Mind your own business

Once again the unwanted and unwarrented nuisance calls have resumed.

This time the caller announces that he or she is speaking from a "Wellness" centre.

The word alone is enough to make my hackles rise, since, as far as I am aware there is no such word.

This is followed by "what do you do to keep well every day"?

The following rapid volley of questions about my life-style so annoyed me that I put the phone down.

Five minutes later it rang again and a different voice started the whole procedure again, this time I said  "How is that your business?" and once again I put the phone down.

Is there to be no end to these intrusive, time-consuming pests?  I really thought they had exhausted their repertoire, but clearly there is more to come.

At the age of 81 I really cannot see how my state of health, life-style, daily habits/hobbies could possibly be of any interest to anyone, but it seems I was wrong.

There really should be some way of identifying these vultures before picking up the receiver, the phone should flash red or a siren should sound.  Failing that I'd like a button to press which would instantly strike them dumb before they had a chance to raise my blood pressure.

Grrrr!

Alleluia My Lap-top is alive and well

Not that anyone would have noticed anyway but, my internet connection has mysteriously resumed active life.

For the past 8 days I have had no access to the 'net' except through my iPad and have been unable to Google anything, or blog.

Amazingly I found myself feeling as though I had quite a severe illness.

The hideously hot weather robs me of all but the smallest flicker of energy and every necessary activity is a chore, so not being able to communicate in my 'normal' way has been even more of a deprivation than it would have been in ordinary weather.

Not at all computer literate, not an IT competent person nor particularly patient, I have been unplugging cables and re-plugging them, pressing all the apparent help-lines on my screen and had finally decided that as today is not a working (church) day I would go and beg one of my hard-working neighbours for some advice.

Last thing last night I pressed a hitherto unused icon on my screen without any real hope, saw no apparent improvement and went to bed.  This morning the magic had happened.  The screen is now displaying all instead of just a few of my icons and virtual life has been restored.

Six or seven years ago if anyone had told me that a computer would play such an important part in my life I would have thought they were mad, but words cannot express my (still tentative) joy.

What very strange creatures we are.

It now remains to be seen whether this is a permanent improvement or not.

Hoping and praying.

"May"hem

What is she playing at?

Is it a deliberate mistake?

Is it proof she has a sense of humour?

Boris as Foreign Secretary, now I've heard everything.!

Not pointing out the obvious, plenty of other better qualified people than me to do that, but, Boris????

What's next, an invitation to Nigel to join the party and head the Diplomatic Service?

We have had many surprises/shocks in recent weeks but I had hoped we'd finished.

Not a blog, not really a comment on the improbable, just a dazed disbelief as the new list of Cabinet Members is unrolled.

Beam me up Scotty (or has that already happened?

A day in the life of St Mary's Eagle

They call me "The budgie".  Rude innit?

Some of you may remember when that awful Ray woman made me this bonnet for Easter.

Thought it was funny.

(I did sneak a sly look in the mirror when they'd all gone home, thought I looked quite good)

Honest though, you'd never believe the things I've seen (and heard).

They lean on me to do their Sunday readings, idiots can't stand up by themselves.

They shout or whisper or croak, they mispronounce names, they pause in all the wrong places then climb down off the little step and leave sticky prints all over my nice clean shiny brass.

They ignore me when they have concerts in the church.  Lovely music, awful people.

The brats (sorry, dear little children) poke and prod me and cover me in finger-prints, think just cos I'm  brass I can't feel it.

Sometimes they have musicals or shows in the church, last week in was something called "Noye's Fludde",  Can't even spell it proper can they?

Never occurs to them I might like a part.  All those animals in the ark and not one single eagle to be seen, when the best looking eagle ever is standing there right in front of 'em.

I've been here a long time, longer than any of them but you don't see me on that old electoral roll of theirs.  Like I said.  Rude.

They never ask me to sing in their rotten old choir, not even an audition in all these years.

One thing though.

I'll still be here when they ain't.

Where are the dark horses?

Surely no-one who has witnessed the unedifying spectacle of the scramble for the glittering prize (poisoned chalice) of party leadership (both parties), can possibly be in any doubt that politics is a dirty game.

Undignified in the extreme not to say treacherous in some cases, it has been and still is a perfect example of all that is worst in British politics.

Nothing is as  it seems.  No-one is as they (formerly) appeared.  Who to trust?

I name no names.  We have surely had as much of that as we can take, but it seems to me that no single individual of any political complexion has come out of this debacle looking clean and promising.

What we need now is a dark horse, a secret runner, in short God.

Time to turn over the tables in the temples, throw out the wicked and the weird and allow space for a decent honest well-balanced human being to emerge from the shadows,

Someone who has brains, business acumen, debating skills and a clear view of our future in his/her sights.

But, back in the real world, since only the membership of the two main parties may vote for their choice of leader the rest of us are doomed to sit and wait with fear and apprehension and not a great deal of optimism, to see what our confused brothers and sisters deem suitable for our needs.

Yes OK so I'm playing devil's advocate but also praying for common-sense to prevail.

Let's hope choices are made soon and with at least a modicum of intelligence, and God help us all.