Venturing into civilization

Hill snow

Today, being one of those rare days that PG and I were both off work together had long since been designated as 'venture to civilization and get essential supplies' day. 'Vital supplies' is a term used loosely here, for even in gemmaks-ville true vital supplies are available, despite being a little remote.

This planned day out was not, I have to say, on the top of my 'want to do list' today but having spent the majority of yesterday in bed rattling with paracetamol and the like, and the guy with the jack-hammer having had the good grace to bugger off, I agreed, somewhat po-faced to go..... providing PG did all the driving.

What a waste of time, most of our required essential supplies where not to be had for various reasons and with the whole of Edinburgh's retail opportunities at my feet I could still not raise the appropriate interest. I think the sum total of my outlay was in the region of £10! Not to be off-put we made the obligatory bi-monthly pilgrimage to Ikea, not that we needed anything but when it's there you just have to do it....again a paltry outlay. We wandered disinterested with the usual flock, picked up a few candles (well you have to don't you?) and headed for home.

All was not lost. Sat in the passenger seat like a pudding, staunchly sticking to my 'I'm too ill to drive' routine, I was treated to some beautiful sights. Edinburgh is surrounded on three sides by mountains and hills, all of which were still snow covered. To me, used to London, a city surrounded by such scenery is still awe inspiring and to drive along main routes through a city and see the snow capped landscape is breathtaking. I have to add here my apologies for the quality, or lack thereof, where the photograph is concerned....it was the best I could do at dusk in a moving vehicle, through the windscreen and where no convenient stopping places presented themselves! Godamn urban roads, I'm used to just grinding to a halt these days without risk of prosecution, or worse still causing an accident!

Finally as we approached home the highlight of the day, a Barn Owl, unusually active in early dusk, flew alongside the car for maybe 300 yards, swooping and hovering, wings at full span, beautiful face looking intermittently straight at us. Once or twice I have caught a glimpse of one but never so close or for such a period of time.

So we drove, or rather PG did, 150 miles to spend only £20 but I got lunch out and a rare close up of a Barn Owl...... himself is out at a meeting for the evening so I have the pc all to myself and the ailing bits of me are on the mend.....yup, things could be a whole lot worse!

Cat-ch that cursor.

Ditto.

Jack-hammer and whisk

Yesterday I was dispatched back home from work within two hours of arriving as the result of some heinous interloper invading my body. Said invading little critter has come equipped with a large jackhammer in my head and a whisk in my stomach. Bleugh.

I got up this morning to investigate the state of play in time to get ready and go.... but things are no better. The delightful (not) description of 'bleugh' still reigns and now I have to sit and wait another hour and a half in trepidation of making the 'I can't make it in' call, as soon as someone arrives at the store. I wanna go back to bed but I dare not for fear of oversleeping and not making the call at the appropriate time. Unusually yesterday I was treated with sympathy and kindness, it was my good fortune that the duty manager was one of the few with a heart and it made a big difference but it doesn't prevent me from dreading calling in today.

It's taken me 40 minutes to type these few paltry words and a pc screen isn't helping my head any, I'm off now to feel pathetic and guilty........

Some days........

.....don't you just feel like doing this to someone?!

Friday's feast (37)

Ok Jack, this is for you....have patience man! Heh. :o)

Appetizer - Name something that makes you scream.
Spiders, nothing else makes me scream.

Soup - Who is a musician you enjoy listening to when you want to relax?
I don't often listen to music other than as a background in the car but if I do listen to relax then New World stuff or what PG refers to as 'screaming women', the like of Celine Dion/Whitney Houston etc.

Salad - What was the last book you purchased?]
A world atlas.

Main Course - If you could live one day as any historical figure, who would it be, and what would you do?
I would be Captain James Cook and I would do exactly as he did, that way I would get to see all the places in the world, by sea, that I would like to.

Dessert - Tell about a time when you were lost. Where did you end up? How long did it take you to get back to where you were going?
I don't think I have ever been lost other than at about age 3 when I 'mislaid' my mother in a department store for a few minutes! One minute I was by her side, the next she vanished, or rather I wandered off. I can still remember the feeling of utter panic and terror vividly, although it only took her a minute or two to track me down and attach me to 'reins'!.

Woman sues Hewlett Packard

Whilst on the subject of internet and computer related stories in the news today this less alarming, but none the less annoying, item came to my notice.

An American woman is currently suing Hewlett Packard for allegedly programming the chips on their ink cartridge's to 'expire' at a certain date, regardless of whether they are empty.

The ink cartridge price situation has long been a bone of contention among those of us that use printers. While the cost of a printer is now minimal, in many instances the cost of running one can be as high as £1700 over the life of the machine!

The issue of an expiry date is a new one on me. I am well aware that the chips alert the user that the cartridge is 'empty' (not) long before it genuinely is and promote the changing of said cartridge way before it is necessary, but to shut it down and render it useless is not something I have experienced. On the rare occasion that I have used an original cartridge I have been able to print perfectly well for perhaps 20, A4 sized high quality prints after Epson's chip has told me it is no longer viable!!

The answer to this problem is simple and cost effective. A set of Epson original cartridges for my printer is over £50 so I don't buy them. Instead I purchase generic cartridges via the internet at the cost of £12 a set. Ok, so I render my guarantee (for what it's worth) invalid but compare the cost, it doesn't take a genius to see that the guarantee is in effect an extremely heavily priced piece of nonsense. Three sets of ink and you have a new printer...... and a pretty reasonable one at that. Here in the UK an acceptable every day model will only set you back about £40, less than one set of cartridges.......no contest, I'll take my chance, if it breaks, even at £250 I'm quids in and I'll buy another.

Arash Sigarchi jailed for 14 years

The Iranian blogger Arash Sigarchi was yesterday jailed for 14 years for criticizing the arrest by the authorities of other online journalists in Iran!

Mr Sigarchi was charged with a string of crimes against the Iranian state, including espionage, insulting the founder of Iran's Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomenei, and current Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

In actual fact what he was doing was what so many of us do, promoting his opinion via a blog.

This is an outrage.

We in the Western world, at times, take for granted our freedoms. We may not be as free in some instances as we would like but Mr Sigarchi's situation brings our difficulties into a stark perspective. Many of us consider the risk of losing our employment as the result of blogging, a crime against our freedom of speech and fight it fervently. To risk being incarcerated for such a 'crime' is unthinkable.

I am not naive enough to think it a completely alien concept, that what may be considered subversive, published opinions would not attract the attention of authorities here, in fact I know of one such case, but to be jailed by a kangaroo court for such actions just would not happen.

For more information see related links:

The committee to protect bloggers

Reporters without borders

Stuff and other stuff

The last two days have bought with them my wished for snowfall. The snow fell on and off for 48 hours but was punctuated with spells of bright sunshine and hence the covering only ever managed to attain approximately 3 inches in depth but that was good enough for me. The landscape turned a beautiful white, the sun glistened on it's surface and Ditto had a fine time.

The weather forecasts last night promised further snow and this time with promises of severe disruption and 10 inches overnight. Full of glee I went to my bed in expectation of a beautiful deep snowfall this morning. What did I get? Rain! Damp, miserable, grey, wet, rain. There is an odd phenomenon it appears in this years forecasting, each time I look the same conditions are prevalent but have been 'pushed' in the region of 10 hours hence. At this rate snow will still be forecast to fall in mid August!

Along with the damp, rainy morning came another surprise, my car's brakes seized yet again, yes, I know I paid over £200 to get them fixed not ten days ago......don't go there, just don't! As a consequence of this I was late for work, having churned up the driveway here for twenty minutes freeing them off. Things go no better.

The heating, that has been in a state of collapse in my place of work for the last few weeks was repaired yesterday and so I hadn't regaled myself in various elegant items of thermal fashions, guess what? Ok, so it had been repaired but is now giving forth a sound similar to that in the boiler room of a steam ship and for the main part had to be turned off to enable basic conversations to be held with those we serve. Add to that, the main entrance door were being 'worked on' and so were parked wide open all day. Heavens above!

Finally my new cell phone crashed and died for no apparent reason.

On the up side, yes there is one, the retailer from who I purchased the phone is next door to where I work and changed it without the expected furore and aggravation, I only had to work a 6 hour shift, the BIG snow is still forecast for mid June tonight and I have a day off tomorrow. Yayyy.

Right then, that's me done for now, I'm off to download MMS and GPRS settings to my replaced phone yet again.....oh the excitement, I can hardly contain myself!

A learning curve

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What's this then?


Smells ok.......


Yup, it tastes ok......


Not sure tho.... where's that back foot gone?

Love em or hate em.....

....agree or disagree, Charles and Camilla are going to be married come hell or high water and the Queens decision not to attend, hotly denied by the palace as a snub, seems to be just that! The reason given? That the couple want it to be a low key affair.....do mothers not normally qualify under the term 'low key'?

She may have her reservations, she may disapprove, we will doubtless never know the true 'goings on' surrounding this wedding that is fast sliding into a state of utter debacle but come on, she is his mother. One thing is for sure, if I were the 'happy couple' no amount of official statements or excuses would prevent me from feeling snubbed and furthermore in a situation where the queen is concerned about the image of her family this won't help. Much as I admire the ability to have the courage of one's convictions this in my opinion, not the most appropriate time or place for it.

Snow at last!

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I just had to get up early this morning to check out the snow situation and yes, at last I was greeted with some proper accumulation of snow. Yaayyyy. Last nights midnight fall had been added too and it was all brand new pristine, beautiful, foot print and car track-less. It began snowing again about an hour ago and hasn't stopped, the forecasters are suggesting this is only the 'thin end of the wedge' and PG is laughingly warning me I will wish I had been more careful what I hoped for by tonight when I have no heat, light or internet connection!

Ditto is loving it, she ran off into the whiteness at her first chance, chasing flakes and kicking it up around her at the first opportunity of an open door and has not been seen since.......Poppy on the other hand, looked out of the window and settled back down in her bed!

My little blue car.......

.....is turning white!!!

And yes, call it dedication, stupidity or obsession......I have just been out at past midnight to take these pictures! :o)


Turning white

Ditto came too, or rather she snuck out and made her way somewhat gingerly in this new white world. At two years old this is her first experience, though it seems to have met with her approval.......I want to go to bed now but I'm still waiting for her to decide she has 'played' enough and to come home for the night........


Treading carefully.

'Free Mojtaba and Arash Day'

For an explaination click HERE and the links on the buttons.

Nokia girl

Yeah ok, so months ago I could have told you I would do this, one doesn't get to er.....40 'something' without being aware of one's own foibles.

Cell phones are one such foible! I have had more of the damn things over the years than you can shake a stick at and rarely am I happy with them. In November I upgraded and for the first time deserted Nokia, in my opinion the only phone to have. I should have stuck with them but no, I just had to try something new! So Samsung it was and a flip phone into the bargain.....and could I get on with it, could I hell. I have persevered but nope....... it was not to be.
The final straw came these last two weeks when it became starkly and frustratingly apparent that the reception equipment installed in said phone just wasn't up to bad weather coupled with isolated locations. For two weeks PG and I have been unable to call anyone successfully from home but put the sim into an old Nokia 3310 and hey presto, no problem!

And it was thus that today I bought yet another phone, a Nokia of course. I was reasonably well behaved, I didn't purchase the top of the range as is my usual habit, to be frank I was so fed up with video, mp3, radio and all manner of bells and whistles that I rarely used and made the thing so unnecessarily complicated that I plumped for something simple and a bit more fun, a funky bright coloured affair with flashing lights that does nothing more than take a photograph and would you believe it make a call! Yayyy.

All is not lost on the financial front either, the Samsung I got free with my contract and can be 'ebay-ed' for at least as much as I paid for the new one!

Result, a phone with decent reception, the comfort of the Nokia menu and no economic pain!