2013-05-19T03:37:06-04:00 Natalie de Winter http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/author/index.php?author=natalie-de-winter Copyright 2008, HuffingtonPost.com, Inc. HuffingtonPost Blogger Feed for Natalie de Winter Good old fashioned elbow grease. tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2013:/theblog//3.3127911 2013-04-21T12:41:12-04:00 2013-04-23T11:01:24-04:00

Natalie de Winter http://www.huffingtonpost.com/natalie-de-winter/ 3.8 million households. But for many, it's not merely a case of "Oh well I can't own, I'll rent". Many renters face a further hurdle; their pets.

Results from a 2012 Pet Food Manufacturers Association survey indicate 48% of UK households own a pet, up 2% from 2011. I'm no maths genius, but surely it's fair to surmise that with private rentals plus pet ownership on the rise, going forward, at least one or two applicants for each rental property will have a pet. But after being priced out of the home ownership market, pet owners face a time consuming, often fruitless search, and sometimes outright discrimination from both letting agents and landlords.

Few rental ads on the internet state pets are welcome. The bulk of them don't mention pets at all. Yesterday I resuscitated my dodgy maths skills and conducted a survey of my own. Using the popular property search engines Citylets, Rightmove and Gumtree, I searched properties in Edinburgh using criteria relevant to me. From 19 results on Rightmove, 15 didn't mention pets and 4 stated they weren't allowed. All 20 ads on Citylets mentioned pets, but there were 16 negatives, 2 affirmatives and 2 maybes. Of the 9 Gumtree properties (all agency ads), again none specified a pet policy.

I then rang a random selection of the agencies with no mention of pets and asked whether that omission in the ad therefore meant pets were acceptable. Most, of course, said that was incorrect, but had to check the individual property details to confirm. Others said it's possible some pets were allowed, but they'd have to consult with each landlord first. So not exactly clear-cut. If I'd stuck purely to the printed information, I'd only have a miserly 2 out of 48 flats to choose from. Ringing each agent, and sacrificing a couple extra hours, it's possible I might have at least increased that to say, five?

Judging from that very unscientific study, it's plain to see the vast majority of private landlords won't even consider a pet. I can only speak as a cat owner, but by ruling out pets altogether, I think landlords are blindly excluding a large pool of potentially great tenants.

I understand the reticence. You've paid a shed load for a property, you want it looked after. I once had to have an entire kitchen bench replaced because of tenant damage, so I've been there. I've heard much worse stories too. But none involve a cat. So why assume a pet will damage your property? How a pet behaves is down to its owner, much like with a child and its parents. I once rented a house with crayon drawings and stickers all over the walls. Did that owner think twice about renting to a young family? Probably not. But besides the slight hindrance of it being illegal, there'd be mass outrage if owners imposed a "no kids" restriction wouldn't there? As long as common sense has been applied in relation to pet size vs property size, with most property damage, people are at fault, not the pets.

What's most worrying is that such a bias against animals could mean a continued increase in a horrible new trend. The Battersea Dogs and Cats Home in London have reported hundreds of pets a year being abandoned because the owners struggle to find a rental property which accepts them. They in turn struggle to rehouse animals in such large numbers. To me, giving up a pet is unfathomable, not to mention abhorrent, but it clearly shows the depths of struggle some people are facing.

So, my advice to renters out there who own a moggy or doggy, and are finding the rental search all a bit difficult, is don't be afraid to ask. With my current Edinburgh property, I replied to a "no pets" ad and found the owner was actually fine with cats, but not dogs. So don't discount the perfect property for you just because the ad says no pets. In the meantime, maybe real estate agents and landlords will stop being so narrow-minded and realise pets can sometimes be better tenants than humans. Most importantly, a change in attitude on this issue will hopefully save more pets the agony, and possible death sentence, that comes with abandonment.]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2013:/theblog//3.2754788 2013-02-24T14:13:56-05:00 2013-04-26T05:12:01-04:00

Natalie de Winter http://www.huffingtonpost.com/natalie-de-winter/
1 - Logistics

If you want to get somewhere in London, you can rely on this.

If you want to get somewhere in London on time, never rely on this.

2 - Greetings

Forget 'hello'. You will be greeted with 'alright', asked as a question and with a hint of concern, just the way you might inquire when you see someone fall down a flight of stairs. This is not because they know you had too many beers last night and actually did fall down a flight of stairs. Translated, this means "Good morning/afternoon, how are you?" Unlike the rest of the world, replying to this with an evaluation of your health and mood that day is unnecessary.

3 - Chilli is not a spice, it's a seasoning

It will be served in everything, so if you don't like chilli, make ordering a side of yoghurt your new annoying habit.

4 - Renting

Think of renting a home like adopting a baby. Adoption involves background checks, assessments of your lifestyle, bank accounts and payslips and glowing references from employers and reputable friends. Renting is the same, except the thing draining your wallet each month from then on will be the cupboard you now call home, not an orphan.

5 - Rain

Don't take out your umbrella unless it's absolutely pelting with rain. Londoners are used to rain. Drizzle is nothing. This also explains why everyone is wearing a hat.

6 - Sun

On sunny days sit on some grass, close your eyes and smile serenely skyward, as if the sun is double chocolate fudge cake and you've been on a cabbage diet for the entire winter. When the temperature reaches a sweltering 14 degrees, take your top off. If you're female, best skip that last bit.

7 - Tea and Beer

There is no problem that can't be sorted over a cup of tea.

There is no problem that can't be sorted over eight pints of beer.

8 - Trains

Manners have no place on trains. About two thirds of your life will be spent on public transport, so learn this quickly. Think of a seat as lungs; if you don't have one you will die. Push, shove, run, vault, or trample an old lady to get one. Talking is forbidden, not to a friend, a stranger or yourself. Mobile phones however must be used whenever there is a signal, preferably to engage in an argument. If you accidentally look someone in the eye, look away quickly, as prolonged eye contact with a stranger will burn your eyeballs. If you don't get a seat, be prepared to reach a level of intimacy with strangers' bodies one usually reserves for a dark corner of a bar on a particularly dodgy night out. Nobody will move out of your way, so refer to the rules for acquiring a seat in order to leave the train.

9 - Making Acquaintances

You only need to know ten words to make acquaintances in London - cold, wet, miserable, grey, cloudy, windy, rainy or sunny, followed by "isn't it?" In the unlikely event weather conversation runs dry, immediately supplement with "How about ____ last night?", filling the blank with any of the following - X Factor, Britain's Got Talent, I'm a Celebrity, East Enders or David Cameron.

10 - Banking

Think of opening a bank account like adopting a baby...

* When in the presence of a lady with a pram, manners must miraculously reappear. Stop what you are doing, make room, rush to her aid, take one end of the pram and help her up stairs. Men need no help with prams. Child still ensconced , they will hoist the pram under one armpit and virtually sprint up the stairs to prove to all they are indeed - manly.]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2013:/theblog//3.2716510 2013-02-19T09:18:00-05:00 2013-04-21T05:12:02-04:00

Natalie de Winter http://www.huffingtonpost.com/natalie-de-winter/
Why the AMRC think raising the price of soft drinks will suddenly have us ordering a wheatgrass shot with our McHappy Meal is beyond me. It's like using your hands to plug an arterial wound; it might stop laser beams of blood spurting out of you for a while, but eventually you're going to want to take them away to scratch an itch. Most of us wouldn't need Captain Obvious to point this out, but it seems the government might.

Obesity needs to be tackled from childhood, where a lot of our adult habits are formed. As far as our domestic life goes, we mimic what our parents did. Think of how you run your household, how you wash, iron and fold your clothes, how your kitchen drawers and cupboards are set up. I'm betting it's very similar to what happened in the house you grew up in. So if you were brought up on a diet of take-aways, it's very likely to influence how you feed yourself and your kids today. Home cooking needs to become something we see and do so often as a child, it becomes just another habit we take into adulthood.

Quite simply, parents also need to teach their kids to cook. You're too busy? Rubbish. Where lifestyle priorities are concerned, too busy should only be followed with things like "for my laser hair removal" or "to meet my mates at the pub three times a week", not finding time to cook for your kids. You don't need to watch X Factor, Big Brother or Downton Abbey in the evening either. That's what I -Players are for. You watch them the next day at work, like normal people.

So unplug the laptop, ignore the phone, haul the kids away from the Wii and dedicate one hour a night to cooking dinner. I know Jamie Oliver says you can do it in 15 minutes, but that's rubbish too, and he's not factoring in the shopping and washing up time now is he? Get the kids involved, teach them to cook, and the next generation might not need a motorised scooter to get to the mailbox when they're 30.

Maybe the AMRC should have looked to Denmark for answers, or at least for the wrong answers. In 2011 they brought in their own fat tax on foods containing more than 2.3 % saturated fat. But less than two years later it's been deemed a failure and is to be abolished. What they found was that it merely caused other food prices to be rise. In some areas, Danes even began traveling to Germany to stock up their larders. While I doubt Britons will be rushing through the Chunnel just to find cheap Coke, who knows what other 'Fat Taxes' might be considered further down the road.

Let's face it; a so-called Fat Tax is a tax for the poor. Although, the results of recent research by Leeds Metropolitan University attempted to refute this theory when it concluded the majority of overweight children studied were from middle-class backgrounds. But, as they drew data from a pool of only 13,333 kids from Leeds, I hardly think this can be said to be representative of a nation of over 62 million. Lower social class and poor diets are an unfortunate reality today. Unless the definition of 'fizzy drinks' is extended to include Dom and Moet, I doubt the wealthy will be too bothered by it all.

As my Mum always says, we need to call a spade a bloody shovel. Even if some of the AMRC's other recommendations were sensible, we don't need a bunch of doctors to work on a project for a year to tell us how to beat obesity. People just need to eat less and exercise more. So forget the Fat Tax. If doctors and those who govern us want to benefit society via a new tax, let's bring in a stupidity tariff instead. It certainly wouldn't discriminate by class, and it might just solve the obesity crisis while it's at it.]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2013:/theblog//3.2694870 2013-02-18T19:00:00-05:00 2013-04-20T05:12:01-04:00

Natalie de Winter http://www.huffingtonpost.com/natalie-de-winter/
I have IBS. Or at least that's what I've diagnosed myself with, because getting a doctor to help you come to that conclusion seems nigh on impossible. Now that I understand it more, I know it's a nutritional and digestive problem, the symptoms of which are exacerbated by stress. But for many years I was left to conclude that constant bloating, stomach pain and a mortifyingly noisy stomach were merely hideous quirks of my traitorous body. It was only last year, at a hugely stressful time in my life, when the noisy stomach became the warning sign that whatever I'd just eaten would soon be exploding its way out (so sorry, beg pardon) that I began to worry. Not the best state of mind for IBS by the way, worrying.

The irrational part of me thinks of doctors in the same vein as the old cliche about mechanics; that I'm going to go in there with a sore throat and sniffles and come out with an under active thyroid and a tilted uterus. So it took a couple of years after this all began (my powers of procrastination are endless when there's embarrassment involved), before I told a doctor about what had I named my "inside farts". He poked and prodded my stomach, asked me if anything hurt and when I said no, he concluded nothing was wrong with me. Thus cleared of any medical issues, I instead tried to structure my life around avoiding my new enemy; silence. You'd be amazed how quiet the world is when all you want is noise.

As I eventually figured out, the brain and the gut are inextricably linked. When one's not happy, neither is the other. IBS is a product of our times, both the nutritional and the mental aspects. It's the result of your body not being able to digest 'complex' foods like whole grains, yeast, corn or potato. Those inside farts are just the result of my gut refusing to break down my food.

But without that knowledge, what was there I could do? As far as I know it's still not socially acceptable to walk around expelling gas willy-nilly, so (in company) I did all I could to stop them becoming outside farts. Find me alone though, and it would have been the polite thing to hand you a gas mask as you approached. But it's a pointless attempt at dignity. Inside or out, they still sound the same.

Finally, armed with the findings of my research, I went to another doctor and self-consciously laughed through tales of diarrhea lasting two straight months, bloating, flatulence and never-ending stomach gurgles. He stared at me blankly and then turned to his computer. Not a word. After eventually giving up on whatever it was he was trying to print, he told me to go to the Patient.co.uk website myself and do some reading. Then I again had my stomach prodded for gestating aliens.

When nothing ripped a hole in my chest and attached itself to his face, he seemed happy to leave it there. It was only after I prompted him that he ordered the blood and stool tests I knew were needed to eliminate other potential gut problems. His face during all this showed absolute disinterest, mixed with a sprinkling of disdain. I don't know what else I could have done. Unless a doctor wants to hang out with me for a couple of days and stake out a prime viewing spot by the toilet, it's pretty hard to prove how debilitating IBS is. I guess with the NHS rule of only ten minutes per patient something's got to go, and maybe they've all decided that thing is empathy.

It could be I just had bad luck with my doctors. I'm sure there are those out there who would have made my treatment process a lot less painful. But from reading IBS forum discussions, I know others have had the similar experiences. Granted, nobody's going to die from it, but it's embarrassing, isolating and at its worst, takes over your life. If I'd just been able to put a name to it sooner, my last few years could have been a whole lot more blessedly silent.

Now about that tinnitus...

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