The title of this post comes from a sidebar linked to an article which I didn't read but which set me wondering if the richest man dead agrees with the sentiment or if he has a different take on the situation. Maybe I should join the grammar police, the apostrophe police and/or the hyperbole police.
When I opened my blog site this morning there was a huge yellow message telling me that I need to inform all my readers in Europe that there might be cookies here. Of course there are cookies but not set by me; Google will most certainly set cookies so, European readers - there will be cookies.
On the subject of cookies - some of them are spyware and need to be cleared regularly and especially before doing ANY financial transactions online and log out of any financial sites after you have finalised your transactions. I also clear my cookies after any financial or sensitive transactions just in case.
Winter has arrived with a vengeance with two days of torrential rain, gales and thunderstorms although it has not been very cold. The only place which didn't receive the rain was down south, around Albany, which was subjected to over 70 bushfires which were fanned by said gales - but no rain. That is really sod's law in action.
I have used up all the sudokus so I have hauled out my book of Limericks which I rescued from my MIL's house during the clear-out before everything was sold and I will post an occasional one here. I'll try to select relatively benign ones although part of the joy of Limericks is that they are usually a bit politically incorrect or downright salacious. Remember, I didn't write them . . .
Here we go. This one is considered to be the ultimate limerick - Introduction, Story and Conclusion all in five lines.
There was once a young man of Cape Horn
Who wished that he'd never been born
And he wouldn't have been
If his father had seen
That the end of the rubber was torn.
Friday, May 25, 2018
Thursday, May 17, 2018
Such are the Dreams of the Everyday Housewife
Prompted by the example of D2 who borrowed from me a book called "The New Natural Cat - a guide for caring owners" I decided to gradually change my cats' daily treat over to something more healthy than commercial soft food. So I headed out to Farmer Jack and bought some lean beef mince with the idea of introducing a bit at a time, adding other ingredients as I increased the fresh and replaced the supermarket mushy stuff.
On Day 1 I added about a level teaspoon of the mince to each of the feeding bowls along with their usual soft food. They thought that this was a great treat and scoffed it down. I happily went off to do my daily yoga practice only to find, when I went into the bedroom to change back into my clothes, that Poppy had neatly brought up the whole lot in the middle of my duvet.
Thank goodness for clothes dryers. I bundled the duvet into the washing machine and put it through a couple of cycles in the dryer and it was back onto my bed by bedtime. We are now back to commercial soft treats but a better, more expensive sort from New Zealand where they seem to do most things better or best.
My genealogy research is now focused on my one and only Irish forebear and there I have run into another brick wall. I gather that the Irish archives were burnt down along with most of the BMD records and people seem to be second guessing their ancestors and then actually putting their trees onto Ancestry.com where they are copied by other researchers. I can trace the ancestor who came to Australia as he is in the record of assisted immigrants who arrived in Sydney in February 1842, along with his age (19), his brother and his occupation.
It would be so easy to copy from other trees and give names to his parents but I contacted a cousin researching the same family and he doesn't know either. He is, like me, insistent on sources before recording information - something which got me into hassles researching the Mendus family. I had help with the Davies branch of the Davies family and that is well sourced. David Davies married Charlotta Mendus which is how the Mendus family connects with the Davies forebears.
My Irish forebear married in Sydney a few years after he arrived but his wife died, probably in childbirth, two years into the marriage. He then moved to South Australia where he married my something-great grandmother and between them they produced 12 children. She died with the twelfth child so I assume that it was all too much for her. By our standards she was not very old. Thems were the days!
I am trying to edit out most of the commas in this blog. Reading news reporting from USA I sometimes find the reports confusing due to a liberal scattering of inappropriate commas.
The last of the sudokus:
Serious error.
All shortcuts have disappeared.
Screen. Mind. Both are blank.
On Day 1 I added about a level teaspoon of the mince to each of the feeding bowls along with their usual soft food. They thought that this was a great treat and scoffed it down. I happily went off to do my daily yoga practice only to find, when I went into the bedroom to change back into my clothes, that Poppy had neatly brought up the whole lot in the middle of my duvet.
Thank goodness for clothes dryers. I bundled the duvet into the washing machine and put it through a couple of cycles in the dryer and it was back onto my bed by bedtime. We are now back to commercial soft treats but a better, more expensive sort from New Zealand where they seem to do most things better or best.
My genealogy research is now focused on my one and only Irish forebear and there I have run into another brick wall. I gather that the Irish archives were burnt down along with most of the BMD records and people seem to be second guessing their ancestors and then actually putting their trees onto Ancestry.com where they are copied by other researchers. I can trace the ancestor who came to Australia as he is in the record of assisted immigrants who arrived in Sydney in February 1842, along with his age (19), his brother and his occupation.
It would be so easy to copy from other trees and give names to his parents but I contacted a cousin researching the same family and he doesn't know either. He is, like me, insistent on sources before recording information - something which got me into hassles researching the Mendus family. I had help with the Davies branch of the Davies family and that is well sourced. David Davies married Charlotta Mendus which is how the Mendus family connects with the Davies forebears.
My Irish forebear married in Sydney a few years after he arrived but his wife died, probably in childbirth, two years into the marriage. He then moved to South Australia where he married my something-great grandmother and between them they produced 12 children. She died with the twelfth child so I assume that it was all too much for her. By our standards she was not very old. Thems were the days!
I am trying to edit out most of the commas in this blog. Reading news reporting from USA I sometimes find the reports confusing due to a liberal scattering of inappropriate commas.
The last of the sudokus:
Serious error.
All shortcuts have disappeared.
Screen. Mind. Both are blank.
Thursday, May 10, 2018
... and it doesn't get any better.
Not long after writing up my last blog entry Parsifal, my boy cat, managed to get himself trapped behind the washing machine. He does this periodically when he thinks that he is being ignored and the gap at the side is too narrow for him to walk out on his own and no way for him to jump up and out so the washing machine has to be manoeuvred sideways (and it is very heavy) close to the hot water storage tank.
This time he managed to also get the electrical cord twisted around his tummy with no room to untangle himself so I had to go over the top of the machine, unplug the cord and by lying over the top with my legs stuck out the back I managed to untangle him. There were a couple of men up on the roof trampling around and talking and I was swearing like a trooper so I didn't hear my personal alarm give its preliminary 20 seconds of beeps and I assumed that the voices I heard were from the men on the roof. I now realise that I must have triggered things by squeezing the alarm button between the washer and my ribs.
It was only after the rescue had been concluded that I heard D2's voice asking me if I was OK. I can't imagine what she thought was going on but at least we both now know that the thing works. Later I also received a call from my next-door neighbour who had received a text message saying that I might be in trouble. This happens of the alarm reaches a mobile phone. My neighbour is fourth on the list so her role is to phone for an ambulance and beam up the paramedics. Once again - it is nice to know that the gadget works.
And yesterday I attended the Lion Eye Institute where, after multiple tests with me looking into bright lights, I was told by the ophthalmologist that due to the previous laser work done to my retinas there would be a 2 - 3% chance that I could lose my sight altogether if I had my cataracts removed and he was not prepared to take the risk, especially as, with spectacles, my vision was really quite good still. So I have an appointment to see him again in a year. I suppose that eventually I will get to a stage where the risk becomes worth it and it will, by then, become a kill or cure scenario.
The penultimate sudoku:-
Having been erased
The document you're seeking
Must now be retyped.
This time he managed to also get the electrical cord twisted around his tummy with no room to untangle himself so I had to go over the top of the machine, unplug the cord and by lying over the top with my legs stuck out the back I managed to untangle him. There were a couple of men up on the roof trampling around and talking and I was swearing like a trooper so I didn't hear my personal alarm give its preliminary 20 seconds of beeps and I assumed that the voices I heard were from the men on the roof. I now realise that I must have triggered things by squeezing the alarm button between the washer and my ribs.
It was only after the rescue had been concluded that I heard D2's voice asking me if I was OK. I can't imagine what she thought was going on but at least we both now know that the thing works. Later I also received a call from my next-door neighbour who had received a text message saying that I might be in trouble. This happens of the alarm reaches a mobile phone. My neighbour is fourth on the list so her role is to phone for an ambulance and beam up the paramedics. Once again - it is nice to know that the gadget works.
And yesterday I attended the Lion Eye Institute where, after multiple tests with me looking into bright lights, I was told by the ophthalmologist that due to the previous laser work done to my retinas there would be a 2 - 3% chance that I could lose my sight altogether if I had my cataracts removed and he was not prepared to take the risk, especially as, with spectacles, my vision was really quite good still. So I have an appointment to see him again in a year. I suppose that eventually I will get to a stage where the risk becomes worth it and it will, by then, become a kill or cure scenario.
The penultimate sudoku:-
Having been erased
The document you're seeking
Must now be retyped.
Sunday, May 6, 2018
Life Gets Tejus, Don't It
I seem to run out of time these days and I have realised that the culprit is American Politics to which I have become addicted. Australian politics is really boring, nothing like the chaos which is America and I am spending an inordinate amount of time watching Rachel Maddow and a variety of comedians on a variety of Late Night Shows.
I also had to call a locksmith in when my door handles started falling off and I was unable to work out how to get into their inner workings to tighten the screws. I know now but my fingers are not strong enough to remove the outer ring so it will be SIL or GB1 who has to come to the rescue.
And I have been given the super new quadruple-strength 'flu vaccine. Last year Western Australia was essentially fairly mildly affected but a large number of people in the Eastern States died, especially the elderly and the chronically ill people so a super-vaccine has been made available for those over 65 and only administered by a doctor. Normally 'flu vaccines are available at the local pharmacy and administered by a pharmacist.
I had a slight reaction to the stronger dose - a bit headachy and a big muscle achy but it only lasted for a couple of days and hopefully I will now be safe from the killer 'flu this winter.
And in two days time I will be off to the Eye Institute for a preliminary visit to check out my cataracts and discuss what is to be done about them. My optometrist panicked me by saying that, because I have had laser work done on my retinas the surgery might be a bit more difficult and I must expect to be hospitalised instead of having Day Surgery.
My main problem is the cats; overnight is OK; I can leave them for that long but any longer they will need feeding and the cleaning out of their litter trays. GB1 has agreed to do it if necessary and as he is at a school close by and has to walk past my apartment to get to the train station he seems to be the logical one to get the job.
On the strength of the uncertainty about the timing of the surgery I have tried to resign from COTA and that went down not so well but I will have to stop at some stage and even though someone has gutted all the junk from the computers, Windows 10 is not easy to teach to people who haven't progressed through earlier versions of Windows.
D1 has sent me, for Mothers' Day, what feels like one of those caps which Mr Trump wears but I doubt if it has any sort of political slogan on it - probably cats at a guess; people always give me cat presents.
The Sudoku for this episode of my Blog:
Out of memory.
We wish to hold the whole sky
But we never will.
I also had to call a locksmith in when my door handles started falling off and I was unable to work out how to get into their inner workings to tighten the screws. I know now but my fingers are not strong enough to remove the outer ring so it will be SIL or GB1 who has to come to the rescue.
And I have been given the super new quadruple-strength 'flu vaccine. Last year Western Australia was essentially fairly mildly affected but a large number of people in the Eastern States died, especially the elderly and the chronically ill people so a super-vaccine has been made available for those over 65 and only administered by a doctor. Normally 'flu vaccines are available at the local pharmacy and administered by a pharmacist.
I had a slight reaction to the stronger dose - a bit headachy and a big muscle achy but it only lasted for a couple of days and hopefully I will now be safe from the killer 'flu this winter.
And in two days time I will be off to the Eye Institute for a preliminary visit to check out my cataracts and discuss what is to be done about them. My optometrist panicked me by saying that, because I have had laser work done on my retinas the surgery might be a bit more difficult and I must expect to be hospitalised instead of having Day Surgery.
My main problem is the cats; overnight is OK; I can leave them for that long but any longer they will need feeding and the cleaning out of their litter trays. GB1 has agreed to do it if necessary and as he is at a school close by and has to walk past my apartment to get to the train station he seems to be the logical one to get the job.
On the strength of the uncertainty about the timing of the surgery I have tried to resign from COTA and that went down not so well but I will have to stop at some stage and even though someone has gutted all the junk from the computers, Windows 10 is not easy to teach to people who haven't progressed through earlier versions of Windows.
D1 has sent me, for Mothers' Day, what feels like one of those caps which Mr Trump wears but I doubt if it has any sort of political slogan on it - probably cats at a guess; people always give me cat presents.
The Sudoku for this episode of my Blog:
Out of memory.
We wish to hold the whole sky
But we never will.
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