, let’s get in to the Christmas spirit and have a little fun with life

Related articles

• Is this the worst Christmas tree in Britain? Embarrassed villagers brand spindly fir a ‘feeble effort’ (dailymail.co.uk)
• First Snow Fall (cindyholman.wordpress.com)
• Brits will enjoy just seven white Christmas’ (newslite.tv)

Now this is a question that I have been pondering on for a while now, with my blog getting more popular over the last few months and the fact that I now seem to post everyday, now that is something I never thought I would be doing, the question crossed my mind on what to do when I have my holiday!

So I thought I would come up with a blog post with some blogging tips and what I’m thinking of doing and some ideas that others could possibly use and maybe my loyal readers, you know who you are, could come up with some advice as well.

1. If you post every day, then keep some of your posts back that you write and schedule them over the week that you are away.
2. Take a laptop with you if you, if you have one, and use hotspots to blog while you are away.
3. Utilize Twitter to act as your mini blog.
4. Ask a friend to guest blog for you while you are away.
5. If you get a lot of emails via your blog then turn off your settings in WordPress to email you about comments, also set up a “auto responder” on you email address explaining that you are away and that you will answer emails when you get back!
6. And most important of all, let your readers know that you may have a dip in posts because you are taking a break.

So there you have it, just some of the things I can think of, if anyone else has any advice then please let me know