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