Saturday Slop

 

Surely this is what women were made for?

I had to iron today, a Saturday at that, as I found shirts for tomorrow were running out.  I managed three before I gave up.  How can anyone expect a man in my condition, (Lazy, idle, slob) to work so hard in such heat?  Not only this but my dinner war burning also thereby increasing the warmth in the room.

I noticed an advert saying 'Shirts Ironed,' and looked closer, £20 each!  That is more than they cost!  What a rip-off.  I winder if I can persuade the 12 year old round the corner to do them all for £20?  She needs the money doesn't she...?

With the 'Leadership Debate' still ongoing it is nice to see those Tories who wish one or another to win actually getting bored with the whole thing.  Every channel has a session with them, I ignore them all, we know what they are saying, and boredom, not excitement is the result.  Sunak will introduce private cities, crime and corruption, Truss will introduce lies, corruption and money for the rich, while standing on opposition, and Labour fall asleep, like the rest of us.  None of these people care or understand the country.  The fact that they don't care is more important.  What matters is their people, they ones paying for them, get what they want, the public can go hang.  The unspoken agreement found after the war that change must come, and change for the better, has long since died.  The 2010 Conservative government saw that off, Boris has brought Victorian days back to us all, and his people want him to return.

I like this.  This is an example of the clever advertising I have seen recently.  Another on Twitter came from Specsavers.   No cameras are allowed in UK courtrooms but 'artists impressions' are.  A picture of one from the two celeb slappers arguing showed a poor representation of one of the woman.  Specsavers used this picture calling for the artist to 'Pop in and visit us.'  Very clever.  We need more like this.

Glasses

This lunchtime I stumbled down to the crowded 'Specsavers' shop to collect the new glasses.  Sadly, the young Welsh girl was not on duty and after waiting a few minutes the boss pushed me through and a handsome young man dealt with me.  This was not what I wished!  A delightful young blonde who flashes her eyes and smiles is what I wish for, not a handsome 20 something with a probable 1st in advanced maths, highly intelligent, liked by all the girls, will progress to some high rank in the civil service or business earning asses of cash and remain popular with all.  When I meet folks like that the word "Sickening," goes through my mind...pah!

Anyway, having arrived a few minutes early and found the shop crowded I expected to wait a while. However the woman in charge got me seen to (a lot of people claim I need to be 'seen too.') by the Aryan gent and efficiently he also rushed me through and soon afterwards I was once again outside trying my long vision as I made my way home, tripping over the pavements.   In all I was home in 30 minutes, often while getting new glasses it takes that long in the shop.
Now I just have to get used to the things.  The outdoor pair appear OK, I find they are never quite right but not worth fussing over, and the indoor ones allow me to almost see the TV from here at the laptop.  It takes a few days to get to know them, I expect to fall downstairs a couple of times this week...

As there was no football live last night, none today either, I lowered my expectations and turned on the cricket.  I did this when I noticed England were struggling and as this is always appealing to me I began to watch intermittently.  I just finished writing about 'Specsavers' turned on the cricket and England got a wicket!  Grrrr!  South Africa were doing so well and may have thrown it away now. Tsk!
One thing I notice that surprised me was the players wearing numbers on their backs.  This looks somewhat tacky to me.  Helmets and such like make sense but I see no need for numbers.  Cricket followers arrive for the day, prepared for everything.  You see them with hampers for lunch, blankets for cold, sun cream for warmth and binoculars to watch the tea room and spectators in other parts of the ground.  Why the numbers?  Tacky I say.
The bright sun, which came over today, and blue sky and the mountains in the rear are wonderful to see, as indeed are the occasional exotic bird which appears feeding on the ground occasionally.  All this is to my mind more interesting than the cricket.  However as South Africa are slowly catching up with England's feeble score I am quite happy.  This makes a change from watching football in the rain.

  
Now is the time to check that insurance policy.  I suggest the bit about 'Iranian Terrorist Attacks' should be updated.  The 3 year old orange man in the White House has done it this time.  There are many reasons no-one has suggested taking out Soleimani before now, so why has it happened?  The idea that this stops known planned attacks is a somewhat weak excuse, even if some attacks were planned, and the thought that a small war against Iran might aid his chances of re-election this year cannot be ignored.  He is not the first US president to risk his own men's lives as well as thousands of others with them just to keep his job.  Nixon persuaded the South Vietnamese to withdraw from an armistice Lyndon Johnson had arranged on the basis that he would get a better one.   
 The war continued for another 6 years costing 20,000 US troops and how many others, did he care I wonder?

Tit-for-tat is al very well at a low level but when you take out such a man as he you go up a level and risk outright war.  Iran has no choice but to retaliate, and powerfully.  Many of their people will demand this.  Many more will become willing to sell themselves for their nation, both in the middle east and abroad.  Did the trigger happy clowns around Trump really think they could do this?
It is clear they did not discuss this with any so called ally.  The UK were not informed, it is clear they are not keen on this adventure either.  Had they been informed a clear strategy would have emerged, "Don't do it!"  Maybe that is why they were ignored? 
Something will happen, sooner or later, but some senior person may well be dealt with by an Iranian group.  

Leaflets

It is policy of Royal mail to deliver three items of junk mail to each and every house throughout the land.  This annoys some, pleases those who send them and irks badly the postie who has to carry 500 or so on top of all the other mail.  They do get a few pence for them, not as much as they did once, RM cut the payment to the postie while the useless union agreed.  It could be worse however, some time back they wanted the postman to carry 9 of these each week, increasing the weight in his sack three fold and adding about an extra half hour a day sorting the junk.  That at least failed.  
Here I have some regulars, the pizza advert being the most popular through the door and one of the worst to deliver.  Small 'Pizza Hut' pizza's start at around £10 -£15. I buy mine for £1 in Tesco.  Who bys these at that price, and how often do they bring them in?  Now I like a pizza now and again, though the nurse insists I don't, but I wonder how many folks laziness make use of home delivered pizzas rather than eating food?  Remember we also have 'Domino's' down the road and other smaller pizza outlets.  Now I like the idea of food delivered to the door, not that I like the price mind, but a cheap Tesco one suits me.  Clearly these leaflets work well when selling pizzas as everybody is dropping them weekly through our door.  
'Specsavers' is another regular one.  Clearly this company is doing well as every three months or so a wee mag drops in cheerfully advertising hugely expensive glasses while the girl is always disappointed when I go as I always plead pensioner poverty and go for the cheapest.  The girls are usually too young to know what that means!  This one I don't mind as I have to go sometime, I ought to go this year, and while today it features nothing relevant you never know.
'Sky' meanwhile are offering me a saving off £150 if I use their mobile.  The mobile on offer is one of those nice Chinese ones, 'Huawei,' you know the people who invest in your technology and pass all your secrets back to Beijing?  Well done 'Sky' that's just what I want, well I might if I had some friends to make phone calls to, which I haven't  so I will save a great deal more by recycling this one.
The beer club might be more popular however.  This one offers a free case off trendy beers, 8 in the case plus magazine and snack, and if you join the club you get the same, with differing beers each month for a mere £24 a go!  Hold on, if I buy in Tesco I get 8 beers for about £14 depending on what I buy.  Why pay more for 8 different drinks in which 6 might be rubbish?  Some might be tempted.  This reminds me of a man I once worked with, he belonged to the 'Whisky a Month club.'  He was so into this that when a friend looked after his house while he and the wife were on holiday (in far off Scotland visiting distilleries) she reported the place awash with bottles.  Each contained some whisky at different levels but they lay about all over the place.  I was not surprised to see him recently as he recovered from what looked like a stroke, I suggest I know a reason for this.    
From a business point of view these leaflets are worth it.  Deliver to 10,000 houses and depending on what you sell you will get enough business to make money.  Continue for ever there after and your business will grow or at least it will if you provide a good service.  Leaflets, junk mail, work!  You and I might dump them but most folks look through them before they are recycled.  That way one will eventually catch the eye and money is spent.  There after the leaflets continue.
My recycling bag likes them...

Watching Clouds

Faced with an enormous amount of work to do yesterday I took the only possible option and sat in
the park watching clouds.  This did two things, it caused me to cogitate on clouds and getting chilled from forgetting the cold wind.  Just what I wanted.  Thus I had excuses to avoid work.  This I took up along with a whisky bottle.

Clouds still amaze me, this one is huge, looks fragile, like cotton wool yet weighs tons if condensed into a container of some sort.  Had it turned to rain we would have noticed.  Yet it merely floats silently along, not stopping for anything, all the time amending shape according to the wind and joining with any other if required.  I have seen clouds thus joined stretch all across the European landmass  producing no cries of wonder, merely complaints that the sun has been hidden.  Yet such clouds are a wonder and we ignore them.

One thing to cogitate is the difference between a fluffy cloud and an ageing mattress.  This crossed my mind as I sat there as the sharp portions of a broken spring were still sticking in my mind so to speak.  Mattresses ought to last ten years and this one has gone a wee bit past that but I did not expect to be woken that rudely.  Turning it over was little help as while sharp bit do not poke through it is clear they will arrive soon.  More expense, unless I can make this last until Spring, get it?
My eyesight is a problem as my outdoor glasses do not appear to be working any longer that means Specsavers will be visited soon.  Shoes are required, and no doubt lots of tins to store before Brexit leads to starvation.  I looked for money under the bed but found only dust and ageing 'toe-tectors' boots that are not worth much now.

Worse than anything else is the lack of football on the telly!  Not even a National League game on at lunchtime today and BTSport only offer an English game tonight at the same moment BBC Alba offer a re-run of this afternoons Heart of Midlothian v St Mirren game!  Who cares about English stuff when such momentous offerings are available.  Surely a time fault here.  All that's available at the moment is rugby or golf!  BTS also offered baseball this morning, Baseball!  Tsk!

Almost six, Football at last about to start, me? I'm almost asleep waiting...

A Spectacle at the Museum

This morning I trudged round to Specsavers to collect the new glasses.  An attractive and efficient young blonde lass ensured both pairs were the correct ones and that they fitted correctly.  She also resisted somewhat too willingly my invitation to 'do my ironing,' not the first woman in this town to react this way.  

The one pair are for outside, these are good and also react to sunlight.  Now this appears to be somewhat needless in the UK but I find myself screwing my eyes up on those occasions when the sun does shine.  Naturally the dim gray lenses make me look a bit like Roy Orbison (ask your mum kids).  The other pair are more difficult.  I can see perfectly up to six inches from my nose, after that it fails somewhat.  I have glasses for the laptop but when looking at the TV or other side of the room I can see poorly.  There fore I wanted a third pair for in between.  This is however not allowed these days in case I use them for driving!  Pah!  So I got 'varifocal' lenses which in theory allow me to see the laptop and the other side of the mess that is my home.  I am not sure I like them.  To see properly the eye must hit exactly on the spot of the lens, in real life this is difficult.  We will give it a go and  see what we can see, or not see as is the case.  

Never, since I got my first pair of glasses when about twelve years old have I ever got them right!  I do manage to make a right er, spectacle of myself in opticians.  What appears right at the time appears not quite right later.  Bah!  The staff were good however, a huge number appear to work there and the service is good so I cannot complain.  The actual optician, or whatever name they go under now, was an excellent lass, very competent, vary helpful and knew her stuff.  It is always me that wonders if I did the right thing.  Now I feel the word 'Bifocal' should have come to mind when being examined, that might have been a better idea.  "Shut the gate, the horse has bolted!"

The order came through the other day to report at eleven sharp to the museum today on pain of death, at least.  Knowing my masters and having seen glimpses of strange and savage medieval punishment instruments stored therein I dutifully obeyed.  The purpose was to have a group photograph taken in connection with an upcoming event.  This event I tried to avoid but a quick Chinese burn from the boss enabled me to willingly accept the invitation.  Therefore I arrived in good time, spoke kindly to one another also on the premises and sought out the woman in charge.  Naturally something went wrong.  The photographer was arriving from the local newspaper, except he was based fifteen miles away.  Naturally he was called to something else and a feeble excuse was given us.  As I headed for the door I was lassoed back and forced to work checking the preliminary panels for the exhibition, this at least was worth while as I found two spelling mistakes.  The foto I did not wish to be in however.  It is one thing to take pictures, another to take pictures of people but I see my role as in the background where I belong, preferably in a cupboard in the corner.  However we must be pictured for publicity she cries!  Publicity is not something I seek, I mean what if the police see it for a start?  No, no, let me hide and put the lassies forward.  No luck, Miss Bossy Boots found the museum camera and, after three attempts, managed to obtain a picture she things good enough for the paper.  I had turned round but a sharp elbow brought me back into the picture so to speak.  Thereafter it was back to the panels and searching for mistakes.  No more indeed and they do look very good I say!  

Eventually I was freed by the simple expedient of slipping out the back door when the back was turned.  At home I discovered I had another long note to add to what I was (badly) working on so I made the decision to have lunch and fall asleep.

I chose wisely I say.

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Good News, Bad News

The good news is Scotland voted against the English racism that dealt Scotland such a blow after the referendum!  The contempt felt for Scotland by the selfish English was released and encouraged by the media at all levels.  This provoked an understandable backlash that saw the Scottish National Party (SNP) win 56 out of the 59 UK parliament seats available in Scotland!  A huge success that saw many 'Toom Tabards' who had sold their nation to take English coins kicked out of a job, and good riddance to them!  Now with Alec Salmond, an experienced politician and canny operator the Scottish interests will be considered in Westminster when parliament resumes in due course.

The bad news is the Conservatives under David Cameron winning an overall majority!  This means more attacks on the poor, unemployed, sick and the death of the NHS!  Already those US Insurance companies and other health organisations that have their feet in the door will be bribing lobbying for more and the cabinet, already containing so many men with shares in such companies, will be happy to let them in. The rich will get richer, the poor will suffer and if you lose your job, get sick or require housing you can forget it from now on chum!

The victory came about simply because of English racism!  Cameron  had his lackeys in the media tell them 'Vote Labour and get SNP take your money.'  A lie the greedy English fell for.  The poorest areas who voted Labour now suffer as badly as Cameron wished Scotland to suffer, however with a majority of merely ten he has problems in his own house.
The Conservative Party is a mixed bag, the 'One nation Tories' and Cameron claims to be one will not be finding jobs in the cabinet, they go to his men.  The anti-EU feeling is strong amongst many and failure here will cause rebelliousness to arise, and a small majority requires to avoid this. The 'Eton Prefect' needs to go canny with his own people although what opposition there is will most likely come from the SNP as who knows what Labour will come up with next?

Ah Labour, the part of the workers that became the party of the middle classes. A new leader must be chosen as the old stands down.  The selection is not easy as many who will stand believing in the 'divine right' to the job will be empty jackets with no charisma and less talent.  The future is bleak and we must pray constantly or disaster lies around the corner.

Worse still the local elections gave similar results.  The counsellors elected in this region were almost all Conservatives.  I have yet to see if any opposition member has been brought in.  Dearie me the 'working class Tory' is a strange things so he is. 

This morning I wandered round to 'Specsavers' (who sponsor Scottish Football referees) where I had my eyes examined with lost of lights shone into them, pictures taken of the back of my eyes, questions asked, and small letters to find on screen.  All this by a capable young Asian lass who enjoyed her job and was thoroughly capable. Then the man asked me for a small fortune!  I collect them in two weeks time and if all goes well will fall over the pavement as I leave the shop like I usually do.  I expected to be in and out in twenty minutes but it took almost an hour.  The requirements for my eyes caused difficulty as the woman knew what she was doing but the assistant he was struggling.  I remained smug throughout as I no longer get myself tied up in knots in jobs that can cost me the sack when it all goes wrong.  

The telly and radio is full of the election.  I bet David Cameron is full off it also!

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Specs

An enjoyable shopping experience recently.  After six years I managed to get round to checking my eyesight and obtaining new glasses.  The people at Specsavers managed to appear both interested in the customer, competent, and friendly at the same time.  Quite how they manage to keep this up while dealing with the public I fail to understand, but the girls here did so very well.  So well did they do their job they almost appeared genuine in laughing at my quips!  I did say, almost.  So once again I find myself struggling to get used to new frames as I wander about.  At least there is little difference in the lens so I do not fall over steps as I used to do with new glasses, lampposts are safer also.  I must say the staff did impress me, no wonder they refused my application for a job a while ago......

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