Monthly Archive for March, 2022

5 Ways to Make Your Easter Celebrations More Fun!

Published
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George
on March 23, 2022
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Easter is just around the corner, and traditions and celebrations for it are different around the world. However you celebrate it, here are our top 5 ways to make Easter fun this year, for all ages!

Easter Eggschange

It’s common to give gifts in lots of different holidays, but Easter is one where gift-giving isn’t something that is usually done. This is why we think participating in an ‘Easter Eggschange’ is a great idea.

It is just like a Secret Santa, but at Easter. A group of people anonymously buy each other gifts and exchange them. You can even create a theme, for example the gift has to somehow relate to Easter and see where people go with it.

Egg Hunt

Egg hunts are common around the UK and are easy to organise. Just buy a few hollow eggs, put little gifts or treats inside and hide them around a specific location such as the house or garden.

Then set friends or family off, looking around for them and winning the treats. You can even have a grand prize for the person who collects the most eggs.

Easter Games

There are many egg themed games you can play. Our favourites include:

Egg and Spoon Race: Simple and classic. All competitors place an egg on a spoon and then race each other across a specified distance. You can make it more sophisticated, by adding rules such as, if an egg falls and cracks, then the racer is eliminated from the race. Or why not make it an egg and spoon obstacle race to make it more of a challenge.

Egg Toss: Simple. Throw an egg as far as you can, without it breaking. Furthest distance tossed with the egg still un-cracked wins.

Easter Piñata: Fill up an Easter themed Piñata with mini chocolate eggs, sweets and treats. Everyone takes turns to hit it and then dive in and scoop up as many treats as possible.

Chocolate for Breakfast

Have you ever eaten chocolate for breakfast? We here at Infero can neither confirm or deny that we have ever guzzled Cadburys instead of cereal. What we can say is that while it’s not something that is a good idea to do everyday, maybe it is ok, as a special treat for Easter. After all, Easter eggs have been on sale at ridiculously low prices since January and if you find yourself with one too many come the day itself, then just this once, why not?

We won’t tell if you don’t.

Paint and Colour an egg

A fun tradition among children at school is to paint and/or colour eggs as the Easter holidays approach, but who says kids have to have all the fun.

Why not continue this tradition into adulthood and create a eggs-raordinary work of art. Create a few eggs in this way and you can even use these as part of your egg hunt, so the treats come inside a beautifully decorated egg. Or use a giant egg for eggs-tra eggs-travagance.

Enjoy Easter!

Why Guitar is THE instrument to learn this month!

Published
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George
on March 16, 2022
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Good news for music lovers everywhere. It’s time to celebrate an instrument that is essential for most modern genres; the guitar. April is International Guitar month, which started in 1987 and has grown in scale since then, and now has an increasing emphasis on guitar instruction. So if you don’t know how to play the guitar, but have always wanted to, it’s the perfect excuse to learn! 

A Brief History 

Today, the guitar is one of the most popular instruments because it is versatile, portable and affordable. It is relatively easy to learn and is the basis of most popular rock and pop music, making it one of the most visible instruments to music fans of all kinds.

Antecedents of the guitar can be found from over three thousand years ago and the term previously referred to instruments used across Europe, beginning in the 12th century and, later, in the Americas.

The form and structure of the modern guitar was established circa 1850 in Spain by different Spanish makers with the most important, possibly, being  Antonio Torres Jurado who increased the size of the guitar body, altered its proportions, and invented the breakthrough fan-braced pattern. This improved the volume, tone, and projection of the instrument, and it has remained essentially unchanged since.

The earliest first-fully functioning solid-body electric guitar to be manufactured and sold was released in 1932 and the development of this instrument, so beloved in popular music, continued in the forties, until we had the instrument that we know today.

How to Celebrate 

Buy a Guitar: International Guitar Month is the perfect opportunity to start learning the instrument. There may be discounts from retailers in April, so keep a look out for these. 

Learn How to Play: Find a teacher, either a friend or a professional, to help you get to grips with the basics, or enrol in a guitar class. The beauty of a guitar as an instrument, however, is that it is relatively easy to grasp the basics and many guitar players are self-taught. So why not teach yourself.

Attend a Music Festival/Concert: If listening is more your thing, go see live artists and appreciate the lyricism and magic that a guitar can create in the hands of a virtuoso. The guitar is recognized as a primary instrument in nearly every popular music genre, including blues, bluegrass, country, flamenco, folk, jazz, jota, mariachi, metal, punk, reggae, rock, soul, and pop. There is something for everyone.

Delve Deeper Into Guitar History, Schedule your OWN concert and perhaps Listen To More Guitar Music, using your favourite streaming service, in the comfort of your own home.

Write a Song: Pen a love song, a protest song, a song about the times we live in, an instrumental, a prog-rock epic, or a gentle acoustic ballad – it doesn’t matter.

Fun Guitar facts: 

  • The world’s biggest functioning guitar is 13 meters long, each string plays the correct note. 
  • On the other hand, the shortest Guitar is only 10 macrons, this one is less playable. 
  • The most expensive guitar ever sold for £2.8 Million, raising funds for charity after a tsunami in India. 
  • James Rowling, in 2020, managed to balance a guitar on his chin for 1 hour and 7 seconds, setting a new world record.  

If you’d like help in managing your work-life balance, so you have time to learn guitar, check out our time management courses or read our blog on how you can Fix Your time Management with These 5 Apps!

Hope: Harness the Emotion That Keeps Us Going.

Published
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George
on March 9, 2022
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Hope is often seen as one of the most important emotions in life in life. Defined as an optimistic state of mind based on an expectation of positive outcomes, hope is something that we all have to a greater or lesser extent.

hope/

1.a feeling of expectation and desire for a particular thing to happen.

Oxford Languages

Hope is portrayed as a great motivator in films, TV shows and literature, and psychological studies have shown that hope can, indeed, be of great benefit to us, but only when the thing we hope for is based on a realistic sense of optimism, not on a naïve “false hope”.

In the USA, April is the National Month of Hope and celebrates the power of this emotion. As the days get lighter and warmer and spring really arrives, hope seems to come a little easier.

History: 

The National Month of Hope is the result of the work of the not-for-profit organisation, Mothers In Crisis, Inc. Beginning as a support group for women, the organisation expanded into community-based prevention and intervention for drug rehabilitation. Mothers in Crisis was founded by Rosalind Tompkins in 1991, herself a recovered addict.

Mothers In Crisis, Inc. supports women and families. It’s hope campaign encourages the sharing of stories of hope to help families ripped apart by addiction and this, in turn, led to the recognition of April as the month of hope in 2018.

How to Celebrate: 

Here a few ways you can help spread hope and kindness around your community: 

  • Volunteer by reading to children in schools or a library. 
  • Experience meaningful and healthy communication with loved ones, family, friends, co-workers, and colleagues. 
  • Giving of time, food, and money to help families in need. 
  • Post on social media words of hope, you never know who needs those extra words of encouragement. 
  • Sharing your story of overcoming with those who are going through hard times, can inspire them or show that times can get better. 
  • Lending a helping hand to those in need, can be as simple as carrying someone’s shopping.
  • Cleaning up areas where there is litter such as parks, beaches and any green spaces.
  • Spend a day with the homeless whether on the streets or at a homeless shelter or food bank.

There is no doubt that hope is an important thing in people’s lives and the psychologist Charles R. Snyder has argued that hope should be viewed as a cognitive skill that demonstrates an individual’s ability to maintain drive and motivation in the pursuit of a particular goal.

Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul and sings the tune without the words and never stops at all.

— Emily Dickinson

There have even been some studies that have shown that hope can play an important part in the recovery process from illness; it has strong psychological benefits for patients, helping them to cope more effectively with their disease.

Hope is the thing with feathers, as Emily Dickinson said, and a little bit of hope is good for us all.

Protecting The Animals You Love With Prevention Of Cruelty To Animals Month

Published
by
George
on March 2, 2022
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. 0 Comments

Across the UK it is estimated that 44% of households own some sort of pet, whether that be a dog, cat or something else. Unfortunately, it’s also estimated that around 1 million reports of animal abuse are recorded a year. That number should be zero.

Recent legislation has much improved protection for animals, but there is still much to be done. 

What’s Been Done So Far? 

The Animal Welfare Act 2006 is the latest animal welfare legislation in England and Wales. It superseded and consolidated more than 20 other pieces of legislation, such as the Protection of Animals Act 1934 and the Abandonment of Animals Act 1960. Prior to this Act, animal welfare law was largely reactive and action could only be taken once an animal had suffered unnecessarily.

The 2006 Act introduced the important concept of a duty of care that animal owners have, whether those animals are pets or commercial animals, to ensure they care for their animals properly. In practical terms this means that an owner must ensure that an animal has:

  • A suitable environment
  • A suitable diet
  • Is able to exhibit normal behaviour patterns
  • Is housed with, or apart, from other animals, as the particular animal’s needs dictate.
  • Is protected from pain, suffering, injury and disease.

The penalties for breaking this act originally included being banned from owning pets in the future, facing a fine or a sentence of a maximum of 6 months in prison. Many critics of the law argued these penalties were not enough and, after campaigning by organisations such as the RSPCA, the law had was amended in 2021 so that those guilty of the worse offences could face an unlimited fine or a maximum of 5 years imprisonment.  

Other regulations have been put onto the stature books since the Animal Welfare Act of 2006, including the Welfare of Farmed Animals (England) Regulations 2007 which set minimum welfare standards for farm animals generally, but many would argue that this is still not enough. 

There’s More to Be Done 

Animal rights in the UK have advanced in recent years, but with that estimated one million reports of animal abuse a year, Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Month is an opportunity to educate ourselves and others as to what we can do to help our furry companions. 

Fox Hunting 

Whilst Fox hunting is illegal in England, Scotland and Wales, it isn’t illegal in Northern Ireland meaning many foxes are still ripped apart by dogs as a sport in this part of the UK. In fact it is estimated that around 400,000 foxes are killed a year across the UK as a whole, as shooting foxes as a pest is still legal.  

Despite the ban on hunting in England, Scotland and Wales, there has been an increase in membership of the Masters of Foxhounds Association (MFHA) which currently represents 176 active foxhound packs in England and Wales and 10 in Scotland.  Illegal hunt still continue and there are many loopholes in the law that allow the killing of foxes by hunting packs. The legislation needs to be strengthened and properly enforced to stop this barbaric an cruel ‘sport’.

Breeding 

Whilst there is nothing inherently wrong with breeding pets such as dogs, the over breeding of pedigree animals can cause long term health issues and the main priority should be animals health and wellbeing rather than achieving a perfect look.  

Pugs, for example, have for years been bred to achieve flatter features, but as a consequence many individuals of the breed have issues with breathing. This affects their ability to exercise, causing knock-on effects to their health as a whole.  

What Can We do? 

Participate in Prevention to Animal Cruelty Month by: 

  • Signing petitions, whether it be to create further protections for animals or to bring in new legisalation where the law is still lacking. Write to your MP. If enough of us act, it could make a difference. 
  • Consider adopting your next pet from a shelter rather than a breeder. Perhaps you could take in an animal that has had bad treatment previously and help change an animal’s life by letting them live in a loving home. 
  • If you are going to get a pet from a breeder, try and find an one that is ethical and that prioritises the health of animals over making money. The RSPCA have a list of guidelines to help you find an ethical breeder. 
  • If you can’t adopt a new pet, perhaps you could donate some time or money to a local animal shelter, to help with to give unfortunate animals a second chance. Every little will help. 
  • We can also make small changes in the way we shop, by buying free range eggs, milk and other dairy products, and by trying to ensure that the food we buy is ethically sourced. Giving producers a financial incentive to treat animals ethically can only be a win-win.

 

Animals provide us with so much love, companionship and loyalty and make the world such a better place. They deserve a little bit of effort from us to help make their lives better.