Trick or Treat - NO thank you.

I think weather must know its the end of summertime too, its turned windy and wet today, and just the right weather for Halloween! Right that is, in my opinion so that its hopeully stopped some of the youngsters going out and making a nuisance of themselves, disturbing and frightening elderly people in their own homes.

Why we have to have this American import of Trick or Treat each year now, I really don`t know. It didn`t exist in my young days, and has no purpose as far as I can see apart from being a nuisance. I certainly didn`t answer our door bell when it rang on two separate occasions this evening.

A Scam or not a Scam?

Now-a-days one is always hearing about different scams that are happening, both on the Web and by telephone calls, and other means. It makes one so very wary, and even distrustful of folk. And probably 99.9% are genuine. But, how do you know if the person calling is who they say they are?

I`ve just had a telephone call (the chap rang when I was out this morning and was asked to ring back) He gave me his/a name and said he was from the AA, and wanted to tell me about an new scheme they`ve got out for breakdown cover for parts as well as the call out and it was a special offer price if I did it on the phone. He named the Option I`m currently on with them and explained what the benefits of the new scheme would be and that there was a special offer on it. I asked him to send me details by mail, but he said it won`t be at the offer price if you do it that way, and again repeated what the scheme was and that it would only be £20 if I did it there and then.

I said to him, "with no disrespect to you, there are so many scams about, that I want to see it sent in writing". He offered to quote my membership number. But I`ve insisted that I want something in writing. I`ve just looked on the AA website and there is a Scheme that seems to be the same as he offered, but then again, anyone could read it there, then try it on, couldn`t they?

So, was he from the company he said he was? Or wasn`t he? I don`t know. Although he probably was genuine, I daren`t take the risk. Isn`t it sad though, when you can`t be sure that you can trust callers.

The End of Summer

Yes, it`s official. Summer has finished.

Well, if we`ve had to change all the clocks (and watches - wonder why they never say the Watches go back an hour, is it assumed that watches change themselves?) for the end of summertime, it must mean summers at an end, mustn`t it?

I dutifully went round the house last night changing all the clocks (and watches). It`s surprising how many timepieces there are in a house, but at least they`re all done now. At least, I thught they were, I`ve just looking up now and spotted one I`ve missed, and that reminds me, there`s another I`ve missed too - the one in my car. Oh, well at least the alarm clock is right for the morning!

Clutter!

I don`t know where it all comes from! I`m sure that as soon as I turn my back to my desk papers and bits and pieces jump out of the drawers and scatter themselves across my desk top. If only they would organise themselves to sit in nice neat piles, it would look so much better.
Not, that they`re all waiting to be dealt with, many of them are just waiting to be filed away.

The End of the Road

Driving along this morning on our way to a large store that we go to quite regularly, we set out along the usual route. Turning off the main road we passed familiar "landmarks", like the garden that has 2 pigs in it, a railway signal in another garden further on, and followed the winding road to the end when we went straight across the cross roads and down the road opposite - but today getting to the end of the road, we were completely bemused..... there was no road opposite!

We just sat and looked, we couldn`t believe it, where was the road? What had happened we asked each other, we didn`t remember taking a turning off, we were sure we were on the right road, yes, we must be we`d passed the things we normally see. Where had we gone wrong?

We turned left and then took a road on the right, but that wasn`t the right one, so managing to find an opening to turn round in, we returned to the junction we`d come out of. Looking ahead past the junction we`d come out of, we saw another turning to the left so we took it.....and, it was the road we should have crossed straight over to. .....very odd!

We eventually worked out, that since we`d last gone that way, which was a few months ago, they`d moved the road junction from being opposite (and a crossroads) to a few yards further down the main road. But what a confusing and strange thing it felt to have a road disappear.

What`s the secret?

I`ve been doing the job I`m useless at this afternoon. Well, there`s a lot of things I`m useless at, and this is one of them. No matter how hard I try, what materials I use to do it with, I`m never satisfied with the result.

I`ve tried all kinds of spray cleaning liquids, different cloths, washleather, kitchen roll, microfibre cloth and water, but all with the same result – streaky or smeary windows and mirrors.

Is there a knack to it? Or a secret to how to get nice shiny clean windows?

Cuddly clouds?

Listening to the local radio station this morning at work (switiching it off if anyone came to the door!) Yes, I was working too, I can do two things at once! I heard a lovely expression.

The interviewer had been talking to some gardeners and then got on to talking about the weather, and asked why it had been colder last night than the night before. The answer given him was that there had been a "duvet of clouds" over the county the night before, but that last night there wasn`t. I`d heard of a blanket of cloudcover before, but never heard of it being a duvet.

It gave me a lovely picture in my mind of white fluffy clouds being purposely spread out overhead to snuggle the earth in.

Message

Hickory dickory dock

Saw this while I was on holiday recently. 

Sunday again

What little gems of wisdom (or not), am I going to write about today? I don`t really know. It` s been a pretty ordinary day.

I woke up to a beautiful sunny autumn morning, how lovely I thought, I`ll be able to go for a nice long walk this afternoon. But, what happened?.... by dinner time it was raining. I know that physically the rain doesn`t stop one walking, but its not that pleasant to walk in. So, as my parent and her friend were occupying the front room, and I didn`t want to join them, they`d probably go to sleep anyway, so I went and passed the time away on the computer. (yes we still call our rooms back room or living room, and front room, not lounge, sitting room or dining room as seems to be the modern way of referring to them. Wonder why others have changed to calling them that, is it just a way of "keeping up with the Jones"? - but I`m getting side tracked now, lets get back to my day).

I attended two services at our church today, and both were very good. The morning one I found very educational without being way above me. The Minister used everyday language and was very down to earth. She did talk and explain the background to how things would have been in Jesus` s day, his upbringing, how what he said and what he did would mean to people then and what they should mean to us today. It was very interesting. Different to how some of our local preachers just seem to use their sermons as a way to critise so much and to have a "dig" at their pet dislikes, or promote their favourite causes.
I also found myself riveted to listening to the evening preacher (something I hadn`t expected before I went!) . He came out of the pulpit and stood in the pews close to the congregation, and just talked about things that were in his life, and there was just so much in what he said. There was somehow a real tangible atmosphere of - I can`t really find words to describe it, but there was just somehow, something "there".

Bang, Bang

It`s that time of year again, when you`re sitting quietly indoors in the evening, when suddenly loud bangs go off outside, making you almost jump out of your skin.

What am I talking about? Fireworks. I`ve heard the first ones tonight and its still 15 days to Guy Fawkes Night. And that won`t be the end of them, they`ll go on for several days after that I expect. Why, I wonder, can`t youngsters wait until 5th. November, what do they get out of disturbing and even frightening some people by letting them off now.

Funny old world we live in, isn`t it?.......
.......well, not the world, its the people in it isn`t it.

What a catch!

Having finished most of the work I`d got to do the other day, I asked my boss if she`d got a job I could do for about an hour (until the time I left off). To my astonishment she turned round and said, "you can go home if you like". I queried that I`d heard right, and thought perhaps she`d mistaken the time, and said but I`ve still an hour to do, But no, I had heard right. She said, you can owe us an hour, but I didn`t particularly like the thought of that (as it may be at a time when I didn`t want to stay late or do extra). But I said, ok, after all it was a nice sunny day and it would be nice to get out early.

A couple of minutes later, she said to me, trying to sound innocent, you could come in for an hour on Friday morning if you like.... (my day off). So, there was no lay in for an extra hour this morning, I had to be up to go into work at the usual early time, just for one hour. And it was just so that she didn`t have to do some of my work on my day off. It seems so pointless really going in for one hour. I shall definitely be more wary next time such a suggestion is made!!

Ageism

The government has now brought in new rulings on ageism, and the right of people to work beyond their normal retirement.

I don`t think this is a good idea. After all, while jobs are filled by people who carry on working long past retirement age, what happens to all the young people who can`t even get jobs now? If people never retire they`ll be no vacancies for them, and the government will have to keep paying them unemployment money – so why do they think they`ll save by not paying out pensions if people who continue working. It seems ludicrous to me.

I wonder how long it will be before they decide that people have to work until they die?!

I know, I for one won`t be working beyond the time when I can legally retire, and the sooner the better!
There`s got to be a life outside of work, hasn`t there?

Eggs, Eggs, Eggs

Eggs, eggs, eggs, where do they all come from?! I`ve just opened our fridge door and discovered that we`ve got 2 dozen sitting there.

It set me thinking - how many different things can you do with an egg? I could boil it, poach it, fry it, scramble it, make omelettes with it, make baked custard with it, coddle it (I`ve not done that, but have heard of it), or do some baking with it. What a versatile thing an egg is.
Now, there`s only 2 of us in the house, so to avoild us having to eat eggs for every meal, I`ve had a baking session and now an array of sponge cakes and buns sit in the kitchen. And what a lovely aroma fills the place.

Have I made anyone hungry yet?!

Blogging for History

Only a short blog here today, because I`m goint to take part in the Blogging for History which the National Trust are doing today. If you want to see what it`s all about look here

Jigsaw of Life

I`m going to tell you about another jig-saw today, but it`s a much more complicated one than the straight edged one that I wrote about yesterday. In this one all the pieces seem to be very scattered and none of them seem to fit together well, its as if there`s some of them missing.

The jigsaw I`m referring to is my life. It seems and feels very much like a jigsaw at times. There`s.....
.....my home life
.....my working life
.....my church life
.....my hobbies
.....my parent
.....my obligation to my parent
.....my parent`s friend
.....myself
.....my needing time and space to myselfa

yet, none of them seem to fit easily together, there seems to be gaps and missing linking pieces that I can`t find. In the first three I seem almost to be three different people!... and the other six don`t seem to sit happily together.
What or where are the missing pieces?

Jig saws

I`ve enjoyed doing jig-saws since I was a child. One of my favourites used to be one that belonged to my Dad as a boy (so you can tell it was quite an old one), and it had all straight sides. Yes, even all the middle pieces where straight sided, no knobs and cut out sockets as in the present day ones.

I wonder if others were taught like me to do jig-saws without looking at the picture on the box?! It`s still the way I do them, tip the pieces out, put the box in the cupboard, sort the pieces out into edges and middles on trays, and leave the box in the cupboard until the puzzle is completed. Its much more fun and more of a challenge than looking to see where each piece would go.

I came across this site today. It`s one I`ll be returning to time and time again in my “spare” time.

Just Seven Days

Just seven days ago I was, at this time (5pm), on my way home from a relaxing weeks holiday.

I really had to stop and think this afternoon, was it really only one week ago?
Why is it that only too quickly we get back into the routine of everyday life and work, and it seems weeks ago that the holiday was?

New House

Having written about going to buy a new house the other day, I thought I`d better show you a picture of it, so you can see what it`s like.

Now, I don`t want anyone getting worried thinking I`m leaving the town where I`ve lived all my life (so far), I`m not leaving.

Here it is.....




Yes, it was a new cage for my canary, and he`s settled very happily into it.

How do they get these jobs?

It really made me wonder today, how do people get jobs for which they don`t seem to have even the basic skills needed.

At the checkout in a local store a customer gave the assistant a £10 to pay for his purchases which amounted to £1.24. The young lady on the till obviously hit a wrong key on the keypad which opened the till, but didn`t tell her how much change to give the customer. Shockingly she was totally unable to work out how much change to give and stood there looking completely confused, and had to hold the whole queue up whilst she called an older supervisor to come and count the change out.

Surely for such a job one should at least have basic knowledge of maths. Not necessarily to subtract one figure from another, but to just count back change adding coins as one counts them back.

What happened to those days when tills didn`t tell one how much change to give..... how on earth did anyone work then!!?

House hunting.

I`ve been house hunting this afternoon. Looking for something the same size as the current one, with the same amount of space in it, ......and it wasn`t easy.

The first place we tried they had a few, but they were all too small, more narrow, less head room, the door in the wrong place, and we just didn`t like the look of them, so we came away.

Going on a few more miles we went to another place, wandered round a while then inquired, no they didn`t have them for sale any more, but suggested we tried another place a couple of streets away, so off we went.

This looked a bit more promising, so in we went, and found two that we quite liked. The shape of each of them was different, which would be be best the one which was more like the present one, or the other which was different? Should we go for same or different? So discussions of finer details, like the eating area, floor space, bathing accessibility, etc., took place.

Eventually we made the decision.

Wet through!

I`ve just been doing a job, quite an ordinary job but one which I must confess I don`t do very often if I can avoid it. And, as always I`ve ended up with my skirt, legs, feet all soaking wet and I`ve had to come inside and change my clothes. Is it just that I`m awkward doing it, or I wonder do others get as wet as I do?

What have I been doing? I`ll give you a clue, it`s something outdoors.

Back again

Yes, I`m back from my holiday, and I`m so glad that I went. Not that I exactly did a lot, nor was the weather hot and sunny, infact it was one of the wettest weeks holidays I`ve ever had. But that didn`t matter a scrap. I was staying with friends, so it was good just to stay indoors, to sit and relax and do virtually nothing for a lot of the time. Most unusual for me, I know, but it obviously was just what I needed.

Although I`d taken my laptop with me, and managed to find an internet connection there, I decided to even have a holiday from my daily Blogging, but now I`m back and daily posts will resume. I was glad I`d taken the laptop with me as I spent several hours looking up things for one of my friends, and I think got him interested in actually using it himself before I left!!

Going

Well, this is probably my last posting for a week, because I`m off on holiday. All sorts of feelings are still going through me over it, and playing up my nerves, but I know I mustn`t give in to them. I`m still wondering if I`m doing right or not?

I just keep saying over and over to myself this verse, don`t know where I first heard it
“The Lord is here
The Lord is there
The Lord is with me everywhere”