Tag Archives: life

They haven’t.

How have your political views changed over time?

I’ve always been a bit confused by Politics and Politicians. They harp on about being Public Servants, but the ones that get to the top are on the whole megalomaniacs, who initially may have had a plan to do good, but with the onset of the status quo of a crashing economy, low growth prospects and aggressors coming at them from every angle , they choose the path of least resistance and the one that helps them line their pockets. Let’s face it if we were in their position we would do the same.

When I was young I was at their mercy , now I’m older I still am. Politics and Greed solve nothing. Politics and the People just causes confusion.

When did a politician ever ask you what do you want? They wouldn’t dare, even if they wanted to they could never give it to you.

Being called a great politician is like calling someone a great real estate agent. Everyone needs them but no one loves them and everyone thinks that their job is easy whereas they are at the beck and call of the market. There are potentially big gains , but then the bottom can fall out of the market just as easily as it was flying upwards when it hit a ceiling. They then look foolish and are left with no sale and no commission.

There is no requirement to trust a politician, because you simply can’t . They have a system and they are part of it. What the people want or need is irrelevant and perhaps all they are is a necessary evil, elected individuals whom may have won fairly or unfairly. There should be legislative structures in place to protect us from their corrupt actions, but these can be dismantled and are hard to replace once they have gone.

When the people are not represented we still have Politicians, and those Politician’s will insist that they are protecting democracy. They are not , they are protecting themselves and their hangers on.

Namaste and Thank You for Reading.🙏

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#HeadlineTherapy All the parts of England facing snow for 12 hours-and it will be 2 inches deep.

Thanks to James Rodger Content Editor at Birmingham Live for the Headline

Apologies to those of you in the World who have serious snow. As you can see by the headline, we in this part of the United Kingdom are worried at the threat of 2 inches.

This is genuine concern as there may well be a shortage of grit, the grit delivery lorries may be in for a service or in truth the drivers may have been made redundant having refused to agree to changes in their employment contracts which the local Councils have imposed in order to save money from already restricted budgets. There are always good reasons why things don’t happen.

So when you are stuck on the Motorway and your cell phone signal has stopped due to the cold weather be grateful that you were warned about this situation and you were told to travel only if your journey is necessary. Was it necessary? Do people just randomly hop in their cars and go somewhere without reason. Are they prone to snow blindness or just plain stubborn?

The article was a bit naughty really on two fronts. I think it was written to make me read the adverts and generate revenue and also the weather maps the journalist refers to say the worst snow will be in Ross and Cromarty which is in Scotland not England which might have ten inches of snow. So a mere two inches seems pretty miserly.

In truth there is no guarantee this snow will happen, I think actually it’s just something to write home about. Still “Snow Day” isn’t until the beginning of January when everyone will be going back to work after their holidays. Maybe they just want to depress us even further with the thought of having to scrape the outside of the car ( for those of you without heated windscreens) or topping up the windscreen wash in the freezing cold. Never mind having to fit winter tyres or snow chains as those in Serious Snow Countries do.

Oh well we shall have to wait and see.

Namaste and Thank You for Reading.🙏

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#HeadlineTherapy “How a Diwali cracker device in India went from social media craze to blinding children.

Thanks to BBC Online News for the inspiration from their slightly modified Headline.

Here we are, so close to the 5th of November so this Headline about the danger of handmade fireworks is very poignant. There is however a much bigger picture and that is about caring about the Health and Safety of people in populous countries like India and also the ever present danger of using cheap labour , in this instance Child Labour.

The story is about a young 14 year old boy who has suffered serious eye injuries from a home made, rudimentary device . Unfortunately during the Diwali celebrations the young lad was injured as the device did not go off as expected. He is waiting to hear how much his eyesight has been damaged.

He is worried as his parents depend on the income he brings into the household from his job repairing televisions. The young man sounds a budding electronic engineer, but he no longer goes to school and the Law now in India states that as long as the work is non-hazardous, he can work and does not need to attend school.

I wonder if the Law was the same in the UK , how many 14 year olds would elect to do non-hazardous jobs. Our Health and Safety Laws would definitely say that doing any form of work is potentially hazardous. Some would say it is overkill. I do hope that we never arrive at a position that 14 year olds are allowed to work, no matter what the Law says.

Meanwhile, like any 14 year old he wanted to have some fun and was out and about enjoying Diwali. I hope he recovers and I hope he gets a chance to learn as a young 14 year old should. Sounds as if he could be very good at Electronics.

AI Generated Image of young boy from India repairing Television

Headlines or articles aren’t always read as the writer intended. On this particular ocassion I have used device as it was more appropriate to do so . What I was left thinking about from this headline was just hoping the boy’s eyesight would recover and also that he got a chance to learn. I wasn’t interested in the actual device itself or the descriptions of how to make it or why it was impressive or dangerous. Yes it may be a Social Media Craze, but given the dangers it’s probably better not to disseminate it , again through any Media. No I don’t not need to know the ingredients or how to make it and I hope no silly idiots start throwing them around on the 5th November.

Let me know your thoughts in the comments.

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Wildness

Do you ever see Wild Animals?

Yes, squirrels and pigeons, both of who have a hereditary history around here. I don’t think the ones I see can be over 30 years old and I have been watching their antics now for all that time. I suppose it must be sequential generations.

The pigeons certainly have a familiar look about them. There is always the brave one, who will stand behind me while I fill their bowl in the garden with mixed corn, once the brave one has had their fill , the others can eat. The brave one looks you in the eye and wing flaps to be fed. The others aren’t quite so bolshy.

The squirrels are grey ones of course, I hope I never find an injured one, because they would have to be euthanised as they are not regarded as native to this Country. They certainly seem pretty native to me .

Anything that roams or flies freely around is a gift to me if I see it. Let’s face it most healthy wild animals want to stay out of sight of predators. Unfortunately, humans are the top weapon assisted arrogant predator.

Wild birds are something I see the most often. Red Kites fly around here a lot, they were successfully bred in Wales and have worked their way eastwards and now are commonly sighted in Oxfordshire. I ‘m not sure about their predation, my understanding is they are scavengers, but they hover around us and my husband is convinced they will predate small cats or possibly pet rabbits in gardens, or maybe small birds or baby squirrels. Why hang around here if not for food.

Hedgehogs live around here too, and we have seen our rather large ” Daddy” hedgehog at night, but no hoglets. So I think we have a solitary male living under our shed and doing the rounds probably impregnating females and doing his upmost to continue the species, but definitely maintain his independence.

I’ve seen non-native deer and native deer on my dog walks and was once told by a woman with a three legged spaniel that her dog lost it’s leg after going after a deer and coming off worse, the muntjac (non-native) having turned and bit the spaniel’s leg which subsequently got infected.

Wild animals are wild and pets are pets. We need pets as companions, but a wild animal is it’s own master, and though when times are bad their life may be harsh or indeed catastrophic. They are a life- force to be admired and respected.

Namaste and Thank You for Reading

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Personal Peeves?

Name your top three pet peeves.

Peeve is not a commonly used word. Indeed, it’s a long time since I heard anyone say it or even write it. I obviously don’t move in the right digital circles. It’s a good word in a bad way and perhaps I will try and integrate it somehow. Seems a shame to waste it. Or should I say it would be peevish to waste it?.

So perhaps we should start with a definition, as a verb, it’s to annoy or irritate. Certainly plenty of things in daily life that will do that. Though I think to peeve you really have to be at the extreme of annoying or irritating without actually doing physical or emotional damage. Possibly there are many other words that would do that which is maybe why peeve has became less frequently used.

As a noun , “peeve” is a source of annoyance, there is even an example of one such peeve on the internet.

“another peeve of mine is these so called reality shows.”

In honour of the Internet, I will say that yes that is one of my peeves.

Reality shows are for losers, make your own reality and make it yours no matter what it is. Whatever happens life is not a voyeurs game, you can pick on a sore and it will become septic and can make you very ill. Reality shows are a very specific form of the entertainment machine and a classic example of picking on sores.

If you stand and watch someone bandage someone else’s sore and watch it get better, what you have learnt maybe it’s good to cure and make better, but do you understand the mechanics of how that bandage worked or what medicines they used or the care that went into the cure and the difficulties that the curer faced. No because you are a voyeur and everything happened in a thirty minute time-slot on demand.

Thank you internet, one down , two to go.

Hysterically, I am struggling to find the other two, as annoyance and irritants are just maybe not that important to me. There is just too many things happen that are positive to be peevish about much. Perhaps that is why peevish almost sounds like a Victorian word to me and why has gone out of use. Maybe the Victorians were more peevish than us.

“Barnaby was a peevish scamp”. Poor Barnaby.

Anyway, I suppose I get peevish if anyone around me says they are bored. As there is so much to be done that can improve things for everyone. Even if it’s just saying hello to someone.

One to go! It peeves me to see too many goals set for the sake of it and targets. Targets are are very often wrong and when they are, they can skew the planet and it’s people. It’s more the arrogance of the people who do the setting that peeves me. The disastrous effects their beliefs can have on others goes way beyond me being peevish.

Target Setter

Thank you for reading. Namaste.

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