Tag: culture

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Thanks Guido!

Hooray for Guy Fawkes! I love the man! If it wasn’t for good old Guido, we wouldn’t really be enjoying fireworks this weekend! Only in England could what was a plot to BLOW UP the houses of parliament be CELEBRATED by letting off fireworks and having bonfires!!! Brilliant!

Our local fireworks display is on tonight. It’s usually quite a good display, and it’s free (always a good thing). I think we might go tonight, if not all the way to the park itself, at least somewhere closer so we can see the bigger crackers go off. Then tomorrow night we’ll go to the home of Big Brother UK, to Borehamwood for their fireworks display. We’ve been going there for the last 3-4 years now and it’s quite a good (& free) display.

I do get worried that fireworks are available to buy for the general public. I don’t think that is very safe. And I don’t understand why people want to waste their money on fireworks. Don’t get me wrong – I mean obviously by the subject of this post, I would expect it is obvious that I love fireworks, but I’d never buy them. Maybe a pack of sparklers, that would be it. But I don’t even buy them. I find sparklers WAY too dangerous. I just think buying fireworks are a waste of money to get for private use. I mean it’s like burning a £50 note. There are SO many professional displays put on around here, no one needs to buy fireworks really. But people do. More money than sense as far as I’m concerned.

I shouldn’t really say this, but we have done something INCREDIBLY daft lately. The weather has turned recently and we have been starting to get cold. We haven’t had any heating going to our central heating system. We were waiting for the estate agents plumber to come back from holiday so he could come and look at the central heating. Then this morning (after relying on other heat sources for the last 3 days), Em had a “eureka” moment and realised that what had been happening with the central heating was…

WE HADN’T ADJUSTED THE THERMOSTAT!!

Em felt like a total prawn for not thinking of it earlier and I felt even worse because I didn’t even think of the thermostat AT ALL!!! If we had a brain cell between us, we’d be dangerous sometimes! lol

So, needless to say, we now have heat. How damn embarrassing would that have been if we’d not have twigged and the plumber had come and went ‘click’ and adjusted the thermostat. Talk about wanting a crack to open up in the ground to swallow us!!!

Great minds think alike – soul-mates don’t think at all!

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The Tracks of My Years, plus Weddings.

I am in the process of doing a series of web pages called “tracks of my years”, which will be songs through my life that I’ve liked or had significance to my life. It’ll be a selection of songs from each year. Once done, I’ll add it to my pages on the right side of the blog. I want them to become a permanent feature of my site, not just part of a composed blog.

Em & I have been helping a local lady, Barbara, get started with a PC (we suggested a Mac Mini, which Barbara loves) and get on the Internet. It’s early days, but we have her set up and on the Internet and today she has successfully sent an email, which has been great! It feels really lovely knowing that you’re helping someone out.

A side issue, just ‘cos I wanna rant. Sorry, in my mind I was thinking. OK, so Barbara getting herself on the Internet is not one of life’s high priorities, it reminded me of the sheer overindulgence that I heard people doing last night on TV. What Not To Wear was on last night, and although I wasn’t actually watching, bits sunk in. It was about mothers-of-the-bride last night and picking the right outfit for them. The EXPENSE some of these people were going to on a wedding was just unbelievable to me! OK, there were some “modest” ones at around £10,000 – that is deemed a modest expenditure on a wedding (not in MY eyes, I might add), but the one that topped it for me was a wedding being held for £23,000!! Let me say that again – TWENTY THREE THOUSAND POUNDS! OK, these days, it might not get you a good down payment on a mortgage, but I would still rather use it on that, than a bloody wedding. So, because so much outlay had been made on this wedding, the mother-of-the-bride was worried she wouldn’t “look” the part, that is, she’d look frumpy, under-dressed, insignificant and not stand out. Erm, excuse me for highlighting the point, but isn’t the wedding meant to be the BRIDES day?! Did I feel sorry for her? HELL NO!! I am still in shock that someone would spend 23 grand on a wedding day – emphasis on the word DAY! It’s ONE DAY!!! OK, it might be the most significant day of your life, so far…but it’s sure gonna make a mockery of that spend when you get divorced 5 years later. It’s disgusting. I could never, ever warrant spending that much money on a wedding. When me and Em got married, our total outlay (including honeymoon) – $A1500. That’s approx. (in today’s market) £600. I can’t imagine anyone in this country getting married for 600 quid. And we had everything we needed. I had a lovely dress, Em had a lovely suit, we exchanged rings, we married in a lovely setting, had a lovely marriage celebrant, hired a nice car for the day, and had a lovely 3 night honeymoon in Melbourne all for that money.
I would cringe at a full-blown wedding. Having family members and guests that I’ve only ever seen on any other occasion at a funeral, having lots of people gawp at me from all angles as I walk down the aisle…the whole cutting the cake, speeches, feast, dance, blah blah blah…it’s just not me, or Em. And as for wedding gifts. I just think it’s sad. I would have everyone pay money to charity as a wedding gift. Oxfam even do a “wedding list”. I mean, for £1600 you could give an African farmer a whole plantation of mangoes, or for £1300 you could have a village run it’s own market. £100 buys a village – A WHOLE VILLAGE – essential medicines for SIX MONTHS! I mean, it’s just obscene. £720 provides safe drinking water for 1000 people. £1700 creates a whole classroom for children to learn in and £15 buys a school desk and chair. 100 school dinners can be provided for £6!! SIX POUNDS! That’s how much a British child would spend on school lunch in one day! If there are people reading this that really want to help, visit: www.oxfamunwrapped.com

Well, that’s my rant.