June 11, 2013

  • Spring is finally, belatedly, here in the UK and things are starting to grow! 


    In our garden, “Dingly Dell” outside our patio doors has finally come alive, bushes are flowering, and before I mow the lawn, we are enjoying the unprecedented crop of daisies……………….














January 26, 2013

  • Tips for handling Junk Mail 
     
    1) When you get ads enclosed with your phone or utility bill, return these ads with your payment. Let the sending companies throw their own junk mail away.
     
    2) When you get those ‘pre-approved’ letters in the mail for everything from credit cards to 2nd mortgages and similar type junk, do not throw away the return envelope. 
     Most of these come with postage-paid return envelopes, right?
    It costs them more than the regular postage, ‘if’ and `when` they receive them back.
    It costs them nothing at all, though, if you throw them away !
    So…… why not get rid of some of your other junk mail and put it in these cool little postage-paid return envelopes.
    The paid postage would cost them at least 60p before the last increase, and it is according to the weight, so they could get charged an excess as well. Sweeeeet ! 
    The banks and credit card companies are already getting a lot of their own junk back in the mail this way, but folks, we need to OVERWHELM them. Let’s let them know what it’s like to get lots of junk mail, and best of all they’re paying for it…Twice!
     
    Let’s help keep our postal service busy, since they are saying that e-mail is cutting into their business profits, which is why they need to increase postage costs again. You get the idea!
     Tips for handling Telemarketing calls.
     
    1) These three little words will help eliminate telephone soliciting..
    The three little words are: ‘Hold On, Please…’
    Saying this, while putting down your phone and walking off (instead of hanging-up immediately) would make each telemarketing call so much more time-consuming,
    that boiler room sales would grind to a halt.
    Then, when you eventually hear the phone company’s ‘beep-beep-beep’ tone, you know it’s time to go back and hang up your handset, which has efficiently completed its task.
     
    2) Do you ever get those annoying phone calls with no one on the other end?
    This is a telemarketing technique where a machine makes phone calls and records the time of day when a person answers the phone.
    This technique is used to determine the best time of day for a ‘real’ sales person to call back and get someone at home.
     What you can do after answering, if you notice there is no one there,
    Is to immediately start hitting your # button on the phone, 6 or 7 times as quickly as possible. This confuses the machine that dialled the call, and it kicks your number out of their system.
    Gosh, what a shame not to have your name in their system any longer!!!
    Tips from Snopes.com. (I already do this at all times)
    Delete all previous names from your incoming emails before forwarding !
    Then send your email to your entire address list BCC.This means that  everyone after you doesn’t get all your friends’ email addresses.

January 22, 2013

  • I love puns based on well-known expressions. Here is a selection 

     :-


    1). King Ozymandias of Assyria was running low on cash after years of war with the Hittites. His last great possession was the Star of the Euphrates, the most valuable diamond in the ancient world.
       Desperate, he went to Croesus, the pawnbroker, to ask for a loan. Croesus said, “I’ll give you 100,000 dinars for it.”
      “But I paid a million dinars for it,” the King protested. “Don’t you know who I am? I am the king!”
       Croesus replied, “When you wish to pawn a Star, makes no difference who you are.”


    2. Evidence has been found that William Tell and his family were avid bowlers.
       Unfortunately, all the Swiss League records were destroyed in a fire, and so we’ll never know for whom the Tells bowled.

    3. A man rushed into a busy doctor’s surgery and shouted, “Doctor! I think I’m shrinking!”

    The doctor calmly responded, “Now, settle down. You’ll  just have to be a little patient.”
     
    4. An Indian chief was feeling very sick, so he summoned the medicine man.
       After a brief examination, the medicine man took out a long, thin strip of elk rawhide and gave it to the chief, telling him to bite off, chew, and swallow one inch of the leather every day.
       After a month, the medicine man returned to see how the chief was feeling.
       The chief shrugged and  said, “The thong is ended, but the malady lingers on.”

    5. A famous Viking explorer, Leif Amundsen, returned home from a voyage and found his name missing from the town register.
       His wife insisted on complaining to the local civic official, who apologized profusely saying,  “I must have taken Leif off my census.”

    6.  There were three Indian squaws. One slept on a deer skin, one slept on an elk skin, and the third slept on a hippopotamus skin.
         All three became pregnant. The first two each had a baby boy.
        The one who slept on the hippopotamus skin had twin boys.
        This just goes to prove that :-
       The squaw on the hippopotamus is equal to the sum of the squaws on the other two hides.

    7.  A sceptical anthropologist was cataloging South American folk remedies with the assistance of a tribal elder who indicated that the leaves of a particular fern were a sure cure for any case of constipation.
        When the anthropologist expressed his doubts, the elder looked him in the eye and said,
        “Let me tell you, with fronds like these, who needs enemas.”

December 26, 2012

November 15, 2012

  • Nearing the end of our Autumn holiday here at Sharm on the Red Sea.
    As always, the weather has been very warm with non-stop sun every day. The usual tough grind of eating, drinking, and lounging about in the sun. Remember the sun, that bright thing up in the sky we used to see quite a bit of until this year?

    Pics below show our apartment facing the Relaxation Pool, a pic of one of the other main pool areas, the main restaurant frontage, Madge doing her crosswords at the main pool, and myself trying to look intelligent in the restaurant. Recognize the shirt, Mrs. W. ??
    It’s a hard life if you don’t weaken !

    (If only rectangles appear instead of pics, wait a bit, and if no pics appear, click on each rectangle to see the pic)











October 22, 2012

  • Alma Deutscher was playing Handel Violin Sonatas at the age of four, and plays classical music on violin and on piano.

    She is also into composing, and has composed an Opera, Sonatas and compositions for violin and piano at the age of six, and is currently fulfilling a commission to compose a Cello Sonata. 
    She says it will be “dramatic,in the style of Tchaikovsky rather than that of Mozart”
    Click the links below to view her in action on the violin and on the piano:-

September 23, 2012

  • Had our fourth annual trip to Estartit in Northern Spain at the beginning of September. As usual, we stayed in Camping Estartit, which is just behind the town and only a ten-minute walk to the beach, courtesy of Brian and Gayle, close relations who kindly give us use of their second caravan on the site.

     Once again, amazingly, it felt as if our holiday was in the first half of the year, because the weather got progressively warmer, not cooler, as we moved into the middle of September, and stayed fine and sunny, with the exception of just one heavy downpour on one afternoon in the final week.

    The beach at Estartit has a very gentle slope into the sea, making it very safe and ideal for children and folks like us in our second childhood…… 

    Pics below show a view of the beach, a view of the camp pool, my goodself standing by the caravan awning, and Madge relaxing on the beach. 





August 30, 2012

  • This month brought the Summer visit by son Paul and family up from Battle. 

    Lots of activities including Skiing at Xscape at nearby Glasshoughton, and an afternoon at local Farmer Copley’s Farm Shop and Corn Maze where various meats were purchased for a weekend barbecue.
    This was held at daughter Sara’s house in Wakefield at the weekend, and was preceded by a morning out at Pugney’s, a local water sports complex, to indulge in a spot of canoe and kayak fun on the lake.

    The forecast for the day was showers and sun, but the showers came midday and cleared in time for the barbecue later in the afternoon, so apart from catching us on the last few minutes at Pugney’s, we were lucky with the weather overall.

    Pics below show some of the family outside Reception at Pugney’s, Sara and son Sam canoeing, fun on Sara’s lawn, preparing the barbecue, and a picture of Paul and Silvia’s gorgeous little Schnauser, Finlay.


August 14, 2012

  • Had a terrific short break at the seaside last weekend. At our Golden Wedding last March, our family treated us to a Spa break at Raithwaite Hall, just North of Whitby on the East coast, so we waited until the August weather to take this up.

    We arrived on the morning of Thursday August 2nd to have our Spa treatment, after whch we drove up to Sandsend, a seaside village five minutes away up the coast. There we just chilled out on the beach and enjoyed the warm sunny weather until it was time to return for a sumptuous Dinner at the hotel.

    After a lovely breakfast the following morning we were joined by daughter Sara and family for a meal and a day out in Whitby , followed by another trip up to Sandsend before making the journey home. Again, the weather was warm and mostly sunny making it a most enjoyable break. It can be a great treat to be a wrinkly at times !

    Pics below show Madge and I on the hotel balcony, one of the treatment rooms, a view of Whitby and a view of Sandsend.

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February 25, 2012

  • The 2012 holiday season started unusually early for us, with a one-week break on the Red Sea (also unusual, as we normally go for two weeks) along with daughter Sara & son John and their families, making a family party of ten. For the first time ever on the Red Sea, we started with a couple of breezy, overcast days, although we were still out round the pool on the loungers, as the temperature was still in the middle 20s.. The rest of the week was back to normal, as the breeze dropped and the sun returned.

    This was the first visit to the Royal Albatros Moderna for John and his family, and  I was particularly keen to find out how granddaughters Katie and Amy would enjoy the Water Park and other facilities there.  Because of the time of year and subsequent water temperature, both were kitted out with wet suits, so were able to fully enjoy the water park without feelilng chilled.

    Everyone had a great time, and as usual Madge and I picked up a good tan and, inevitably after an all-inclusive holiday, a few pounds in weight !

    Pics below show Madge relaxing by the pool, Amy and Katie in their shades, and a shot of the resort at night taken from the restaurant balcony. 

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    Katie & Amy in Shades 

    Night Scene