OK, is it me or is their an increasing danger that has crept up on us unseen? A new dangerous group of people that need to be kept under control. Chuck 'em into clink at the first sign of descent seems to be the Governments rule. 'Great' you may think 'at last law and order is prevailing'. No , I am not talking about itinerant youths in hoods that mug old ladies and steal your hard worked for cars and possessions. I am referring to the old ladies themselves!!!
They have become so dangerous that they have started with-holding part of their Council charge in order to protest at the grossly unfair system. Oh dear me, we can't have that 'send them down' I hear you cry.
These so called 'criminals' have worked long and hard, brought up families and have earned the right to own and live in a nice little house or bungalow in a probably upmarket area. They now have to suffer virtual poverty in order to pay grossly inflated Council charge. My Husband and I (no, I am not the Queen) know full well that come retirement we will have to move from our detached but modest abode as we will not be able to pay the Tax, it is more per month than our mortgage!
Now we have an elderly Gentleman, and by God he looked every-inch a Gent compared to the thug who throw him out of the Labour Conference for daring in democratic England to exercise free speech.
This guy escaped the holocaust and was brought here at great risk I am sure by his family for a better life where the Jewish could live with the respect due to different cultures in our diverse Country. He tried to join our Army to fight Hitler unfortunately he had a medical condition that prevented it. He should be a much respected and valued citizen!
I truly could not believe my eyes, when did Britain change into a dictatorship, was I asleep when it happened?
Sorry am I missing something, when did happen that Law and Order in this Country means we treat our elder Generation so disgracefully.
When did become against the law to heckle the Government of the day. Look what happens if you heckle pompous Mr Prescott, you get a punch in the nose!
My goodness it's a national sport amongst MP's when parliament is sitting. It seems we have a do as I say, not as I do mentality going on.
Why can our elderly not walk the streets after dark (or even in daylight) without the fear of a crime being effected against them. Yet we have young criminals who appear time after time in court without being detained at her Majesty's pleasure. They steal for drugs, rob your house, please don't bash them while they are doing it or low and behold you will be apprehended and dealt with very severely. The scallywag who perpretated the crime will no doubt be smirking all the way to Barbados where the court will have sent him to improve his mind and buy some more weed, or whatever the modern name for it is these day's.
I have no respect for The Labour Party, please Conservative's try and find some-one among you to really lead the Party and the Country. We need some-one to be The Life and Soul of the Party!
Rant Over! Kind off know where Rob gets it from don't you :-)
Thursday, September 29, 2005
Tuesday, September 27, 2005
Rogue Trader comes to our house!
Monday started kinda OK with my little blog mobile actually passing the dreaded MOT test with flying colours. Downhill from here on in.
First we were awaiting delivery of a brand new state of the art fridge/freezer, brilliant I thought when I saw the van actually pulling up during the time scale appointed to us.
With a great deal of heaving and puffing the two burly men manhandled the large piece of modern technology into the allotted space. "There you go mate, Ok with that" It was then that I spotted the dent and the missing white paint on the top corner of said white goods.
"Hold on, there's a dent and the paints peeling off" I pointed out.
"No problem, phone John Lewis they will knock a couple of quid off for you" was the response.
In your dreams mate, no way was I paying a large amount of dosh for an already shabby fridge.
I told them to take it away and that I reject the goods as faulty. So two now pretty annoyed men had to manhandle the item back through the house and back to the lorry. This means we have to wait until Friday for a replacement.
In the meantime we had a problem with our back door mechanism, in fact it had jammed shut Friday night and we were unable to open it all. Leaving two cats who could not understand why we would not let them in for the night and who totally refused the invitation to either come in through the window or come around to the front door. Being creatures of habit they thought I had gone bonkers with both those idea's. Blog dog had to go out to the front garden for his ablutions and he also thought he must of done something very wrong to not be allowed his usual free access to the garden.
Saturday morning Hubby Bj started phoning locksmith's who all seemed to be to busy or not answering their '24hour' phone line. Eventually we got a firm to come look. The guy decided it was an unusual lock and he would have to take it away to order a new one and come back on Monday by Midday to fit. He charged us £78 for the pleasure of his company.
Monday Midday, no sign of locksmith or new lock (he had left us with no way of securing our door so we had to go out inrelayss!) After several phone calls we were told each time that the lock was very difficult to obtain and to phone back inan hour.
By 3pm we decided to try and scource the lock ourselves. BJ phoned the Company used by our builders (new house) who had fitted the windows. They told us that no way was it difficult to scource and even if the local suppliers had not got one the actual factory that makes them is only 20 miles away.
What I needed was a part number, so I called the locksmiths office to ask for it, quite reasonably and politely I thought.
I was met with a total tirade from the girl on the phone who said she had already told my Husband that the part was here and just waiting for the locksmith to collect and fit. I argued that most certainly was not what we had been told and that again I needed the part number. I got no-where as she once again launched into averball tirade so much that I had to hold the phone away from my ear for a full two minutes. Eventually she paused for breathe andrealizingg I was not going to win this conversation said I had one more thing to add if she would listen a moment.
She amazingly stayed quiet while I suggested that whatever charm school she had attended, she needed to ask for a refund as it truly had not worked! I did not wait for a reply!
Half an hour later a Manager then called to say they still had not got the part and had ordered the supposed lock that I had been told was waiting for collection, it would now not be in stock until FRIDAY!.
Now this was truly the limit, so I called another locksmith who was horrified at this treatment and asked if the Company was 'reactfast/fast response' unfortunately it was. They are apparently a gang of cowboys who are giving the trade a very bad name in the area and had even been featured on the TVprogram'se 'Rogue traders' Just our luck.
The main thing we needed to do was get our old lock back from them in order to get some-one else in to do the job.
Iimmediatelyy phoned Trading Standards to get legal advice as to what to say and how to approach this 'rogue trader' and set about getting the lock back. I bypassed theverball girlie and got a Manager who truly smirked when I mentioned Trading Standards but he said he would get the lock back to me.
To ensure this happened we called them every 15 minutes until they were truly sick of us. Surprise,surprisee at 5.30pm they called us to say they had located a lock now and were on the way to fit it. I almost suggested it would be very hard to walk with a lock in a certain place!
We took delivery of the old lock told them to keep the new one and got a reputable chap who even had one in stock himself as they are a commonly featured lock in new houses! He charged us a realistic rate and was a real good egg.
So folks if you live in Coventry area and need a good Locksmith call Dave at Dr Lock!
Otherwise had great weekend, brilliant Thai Curry with Rachel who is a fellow Blogger, and her husband. Rob the youngest blog called in for hisfavoritee roast lamb dinner on Sunday. I filled him up with fresh organic veg from theallotmentt and gave him a bag to take home. Poor boy helped us take old fridge and freezer out to garage and got his new sparkling white tank top grubby. We had to bring the fridge back in Monday afternoon after the delivery debacle.
First we were awaiting delivery of a brand new state of the art fridge/freezer, brilliant I thought when I saw the van actually pulling up during the time scale appointed to us.
With a great deal of heaving and puffing the two burly men manhandled the large piece of modern technology into the allotted space. "There you go mate, Ok with that" It was then that I spotted the dent and the missing white paint on the top corner of said white goods.
"Hold on, there's a dent and the paints peeling off" I pointed out.
"No problem, phone John Lewis they will knock a couple of quid off for you" was the response.
In your dreams mate, no way was I paying a large amount of dosh for an already shabby fridge.
I told them to take it away and that I reject the goods as faulty. So two now pretty annoyed men had to manhandle the item back through the house and back to the lorry. This means we have to wait until Friday for a replacement.
In the meantime we had a problem with our back door mechanism, in fact it had jammed shut Friday night and we were unable to open it all. Leaving two cats who could not understand why we would not let them in for the night and who totally refused the invitation to either come in through the window or come around to the front door. Being creatures of habit they thought I had gone bonkers with both those idea's. Blog dog had to go out to the front garden for his ablutions and he also thought he must of done something very wrong to not be allowed his usual free access to the garden.
Saturday morning Hubby Bj started phoning locksmith's who all seemed to be to busy or not answering their '24hour' phone line. Eventually we got a firm to come look. The guy decided it was an unusual lock and he would have to take it away to order a new one and come back on Monday by Midday to fit. He charged us £78 for the pleasure of his company.
Monday Midday, no sign of locksmith or new lock (he had left us with no way of securing our door so we had to go out inrelayss!) After several phone calls we were told each time that the lock was very difficult to obtain and to phone back inan hour.
By 3pm we decided to try and scource the lock ourselves. BJ phoned the Company used by our builders (new house) who had fitted the windows. They told us that no way was it difficult to scource and even if the local suppliers had not got one the actual factory that makes them is only 20 miles away.
What I needed was a part number, so I called the locksmiths office to ask for it, quite reasonably and politely I thought.
I was met with a total tirade from the girl on the phone who said she had already told my Husband that the part was here and just waiting for the locksmith to collect and fit. I argued that most certainly was not what we had been told and that again I needed the part number. I got no-where as she once again launched into averball tirade so much that I had to hold the phone away from my ear for a full two minutes. Eventually she paused for breathe andrealizingg I was not going to win this conversation said I had one more thing to add if she would listen a moment.
She amazingly stayed quiet while I suggested that whatever charm school she had attended, she needed to ask for a refund as it truly had not worked! I did not wait for a reply!
Half an hour later a Manager then called to say they still had not got the part and had ordered the supposed lock that I had been told was waiting for collection, it would now not be in stock until FRIDAY!.
Now this was truly the limit, so I called another locksmith who was horrified at this treatment and asked if the Company was 'reactfast/fast response' unfortunately it was. They are apparently a gang of cowboys who are giving the trade a very bad name in the area and had even been featured on the TVprogram'se 'Rogue traders' Just our luck.
The main thing we needed to do was get our old lock back from them in order to get some-one else in to do the job.
Iimmediatelyy phoned Trading Standards to get legal advice as to what to say and how to approach this 'rogue trader' and set about getting the lock back. I bypassed theverball girlie and got a Manager who truly smirked when I mentioned Trading Standards but he said he would get the lock back to me.
To ensure this happened we called them every 15 minutes until they were truly sick of us. Surprise,surprisee at 5.30pm they called us to say they had located a lock now and were on the way to fit it. I almost suggested it would be very hard to walk with a lock in a certain place!
We took delivery of the old lock told them to keep the new one and got a reputable chap who even had one in stock himself as they are a commonly featured lock in new houses! He charged us a realistic rate and was a real good egg.
So folks if you live in Coventry area and need a good Locksmith call Dave at Dr Lock!
Otherwise had great weekend, brilliant Thai Curry with Rachel who is a fellow Blogger, and her husband. Rob the youngest blog called in for hisfavoritee roast lamb dinner on Sunday. I filled him up with fresh organic veg from theallotmentt and gave him a bag to take home. Poor boy helped us take old fridge and freezer out to garage and got his new sparkling white tank top grubby. We had to bring the fridge back in Monday afternoon after the delivery debacle.
Friday, September 23, 2005
The Slimming Club experience
Firstly Hubby BJ came home with a joke last night. I was ready for the usual long story with a dodgy ending but it went like this... "Two blondes walked into a building today" I waited as he paused for effect, "Well, you would of thought at least one of them would of seen it"
I, and my next door neighbour in a moment of madness and in the effects of alcohol decided it would be a good idea to join the local slimming club. She, I must say is as thin as a pin already and would disappear completely if she stood behind a lamp post. I, on the other hand have got the beginnings of the dreaded middle age spread. So on the appointed day and the appointed hour, we attend out first meeting.
First we get 'The New member Talk' given by the sleek, shiny and skinny tiny doll like creature who looks about fourteen, she tried to convince me she was 26 years old! No child has ever passed through those hips methinks! She tries to convince us that this programme is the best thing since sliced bread (so long as you don't eat it) and only greedy Muppets fail on it.
She did however impress us with her newspaper clippings of her at about 100 stone! She sure must of blocked a lot of light from a lot of large windows in those days.
She told us of the pain and humiliation of not being able to wear nice clothes and how shorts would ride up her legs. 'SHORTS' a large parachute would not of covered her posterior.
Anyway we were impressed enough to join, so we were escorted to the desk where we had to part with a enough money to keep Dawn French in chocolate for at least four hours. Then we had to be weighed (in confidence ladies). The weighing lady had a great delight in pointing out the page in the book which gave the ideal weight for your height. As I am the height of a twelve year old pre-pubescent child the weight seemed to correspond with this fact. I have not weighed this amount since I WAS a twelve year old pre-pubescent child, nor will I ever weigh this little again.
The meeting started for real and consisted of announcing the losses/gains of all members attending. We all had to applaud or commiserate accordingly, these proceedings took an hour and half, I truly had lost the will to live and felt like a seal in a circus with all that half hearted clapping.
I thought any minute now there will be a 'Who Ate All the Pies ' award. In fact they did have a slimmer of the week award, a pretty young girl who had lost two stone (not in a week, you understand) and had one more to go. Maybe it does work then.
I have sussed out how it works now, the plan is so complicated that by the time you have decided if you are on a 'Red' day or a 'green' day and what can be eaten on which day you don't have the time or inclination to eat! I discovered that my usual bowl of cornflakes and fruit is classed as 5 'syns', (15 syns allowed a day, my usual class of Bell's is only 2.5 maybe I should have that for breakfast instead.) how on earth can a healthy breakfast be a syn, I ask you.
I will give it a bit of a go as neighbour is keen to continue and I would truly like to lose a stone in order to lower the ever rising blood pressure. Mind you I will still eat the banned cornflakes, I have just bought a new box.
Going round to my niece and new hubbies house for a meal tonight, she has promised us a Thai curry, is that a red or green day? Oooh... The calories!
I, and my next door neighbour in a moment of madness and in the effects of alcohol decided it would be a good idea to join the local slimming club. She, I must say is as thin as a pin already and would disappear completely if she stood behind a lamp post. I, on the other hand have got the beginnings of the dreaded middle age spread. So on the appointed day and the appointed hour, we attend out first meeting.
First we get 'The New member Talk' given by the sleek, shiny and skinny tiny doll like creature who looks about fourteen, she tried to convince me she was 26 years old! No child has ever passed through those hips methinks! She tries to convince us that this programme is the best thing since sliced bread (so long as you don't eat it) and only greedy Muppets fail on it.
She did however impress us with her newspaper clippings of her at about 100 stone! She sure must of blocked a lot of light from a lot of large windows in those days.
She told us of the pain and humiliation of not being able to wear nice clothes and how shorts would ride up her legs. 'SHORTS' a large parachute would not of covered her posterior.
Anyway we were impressed enough to join, so we were escorted to the desk where we had to part with a enough money to keep Dawn French in chocolate for at least four hours. Then we had to be weighed (in confidence ladies). The weighing lady had a great delight in pointing out the page in the book which gave the ideal weight for your height. As I am the height of a twelve year old pre-pubescent child the weight seemed to correspond with this fact. I have not weighed this amount since I WAS a twelve year old pre-pubescent child, nor will I ever weigh this little again.
The meeting started for real and consisted of announcing the losses/gains of all members attending. We all had to applaud or commiserate accordingly, these proceedings took an hour and half, I truly had lost the will to live and felt like a seal in a circus with all that half hearted clapping.
I thought any minute now there will be a 'Who Ate All the Pies ' award. In fact they did have a slimmer of the week award, a pretty young girl who had lost two stone (not in a week, you understand) and had one more to go. Maybe it does work then.
I have sussed out how it works now, the plan is so complicated that by the time you have decided if you are on a 'Red' day or a 'green' day and what can be eaten on which day you don't have the time or inclination to eat! I discovered that my usual bowl of cornflakes and fruit is classed as 5 'syns', (15 syns allowed a day, my usual class of Bell's is only 2.5 maybe I should have that for breakfast instead.) how on earth can a healthy breakfast be a syn, I ask you.
I will give it a bit of a go as neighbour is keen to continue and I would truly like to lose a stone in order to lower the ever rising blood pressure. Mind you I will still eat the banned cornflakes, I have just bought a new box.
Going round to my niece and new hubbies house for a meal tonight, she has promised us a Thai curry, is that a red or green day? Oooh... The calories!
Thursday, September 22, 2005
Me and Mine
Well here I am again! I am a wonderfully Married girl, it works for some! But you have to ride a few storms and put a bit of effort in to make it this good, 32 years on I think we have it sussed!
Hubby BJ puts up with a fair bit of strife really, he is a quiet sort of guy but he has a legendary joke telling technique, they go on for hours. Either you drift of to another planet before the end or he forgets the punch line or even funnier he remembers it but thinks it so funny he cannot tell you for laughing! God love him. He is a brilliantly kind loving man who I would not swap for the World, Ok I may consider George Clooney. (Not really BJ)
My boys are my pride and joy (actually they are men now but will always be 'my boys' to me) in fact the youngest blog got me into this site. He is a real chip off this old mamablogs block, same blue eyes, same 'light the blue touch paper' temperament, though mine has mellowed with age. We both like to ride the high horse at times forgetting its a long fall from a high horse. He has a great sense of justice and hates to see the opposite. I think we would both change the world for the good given the chance.
The older blog funnily enough is a chip off Dadablog. A real brown eyed handsome man like BJ. He ,I think though has my sense of fun. He is a bit of a charmer and knows exatly what to say in any given situation, a perfectionist and a real career driven guy.
Myself and him did a massive 175foot charity abseil last year, it truly was the most scary, brave stupid, exhilarating (once back on terra firma) thing I have ever done. And no I don't think I will do it again! But then never say never.
I work as a Technical assistant to Tech director of a franchise operation. Sounds great and it is most of the time. I get to travel the Country a bit, train people to run classes of pre-school physical activities and I also get to run classes sometimes which means I work with the children which is truly a brilliant time. I adore trying to encourage them to reach their full age range potential. Very rewarding.
Hubby BJ puts up with a fair bit of strife really, he is a quiet sort of guy but he has a legendary joke telling technique, they go on for hours. Either you drift of to another planet before the end or he forgets the punch line or even funnier he remembers it but thinks it so funny he cannot tell you for laughing! God love him. He is a brilliantly kind loving man who I would not swap for the World, Ok I may consider George Clooney. (Not really BJ)
My boys are my pride and joy (actually they are men now but will always be 'my boys' to me) in fact the youngest blog got me into this site. He is a real chip off this old mamablogs block, same blue eyes, same 'light the blue touch paper' temperament, though mine has mellowed with age. We both like to ride the high horse at times forgetting its a long fall from a high horse. He has a great sense of justice and hates to see the opposite. I think we would both change the world for the good given the chance.
The older blog funnily enough is a chip off Dadablog. A real brown eyed handsome man like BJ. He ,I think though has my sense of fun. He is a bit of a charmer and knows exatly what to say in any given situation, a perfectionist and a real career driven guy.
Myself and him did a massive 175foot charity abseil last year, it truly was the most scary, brave stupid, exhilarating (once back on terra firma) thing I have ever done. And no I don't think I will do it again! But then never say never.
I work as a Technical assistant to Tech director of a franchise operation. Sounds great and it is most of the time. I get to travel the Country a bit, train people to run classes of pre-school physical activities and I also get to run classes sometimes which means I work with the children which is truly a brilliant time. I adore trying to encourage them to reach their full age range potential. Very rewarding.
Wednesday, September 21, 2005
Day one as a blogger!
Aha! at last I have unlocked the secrets of setting up my Blog page. At least I hope I have. This from a Fifty year old techno phobe. I am desparately trying to join the techi people!
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