I'm moving!

Dear all, please could you update your bookmarks and re-follow the new version of this blog at http://louisefranksdesigns.com/theblog/. Instructions and a new blog post can be found here.

Getting to know me

I mentioned recently that I'd like to have you all get to know me better. Now I know that I don't live local to most (if any) of my readers so I figured a good way to do this was for you guys to leave a comment with a question. I'm away on a business trip for a few days but will gladly answer them when I get back.

Ask me anything...life...family...work...travels...hobbies....my thoughts...anything...

I'm moving soon

Dear all, this is just advanced warning that I will soon be moving this blog to Wordpress. You will need to re-follow the blog (as I'm using a different widget) and change your bookmarks as I will not be setting up a re-direction.

The new site address will be posted soon.

Thanks

Happy Yorkshire Day

Did you know that today is Yorkshire day?

The government reorganised England's county boundaries in 1974 and, following this, a number of concerned people set up county groups to lobby for the return of their traditional heritage. One of these groups was the Yorkshire Ridings Society.

It was in one of these groups (in the East Riding village of Market weighton) that led to the idea of having a day to celebrate all things Yorkshire and to promotoe our heritage and history. Hence, Yorkshire day was born. The date chosen for Yorkshire day was 1st August and it has been celebrated anually since 1975 (the year I was born).

{Yorkshire's flag}

The reason that August 1st was chosen was because on 1st August 1759, soldiers from yorkshire picked white roses from bushes near the battlefields at Minden (Germany) as a tribute to their falled comrades. The white rose is still the symbol for Yorkshire and appears on our county flag.

I am what many call an "honourary Yorksirewoman" because I wasn't born in Yorkshire. I was actually born in Lancashire, the county next door, usually referred to as "the opposition" because of the long running Wars of the Roses that occurred in the 1400's. However, next year I will have lived here for as long as I have lived in Lancashire. I wonder if that then makes me a fully-fledged yorkshire woman?

I love living in Yorkshire. When I first moved here in 1993, I was immediately struck by how friendly and open Yorkshire people are. As time has gone on, I have felt proud to belong to this county of friendly, welcoming people, fabulous rolling hills and of course, the inventors of the Yorkshire Pudding!

I may tell you some more useless useful facts about Yorkshire in the future if you're interested, but for now I will leave you with some pictures taken in my "home" county of Yorkshire.

{taken at Scarborough}



{taken at Scarborough}



{one of the many rolling hills}

{taken at Filey}



{taken at Yorkshire Sculpture Park}



{taken at Wentworth Castle & Gardens}

 I hope you enjoyed today's history and geography lesson. it was nice to share somehting with you about where I live and why I love my new adopted home so much!  :)

Gosh my posts are getting even more random!

I have always struggled to understand what people are saying. The amount of times I have to ask people to repeat themselves is just phenomenal. Seriously, I have had (or been sent for) so many hearing tests over the years and yet I say the same thing every.single.time. It isn't the VOLUME that is the problem! The volume is fine. It is WHAT people are saying that is the problem. The way I explain it is that if feels like my brain has to translate everything into "Louise-speak" before I can understand it. It's like I know the person is speaking to me in English but it just doesn't make sense! Eventually I catch on. Now I know it sounds funny but this difficulty understanding voices makes it difficult in things like lectures at university, meetings at work and such. In fact I now dread meetings at work, especially when somebody unfamiliar is there (eventually I do learn to "tune in" to people) or when it's a teleconference. I have mentioned this difficulty to loads of people over the years and have always been met with a blank look.

You know that look? The one that suggests I'm barking mad?

And then I stumble over this article on the BBC website and it's like "aha!". The article suggests that many people with dyslexia also struggle to understand spoken voices. In my case I'd even say that I struggle more with spoken voices that reading language. Well why did nobody tell me this earlier - I thought I was nuts...or deaf LOL.

So next time I say "pardon" to you please speak clearly, not louder :)