I'm from a European background ... Italian and Catholic. Christmas means celebrating the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem. I hold onto generations of passed down tradition ... We celebrate December 6th as St. Nicholas Day (European Father Christmas) ... this is the day that all the house & garden decorations go up! We celebrate January 6th as The Epiphany (this is the 12th day of Christmas - when the Kings went back home) ... this is the day that all decorations get packed away. That's one month of relevant religious dates/events ... just enough time to truly appreciate celebrating the birth of Jesus with family and friends - whether gift giving or not - and "ooh-ing and ahh-ing" over the home Christmas decorations without getting bored with them.

Under sink bin added when we moved to our home 18 years ago as there was not a lot of floor room. Opening door was awkward. However now with an updated kitchen it was suggested to have pull out bin in island bench. Chop food on bench then scraps into bins. Too easy. It is practical, more room to move around work zones with re configuration. If you empty regularly it is not a problem with odour and part of the integrated design. Its clever cabinetry.

I love using dark colours in the right places and in truth, there really isn't a colour that is true black - that would be a none colour and one that can only be truly matched and equalled by its exact equal and opposite (white) for balance and a striking visual effect - like in this kitchen where plenty of natural light streamed in. When I design my colour palettes using "black" there is always an undertone of another colour to contrast or blend (like in the picture you featured here of the formal room at Rothesay). At Rothesay I used a prominent magenta and blue base amongst 8 other pigments which is why it appears to have a rich depth and acts to highlight the ornate ceiling that we painted in Aalto Gallery white. The trims give it contrast but the complexity of colour reflects and absorbs the red accents in the room. In Feng Shui "black" represents water and can be used in the South area of your home (on this side of the hemisphere) - this can be a particularly soothing effect. I used a near black with a brown/aubergine undertone in this bedroom that was once the place of non sleep and now definitely the opposite is in effect. I love using a base colour in my blacks to punctuate bright colours and jewel like tones - it feeds the soul! After all no adventure can be had by playing it safe - right?

Daryl, I for one, have been following this thread with great interest since your comment and am very sorry to hear the problems you have had. I had never heard of any of this, but with the dramatically increasing incidences of asthma, mental illness and depression, attention deficit and behavioural problems with children especially, autism - the list goes on - I often stop to wonder why, I know when I was young half of these issues didn't seemed to exist, yet did they and and no one knew about them, or is this because there are more people in the world now or is it all a part of modern living and why? Pollution has been blamed for many things but it seems as fast as we clean up one form of pollution we start another such as this. Technology is advancing at a crazy pace and the younger generation are eager for more and more but is anyone really stopping to investigate health issues or are we just becoming obsessed not just with the profits to be had from it, but also to free ourselves from everyday drudgery and live a Jetsons life style. We all want more free time, but what are we doing with it? In many cases working longer hours to pay for it !! It seems we are too obsessed with "improving" our lives to stop and question any consequences. For we seniors, this is not doing us any favours, we were not raised with this, it is a whole new way of life for us and the faster technology advances, the faster we are being left behind floundering in the mess. No one stops to think that women especially in my age group were forced to resign from work when we married or had children, there was no place for us in the workforce, our place was at home, cleaning and maintaining it, ensuring our menfolk were well fed and dressed and our children were properly raised. For many women, they lost workplace skills, but the male ego was also dinted if wives went back to work, men were expected to be the providers. Unless you have lived through this period you really would have no comprehension of just how much attitudes and opportunities have changed particularly in the second half of last century, I think we have lived through some of the greatest changes ever but sadly not everyone is given the opportunity to embrace them. There are many, many people in society today, in their 60s, 70s and 80s who just don't have a clue about technology, they never had the opportunity to use it or learn about it in their younger years, but now it is just an assumption that "everyone" knows, so many seniors are really falling through the cracks, they are missing out on many benefits and are totally vulnerable to scammers. The point I make here now is that trying to follow this discussion, I realise even more what a whole new language technology seems to have introduced and how much further seniors are being left behind. I had to look up what a "dect" phone was - never heard that word used before, so many other words and terms have me floundering too, half of Ian's learned comments might as well have been written in Swahili, just where do you go to learn all this? As a senior though, (and I have many friends agree) I have a lifetime of learning stored in my grey matter, it is full and it is tired, how much more does it have to learn, how much do I really want to learn - quite frankly as little as possible, I'm over it all now. I very much agree with Pottsy's comment of putting a tin foil cap on my head, if that makes everything go away I'm more than happy. However these health issues now are definitely a great cause for concern, not just for me but I think of my grandchildren, how reliant they are on technology now, they were raised and are being raised with nothing else, what is in the future for them? I had to have my modem changed to a Smart modem recently because the original one kept failing and unfortunately I have to rely in the internet now to stay in touch with family. I also rely on regular Nanna Naps to get through the day, is this just an age thing or is it the wifi?? How will we ever know these things - obviously Daryl, your symptoms were severe enough to identify this but for someone only mildly affected ??? It is like back in the early days of mobile phones and people developing brain cancer, there were thoughts this could happen, but it wasn't like suddenly millions of people developed brain cancer and it could never be proven that people who did would not have developed it anyway. We still don't know why people get many forms of cancer, but I can understand the skepticism and cynicism - how much slower would technology advance if we really took time out to more thoroughly investigage health risks. It is great that you have identified this issue for us Daryl, but realistically where do we go from here? It is a bit like closing the gate after the horse has bolted and trying to fight telco's .............yeah!! .