Cool sayings from around the world

Another slice of wisdom from the four corners of the planet.

Previously on the Charles Fudgemuffin blog, I've focused on cool sayings from places like Sweden and Korea. This week I expand the net wider and feature a selection of cool quotes from all around the world.

An elephant, best eaten by the whole village,
according to the African saying.

1) "The best way to eat an elephant is to invite the whole village along."

As you can probably work out, this is an African saying* and it's promoting the merits of teamwork.  It basically means it's a lot easier to succeed when you work together than when you work on your own.

* You don't get many elephants in England.

2) "A Raisin in a sausage."

This is a Norwegian expression which refers to a nice surprise in something which was already enjoyable. Although it's not an exact match, the closest English expression would probably be 'the icing on the cake' which for the benefit of any Norwegian readers loosely translates as 'a raisin in a sausage.' It basically means 'the best part of something which was already excellent.'

Quotes about reading for World Book Day

Or to be more precise ... quotes about reading, books and writing.

Books, the inspiration for many quotes.

In the words of Homer Simpson...

Homer: “Marge, I'm bored.”
Marge: “Why don't you read something?”
Homer: “Because I'm trying to reduce my boredom.”

Thankfully, I don't suffer from Homer's foolish attitude, because in my opinion, books are brilliant!

This coming Thursday is officially World Book Day so in honour of World Book Day, here's a round-up of famous quotes about books and reading...

Book reviews (part 9)

It's been several months since I last reported on some of the books I've been reading, so here's another batch of book reviews...

The World According To Humphrey by Betty G.Birney

The World According To Humphrey by Betty G. Birney - 4.9 / 5.0

The World According To Humphrey is told through the eyes of Humphrey the Hamster, the classroom pet of room 26. The kids take it in turns to look after Humphrey for the weekend, and on his travels Humphrey gets up to all sorts of interesting adventures, and manages to help the children's families solve a few problems along the way.

It's a book intended for children, but it's written in a lovely heart-warming style, and Humphrey is such a likeable little character that you can't help but enjoy his adventures, however old you are. I loved it and I suspect that many adults who still have a fun side to them will also love this book, as it's written in such a magical way. Highly recommended for kids of all ages!

Romantic trivia for Valentine's Day

A collection of random topical information at this romantic time of year.

Romantic trivia for Valentine's Day

As it's Valentine's Day today, I thought this week I would feature a round up of random miscellaneous trivia appropriate for this romantic time of year. But as a word of caution, I'm useless at giving romance tips and advice, so take anything I say here with a pinch of salt...

1) The best way to describe yourself

According to a survey by the eHarmony dating website, if you're a dude and you want to be successful in love then the best words to use to describe yourself are, 'ambitious', 'physically fit' and rather surprisingly 'perceptive'? I never would have guessed that women look at a man and think, "Phwoar! He looks perceptive!" but apparently according to this survey that's what they do.

If you're a woman and you want to be successful in love then the best words to describe yourself are 'thoughtful', 'sweet' and again 'ambitious'. These are all admirable qualities, but I was surprised that according to the survey apparently men aren't as shallow as I would have guessed. I have to admit that I've never heard a dude ever comment, "Phwoar! She looks thoughtful!" but apparently according to this survey that's the way men think.

Charity fundraising websites...

...and charity fund-taking websites.

Fundraising websites ... taking their cut.

Usually on the Charles Fudgemuffin blog I like to feature daft subjects and as a general rule I prefer to avoid discussing serious subjects. However, this week I've decided to break with tradition and cover a serious subject which really annoys me, and that subject is the fees charged by charity fundraising websites...

There's been a lot of coverage in the media of the Alan Barnes fund which was set up by Katie Cutler after Alan was the victim of a cowardly attack outside his own home. The attack left Alan too scared to return to his home, so the £330,135 raised will be able to buy Alan a new house where he won't feel frightened.

Katie has now set up another fund to raise money for Kacie Martin who is a two year old girl with the severest form of Spinal Muscular Atrophy. Kacie's is a heart-breaking story, but if she can get a special wheelchair which costs £27,000 then this will help improve her quality of life.

They're both excellent causes and the funds have highlighted that there are a lot of very generous people in the world.

However, after doing a little research into websites like Go Fund Me (the website which hosts the fundraising pages of Alan and Kacie), I couldn't help but feel more than a little angry.

Here are some figures...

The fire hoop: Win or fail?

Drunken backpackers risking life and limb in the pursuit of entertainment.

A brave/foolish backpacker throws himself through the fire hoop.

I've previously featured the fire skipping rope on the Charles Fudgemuffin blog, but the fire skipping rope isn't the only fire related nightly entertainment in Thailand. The beach bars and clubs in Koh Phangan are obsessed with fire and also have fire jugglers, fire limbo, the fire hoop, and other fire related activities.

This week I've decided to focus on the fire hoop, and below is a video featuring drunken backpackers attempting to bravely/foolishly leap through a hoop of flames. However, rather than just editing together a compilation of people jumping through the fire hoop, the video instead takes the form of a quiz.

Promotional flyers for advertising your book

'Real life' can sometimes be just as effective as the internet for promoting a book...

Flyers for one of my early books.

A while back I reported on how one of my best sales periods came after I created some promotional flyers to advertise my books, and then distributed them to party-loving backpackers at the Full Moon Party in Koh Phangan (when I wasn't partying myself, that is).

My original flyer creations were fairly amateur efforts and weren't going to win any awards for graphic design, but they got the job done and helped gain me a few extra sales in the week that followed that Full Moon Party.

Since then I've designed more eye-catching flyers and used them on a few occasions with successful results. As you can see from the photo above, this time I went for colour flyers and for the design I basically just used the front cover of the book, then added a short text explanation to inform people where they can download the book.