Neighbours, who will be enxt and a late photo-mag

30 September

We have a subscription to Amateur Photography and normally our copy arrives on Saturday morning. It didn’t arrive last Saturday though. The reason for that is down Mark, the guy lives (lived?) above us. He had so many unsavoury people visit him, that it was making life rather iffy for the rest of us. Add to that police raids on his flat and the fights breaking out up there and threats one of the others, the council decided that they would fit new locks to our block doors so that security would be improved.

They also went for an eviction order for Mark. We don’t know if has been granted yet but we’ve seen him once in the last four weeks, so maybe it has been granted. Thing is, we’ve always got on OK with Mark himself. He always used to stand and chat a while when we met him outside on the road side. However, that last time we saw him, he had face like thunder and although he said, ‘Hello Janet,’ he didn’t stop and chat.

As I said, we got OK with him, but we will also be pleased if he has gone because there will be less unpredictability in the block. There is of course the old saying, ‘Better the devil you know than the one you don’t know.’ That is now on our minds. The tenancy of these flats are divided into two separate types. The ground floor are ‘supported;’ we have pull cords in every room to call for help from the warden in the sheltered complex just along the road. The flats up stairs are general purpose flats, and anyone who doesn’t need support can have those. That means we could end up with another difficult person move in above us. We have to wait and see now.

What has all this got to do with the photo-mag that should have been here on Saturday? Well, the block door is unlocked during the day and locked later in the evening. At the moment we have been probably leaning a wee bit too much on Sandra (she lives opposite Mark,) to open up as she goes off to work. It looks like she have to work on Saturday cos the door was locked when the posty arrived. How about that then … all this cos of locked a locked door. Writers please take note.

Today’s photos … 

Kile with my old Sony A350 and Tamron 18-270 lens.

And our friend the Sage has been in touch again …

A Jewish daughter says to her mother, "I'm divorcing Nathan." All he wants is sex, sex and more sex.
My vagina is now the size of a 50-cent piece when it used to be the size of a 5 cent piece."
Her mother says …..

"You're married to a multi-millionaire businessman! You live in an 8 bedroom mansion! You drive a $250,000 Ferrari! You get $2,000 a week allowance! You take 6 vacations a year and you want to throw all that away ...
Over 45 cents !!!!?"

NOW THAT'S A JEWISH MOTHER !     

Birding day, funeral costs and how long will we live

29 September

Kile and me had a good day’s birding yesterday over at Brandon Marsh. There’s no new ticks for the year for me but just being out with Kile was pleasure enough. He used my old A350 camera and came home with over 200 shots, and he’s doing pretty well too.

In this morning’s post there was a letter from the undertaker who handle mother’s funeral. It reminded me that I wanted to make a comment about funeral costs on here. You see, mam’s funeral cost £2995 all told. We were lucky that she had an insurance policy that covered the cost and left a bit over. But how would have managed if that policy wasn’t there? How many families get stuck over funeral costs when there’s no policy? You see, the DWP Social Fund is only a lone, not a grant. But hang on …

Here in Dorktown the undertakers now demand that all disbursements are paid up front, or at least before the funeral takes place. So what happens if the family can’t afford to pay them? The costs involved with funerals these are huge, just look at mam’s … and that was going to the very cheapest options. It’s more than a little worrying really.

That is why we have looked for and taken on over 50 plans on both of us. We need them. There are lots of companies out there selling them and you need to be careful when buying one. The one we have gone for can be linked to Coop Funeral Services, who my family have always used. Of course we both hope we don’t have to make a claim for a very long time to come!

Linked to that is a survey thingy that Jan did on Facebook the other day. This one asks, ‘How long will you live’. Well, Jan answered all the questions and came up with a life expectancy of 118 years. She posted, ‘No thanks!’ after doing it. There’s always a lot of those on Facebook and I can’t be bothered with them. Whoever makes these up needs to get a life methinks … or … is it a bit of a marketing ploy dressed up look like a bit of fun I wonder?

Today’s photo is from yesterday over at Brandon … 

I wonder if it works.

And today’s funny is from the Sage …

There I was sitting at the bar staring at my drink when a great huge, trouble-making biker steps up next to me, grabs my drink and gulps it down in one swig.
"Well, whatcha' gonna do about it?" he says, menacingly, as I burst into tears.
"Come on, man," the biker says, "I didn't think you'd CRY. I can`t stand to see a man crying."
"This is the worst day of my life," I say. "I'm a complete failure. I was late to a meeting and my boss fired me. When I went to the car park, I found my car had been stolen and I don't have any insurance. I left my wallet in the cab I took home. I found my wife with another man and then my dog bit me."
"So I came to this bar to work up the courage to put an end to it all, I buy a drink, I drop a capsule in and sit here watching the poison dissolve; then you show up and drink the whole thing! But enough about me, how's your day going  

Today's outing, a few pints and a 'train' for thought

27 September

And yet another Saturday is wasted! The travel agent told me she would be able to sort us taking our walkers with when we go away next month if I went in today. So, I turned up at the agents and had quite a wait to be dealt with. However, I didn’t get to speak to the lass who dealt with me before. The guy I spoke to today spoke to her and it seems that the ‘special requests section’ (yes, I’ve never heard of them either,) are closed until Monday. A bit of a pain really because we were hoping for a day in today. So now she will phone us on Tuesday … we’ll see … … …

I took the chance and snapped few candid shots while I was in town, not that any of them are any good like; again, we’ll see later. A quick pint in the Felix Holt sat at a table where two of the biggest bigots I’ve met for long time joined me. That was why it was a very quick pink pint indeed. From there round to Asda and off round to the Anker where Jan and Kile joined me.

As I’ve explained before, I have swapped to Nikon a SLR because it is lighter than my Sony 77. OK ... fine … but luggage restrictions on our holiday next month mean that I have change back to the 77 because I at least have a 18-270 zoom lens for that one. So I shall take the 77, 18-270 and my 10-24 wide angle lenses. Jan will take her 70-300 and her 30mm macro lenses. That way we will cover most of what we might need.

I have a transport related history lesson for today. As I sit here with the windows and back door open, I regularly hear the Virgins trains expresses roaring along the line about half a mile away. The thought of the proposed HS2 noise levels make me shudder. But none of this would have happened if the Stockton to Darlington hadn’t been inaugurated in 1825. Later, 133 later, the onetime largest liner in the world, was launched on the River Clyde.

I’m off to Diagon Alley for today’s photo … 

Weasleys shop.

And today’s funny …

Joe was a steward for Fly High airlines. He watched as an older lady boarded the plane holding a dog in a cage. “Excuse me,” said Joe “dogs are not allowed on board, you have to check it in with the baggage.” The lady wasn’t happy, but Joe was an experienced steward and succeeded in convincing the lady without much of a scene. Upon arrival, Joe took a peek in the cage, and to his great surprise, saw that the dog was dead! Frantic that they may get sued, Joe quickly sent one of his underlings out to town to buy a dog that looked exactly the same. Just in the nick of time the underling arrived with the dog They quickly switched dogs and breathed a sigh of relief. “This isn’t my dog!” said the lady as soon as she saw it. “I’m sure it is” insisted Joe “I was very careful about where I put it.” “It’s not my dog” argued the lady, “you see, I was bringing my dog to my home town to have him buried, and this dog is alive!”