Strange Idiosyncrasies

I’m reading a very unusual book at the moment, but one that gets you thinking. The Peculiar Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is a detective story, told through the mind of a fifteen year old boy who has Asperger’s Syndrome.

This story not only gives me an incredible insight into the condition, but makes me realise that all of us have little idiosyncrasies, some we might not even think are strange. For example in the book, Christopher doesn’t like the colour yellow and won’t eat food if it’s that colour. One example is when an elderly neighbour offers him a piece of Batternberg cake, and he asks her to describe it.
“Well, it’s a cake with alternating squares of yellow and pink with marzipan around the outside,” she says (or something to that effect.)
Christopher: “So, if you cut the cake into a cross section, would you be able to see which squares were yellow and which were pink?”
Neighbour: “Yes, I suppose so.”
To which Christopher responds: “Then can I have just the pink squares and no marzipan?”

That probably sounds weird but in a sense, it is not. I wonder how many people can actually list their own pet hates.

Here are some of my own:

• I’m not fan of boiled carrots if they are cut into discs, I prefer them cut into batons.
• I cannot stand milk on cereal because it changes the texture of the cereal and makes it soggy. I don’t mind cereal dry though, with a glass of milk on the side to take sips from while I am eating it.
• In the morning, when I’m dressed and up, if I see the sofa throw rumpled I have to straighten it and make it neat, otherwise I feel uneasy and cannot get on with my morning rituals.
• I have a lot of stuff but I cannot abide untidy piles of paperwork, so I continuously find myself arranging it into neat piles. It’s still the same stuff but neat.
• Torn envelopes set my teeth on edge.
• I get irritated by wonky pictures and always want to straighten them.

I would absolutely love to know what peculiar habits other people have, so please do add some in the comments section.

In the meantime, it is Good Friday, so I think I’ll read a bit more about Christopher’s adventures. What a fascinating book, really absorbing and I’m looking forward to writing a review.

My Year In Books 2023

Each year I like to post a top 10 list of my favourite books. Sadly, I never got around to doing it in 2023, due to several reasons: so instead, I’m posting a quick summary, that was largely inspired by Goodreads.

Crime Thrillers

Last year, I got back into reading mostly thrillers, some fairly violent, which is unusual, (or maybe I’m just becoming desensitised).

BIOGRAPHIES

I did also read a couple of biographies. This was because, for six months Peter and I were engrossed in helping an old backgammon friend write his autobiography (Jerry Limb, born with no arms, as a result of the tragic Thalidomide scandal). We got so close to turning his story into something exciting and inspirational before the project was pulled in November – and we still don’t know why! But that certainly put the dampners on my year, the reason I’ve been feeling a bit flat. That said, however, I still enjoy reading and to be absolutely engrossed in a good book is one of my greatest pleasures.

MY FAVOURITE

It is difficult to pick 10 books from this list that enjoyed over and above others. But if I had to pick 1 it would be ‘The Last Party’ by Clare Macintosh. The writing style is fantastic, the story brilliant with so many twists and it’s set in Wales, which I consider one of the most beautiful places on earth.

Beware Facebook Hackers!

Using social media carries a risk, but I never realised how harmful it could be to some people – at least, not until I discovered more about certain hackers that breached my Facebook account last year.

In May I wrote an article describing how hackers had found a way into my Facebook page to extort money using my credit card. And if you own a Facebook page (and most of us in business, authors, artists etc. do…) how many have you have seen countless messages like the one below?

NEVER CLICK THAT LINK. Messenger is an easy way for any scumbag to send you a link. If the notification came from Meta, they’d send an email.

Referring to my own case, I never did get a response from Facebook. No explanation, no apology, nothing! However, this post is not an excuse to have another rant. This follow up post is to convey a warning, so please read on.

The Other Victim in this Scam

It has now emerged that the Facebook PAGE and video on which my account was used for awarding ‘meta stars’ belonged to an artist. She contacted me after receiving my email asking what the hell was going on with her page? I mean, did she know Facebook ‘meta stars’ for her video content were being charged to my account?

Since communicating, Victim 2 read my article and was happy for me to write a follow up. But the information she gave me was alarming!

“My Facebook Artist Page got hacked back in January and I haven’t been able to get anyone to do anything about it. I’ve reported it a million times and after having to create new accounts got my personal friends to report it and nothing happened. I even submitted and filed a report with the FBI.”

After replying to her, she went on to tell me:

“I’m feeling more and more like this is an inside job from Facebook. The original bait the hacker used on me in January came in the form of a Facebook alert telling me that someone had reported my Facebook page as not me and took me to a link requiring me to verify my account. 

As soon as I verified the account and password boom! The scammer immediately took over my account and started posting porn on my private page that was connected to my public Artist page.”

I cannot imagine anything more upsetting! This calls to mind the dozens of Facebook alerts I received via messenger with regards to my pages.

The bait is the link in the message, even though they look like they have been sent by the Meta Corporation. That link however, is nothing but a sneaky back door for hackers to gain access to your account. I am sure many people have wised up to the fact you should NEVER click a link on a suspect message. But hackers use the vilest tactics to scare people to get them to open that door. 

DON’T. Just delete the message.

Unfortunately, it didn’t end there for the artist.

“My private page got pinged automatically from Facebook locking me out of not only my public Artist page but all four Facebook and linked Instagram pages.  I lost about 5 thousand customers, other artists and art galleries that I had worked with, etc. Every time I reported it to Facebook I just received an automated response saying they wouldn’t take the page down and didn’t find anything wrong with the page.”

The Artist page on Facebook remains. She has even tried posting warning comments, but the hacker hides them every time. Furthermore, she hasn’t been able to do anything about this nor has had any control over her page since she has been locked out. I find that sinister!

She finishes by saying: “As a last resort I also reported this to my local sheriff and the FBI cyber crime website. I’ve now also posted a scam alert warning on my website.”

What else can you do?

As she suggests, this could be an inside job but what does the founder, Mark Zuckerberg, care? Imagine a monster; a creator who started a craze that made him one of the richest men in the world, yet despite being worth multiple billions, his corporation still has to find new ways of robbing us.

No wonder the victims targeted never get a satisfactory reply out of Facebook. There is no customer service team on Facebook and if there was, they would do anything to stop these scams, not enable the hackers.

You have been warned.

Writing A Cookery Book

If there is one thing I would really miss in my life it would be writing. Writing fulfils me in a way that no other hobby has ever done and whilst I’ve enjoyed branching out into some different creative projects (like my sun catchers), I’ve been yearning to start a new book. Well, in 2023, I got back to it; but moving away from my thriller genre, I embarked on creating a cookery book in full colour with photographs.

Recipe book: Front cover design

How did this come about?

The idea came from my Mum. We love talking about food and recipes, but if there is one thing she has always worried about it is:

“What will happen to my mother’s recipes after I’ve gone?”

Recalling her saying this before, I asked if I could see them. A few minutes later, Mum came back with a brown leather folder, containing dozens of recipes scrawled in my Grandmother’s beautiful handwriting.

I had to agree, it would be a tragic waste if these were lost in time.

Grandma’s traditional recipe for Marmalade

Anyway, several conversations later we agreed that maybe I could scan a few and save them to my computer. However, these recipes resonate history; from wartime rationing to the traditional methods used for home baking and preserving when food was a lot more scarce.

A photo from a library

Hence, from that day, the concept of ‘Cooking through the Decades’ was discussed: a book containing recipes from not just from Grandma, but the next three generations – from the 1940s to modern day. 

Auntie Gertie and my Grandparents

It’s by no means a new idea, as demonstrated in the British TV show ‘Back In Time For Dinner,’ in which one British family experience a time travelling adventure, taken from real diaries of what ordinary families ate for breakfast, lunch and dinner. My book is similar in concept, in so much as the five sections cover certain decades; Grandma’s from the 40s to the 60s, Mum’s from the 70s and 80s, Jocey’s (my sister) and my own, from the 90s to modern day.

Mum’s exercise book from cookery lessons at school

A double page spread from inside the book

I also wondered if Jocey’s daughters, Chloe and Carys, would participate, to make it a real family project! They were delighted to be a part of it and sent some intriguing recipes of their own; so together we created our book, using postcards, school books, prints, digital images (some from social media) and to fill in the gaps, a few free ones from Unsplash.

My blackberry and almond tart, a seasonal favourite.

Working on this project on and off, it has taken nearly a year to complete but it is finished now and ready for Christmas. The book is not going out to the public (being written very much as a memoir for my family) but I know there has been some interest and if anyone would like a signed copy, please get in touch. I’d be happy to distribute a few signed copies to my friends and fellow authors.

Creative Corner The Finale

I’ll write one last post about my recent creative flare, but I’ve enjoyed taking some time out to do something different (from blogging and writing, that is).

The area around the patio certainly looks more colourful, since I added the gemstone plaque and glass pebble sun catcher. I still had that piece of bark, foraged from my wood hunt, so I tried attaching some picture hooks to the underside. It worked, which called to mind another design I had spotted on Pinterest; a different style of sun catcher, using beads.

Project 3: Rainbow Bead sun catcher

I must say, I am rather pleased with this one. I already had some beads my mum gave me from an old necklace she had that was broken. These are crystal beads that glitter in lots of different colours in the light (does anyone know what these are called?) but they’re the big ones at the bottom and some of the smaller beads in the centre.

The rest I bought from Temu, (an online web store, selling incredibly cheap stuff) and I also got hold of some nylon cord from there, to thread the strands. The method is fairly self-explanatory, but once the strands were threaded, I just tied them to the hooks on the underside of the bark. The last item I needed was some fine silver wire, from Hobbycraft, to make a handle for hanging it in place. Unfortunately, I don’t have much strength in my hands, so twisting the ends into spirals was hard, resulting in slightly wonky ends… But the way it sparkles in the sunlight is a joy to watch with little flashes radiating off the beads.

Update

Since writing this article I made some improvements to this design. The ends of the beads are finished with silver-plated callottes (to hide the knots), a handy purchase from Hobbycraft. I also stumbled across a pair of 3-in-1 fine pliers, which made the job of creating a new handle so much easier, with neat spirals at each end. I’ll take new photos next summer.

Project4: Watering Can sun catcher

This one I really enjoyed making and yes, I saw it on Pinterest, too. Such a clever idea, though, using a watering can to make a garden ornament. My wonderful mum helped me out again, donating an old metal watering can with a rose (as you need one that you can screw on and off.)

Threading the cord through the holes was the first stage: 8 outer holes and 4 inner holes, meaning I needed enough beads to thread 12 strands. Finding the right beads involved another trip to Hobbycraft, but it sells lovely loose ones. I still had a few of Mum’s crystal beads but paired them up with extra glass beads, some clear, some opaque or pearlescent. Sticking to mainly blues and greens, I wanted to give the illusion of water pouring from the spout.

The final touch was to purchase some crystal chandelier pendants as it was easy to tie the ends onto the jump rings, tucking the ends back through the centres of the bottom beads.

The end result is just amazing and I love the colours. The pendants were worth the extra money and effort, since they look different, depending on the light. The next photo was taken when the sun was setting and in the last image, you can see how much the sunlight flashes when they catch the beads.

Anyway, that’s it for now and I’ve finished making ornaments for the garden. The nights are drawing in but September has been a nice month, with plenty of sunshine to enjoy my creative projects. I have quite a lot of beads left and the next items I make will be gifts.

Last of all I would just like to say I’ve had a lot of fun making these things and it’s been great for my mental health. I would definitely recommend trying a creative project to enhance a positive state of well-being.

Creative Garden Projects 2

For my next project I really wanted something that would capture the sunlight and allow the light to shine through. For this I found a clever idea, which has been doing the rounds on YouTube and a popular craft project for children.

Project 2: GLASS BEAD SUN-CATCHER

It sounds very simple, using coloured clear glass stones. Just squirt a puddle of clear glue into a yoghurt pot lid and place the pebbles inside in a pattern. I already had quite a few of these in the greenhouse, in different shapes and sizes, so I decided to give this a try. But if anyone is interested the link for this project can be found here: https://onelittleproject.com/glass-bead-suncatcher/

To make it sparkle I added a few extra beads and coloured gems purchased from Hobbycraft then set to work on my new sun-catcher. 

The Result

It wasn’t quite as straightforward as I thought though. I’m pleased with the result but it took a few attempts to get it right, so here’s a few tips.

1) Use the right glue. Elmer’s clear glue is the best, as recommended in the video so if you can’t find it in the shop, order it online instead (I ordered mine from Wilko before it closed down.)

2) Don’t use stones that are too big! The glue doesn’t set hard and remains flexible so it might not be strong enough to support the weight and they will fall out.

3) Allow plenty of time for the glue to dry and set. 4 days is not enough and it was still tacky so I just put my finished design in the spare room and forgot about it. A couple of weeks later it was completely dry.

3) I also discovered problems with the yoghurt pot lid, because it had little spokes just inside. These created some weakness in the outer edge of the design, leaving the edge a bit ragged.

However, now I’ve made one, I’ll know what to do next time but I’m actually very pleased with the result. Hanging from a beam from our pergola, my first sun catcher looks colourful and pretty, a little like a stained glass window.

I am already in the process of making some others, as gifts to hang from a tree branch or in a window.

Next time I’ll share my next project which originated from a piece of tree bark (and yes, it’s another sun catcher.)

Creative Garden Projects

I’m making the most of my creative skills!

This summer has been a bit different, in so much as I had a hankering to make some garden ornaments. I love my garden and spend a lot of time in it, especially in May, when I’m planting pots and baskets. But what happens when the days get shorter and the flowers start to wither? What can I do to infuse more colour into it?

Project 1: Gemstone Plaque

This idea arose when I found a bag of gemstones on my book shelf. I purchased these from a shop in Lyme Regis, two years ago, so it seemed a shame not to display them. They look so pretty together, being different colours and sizes, with irregular shapes, but what to make with them?

Pinterest Boards

I love Pinterest for collating ideas and some while ago, I found a beautiful wooden plague, studded with coloured stones. The idea was to make a sun catcher, so I looked for a suitable piece of wood. Luckily, we enjoy lots of countryside walks where a visit to Angmering Park took us past some wood stacks. Sure enough, I found a small sawn off chunk – and an attractive slice of bark, which I thought might come in handy for another project.

I asked my husband if he could saw the wood into a thinner slice but unfortunately it split! Oh well, I didn’t have to look far. I found a perfect wood slice in Hobbycraft, in Chichester. Unlike the project on Pinterest though, the stones are not clear, so there was no point drilling holes in the wood to set them in.

To complete my creation, I glued the gemstones onto the wood in a circular pattern, using Gorilla Glue, adding some glass coloured gems to catch the light. Once set, I brushed a little more glue over the surface to give it a nice sheen and hey presto! First project done.

The plaque hangs proudly on the door of our garden shed and will for many years to come, I hope. But this was just my first idea. Looking at Pinterest has inspired many more, which I will share in the next few weeks.

it’s Strange the way the mind works

I am quite puzzled at some of the stuff my mind dredges up and have been meaning to share this story. Let me begin by saying I am currently engaged in a new writing project. I don’t want to say to much about this yet, as I am waiting to do a big reveal… however, I was writing a toboggan ride scene, which brought back memories.

First Toboggan ride

The one time I went tobogganing was the in 1978 when I lived in the U.S. We were good friends with our neighbours (who lived opposite in Lockhaven) and often attended The First Baptist Church with them. One day, their two girls, Melanie and Beth, invited me to come to a ‘Winter Retreat’ in the mountains, a weekend away with the Church. It inevitably meant prayers and devotions, but we could go out in the snow too. Now, snow in Lockhaven was incredible and it wasn’t unusual for 2-3 feet to fall in a single night. So with the slopes carpeted in fresh, fluffy snow, sliding to the bottom in blown-up inner tubes was the best fun I’d had ever!

But what I also remember was this musical piece playing in my head the whole evening, a real ear worm.

Musical Flashback

Writing my scene for a new book brought flashbacks of this era, including the music. I could not remember what it was, but I’m sure I’d attended band practise at Lockhaven Junior High School, earlier in the day. The band, conducted by Mr Bertanzetti (or Mr B as we called him) had been ranting and raving because we made such a mess of this new musical score. But it got inside my head, so much so it was stuck inside my mind all weekend, even when we were out enjoying ourselves in the snow.

I thought nothing more of it, got on with writing the scene, making it as exciting as possible, then that night I had a dream. In the dream, somebody said to me: “Oh, I remember that piece, it was called ‘Samba for Flutes.'”

Next day, the dream came back to me. I was telling my husband about it when I suddenly thought, Oh my God, it was, as well! Samba for Flutes.

How weird it that?

Sure enough, I looked it up and found the very same piece on YouTube. I cannot believe my mind reincarnated such a vivid memory, the toboggan, the snow and even the music in my head. But how on earth did the musical piece find its way into my conscious mind from so many years back?

More about the new book coming soon, but I hope you enjoyed my story.

Do Social Media Companies Employ Real People?

I have to ask but is there anyone out there (and I mean a human) who works for the social media company, known as Meta (formerly Facebook?)

Something happened on my account recently that caused me concern, yet getting any customer support was impossible!

Notifications

Who checks their notifications on Facebook? I looked on May 29th and thank God I did, as I spotted 3 that completely mystified me – all receipts for something known as “meta stars” (which I’d never heard of) – each totalling £25.

What are Facebook Meta stars?

I asked Google: Facebook Stars is a feature that allows you to monetize your video and audio content. Viewers can buy Stars and send them to you while you’re live or on past live videos that had Stars enabled. For every Star you receive, Facebook will pay you $0.01 USD.

Each transaction revealed I had given 2,235 stars to a video. This immediately struck me as strange, since I could not remember authorising them. But now the alarm bells were ringing I checked my credit card. Sure enough the 3 mystery transactions were showing, totalling nearly £75.

But if that wasn’t enough, the same transactions had been on issued on May 30th! So there were now 6 fraudulent transactions.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, I took action:
1) I disabled my payment method on Facebook (credit card for running ads)
2) Changed my password
3) Contacted my credit card company to report the fraudulent transactions (and they also issued a new card and stopped the current one)
4) Attempted to report this to Facebook.

Facebook Customer service

Try reporting a problem on Facebook! It’s an absolute joke and even as I write this (July 5th) I’ve still had NO EXPLANATION WHATSOEVER from Meta. You go through their help desk, you report a problem and get nothing but an automated reply, no doubt generated by a single word picked out by their AI robots.

I had already reported the issue in as much detail as possible, but sent a reply, concluding: “your new ‘Stars’ initiative has given cyber criminals a new platform to steal money from Facebook users!”

I thought that might jolt some response, but no… they don’t give a shit! Why should they? Allowing criminals to carry out fraud is what Facebook is all about really and as long as Meta is making money, that’s all that matters. They don’t care about the victims being scammed.

After 3 more emails all identical to the first one, I gave up. But I wrote this to pass on a warning and that is if you have social media, remove any payment methods immediately if you’re using them. I even wonder if whoever did this actually works for Meta and had access to customer accounts. It would never surprise me, but until I get some answers from a human and not a robot, this will remain unresolved with more people being robbed and Meta doing nothing to stop it! I was lucky, I could have lost so much money!

And on the subject of AI

People have good reason to be worried, especially with countries like China investing heavily in AI. But could this be where the greed of mankind finally brings about our downfall? Global giants replacing humans with robots is a progressive trend and as a species we are becoming redundant. I wonder how long it will take though, before our synthetic counterparts are so intelligent they will be able to self-replicate, then look at their billionaire CEOs and think what do we need these slobs for?

I’m not that worried but remain convinced that not a single human being works for meta now and look forward to someone proving me wrong.

The Anxiety Trap

This year’s Mental Health Awareness Week is from 15 to 21 May on the theme of ‘anxiety.‘ As a person who finds this quite triggering, I refer to one thing I have in common with a lot of other people and is social anxiety.

YOU’RE TALKING…
BUT WHO’S LISTENING?

Have you ever been in a group of people when someone starts talking – be it a personal anecdote or the latest craze on Netflix box… yet two people in that group just switch off and start a separate conversation between themselves?

If you are the person who was trying to engage, I know the feeling. I’ve been there, and it pains me to witness it happening to others.

But if you are one of the people who started that second conversation, I’ll tell you now, the person who was talking originally feels crushed!

THE ANXIETY TRAP

Now we’re approaching mental health awareness week again, everyone says people need to talk about their problems and that a problem shared is a problem halved. We all want to pay lip service to a great cause, put statements on our Facebook pages etc.

So how many people are prepared to listen to what others have to say? Because this is the key to improving mental health. Everyone has off days, sometimes we all need a shoulder to cry on, a friend we can rely on. Can you be that friend who makes a difference?

As a writer, I was able to purge these feelings into a novel I published 2 years ago. LETHAL TIES is a psychological thriller that concentrates on the thoughts and feelings of Maisie and Joe, two friends who met in a care home as children, but meet many years later. Both are emotionally damaged adults, but Maisie seems almost scared of her own shadow.

But why? She is undergoing therapy but what can she possibly uncover from her childhood, to get to the root of her anxious feelings?

You can find out by downloading Lethal Ties at a special reduced price of 99p/99c; and if you are interested in Mental Health Awareness week there is lots you can read about the campaign at The Mental Health Foundation.

To show your support for Mental Health Awareness, another initiative is to wear green on Thursday 18th May 2023 and to even help raise funds. Good luck!