A Thursday Toddle around My Chair

I have decided that one problem about writing posts that ramble all over the place is that folk may be tempted to skip down them for any interesting keywords.  I know I sometimes do that on blogs when I’m in a hurry to get up-to-date with what everyone I follow has written. So today I thought I’d help out by having sub-headings.  Those of you, for example, who are fed up of hearing me complain about my health can skip the one headed eyesight issues, others might want to skip sport but I recommedn you read the small print.

Eyesight issues

Kay recently asked why did she only see the mistakes in her comment posts after she'd clicked the 'post' button.  I think one answer in my case is that the font in the comment box is rarely anywhere near as large or clear as that on the blog itself. I hope folk therefore forgive me when I leave comments with so many typing errors.   If I wear my glasses that enable me to see the screen clearly the keyboard is in my 'double vision' range and if you've ever tried hitting a key when there's two of each of them you'll know it aint' easy.  It doesn't help that the co-ordination of my fingers is damaged by my neurological disorder so even if the keys were in the right place I mightn't actually land on them!  Perhaps those of you who consume alcohol might like to have a go after your next total wipe-out and see what it's like. 

Another sunny day

I always thought it was a British thing to talk about the weather all the time but I notice as I travel around Blogland that what the weather is doing today seems to be a major topic in most countries. Monday was another gloriously sunny and warm day. I spent the morning in the garden planting out some seedlings.  Partner-who-drinks-tea was working at home in the morning so we had a cup of tea out on the patio and revelled in the sunshine.  I mentioned how dry the garden was and that I would have to water it on Tuesday if it didn’t rain.  She responded by saying they’d be extending the drought restrictions shortly.  Sure enough on the radio  news later they mentioned just that. Had I thought about it properly I should have realised that these things combined would mean that by Monday night it would be cold, windy and a constant downpour.  Ah well, the garden needed it. 

The Conservatory Roof

What doesn't need the rain is the conservatory whose rtoog=f leaks.  Afters of putting up with this I have decided to get a man in to sort it.  It will cost £150 to take a look at it and if it is easy to fox that will be done within that £150 but if the apex ridge has gone it will be trioke that much. Ugh!

A rose is a rose is a rose… Or Perhaps not

 We had a hilarious incident the other day.  Some of you may recall these wonderful artificial roses that Daughter-who-takes-photos and Son-in-law-and-friend-who loves otters gave to Jo for her birthday last year.  They are so beautiful and so real.  In fact, so real that they fooled a wasp.  It flew into the conservatory through the open door – as buzzy things have a habit of doing all too often – and went straight into the roses.  It then went down inside one.  Only my eventually moving, to get the camera, disturbed its futile search for pollen.

Sporting-wise a busy week-end (to be avoiuded by those with a 'sports filter')

In terms of the sports I follow I don’t think you could get a busier week-end unless someone threw in a Wimbledon tennis match!  Firstly, Liverpool played Everton in the soccer FA Cup semi-final.  Everton is the team that live across the park from Liverpool and therefore are our closest rivals (though not our most bitter – that’s Manchester United).  Although both teams are from Liverpool the semi-final was held at the national stadium, Wembley, in London which was turned red and blue for a day.  Everton led 1-0 at half time and Liverpool won 2-1.  Normally I wouldn’t menti0on the half-time score but it turned out to be significant because this is one of two days in the year that I gamble on sports and I had a bet that Everton would lead at half-time but Liverpool would win.  I ended up significantly richer as a result.  (Significant in my terms at any rate!  It will pay for a quarter of a boiler when we eventually get one.)  On Sunday the other semi-final was played and afterwards there was another major call for goal-line technology to help the referees make decisions. He awarded a goal to the team that eventually won and the cameras showed the ball was nowhere near crossing the line. 

Also on Saturday there was the Grand National which I know from previous mentions is a controversial subject because of the potential for horse getting hurt which sadly occurred this year and two horses died. Ironically both died at Beecher’s Brook, a fence which had been made safer this year.  The act of making it safer caused more jockeys to go for the inside line and the horses were bunched up too much as they jumped.  Although my horse came in second by the closest margin ever seen in the National that made me no money because I’d backed it to win though Jo’s horse coming third did because I’d backed it each way for her.  (I never win on the National because I put bets on a couple of horses each for Jo and Richard and if they win they get the money while I’ve still paid out the stake money on all the horses, winners and losers alike!  It’s called the ‘I’m a mug’ syndrome.)

And finally there was a Grand Prix on Sunday and it was exciting for once. There was a lot of overtaking and changing positions though the pole-sitter went on to win the race without having his equanimity disturbed by anyone else.  It was Nikko Rosberg, son of a famous and favourite driver of mine from the past, and it was his first win.  It’s always nice when someone new wins a Grand Prix and ‘my’ driver, Jenson Button, came second.;

Postcrossing

I’ve had quite a few cards lately and my postcrossing site is not up-to-date but I had to share one with you here.  One of my blogging friends, Danielle, who introduced me to postcrossing and mailcrossing collects World Heritage Sites.  England and Scotland have a lot and I happen to have postcards of a few of them.  So recently I sent Danielle one of Stonehenge.  This was her response.

 

Brilliant! 

I have decided that I might change the postcrossing blog slightly and add in the occasional family postcard from the past.  An interesting idea but whether I will have the time to carry out is another matter. 

ABC Wednesday

I showed some photos representing Nature for ABC Wednesday and Chris J – the Flamblogger chose the same word.  As I knew some people would.  As an N it is irresistible.

In an ABC Wednesday post by Sapna - a typical twenty-something computer science engineer working in one of reputed Investment Banking companies in Bangalore,India - I learned about Namaste.  This is the customary greeting when individuals meet, and a valediction upon their parting in India. 

All to Scale

While I’m pointing you to places let me show you a brilliant website which shows things around the universe in scale with each other.  “This is very cool - an animation that allows you to scroll through the scale of the universe, starting at human-sized and going very small or very big. Go play with it and learn stuff.”  So said Jedediah at Book Scorpion’s Lair – thanks to her for finding this.

The Small Print

I got a new Barclaycard the other day.  The accompanying information was in the smallest of print and it was a toss up whether to devote the time to reading the Barclaycard small print or ‘War and Peace’.  In the end I settled for ‘Les Misérables’  it’s slightly shorter than ‘War and Peace’. 

And talking of small print I was about to upload an app to Facebook when I noticed – hidden away in a corner of it - To use this app, you will be upgraded to Facebook Timeline.  Ha, ha – I didn’t upload it so you didn’t catch me this time!  

I hope the rest of the week is good for you and that you manage to avoid all the pitfalls of small print.