Sunday 30 January 2011

Our 29th year!

Well we are in our 29th year together and with our anniversary coming up in May I just can't believe how the years have gone by.

In the words of the song "looks like we made it".

I guess that should silence the doubters who, when we met all those years ago, told me that I was "out of the frying pan into the fire".

Ok so there have been many obstacles and hurdles to overcome (doesn't everyone have them) but I know that I wouldn't change a thing and for those that don't believe us I can confirm that in all that time we have never had an argument.  Cross my heart... we can get bad tempered and snappy but arguing just isn't one of those things that we do.

So here's to the next 29 years :-)

Sunday evening blues or Winter woes?

Well I have to admit to feeling a tiny bit low tonight.

Not sure if it's the Sunday blues or just purely the Winter woes...

It wasn't as cold today as it has been and the sun did actually pop out from behind a cloud for about 5 minutes.  That didn't help, it just made me want to see more!  I really am missing the sun and the daylight.  Where is it that goes for weeks on end without any daylight at all during the winter months?  Crikey that would drive me crazy.

I've had a great weekend but as usual it goes by far too quickly.  Now as I'm sitting here watching Dancing on Ice I know that in a couple of hours I've got to go to bed ready to get up at 5.30 in the morning.

This weekend has been quite productive.  Mick has repaired 3 computers for people from where he works, I have been creating a new design for my webstore (not finished yet) and then learning PHP which I enjoy although the brain does go a little dead after a while and we did manage to stop and have a couple of drinks last night.

I spoke to my mum who is due to go into hospital next month for another wrist operation and whose 84th birthday is this Tuesday and I did manage to get some housework done.  Not bad for 48 hours!

Friday 28 January 2011

If you won the lottery would you go into work the next day?

Ok so it’s a silly subject but it is Friday, it has been a very tiring week, and tonight is the Euro Lottery. So I’ll ask again. If you won the lottery tonight would you go back to work tomorrow or Monday?

Now I hate to let anyone down and the same applies to my job – I would hate to let them down. But being realistic here (in a fantasy scenario) if I won millions tonight could I actually swear on my heart that I would go into work and work out my notice period to enable the company I work for the least amount of inconvenience.

One part of me says that to work another 3 months wouldn’t be any hardship but there again another part of me says

“Hell – get me to the sunshine, NOW”

Friday 21 January 2011

Snow in Palma today

Well Palma de Mallorca has had snow today.  Not just the snow covering the mountains but in the middle of the city!

Not quite enough for a snowball fight but they look like they are enjoying it and the monastery at Lluc is snow-covered and the road to Soller is closed.

The temperature is still warmer than in this country though!

Wednesday 19 January 2011

Ginger as a cure

Well if I've been a bit quiet it's because I've been coping with the pain that comes along with the inflammation associated with arthritis in the neck.

It doesn't sound much but take my word for it the headaches are so bad they even hurt the back of your eyes!

Anyway after trying the using things - anti-inflammatories, ice packs; heat pads; pain relieving gel etc nothing seemed to shift it this time.  Well after a week it gets rather tiring!  So today at work as a last resort I searched on the internet to look at the acid in tea and coffee.  Not surprising there is rather a lot and as the inflammation is caused by excess uric acid in the system I thought I better cut back on it for a while and see if I could clear out the problematic acids from my body.

Now I drink loads and loads of tea....  What to have instead?

Ok so I have to admit to doing a course on herbalism some time in my past and trying to remember the rules I remembered that you treat like for like.  So inflammation is hot so I needed to treat it with something hot.  Looking through the cupboards at work I came across some herbal teas - lemon & ginger to be exact.  Well the lemon wasn't so good (acidic) but the ginger certainly was (hot).

Well two cups later I suddenly realised that the pain had stopped....

Tonight while sitting at home I got another massive attack so searching through the house I came across a bottle of ginger wine (my mum recommended it for upset stomachs).

So the result is that the attack has passed and I'm a convert for ginger at the moment.

Now can you have ground ginger sprinkled on porridge in the mornings?

Wednesday 12 January 2011

Warning against bogus caller

The latest con trick seems to be cold calling at your doors and saying they are from the council with regard to your loft insulation.  They state that they 'have to' see your loft insulation to check that it is in line with the council's recommendations.

Luckily the man called when Mick was at home and he wasn't allowed to put one foot inside our house although he was very persistent and bordering on being aggressive!

He basically got the door shut in his face but I wonder how an older or more vulnerable person would have coped with him.

We reported it to our neighbourhood watch guy who likewise reported it to his police liaison officer who confirmed that they had received two other complaints on the same night and that officers were on the look out for him.

The guy is wearing a shabby suit, carrying a folder under his arm and has a strong Asian accent.

Less tolerant as we age

Now I know that I've probably mentioned it before but do you get less tolerant as you age?

In this busy, fast track world we live in nowadays you become used to the fact that if you are not good at your job there is always someone else waiting to take your place so you work hard, try to be as competent as possible and it is so frustrating when others are not.

Now this is no biggie - just a parcel that was being delivered and has been returned to the depot, with a note on the tracking system saying that a card has been left.  Guess what - no card!  With no card there is no phone number for the courier, no reference number to enable redelivery and a charge if it gets returned to the supplier!

In the meantime I have spent the evening tracking down the supplier online and sending an email - and of course I now have to wait for them to reply.  I have to leave a note on my door in case the courier should try to redeliver tomorrow anyway and it is just so annoying.

So I've come to the conclusion that you definitely get more intolerant as you get older - either that or you get more stressed out :-)

Well I still have broadband

Ok to cut a long story short I've still got broadband and I'm still with Virgin Media.

After several emails and phone calls to both O2 and Virgin I eventually got through to a person in the disconnection department of Virgin.  After they wanted to know why I was leaving they offered to better the deal offered by O2, but more importantly, they offered some advice on broadband speeds.

Well I checked out the speed that I could get by going through O2 (via BT line) which showed about 3 Meg and then checked out the speed I was getting at the moment via cable 9.4 Meg!  Ok no contest.  I did not realise that I would be dropping that amount of speed so Virgin won - sorry O2 when the speeds pick up I may reconsider but I use my broadband far too much to lose that amount of speed.

Oh well at least I learned a bit more about broadband.

Monday 3 January 2011

No Broadband - Well thank you Virgin Media!

Well I have to admit to getting slightly panic stricken. I may be without broadband for a week.

I decided to change my broadband provider to O2 who I have had a mobile phone with for years. They phoned me up and suggested I change and the package they were offering was very good. Previously I had been on cable who had been taken over by Virgin Media. Now the dealings I had with Virgin were not very good. On a couple of occasions when the system had not been working properly or there were problems with our satellite box I tried phoning their support line. I was not impressed!

I will admit to being a bit of a technological geek and I love all my gadgets and computer etc so I am not completely stupid when it comes to technology. After all I can program and create web pages, I have blogs, websites etc galore but I was spoken to by the support department as if I was a silly child who couldn't understand anything!!!

Anyway to get back to the point in question.

I arranged to have my broadband and phone changed over to O2. I wrote to Virgin and I emailed Virgin giving them the date that I wanted their services to end (to coincide with my new O2 services) but could Virgin get that right - oh no they informed me they were cutting off my phone and broadband a week earlier than I asked for....I wrote to Virgin again pointing out the date I asked for but so far there has been no response. Not surprising!

So my dear friends, although I have phoned O2 and they are trying to rush it through quicker, it very much looks like I will be without broadband for about a week to ten days. I really don't know how I will survive.



If necessary I will log on using my mobile but it is not the best way to go online and the screen is not very big, but I will do my best.


Date for disconnection by Virgin is 9th January

Saturday 1 January 2011

Four Generations


Well thanks to Stanley for this photo - at least I have my head up - of Mum, me, Kelly and Katie.  Four generations of females.  Not something you see every day although with lifespan being longer it may even be possible to get a 5th generation photo!

Happy New Year

To one and all may it be a healthy, happy & prosperous 2011.

We stayed up and watched the New Year in with TVE but I have to say that this year it was a little disappointing.  Now I'm used to the UK TV being rubbish seeing the new year in but normally the Spanish party all night long.

But last night no sooner had we eaten our 12 grapes than they said goodnight and switched on some old archive stuff that just ran and ran.  No big parties, no famous people.  What has happened to the party nation?

Oh well

¡Feliz y próspero año nuevo!

and may you find your spirit again soon :-)