WELCOME TO JENRAY'S TIME OF LIFE

Hi to everybody...that's it...all done...one damned great bookcase now put together and in place...it's huge...extra deep they said, and I could lie in it...
Now, I'm going to sit down and relax before I have to cook the dinner...only pork burgher from free range farm stall and bap and fried onion and leerdammer cheese melted into it and the obligatory tomato sauce...yummy....simple meal but lovely....
Hmmm....now I'm whacked because it was very heavy to shift from the top bedroom where we made it up and into his study...but there now...
Big hugs to one and all and have a lovely evening....

Hi to everybody...it's arrived... Better damned late than never...
Big hug to you all...

Hi to everybody...well, hubby's moved his study around and managed to give himself more space but he ordered a book case from Argos, which they assured him would be delivered between 7 and 1, and, guess what, we're still waiting for it after he got up at 6.45 to be there to sign for it. He's phoned Argos and has had his delivery costs refunded because they've failed to keep the allotted time so that's one good thing, but, in the meantime, he's here twiddling his thumbs now and wondering just how long he's got to still wait for it. It will need putting together when it arrives as well, and he's got a whole load of books waiting to go into it so everything is on hold...hmmm...why do so many days of our lives now seem to be on hold as we wait for deliveries from somewhere or other?....
Heaving deep sighs because it's also started pouring with rain again and we haven't even been round for the paper yet because I didn't want to go and get soaked...so feeling a bit frustrated after Virgin this morning and now Argos letting us down...think I'll find a place where the modern world cannot enter and retreat into it for the remaining years or days of my life, and peace can descend upon me because won't be waiting for anything ever again or expecting anything from anybody ever again HLOL...
One other thing that has knocked me for six and confused hubby and I greatly...the Dalai Lama, for who we had great respect, seems to have suddenly started to behave most oddly...namely he has proposed that his followers can elect the new Dalai Lama to succeed him...I thought that the next Dalai Lama was a reincarnation of this one or maybe even a previous one, but certainly not one that was alive today....definitely confused by that change of policy...
So that's our latest rather tedious news...big hugs to one and all and have a great blog meet tonight...

Hi to everybody...it's pouring with rain, grey and very dreary...checked my bank account today and discovered Virgin Media are still overcharging me for my package...two months now I've been told it's been corrected, and nothing at all has been done to change one single iota...as a company it's truly unbelievable for its inefficiency...had I known when I was phoned up to find out whether my phone line had been sorted that they still hadn't sorted out the charges I would have asked the person to see to that as well, but was assured on the phone by another that I was definitely on the £13.50 package which included the telephone...have now phoned up again and was once again assured it would be sorted and I've emailed them as well because one call certainly achieves nothing....
I want to remain calm now so will say nothing more...
Hope you have a good day, and send you all big hugs for now...Hope the big blog meet goes well too...lots of people attending it so should be a real experience...

Hi to everybody...here's the latest news on Gillian Gibbons...I think it's absolutely appalling...
KHARTOUM (Reuters) - A British teacher accused of insulting Muslims after her class called a teddy bear Mohammad was found guilty and sentenced to 15 days in jail on Thursday, her defence team said.

Gillian Gibbons, 54, was also ordered to be deported.

"She was found guilty of insulting religion and the sentence is 15 days (in jail) and deportation," a member of the defence team Ali Ajib said after the trial in a Khartoum courtroom, which lasted less than a day.

In London, the Foreign Minister said he was "extremely disappointed" with the verdict and called in the Sudanese ambassador for an immediate explanation.

Another defence lawyer said Gibbons had already served five days of her sentence since her arrest on Sunday and she may not have to serve all the remaining 10 days. The judge said she could leave once she had a compulsory exit visa, they said.

Gibbons was charged on Wednesday with insulting Islam, inciting hatred and showing contempt for religious beliefs because of the toy's name. Under Sudan's penal code, she could have faced 40 lashes, a fine, or up to one year in jail.

Robert Boulos, head of Unity high school where Gibbons worked, said: "We are happy with the verdict. It is fair. There were a lot of political pressures and attention."

He added: "We will be very sad to lose her."

Asked what he thought of the verdict, the head of Gibbons's defence team, Kamal al-Jazouli, said: "It was not bad."

The court finished the trial the day before Friday prayers, when protests were expected in the streets of Khartoum.

In court, judge Esmat Mohammed Youssef heard from the chief prosecutor and four witnesses from the prosecution. But the defence decided to rest after just two witnesses and Gibbons's own testimony, convinced of the clarity of their case.

BEWILDERED

Teachers at the school say that calling the teddy bear Mohammad, the name of the prophet of Islam, was not her idea in the first place and that no parents objected when Gibbons sent parents circulars about a reading project which included the teddy bear as a fictional participant.

The bear was first introduced to the class in September.

Gibbons, wearing a long dark blue skirt and black blazer, looked bewildered as she entered the court on Thursday afternoon, guided by police as she weaved through the crowds of officials, journalists and onlookers.

Ajib said Gibbons was calm when the verdict was read, as if she had been expecting it.

She was taken straight to Omdurman women's prison, a jail which is overcrowded and usually filled with women serving sentences for making and selling alcohol, illegal in mainly Muslim Sudan.

"We are extremely disappointed that the charges against Gillian Gibbons were not dismissed," said Foreign Secretary David Miliband. "Our clear view is that this is an innocent misunderstanding by a dedicated teacher."

Sudan has had poor relations with Britain, the United States and most European countries for several years, mainly because of their disagreements over how to handle the conflict in the Darfur region in western Sudan.

The U.N. Security Council, of which Britain is a permanent member, wants to deploy a joint U.N.-African force to Darfur to restore order and help displaced people return home. Khartoum reluctantly agreed but is disputing many details.

"I'm utterly disappointed with this decision. We have been calling on the Sudanese authorities to show leniency, that this was a case of an innocent oversight, a misunderstanding," said Ibrahim Mogra of the Muslim Council of Britain, the country's largest Muslim organisation.

"The question that I would want the judiciary there and the authorities to ponder over is: How does this help the cause of Islam? What kind of message and image are we portraying about our religion and our culture?"

(Reporting by Opheera McDoom and Andrew Heavens, additional reporting by Adrian Croft in London; Writing by Jonathan Wright; Editing by Tim Pearce)

This is intolerable...the reporter on the news at one who was there and saw Ms Gibbons said she was white and shaken and looked as if she couldn't believe what was happening to her so the smiling face shown on the news and in the papers is clearly not what she looks like now after going through this dreadful ordeal...
Poor woman...I send you big hugs tonight, and just wish that insanity wasn't the order of the day in so many areas of our world right now...

Hi to everybody...well, got into Boscombe as we thought we would...pottered round the shops for about half an hour getting the odd bit of shopping we needed then checked the clock and it was already ten to three...we realised then that by the time we got down to the front another quarter of an hour would have gone by and then walked along the front, the sun would have gone down and it would be pretty cold when we reached Bournemouth and hung around waiting for the packed bus at 4.10...if we even managed to get that one...the next one was an hour later, so ended up coming back home again and discovered it was very chilly once the sun went down at 4.20 to 30...gorgeous sunset...saw it all from the bus and was really glad we made the decision to come home. I find walking with winter clothes on really hard work. They weigh me down and make walking difficult, and feeling chilly as well only makes it worse. Hubby was either sleep deprived or particularly deaf today because he kept saying things to me so quietly with his head turned away so I couldn't hear what it was he was saying, or walking faster than I could keep up or being just plain dumb, so I got very ratty and grumpy, but as soon as I got home and had my coffee, relaxed and then cooked dinner, I was fine again...
Hmmm...not the day we had planned but probably I was like I was because poor old Boscombe is really a depressing place in the winter...people there look so world weary and clearly are, and I find that hard to deal with...it's dead as a door nail on a Sunday as well then you can see how tired looking it is but its centre isn't too bad for shops and things, it's just got problems...and I can't help feeling shocked when I see so many unbelievably overweight women around - it's really frightening...some can barely walk...if this problem is going to get worse, I have no idea how we're going to cope with it...
Ah well, tonight I'm going to snuggle down and watch Blood Ties, Bones, Men in Trees, and if I'm not completely square eyed after that...Masters of Science fiction....then I'm going to bed...so big hugs to you all, have a restful night, and sweet dreams....

Hi to everybody...woke up to a day trying to improve from grey and damp but too late to get to Poole and the market because overslept...changed plans because sun has now come out to a clear blue sky and it's lovely so going into Bournemouth for the afternoon...well to Boscombe first then walk down the front to Bournemouth between the two piers...lovely walk and haven't done it for ages, so looking forward to it...will catch the bus soon so this is just a quickie.
Hope Meno's trip continues to go well, and real glad to hear she did get to Lindlj's in the end...so if you get to read this, Meno, great big hugs and hope your energy levels are bearing up with lack of sleep XXX
That's it for now, big hugs to one and all for now...and have a lovely afternoon and evening...

Hi to everybody...for the last few days I have listened to the news with representatives of the Sudanese government assuring our interviewers that Gillian Gibbons, the teacher arrested for allowing her pupils to name a teddy bear, Mohammed, would soon be released...today she has been charged with inciting hatred and showing contempt for religious beliefs...
This is an excerpt from the news report just in....
"Khartoum north prosecution unit has completed its investigation and has charged the Briton Gillian (Gibbons) under Article 125 of the criminal code," the Sudanese news agency SUNA said, quoting a senior Justice Ministry official.

The matter would go before a court on Thursday and Gibbons was expected to appear.

Lawyers say Gibbons, who is from Liverpool, could face 40 lashes, a fine, or six months in jail if convicted.

Earlier on Wednesday, three British embassy officials and a teaching colleague from the Unity High School where Gibbons worked were allowed to visit her for more than 90 minutes.

"I can confirm that we have met Ms. Gibbons and she said she is being treated well," said British consul Russell Phillips. "We remain in close contact with the Sudanese authorities on this case," he said, declining to give further details.

What on earth is our government doing to allow one of our citizens to be treated in this way over something that defies all logic or sanity? I am so angry at this I am fearful of the venom I feel towards Moslems because of it...they are so far stuck back in the past as to not belong to this century and there's nothing thinking people can do about it because it applies to Christians and Jews as well...each of them, in their own way, are going insane with their accusations of blasphemy or insults towards their religion...how I long for the day when we will see the end of the three banes on the human race with their superstitious beliefs, their cruelty towards their fellow human beings, and their absolute refusal to see that they might just be believing in a complete and utter fabrication of the human mind created in a time when the brain was only just beginning to be used in ways never before envisaged in the previous 150,000 years.
For the sake of the Universe, the Earth, the human race...grow up!!!
Big hugs to one and all from one very, very angry me...

Hi to everybody on this dull, damp day...hubby's on hols for a week so just lazing around...the mystery parcel arrived this morning at about 9.30...it did turn out to be the sheet I ordered...what a silly thing to do...registering a darned sheet...no wonder it cost me an arm and a leg to get and then ordered only one instead of two so the postage was more than half the cost of the perishing sheet That'll teach me not to check and recheck my orders in future...
Hope you have a great day, tomorrow it's market day so going into town and Friday, hubby's waiting in for a delivery of a new book case then he's going to revamp his den/third bedroom - he seems to think he can get another book case into it...I think he'll end up with his bed on the ceiling if he tries it but where there's a will there's a way...
So big hugs to one and all for now....

Hi to everybody...hope you're having a good day...Kelly is now on her way to Brighton, if not there already We had a great visit with her...she's a really lovely character and very relaxed to be with so will look forward very much to seeing her next year...
The phone rang this afternoon and it was Virgin Media's customer services actually ringing me rather than sending one of those dreadful letters acknowledging my complaint and it is being looked into etc. etc...I told her that I had indeed been cut off not once but twice and received a deep apology and the promise of a refund for the nine lost days...so that was a pleasant surprise...let's hope they don't succeed in severing this new wiring
Now, my friends, I'm off to sit down after a busy afternoon shopping and going round to the local sorting office to collect something delivered while we were out walking on the heath with Kelly and discovered it shut half an hour before we got there and so it's going to be delivered tomorrow...trouble is I've absolutely no idea what it is as, apart from a sheet, I've got nothing else to be delivered and why lock a sheet in the safe? Oh, well, will find out tomorrow...
That's it...big hugs to one and all for now and have a lovely evening....

Hi to everybody...hope you've had a good day...we have in two ways...we were just about the get the taxi to take us to Bournemouth station to meet Meno...when the mobile rings...it's Virgin Media's engineer and he wants to know whether we would like to be reconnected today instead of tomorrow morning as arranged!!! Told him definitely we would but he'd have to come after 4.30 to give us time to pick up our friend, and he agreed that would be fine...
We arrived at the station at the same time as Meno came out of the station and we got a taxi back home and a few minutes after that the engineer arrives and checks our line and says nothing wrong with your box, it must be the exchange...so off he goes and sure enough, he phones us back and tells us one of the wires is so loose it keeps falling out or getting knocked out and that he's going to repair it...a few minutes later we get a call to say all done and now we shouldn't have any more trouble...so have a line again and Meno is here and we've had a lovely afternoon and evening together so far...now she's on her comp and I'm writing this as she wanted to let everybody know she'd made it to us and was fine...so that's it for tonight, my friends...she, hubby and I are fine so big hugs to one and all, have a restful night and sweet dreams.....

Hi to everybody...hmmm....have just sat and watched a film called Saigon with Willem Dafoe, Gregory Hines and Fred Ward made in 1968 and with an alternative title of Off Limits...it was very good...and took my mind off the damned telephone for a couple of hours and decided to have a Chinese takeaway at 8.30, and it arrived just before the film started at 9 so that was well timed...suddenly felt really peckish...and hadn't had a proper evening meal since last Monday so thought I should eat one today...usually do with hubby but he's not here tonight so didn't bother cooking...
Thanks for all the suggestions for alternatives to Virgin, but clearly I haven't got one...I just don't know now how many more time this is going to happen...it could happen every time the damned engineer goes near the box for all I know and that more than frustrating...its also infuriating...I'd no idea how easy it was for our line to just be severed by mistake...it's ridiculous...well, any of our lines for that matter...
Oh, well...that's it for now...I hope you have had a good evening, have a restful night, sweet dreams and big hugs to one and all and I hope Kelly is enjoying her first evening here in Britain...a special hug to her as well...

Hi to everybody...can you hear me frigging screaming...VIRGIN EFFING MEDIA's engineers have cut our telephone line off again!!! Our next door neighbour saw one working on the box opposite this morning and stopped and said don't you cut any of us off again, because they got cut off for two day last week as well and he assured him there were three spare places so no chance of that now and has cut us off again....I HATE VIRGIN MEDIA WITH A PASSION... It's the world's worst company and it's engineers are never available for quick repairs even though I've got my back I still don't get any speedier results...
Now, Kelly's coming and I can only hope if she tries to ring, she's remembered to bring my mobile number with her because I've got no phone until Tuesday, which is the first appointment to get reconnected...I was told as a gesture of goodwill I'll be refunded a week for the loss of the line as it's only two days I'll be losing it this time...usually that only happens after three...they ignored the fact that I've only just been reconnected on Wednesday after another five days out....I'm so angry...hubby's been trying to phone me all day long...his coach got in half an hour late as well so he's only just going to meet our son now...I hate sitting and fuming by myself...
So, my friends, that's my rotten news for now...I feel like bloody crying I'm so damned angry...
Big hugs to one and all for now....hope you're having a better weekend than I am at the moment...

Hi to everybody...it's a grey day today, and hubby is now on his way to London for his yearly pilgrimage to see Sonny Rollins at the Barbican this evening and meet up with our son prior to it, so hope he has a wonderful concert because it might be the last one as Sonny Rollins is eighty one now or eighty...well pretty old for touring...
I've some tentative news on the squirrel front...I had a brainstorm and thought of a way of defeating the little perisher from pinching the bird's fat balls every time I put them out...I noticed I had a spare stainless steel whisk with stretchy wires on the whisk part so stuck the fat ball inside the whisk and hung it on a thin branch that the squirrel couldn't balance on but was strong enough to hold the weight of the whisk and fat ball...and it's still there three days later and the blue tits and great tits are loving it...sparrows are not so lucky though, they seem to nervous to try it but it's there for them if they want it, and the squirrel can't get to it...it's a cheap and cheerful way of getting fat balls out there for just the birds and works ...so far...HLOL...you'll see tears and hear howls of frustration on the screen if the squirrel does manage to get it...
Hope you all have a great weekend and that Kelly has arrived safe and sound...big hugs to one and all for now...

Hi to everybody...hope the weather is being as good to you as it is to us...absolutely clear blue sky with brilliant sunshine - obviously if no clouds..doh - but real winter day too...crisp and cold...walked round for the morning paper while hubby showered and shaved and waited in just in case a big delivery we were expecting arrived...by the time I got home again, it hadn't then turned up at 1.30...goody...it was a goose down and feather three inch mattress topper to finish off our new bed and it's now on it and we're never ever going to want to get out of bed again Special offer in the Independent - half price so ordered one and it's gorgeous...worth checking them out as they've got some very good offers on duvets as well which we also got and that arrived on Tuesday...all half price, and scoured the net and no better offer available because no postage costs either...now we've got the duvet covers to come and that's it...we've never had a really big bed before so this is a real treat...LOL...and a one off...this is going to last for as long as we do...BLOL...you do forgot though that you need bigger bedding to go with it, so some unforeseen expenses but no matter...all bargains so happy now...never pay full price for anything if I can help it...there's always an offer somewhere and, if not, I don't buy, it's as simple as that...rather wait until the prices drop then buy...
So, my friends, Meno is nearly on her way and we're really looking forward to seeing her on Monday... Hope everybody who is meeting her as well has a great time and I think the organisation that's gone into this venture is amazing...shows what can be done in a relatively short time since the decision to come was made...in the meantime, big hugs to one and all and have a lovely rest of the day...

Hi to everybody...here's a bit of craziness but damned good graphics...not everybody's cup of tea, but it's full moon time so time for a bit of bizarre...

Big hugs to one and all, hope you have a good evening, have a restful night and sweet dreams....

Hi to everybody...here's a very good cause as well, which needs pressing as urgent.
Please sign this if you do wish to see everybody provided with clean water in this day and age...

http://www.endwaterpoverty.org/take_action

Big hugs.

Hi to everybody...woke up at 9.50 today so must have needed the sleep because slept right through from 12.40...gorgeous day and still is...went off for the paper after breakfast and when we got to the local corner store, one of the regular staff was teaching a new girl...they're very friendly and chatty and we often have a laugh with the women who serve us regularly...today, the one training the new girl teased us about our habit of buying bulk loo rolls whenever there's a special offer and it's always been a standing joke between us all over how many we have stashed in our garage... Today, they had a special offer of two double packs of wheatmeal biscuits for the price of one, so we bought them as well...
We always have the Independent reserved for us under our surname, and we were joking around trying to think of ways for the new girl to remember us - I said she'd not forget us we're the rude old couple, and the regular one laughed and said you're not rude...as hubby held the door opened for me, I suddenly thought of one and called over...you can call us Shit and Bics...the regular one said oh, not Posh and Becks then...Shit and Bics for you laughing so now we've got our memorable names...HLOL...
So, my friends, this rude old couple has named themselves for posterity...have a lovely afternoon and big hugs to one and all for now...

Hi to everybody on this beautiful sunny morning...this is just a quickie for now. Please would you consider signing this petition to the Japanese Prime Minister to put a stop to the hunting of the humpback whale...
https://community.hsus.org/campaign/hsi_whaling_JapanesePM/w36gbgd2v7n357ij?
This can be copied and put into the browser's address section and it will take you there...click on sign as another user...
Big hugs to one and all for now...

Hi to everybody...nearly time to go to bed so thought I'd find something to laugh at and these are what I've found tonight...

A Short History of Medicine

I have an earache...

2000 B.C. - Here, eat this root.

1000 A.D. - That root is heathen. Here, say this prayer.

1850 A.D. - That prayer is superstition. Here, drink this potion.

1940 A.D. - That potion is snake oil. Here, swallow this pill.

1985 A.D. - That pill is ineffective. Here, take this antibiotic.

2000 A.D. - That antibiotic is artificial. Here, eat this root.

A blonde woman competed with a brunette and
redheaded woman in the Breast Stroke division of
an English Channel swim competition. The brunette
came in first, the redhead second. The blonde
woman finally reached shore completely exhausted.
After being revived with blankets and coffee,
she remarked: "I don't want to complain, but
I think those other two girls used their arms."

A big-game hunter went on safari with his wife and
mother-in-law. One evening, while still deep in the
jungle, the Mrs awoke to find her mother gone.
Rushing to her husband, she insisted on them both
trying to find her mother.

The hunter picked up his rifle, took a swig of
whiskey, and started to look for her. In a clearing
not far from the camp, they came upon a chilling
sight: the mother-in-law was backed up against a
thick, impenetrable bush, and a large male lion stood
facing her.

The wife cried, "What are we going to do?"

"Nothing," said the hunter husband. "The lion got
himself into this mess, let him get himself out
of it."

That's it, my friends, big hugs to one and all and have a restful night and sweet dreams....

Hi to everybody...at ten to twelve we checked our phones and lo and behold we had a line, but Virgin hadn't said a thing or called, which was most annoying, so we went out for the paper. When we got back, our telephone point was full of Virgin's testers and when we tried our phones the lines were dead as bloody dodos again...they'd actually managed to cut us off again. They turned up just as I was making another call on the mobile to Virgin and I told them what they'd done, and they had no idea the line was okay just before they arrived!!! They hadn't even checked it... Twenty minutes later, and the trainee engineer had fixed and broken and fixed and broken various wires, I told them to give it to somebody who knows what they're doing because I want my bloody phone back today as I've been without one for five fucking days...they mended it quickly after that...apparently some dickhead had cut off our line while working on another, which is exactly what I said had happened...just so maddening, and, it's obvious from this visit, that the trainees are as cack handed as hell...and I don't want them training on my damned telephone line!!!....
Aaahh, time to calm down...having bawled the engineers out, bawled hubby out for not hearing properly what I was saying, and now I'm going to have lunch and try to get rid of the ulcer Virgin Media is definitely going to cause now I've been forced to use them again...
Big hugs to one and all...and may your day be better than ours so far....

Hi to everybody...hope you've had a good morning...it's a lovely day and I'm stuck in waiting for the Virgin Media engineer to come and reconnect our phone...between 8 and 12 he was supposed to come, and guess what, it's nearly 11.55 and there's not a bloody sign of him...five days now without a phone...frigging wonderful...I'm trying to stay calm, but got up at 7.45 to be there to open the door for him should he arrive early and I've been hanging around since then...have been practising on my keyboard to occupy myself and take my mind of the wait...I've phoned Virgin and been assured there's a call out for us this morning, but, if he doesn't turn up by midday, to phone them back...on my damn mobile, which is costing us money....
One, two, three, four...deep breaths...aaahhhhh....oooh...patience, woman, patience...
Will let you know if he ever turns up and if we ever get our telephone back...
Big hugs to one and all and have a lovely rest of the day...

Hi to everybody...forget to say in my previous post that I put three fat balls out for the small birds yesterday and this morning we saw a very fat squirrel trying to get one of them so chased him off and when we came down an hour later the little bugger had swiped two!!! How the hell did he manage to remove the wire holding them in place as well as remove all sign of the green netting around them, they're big and heavy...this is three or four time this has happened, and I don't know how to stop him...everywhere in the garden is completely accessible to him and he's as wily as a coyote...is still busy gnawing the bottom off my peanut holder to get quicker access...if anybody has any ideas, please tell me because it's getting too expensive to keep feeding him and his friends as well as the birds...
Big hugs for now...

Hi to everybody...unfortunately it's grey and exceedingly dreary today and rained on us when we went shopping for a while but managed to get home mostly in the dry...bought a cheapo cheapo watch for hubby in Lidl's - brought it home cut it out of the fully sealed plastic wrapping, which looks as if it'll take the next thousand years to disintegrate, if ever, it's so hard...and found when he put it on his wrist, it was miles too big...you would think the designers of the watch would make it relatively easy to remove a link or two, but not a bit of it...an hour and ten minutes later, he and I finally managed to remove two, get the linked locking section put back and I told him if it didn't fit after that, it was going in the frigging dustbin or back to the shop as more trouble than it was worth Fortunately, it did fit, but the system the designer used was absolutely bonkers...I painted my kitchen forget-me- not-blue...and I know why...it never reflects the swearing that goes on when I'm trying to extract, with a tiny weak pin provided by the watch makers, the two separate pieces of metal that hold each set of links in and then get them back in again without losing my cool completely and utterly...
Now, calm reigneth again...hubby's asleep before having to go to work for six thirty and I'm catching up on my posts and mail...haven't even had time yet to tinkle on my keyboard, but daresay I will later on...
Still no phone...tomorrow morning the engineer from Virgin is supposed to be coming...hmmm...any time between 8 and 12...I can see me greeting him in my dressing gown if he comes first thing in the morning...trying not to think about it really...too damned annoying to do so...
Nothing else exciting has happened today...not that anything that did happen could be counted as exciting, just life and life only, Ma, as Dylan said...so, my friends, have a good rest of the day, hope you're feeling better if you've been ill, which quite a few friends do seem to be at the moment, and have a restful evening...big hugs to one and all for now...

Hi to everybody...was woken at around six with a huge wind and bucketing rain...twenty mins later hubby brought me a cup of tea and then we both went back to sleep again to wake up to more pouring rain, hailstorm, thunder and lightning!! Wonderful...so no Lidl's today, hope tomorrow's better because running short of a few essentials now...
That isn't the source of my frustration though...Virgin Media is at it again...we've only been with it two months and already it's succeeded in cutting off our telephone line...and it's been out for the whole weekend according to our son...hmmm...gritting teeth. Had to phone them on my mobile and not allowed to use their free number for customer service on it so cost me over a pound while they fiddled and faddled around and finally told me I couldn't have an engineer round until Wednesday! So for five days, we've got no phone and nobody knows our mobile number so I'm hopping mad...saw an engineer over the road on Saturday doing something with the link box and it crossed my mind that I really hope he doesn't bugger up our broadband or phone connection, and guess what, it looks as if he did...they used to cut off our digital receiver quite regularly when we were with them for cable tv, and have now been forced back to Virgin again for phone and broadband because of BT's technological inefficiency in expanding its broadband reception...Like Lindlj, Virgin has been an enormous pain in the backside for us and I wish I could say it's improved, but looks like it's back to its old tricks.
So, my friends, I'm trying very hard to be patient but it ain't easy...the Indian chappie who took my call on the mobile was trying to be helpful but what could he do from India???
Big hugs to one and all and hope you have a good day and the weather is being a bit kinder to you than it is to us down here at the moment...but can't really complain after such a beautiful Indian summer...

Hi to everybody...here's two more beautiful singers for you...Ruth Etting and Kathleen Ferrier...magical voices and beautiful with it...hope you enjoy them...something to brighten up a very dreary day...

Big hugs to one and all....