This article was originally published on Hubpages in 2010. I'm slowly transferring all my old Hubpages articles to here. Bad at Arithmetic? Did you have serious problems trying to learn basic maths in school, or do you know of a child who is experiencing this? Have you heard of dyscalculia? This condition is akin to the much more widely known dyslexia. Whereas a dyslexic has word blindness, a dyscalculic person has number blindness. Some people have both. Number Blindness This means that anything requiring numbers, such as mental arithmetic, remembering phone numbers, using a calculator or understanding the mechanics of mathematics, is incredibly difficult. If a child, for example, is doing fine in other subjects like English, history, art, geography or biology, but struggles badly with scientific equations or the times table, then there is a possibility that dyscalculia may lie at the root of the problem. As well as having obvious numerical problems, a dyscalculic may also possess...

Do you keep a diary? Why did you start it, and, if you started one then stopped, why was that? What sort of things do (or did) you write about? I ask as, as a long-time diarist myself, there is an interesting piece in The Guardian today which talks about one woman's diary habit, which she began at the age of fourteen. I started a diary around that age too, but destroyed it after my mother accused me of using cocaine.  A stern scene followed, with both parents perched ram-rod straight in their armchairs, while I was subjected to a heated inquisition. Where had I bought it, and who from? Didn't I know such things led to death and doom? I struggled to decipher their bewildering accusations, until Mum blurted out, "I read it in your diary!" To find my diary, Mum would first have had to rummage through my dressing table, obviously when I wasn't around to protest. Her intrusion on my privacy was assumed by both parents to be acceptable, and now, with this handwritten c...

This article was originally published on Hubpages in 2010. I'm slowly transferring all my articles there to here. Filling in Character Charts While filling-in character charts might seem time-consuming, that investment of effort will pay back dividends. Not only will it save you time in the long term, but the process will help you to think carefully about your fictional character—who they are, how their life is, what their motives are, and what is important to them. Working through the chart will help flesh out your fictional character, making them more believable to readers. If you know your fictional character thoroughly, they will appear more alive and three-dimensional in print. Bring Characters to Life You may well find that you get fresh ideas for subplots, too, as you visualise the character more completely. I've found this to be the case on a number of occasions. You may not necessarily use all the details. For example, there is no need to pen an item-by-item descriptio...

This article was originally published on Hubpages in 2010. I'm going to slowly transfer all my Hubpages material to here. Pretty Ugly Pottery Overlooking the River Mersey stands a relatively new, spacious two-storey building once owned by Pretty Ugly Pottery. The ground floor offered a large pottery shop display area, a cafeteria, the Have-A-Go area where visitors could try their hand at making their own Ugly Mug, plus the production area itself. Everything was brand new, including the staff who spent a month travelling to Rhos-on-Sea in Wales to train at the pottery factory's original site on a small industrial estate. This older site had been making the world-famous Ugly Mugs for years already and was purely for production, fulfilling orders which were then sold at gift shops around Britain or shipped across to Europe and America. The Liverpool site attracted international visitors, school groups, special needs groups and coach-loads of tourists who could enjoy a guided tour ...

  This article was originally published on Hubpages in 2013. I'm going to slowly transfer all my Hubpages material to here, and this is piece the first of those. Making a DIY Frog Pond Is Fun! Garden ponds add a beautiful and peaceful focal point to any garden. They are easy to maintain and fun to watch, and if you have children, ponds can also be educational. Ponds allow you to do your bit for the environment. Certain aquatic plants are great for attracting moths, which are the perfect food for bats. Birds will bathe in the pool shallows. Water beetles will quickly move in and make themselves at home. And amphibians will prove to be fascinating, especially in spring when frogs and toads need ponds to breed in. Frogs and toads spend much of their lives out of water. However, they often prefer to be near water and will enjoy the shade provided by marginal plants. Building a Pond Building a pond is easier than you might assume. Amphibians need to be able to climb out of the water eas...