On being tired, Richmond and conned

5 October 2012

For the first time in a long time I’m using my netbook to do the blog today.  I actually got it out to check the battery level – and it needs recharging so I might as well use it while it’s charging eh?

Right now I’m feeling very tried.  I saw 3am this morning before I finally dropped off to sleep.  I’m hoping for a better night tonight cos we’re up early for a trip to Richmond in N Yorks, Jan’s home town.  WE haven’t been up there for some time now and we are both looking forward to going up there to see if any more changes have been made.  The town centre doesn’t change much at all really seeing as most of the buildings are listed – even the new Woolies were not allowed to change the shop front when they moved to a new location.  The main reason for going up there is get some decent shots of the River Swale as it  thunders over the falls below the castle.  All the rain just lately should ensure there is plenty of water to shoot.  Of course, it mean there will be no blog tomorrow.

Nothing on telly last night so it was a quiet evening reading.  Last night it was the turn of Which? magazine to be read.  I used to have it before but it stop for some reason.  Anyway, it was the usual good read covering a lot of ground of concern to us shoppers and service users.  One of the main articles was regarding energy prices.  Take EON for example; for not paying by direct debit you get charged £110 per year more.  And what about NPOWER?  High energy users pay 3.6p per unit – but low energy users pay 4.7 per unit.  But charges are not the same across the country.  Each energy supplier charges different tariffs depending on where in the country you live.  It all smacks of profiting to me!

Some time ago Jan found and signed up with an energy supplier by the name of OVA.  As she explained it was explained to her and then to me it was a very good deal, just £60 per month for both gas and electric.  Jan kept checking the account on line and kept phoning them to make sure we were paying enough and offering to pay to more just in case.  They assured that we were paying more than enough.  OK then … then we came to move from Bracebridge Street to here and were hit with an energy bill of hundreds of £s.  Now we are paying just for the electric here and paying of the arrears from Bracebridge Street.  To say we feel conned is an understatement!

Today’s photo then … 

is an unashamed plug for my second book, House of Pain, available in paperback from Amazon and as a Kindle download too.

And from the Sage …

Defence Attorney:
Will you please state your age?
Old Lady:
I am 94 years old.
Defense Attorney:
Will you tell us, in your own words, what happened the night of April 1st?
Old Lady:
There I was, sitting there in my swing on my front porch on a warm spring evening,
when a young man comes creeping up on the porch and sat down beside me.
Defense Attorney:
Did you know him?
Old Lady:
No, but he sure was friendly.
Defense Attorney:
What happened after he sat down?
Old Lady:
He started to rub my thigh.
Defense Attorney:
Did you stop him?
Old Lady:
No, I didn't stop him.
Defense Attorney:
Why not?
Little Old Lady:
It felt good. Nobody had done that since my Albert died some 30 years ago.
Defense Attorney:
What happened next?
Old Lady:
He began to rub all over my body.
Defense Attorney:
Did you stop him then?
Old Lady:
No, I did not stop him.
Defense Attorney:
Why not?
Old Lady:
His rubbing made me feel all alive and excited. I haven't felt that good in years!
Defense Attorney:
What happened next?
Old Lady:
Well, by then, I was feeling so spicy' that I just laid down and told him   'Take me, young man. Take me now!'
Defense Attorney:
Did he take you?
Old Lady:
Hell, no! He just yelled, 'April Fool!' And thats when I shot him, the little bastard.

   

Sorry folks, a book in reading and another Tory cock-up!

4 October 2012

First off, apologies for the non-appearance of the funny yesterday.  It actually came in to me and I had hoped it would cut and paste onto the blog format.  In fact it do so and it was there in the draft and again in the version I get when I came to share it.  For some reason I don't know it didn't appear on the version once shared.  I've just checked it now and it is still there; so apologies folks.

And so there is yet another monumental cock-up down at Muppet Centre!  The cost to the tax payers is currently put at £40 million.  But is that the final figure?  Yet again civil servants take the blame but I do wonder just how much the earlier Transport minister was involved.  For once I has some sympathy with the current incumbent of that post.  he has had to apologise for the actions or lack thereof of his predecessor.  My thoughts are that the earlier one needs to answer some serious questions as to why she didn't find the error and sort it out herself.  But there again, she's a Tory and it seems to be one of their traits that they don't accept liability for their mistakes and leave them for others to clear up.

It's happening again folks ... I'm currently reading a book by David Baldacci called Zero Day.  The premise is of an open cast coal mine in West Virginia and the all the pollution it's causing.  Wrapped up in the story is another plot that takes 9/11 and goes further.  So then ... I've said before that I went through a period of reading books and the same or similar happenings actually did happen.  Well, this morning I got round to watching Sunday's Country File.  Tom Heap was in Northumberland where a new open cast coal mine is to be started about 100 metres from the rear of the houses in a small village.  This is happenian.ng because yet again the Tories have changed to law to allow big business to ride rough shod over the views of the everyone else.  Let's hope there's nothing more than a coating of dust on everything!

Our borough council is Labour run.  One of the opposition councillors is a Green Party man.  At the moment there is a cross party sub-committee that is looking at the so-called Dorktown Plan.  They idea of the Plan is so that future development within the town can be controlled and guided for the benefit of the town.  But the Green Party man is up in arms over it?  What he is upset about, and not just him by the way, is that all the meeting of this committee are being held behind closed doors.  There's no public consultation and the feeling is that the town is about to be sold down the river by the committee.  I can see where the man is coming from on this and I agree with him.  Very local to us here in Weddington there is an on-going fight to stop 300+ house being built in a green field site within about a mile from our flat.  Why can't they be built on a brown field site?  But do you know what, I've just been sitting here thing about it and I can't think where there is an unused brown field site within the borough.  The town needs new housing but where else can they be built?  I can't think of anywhere.

So a photo then ... 

Kings College church through the trees in Cambridge.

So here is the text from yesterday's funny that didn't work ...

I will never here the church bells ringing again without smiling.

Upon hearing that her elderly grandfather had passed away Katie went to visit her 95 year old grandmother and comfort her.  When she asked how her grandfather had died, her grandmother replied, "He had a heart attack while were making love on Sunday morning."

Horrified, Katie told her grandmother that two people nearly 100 years old having sex would be asking for trouble.  "Oh no my dear," she replied, "we realized a long time ago that the best time for us to it was when the church bells start to ring.  It was just the right rhythm.  Nice and slow and even.  In on the ding, out on the dong."

She paused and wiped a tear, and continued, "He would still be alive if that f****** ice cream truck hadn't come along!"                     

Bad steak, guns and money grabbing NHS

3 October 2012

Yesterday was not a bad day really.  I got out into town for a couple of hours to get a little bit of shopping done and then went to the Willy White for a pint.  On the tables were the menus sheets for their Grill Night special so I ordered a sirloin steak.  Last one I had was every nice, yesterday's was pretty dire with a lot of gristle in it.  By the time I got home I was feeling pretty well drained though.  I don't know why but there you go, I was. 

According to today's News rumours were widespread about a shooting incident in Stockingford.  Well, we hadn't heard them - but there again we now live on the other side of the railway tracks now ;-)))  It's strange how these stories get blow out of proportion and spread so widely.  The incident happened on Church Road and it may well have been between two car driver.  However, no one really knows. 

The Hussy Hospital is in the News again.  This time it's all about car parking charges.  It seems that barriers connected to an ANPR system.  The problem comes when some outpatient clinics over run, with one man saying his regular six week appointment is delayed by up to two hours on just as regular a basis.  The new system parkers will need to enter their reg number into a pay machine as they leave the hospital and then pay the charge required.  If a clinic over runs staff will be able to over ride the system to allow the patient/visitor to pay a lesser charge.  Sounds OK in theory but I thought NHS staff were very busy now anyway.  If so, how will they find the time to over ride the system for all a clinics patients?  I have a sneaky suspicion that the truth behind it is that there are now no parking attendants working there anymore.  People are arriving and paying just the minimum amount and that's all.  If that is right then the hospital is losing a lot of money from the car parks.  This ANPR system is just a way of increasing their income from car parking without admitting it!

This afternoon I'm due at the Walsgrave for a follow up on a problem with floaters in my eyes.  Last time I saw them, around three weeks ago they said that we have to learn to live with floaters because there was nothing that can be done about them.  I'll see how it goes today then.  Jan has to take me over there because they put drops in your eyes to dilate the pupils and it's not safe to drive after that.  We'll be able to do a bit more shopping afterwards at Asda just down the road.

So then I suppose you want a photo now ...  OK ... 

a coot, my favourite bird.

And from the Rochdale Sage ...

 

A nice day, face saving and #1 grandson

1 October 2012

Monday morning, funny but windy.  A nice day really but can we trust the weather not to turn wet if we went out on the scooter?  Well, I'm not risking it today.  There's nothing to go out for at the moment so I'm not going out for nothing.  Hang on, yes there is; I need my hair cutting so maybe I will be going out today but in the car I think, not on the scooter.

So KFC has won the planning row over building a new outlet where once the Graziers Arms once stood.  It's on a one-way system out of town that can be busy at peak times; there's no parking available so it has to be a drive through; and it's around 100 metres from a school!  Now why am I not surprised by that?  There was a programme on telly not so long ago about just how many fast food outlets there are close to schools all over the country.  Fast food is not the most diet friendly food of all is it?  Last time I had a KFC was about 10 years ago and it was running with cooking oil.  Not good if you need to watch what you are eating for health reason. 

It seems that a compromise has been made over the blue wrist bands at the Dorktown Academy.  Now there will be a newly designed tie which the kids can wear one week in every term where fund raising for charity can take place.  There will also be a permanent memorial for the boy who died.  Common sense sort of prevails I suppose although I can't help but think that there is an element of face saving on the part of the principle.

We had Kile over the weekend and as per normal he was very good.  We don't know but every so often he goes off the rails and becomes very naughty.  This lasts for several weeks at a time and his mum gets pretty well shattered when it happens.  Then suddenly it all stops again and for months on end he is the good boy we had over the weekend.  He likes coming to us because Jan has a iPad and a DS 3D and when he remembers a Wii machine too.  Mind you, we have to put with the boy-speak sound effects when he's playing them.  Any thoughts of me getting any writing done while he's here go out the window.  Feeding him is easy though.  He eats a lot better than his dad ever did.  Kile and me normally share a pizza one day, and on Saturday we had a chicken burger and chips.  Last time he was with us we shared a curry and rice.  I bought both a chicken and beef curry and we had a half n half.  Even the rice we had half n half too.  Jan won't eat curry - ha well ... ... ...

So here's a photo of Kile then ... 

taken at Meadow Hall shopping centre.

And from the Rochdale Sage ...

A man joins a very exclusive nudist colony  On his first day there, he takes off his clothes and starts to wander around .  A gorgeous petite blonde walks by, and the man immediately gets an erection.  The woman notices his erection, comes over to him and says, 'Did you
call for me?'

The man replies, 'No, what do you mean?'  She says, 'You must be new here. Let me explain. It's a rule here that if you get an erection, it implies you called for me.'

Smiling, she leads him to the side of the swimming pool, lies down on a towel, eagerly pulls him to her and happily lets him have his way with her.

The man continues to explore the colony's facilities. He enters the sauna and, as he sits down, he farts....

Within minutes, a huge, hairy man lumbers out of the steam-room toward him, 'Did you call for me?' says the hairy man.

'No, what do you mean?' says the newcomer.

'You must be new,' says the hairy man, 'it's a rule that if you fart, it implies that you called for me.' The huge man easily spins him around, bends him over a bench and has his way with him.

The newcomer staggers back to the colony office, where he is greeted by the smiling, naked receptionist, 'May I help you?' she says.

The man yells, 'Here's my membership card. You can have the key back and you can keep the $500.00 membership fee.'

'But, Sir,' she replies, 'you've only been here for a few hours. You haven't had the chance to see all our facilities.'

The man replies, 'Listen lady, I'm 68 years old. I only get an erection once a month. I fart 35 times a day