Monday 14 July 2014

I went out to dinner with Stephanie, Chris and Judith today, a very nice carvery

I went out to dinner with Stephanie, Chris and Judith today, a very nice carvery. Discussion included, accidents I had on motorcycles in my younger days, Judith wanting to buy a motor scooter and the wild ways of my younger son Antony. Judith was also telling us about some cheap mobile phone she could get through work at a huge discount.She plans to buy them then sell them on Ebay for their real value. The extra money should come in handy when she moves out. We came out of the restaurant at about 5.00 p.m and it was already pitch black. I don't like how quickly it gets dark in winter, I know it all works in the big picture but as a mentioned before I rarely see the house in daylight at this time of year.
I was feeling so confident about it all happening with NTL that I went out and bought the cable I needed for my network yesterday. So the next job is to run it all in.

So my daughter Elaine has set off south from Sheffield to London this evening. She's going to spend a night in London with a friend and then head off to Heathrow tomorrow. She's flying to America and will stay with friends in Augusta, Georgia for a week. Lucky her!
Until recently I only had one telephone in my house. It sat on the window ledge in the living room. Every time someone used it, it would fall off the ledge onto the floor. The handset cord used to get twisted, and once in a while I would have to sit and straighten it all out again. My favourite chair was by the phone, and I was forever having to move so others in the family could use it. But now all that has changed, I've bought a couple of digital cordless telephones and they are wonderful. They can be used anywhere in the house and I didn't have to do any wiring for the extension. I should have bought them ages ago. Isn't technology wonderful?
NTL just rang back and took my bank details and set an installation date, December 9th. About time too!
Julia, who nurses at the hospital in Sutton Coldfield asked me to record a television programme on video last night. It started very late at 11:45 pm and she didn’t want to stay up all night watching it. The programme was actually an Autopsy done in front of the television audience. I think it may be a bit gruesome and I won’t be watching it with her.
I got the quick response. I was phoned by NTL this morning and apparently I am now on their database. I've been told to expect a call within an hour from their installation department to arrange an installation date. Wonderful!
Well, I've sent another email to NTL lets hope I get a quick response.
The sense of achievement I had last Monday week has drifted away. I still haven’t got my broadband connection. The email I received on that day said I would be connected either by the end of that week or early in the next week. So here I am at the middle of the next week and nothing has happened. I have the mobile number of the supervisor who has been dealing with it. I rang her on Monday evening and left a message on her voicemail, she hasn’t come back to me. I don’t know why NTL treat prospective customers like this. I think I’ll email her today and copy it to her managing director. I wish I had another financially viable means of getting broadband because I’d take it today if I could.
I left work at half past four today and it was already dark. When I leave the house tomorrow morning at twenty past six it will still be dark. That part of the year has come again where I don't see my home in daylight for days at a time. I suppose frosty momings will become the normal thing shortly. I'll have the fun of scraping the windows before I can drive away. The only good thing about this time of year is that I don't have to mow the lawns.
My son Chris’s birthday went well yesterday. All the things ordered on the internet actually arrived on time including stuff from Japan. We all went out for a meal in the evening to an Italian restaurant in Sutton Coldfield. The food was delicious but the service was very slow, due I was told to a shortage of staff on that evening. But they did apologise for the delay.
I had a bit of a rush this morning because I had to drop Louise back to Coventry before coming to work in Birmingham. Isn’t it strange that the speed of the traffic is always inversely proportional to the length of time you have to get there?
I was looking at the Friends Reunited web site today to see who was on there. I registered myself some time ago for both my primary and grammar schools. It’s over thirty five years since I left and I often wonder what happened to them all. My school was the only catholic grammar school in Birmingham at the time so pupils came from all over the city. This made it more difficult for friendships formed in school to carry on outside it. The distances involved made it difficult. Looking at the list of pupils who left the same year as me surprised me, because I only recognised four or five names. I do know that I knew pretty well everyone in my year, so my memory must be letting me down quite badly. One of the side effects of getting on I suppose. I’m sure they have spread all over the world by now, have families and are getting fairly close to retirement. It’s strange, but in my minds eye I can see them as they were then, and can’t imagine how they’d look now. Some of them may have died over the years, but I don’t suppose I’ll ever know. None of the names I recognised were particular friends of mine so I haven’t tried to contact them. Maybe I should.
It’s a shame I didn’t maintain contact with my school friends, it would be lovely to know how they’ve got on.
Three Native Americans were married on the same day, and their wives always wanted to be better off than the others. The first wife insisted on a large tepee lined with the hide of a mountain lion. The second wife on seeing this insisted on a larger tepee lined with the hide of a bison. The third wife wanting to be better than both of them demanded an enormous tepee lined with the hide of a hippopotamus. As time went by they started families and the first wife had triplets . The second wife had quadruplets, and the third wife had quintuplets.
This proves the theorem that the squaw on the hippopotamus is equal to the sum of the squaws on the other two hides.


Friday 15 February 2013

Getting On



Tony who works with me often visits his aging granddad. He enjoys having a chat with him while dipping into the bowl of nuts his granddad keeps beside his chair. When he arrived there yesterday the bowl was empty, so he asked if he'd run out of them. Oh no, said his granddad I haven't sucked the chocolate off them yet.

Thursday 9 August 2012

Getting On

Getting On is a satirical British sitcom based in an NHS hospital. It is written by its core cast, Jo Brand, Vicki Pepperdine, and Joanna Scanlan, and is directed by Peter Capaldi. It first aired in July 2009. Two seasons have been completed (the first with 3 episodes and the second with 6) with a third series finished being filmed for a summer/autumn transmission with guest stars Hugh Bonneville and Tilda Swinton.

Wednesday 17 August 2011

Pied-billed Grebe


Description

The Pied-billed Grebe is small, stocky, and short-necked. It is 31–38 centimeters (12–15 in) in length, it has a wingspan of 45–62 cm (18–24 in) and weighs 253–568 grams (8.9–20.0 oz). It is usually brown or gray in color. It has a short, blunt chicken-like bill, which in summer is encircled by a broad black band (hence the name). It is the only grebe that does not show a white wing patch in flight. The sexes are monomorphic (meaning no sexual dimorphism).

Diet

Pied-billed Grebes feed mainly on aquatic invertebrates, and also on small fish and amphibians (frogs, tadpoles). Pied-billed Grebes have been shown to eat their own feathers to aid in digestion (prevent injury from small bones).