The fortune teller..

On the way back to Mum’s I stopped for something I’ve never done before – a fortune teller!

Just outside Stow-on-the-Wold there has been a gypsy caravan for a while, she’s there every few months and I’ve thought of stopping before, and today I did.

She was lovely, in her 40s and assures me that she lives in the tiny little caravan with a log burning stove.

I decided to have my tarot cards read, 15 cards. She told me that I’m going to be lucky with the changes that I’m making in my life, one of which will be to do with property. She told me that my partner is good for me and that if anything were to go wrong it would be because of me and not him, and that she saw a child in the near future to complete our family.

She told me that someone was going to go behind my back and stab me in the back, later she refined it to be a man at work – that’s interesting!

She also told me that I’m a strong woman who likes to get my own way; but that I’m not good at making decisions and need to move on and close off things from my past.

That I am good at telling stories and should do so, also that I should so something along the lines of healing (just like the Reiki healer I met said to me).

Okay, so a lot of it is things that you could say to anyone, but it was very interesting and I liked her so it was worth the money (no, I’m not saying how much, but not loads).

Human guinea-pig bath-test – my letter in The Ecologist magazine

The following letter appeared in the April 2006 of The Ecologist magazine -

Human guinea-pig bath-tests

Tonight I had a bit of a shock. As I lay in a rare bath (I usually shower) reading your magazine (March edition), I came to the ‘Read the label’ article on preservatives.

As a matter of interest, I reached over for the tub of ‘relaxing Lavender Milk Bath Powder’ made by The Body Shop, a Christmas present from a friend.

I, like many others I’m sure, would consider The Body Shop would not be too bad on environmental matters – although in recent years, I had begun to suspect that they had sold out to the corporate machine.

I ran through the ingredient list – 28 in total; out of this I could identify a few (aqua – water, sodium chloride – salt, sodium bicarbonate – bicarb of soda, etc.)

What amazed me was the inclusion of six of the preservatives on your list – phenozyethanol, methylparaben, butylparaben, ethylparaben, isobutylparaben and propylparaben.

Underneath the ingredient list in large capital letters – against animal testing.

Setting aside the fact that they no longer state that they don’t test on animals, it seems that The Body Shop are not against testing on humans with their unnecessary use of these ingredients.

Bush meets the Queen – joke!

One of Mum’s friends emailed this to us, it’s excellent!

Bush meets with the Queen of England.

He asks her, “Your Majesty, your country seems to operate so smoothly. Are there any tips you can give me for running such an efficient government?”

“Well,” says the Queen, “the most important thing is to surround yourself with intelligent people.”

Bush frowns. “But how do I know the people around me are really intelligent?”

The Queen takes a sip of tea. “Oh, that’s easy. You just ask them to answer an intelligence riddle.”

The Queen pushes a button on her intercom. “Please send Tony Blair in here, would you?”

Tony Blair walks into the room. “Yes, my Queen?”

The Queen smiles. “Answer me this, please, Tony. Your mother and father have a child. It is not your brother and it is not your sister. Who is it?”

Without pausing for a moment, Tony Blair answers, “That would be me.”

“Yes! Very good,” says the Queen.

Back at the White House, Bush asks to speak with Vice President Cheney.

“Dick, answer this for me. Your mother and your father have a child. It’s not your brother and it’s not your sister. Who is it?”

“I’m not sure,” says the vice president. “Let me get back to you on that one.”

He goes to his advisors and asks every one, but none can give him an answer. Finally, he ends up in the men’s room and recognizes Colin Powell’s shoes in the next stall.

Dick shouts, “Colin! Can you answer this for me? Your mother and father have a child and it’s not your brother or your sister. Who is it?”

Colin Powell yells back, “That’s easy. It’s me!”

Dick Cheney smiles and says “Thanks!”

Cheney goes back to the Oval Office to speak with Bush. “Say, I did some research and I have the answer to that riddle. It’s Colin Powell.”

Bush gets up, stomps over to Cheney, and angrily yells into his face, “No, you stupid fuck! It’s Tony Blair!”

The scary thing is – Hitler was actually intelligent….

Disabled parking badges – 28 days!

HLP-050212.JPG
Originally uploaded by Alex Segre.

Do you know how bloody long it takes to get one of these in Gloucestershire!? 28 days – and even that’s only if they bother to put all the correct stuff in the application form.

My mum might not even have a month left – but that’s how long she may have to wait.

It seems crazy to me that whilst she is waiting for the disc to come she can’t use a copy of the application form as evidence – this would then allow her to go shopping.

This country is shit quite frankly – it seems to me that if you are ill or dying you are pretty much left to get on with it!

IT SUCKS!

*Meuse on Radio3

Although I don’t listen tor Radio 3 very often, I did post a photo of my radio tuned to R3 for part of my Meaning of Liff project.

Today I had an email from someone asking if they could use it in a presentation – I think for Radio 3 – how cool is that!? Of course he might not be from R3 – but the fact that someone wanted to use my snap!

The only problem of course is that the photo is slightly out of focus!?

Oh well – nice that the guy asked permission too.

The world is my lobster…

This is one of the first ‘raw’ photos that I’ve ever taken and then played with in Photoshop – and I have to say that I’m really pleased with it!

Anyway, back to the matter in hand …..

Okay, so this is the plan. I won’t get a mortgage if I quit work now, so I have to bide my time.

Firstly, I’m going to sign up for an A level in photography – two years but who knows I might stop at AS.

Secondly, when I have the money I’m going to buy a house. Maybe a shop for the books and a flat above that I can rent out to cover the mortgage.

Thirdly, if the time isn’t right for me to do a full time degree course in photography I shall just stay working and saving money.

And finally, if all the above goes to plan I will quit work and try to make enough money with photographs, books and Ebay.

Anyway, somewhere in that mix I might get pregnant – well I’ll re-assess if that happens, but I can’t sit around waiting for it.

So I guess I ought to aim to review this in a years time – 1st April 2007 – no actually, I think six months, so that makes it 1st October 2006.

Of course by then my contract with work might have come to an end! I guess if that does happen I’ll know by Christmas and can plan accordingly.

Oooooooh! The world is my lobster.