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Received my very first cheque from YouGov this week. I have been doing surveys online for YouGov for almost 2 years now. Not exactly a ‘get rich quick’ scheme but if they are happy to pay for my opinion then I’m cool with that.
Goodness, I cannot believe that it has been 6 weeks since I last made a post…. Tut Tut Tut… Naughty me..
If I’m totally honest it’s because every time I thought about posting my thoughts were diverted to the ever growing mystery surrounding the ‘disappearance’ of Madeleine McCann and that is a subject that I find puzzling to say the least. I didn’t really want to make my feelings on the matter known but the more it goes on the more I think that there is something wrong with the picture.
Kate McCann has not shown one fragment of any emotion. Not a tear, not one. Even when she has made ‘pleas’ for her daughters return. Gerry McCann has remained calm and composed whenever he has made his statements to the press. The only time Gerry’s emotion seemed to appear was when they arrived back in the UK. During his statement, his voice trembled a little, but not where you would have expected. His tremble came at the part of his speech when he says they had nothing to do with the crime, not when talking about his missing child.
They have spent the last 4 months on a world tour, almost rivalling that of our ex beloved leader, Tony Blair. They even got to meet up with the Pope. They have wandered along, past crowds behind barriers, shaking hands and receiving gifts as if they were on a royal visit. They have appeared to be enjoying the spotlight.
Unfortunately, for them, the spotlight has started to burn them and they don’t like it. They may ask the media to give them some privacy but they aren’t going to get it. You can’t unleash a tiger and then ask it to behave. The McCanns stirred up the media into a frenzy but know the suspicion has turned to them, they aren’t having as much fun.
You may think I sound harsh, and maybe I do, but I don’t like them. I don’t know why or what it is about them but there is something about them that doesn’t sit right.
Maybe it’s the fact that they think it is OK to leave 3 toddlers alone in an unlocked apartment in a foreign country while they go off with their friends (who, by the way, have also left their children alone) Something that, as a GP in the UK, Kate McCann has a duty of care to report to the authorities if she suspected it of one of her patients.
I also don’t like the ignorant xenophobia that has been spouted from their family. Some of the family members have said, when things started to point to the parents, that the evidence was either planted or contaminated and that the Portuguese police were all incompetent and were making ludicrous accusations.
It could just be that the evidence actually does point to the McCanns.
To my very untrained eye it looks like a classic case of Munchhausen’s. Hurt your child and revel in the attention.
Maybe I’m wrong. I guess time will tell.
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We managed to get a couple of portions of broad beans from the four we planted.
There’s possibly another meals worth still to pick.
We’re not quite Tom & Barbara Good yet.
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I have bought a USB turntable so I have been spending the last few days digitizing all my old vinyl records.
They have been in a box in the loft of every house i’ve lived in for the past 15 years & I have wanted to have a listen to them for ages, Thinking that they would bring back fond memories.
Unfortunately what has been running through my mind the most is the fact that I haven’t half bought some crap in my time.
There were quite a few Stock Aitken Waterman type songs (well I was a teenager in the ’80’s so you can’t really blame me for that) & some decent club anthems too (yes, I was a raver too!)
The very 1st record I ever bought was in the box too. ‘Motor Bike Beat‘ by The Revillos. Bought 21 years ago & I still knew every word.
I cannot remember the last time, if there ever has been a time, that a story in the news has actually made me cry.
The story of 29 year old Kevin Davies makes me want to weep each time I hear about it. Kevin, who suffered from epilepsy, was held prisoner in a shed for 4 months. He was starved, beaten and burned, he was even forced to make a hostage style video by his captors. One of them kept a diary containing details of the abuse dealt out to him.
He died on September 26th 2006. Yesterday 3 people were convicted of assault and false imprisonment. Charges of murder against them were dropped as it couldn’t be proved that Kevins death wasn’t caused by his epilepsy, although experts said this was highly unlikely.
2 of the guilty were sentenced to 10 years, the other received 9 years. They will probably only serve half their given time.
It saddens me to think that these 3 will enjoy more comfort in their incarceration than they allowed Kevin in his.
I hope they receive the welcome they deserve when they arrive in their cells.
Went to Ikea at Warrington last night to see what was in the sale, which was nothing worth having, but I did find a pound coin down the back of one of the sofas.
Yippee!!
Well, here it is again. Saturday is my 36th birthday. That means that I have been around the Chinese zodiac three times, it’s 20 years since I left school and I have smoked for more than half my life.
It’s a downhill ride till I’m 70 although, on a slightly plus side, I’m still going uphill if I intend to live until 80.
At least I’m not in my sister’s shoes just yet. Joanne is 2 years older than me so is staring at fortyness in quite close quarters.
As we do almost every year, Peter & I are going away for a long weekend to escape from people singing that bloody song at me and expecting me to be cheerful. Which I never am.
It’s not that I’m miserable about it but I just can’t bring myself to get excited. It’s just another day. The only real different is that the percentage of junk mail in the post is lower than it is every other day. Once I have opened the post & tried to balance the six cards that I get, then the day turn back into an ordinary one.
Only six cards!! I hear you cry! How sad!
Actually it’s because I’m not one of the Waltons and I don’t tell people when it is.
In fact I tend to get more cards from companies & shops than I do from real people. Naturally, they go straight into the recycle bag. I can’t imagine how sad I would have to be to display cards from Matalan or my bank.
So today the cats went to the vets for their jabs before going to the cattery (I now have 5 deep scratches in my arms) & tomorrow we fly to Madrid for 5 days.
Hasta Luego
I was having a wander around the shops the other day when I noticed an electric kettle on special offer. That’s nice, I thought to myself as I walked past but I didn’t buy it as the one we already had was doing it’s job just fine. I thought no more about it.
Today, I was making a sandwich for Peter & myself for lunch and the kettle was on for a coffee. As the kettle was about half way up to boiling it suddenly cut out. It hadn’t gone bang so I didn’t think it had blow a fuse and the washing machine was still going so it wasn’t a power cut. I plugged it into a different socket, nothing. I changed the fuse in the plug, again nothing. The kettle had simply died.
I hadn’t told anyone, living or mechanical, about admiring another kettle. Could it be that the, now deceased, kettle was psychic, had sensed my thoughts and seen fit to commit hare kare?
Thankfully, last year, I had bought a whistling hob kettle although only for show in enamel blue to match the kitchen, so we weren’t left gagging for a brew. As the hob kettle started to whistle as it came to the boil I was suddenly transported back in time. I said to Peter, “It’s like being back in my granny’s kitchen”.
Peter smiled and said, “Funny, I was just thinking of my grandmother too”
Today, in the UK, is Spring Bank Holiday and, as per usual, it is raining. I am unaware of how the weather knows it is a Bank Holiday but it always seems to, and almost always without fail decides to make the day a washout.
The fact that it rains is not the only reason I dislike Bank holidays, I also hate the fact that it is like having 2 Sundays in the week.
I could have spent the extra day doing some more work on building the garden, which frankly needs as much time as possible, but instead am forced to watch the garden fill up with puddles.
At the beginning of the weekend we had built the rising walls that will eventually become the steps leading to the back (top) of the garden. I added the word top as the back of the garden is level with the first (second if you’re American) floor of the house.
When we bought the house (Jan 2005) the garden wasn’t a very nice, or even usable space. Just 2 steeply sloping patches of grass which were held back by breeze block walls with a thin path up the middle leading to a badly crazy paved patio area at the top and a pond with water that was almost black.
So far, we have replaced the walls with brick and have built a new pond nearer to the house and created a terraced garden with areas for sitting and beds for plants.
The patio at the top has been replaced by a greenhouse, which is currently full of tomato plants. The new patio will be situated at the bottom, closer to the house and a damn site more private.
But all this has to wait because the weather is so bad. I am a very keen gardener but I draw the line at doing it in the rain.
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