New Year's Resolutions?

Well, this is the time of year when nearly all of us make resolutions with good intentions for the coming year yet most of us will end up breaking them before the first week is out.
Sadly, in the past, I have not been an exception to this rule so last year I did not make any resolutions at all. However, I did manage to give up smoking on 17th May albeit with the help of the smoking cessation nurse at my GP's surgery. As I am over 60 and I get my prescriptions free, I got the NRT patches and some lozenges. To my surprise, I found it quite easy and was able to do without the patches within four weeks because they kept sliding off when the weather got hot and made me perspire! In the past I had tried various methods and had given up the fags but always went back to them within a very short time, so now I have been smoke free for seven months I will give myself a pat on the back!
Just over a year ago, I was diagnosed with a metabolic disorder along with a bucketload of other things which has meant that I have had to change they way I eat. This is a real nuisance because I have to eat whether I'm hungry or not just to take all the damned tablets as they have to be taken with food. This has meant that I have piled on the pounds, rather a lot of them. Fortunately, the damage to my weight had been done before I gave up smoking and that had little effect on my tonnage! I have never been this heavy and I certainly don't like it so by this time next year I want to have lost around three stone. If I can achieve this I know that most of the problems I have with arthritis etc. will be greatly improved. It won't be easy but I am going to give it my best shot. To help me lose the weight, I know I will have to do more exercise which is quite difficult when you have a few skeletal problems so I have decided that I will go out for a good walk every day whenever possible.
I'm not going to make any other resolutions because that way, I can't break them!

Another wet Wednesday!

Thank goodness! I'm so glad there wasn't a farmers' market today and that I did some shopping yesterday because it has been so dark, cold and wet that I felt like going back to bed for the day! However, I did get up and decided to do washing, lots of it! No, I'm not crazy (well, I suppose I am) but I have to use a tumble dryer because there is no room to have even a rotary dryer in my back yard.
When I got the first load in, I did some reading and then decided to see what was on TV. This is not something I usually do in the day but I thought, well it is the Christmas holidays so I'll make an exception. I was amazed at how many programmes are repeats, I know that holiday times are a good excuse for the programmers to dig out any old rubbish to show but this is ridiculous. I have Freeview and a lot of the channels on there also show repeats.
The biggest surprise of all was that channel 5 is showing the Wizard of Oz on New Year's Day and it's the original version which was made in 1939. One of the biggest problems is that all channels show the same films and Christmas specials year after year after year.
With all these repeats, especially from the BBC channels, I wonder what they would say if I refused to pay a proportion of my licence fee because I don't feel I'm getting value for money. After all, if you buy a product or service from any other source and it doesn't live up to what you would expect, there is always the Office of Fair Trading or Trading Standards to complain to.
However, knowing my luck, I would be prosecuted and sentenced to spend a spell at Her Majesty's Leisure. Come to think of it, I've heard these places are like 5 star hotels but I still don't think I'll give it a try!

The quietest shopping day?

This morning, because I have not been out to do any food shopping since last Wednesday and have had my grand-daughter staying since Christmas Day, I thought I had better go out to get some supplies of fresh goods. As it had started to rain and we have had my daughter's shitzu with us since Sunday, I decided it would be better and quicker if I went on my own. After all, I did not want the dog to get soaked and end up with a chill and I didn't think it would be fair for her to be in the shopping centre where it was bound to be pretty busy.
Grand-daughter is very level headed so I left her with dog, watching television and I set off with my large shopping trolley. First I went to Wilkinsons which had quite a few customers but surprise, surprise, there was no queue at the checkout so I was in and out in a flash.
Then I went into our Tesco Metro and although the shopping centre was heaving and there had been a lot of traffic as I walked to the centre, there was hardly anyone in Tesco. The main problem I had there was their new fangled deep baskets-cum-trolleys. As I needed the basics such as bread, potatoes, vegetables and milk and I am unable to carry them, I knew I really needed a small trolley so had to settle for one of these new gadgets instead. They are OK up to a point, but try to manoeuvre one of these together with a large shopping trolley and you too will find it's not easy so I was grateful that there was hardly anyone around for me to bang into or trip up! I can only suppose that all those overburdened trolleys in the supermarket for the two weeks before Christmas were still providing nourishment to the general population. Either that or everyone must have started their New Year diet early!
The 'reduced counter' was very well supplied with sausagemeat at 25p a packet and various coleslaws but I did find a pound of lamb's liver for 80p and some Westcountry undyed smoked haddock which was well reduced so both of these are in the freezer to be made into a liver and bacon casserole with onion gravy and a smoked haddock kedgeree at a later date.
When I got to the checkout, again there was no one waiting but this is where I found another problem with these new trolleys. I apologised to the cashier for taking my time unloading it and I did point out to her that these were not a good idea for arthriticky old ladies or those with severe back problems. I did suggest that Tesco might like to get some young hunky bloke at each checkout to unload these thing for people such as me! She agreed saying she wouldn't mind a hunky young man there but it might distract her from her work.
So, shopping done in record time, because no-one appeared to be shopping for food, I began to make my way home. As I walked through the Mall and looked into a couple of clothes shops I was amazed to see how busy they were but I suppose that's because they were on sale. I don't do 'sales' because I can't be doing with rummaging about and being unable to find anything I like and I especially don't do January sales because I get too depressed when I discover that everything I bought as presents for Christmas are now half the price!
Grand-daughter and dog have now gone home so I can sit and put my feet up knowing that if the weather gets as bad as they say it will over the next few days, I will not need to got out.

Architects vs Advertising Executives

I'm filled with wonderment and awe with the sales adverts currently being shown on the television for such things as new kitchens, bathrooms, beds and sofas etc.
Now, can someone tell my why it is that the people who make these advertisements do not know the actual dimensions of current properties whether old or new? Almost without exception, the rooms on the adverts appear to be at least six times the size of those in today's houses. I know that this is done to sell us the idea of spacious living but it's probably the reason why so many people will be visiting the sales and buying oversize sofas for their front rooms, only to find on delivery that they either take the paint off the doors and fill the room completely or that the delivery men can't get them through the doors at all!
There are some nearly new Barratt hutches opposite my grotty cottage and they have an integral garage which is useless. The problem is that they are so small that even if the residents had a small car like my Kia Picanto, they would be able to get it in the garage but then would be unable to get out of the car! Durhh!! I wonder what kind of car the architect had (or was he a bicycle man?).
Then we have those enormous bathrooms that are big enough to stage the World Cup football match, whereas most bathrooms barely have sufficient room to get a cat in let alone be able to swing it! Somehow I think these advertising men come from a totally different planet to the one I live on. Kitchens are another thing entirley, not only are they super large in the adverts but I suppose they have to be that way to accommodate all the latest new gadgets that we are enticed into buying. Today's new gadget is probably tomorrow's recycling or car boot sale item!
So, I will leave you to decide whether the architects need new rulers or the advertising men need new glasses.

Two fat ladies!

Well I've heard it all now. We are so far up our own backsides with political correctness that before long we will be too afraid to open our mouths just in case we upset someone. This morning on the radio when they were reviewing the newspapers following the news on radio 4, they covered a story from one of the papers about a council that was stopping bingo callers from saying 'two fat ladies' when they pull the number 88 from the bag. This is in case they upset any of the customers and will also stop them from being sued. Well how bloody ridiculous is that?
I'm a fat lady and although I haven't played bingo for a great many years. the game wouldn't be the same without these references when they call the numbers. It's a pity someone doesn't take them to the European courts because their human rights have been infringed due to the fact that they are unable to play bingo because this is the only way they know which numbers are being called!
There are a lot of expressions that have disappeared since my childhood years, for instance if we encountered anything that was bright and cheerful we used to say it was gay, but now that word has lost it's innocence and has a totally different meaning.
Anyone who still thinks that this is a free country where we have freedom of speech or where we can openly express our thoughts and feelings about certain things is very much misinformed. There are certain subjects which we daren't mention in public places for fear of being wrongfully accused of a verbal crime against certain parts of society and this is not necessarily the case. We all have our opinions yet we are never consulted by the people who make decisions on our behalf.
There have been so many examples of this so called political correctness over the last few years I often wonder just when it will come to and end so that we can decide for ourselves what is or is not acceptable to the majority of society.

Let's blame global warming on town planners!

With the start of the sales today and the rush of buyers before the VAT goes back up on 1st January, the traffic has been quite busy. The only reason I know this is because I did not make my way to the shops but went out for a walk with my grand-daughter down to the floating harbour to feed the swans!
Judging from the amount of traffic in the city I can only imagine that it must be far worse at the out of town shopping centre where usually at this time of year long queues build up on the motorway with people trying to get into Cribbs Causeway. Later in the day long queues form again with people trying to get home and this also happens in the run up to Christmas.
Because most large towns and cities now have homogonised shopping centres with fewer people actually living there, the town planners up and down the country decided it would be a real wheeze to build huge shopping temples with gigantic car parks out of town so that shoppers could go and worship there transported in a weird assortment of gas guzzling, fume emitting cars and vans. All this adds to the CO2 emissions unnecessarily.
Then they decided that they would sprinkle large retail parks with giant supermarkets around various parts of the cities and towns so that when the residents wanted to eat, they would again have to hop into their cars etc. to drive a couple of miles to get the necessary to fill their cupboards and their stomachs!
Now if planners and councils had used their heads and encouraged the small greengrocers, butchers, fishmongers, ironmongers and independent clothes retailers etc. to continue to trade in city and town centres there would be less need for people to use their cars and there would also be a much better sense of community. Hats off to the town in East Anglia that recently fought against having a huge Tesco built there, at least they've got the right idea.
If people could buy more of what they needed locally at a reasonable price there would be no need to use cars so often. There would also be a healthier population if people were able to walk to their place of work and to the shops as well as less pollution and CO2 emissons. Instead, the population works in one place, lives in another and shops in a third. Am I the only one that is so old I can remember walking to work from home and also walking to the shops? I was also a lot lighter then too!

A big THANKYOU to our farmers

This time of year as we all sit down to enjoy our traditional Christmas dinner, I wonder how many people even give a thought to the farmers that have produced the fare we all enjoy so much.
This year our Christmas lunch was a very large free range organic chicken which was slow grown on a farm about eight miles from where I live and all of the vegetables were British too. As I had lunch with my daughter and family (she did an excellent job with lunch) I cannot be sure where the vegetables came from because she doesn't have a farmer's market like ours, but I do know they were British grown because she wouldn't dare serve me anything else!
Because I was in the habit of getting up very early all my working life I find it's a habit that's hard to break, so now when I wake up, I make a cup of tea and go back to bed where I frequently listen to the farming programme on Radio 4. This is often extremely interesting and the other day I was surprised to hear how our carrots are pampererd so that they are at their very best for our Christmas dinner no matter what the weather. Apparently the farmers put them under straw 'duvets' when there is a frost forecast and this year I am sure they must have all been working like trojans to ensure they got our carrots to the shops on time for us to enjoy them at their optimum.
With all the bad weather recently I think all our farmers deserve our heartiest thanks and appreciation as there has been no difficulty in buying our milk, meat and vegetables and even in below freezing temperatures they still have to look after their livestock and harvest vegetable crops.
So to the farmers that grew our Christmas dinner........Thankyou and a Very Merry Christmas to you all.

The smells of Christmas

Ever since I was a child (and yes, I can remember back that far!) Christmas Eve has always been my favourite part of Christmas because of the awesome array of enticing smells that find their way from the kitchen and all the bustle of last minute preparation.
Although I am not cooking for No 2 daughter and three grandchildren this year, (I'm going to lunch with them) I still had to go throught the ritual of preparation so that I can really get into the Christmas mood. My middle grand daughter will be coming home with me tomorrow and she, like me, enjoys bubble and squeak, a dish that makes Boxing Day when served with cold cuts of poultry and gammon and smothered liberally with HP sauce. So today, as well as making the mince pies and sausage rolls with a few cheese straws from the leftover pastry, I cooked a chicken breast and a couple of thighs and roast a small smoked gammon joint. I also cooked the usual array of vegetables, trimmings with stuffing, bacon and small chipolatas and made bread sauce.
The smell of the various herbs including thyme and sage, together with the rich warm aroma of the cloves mingling with the onion in the bread sauce, cinnamon and nutmeg in the mince pies and the mouth watering smell of the smoked gammon have filled the whole house most of the day. Add those smells to that of the fresh sharp zesty clementine that I had after lunch and you've almost got the full house. All that was missing was the smell of pine needles but as I don't have room for a real Christmas tree, only an eternally green artificial one, that was the one thing missing.
After all the preparation (which is done to the accompaniment of Radio 4 or sometimes to a CD of Chrismas carols) I can relax sitting down with a nice cuppa to watch the kids films on television. Then for supper I will be enjoying a cold sausage roll with salad, washed down with a glass or two of mulled wine!
Another perfect day! mmmmm.

The world of one!

Although we are told there are more single households in this country than ever, you wouldn't believe this to be the case when you try shopping for one and not a couple or family. I have been single for more than thirty years and this has always been a problem. You never see special offers on single size portions which are rarely seen anyway. In the large supermarkets most of the best deals are on family sized packs, but to buy this way, you need to make sure that you have adequate room to cook and freeze in order to avoid waste. This is not only applicable to food but to everything.
A lot of people are under the impression that if you live alone then you are very well off because you don't have the high household bills that a couple or family have. Wrong! Single people have to eat and usually have to pay the same as a couple because as I've said, it's not always possible to buy single portions. A car will cost the same to run for one as it would for two people or more and utilities such as electricity do not come cheaper either. It costs the same to heat my small two bedroom grotty cottage for one as it would if there were two, three or four people living here. Water rates are the same for me as they are for the family of four that live a few doors along but I do get a discount on council tax as a single occupant. The rent is the same for a single person and insurance cover for contents does not discern between single or multiple occupancy. The other thing to bear in mind is when I was working, I only had one modest salary compared to most couples or family households where there is usually more than one wage. Now I just have a small pension but my bills remain the same!
Even buying household equipment is not easy. For instance, saucepans usually come in a set of three (small, medium and large) with a (large) frying pan. You can buy small ones separately but it is more expensive so when you are cooking for one, unless you've bought all small pans, it is quite easy to lose your potato in a pan that is too large! Cookers normally have two small and two large rings and many do not have a large and small oven. There was very little choice recently when I had to replace my old electric cooker but I was lucky and had the only one in the shop which had the small dimensions required to fit in the space in the kitchen and it did have both a large and small oven.
So, if anyone reading this is thinking they might be better off living on their own.....think again!

Unfit kids?...I wonder why!

I heard a report on today's news about scientists in Essex who had carried out a survey with 300 children to establish their cardio-vascular fitness levels compared to a group the same size about ten years ago. They have discovered that todays kids are less fit than those of ten years ago.
Well I for one am not surprised and although today's kids spend more time in front of the television or using computers and playing computer games, we cannot put all the blame on them.
Today's kids are ferried everywhere by over protective parents because no-one has time to walk any more and every stranger is a potential paedophile. Kids rarely walk to school and they don't play outside as much as they used to.
When I was a kid (OK, so it was in the middle of last century) we walked to school which was one and a half miles away and week ends and holiday times our parents hardly saw us. We would go out to play straight after we had washed up the breakfast dishes and our body clocks would get us home in time for lunch and tea. We didn't need watches and we couldn't afford them anyway. Our parents had warned us about not talking to strangers etc. and also what we had to do if ever there was anyone suspicious about. Those were the days when children respected adults including the local bobby! Although our diet was not as high in sugars and fats as todays' kids and we didn't have the choice of foods, we ate what we were given then all the calories we consumed were soon burnt off with the running about we did.
Goverment and local education authorities are also equally to blame because it was they who sold off huge amounts of school sports and playing fields to developers for massive amounts of money then removed a lot of sports and games from the National curriculum. We also had far more sports in our school timetable and we took full advantage of any opportunity to participate in sports outside of school hours.
This problem won't go away but perhaps if politicians, schools and parents got their heads together they could at least move towards solving the problem of childrens' cardio vascular fitness for up and coming generations.

Here we snow again!

The weather men have been forecasting snow and freezing conditions for the last week and most places have had some snow although amounts have varied. We got a light covering last night and today, in common with the rest of the country, traffic was brought to a standstill. Cars, buses and lorries were not only unable to negotiate minor roads but as shown on the local news, major roads into the city were also badly affected.
Every time we get a few flakes of snow, enough to barely cover the pavements, traffic comes to a grinding halt and we hear about people being trapped in their cars for hours then we are warned 'not to travel unless it is absolutely necessary'.
It's all very well to dish out advice to the great British public about not travelling, or if you do, making sure that you've got blankets, spade, thermos flask and torch etc., but how about those responsible for our roads. Isn't it time they started to listen to advice from the people that pay their wages and get a system in place so that we are not inconvenienced every year when the weather gets very cold. These are not extreme conditions, they are quite normal and even I can remember really cold spells with sleet, snow or freezing rain which occured regularly when I was a lot younger. I don't think we encountered half the problems that we have now when the weather gets bad.
Maybe they should contact the appropriate people in countries that have snow every year to find out how they deal with it. Heaven knows there are enough of them, any amount in Europe and then there's Canada and the USA to name but a few. How would it look if France or Switzerland or any other country where people go for skiing and winter sports were to come to a complete standstill after one paltry centimetre of snow? Their income from holiday makers would disappear and no-one would bother to travel to those countries again.
Perhaps I ought to work out how much of my council tax goes towards maintenance of highways in cold weather and retain it until we don't have these problems anymore.

An advertising man's nightmare?

I'm not a great fan of advertisements although I do find some quite amusing, others are really funny but on the whole the advertising men's efforts are mainly in vain when it comes to persuading an old grump like me to buy a new product.
At present TV is swamped with perfume adverts which we get every year on the run up to Christmas. In fact most of them are the same ones we saw last year, I wasn't persuaded then and I'm not now. After all, I really can't see myself ripping off a gold necklace and throwing it to one side, then shedding a designer gown to be left only in my birthday suit and perfume. That's something I never did when I was younger and I certainly wouldn't dream of doing it now!
Then there are the anti-wrinkle-face-lift-without-botox-or-surgery creams and lotions 'because you're worth it' offerings featuring some well known, heavily air brushed celebrity/model/actress who can afford any amount of expensive creams (and has probably had some form of remedial treatment anyway). We all know that these don't work and scientists have told us we would be wasting our money because any cheap moisturiser will do the same job. So again, I'm not falling for it because I for one can accept that I can't look like a twentysomething forever and neither would I want to.
As for the shampoo and hair product adverts, I would give anything to have at least half the head of hair that the models have. There is no shampoo or hair care product on this earth that could make my thin, flat locks look full, lustrous and bouncy, so again , I'm not taken in.
The best of all are the adverts for washing powders/gels and tablets etc. because I have been around for a very long time and trust me, none of these products, pink or otherwise can remove tomato, apple, pasta or beetroot juice stains. In fact, I'm not sure whether it's the washing powders or the machines that are at fault. I still firmly believe that the old Hoover twin-tub that I had was one of the best machines I ever owned. The front loading automatic is a great time saver, but not so good with the wash and I've met quite a lot of people who agree with me.
So, I won't be swayed by an advert. I buy that which I know to work best for me and is also at a price that I can afford and as far as I'm concerned, the advertising will continue to be lost on me.

Mystery presenst or unwanted gifts??

I had to complete my Christmas shopping today with the help of my grand-daughter knowing full well that this is the busiest Saturday of the year. Well, we were organised because we had a list when we went to Sainsbury's at 7:30am and it took us just the same time as usual because we didn't deviate from it.
When we got home and had breakfast, we decided exactly what I was going to buy for the last remaining couple of presents and also what she wanted to get for her brother and sister. It seems that we were probably the only people in the centre who knew exactly what we were shopping for.
In a lot of shops you can get three for the price of two or buy three and the cheapest is free and Boots is no exception but I was absolutely amazed when one of the staff came out of the lift with a cage loaded with these large pretty pink and black striped boxes that resembled hat boxes. Someone asked him how much they were and he said £20. Within 30 seconds they had all been grabbed literally out of his hands and I don't think anyone knew what was really in them. They looked big, bold, pretty and expensive so when I stood behind somebody that had grabbed one, I craned my neck to try to see what they were. It turned out that these were just boxes with a selection of toiletries with a name I had never heard of, certainly not a well known perfume house, they had also been reduced from £50 to £20. I certainly wouldn't have paid £20 let alone £50!
Usually at Christmas I know that they put very small bottles of bubble bath in very big boxes or they give you a bath mitten or something with it and then charge the earth but I thought this was a step too far. What amazed me more though is why on earth did all these people not ask their friends and family what they actually wanted. This shows how little thought some people put into the giving of gifts. Buy something big and bold, put it in pretty wrapping paper with a spectacular bow and make a huge fuss when you give it saying something like "Oh, it's nothing really". They then spend the rest of next year paying off their credit card while the recipient gives the 'present' to the local scouts jumble sale because they have an allergy most toiletries!
Well, at least I know that the presents I've bought are what the recipients want and they won't be wasted.

Confused squirrels

I am fortunate enough to have squirrels visit my garden every day and this morning was no exception. Because we had a severe frost last night and I had forgotten to empty the bird bath, the water was frozen solid when the squirrels arrived hoping to have a drink with their peanuts. They couldn't seem to make out why there was a solid mass where usually there was water.
As I had a few things to do I thought I would go out to deal with their water when they had finished their breakfast as I knew it was more than a five minute task to deal with a frozen bird bath and I didn't want them to have to wait to eat.
After I had done my bits and the squirrels had had their breakfast and left, I went out to deal with the bird bath. I also have a very large tub on the patio with a few pond plants and usually I put a small ball in the middle before the frosts so that it does not freeze over but this year I had forgotten so decided to tackle this as well.
While I was busy defrosting everything I wondered if the squirrels would like an extra treat for Christmas so I decided to put a few proper nuts out on the bird table for them. The birds have not been to my garden since the landlady got some builders to do work on on the gable end wall of the house, digging up the large garden I had grown on the rubble outside my little walled back yard. The squirrels often use the bird table facilities when it rains anyway as they can stay dry while eating their peanuts.
I put out a few hazelnuts and three walnuts onto the bird table and left them. When the squirrels came back later, they had a drink and then when to their nut box which is screwed under the bird table. The first one helped himself to a peanut or three and then got onto the bird table to eat them. He investigated the nuts but I don' think he knew what they were. This was repeated ten minutes or so later by the other squirrel. I left them to it because I was going to pick up my grand-daughter for the week end.
When we came back, it was getting dark so I went out to empty the bird bath so that I didn't have to repeat the defrosting tomorrow. I noticed that the nuts were still there and none were missing. Perhaps these city squirrels have never encountered a walnut tree or hazelnut tree and don't know what they are. Or perhaps they are so used to eating peanuts that have been shelled they don't realise that they are supposed to bite the shells off themselves.

Don't write us off yet............

It's a well known fact that as most people get older the body starts to show signs of wear and tear. This can manifest itself in lots of different ways, a few wrinkles here and there, joints getting stiffer, hair thinning (for women as well as men), skin gets baggier and everything tries to slide towards the floor. However, this does not necessarily mean that anyone who has retired is ready for the scrap heap and neither does it mean that their brain has stopped functioning properly. Even so, councils think they know better and stuff people into categories that bear no relevance to the person and is a form of age discrimination which is unlawful.
I retired at the end of July and did not change overnight into some pathetic, confused and immobile person with no friends, family, husband or partner and no longer any use to society. This has not stopped two councils from assuming that I fit into the pathetic, confused etc. category because that is where I have been shelved. Because my income is now much reduced and my nearest family live almost thirty miles away and I do have one or two problems with my health, I applied to go on to the council housing list and what is called 'social housing'. The council have sent me a reference number and banding and the only places that I can apply for are old peoples flats and 1 bedroom bungalows but the majority of these are sheltered housing which I am certainly not ready for although the council thinks I am.
It is my intention to remain as active as possible for as long as I can and although some days I do find it difficult to walk a good distance, I am certainly not ready to be written off. I still enjoy pottering in the garden which is very good exercise as well as walking out every day when the weather allows. In fact, I am very fit and active despite having a few mobility problems from time to time.
Both councils also believe that I no longer need more than 1 bedroom, but I do have grand children and one of them comes regularly to stay. She would not be able to do that if I had nowhere for her to sleep. The house where I currently live is rented privately and I have been here as a single person for twenty five years so why should my way of life suddenly change because I am no longer working? Another of my interests is cooking, especially sharing a meal with my family and friends so why would I want to be stuffed into a small, pokey place with no room to cook properly or entertain them. My lifestyle remains exactly the same except that now I can start to do all the things I've wanted to do for so long and not the things I have had to do to in order to earn a living and pay the rent and bills.
So if you come across someone who has retired, please don't do as councils do and assume that everyone over 60 has Alzheimer's, is immobile, has no family or friends and requires someone to be on call for them 24 hours a day, because that is age discrimination. We are individuals who have made a very valuable contribution to society for very many years and as such deserve to be treated with respect and very much as individuals. We still have a lot to offer.

Carol Singers - a tradition slowly dying out

Last night shortly after 9pm I had a visit from some carol singers. There were about a dozen or so 20 -30 somethings who actually sang very well and in tune. They also had a repertoire of the proper traditional carols, not just Christmas songs and instead of collecting money, they were handing out the mince pies with brandy cream and chocolates! What a refreshing change and you may well ask why they did this. The answer is quite simple, they are from the local church which is called Pip'n'Jay (it used to be St. Philip & St. Jacob). I did visit there many years ago but although very friendly, it is a happy, clappy church which doesn't really appeal to me as I prefer very high church because that is how I was brought up.
Anyway, last night was a huge contrast to the local scruffs that came carol singing about seven years ago. It was very early in December when there was a knock at the door about 5:30pm and when I opened it there were three very scruffy young local lads murdering their version of 'We Wish You a Merry Christmas'. Of course I reprimanded them for two reasons. Firstly, I told them it was too early for carol singing and secondly, I was not going to cough up for an out of tune rendition of something that wasn't even a carol. They looked quite shocked on hearing the truth. I told them that if they really wanted to earn money from carol singing, they could come back in three weeks time on the Saturday before Christmas at 6:30pm and if they sang three proper carols in tune, I would give them £10. I told them it didn't matter how many came, whether it was only one or twenty one, I would pay £10 for three carols.
They went away mumbling and to be honest, I didn't expect them to return. Nevertheless, I made sure that I collected £10 one pound coins and put them to one side. I told my grand-daughter who was about five at the time, that we may get some boys coming round specially to sing carols to us when she came to stay for the week end just before Christmas. A week or so later I noticed these three lads huddled together at the end of the road studying a sheet of foolscap paper. I realised that they were probably trying to learn carols from a sheet which they must have got from school and I was right because on the following Saturday, they turned up at the door. I pointed out that they were a week early and told them to return the following week, which they did.
My grand-daughter and I were waiting and right on time there was a knock at the door. When I opened it there were only two lads. "Where's your mate?" I asked. "His Mum's grounded him" came the reply. "Right then. If you both sing three carols, you'll get a fiver each" says I. You can imagine my surprise when they sang 'Once in Royal David's City' followed by 'Away in a Manger' both of them mostly in tune. However, when they started 'While Shepherd's Watched Their Flocks' I had to stop them because they didn't really know the tune and being aware of this, their voices were getting quieter. "Right!" I said, "I'll help you out with this one because you're not getting the money until you've finished it. A deal's a deal!" So we all sang the last one together and I handed them the cash. They went off quite excited with £5 each and I hoped that they had learned a lesson that you don't get something for nothing!
I don't think local kids will come around carol singing anymore as the local school does not have carol concerts or Nativity plays. This is because the majority of the pupils are from non-Christian faiths.

TITB..... (or This is today's blog!)

Am I getting too old or is the English language disappearing rapidly to be replaced by abbreviations, estuary speak, slang and other mixtures? Even the BBC is guilty of dumbing down especially on some of the programmes aimed at children. I know the country is becoming a big melting pot (some would call it 'cosmopolitan') but either way, I do not see why we should let our standards slip.
On the main BBC news on Radio 4 during the Today programme this morning, they had a report from Afghanistan where Gordon Brown (you know, the geezer wot is supposed to be in charge of running the country innit) was speaking about IED's (or was it IUD's) and he mentioned these at least half a dozen times. Now any normal person who is unfamliar with army speak would not have a clue what he was talking about and wonder why he was suddenly speaking about birth control devices in Afghanistan!
We had the same problem with his predecessor, Tony Blair who was forever banging on about Saddam's WMD's that he had supposedly hidden from the inspectors. Now at that time I was unsure as to whether a WMD was some kind of STD because Saddam had hidden it from the inspectors! After all, if you had one you wouldn't want everyone to know what you'd been up to would you?
I worked for the DWP (there goes another one) for seven years and they have them like measles (abbreviations that is) and the normal language of the department is also stuffed to bursting with acronyms which were regularly wheeled out during 'team meetings' and training sessions. Right from day one I came across these things, usually during the course of normal conversation and I didn't have a clue what people were talking about. All I did was inerject with knowing noises because there is a part of my brain that is programmed to switch off if people can't be bothered to express themselves with proper words. Goodness knows, there are enough of them in the language to serve any purpose, even I have been known to use some of the more colourful ones on the odd occasion! Anyway, not knowing what these abbreviations meant did not detract in any way from how I did my job, which I was very good at, so I can't see the point of using them. Perhaps it's a smoke screen which is designed to make the people that use them appear to be either very smart or very pretentious and I know which I would choose.
Talking of getting old, I went to see my GP this morning, is he really old enough to be out without his Mum?!!

Serve yourself?

I went to do some shopping this morning, a couple of Christmas presents for the grand-children and a few odds and bits for the freezer. My first stop was the main post office as I wanted to post Emma's cards and as there were three items all in one envolope, I wanted to make sure that no extra postage was needed at the other end. I did make the mistake once of not putting enough postage on only to be reprimanded because Ade had to go all the way into town and cough up another £1. This has also happened to me when I had to go to the post office and pay an extra pound for my Mother's Day card from No. 2 daughter. Anyway, when I got in the door the place was heaving and I was greeted by a very pleasant gentleman who was in charge of the ticket machine which had been moved to the door. He asked how he could help so I explained why I had come in, fully expecting him to issue me with a ticket and telling me that there were only thirty people in front of me. However, he pointed me in the direction of another man stood by the posting boxes which also had a screen by the side. The second man showed me how to use the scales and serve myself by using this equipment. I did remark to him that if everyone used this method he would soon be out of a job.
The 'serve yourself' culture is beginning to spread very quickly, first it appeared in Tesco, then M & S and now the post office. I have been told by a friend that in our 24 hour Tesco there are no checkout operators before 8am, you have to use the self-service tills instead. Even M & S are using them. I do object to this because if the stores add enough on their prices to pay staff to serve their customers, then they should jolly well make sure that their customers get the service they deserve and that this money doesn't go to the shareholders in the form of increased profits.
This culture has already been in existence in another form in places like some of the restaurant chains where all the waiter/waitress does is explain the 'help yourself' menu, then brings your drinks and the bill. For the rest of your visit you get your own food and still pay for the pleasure. Do we really want to go down the road of complete automation. If we do, the unemployment figures will rocket. I know we very often get rubbish customer service from a lot of shop assistants and waiters, but there are some good ones too, so replacing them with machines is not the answer. I was fortunate enough to have a short holiday in San Francisco some time ago and there you really got excellent customer service from everyone and when they said 'have a good day' and 'your welcome' you got the feeling that they really meant it. Nothing was too much trouble for them. Shame we can't learn a thing or two from them.

Whatever you do - don't vote!

As we all know, next year there is going to be a general election so whatever happens I will not be voting for any of the main three parties and if anyone does bother to read this I would urge you to do the same.
I have just finished reading yesterday's newspaper which I have been too busy to read until this afternoon. Yet again there are more stories about MP's expenses and how some of them are 'maxing out' on the John Lewis list before the closing deadline. How they have the bare faced cheek to claim all this money is beyond many of us honest and upright citizens. They are already paid salaries in excess of those of most average people and yet they are still unable to run this country with any degree of success. I think at the moment we as a country are in debt to the tune of £800 billion, and Gordon Brown has just pledged £1.5 billion towards the climate change fund. Meanwhile the politicians are doing very nicely claiming more in expenses than most normal mortals earn in a year, the bankers who were also partly responsible for the mess we're in are going to get their bonuses which are the equivalent of a lottery win for the rest of us.
As if that wasn't enough, they are now going to 'freeze' some of the pensions that many people who are already on the breadline receive. Yes, they are giving pensioners a 2.5% increase n the basic state pension but lets face it, 2.5% of sod all is still not enough for pensioners to meet the ever increasing costs of fuel, food, council taxes etc..
One thing is quite plain, politicians currently serving in Westminster seem to be there to feather their own nests at the expense of the rest of us and don't appear to have any conscience.
When the election does come round we will all be bombarded by leaflets, newsletters and flyers from an assortment of parties and they will all be claiming that they can improve our lives and make a better job of running the country. Well, I for one will not be taken in. We never see anyone one the doorsteps or out in the streets canvassing anymore so that we can ask them questions to their face, they all seem to be anonymous. If any well known politician visits an area in order to drum up support for an unknown candidate of their party, the audience is usually an invited one so that heckling can be avoided.
Well. I shall definitely be voting tactically and for any potential or serving politician thinking of knocking on my door expecting my support.....BEWARE, you may well wish you hadn't!

The trouble with Saturday shopping.......

Well I got up early this morning for my fortnightly shop at Tesco. I have to go very early on a Saturday because I cannot park near my house if I move the car in the week because of commuter parking. I am also unable to lift or carry heavy shopping from the car with osteo-arthritis. Anyway, I always aim to be there just after 7:30am and I was today. After putting my plastic bottles in the re-cycling bins I made my way into the store equipped with my shopping list.
Now when I was working, I used to complain about seniors doing their shopping at lunchtime so I always avoid those times now I'm retired and besides, I enjoy a lie in in the morning but can still get my few bits in the week before midday. Another time I avoid shopping is shortly after schools come out in the afternoon (school holidays aren't any better either). The thing I hate about early Saturday mornings are loads of children from babies howling at well over 100 decibels to older ones running around chasing each other, shouting, poking fingers into the cellophane packaging and picking their noses before doing so. Their fraught parents either ignore them completely or have little or no control over them. These kids are probably dragged out of their beds (most of them look that way) and then bundled into the car without breakfast in order for their disorganised parents to come shopping. I am sure breakfast is forgotten because I often see them running aroung clutching fruit, cakes, rolls etc. and eating them on the way round the store. By the time they all roll up at the checkout, all that's left are empty packets to be scanned and I am sure that a lot are also jettisoned round the store. I have often encountered the odd empty packet stuffed in among the tinned tomatoes.
For this reason I would like to ban ALL children until after 9am when I have finished!
The next problem is the cashiers. The one I had this morning was in training for the Olympics! The conveyor belt must have been put on extra fast and she was scanning at the speed of light, which is unusual in itself, so I had to ask her to slow down as all my shopping was piling up. I explained that I was having difficulty in keeping up because I am unable to grip properly and my arms sometimes don't work as they should. Give her credit, she did slow down but I couldn't help noticing the bloke behind who was beginning to get irritated and started tapping his feet and tutting. I thought 'if you don't watch it mate I'm sure I can get my arm up quick enough to poke you in the eye'!
Well, all my shopping loaded and paid for I came home. Now, I had bought a few little extras because after all it is the festive season and I'm rather partial to a few nuts (the shelled variety of course) so I bought two packets of mixed nuts for £4. Of course you would expect a good mix wouldn't you? Well I would. I couldn't believe it! As one of the bags had split I decided to put the nuts straight into a bowl but the first bag contained 24 walnuts, 11 hazelnuts, 7 almonds and only 2 Brazils. Thank goodness I had bought the two bags because the other had 9 walnuts, 45 hazelnuts, 16 almonds and 7 Brazils. Obviously a need for quality control in the nut packing factory!
Anyway, that's me done at Tesco until after Christmas but I will be doing a quick trip to Sainsburys next Saturday but that's not usually as traumatic.

Selfish, ignorant b******s

Well we've nearly all got one but how do we use it? On today's news I was surprised to see how low the figures are for people caught driving while using a mobile phone since they made it illegal. I think this was done in London and remember, the figures quoted are only the ones that got caught. Well, come down and try driving in Bristol and Bath and I can assure you the figures are probably a dozen times higher but they never seem to get caught.
The worst culprits are drivers of Chelsea tractors, white vans, builders, drivers of big, posh cars and I've even seen bus and lorry drivers doing it too. Not just occasionally, but every time I get behind the wheel or when I walk into the centre. The penalty if you get caught is only three miserable points on your licence and I think this should be raised to ten at least, or better still, ban them from ever owning a phone again and let them do 100 hours community service! People that do this are the most selfish and irresponsible dregs of society. If they have an accident while indulging themselves in this illegal activity, it isn't them that suffer the most but the other person and their family.
Why can't the manufacturers of these contraptions build in some kind of disabling device so that they don't work in moving cars.
I've got a mobile but it is rarely used, in fact I keep it switched off most of the time. I don't want to be at everyone's beck and call twenty four hours a day and I get irritated if I'm browsing in shops and someone's mobile starts ringing out the most diabolical tune and then they start shouting "I'm in Tesco at the frozen peas". They don't even talk normally, it's as if they want everyone to know they've got a bloody phone and at least one friend.
The Barratt hutches opposite my house have been lined with lead or something because I often see the residents out in the road, walking up and down regardless of the time of day or night (or early hours of the morning) talking very loudly on their mobile. Why they can't be like normal people and get a land line is beyond me.
And finally, why do they have to have such bloody awful ringtones?

Growing old disgracefully - you bet!

We have a great store very close to where I live and they sell everything you need for the home, carpets, soft furnishing, kitchenware, DIY, discount toiletries, wine, garden centre and lots more. There's everything you could possibly need and I go in there a lot not only because they give good customer service but there is another far more important attraction for me! Every year from 26th December until the following December they run a 'wine bonus'. This means that every time you buy something in the store and ask for the receipt to be stamped for the 'wine bonus' you can save up the receipts and in December for every £100 you've spent you can claim 1 bottle of wine. The maximum is 12 bottles per. person and for the umpteenth year I have the full house again. Whoopee! Buying a new cooker when I retired helped a lot this year so I shall be able to fill up the wine rack and get quietly sloshed over Christmas. Beats loyalty cards and green shield stamps!
The trouble with getting older is that people, especially family and grand-children in particular, are forever tutting at what you wear, how you do your hair or make-up and how you behave. I don't really care anymore, I have always been fairly sober with dress, after all I have always had a professional career and smart business clothing was a necessity. Now I can dress how I please. Last weekend when I was shopping with my grand-daughter we went into one shop to buy her a pashmina type scarf. It wasn't a chain store but an independent family run business which was stocked with a lot of cheap trendy stuff. On the way in I spotted a rail with all types of leggings including some beautiful gold and black shiny print ones. Further into the store were some rather cute net tutu type skirts in several bright colours. I said that I was going to get the leggings with one of these skirts. Then we spotted the flourescent green leg warmers, and flourescent orange knitted Andes type hats (the one with the ear covers and pom-poms on the top) and I told my grand-daughter that I was going to get this and wear it! She was horrified! Well, why shouldn't I if I want to. The only thing stopping me from doing so is common sense and also because I have a lot of clothes that need wearing out. I can't bear to throw anything out if it isn't completely worn out and now that my income is extremely limited I will not be donating to the charity shops. If I do look out of date, it is probably because I am. What's good enough for the Princess Royal is good enough for me!
But one day I might be tempted.....so watch out!

Where do they get the money?

While writing this I am enjoying a cuppa and the telly is on. The programme on BBC2 is Escape to the Country which I enjoy and most days catch some of it while doing other things. However, tonight's couple are probably in their mid-thirties, quite ordinary and have five children but they have £425,000 budget. Last night's couple had £1 million to spend and usually the people that take part have very substantial sums of money in their budget. Where the hell do they get all this dosh when most of them seemingly have quite bog standard jobs which probably have bog standard salaries to go with them. Most of them certainly don't appear to be descended from the 'loaded gentry' class.
On a few occasions I have also watched other property programmes but it seems that to qualify for appearing on these, you have to be fairly loaded. Some of them make me quite angry, especially those where people go to auctions and buy decrepit flats and houses and renovate them on modest budgets, then flog them for large profits or rent them out as part of their 'portfolio'.
The grotty old cottage that I have rented for the last twenty five years (because I have never earned enough to save a deposit or enough to afford a mortgage) does not have all mod cons. There is only double glazing at the front of the house and because it was built before cavity walls and the add-on kitchen is single brick thickness, the back room windows are always running in condensation. I don't have central heating because there is no gas in the house, but I do have storage heaters which are bloody useless and do not do anything for energy conservation. The problem is, they are too hot in the morning and by mid-afternoon they are cold so in the evening another form of heating is needed. I have mould and damp patches on the walls in every room despite having the heaters on (no wonder I've got arthritis). I have had problems since the day I moved in but could not afford to move and the landlady has not carried out repairs or maintenance when requested, even when the plaster has been so wet it's fallen off the walls leaving bare brick. In order to get remedial work done I have had to resort to the Environmental Health department at the local council. They have issued repair notices which they have then had to enforce. Eventually she gets the work done but she has no conscience about taking a huge amount of rent from me for her 'portfolio'.
I think I have probably bought this place twice at today's prices since I moved in, I know there was no mortgage on it back in 1985 and yet the rent still keeps going up.
Then there are the twenty and thirtysomething commuters that drive around here in the mornings to park their very posh, expensive cars while they go to work in the city centre or nearby offices. They can't earn huge salaries yet they've got the latest phones and sat.navs etc. and there are even some that rent the very expensive Barratt hutch apartments and flats that have recently been built opposite our humble homes.
I must have missed something somewhere. Has there been someone handing out huge amounts of cash that I've missed? Or are they all lottery winners?

Re-cycling, dull days, soup and squirrels!

I was rudely awoken at 7:15am, from the little doze I have while my cuppa cools down, by the local re-cycling collectors. Why, oh why do they park outside my window then start throwing about a dozen bottles (which they must have collected elsewhere because I only had one and a jam jar) into an empty metal container. The neighbours must think I'm a lush.
Anyway when I got up what a surprise, another dull bloody day with no sign of that big, bright thing in the sky that they call the sun. I really think I may have a degree of SADS so I'll have to consider getting a 'daylight' bulb.
With Christmas getting closer I thought it would be a good idea to sort out the fridge and freezer in order to rescue the long forgotten about purchases that lurk at the back and get it into some sort of order. The freezer is now well organised and there are quite a few things I can cook up over the next few weeks so that I can fill it up again!
From the fridge I took out all the sad remains of some celery that would be past it's best today, a couple of potatoes and some onion from the rack and made a rather delicious soup for lunch. I make quite a lot of soup for lunch now because it's cheap and also it is supposed to help you feel fuller longer if, like me, you are trying to lose weight. I'll let you know if it works. My grand-daughter also likes to make soup with me when she comes down, she's even made a list and I think the next one might be carrot and coriander.
With all that done, I decided to fill up the squirrels' nut box because it looked rather empty. What a state! Absolutely filthy! With all the wet weather though it's not surprising. Anyway, I gave it a thorough clean and filled it up then I scrubbed out the bird bath which I filled with fresh water. All the time I was aware of being watched but it soon became apparent that I was taking too long because one of the squirrels was up the wall crying! He usually does this if he sees a cat in the garden and doesn't stop until I've come out and chased it off. He did this one day and I came out but couldn't see anything but he would not shut up so I went upstairs and looked out of the window only to see the cat two gardens away!
When I had finished I told him he could come down and get his nuts and I had only just got in the back door when he had his bum sticking out of the box looking for the best ones. This squirrel is one that I call Squidge but he now also has a very pretty friend who is a beautiful pale grey with a very white tum. I haven't thought of a suitable name yet. There are also others that come from time to time but Squidge is a real regular. I used to get a lot of birds too including a flock of twenty or so sparrows. Unfortunately I haven't even heard a bird sing or seen one in the garden since the beginning of November when the landlady got the builders to grub out the garden which I had made by the side of the house. That's another story.

Is it time to get up yet?

I'm thinking seriously of going into hibernation next winter if it's going to be as dark and dismal as it is now. It's gone 4 o'clock and it's still dark. We have had rain all day long (by way of a change!!) and at eight o'clock this morning I wasn't sure whether to get up or stay in bed.
I did get up and after a shower and breakfast I still felt like a mole groping around in the gloom.
As I have put my name down on a housing list to move back to Wiltshire, I decided to start getting rid of some rubbish as I will have to downsize. The refuse collections around here are every 2 weeks and the bin men are due tomorrow so it seemed a good time to start. I searched through a cupboard and found four shoe boxes full of old photographs, birthday and Christmas cards from when my partner was alive. There were also hundreds of negatives and I decided that as they were of not interest to anyone other than me, I would get rid of them so spent the morning chopping them up. I will also get rid of a lot of the photos, some of them aren't much good anyway and if there is anything worth keeping then I can scan them onto the printer and put the on the laptop then put them on disc. Isn't progress wonderful? It will save me some room and I just hope that Antiques Roadshow won't miss these old fashioned things too much in years to come and anyway, memories can't be removed from my head.
After doing all that I thought I had better get cracking and write out my Christmas cards but I ran out and will have to get a few more and also some more stamps when I go into town. Fortunately, I have made a start on the Christmas shopping with the help of my grand-daughter this weekend and we even wrapped a few. She was going to help her Mum put up their decorations at home last night with her brother and sister but it's too early for me so I'll wait until this coming weekend.
I'm just counting down to the end of the month when the days get longer, I can't be doing with all this wet and dark weather. I don't mind it very cold and frosty as long as the sun's out. I'd better go and take some vitamin D so that I don't get ricketts this winter!

Noises from next door!

About 2 months ago some new tennants moved into the cottage next door. I am on the end of the terrace and the cottages are grotty and old fashioned, built around 1900. The walls are thin which is borne out by the fact that I can very often hear conversations all too clearly.
At the moment, my ears are being assaulted by someone who I believe may be trying to sing. Either that or I need to call the RSPCA as I think they could be torturing the overweight grey cat that they own. This 'singer' will never be on X Factor unless they make it as one of the cringe making failures whose family have egged them on while insisting that the judges don't know what they're talking about because this is the greatest singer - ever!!!
I have had to have a quiet word with them already because from the day they moved in I have been frequently disturbed at all hours of the night by a psychotic female teenager who, when throwing a tantrum because she probably can't get her own way, screams at the top of her voice and screeches a vocabulary filled to bursting with 'f' words and then bangs every door in the house as loudly as possible, running up and down the stair in the process.
If any producer is looking for someone to scream the most blood curdling scream imaginable for a horror movie, then please feel free to get in touch and I'll give you the address. The first time I heard it was in the early hours of one morning and I don't mind admitting that I was frightened to death. Well, you would be too if you were woken suddenly and you heard that. I didn't know whether to call the police as I first thought someone was being killed.
This young person also likes very loud, what I can only describe as 'head banging' , music. Not really music at all, just thump, thump, thump which sometimes goes on all night long and all through the weekend.
After a few weeks I had had enough, so one day, when I was putting the rubbish out, my neighbour came out on the way to work so I did mention very politely that I had been disturbed frequently, by the screams and tantrums and thumping music. I also mentioned that I had begun to keep a 'noise diary' for the environmental health department because this kind of disturbance was unacceptable. He aplogised and said he would address the matter.
To give him his due, he has and I have scrapped the diary. However, I still get the occasional disturbance so let's hope the decibels don't increase again.

The nightmare of Christmas shopping - YUK YUK

I've been trying to avoid it but today I was left with no choice. My 12 year old grand daughter is here for the weekend and wanted to go to buy my Christmas present and also one for her Mum. I also wanted to know what to get her so off we go to Argos (if it isn't there it aint worth having as far as my daughter Sarah is concerned). Anyway, after looking through those bloody great plastic laminated catalogues we discover that the item she wanted for her Mum was out of stock but we did get something for her and Mum will have to choose something else.
Then we went to the next shop for one of mine (I'm very fussy but inexpensive) and I duly kept my eyes closed after putting the right item in her hands and leaving her to pay for it. She feels very grown up now that she's got her own debit card!
She rang her Mum to say that Argos didn't have what she wanted (it was one of those space hoppers the kids have - heaven knows why she wants one of these she's only thirty four!!). I think it may well be something to do with losing weight. Instead of this, her Mum wanted a Gordon Ramsey cookery book so off we go to WH Smith where the book was reduced. There are about three recipes that Sarah might cook so I think that might be a bit of a waste!
As we were on our way to WH Smith, one of these damned Sky salesman jumped in front of me and if there's one thing (along with hundreds of others) that I hate and detest, it's being accosted when I am on my own private and personal mission. "Have you got Sky"he chirped too enthusiastically. "No. Are you giving it away free to pensioners because I can't damned well afford it on my state pension" I replied. "Oh it's only eighteen pounds a month" says he. As I started to burn his ears off with my reply my grand daughter dragged me away saying I was an embarassment and he was only doing his job. She also thinks that me doing this blog is an embarrassment and she hopes her friends don't see it. I've told her I'm thinking of going on Facebook too but she begged me not to because ALL her friends go on there.She did help me to get my picture on the blog though and said it would scare you all.
Oh well, I'd better help her wrap the Christmas presents now before we have dinner - home made fish pie tonight!.

Bad Drivers - nearly all men!!!!

Well the car's back and looks as good as new and my pocket is much lighter. Those nice men at UK Car Body did an excellent job.
After the car was returned this afternoon, I had to drive to collect my grand daughter who lives about 28 miles away. Although I left home about 3:20pm it was the start of the rush hour and also school out time. On a Friday afternoon there seems to be a mad rush to leave Bristol and all the roads become choked up very quickly. Everywhere becomes a 'rat run' and traffic soon comes to a standstill. There are quite a lot of bus lanes in operation and these can also be used by taxis and motorcycles and the a***h***s who think they're above the law and better than everyone else. They use the bus lanes and then have the audacity to cut in right in front of you in just the same way that they switch lanes without signalling and expect everyone to stop and give way to them. Can someone tell me why the majority of the culprits are usually young males under 35 or the middle aged owners of 'Chelsea tractors'?
The road system in Bristol is notoriously bad but I wish the police would show a presence in the bus lanes out of Bristol from time to time. Come to think of it, I can't remember the last time I even saw a patrol car.
The best laugh I had today though was the gang of builders that have been doing some work on the end wall of the house. When they had finished they packed all their equipment in the back of this rather large white van and the van wouldn't start so they had to push it. The sight of four large blokes, all with varying degrees of the 'builders' bum' syndrome and very red faces will give me nightmares for weeks to come.
I've got my 12 year old grand daughter to show me how to put my photo on this so you can have nightmares!

Bankers' Bonuses - How Dare They!

As a taxpayer, yes I am retired and because I receive a state pension and a very small occupational pension (I wasn't in the civil service long enough to receive a big fat one), I have to pay tax. This is despite the fact that I have worked all my life and paid enough tax to buy the entire British Navy or even the 85% of RBS which we as taxpayers now own. The RBS bosses now want big, fat bonuses paid to staff or they will resign. Well, bloody well let them I say. They were the ones who got us into this financial mess in the first place by buying up bad mortgage debts from the USA (well they saw us coming didn't they) causing us to go into recession because we had to bail them out.

I think we should all go back to stuffing our money in matresses because those at the top of the tree in banks receive thumping great salaries which are obscene, when most people don't even get anywhere near what is called 'the average national wage'. I never earned enough money to be able to save anything for a deposit on a house, or my old age because I have had to rent, which costs as much as mortgage repayments and although always employed in reasonable jobs, I never earned anything near the national average. In fact, when I was working in the Jobcentre, most of the vacancies paid national minimum wage which is bugger all when things like rent, council tax and fuel bills are so high. No wonder people think they are better off claiming benefits and getting their rent and council tax paid.

Even though I paid my tax and National Insurance all my life, now I'm retired I tried to claim for help with my rent because it is so high. Well the council pay such a piddling amount because they say as I am old and crumbly, I only need one bedroom and I only need a small amount of my income to live on each week. Thats all very well, but I have lived in the same grotty cottage for twenty five years and my family live about thirty miles away, one of my grand-daughters like to come and stay every fortnight. If I only had one bedroom, where would she sleep? I don't see why I should give up the place I've made my home for so long. As it is, my retirement will be pretty lean with no chance for luxuries if I'm to pay the rent. My outgoings aren't any less now that I'm not working. There's still the council tax, fuel bills, food, clothing and insurances as well as a bit of petrol. The only place I've been away on holiday since my partner died, has been with my daughter in Norfolk and I go the cheapest way with National Express.

Well, I trotted off to the surgery this afternoon for my swine flu jab, I've already had the ordinary one. The surgery is an inner city one and most of the people waiting are non-English speakers but the rest is made up of the mad, sad and bad. You find yourself sitting next to the addicts who are waiting to get their daily prescription and the conversation of those that can speak English is really worth earwigging sometimes. As a nurse in a past life, I was very interested in one middle aged man who was telling the woman sitting next to him that he had not been able to work for over a year because he was so ill. He had had every scan, blood test and x-ray on every part of his body and the doctor's still could not find out what was wrong with him. Well my diagnosis was made fairly quickly, definitely a case of terminal lazyitis! I bet he'll be claiming benefits then!

Christmas - coming, ready or not

I have tried hard to ignore the Christmas cards, decorations and advertising that has slowly been creeping into the shops since August and the fact that the council have strewn a few pathetic lights in the trees in the city centre, but now, whether I like it or not, it is coming.

Talking of lights, I can remember some twenty or more years ago when I first came to this wretched city, we used to have a really prolific display of lights all the way through the shopping centre. It was in the days when councils used the big old fashioned coloured light bulbs and they would be draped across the road then in the evening, great flocks of starlings would swoop around and eventually roost along the cables, warming their bums on the bulbs! Now all we have are a few strings of these lights in tubes and for a big city, I think it's a very poor display.

The local garden centre had a load of Christmas trees in last week and if you hurry up to buy one this week end and put it in a centrally heated room, there won't be a single needle left by Christmas Eve.

Even a trip to the shops now is becoming tiresome because there are even more people milling about, not having a clue what they're looking for or where to find it and just getiing in the way. Heaven alone knows where they come from, or how they manage to get all this time off work or even how they can afford to spend so much. At least they kept away from the farmers' market today.

I decided nine years ago after I lost my partner that I was going to scale down Christmas. We all spend too much and eat too much for our own good anyway, so now it's just about family. This year however, I will not be cooking a Christmas dinner because I will be going over to my younger daughter's with the grand-children. This means no bread sauce, giblet gravy or Chistmas pudding because Sarah doesn't serve what she doesn't like! I will also have to wait until I get home before I can have a drink too. Anyway, never mind because I have a cunning plan. As my twelve year old grand-daughter spends every other week end with me, she will come home with Grandma for a few days on Christmas Day. I have told her that I will cook some chicken and vegetables on Christmas Eve and buy in some ham from the farmers' market so that we can have our cold cuts with bubble and squeak on Boxing Day together with the three year old pudding in the cupboard.

I'm not one to wish time away, but roll on spring (when all the sales have finished) and the weather warms up.

The Waiting Game

Waiting is something we waste too much time doing all through our lives. Hasn't anyone got the message that this is not a rehearsal for life, but the real thing so we don't want to waste it by bloody waiting for everything.
We all wait in queues at the supermarket checkout (and I always get the slowest moving), we wait for the postman, buses, Dr's. You name it and you've got it, we wait for it.
This morning I got up very early because the nice man from the body repairers was coming to collect the car for the paintwork on the front bumper to be done. BEFORE YOU THINK IT.... I WAS NOT RESPONSIBLE.
I worked very hard all my life and as my old car was on it's last legs and there was a scrappage scheme, I worked out that I could just about afford to get myself a nice little car when I retired. So I did. I bought a nice, smart little Rolls Royce (otherwise known as a Kia Picanto).
Two weeks ago on a Monday morning, I was watching a lorry reversing out of a side road next to the house and keeping my beady eye on his rear as I did not want him to hit my car, when this stupid, myopic, idiot b*****d of a taxi driver decided that he could get his people carrier taxi , which must have been seven foot wide, through a six foot eleven inch gap between the back of a reversing lorry and my car. He also drove over the kerb of a planter and squashed the lavender bush then buggered off at top speed without stopping. I called the police because the lorry was stuck in the road anyway and reported the incident. I was told it was an offence not to stop after an accident, which I knew but the taxi drive obviously didn't. He scraped the paint on my bumper and now I have to pay from my pension to have it sorted because it will cost less than the excess on my insurance. (I will save insurance companies for another day!).
I can only wish that taxi driver well - I hope that the wheels fall off his wagon, that a plague of super rats destroy the electrics in his engine, that a flock of seagulls poop all over his taxi, that he gets crabs, scabies, lice and ringworm and that his wife gives him a Bobbitt then chucks him out. I'm a great believer in what goes around, comes around or divine retribution - call it what you like.
All that aside, I'm still waiting for the man to come and when I called about half an hour ago, they apologised profusely (I should think so too) but the last job took longer than they thought so they will collect tomorrow. And I will wait again!
P.S or should it be P.B - I aplogise if you wanted to leave a comment yesterday. I have gone into comments today and I think I've set it right.

The Bargain Hunter

Thankyou for your comment yesterday Emma and your e-mail. Today I have checked my protection and it's all on so I have accepted the rap on the knuckles and I will make sure I check everything every time I sign in. This is something that I didn't have to do when I was working, as being the civil service, they made sure that there was a positive obstacle course of firewalls and the like which ran every time you switched on. We had to be at our desks at least 15 minutes before opening so that the computers were up and running before the public rushed in through the doors at 9am. No, I'm kidding, I worked in a Jobcentre and those with appointments at 9am would turn up anytime before 5pm if we were lucky. The trouble is with some of the long term unemployed, they don't know there are two 9 o'clocks in twenty four hours!

I've been into town this morning because at last it has stopped raining and the sun is out. The wind is a bit nippy but why on earth do shops have to have heating on at a minimum 90 degrees. I wore a fairly lightweight jacket and have a medium weight jumper on because I need to keep warm while walking into town and I only needed a couple of things in Tesco Metro. Anyway, after casting my eye over the 'reduced' counter which seemed to be well supplied with bananas and bread (OK if you want a lot of cheap banana sandwiches), and little else, I got the items I wanted and went to the checkout where fortunately there wasn't a queue. However, the woman at the checkout eyed me with suspicion as the sweat was pouring down my face so I explained that I was not going through the change, too late for that, but I suffered from cerebal hyperhydrosis and I found it very hot in most shops.

After that, I decided to wander round and have a look at some of the new shops and perhaps do some window shopping. The city centre was re-developed and re-opened just over a year ago but I had difficulty walking and have never really had the chance to look around. We now have one of those bloody homogonised places with lots of posh shops for the loaded gentry. I also noticed that even though there were plenty of people about, apart from a sales assistant, most of them were empty, especially Harvey Nichols Food Hall (which I did not know was there). They had a bored looking bloke fiddling around with the cheeses so I decided I couldn't afford their prices and I would stick to the nice man at the farmers' market who always lets me have a little nibble before buying.

Eventually, I wandered round to Shoe Zone (a nice cheap shop) because I needed a new pair of slippers to keep my piggies warm and I also want to help save the planet by keeping the heating down a bit this winter. (I lie, my landlady had storage heaters put in as there is no gas in the house and they are bloody expensive to run: too hot in the morning, cold by mid-afternoon so other heating is required in the evening. All visitors have been warned, wrap up warm if you're visiting!). Anyway, back to the slippers. I was rather taken with some fluffy boot type things with pom poms in a hideous combination of bright pink, baby blue and a sort of flourescent green. These would keep my piggies and ankles toasty and would look good poking poking out of my beige fleecy blanket. But I could hear my grand-daughter shreiking with laughter at them so went for a nice pair of faux suede and sheepskin (notice it's FAUX Emma) Norwegian style in a beige to match the blanket. They only cost me a fiver too. Bargain!

What a palaver!

Well it's taken a while, but with my daughter's help I've made it....I've got my own blog. I can also just about sign into my computer and get on the internet. Bless my daughter, who is now probably quite exhausted with exasperation because her Mum's a complete incompetent technophobe.

Life was never as complicated this in the days before all this IT whatsitstuff. There was a time when we couldn't launch ourselves into cyberspace, text or send e-mails. I can remember actually using my brains at school. We didn't have computers or calculators, we could actually work out sums in our heads, write and spell (without the aid of spellcheck) and we turned out to be well rounded. We also had a good level of manual dexterity as well because we could hold a pen correctly and a knife and fork, something a lot of youngsters have difficulty with today. Walk into any town centre around lunchtime and watch them all munching on something hidden in a paper bag - I think they call it 'grazing'. I call it unsightly.

Anyway, I can't stand in the way of progress but is there anyone out there who can expalin to me why they cannot standardise everything to do with computers, internet and the like.

When my daughter was trying to talk me through these procedures on the phone - she lives in Norfolk and I'm in the West Country, we appeared to have different tool bars (if that's what those funny little things are that go across the top of the page) and I'm sure she thought I had gone blind because I couldn't see what she was talking about. I spent some time this afternoon looking for something in a book about computers which is specially written for the old wrinklies like me but it wasn't really a lot of help, why doesn't someone write one called 'How to' to include things like : how to copy and paste etc.

I did find the bit about security interesting and useful because my daughter kept asking me if I had my 'firewall' in place and was I properly protected. I should have thought that this would be more like the sort of questions I would have asked her some years ago before she got married. Now I discover that I had probably been having unprotected access to the internet, really daring don't you think. Anyway, I'm protected now.

So here I am and I feel sure that I will be able to find plenty to grumble about.