1 August: Shredded Wheat

Henry Perky patented a shredded wheat making machine on this day in 1893. Here are ten things you might not know about Shredded Wheat.

1. What is shredded wheat? It's a breakfast cereal consisting of pillow-shaped biscuits of Wheat. The wheat is cooked in Water until the moisture content of the wheat is 50%. It is tempered, to make sure the moisture is evenly distributed in the grain before being passed through rollers with grooves to make strands. The strands are packed together and crimped at intervals to make the little pillows. They are then baked in an oven to get rid of most of the moisture.
2. It was invented by a man named Henry Perky, who was born in Ohio and studied law in Nebraska. He was elected to Nebraska State Senate when he was just 25, and spent some time trying to promote a cylindrical railway carriage without success, before coming up with the idea for shredded wheat.
3. Perky moved to Colorado for his health, but travelled back to Nebraska from time to time on business. It was here, in a hotel, that he noticed a man suffering from a similar digestive ailment to himself, eating boiled wheat with cream. He then came up with the idea of making a shredded wheat making machine, and opened a factory near Niagara Falls. The factory was called the "Palace of Light", because it was white-tiled, air-conditioned, well-lit, and had floor to ceiling windows. He didn't forget about employee perks, either. The factory was equipped with showers, lunchrooms (women got lunch for free – men had to pay 10¢), and auditoriums for the employees. It had a roof garden with a view of the falls. A picture of the factory appeared on the Shredded Wheat boxes for many years.
4. One of Perky's promotional efforts was to invite people to a special lunch in which almost everything was made from shredded wheat: "...a Shredded Wheat drink, Shredded Wheat biscuit toast, roast turkey stuffed with Shredded Wheat, and Shredded Wheat Ice cream".
5. After retiring from the company in 1902, Perky published a successful book on nutrition and oral hygiene, Wisdom vs. Foolishness. He dreamed of founding a school offering courses on scientific farming and domestic science subjects. The school was built, brochures produced, and even had some students enrolled, but the school never opened, because Perky died a few days before the grand opening after a fall from his Horse.
6. Perky's original name for his product was "little whole wheat mattresses".
7. Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, while impressed with Perky's manufacturing process, wasn't so keen on the product. When Perky tried to sell him the patent, Kellogg declined, saying he thought eating shredded wheat was "like eating a whisk broom." However, after Perky died and his patent expired, Kellogg was quick to devise his own version of shredded wheat. Perky's old company, National Biscuit Company sued Kellogg for trademark infringement but it was ruled that "shredded wheat" was a generic name and couldn't be trademarked.
8. In the UK, a shredded wheat factory opened in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire in 1926. Its concrete silos are now listed structures although the factory closed in 2008 and the UK's supply of shredded wheat is now made in Staverton, Wiltshire.
9. Two standard sized shredded wheat biscuits contain 160 calories, 1 g. of fat and 6 g. of dietary fibre. They also contain Vitamins C and B6, calcium, Iron and magnesium.
10. In the UK, a 1970s advertising campaign claimed shredded wheat biscuits were so nutritious that it was impossible to eat three of them. Various sporting stars of the time were shown admitting defeat after two, and even a Black Hole exploded after consuming a third. "I bet you can't eat three" and "He must have eaten three" were common jokes back then and the idea even found its way into adverts for other products. Carling Black Label's poster ad showed a bowl containing four shredded wheat, with the caption "I bet he drinks Carling Black Label."

Killing Me Softly

Sebastian Garrett is an assassin. It wasn’t his first choice of vocation, but nonetheless, he’s good at it, and can be relied upon to get the job done. He’s on top of his game.

Until he is contracted to kill Princess Helena of Galorvia. She is not just any princess. Sebastian doesn’t bargain on his intended victim being a super-heroine who gives as good as she gets. Only his own genetic variant power saves him from becoming the victim, instead of Helena. 

Fate has another surprise in store. Sebastian was not expecting to fall in love with her.

Available on Amazon:

Paperback

E-book

31 July: Baked Beans

As we come to the end of National Baked bean month, here are 10 things you might not know about baked beans.

1. The first people to eat baked beans were probably Native Americans. While some food historians argue that the dish originated in France, the beans are native to North America. Native Americans made them by mixing the beans with maple sugar and bear fat in earthenware pots which they placed in underground "bean holes" lined in hot rocks to cook slowly. When the British colonists arrived, they were pleased to discover a dish similar to peas porridge made from ingredients native to the New World.
2. The beans are a type of haricot bean called ‘Navy’ beans. 50,000 tonnes of navy beans are shipped annually from North America to Liverpool docks, bound for the baked bean factory in Wigan. There are about 465 of them in a standard 415g can.
3. The other main ingredient is tomato puree, made from Mediterranean grown tomatoes. Heinz uses enough tomatoes every day to fill an Olympic-size swimming pool.
4. As for the other ingredients, which give baked beans their distinctive taste – I can’t tell you, because it’s such a closely guarded secret that only three people in the world know the recipe and I’m not one of them. Even the workers in the factory don’t know, because the spice mix comes to the factory in bags which are numbered rather than labelled.
5. They’re certainly popular. More than half a million cans of Heinz Baked Beans are consumed in the UK every day. Fans of baked beans include Zayn Malik, Ellie Goulding, Joss Stone and the Queen. Heinz has now held a Royal Warrant for 63 years, and Her Majesty has visited the factory. Baked beans also formed part of the supplies taken by Scott to the Antarctic. A photograph from the expedition shows Frederick John Hooper tucking into a can while sitting on a Heinz crate.
6. They were originally a luxury item, first sold in the UK by Fortnum and Mason in 1901. A can would set you back 9d, which would be £2.15 in today’s money.
7. They are cooked after they are canned rather than before. The can is filled with blanched beans, then the sauce is added. The can is sealed and only then does the cooking start.
8. The advertising slogan ‘Beanz Meanz Heinz’, created in 1967, was unanimously voted best advertising slogan of all time.
9. In the 1940s, the Ministry of Food classified Heinz Beanz as an “essential food” during wartime rationing. Today, baked bean manufacturers are allowed to say that a portion of beans counts as one of your five a day, although initially this was criticised – as in, how dare manufacturers encourage people to eat something with salt and sugar in? However, it has been proven that consumption of baked beans does indeed lower cholesterol, and there’s a “healthy” version with less salt and sugar if you’re still concerned.
10. Beans, beans, good for the heart… We’ve all heard that one and can complete the rhyme, which actually comes from a children’s song called Beans, Beans, the Musical Fruit. But why do they make you fart? This is because polysaccharides are fermented by the bacteria in the large intestine, having passed through the small intestine largely undigested. This is what produces the large amounts of gas.

Killing Me Softly

Sebastian Garrett is an assassin. It wasn’t his first choice of vocation, but nonetheless, he’s good at it, and can be relied upon to get the job done. He’s on top of his game.

Until he is contracted to kill Princess Helena of Galorvia. She is not just any princess. Sebastian doesn’t bargain on his intended victim being a super-heroine who gives as good as she gets. Only his own genetic variant power saves him from becoming the victim, instead of Helena. 

Fate has another surprise in store. Sebastian was not expecting to fall in love with her.

Available on Amazon:

Paperback

E-book

30 July: The Brontë Sisters

On this date in 1818 Emily Jane Brontë, author of Wuthering Heights was born. 10 things you didn’t know about the Brontë sisters.

1. You’ll have heard of three sisters, Emily, Charlotte and Anne, and possibly their brother Branwell. There were, however, two more sisters, Maria and Elizabeth. They died of tuberculosis as children. It was Maria’s death which inspired Charlotte’s account of the death of Helen Burns in Jane Eyre.
2. Their father’s name at birth was Patrick Brunty, born in Loughbrickland, County Down, Ireland. The name is thought to come from the Irish clan Ó Pronntaigh. The clan were hereditary scribes and literary men in Fermanagh. For some reason, Patrick didn’t like his name and decided to change it. It’s thought it was because he wanted to sound less Irish or more distinguished. He might have chosen the name Brontë with a diaeresis (two dots) over the e to indicate that it should be pronounced with two syllables after the Greek word for thunder, or possibly to associate himself with Admiral Horatio Nelson, who was also Duke of Bronté.
3. Their mother was Maria Brontë, née Branwell. She came from Penzance in Cornwall. She died of cancer at the age of 38 in 1821, and her sister Elizabeth came to take care of the children.
4. Patrick Brontë was a clergyman of modest means so finding a school for his children that he could afford wasn’t easy. He eventually sent the four eldest girls to Cowan Bridge, a school for the daughters of clergy, which had been recommended to him. It turned out to be a big mistake. Conditions were poor and the staff mistreated the girls (Lowood in Jane Eyre is based on the school and the treatment of the character Helen Burns is based on the way the eldest sister Maria was treated) but this was where the two eldest sisters contracted tuberculosis and the medical care provided by the director's brother-in-law wasn’t up to scratch. Patrick took his daughters out of the school, but too late for his eldest daughters, who died at home.
5. Later on, Emily and Charlotte went to a school in Brussels, run by Constantin Heger and his wife Claire. Emily didn’t like it much and was quite rebellious, but Charlotte was happy there. After the girls were forced to return home when their aunt died, Charlotte went back to the school afterwards. This may well have been because she had a thing for Constantin Heger. After leaving the school, she wrote to him several times. Heger actually ripped the letters up and threw them in the bin, and it was his wife who rescued them and glued them back together. Constantin’s children eventually gave the letters to the British Museum.
6. The children were interested in writing from an early age and with their brother, created small, matchbox sized books about fictional places - the imaginary African kingdom of Glass Town, the Empire of Angria and Gondal, an island continent in the North Pacific, ruled by a woman (the latter was created by Anne, who went on to write The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, considered to be one of the first feminist novels). The books, filled with tiny writing, illustrations, maps, landscapes and plans of buildings, and bound together with thread, were made so small as they were intended to be small enough for Branwell’s toy soldiers to read.
7. The sisters were self published authors, at least to begin with. Their first publication, at their own expense, was a book of poems, Poems by Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell (1846). It sold just two copies, which suggested to the sisters that perhaps they should write novels instead. Emily’s Wuthering Heights was rejected several times so she paid £50 to publish it herself. In due course, they found publishers for their work, but one of them, Thomas Cautley Newby, didn’t believe that Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell were three different people, so Charlotte and Anne travelled by train to London with the letters addressed to Messrs. Acton, Currer and Ellis Bell, to prove him wrong. Emily, said to be painfully shy, had refused to go with them. Once he’d got over the shock of finding that Acton and Currer were actually women, he introduced Charlotte and Anne to his mother, and took them out to the opera.
8. All three worked as teachers and/or governesses, although Emily’s career only lasted six months. Branwell, too, was a tutor for a while. Anne got him a job at the house where she was governess. Branwell was highly intelligent and talented, and went to London to make his name as an artist. However, he got into bad habits there and spent his allowance on drugs and houses of ill-repute. Anne got him the job to help him get back on his feet, but he ended up having an affair with the lady of the house and got himself fired. After that, he spent the rest of his life as an alcoholic and drug addict. Anne and Emily tried their best to help him, but Charlotte hated him.
9. Emily loved to wander in the moors around Haworth, with her Dog, Keeper. According to the writings of a family friend, Emily chose for one of her dresses ‘..a White stuff patterned with lilac thunder and Lightning, to the scarcely concealed horror of her more sober companions.’ Charlotte mentions in her letters that Keeper kept a vigil by Emily’s death bed. Emily only wrote one novel, Wuthering Heights, which some critics at the time felt must have been written by someone quite depraved. It has been suggested that Emily was working on another novel when she died, but Charlotte, embarrassed by the reception Wuthering Heights had had, burned the manuscript.
10. Charlotte was the one who lived longest, and the only one to marry. She married Arthur Bell Nicholls, one of her father’s curates. She didn’t like him much at first. She wrote to her friend that he was rigid, conventional, and rather narrow-minded "like all the curates", and the first time he proposed to her, she turned him down. In the end, he grew on her sufficiently that she changed her mind, and even her father’s (he’d strongly disapproved when Nicholls proposed to her the first time) and married him. In her letters, she described him as a good and attentive husband, but wasn’t sure marriage really suited her. “It is a solemn and strange and perilous thing for a woman to become a wife." Perilous indeed, for she died the following year, aged 38. Officially, the cause of death was tuberculosis, but likely she was also suffering from typhoid and complications connected with a pregnancy.

Killing Me Softly

Sebastian Garrett is an assassin. It wasn’t his first choice of vocation, but nonetheless, he’s good at it, and can be relied upon to get the job done. He’s on top of his game.

Until he is contracted to kill Princess Helena of Galorvia. She is not just any princess. Sebastian doesn’t bargain on his intended victim being a super-heroine who gives as good as she gets. Only his own genetic variant power saves him from becoming the victim, instead of Helena. 

Fate has another surprise in store. Sebastian was not expecting to fall in love with her.

Available on Amazon:

Paperback

E-book

29 July: Lord of the Rings

On this date in 1954, the first part of The Lord of the Rings was published in the UK. 10 things you might not know about JRR Tolkien's most famous work.

1. Tolkien didn’t write it as a three volume set. It was his publisher who decided it should be split into three, purely for economic reasons - to minimise financial loss due to the high cost of type-setting and modest anticipated sales.
2. It started out as a sequel to his earlier book, The Hobbit, published in 1937. The publishers asked for one. Tolkien offered them some other tales he’d already written including drafts for The Silmarillion, but they weren’t interested because they wanted more stories about Hobbits. Tolkien agreed to write a new story but warned them that he wrote slowly. 
3. In fact, Lord of the Rings took 12 years to write. Tolkien started writing it at the age of 45 and by the time it was all published, he was 63. Part of the reason it took him so long was that he had a day job teaching linguistics. 
4. The title, Lord of the Rings, refers to the Dark Lord, Sauron, the main antagonist.
5. The titles of the three instalments (The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers and The Return of the King) could have been quite different. Tolkien’s original suggestion was The Lord of the Rings: Vol. 1, The Ring Sets Out and The Ring Goes South; Vol. 2, The Treason of Isengard and The Ring Goes East; Vol. 3, The War of the Ring and The End of the Third Age. Later on he suggested Vol. 1, The Shadow Grows; Vol. 2, The Ring in the Shadow; Vol. 3, The War of the Ring.
6. The books have sold 150 million copies and been translated into 38 languages, starting with Dutch in 1957, and including Polish, Hebrew and Esperanto. (I’d hoped to find that someone had translated it into Elvish or Klingon but neither was listed. Now there’s a challenge for some nerd out there somewhere…) 
7. A number of the characters and locations were inspired by places Tolkien lived in or visited as he was growing up. My regular readers will know that Mordor owes a lot to the Black Country; the Eye of Sauron my have been inspired by the Chamberlain Tower on the campus of Birmingham University; and that Bag End was the name of a farm owned by his aunt Jane. Others include the countryside around Stonyhurst College in Lancashire being a model for the Shire, and when Tolkien sailed past Stromboli, a volcano off Sicily, he claimed that he had "caught a glimpse of Mount Doom". 
8. Another major influence was Tolkien’s military service during World War I. The Dead Marshes and the area around the entrance to Mordor, according to Tolkien himself, “owe something to northern France after the Battle of the Somme". One critic even suggested that Frodo might have been suffering from shell-shock (better known today as post-traumatic stress disorder).
9.  No book escapes criticism, not even this one. Critics have complained about the lack of significant female characters, that it is too rustic (shouldn’t some of the characters live in cities?) that no mention is made of any formal religious practices (Tolkien wrote, "The religious element is absorbed into the story and the symbolism") and that it’s racist (races portrayed as good or evil and fighting against each other, all the major characters are white). 
10. Lord of the Rings has in turn influenced others – fantasy fiction in general owes a lot to Lord of the Rings. The game Dungeons and Dragons includes many of the races in the book such as hobbits (halflings) orcs and elves. Research has suggested that some players want to create for themselves an epic fantasy akin to Lord of the Rings (although I always found any storytelling aspect was somewhat stifled by rules). Pluto's largest moon, Charon, has a large dark area near its north pole. The dark area has been unofficially named Mordor Macula. It has influenced music, being the subject matter for many songs especially by rock and metal bands. There’s even a house in my street called “Rivendell.”

Killing Me Softly

Sebastian Garrett is an assassin. It wasn’t his first choice of vocation, but nonetheless, he’s good at it, and can be relied upon to get the job done. He’s on top of his game.

Until he is contracted to kill Princess Helena of Galorvia. She is not just any princess. Sebastian doesn’t bargain on his intended victim being a super-heroine who gives as good as she gets. Only his own genetic variant power saves him from becoming the victim, instead of Helena. 

Fate has another surprise in store. Sebastian was not expecting to fall in love with her.

Available on Amazon:

Paperback

E-book

28 July: Miami

Miami, Florida was Incorporated as a city in 1898. 10 things you might not know about Miami.

1. It gets its name from a Native American tribe which lived in the area in the 17^th and 18^th centuries. They were called the Mayaimi. This name translates as “Big Water”.
2. It’s the only major US city to be founded by a woman. Her name was Julia Tuttle. She was a local businesswoman who persuaded a railway mogul to expand into the area.
3. It’s sometimes called “Magic City”, because its population grew from a thousand to five million within one century – “like magic”. The population now is around 6.1 million.
4. It’s also the only city to be surrounded by two national parks – Biscayne and Everglades.
5. It’s possibly the warmest place to be in the winter with an average temperature of 21 degrees centigrade (70 degrees Fahrenheit). It has snowed there once in recorded history, in January 1977, and that was merely flurries. It’s not the place to go if you want a white Christmas. That said, Miami is home to one of the biggest snow skiing clubs in America.
6. The warm climate makes Miami a popular holiday destination. Miami has been dubbed the Cruise Capital of the World with nearly 5 million cruise passengers arriving at its port every year, and the Wreckreational Diving Capital of the World with more than 50 shipwrecks in its waters. Land lubbers will be pleased to know there are plenty of hotels, too, as the city has the fourth biggest hotel market in the US, beaten only by New York, San Francisco and Oahu. The city centre has the largest concentration of international banks than anywhere else in the country, and there’s even one in Miami Beach which had a skate through cash machine for roller bladers in the 1990s.
7. People living in Florida can’t have basements in their houses, because the land there is only a few feet above sea level. Digging deep enough to create a basement results in a pool of water.
8. It has the third tallest skyline in the US, beaten only by New York and 
9. People from Miami include the novelist Patricia Cornwell, actors Eve Mendes and Sidney Potier; and singer Debbie Harry.
10. Miami’s sister cities include Buenos Aires, Lima, Madrid, Port-au-Prince, Santiago and… Southampton.

Killing Me Softly

Sebastian Garrett is an assassin. It wasn’t his first choice of vocation, but nonetheless, he’s good at it, and can be relied upon to get the job done. He’s on top of his game.

Until he is contracted to kill Princess Helena of Galorvia. She is not just any princess. Sebastian doesn’t bargain on his intended victim being a super-heroine who gives as good as she gets. Only his own genetic variant power saves him from becoming the victim, instead of Helena. 

Fate has another surprise in store. Sebastian was not expecting to fall in love with her.

Available on Amazon:

Paperback

E-book

27 July: Sneezing

On this date in 1981 Donna Griffiths of Pershore broke the record for the longest recorded sneezing fit. She’d started sneezing 194 days earlier on 13 January. She finally stopped sneezing on 16 September 1983. 10 things you might not know about sneezing.

1. Why do we sneeze? Sneezing is a reflex action which occurs when an irritant enters the nose. While nobody sneezes as much as Donna Griffiths, it is common to sneeze twice or three times in a row – which simply means your nose didn’t completely get rid of the irritant the first time around and has to have another go. Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia have suggested another reason for sneezing which might explain why we sometimes sneeze for no apparent reason – it’s to re-set our noses, a bit like re-booting a computer. 
2. Some people sneeze when they look at a bright light, or if the sun is in their eyes. About 57% of people, to be exact. There’s a posh name for this phenomenon, too – Autosomal Cholinergic Helio-Ophthalmologic Outburst, or “ACHOO syndrome”, and it’s thought to be genetic.
3. Another word for sneezing is sternutation.
4. Because it’s a reflex action, it’s impossible for a person to sneeze in their sleep, although waving something irritating under a sleeping person’s nose may cause them to wake up and sneeze. While it’s an involuntary action to close your eyes when you sneeze, it’s a myth that if you sneeze with your eye open your eyes will pop out. It’s also a myth that your Heart stops when you sneeze. The rhythm of the heartbeat can change, but it doesn’t stop.
5. When you sneeze, air is moving more than 100 miles an hour through your nose. The spray from a sneeze travels around three to five feet. A single sneeze can produce up to 40,000 droplets, which are so tiny that they can stay airborne for a few minutes. That’s one way of catching a cold and the reason why you should sneeze into a tissue.
6. The characteristic noise of a sneeze is caused by air being forced through the nostrils. The word for a sneeze in many languages imitates that sound - The English word is "achoo," the French "atchoum," Italian "hapsu," Japanese "hakushon," and Swedish "atjo."
7. In ancient Greece, they believed that a sneeze was a prophetic sign from the gods. In the story of Odysseus, for example, his wife Penelope, says that he and his son would be out for revenge if he were to return. At that moment, their son sneezed loudly and Penelope was delighted, believing it to be a sign from the gods. That belief survives in parts of Greece today in the form of a response to someone’s sneeze - "bless you and I am speaking the truth". The custom in English is to respond “bless you” when someone sneezes. There are a couple of theories regarding the origin of this. There was an old belief that a person’s soul was located in their nose and a sneeze meant their soul temporarily left their body. Another is that sneezing was an early symptom of bubonic plague and so the words “God bless you” was a response to protect people from falling ill, and/or to save their soul if they did. Saying “God bless you” when somebody sneezed was recommended by Pope Gregory VII.
8. In some cultures, sneezing is thought to be lucky, unless you sneeze at the same moment as someone else or if you happen to be in India, where a sneeze at the start of a piece of work foretells that it won’t go well, so should a sneeze happen, it would be customary to take a short break for a drink of water before continuing. 
9. In China, Vietnam, South Korea, and Japan, there’s a superstition which says that when you sneeze, it means someone is talking about you. One sneeze means they’re saying nice things, two means someone is thinking of you and three in a row means someone is in love with you.
10. Humans aren’t the only animals which sneeze. If you have pets, you’ll know cats and dogs do it, too. African wild dogs use sneezing as a form of communication, for example when considering as a pack whether or not to hunt. You might not know, however, that chickens and Iguanas also sneeze.

Killing Me Softly

Sebastian Garrett is an assassin. It wasn’t his first choice of vocation, but nonetheless, he’s good at it, and can be relied upon to get the job done. He’s on top of his game.

Until he is contracted to kill Princess Helena of Galorvia. She is not just any princess. Sebastian doesn’t bargain on his intended victim being a super-heroine who gives as good as she gets. Only his own genetic variant power saves him from becoming the victim, instead of Helena. 

Fate has another surprise in store. Sebastian was not expecting to fall in love with her.

Available on Amazon:

Paperback

E-book

26 July: Leo star sign

The sun is currently in the zodiac sign of Leo. 10 things you might not know about this sign:

1. Leo is the fifth sign of the zodiac, a Fire sign.
2. The name Leo is Latin for Lion. The ancient Greeks associated the constellation with the Nemean Lion killed by Heracles as one of his twelve labours.
3. The Nemean Lion wasn’t just any lion. Its fur was impervious to human weapons and its claws were so sharp it they could slice through armour. Heracles killed it by strangling it to death.
4. The constellation is quite a prominent one, containing four first and second magnitude stars: Regulus, Beta Leonis, Gamma Leonis and Delta Leonis.
5. The ancient Greeks weren’t the only civilization aware of the constellation. Several others were, too, and gave it different names. The Persians called it Ser or Shir; the Turks, Artan; the Syrians, Aryo; the Jews, Arye; the Indians, Simha. The shape of the constellation reminded them of a lion, too, as all those names mean lion in those languages.
6. The birth stones for people born under this sign are topaz, cat’s eye and amber.
7. Their lucky plants include chamomile, Marigold, Sunflower and Saffron; their metals are Gold and Silver and their lucky day is Sunday. The sign of Leo is ruled by the Sun.
8. In the body, Leo is said to rule the Heart, spine and back. Other things falling under its rule include loyalty, courage, gossip, pride, ego, royalty, leadership and authority.
9. Leos are confident, fond of attention and enjoy playing to an audience. They’re passionate and flirtatious and also big hearted and generous. They like to share advice as well as their possessions. They make great friends, and also powerful enemies. They have leadership skills – they are organised and take charge easily and naturally, although this can be seen as bossiness. They are strong, dignified and protective of loved ones.
10. Famous people born under this sign include Barack Obama, Sandra Bullock, Jennifer Lopez, Roger Federer, Pete Sampras, Daniel Ratcliffe, Carl Jung and Alfred Hitchcock.

MY LATEST BOOK!

Killing Me Softly

Sebastian Garrett is an assassin. It wasn’t his first choice of vocation, but nonetheless, he’s good at it, and can be relied upon to get the job done. He’s on top of his game.

Until he is contracted to kill Princess Helena of Galorvia. She is not just any princess. Sebastian doesn’t bargain on his intended victim being a super-heroine who gives as good as she gets. Only his own genetic variant power saves him from becoming the victim, instead of Helena. 

Fate has another surprise in store. Sebastian was not expecting to fall in love with her.

Available on Amazon:

Paperback             E-book

25 July: Culinarians Day

Culinarians Day is a little known celebration is to honour anyone who cooks.

1. A good cook is like a sorceress who dispenses happiness. Elsa Schiaparelli
2. Poisoning rarely happens in a well-managed kitchen. CJ Cherryh
3. I cook with wine, sometimes I even add it to the food. WC Fields
4. Cooking is like love. It should be entered into with abandon or not at all. Harriet Van Horne
5. I feel a recipe is only a theme, which an intelligent cook can play each time with a variation.” Madam Benoit
6. Tomatoes and oregano make it Italian, wine and tarragon make it French, sour cream makes it Russian, lemon and cinnamon make it Greek, soy sauce makes it Chinese, garlic makes it good. Alice May Brock
7. Cookery is not chemistry. It is an art. It requires instinct and taste rather than exact measurements. Marcel Boulestin
8. The greatest dishes are very simple. Auguste Escoffier
9. No one is born a great cook, one learns by doing. Julia Child
10. A recipe has no soul. You, as the cook must bring soul to the recipe. Thomas Keller

MY LATEST BOOK!

Killing Me Softly

Sebastian Garrett is an assassin. It wasn’t his first choice of vocation, but nonetheless, he’s good at it, and can be relied upon to get the job done. He’s on top of his game.

Until he is contracted to kill Princess Helena of Galorvia. She is not just any princess. Sebastian doesn’t bargain on his intended victim being a super-heroine who gives as good as she gets. Only his own genetic variant power saves him from becoming the victim, instead of Helena. 

Fate has another surprise in store. Sebastian was not expecting to fall in love with her.

Available on Amazon:

Paperback                     E-book

24 July: Tell an Old Joke Day

On Tell an Old Joke Day, 10 corny old jokes:

1. When Is A Door Not A Door? When it’s ajar.
2. Who Is The Greatest Chicken-Killer In Shakespeare? Macbeth, because he did murder most fowl.
3. My wife's gone to the West Indies. Jamaica? No she went of her own accord.
4. "My Dog's nose has fallen off." "How does he smell?" "Terrible."
5. What did Big Ben say to the Leaning Tower of Pisa? I've got the time if you've got the inclination!
6. What goes 99 bonk, 99 bonk? A centipede with a wooden leg.
7. What lies at the bottom of the sea and shakes? A nervous wreck.
8. Doctor, Doctor, I feel like a pair of curtains! Oh, pull yourself together!
9. Waiter, there's a fly in my soup. Don't shout so loud, sir, everybody will want one.
10. A lady decided to take a Milk bath. She phoned the dairy and asked for a delivery of their best milk. "Pasteurized?" "No, up to my neck will be fine."

MY LATEST BOOK!

Killing Me Softly

Sebastian Garrett is an assassin. It wasn’t his first choice of vocation, but nonetheless, he’s good at it, and can be relied upon to get the job done. He’s on top of his game.

Until he is contracted to kill Princess Helena of Galorvia. She is not just any princess. Sebastian doesn’t bargain on his intended victim being a super-heroine who gives as good as she gets. Only his own genetic variant power saves him from becoming the victim, instead of Helena. 

Fate has another surprise in store. Sebastian was not expecting to fall in love with her.

Available on Amazon:

Paperback

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23 July: The God Neptune

This date in ancient Rome was the festival of Neptunalia. Here are 10 things you might not know about Neptune, the god they were honouring on this day:

1. Neptune is the Roman god of the sea. His Greek counterpart is Poseidon. There is also a parallel Irish god, Nechtan, said to be the master of the well from which all rivers flow.
2. Neptune was associated with fresh Water as well, with his rulership of springs pre-dating his association with the sea.
3. The origin of his name may have been from nuptus i.e. "covering", nuptu "he who is moist" or from nuptiae, "marriage of Heaven and Earth".
4. Neptune is usually pictured as an older man with a Beard and holding a three-pronged speak (or trident). He has Blue eyes and streaming Green hair. Sometimes he is shown being pulled in a chariot made from a shell and pulled by Whales, sea horses or Horses.
5. Neptune was the brother of Jupiter and Pluto. The brothers presided over the realms of Heaven, the earthly world, and the Underworld. Neptune's parents were Saturn and Ops, the earth mother. Juno, Ceres and Vesta were also his siblings. Neptune's wife was Salacia, the goddess of salt water, and/or Amphitrite, a water nymph. Neptune was notorious for having affairs so it could easily have been both. Amphitrite turned Neptune down at first so he got a Dolphin to try and persuade her. The dolphin talked her round and was made immortal as a reward, becoming the constellation Delphinus. His children include Triton, Pegasus and Atlas.
6. He was the god of horses as well, and according to legend, he created them. One of Neptune's aspects is Neptunus Equester, god of horse-racing.
7. The sea is unpredictable, and so is Neptune's temper. Legend portrays him as violent and vindictive with anger management issues. Hence, he is also associated with Earthquakes.
8. Neptune is one of only four Roman gods to which bulls could be sacrificed, the others being Apollo, Mars and Jupiter.
9. Medusa was originally a beautiful priestess in the temple of Minerva, but became a monster after Neptune raped her on the temple floor.
10. The planet Neptune was named after him because the planet's blue gas clouds reminds early astronomers of the sea.

MY LATEST BOOK!

Killing Me Softly

Sebastian Garrett is an assassin. It wasn’t his first choice of vocation, but nonetheless, he’s good at it, and can be relied upon to get the job done. He’s on top of his game.

Until he is contracted to kill Princess Helena of Galorvia. She is not just any princess. Sebastian doesn’t bargain on his intended victim being a super-heroine who gives as good as she gets. Only his own genetic variant power saves him from becoming the victim, instead of Helena. 

Fate has another surprise in store. Sebastian was not expecting to fall in love with her.

Available on Amazon:

Paperback

E-book