At the weekend, we went to see IF at the cinema. You’ve probably seen the trailer, as it’s the latest film to star Ryan Reynolds.
It’s about a 12 year old girl, who is going through some hard times, and realises she can see the imaginary friends of others. Unfortunately, these ‘ifs’ can no longer be seen by their kids, and are looking for new kids to befriend. The BBFC rate it as a U, so it’s suitable for kids, but they do warn of ‘bereavement themes’.
For my 40th birthday last weekend, we had a couple of days in Dudley. Which might seem like an odd choice for a short break, but it meant that we could visit Dudley Zoo and Castle, and the Black Country Living Museum (which I’ll blog about separately soon).
This was my third visit to Dudley Zoo; all three of us visited in 2019 on the way down to Portsmouth to go on holiday, and I had been as a child (probably 1992 as I seem to remember it being the 29th February). It’s a medium-sized zoo; it doesn’t have any really big animals like elephants and rhinos, but is home to some quite big animals like sealions, lions, tigers and giraffes. You’ll need a full day to see everything, but unlike Chester Zoo you will be able to see everything in one day.
Dudley Castle
Before the zoo, there was the castle. There’s been a castle on this site since Norman times, as it’s a strategic lookout position. The current castle is a ruin – it was damaged quite a bit during the English Civil War in the 17th century and suffered a fire in the 18th century. You can go up the keep, which is the oldest bit of the castle, and there’s a newer indoor part which is home to nocturnal animals, as well as offering a history of the castle.
The ruined castle offered a focal point for what was originally known as Dudley Zoological Gardens, and several animals including the penguins and sealions now live in what was the castle’s moat.
The highlight for us was the Lorikeet Lookout; provided that you go in between 11am and 3pm, you can buy a pot of nectar to feed the lorikeets. They’ll happily sit on your hand/arm/shoulder whilst doing this. We also got to see a female tiger playing around in the water, and a weaver bird making its nest. As usual, I’ve uploaded a full set of photos to Flickr.
They also have red pandas; we saw one but it was high up in the trees and so I couldn’t get a photo. We also didn’t see the otters this time.
Accessibility
Like most zoos, Dudley Zoo is open every day (except Christmas Day). As mentioned, it’s on a hill, which is great if you’re building a castle, but not so great if you’re in a wheelchair. Whilst there is a marked out route with gentler slopes, some powered wheelchairs may struggle. If your wheelchair folds, you can use the land train to get between the bottom and top levels of the site.
So, now that I’m sending out email newsletters, I need to be sure that people will actually receive the emails. Because email spam is still a problem after all these years, the big webmail providers have strict requirements to ensure that email reaches their user inboxes, and AboutMy.email is a really simple testing tool.
When you open the web page, you’ll be given an automatically generated unique email address. All you need to do is send an email to this address, preferably by adding it to your email list. Once the email comes through, AboutMy.email will analyse it, and let you know what you need to improve.
I had already set up DMARC, DKIM and SPF on my domain, and so, as you can see from the screenshot, it scored quite well. Other things that I’ve gained points for are my site having an IPv6 address, and using TLS for email connections.
To improve the score further, I’ve subsequently added a BIMI record, and need to look into adding unsubscribe headers from my emails. But it’s a very good start, and should reduce the chances of my emails ending up in user’s spam folders. I like how simple AboutMy.email is – you don’t need to register an account, and there’s no spam follow-ups afterwards (which would be ironic I suppose).
Today I turn 40 years old. Yes, I’m surprised as you are, but I suppose that’s how the passage of time works.
I suppose as I enter what is unavoidably middle age, I should dispense some words of wisdom. So, here are a few bullet points:
As you get older, it gets easier to just be yourself. I don’t feel like I need to pretend to like things, or act differently, just to seek the approval of others any more. It can be hard to be your authentic self when you’re younger, and you need to build your friend group. But it’s quite liberating when you eventually realise that your true friends like you for who you are, and you can just be you.
Being jealous of the achievements of others is just a waste of energy. Be happy with what you have. There will always be younger people who are better than you or are more successful, and that’s okay.
True love is unconditional love.
Don’t assume everyone else has it together just because of their social media persona. We all have our struggles, and not all of us make them public.
Right, that’s the sanctimonious stuff out of the way.
As for how I’m celebrating my 40 years on this earth: I’m currently in the West Midlands with my household. Quite what I’m doing will depend on the weather (I’m writing this a week ago) but it’ll also include a long drive home in the evening. Tomorrow is a meal out with friends, and there’s a family meal on Bank Holiday Monday. Whilst this isn’t as fancy as when we went to Dublin for my 30th, it’ll (hopefully) be a nice family weekend.
It’s nice that my birthday often falls on a long weekend. Although I did have a GCSE exam on my 16th birthday in 2000, which wasn’t so nice. Indeed, up until 2006 I often had exams around my birthday and so celebrations were rather muted.
In last week’s blog post about investing in Stocks & Shares ISAs, I mentioned that all my investment accounts are so-called ‘ethical investments’. This generally means that my money is not invested in companies which develop weapons, produce oil and gas, produce cigarettes or alcohol or are involved in gambling.
This should mean that your money isn’t being used to prop up companies that are actively making the world worse. But should is the key word here, and what an Exchange-traded fund (ETF) manager considers ethical may not match my ethics.
My Nutmeg LISA is invested in a number of ETFs, which are in turn invested in companies and bonds. However, it does offer a list of the top 10 companies that your ETFs are invested in. I’ve included the list of mine in the screenshot; although this was taken last week, the data is correct as of the 29th February so I’m guessing it’s not updated often.
Microsoft, nVidia and Tesla
Almost 3% of my money is invested in Microsoft. Okay, so they’re not an oil and gas company and don’t make weapons, but they’re investing heavily in AI. AI needs a lot of energy and their investment in AI means they’re polluting more now than in 2020. Similarly, nVidia is doing well because its chips are optimised for AI.
Tesla is third, and, urgh. Sure, they’re making electric cars which are quieter than petrol or diesel and produce no tailpipe emissions, but its boss is a human bin fire who is opposed to worker unionisation.
Coca-Cola and PepsiCo are in there too, both of which are best known for manufacturing sugary drinks.
Whilst I still think ethical investing is the right thing to do, I am concerned that they’re a form of ‘green-washing’. Just because a company isn’t actively destroying nature or ruining people’s lives, it doesn’t make them ‘ethical’. I’m sure there are funds out there which focus on companies which are actively doing good in the world – maybe one that only invest in B Corps, for example. Maybe I need to spend more time looking into alternatives.
It seems like everyone has an email newslettter nowadays. I used to have a simple form where you could sign up for posts by email, powered by Jetpack, long ago. Seeing as it’s the in-thing again, I’ve added an email newsletter sign-up box to the sidebar (if you’re viewing on a desktop) and also below each post.
If you sign up, you’ll get a weekly email on a Monday with that week’s new blog posts. It’s automated, and so there won’t be any additional content for newsletter subscribers. Of course, there’s still the good old RSS feed which has been available for over 22 years now. And you can follow this blog on the Fediverse using Mastodon:
Copy and paste my profile into the search field of your favorite fediverse app or server.
Your Profile
Or, if you know your own profile, we can start things that way!
Not ‘a Substack’ newsletter
It seems like the word ‘substack’ has already become genericised (as per this toot from @mathowie). To be clear, whilst this is an email newsletter, I will not be touching Substack. Just in case you’re not aware, Substack hosts a lot of nazis, and doesn’t seem to be particularly bothered by this. A few of the worst offenders have subsequently been kicked off, but there are still many horrible people making money there. I actively avoid subscribing to Substack newsletters where possible, and certainly won’t pay for them. As well as self-hosting with WordPress like I do, Buttondown, Medium and Ghost are good alternatives, and many have easy import processes.
MailPoet
I don’t use Jetpack anymore, so instead I’m using the free version of MailPoet. There are lots of email plugins for WordPress, and most seem to offer full customer relations management features and detailed analytics. I don’t want that – I just want something simple where you type in your email address, confirm your subscription, and get a simple automated weekly digest.
MailPoet does have a lot of bells and whistles, even in the free version, but it is possible to just do what I want it to do. You can also manage it entirely within WordPress and don’t need to sign up to a third party service. Whilst it recommends that you use a third party email sending system, I’m sticking with my own. Unless I end up with thousands of subscribers, in which case I’ll re-consider.
Last June, I took our then seven-year-old to Jodrell Bank in Cheshire. Because you get an annual pass for free, we decided to make a return trip a few weeks ago, and this time we brought Christine. Christine had never visited before; before last year, I had been once with my parents in the 1990s.
The star of the show at Jodrell Bank is the Lovell Telescope, which was the largest radio telescope ever built when it was finished in 1957. It remains the third largest moveable radio telescope in the world, only beaten by telescopes in Germany and the USA. The last time we came, it was parked and was pointing directly at the sky. This time, it was in use, and we got to see it move ever so slightly a couple of times during our visit.
Interestingly, the Lovell Telescope was built without planning permission. However, it’s now a Grade I listed building, and Jodrell Bank is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
As Jodrell Bank is still an active research facility (it’s part of the University of Manchester), it’s a designated ‘radio quiet’ zone. This means turning all mobile devices off, or to airplane mode, throughout your visit. I even turned Bluetooth and Wifi off on my camera.
The newest pavilion is the First Light Pavilion, at the far end of the site. This was opened in 2022, and from the outside looks a bit like the Tellytubby house as it’s covered with grass. Inside, there are really thick concrete walls (radio quiet zone, remember) and an interactive exhibition about Jodrell Bank and its history. There are videos projected onto old panels that were salvaged from the Lovell Telescope during its most recent renovation.
Also in the First Light Pavilion is the ‘space dome’, an auditorium with an immersive curved screen. Some shows are included with your entry (one is narrated by Prof Brian Cox, because he’s a Manchester physicist) and others cost extra, such as We Are Stars which is narrated by Andy Serkis. We gave it a miss the second time we went, as we’d seen it before at the National Space Centre near Leicester.
It’s a good place to visit, and I think kids from the age of seven up will get a lot out of it. It’s interesting for adults too.
Accessibility
Jodrell Bank is on one level on flat ground, and so there should be no issues getting around in a wheelchair. There is an autism familiarisation guide on the web site. It’s open Tuesdays to Sundays, plus bank holidays. There’s a large car park, but the nearest major railway station is Macclesfield and it’s a 20 minute taxi journey from there. Alternatively, there’s a station at Goostrey and a 2.5 mile walk along narrow country lanes.
A few weeks ago, I took our eight-year-old to the Tropical Butterfly House near Sheffield, after a request to go somewhere with parrots. We’ve been many times – the first was in 2017, before our now eight-year-old had turned two. And whilst the name implies that it’s just about butterflies, it’s actually a small animal zoo with both indoor and outdoor areas.
There is, of course, a tropical butterfly house there, and the house itself is actually new. The previous indoor bit is now a dedicated bird house. There’s a wide range of different butterflies, along with tropical plants. Outside, there are farm animals, various birds (including parrots), the obligatory meerkats, otters and lemurs. The parrots are often involved in aerial displays, although we didn’t stay for one this time.
The zoo isn’t very big, and you can see everything in half a day. It’s also very much aimed at families with younger children – there are various things that spray water, and lots of fibreglass dinosaurs. It’s worth going to during school holidays, as there are lots of extra activities around Halloween, Christmas and Easter in particular.
The Tropical Butterfly House is about five minute’s drive away from Junction 31 of the M1, and there should be sufficient parking on site. If you don’t have a car, then the X5 bus from Sheffield gets you to within a 15 minute walk away. The site is almost all on one level, with good wheelchair access throughout. Sensory packs and loan wheelchairs are available if booked in advance.
Back in 2021, when Britain was under its third major Covid-19 lockdown, I opened some Stocks and Shares ISA accounts:
A standard Stocks & Shares ISA with Wealthify (backed by Aviva)
A Lifetime Stocks & Shares ISA with Nutmeg (backed by JP Morgan Chase)
A Junior Stocks & Shares ISA, also with Nutmeg
A Stocks & Shares ISA is a type of investment account, which means that the money that you put into the account is invested in company shares, government bonds, and other investments. An ISA (Individual Savings Account) just means that you don’t pay income tax on any returns, but you’re also limited to how much you can pay in.
I decided to dip my toes in investing because, at the time, the Bank of England base rate was historically low, meaning that most regular saving accounts paid minimal interest. Meanwhile, investment accounts seem to offer much better returns, and I had inherited money from my grandfather which wasn’t earning much interest.
A warning about investing
Putting money in investments, rather than cash savings account, always comes with a warning, and for good reason. The value of any money that you invest can go down as well as up, and you can lose all of your money. You should never invest money that you cannot afford to lose.
Both the accounts I opened are covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS), which means that your money is safe if the provider goes bust. But this doesn’t protect you from investment losses.
None of what I write here should be considered financial advice, and investing may not be right for you.
Lifetime ISA
One of the accounts I have with Nutmeg is a Lifetime ISA. You can only open such an account if you live in the UK and are aged 18-39 (inclusive), and can only pay into the account between the ages of 18-49. There are also strict limits on when you can withdraw the money; you’ll pay a 25% penalty on any withdrawals unless:
You are buying a house for the first time and want to use the money for a deposit
You are aged over 60
You are terminally ill with less than 12 months to live
However, the government will top up any contributions paid in before you turn 50 by 25%. So my initial investment of £500 was topped up to £625, and you earn interest on the whole amount.
We already own a house, so I’m using it as an additional retirement fund, alongside my state and employer pensions.
Junior ISA
I also set up a small Junior ISA for our eight-year-old, which I manage for them. Most of the money in there is from cash gifts from birthdays. Once our child reaches 16, they’ll be able to take over the account management, and can withdraw the money at age 18.
Investment performance
The accounts have varied in their performance. Both Nutmeg accounts have had a positive return; 10% in the case of my Lifetime ISA (and that’s on top of the 25% government contribution). However, there have been times where the value of my investments has been less than my contributions – the start of the war in Ukraine, for example. It’s only really been in the last 6 months that I have had a consistently positive return, and there’s been a wobble in recent weeks.
The Junior ISA, opened later, has a lower positive return of around 6%.
My Wealthify ISA hasn’t performed so well. Overall, it’s worth less than my contributions. Some of that money comes from a sign-up bonus, which means that I am still ahead overall. However, since interest rates have gone up, this money may have performed better in a good cash savings account instead.
It’s also worth noting that a small amount will be deducted from the value of your investments as a ‘management fee’, to cover the costs involved of buying and selling your investments.
Appetite for risk
Both Nutmeg and Wealthify include questionnaires when you open the accounts. These ask you about your appetite for risk, and how you intend to use the money. They will then suggest an investment style – lower risk, but lower potential returns, or high risk, with higher potential returns but a greater chance that you’ll lose money.
Both my Nutmeg accounts are at the highest risk setting. This is because the money is there for the long term – I can’t access my Lifetime ISA penalty-free for another 20 years. My Wealthify ISA, which I can access more easily, is at a middle-of-the-road risk level that they call ‘Confident’.
All of these ISAs are ‘ethical’, which means that the money shouldn’t be invested in companies who work in the oil and gas industries, arms manufacturing or tobacco.
Referral links
If you want to try Wealthify or Nutmeg yourselves, here are my referral links:
But please, don’t take excessive risks. Cash savings accounts offer much better interest rates than they did three years ago, and as long as the provider is part of the FSCS, you don’t risk losing your money. I suggest that you only consider investing for the long term, and for money that you can afford to lose if things go wrong.
I’m signed up to Google Search Console (formerly known as Webmaster Tools) which gives web site owners an indication at how good they are at SEO, or search engine optimisation. And last weekend, Google emailed me to congratulate me on 900 click-throughs in 28 days. That means that about 60 people find something from this blog in a Google search, and click through to see it.
As this is a WordPress blog, I use the Yoast SEO plugin (the free version). It works okay, and gives each post a traffic light symbol for SEO and readability. Readability is important to me; it discourages me from using overly long sentences, and avoiding passive voice. But the SEO suggestions are helpful too. For example, making sure that any images have relevant alt text, and that I include both internal and external links. Not every blog post needs to be optimised, but I try to optimise most of them.
Some blog posts have done better than others, and seeing as the whole idea behind this post is that I share what I’ve learned, here are some examples:
Comparing things
People will often search for ‘[thing 1] vs [thing 2]‘, which I found out when my blog post about the films Wonka and Wish did well back in January. It just so happened that I had seen both, and I could have reviewed them in separate posts. But putting them together meant that my little blog appeared on the first page of results for a while. Alas, apart from watching Butterfly Tale last month, I haven’t been to the cinema since.
I put this into practice when comparing Readly and Pressreader. My original plan was just to review Pressreader on its own, but having seen how well my Wonka and Wish post did, I tried comparing the two. That blog post is typically in the top 5 results for the search term ‘readly vs pressreader‘.
Make sure your site loads quickly; one of the reasons why I changed to GeneratePress as my theme is that it’s a lightweight theme.
Post regularly – Google likes sites which often post new content. I’ve found every other day to be manageable.
As I said before, the number one person that this blog is written for is me. But I also want it to be useful and for people to find it. I hope I get the balance right.
