November is Movember! Part three

Welcome to part 3 of November is Movember. For parts one and two see here. This time I would like to discuss Prostate cancer in some more detail.

Cheating!

In the last post I described the main prostate problems: infection of the prostate, non cancerous enlargement of the prostate and prostate cancer. Unfortunately each of the problems cause similar problems such as difficulty passing urine, reduced urine flow and a feeling of incomplete emptying of your bladder. Therefore if you develop any of these symptoms you should definitely go see your doctor for further advice and treatment.

Prostate cancer is caused by the uncontrolled growth of prostate gland cells. Sometimes the growth is slow; other times it can be a fast growing tumour. It is difficult to know which type you will develop. However you are more likely to develop cancer if

• you are over 50
• you have close relatives with prostate cancer or female relatives with breast cancer (due to inheriting a faulty gene)
• you are African-Caribbean or African American
• your diet is high in red meat, fat and dairy products.

In order to diagnose prostate cancer your GP or specialist doctor may do a blood test called a PSA test (which is never a stand alone test), digital rectal examination to examine your prostate, a prostate biopsy (where a needle is used to remove a small bit of your prostate to send for examination), an ultrasound using a small device inserted through your rectum or even a CT scan/MRI/bone scan to see if the cancer has spread to your bones. It is important to present early to your doctor if you have any complaints as things are always so much better if detected early on rather than late in the game! It took me a while to convince my dear Dad of this!!!!

Treatment may include actively monitoring the tumour (particularly if it slow growing), surgery or non surgical treatments like radiotherapy, hormone therapy and chemotherapy. For more information see these sites

- The Prostate Cancer Charity

- Movember

- BUPA

If you missed out on Movember this year, be sure to participate next year. You can also show solidarity for bros with Mos by contributing to the various sites.

Have a great day!

Outfit inspiration: Conference Chic

Hello Hello
I hope you all had a lovely week. Last week was yet another crazy week for me (poor Adelphi is working overtime) and this week will not be any different! Anyways I am heading off to an academic conference in Manchester and so thought it was a good opportunity to share with you how I hope to project a serious image (yeah right) while hopefully looking fabulous at the same time. I will be presenting a poster as well as participating in a 1 hour session on 'Successful Fellowship Applications' where I will be playing the role of a good candidate :-) To make matters worse, they emailed at the last minute to say that they want to film the session (eeeeeeeeeeek) so I guess I have to look decent for the cameras!!!!!! We are being put up in the The Midland hotel which seems totally awesome (and best of all one night is completely free). In addition to the usual academic stuff, there will be an evening meal (smart casual) so I shall have to pack to suit.

As far as I am concerned, it is important to look professional while at the same time be remembered. There will be a lot of other people there so I don't want to disappear into the background. Plus, I am being filmed (and observed by others) so I will need to be comfortable and confident at the same time. Here's what I am hoping will set me up and make me stand out, while fitting in!!!

Here is my list.........
♥ 1 striped shift dress with belt -M&S

Image

♥ 1 black (or purple or red) shift dress -Hobbs (I really do have all 3 colours as it is so classic)
♥ 1 toga dress- Isabella Oliver



Image


♥ 1 black cardigan
♥ 3 pairs of shoes- black Mary Janes, black knee high boots and super comfy shoes just in case things get lively after dinner...... I am hoping for a ceilidh........

Image

♥ 3 pairs of tights, one black, one purple and one shimmery/metallic
♥ Union Jack clutch
♥ underclothing and toiletries
♥ Ciccia make up bag and makeup
♥ contact lens and spares, saline and cleaning solution
♥ 1 nightdress and polka dot bedroom slippers
♥ my iPad see here

♥ my new Pocket Panama filofax (recently acquired in last weekend's Philofaxy meet up for Filofax addicts like myself). It is so lovely it will definitely get its own post!



Doesn't it look professional?



I will be wearing my lovely black coat, boots and a sweater dress to travel so I wont have to pack any of those items........ I shall also be using my very large Radley A4 bag (which can handle a beating!) and my lovely purple leather gloves. I have decided against using my precious birthday/Christmas present from DH (yes it came early hehe) as it had an outing to a one day conference last week.

And here is my plan
Day 1- wear the lovely striped shift dress with my black knee high boots and black tights. For the dinner change to the toga dress with my shimmery tights and Union Jack clutch (this is different to one I initially featured here as more suitable to colder temperatures).

Day 2- If I choose to go with the black shift dress wear it with Mary Jane's, purple tights and a brooch to liven it up.

I will be using this very lovely travel bag from M&S in red to tote all my stuff. It is so vibrant and always cheers me up. Also it is like a tardis and many colleagues have wondered how I manage to fit all my stuff in there. I thought it was also really good value for money.

So that's it for now. Wish me luck!!!

PS I am working on a special project which I hope to share with you very soon!
PPS You may have already realised my special project (came on live earlier than I expected)!!! I have other posts scheduled for tomorrow and Wednesday but I will reveal ALL about my new look on Thursday!!

My Superb Spots Filofax

Good afternoon everyone
It has been snowing today (yay!) so I decided it would be best to stay in, snuggle up and keep warm :-) Also after all the excitement of last Saturday (see here) I needed a special 'day of rest'. I also thought it would be nice to share pictures of my superb spots Filofax which I acquired about 3-4 weeks ago. At that time I was supposed to be on a self imposed filo ban.......... which obviously didn't last when I saw this lovely little planner on ebay with pen included for a great price! So out came the credit card and this little baby was mine, much to my delight and DH's disgust (I can still hear his groan)............... hahaha.

I am a very organised person and I enjoy planning things. However I found that having to use my work Adelphi/ Butterfly to plan hobbies and activities was actually a bit of a no-no as I would see my busy work schedule and continue thinking about work. Therefore I would never totally relax as I would sub consciously still be planning how I would get my work done that week and never fully unwind. So I needed to make a clean break. While I could still list fun things in my work filos to cheer me up during the week, as soon as I left the office I would only refer to my fun filofax! And so dear readers, this is where my new planner comes in.

Last year I also managed to miss a lot of the fun Christmas activities such as carol concerts, Christmas markets etc. This happened because I did not plan the dates in advance and when I finally got round to it the markets had closed, concert tickets were sold out ......which was extremely annoying.  I decided that I could put at least some of the effort that I put into work into play and so DH and I have lots of fun things to do this December although I am not travelling back to the Caribbean. I have also made lists of all the presents for my family I collected through the year so I should remember to take them all to my brother for him to transport on my behalf (thanks big bro!) My birthday is next Sunday so I have a weekend full of fun to look forward to as well!

Here are the pics......

Lovely spots design. Bright and colourful so ideal for fun!

Open view. The pink mini pen came included. The entire lot cost as much as the pen costs on the Filofax UK site.

Train times for next Saturday's trip to Bath :-)

For 2011 I will be using a pink week on 2 pages but alas I could not find one for 2010 this late.

My Christmas/ Bday list. I have already received all my presents. Hehe.

My Christmas list for my family :-)



My favourite academic fashion blogs.



Open back view. I added a zipped wallet for coins.

Closed back view.

The way I use it is quite simple. I have the following tabs
Diary- Week on 2 pages diary in pink for 2011
Notes- Keeps my Christmas lists currently
Information- Keeps lists of my favourite blogs by area: academic fashion, fashion other, filofaxes and planners, medical, other generic
Financial- Aim to start making notes of my spend!
Addresses- Need to get my friends' most up to date postal addresses to send cards
A-Z tabs- currently holding London Underground Map, British isles map and World map.

So that's it. I hope you enjoyed reading. Does anyone else keep a 'fun' filofax or am I just a bit anal?? Also I cannot find this design on the official Filofax websites so is it an old design that they have stopped making or a new one?

Have a lovely weekend :-)

Inspirational quotes: smile

Well I am still smiling from the great time I had at the Philofaxy London meet up last Saturday (see here). So to end the week with a bang here is a rather long (but lovely) smile quote for you to enjoy!

'A smile costs nothing but gives much.  It enriches those who receive without making poorer those who give.  It takes but a moment, but the memory of it sometimes lasts forever.  None is so rich or mighty that he cannot get along without it and none is so poor that he cannot be made rich by it.  Yet a smile cannot be bought, begged, borrowed, or stolen, for it is something that is of no value to anyone until it is given away.  Some people are too tired to give you a smile.  Give them one of yours, as none needs a smile so much as he who has no more to give.'  ~Author Unknown

Have a Fabulous Friday and remember to smile!

Good advice!

Winner of the 2nd Royal Giveaway with CSN stores

Thank you so much for participating in the 2nd Royal Giveaway with CSN stores. This competition was quite simple. I just wanted to know 3 things that made you happy. Here is a list of everyone's comments combined. It made me smile and I am sure it will cheer you up too!

Family

My 6 month old's smile
My husband's laugh

My granddaughter's smile
My family

My little one's giggle

My husband when he holds me

Just seeing my children happy

When my husband and children are happy

The peaceful expression on my kids sleeping faces, when I check on them late at night, before I'm heading to bed.

Environment and Nature

A crisp fall day

My resident blackbird tapping on my window for her food

Walking on a beach

A hike trough the woods through snow-covered paths, and while it's still snowing
Butterflies

A crisp winter's morning

Watching the birds feeding at my bird table

Pets

Our Dalmatian mix dog, going all nutty over an old ball

Watching the antics of our kitten chasing an imaginary mouse around the house

 

Hobbies

Baking bread

Tobogganing

Knitting

Relaxation and Entertainment

A good night's sleep

Snuggling up with a good read

A good book
The feel of clean cotton sheets when you hop into a freshly made bed

Watching a movie with the family on a cold winters evening, snuggled under quilts with the fire on sipping a cup of tea

A good costume drama on the TV

Food and Drink

Chocolate cake
Roast dinner...that I’ve not cooked lol

Hot tea

Having a meal with friends

Hot chocolate

My husband's homemade chocolate brownie

Thanks to everyone who participated in the Giveaway.The winner is.......

True Random Number Generator

Min:

Max:

 Result: 3 Powered by RANDOM.ORG

So well done Twinklenicci on winning the £30 gift voucher. Please contact me on caribbeanprincessmusings@gmail.com to find out how to claim it.

Enjoy the rest of the day!

The Philofaxy London Meet Up 2010 part two

Good morning everyone
This is part two of my post on the wonderful London meet up for Filofax fans organised by Philofaxy. For part one see here. I am still buzzing from the amount of fun I had that afternoon, so I simply must share some pictures from the visit to the Filofax store on Neal Street............

After the meal we had about a 40 min walk over from the Cafe at Tate Modern to Neal Street. It was another wonderful opportunity to chat with everyone and I also had some really interesting non Filofax conversations. Honestly by this time it felt as though people were long lost friends (although I had only met them 2 hours before). Such is the power of having a shared interest :-) Blogging is such a powerful networking tool!

Here are the photos



A little bit of Filofax heaven :-)




Finchleys, Adelphis, Hearts and Chameleons




Maldens and Chameleons




A variety!




Kendal and Aqua Finsbury. I love the aqua colour. Very vibrant!




Classic with red trim- even DH commented that he liked this one.




My dream filofax. The Deco. I actually preferred the Ruby to the Amethyst colour which surprised me as I am usually a purple girl!


In the store we had fun browsing through the display items and chatting with everyone. We basically took over the store! It was good to see the filofaxes up close and be able to touch (and stroke them, I am very tactile) as it helped me to realise that the Ruby Deco is the one for me instead of the Amethyst. Other people came to similar realisations, for example Saffy realised that she didn't quite like the actual colour of the Spring Green Chameleon that much although she had been dreaming of it for ages.

As I am Ms Organised, I had a list of what I wanted to get in my Butterfly filofax (previously discussed here). This included a Personal Travel Pack, Pocket London Underground Map and British Isles map, a Personal Heart filofax for the lovely Debbie (who shared her Mode filofax here and here) and assorted sticky notes. There was also a maroon Pocket Panama going for a steal of a deal. And BEST OF ALL if you bought something in the store, you were given an extra special treat/ goody bag!





My goody bag! There was no chance of me leaving this baby on the train ;-)



But I am going to be a bit cruel........... And make you wait to find out the contents of my goody bag. Hehe. But let's just say that I was really really pleased. I couldn't smile any wider......... (well without decapitating my head!)

A little bit of suspense is good for the heart! 

Have a terrific Tuesday. The winner of the 2nd Royal Giveaway will be announced on Thursday!

The Philofaxy London Meet Up 2010 part one

Hello everyone
I hope you are having a superb Sunday :-) I just wanted to share with you some photos of the wonderful afternoon I spent with other Filofax addicts aficionados and bloggers in London yesterday. I had a great time and I think everyone else who attended did as well.

So after my rather long commute to London (due to rail replacement works) I finally ended up at the Cafe at the Tate Modern at about 1:20 pm on a rather gloomy day (even for England). It was cold and wet and I was absolutely freezing. I was also slightly nervous by that time, but as soon as I heard the 'We're over here caribbean princess', followed by loads of giggles, I felt at home!

Everyone was really warm and friendly and after the introductions and waiting for a few more people, we went in to our reserved table. I ordered the pork belly with mashed potato and gravy, which was absolutely delicious and chocolate cake for dessert. With drinks included the meal came up to £18 each, which I thought was very good for London. 

Our chatting was lively and animated, particularly so when we started looking at each other's filofaxes before pudding. There were some really amazing filofaxes that I had never seen before such as the Gharani Strok (designer inspired) and the Gunmetal Tecnic (extremely sci fi but I loved the grey inserts).

Here are some pictures from the meal.



Before the meal







Lovely ladies, three in a row!




All smiles!





These ladies are so creative! I am inspired (messed up the lighting though)




My adopted sister! :-) From my part of the world.....







With Steve (Philofaxy) and Alison doing the Filofax 'F'

 



The Gharani Strok Filofax


As you can tell (by the fact that I was grinning like a Chesire cat in all the photos) I was extremely happy and excited! You can read a short summary on the Philofaxy site here. Remember to tune in for part two, to read more about the fun we had at the Neal Street Filofax Store............

Yay yay yay!!!

Updated 19.30 21/11/10. Have a look on the Philofaxy website here if you want to see even more pictures of me looking extremely excited and Steve's excellent and more detailed review of the day!

Six reasons why............. I am smiling today!

1. Today is Saturday and after a ridiculously hectic week at work I finally get some ME time to reboot.
2. It is only 2 weeks until my birthday when I get to celebrate another year of life on this wonderful planet!
3. I have amazing family and friends who care about me as much as I care about them!
4. I have a roof over my head, clothes on my back and enough to eat and drink :-) And enough handbags to supply a small country!
5. Although I sometimes complain, I actually do LOVE my job! I work with some inspiring academics who are excellent career role models.
6. You guys :-) The support for my blog has been wonderful and I really appreciate it. I love reading your comments and get so excited whenever there is a new one. You all are simply amazing.


I could go on and on but I shall stick to six this time around. Remember to enter my GIVEAWAY see here and share 3 things that make you happy. The competition closes at 4 pm tomorrow. 


For Filofax addicts, you may be pleased to know that I am off to meet some of my favourite bloggers for the Philofaxy Meet Up as well as visit the Filofax Neal Street Store. I am soooooooooooooooooooo EXCITED!!!! I look forward to sharing my experiences later on in the week.


Let's hope I can actually get to London with all the dire rail replacement works on........... Wish me luck!

Inspirational quotes: fashion

These quotes from Coco Chanel

A girl should be two things: classy and fabulous.

A woman has the age she deserves.

Don't spend time beating on a wall, hoping to transform it into a door.

In order to be irreplaceable one must always be different.



Image Coco Avant Chanel Grazia

Have a fabulous Friday and remember to enter the Giveaway here!

Fabulous Finds 4: Ciccia

Good morning everyone :-)
I hope you are having a wonderful Wednesday. I just wanted to share another Fabulous Find with you all. You know I love handbags and accessories and you know that I especially love my Radley handbags! For those outside of the UK who have never heard of Radley you don't know what you're missing.  Currently they are doing the most fabulous 3 for 2 deals online so of course I took up that offer and sorted my birthday and Christmas presents to myself all at once!! 

Anyways I digress.  Today is not about my love of Radley and that cute little Scottish terrier tag. It is actually about Ciccia (pronounced Chee-Cha I think), although I could be wrong about the pronounciation as I am not Italian! Ciccia's designs have a very Radley- esque feel to them, probably as the designer Ruth Pinnock was a senior Radley designer before she set off to do her own thing. The little dog has been replaced by a little cat and the handbags are also quite fun and adorable! I am not a cat person myself (I am allergic to them and in summer we had problems with the neighbour's cats wanting to use my front lawn as a toilet after we got it nicely gravelled.......aaaarghhhhhh), but if it is a little leather kitty attached to a beautiful handbag then I don't mind them so much!!!

So I ordered a couple of these handbags from the internet and I have to say I was really pleased with the quality of them and their quirkiness. Although I usually go for BIG bags (size measured by DH being able to comfortably fit his head in them), I bought some grab bags this time so I could use when I was out and about doing errands. I also got myself a cute little mirror, a makeup bag and a coin purse. Here are some pics of my fabulous finds




Flower field grab bag. Also comes in cream and pastel blue.

 

Flower field make up bag

  

Butterfly coin purse




Butterfly mirror



 Other beauties from the web include

Hanging flower grab bag

Bead grab bag

Ciccia in the rain bag

Catman and Robin bag

There are lots more quirky designs to choose from and if you just google Ciccia handbags you will find many options. I think one of their handbags or accessories would make a lovely Christmas present for someone with a good sense of humour or who is a bit quirky. I look forward to using these little bags as they are sure to make me a smile on a gloomy winter day.

What do you think? Popular opinion ranges from cute and charming to Radley rip off!!

;-)

Remember to enter the Giveaway if you are from the UK see this link here.

Second Royal Giveaway with CSN Stores

Hello everyone!
Are you excited it's Monday? Well you should be as I am having my 2nd Royal Giveaway with CSN stores this week!! It is a way of saying thank you for being so wonderful and reading my blog. Now I have an obsession with lovely things (as you may have realised). CSN stores has amazing online stores where you can find everything from beautiful bedroom furniture to cookware to chic lighting pieces! I am sure you would find something fantastic there :-)




A beautiful bedroom


How to enter
All you need to do is answer a simple question. Please post your response as a comment and ensure that I can contact you. The giveaway is for UK readers only this time, or for anyone who can access a UK postcode!

The prize is a £30 gift voucher to spend on any item you want from any of CSN's 6 UK websites. 

So on to the competition........

All you have to do is list three little (or big) things that make you happy. You can read my posts on happiness here. It could be anything from phoning your family, exercise, shopping, laughing with friends, chocolate, your children........ Anything! Share it with us all please!

The winner will be chosen by random so please don't comment more than once. The competition closes on Sunday 21st November at 4pm. The winner will be announced on the following Monday or Tuesday :-)

Have a lovely day!

Scrapbooking 4: How to create your layout

Hello Hello
For those of you interested in Scrapbooking, I have not forgotten you! It is just that I always seem to have so much to talk about :-) Anyways I have been busy creating more layouts in the meantime and I wanted to share some tips on creating a wonderful layout.
Please see my other posts on scrapbooking here, for more information on an introduction to scrapbooking, examples of a single page layout from a Becky Fleck pagemap and how I created a Craft-o-fax from an A5 Domino.

Here are some useful steps to creating a wonderful layout

Step1. Choose your pictures. It is important to choose the photos that you want in your layout. Many people allow themselves to be overwhelmed as they have so many pictures. Don't worry and start with a couple of your favourites.

Step2. Choose a theme for your layout. You can decide whether it will be on a wedding, honeymoon, birth of a child, graduation, holiday, birthday etc. What is the story you want to tell your viewers now as well as the people looking at in in 10-20 years time?

Step3. Choose a colour scheme. There are many colour matching tools and colour wheels out there. Choose colours that complement your photos and decide which papers will go with it. This can be made easier by purchasing scrap kits which comes with matching cardstock, papers and embellishments.

Step4. Use embellishments according to your style and taste. This can be stickers, ribbons, buttons, stamps etc. Some people like to be fussy while others are more minimalist in style. Do what works for YOU!

Step5. Complete your layout. This basically means putting it all together. I find using page maps or layout sketches most useful. I love Becky Fleck's page maps (see here) and her blog! She has a great book as well and I have pre-ordered her second one from Amazon UK.

For more ideas and lessons you can check websites such as Scrapbook.com :-)

Please enjoy my first double page layout with pictures of me on my honeymoon in Wales! The flowers I made by hand using a technique (see video here). Click to enlarge photo. 



I messed up the flower on the left and was not too straight on my stamping. You live and learn! :-)

 Have a great weekend!

Inspirational quotes: happiness

Here are three quotes on the subject of happiness for you to mull over

"Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful." Albert Schweitzer

"Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, worn or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace and gratitude." Denis Waitley

"Happiness is a state of mind not what's in your wallet."  Byron Pulsifer

Have a great day! I am off to get my hair braided tomorrow :-)

Also I have a treat for you, my wonderful readers coming soon! Look out for it!

TGIF!!!

In pursuit of happiness: Part two- The Life Wheel

I am allergic to cats but this picture always makes me smile!

Hello everyone
Last week (see previous post here), I talked about the importance of maintaining good mental and physical health, as well as the need to make time in our busy lives to focus on ourselves. I have always been quite a reflective person, becoming more so as I get older. However I have tended to focus more on aspects of work/career and family/relationships, and so lately I decided that there were other important elements of my life that I needed to work on to improve myself.

Now this blog post is titled 'In pursuit of happiness'. But what is happiness exactly? We all want to be happy but what exactly does this mean? Am I happy?............. Are you happy? Also my idea of happiness may be very different from DH's, or yours for that matter. I tend to think in a logical manner (except when shopping, then all rationale goes out the window) so I found it interesting to initially search for some definitions of happy. The list I found is as follows:

1.  feeling, showing or expressing joy; pleased
     happy and smiling person
2.  causing joy, pleasure or gladness
     my childhood was happy
3.  satisfied: feeling satisfied that something is right/ has been done correctly
     I am happy with my performance in that exam
4.  willing to do something
     Of course I would be happy to help
5.  fortunate, resulting in an unexpected joy
     It was a happy coincidence to bump into Beyonce at the mall (yeah right!)

Useful maybe but it doesnt really tell you much does it? Like me, you may want some kind of structure to help identify how you're doing in the different but important aspects of your life right now. This where a tool called the Life Wheel (Wheel of Life) comes in. Some of you may be familiar with this. However for others, including myself, it may be really helpful.

So here is a picture of a Life Wheel (there are many versions), which is used by many people who do professional coaching. I cannot afford a professional coach, so I will have to make do with a DIY version. Many of these tools are freely available on the internet so I will provide some links at the end of this post.




The Life Wheel


The Life Wheel is great as it gives you a bird's eye visual of where you are in your life right now.  It is an easy and quick way of identifying what areas you are doing well in and others that need a bit more work to bring things back into balance. These segments aren't fixed in stone so you can mix and mend as you choose. Certain areas such as work/career, health, family and friends, finance should definitely be there but you can be flexible with the others. For example you may want to add spiritual growth, although this could easily be included in a personal growth section as well.

How to use the Life Wheel
Step 1 Assess your life in each of the segments and give yourself a score from 1-10 (1= minimum score, 10= maximum score).
Step 2 Connect the marks with each other to form a continuous line (should look like a spider's web)
Step 3 Reflect on the shape of your life wheel. Celestine Chua in her personal excellence blog (see here) describes 4 general shapes.
(i) A constricted web with mainly low scores showing that you are facing a lot of limitations (which she decribes as self limitations, i.e. you are probably holding yourself back)
(ii) A lopsided web i.e. with some high scores and low scores (showing that you have some good areas but other areas that need focus)
(iii) A broad web with high scores in general (which means you are doing well but of course there is always room for improvement!)
(iv) A complete circle with all maximum scores (which means everything is just perfect). This is something that we should aspire to, however it is an ideal situation and in reality you can always identify how you can do something even better!

So will you do your life wheel? Are there any tools that you have implemented in your life? Please share if you have done so. My wheel is in between lopsided and broad, depending on how harsh I am being on myself :-) But I found it really really helpful!

If I have sparked your interest and you want to read more check out these posts
-  Mind Tools- Essential skills for an excellent career see (here)
- Celestine Chua- The Personal Excellence Blog. How are you faring in your life now? (see here).

Also I do plan to share at some point in the future how I have been using 2 of my trusty filofaxes for inspiration and achieving personal excellence.

Have a happy day........

November is Movember! Part two

Welcome back to part two of November is Movember! Have any of you risen to the challenge that I described in part one (see here)? If not, here is some more inspiration

I wonder if he needs a licence for this Mo!

Last year more than 45,000 men (and women) took part in Movember UK and raised £5 million in 30 days for prostate cancer. Worldwide those figures were even higher and almost £26 million was raised.

However there is a serious issue behind all the fun associated with Movember. Every year 36,000 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer in the UK and countless more worldwide. Many families are affected (my dad included) and so this cause is very special to me!

Today I will give you some information about the prostate and the main prostate problems. In part three I will focus more on prostate cancer.

The Prostate
Only men have a prostate gland. Normally it is a small, walnut sized gland that sits under the bladder and in front of the rectum. The urethra (which is the narrow tube that carries both urine and semen out of the body) runs through this gland. Although the prostate is not essential for life, it has several main functions such as making the fluid that helps to ensure the survival and nutrition of sperm. The gland can get bigger with age, pressing on the urethra, which can cause men to have problems passing urine. You can read more about the prostate on the Prostate Cancer Foundation site here.

Prostate problems
There are three main problems affecting the prostate gland. They are as follows:
1. Non cancerous enlargment of the prostate (called Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia or BPH).
2. Inflammation or infection of the prostate (called Prostatitis). It is the most common cause of urinary tract infections in men.
3. Prostate cancer.

Symptoms
Each of the problems can cause similar symptoms, see below. Prostate cancer and BPH usually affect older men, but young men can also be diagnosed with cancer. The common symptoms are as follows:
- weak or reduced urine flow
- passing urine more often (called frequency)
- feeling like you haven't emptied your bladder properly
- difficulty in passing urine (hesitancy)
- pain when passing urine (dysuria)
- testicular pain
- pain when ejaculating

Please remember to see your GP if you have any concerns about experiencing these symptoms. It is always better to sort out a problem earlier than later!

Join me next time for another Movember post..........

Take care!

Debbie's Marvellous Mode Filofax part two

Good morning everyone. I hope you are all prepared for the week ahead! This is part two of my guest feature on Debbie's marvellous Mode filofax (read here for part one) and I bet you can't wait to see the rest of photos. This post will feature how it has been decorated and it may provide inspiration for some of you! 

So here we go.......  



Front cover- So cheery during the dark winter mornings and evenings!



Close up of the front page. Lots of cute stickers and hearts. Debbie wanted her name on show and she is right to feel proud of her handiwork :-)



The 'Thinking' Index contains all the quotes she finds inspiring.

The financial planner (Debbie has her head firmly on her shoulders, and knows she needs to budget for her shopping trips!). It is written in Portuguese.

This index keeps all of her passwords.



This index keeps her lists of craft items that she wants to purchase and craft ideas. It also holds a list of names of all her Brazilian friends who she wants to make cards for before her trip home and extra pastel coloured note pages. She is really into card making and will probably also start Scrapbooking (my influence for the latter hehe).



This index holds postal addresses and emails for her contacts.

I really like how she used little stickers to cover over the numbered tabs. It is great how everything is organised so well and I would like to thank Debbie for sharing her personal filofax with all of us. I will probably feature another filofax from Debbie in the future as I am planning to get her the Hearts filofax (see here) for Christmas to say thanks for all her hard work. Don't tell her though!

Have a lovely day :-)