Train travel

I travel by train for a number of reasons; the ability to work whilst travelling, the time savings, and more than anything; for environmental reasons.

However I’m increasingly getting annoyed with the ‘great’ British public that I find sat around me on trains.

Today I travelled from Sheffield to London on the 11.25 train – together with a young guy who proceeded to eat a cake with his mouth open so I could actually hear every chew (not to mention seeing it – I didn’t look); a very fat man who seemed to be snoring whilst awake; a female doctor who shouted down her mobile, a young girl whose mobile kept playing loud tinny pop music, a middle aged man who when not shouting into his Blackberry was chewing gum so loudly it was incredible, and a girl who obviously had never been told about deodorant.

Who are these people????? Why are people so rude?

Okay, I’m sure I’m not a saint (in fact I’d be the last to claim I was); but my parents at least taught me to eat with my mouth closed, that some small level of basic hygiene is a good idea, and that annoying everyone around you with music/mobile phone rings and shouting is not very nice.

I usually sit in the ‘quiet’ coach but I’ve decided that it winds me up too much – people continue to play load music or talk on their phones and then get annoyed when you point out that they are in the quiet coach.

OMG! we thought the world had ended!

But really it was only the sky falling in – well actually, the bathroom ceiling.

At 6am this morning there was an un-holy crash that woke Colin and I with a start. But we both guessed what had happened – the bathroom ceiling had fallen in.

We assumed that it was damp, but actually now seeing the hole I don’t believe it was. It seems that when the bathroom was moved into the house (from the privy at the bottom of the garden!), they took out the chimney breast in the kitchen and bathroom – amazingly no support was put in!

Luckily the chimney hasn’t fallen, but the debris that had collected inside it had built up, and damp got in through the roof – and the weight of all of this brought a section of the ceiling inwards.

So the ceiling came down along with a shelf, there’s a hole in the side of the bath and the carpet is completely ruined. We have to get a couple of insurance quotes before we get it fixed.
In the meantime bits continue to rain down on the bathroom.

It’s usually a lot tidier than it looks in the photo!!

Going to the seaside.

I take it all back! I did get a day out with Colin – at the seaside.

Despite his cold, we did get to go to the seaside. We even got to have ice cream.

I didn’t know where we were going, Colin just navigated and we ended up at Hornsea (on the East Riding coast). What a Bob forsaken hole – not even of interest as a tacky seaside town, but it was wonderful to see the sea.

We walked along beach and went for an ice cream (despite the cold), then found an amusement arcade – our one vice – the 2p drop machines!!! We’d saved up a load of 2ps and had taken them – I managed to come out with nearly what I went in with, but Colin only had about 40p out of his original £2.

The beach was very windswept and the whole place seemed very depressed, but I thought it was great!

Of course, Colin being Colin he had to get a bit of work in – he’s got some fieldwalking work near Hull, so we popped in and put some canes in.

On the way back we went through Hull, what a fantastic sight! The lights of the BP oil refinery were twinkling beautifully in the evening light – and although I don’t approve of such places, this looked stunning.

So I take it all back, we had a lovely day.

Colin’s got a cold

Colin’s got a cold
Originally uploaded by Merrony’s Moll.

Colin has been working really hard this week, including field walking in a East Yorkshire. Today he has nothing planned (tomorrow he’s surveying some field somewhere), so I’d asked him if we could go to the seaside.

But now it’s Saturday morning and he’s saying he feels too ill to go – but if it was work he’d be going without a doubt.

Oh well, no seaside for me today.

I may not be watching Big Brother……

But it seems that Big Brother is watching me!

If you can’t read it, it says ‘we have recently been advised that you bought television receiving equipment in December 2006 from Dixons Stores Group. However we have no record of a TV Licence in your name for the above address.’

Quite frankly I don’t see why I should tell them that; a) I’m not a ‘Mr’, and b) if they checked their records they would see that there is a TV licence for this house – paid by direct debit for the last 13 years.

Colin is all in favour of me ignoring the letter and letting them come round to demand to see our licence – not sure I want to have to deal with that!?

I hate the idea that they know what I’ve bought, when and where. I am seriously considering closing all my bank accounts and cards etc – I hate the fact that we are watched, and that everything we do is monitored.

Dead body??

This parcel arrived for Colin the other day – looks very suspicious to me?!

Cheeky bastards!

I hope no-one I know falls for these cheeky bastards (or companies like them)??

They appear to be collecting clothes for charity- but they aren’t, they are companies (often not registered) who take the clothes you donate and ship them half way round the world and sell them for a profit. It’s a SCAM

If you want to give your clothes to charity take them to a local shop. Even those bags that legit charities push through the door for you to fill up, in many areas thieves will go round the night before and steal them.

The whole is full of thieving shits – don’t help them!

What a bloody mess!

IMGP5611
Originally uploaded by chrisrouge.

I can’t believe the mess on Branscombe beach – what an environmental nightmare. The photographer who took this photo tells me that although some of the mess was made by the containers that washed and broke open, alot of it was probably made by the people searching for ‘loot’ and just letting the packaging blow away down the beach.

Never mind the fact that people are taking stuff away, what about all the mess and the spoiling of the beach.

The news has just announced that 1000 sea birds have been washed up covered in oil – bloody fantastic, as I predicted – an environmental disaster.

Happy Birthday Archaeology!

Plan
Originally uploaded by Merrony’s Moll.

This year is the 400th anniversary of the first recorded use of the word ‘archaeology’.

Buckets

Buckets
Originally uploaded by dziner.

An elderly Chinese woman had two large pots, each hung on the ends of a pole which she carried across her neck.

One of the pots had a crack in it while the other pot was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water.

At the end of the long walks from the stream to the house, the cracked pot arrived only half full.

For a full two years this went on daily, with the woman bringing home only one and a half pots of water.

Of course , the perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments. But the poor cracked pot was ashamed of its own imperfection, and miserable that it could only do half of what it had been made to do.

After two years of what it perceived to be bitter failure, it spoke to the woman one day by the stream “I am ashamed of myself, because this crack in my side causes water to leak out all the way back to your house.”

The old woman smiled, “Did you notice that there are flowers on your side of the path, but not on the other pot’s side?”

“That’s because I have always known about your flaw, so I planted flower seeds on your side of the path, and every day while we walk back, you watered them.”

“For two years I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate the table. Without you being just the way you are, there would not be this beauty to grace the house.”

Each of us has our own unique flaw. But it’s the cracks and flaws we each have that make our lives together so very interesting and rewarding.

You’ve just got to take each person for what they are and look for the good in them.

SO, to all of my crackpot friends, have a great day and remember to smell the flowers on your side of the path!