If you can't beat them laugh at them

 

Since sleep is once more evading my grasp it seemed a good time to have yet another moan about the plague of scammers trying to rob us of our hard-earned cash. 

For the last 2 or 3 weeks I have been beset with daily and sometimes twice-daily calls from BT and Amazon.

Both sets of fake callers have a  similar technique, beginning with "your BT Broadband will be discontinued from 9.00am to,morrow, Or, Your Amazon account will withdraw the amount of £79 from your account tomorrow".

They then say if I wish to prevent this happening I should press 1 ....

Needless to say they are both automated calls so no reply is possible, so what I now do is say (to no-0ne) "Good luck with that" and then leave the phone off the base and walk away.

I know this will only result in their losing a very small amount of money but it gives me a small malicious gleam of satisfaction.

You would think they would be bright enough to work out that if they get nowhere after the first twenty or thirty calls they are never going to do so, but apparently they can afford to go on phoning endlessly, leaving me with the hope that I can at least outlive them! 

Ancient Ruins

Once again Google in its wisdom has decided to make access to my blog even more difficult than it was before, resulting in a very strange format.  But so be it.  

This is my third attempt to blog in a week and the first time I have succeded in getting anything in print.

My theme was to illustrate the similarity between one of the crumbling walls of St Mary's and my own ancient frame.

For both of us papering over the cracks is no longer effective and while the church is at least beginning to obtain the necessary funds to do a good repair, my own repairs are long past having any real value. 

The result will, in time, be a beautifully restored 12th/13th Century grade 1 listed building and a handful of dust. 

This is exactly the way it should be but, seeing (usually accidently) my reflection in a mirror, I find it hard to recognise my present appearance when in my mind I am still 35. 

This awful year with the loss of relatives friends and members of my (social) circle, has been and still is something of an endurance test.

Normally there would be the wonderful prospect of learning practising and singing all the lovely Christmas music, with a welcome rest afterwards to look forward to. 

This year every forseeable day will be exactly the same as the rest of the year has been.

Living alone has its merits but this year has illustrated poignantly and vividly just how much the company of others matters.

Let's hope and pray that the good news about the various vaccines will prove to be the means of all of us beginning to live our lives again.

This old ruin should be good for another decade or so with luck.