Vanity rules ...

13 July

And we have yet more rain today; but even so the work outside goes on as normal. I was a bit surprised when we went out on Saturday that the wood panels on the outside of out block were now in place. As I say drinking me first cuppa I saw the sire manager speaking rather loudly to one his men and pointing out some places that needed to be done to bring the job up to where it should be.

There are a lot of those places too. I’ve said before there seems to be no sense in how they are working with some parts finished but areas where they need to go back several steps to complete it. I would have thought that it would be better surely if they started at one end and worked their way around following on with each stage as it was approached. But do I know eh, I’m just joe public living in the middles of it all.

I sat and edited my photos from Saturday yesterday and I’ve ended up with 49 shots that I am pleased with. There’s also a number that I think are worthwhile enough to go back to and do some more work on. For now though, here’s a penguin …

Jan has just explained how the new tax credit thingy will work. It doesn’t affect us in anyway so I wasn’t really bothered about looking into properly. However, it will affect Kile and his mum and step dad, that’s why she looked it up. It seems that the threshold having been lowered means that in effect, tax credits have been abolished. The increase in the minimum wage to £7.20 and hour and working the required 16 hours per week, means that you earn almost £6000, putting you over the threshold by over £2000. As I said, this move abolishes tax credits. But IDS and the rest of the true blue lot accept that? I leave it you to work that out … … …  

Who do you think has won the latest battle of the Greek loans? Both sides can claim some success but not as much as either wanted. Even so I saw a photo of the Greek prime muppet looking sideways at his German counterpart with a real sneer on his face. I could see he was thinking, See woman, I’m tougher than you and got one you! Has he I wonder? The worry is that in a few months’ time, they will back asking for more. At some point there has to be a point when someone says, ‘Enough. You can’t pay back you already owe, so why should we loan you even more?’ I read once that someone said, ‘If you owe the bank £2000, the banks owns you; if you owe the bank £2.000.000, they you own the bank.’ And that is how it’s looking for Greece right now.

This morning we sat and watched Fake or Fortune on BBCiPlayer. The more I see of these art shows the more I think I should have gone on to more art history. Anyway, last night’s show was about a Renoir painting hanging on the walls of a Welsh castle. Personally I didn’t think it was all that good a painting, but if it was sketch to be later worked up, then I see no problem there. The problem with the painting now is that although one art house giant has accepted it as a genuine Renoir, a second one will not do so. This is the second time that the show has come up against this one art house after challenging their stance. It seems that they won’t accept that they might have made a mistake. So the painting still hangs on a castle wall because it is unsaleable now. It makes it all look very shabby to me.

Here’s another shot from Saturday … 

A rose bush outside the café I was having a cuppa at.

And today’s fail …

Vanity rules …

Franz Ferdinand was shot dead in 1914, an act that lead to WW1. It was his vanity that caused him to sewn into his tunic so he would look smarter. The shot rings out, the bullet hits home but doctors couldn’t get his tunic off until they had cut it off. By that time he was dead.