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English is so weird

Limericks by sound, and by spelling -

There once was an old man from York
who took a fat pig for a walk,
when asked "why this was,
he said "it's because
I'd rather eat veggies than pork.

There was an old woman from Slough*
Who developed a terrible cough
So she drank half a pint
Of warm honey and mint
But sadly she didn’t pull through

(*rhymes with plough)


Waiting for a visitor who is LATE I will disappear (I hope) any minute now. You better hope too or I will be adding more weird English examples

There their they're, comfort it won't be that bad.
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Changing my description, sigh

I've described myself as "a few extra pounds" from the start but I could always have stood to lose a stone (that's 14 pounds, or 6 kgs, for the rest of you) but now I've put up a new current picture and damnit who am I kidding. Weight has crept up and a bit more up this winter, another half stone has slid quietly into place, and not even I can see 20 pounds as a few. My bra does not capture everything that drops down my front so I can't go for voluptuous or curvy and I'm seen fat and I'm not that. So many words - plump, portly, chubby, well-padded, pudgy, chunky, stocky, zaftig, corpulent ... don't like any of them.

So nothing for it but a bit of fun dieting.

moping

Until we few pounds meet again,
Signed,
"Large"
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Don't let the old man in. Not today.

And if he pushes in anyway, don't let him make himself at home!

How old would you be, if you didn't know the day you were born? Some people are born old and some would never be old if the calendar (ok, and the mirror) didn't tell them so. They think they are supposed to let the old man in. Nope. He's a state of mind, and he's horrible.

I just listened to Clint Eastwood singing a song with the blog title, because it was his response when asked how he could be starting filming the following week when he was 88, how did he keep going? 'I don't let the old man in'. Like most C&W it's a bit mournful so I haven't included it but the quote above is from the lyrics.

I can't remember when I last did a cartwheel and I'm pretty damned sure I really can't. But just because now when you party like a rockstar it takes a few days to recover doesn't mean you never party again, right? Don't let the old bugger spoil everything that makes life sweet.

For a while CS was a haven for those who escaped the dreary world to laugh, gossip, squabble and flirt. Then we let the old man in. (No, I am not pointing a finger at anyone in particular. I am saying we let in bigotry and offensiveness and let them hold the floor, existing members as much as new ones have let the old man in)

TODAY - don't let him in. And if that feels good, tomorrow too. yay cartwheel
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Taken for granted

A friend of mine has been having a right whinge about her daughter-in-law using her as an on-tap babysitter without so much as a by-your-leave. Her DIL is now throwing a strop because my buddy (who has a full-time fairly stressful job) said no when she was told she's going to be looking after 12 year old granddaughter plus two schoolfriends from straight after work Friday through to Saturday afternoon. Both of them are furious with each other.

And I'm cringing because I remember when I was first setting up my function catering business and working 60 -70 hours a week I asked my mother to collect my daughter from school umpteen times, keep her overnight umpteen times, and I took it completely for granted that I could ask.

In fact when I was going out with friends for my first social evening in about 4 months and my mother complained that I was being selfish, I was really indignant. Didn't she realize this was my first time-out in months ...

(I'm so sorry it took this long to see it from your point of view. I'm so sorry that it's too late to say I now understand.)

So this blog is for those who give and give and give again bouquet

Those who take and take and take from patient friends, family, loved ones: say thank you. They may do it willingly but it's no buzz to be taken for granted.
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Beauty - or, those who cannot do, teach.

So this morning I tried a little, a very little, shea butter on my hair. It no longer looks like an exploded haystack but is a sleek and shining curtain.

However you can see the comb marks

dunno

You'd think by now I would have cracked the secrets of effortless glamour. Those with photos make it look so easy.
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if you were born a boy or a girl, what are you now ...

There's some weird stuff happening in UK schools and the Daily Mail has got very overexcited about it. I know it's a long blog. You can skip to the last paragraph.

The link is at the bottom of the blog but because it's the Daily Mail, and wants to make you OUTRAGED, a bit of context first ...

There's an 8 year old boy who wants to be a girl. He wants it so badly that his parents are on board with it (man, I hope some serious counselling and thought has gone into this, but the Mail ain't saying) and he's going to be starting sex-change drugs now, before puberty. The school authorities know and are being fully supportive. They even had an organization called Mermaid come in to talk about it in general terms.

(Hang on, this is so common there's an organization?? oh yes. Government funded, AND a 500K lottery grant. Yeah, I was taken aback too wow)

The Mail angle is that the school vicar, while on board with the sex-change, has clashed with the school over one issue so badly that he's resigned. The kid's parents, and the school, want it to be as low-key and uncontroversial as possible. Victor (not his name) will, as Victoria, use the female loos and be called she, move along folks, nothing to see here.

The vicar wants all the other parents of all the other kids to be told. Well, we all know the average parent will be supportive, will tell their own kids to take it in their stride and not give it a second thought. roll eyes

I can see both points of view but then that is my curse sigh

Here's that link, prepare to be stirred to your boots, eh?

The Mail being the Mail strongly implies the school is doing it and the kid's own parents don't know. That is Fake News. Oh and turns out the drugs aren't changing his sex just delaying puberty. Well, that's the Daily Mail for you. Read by 23.5 million people every month, too.

Colour me puzzled that there are so many kids who, before puberty, are so convinced they are the wrong gender they know it is right to change. And is it right to change? What's so bad about spending childhood being androgynous, wearing jeans and t-shirts and not confronted with having to wear frills or have skinned knees ... I was a bit of a tomboy. In retrospect, man I would not be happy now to have been hurried along the road to make a decision to change to a boy. My younger brother, frankly, a bit of a sissy as a kid. Cried every time I knocked him over, that sort of thing. roll eyes Ditto.

wow

edited this blog to say I finally got round to looking at some statistics and turns out one baby in up to 2000 births is born with "atypical" genitalia. There's a comment on the 2nd page with more detail on that. That's a small percentage, sure, but in big populations a surprising number of people where the boy/girl line is definitely blurred.
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Thanks ...

I saw this today and blinked and read it again and hello? Although this isn't a blog likely to generate the kind of chat I like, I thought maybe you too would enjoy this little lightbulb moment as a weekend gift

idea

Thanks to the people who walked into my life and made it amazing. wine

And thanks to the people who walked out of my life and made it amazing.
laugh

I'm still friends with the people that matter but the false friends, the fakes, the downers, the glum, the takers, the bitchy and the supremely selfish - thank you so very much for removing yourselves when I hadn't had the sense at the time to realize how toxic you were yay

Talking to ourselves

Me: I can’t have told you, I had some really good news about (insert topic here)
DD: yes you did
Me: Oh. You didn’t say anything.
DD: I didn’t realize you needed a reply. I was pleased for you.

It certainly isn't just me she 'ignores'. She is a project manager in an international corporation, very good at her job, very efficient, and gets really irritated when colleagues complain she hasn't replied to emails. She was asked to do something, she did it, they wanted a reply as WELL??

I say it's a courtesy to reply and confirms you received the information. She says that's not modern practice. (Yeah? but your colleagues complain?)

dunno
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Reviews ... and why we read them ...

There's the puff review - this is the best product / hotel / restaurant / book I ever came across while using this fake email address, FIVE STARS

There's the well meant review - (my friend/relative) has the best product / hotel / restaurant etc I ever found FIVE STARS

There's the spiteful review - I'm in a shit mood so don't expect praise from ME TWO STARS because it wasn't actually that bad, not as bad as my mood

There's the troll review - HATED IT bwah hahahaha! See my other fake email addresses for similar quality! ONE STAR

And there are the useful ones, good and bad, with their useful comments. 'Took ages to get here but I am happy with the result' - 'not quite what the seller promised, but okay' - 'broke the 3rd time I used it, but was cheap, you get what you pay for' - 'did the job' - etc.

I always read reviews before I pay down my hard-earned cash, and I read the bad reviews before I read the good. You can usually tell which are genuine from the comments.

I know several people who rely on reviews but never write their own. I've met people who only looked up the reviews when everything went pear-shaped, and found they weren't alone. I don't often meet people who write them. I personally always do, on everything, eBay, Amazon, Leroy Merlin, or the multipurpose review websites, on products, holidays, insurance, services generally, books, even CS when I noticed some trolls had been having a go rolling on the floor laughing

Sometimes wonder how many people do read reviews, and how many simply don't bother. Blogs aren't supposed to ask questions, apparently. grin
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Another brick in the wall

Imagine .... daydream going to school in a class with a maximum of 20 pupils, no streaming, and the same teacher for 5 years. There are teacher aides to help with slower and disabled pupils.

Imagine 15 minute breaks between every class, but not to allow for last-minute cramming for tests – because there are no tests. No exams (well, one, when you’re 16). No homework. 4 hours of actual studying a day, then you're done, although nothing to stop you researching something that interests you.

Education is free – all the way up to final university qualifications. There’s gentle emphasis on continuing part-time studies for life.

Attendance is obligatory from 7 to 16. At 16, you choose whether to stay with conventional education, or switch to a vocational school. That one exam, at 16, is your university entrance if you pass but you can take it again at any age and at any time, including from a vocational school (or get equivalent qualifications from your vocational school).

One exam in your whole school life. No forced homework. No performance stress. The entire education is based on guiding, not controlling, your learning.

Crazy? Many thought so when Finland completely revamped its school system 40 years ago and yet it has been successful from the start. In the latest PISA (international rankings) Finland, Estonia, Canada and Ireland are the only non-Asian nations to get into any of the top five rankings across all three subjects, Science, Reading and Maths. (Singapore did come out on top of all three.) (I put rankings in the first comment)

Chinese students work harder than any I have ever met, and today the topic in the extended class was the Finnish system. You could feel the tension! Hell, even in my time we had a 6 hour school day with 2 breaks (recesses) in that time, and then carted home an hour’s worth of homework. We had weekly tests, pop tests, exams every term to check progress and the exams which determined whether we passed or failed every year, it was brutal even then but a holiday compared to what the average kids face now – and for nothing?

All that STRESS for NOTHING??
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old dog vestibular disease

Wednesday she was fine - she's old, a little wobblier in the mornings than in years of yore, but lively, greedy, healthy.

Yesterday morning very wobbly, fell over climbing over doorstep, and twice on her walk when switching direction to check out a scent. Eating normally, drinking well, adapted to using both back legs together to hop up steps.

Today, unable to walk in a straight line, falling over constantly, she was throwing up clear fluid during the night, and, first time in her entire life, unable to eat this morning. She still wanted her walk but even though it was a short one, she was trailing behind me by the time we got back instead of enthusiastically at point.

Poison? Stroke? Or - looked up the symptoms - vestibular disease?

She hates vets with a passion. I won't subject her to a barrage of tests and I won't leave her there - she is a rescue dog, and can't even be left in kennels without stressing, in my days of travelling I finally had to have a house sitter as she refused food, lost fur, and turned overnight into a basket case, even in the nicest kennels you can imagine. From everything I can find on line, vets will want to do tests and most will want to keep her in. My problem is that my Spanish is exceedingly basic and all I want is - what? anti-inflammatory? antibiotic? If they refuse, then she must be put down.

If anyone here knows anything about this condition, I'd really appreciate feedback. I can't take her anywhere until after my classes today so I have until this afternoon. She finally accepted a little handfeeding, drank some water, weaved off to bed and is sleeping. She's not distressed, just puzzled.

Updated: thanks to all who commented, took her to the vet in the afternoon of the blog, blood test confirmed the middle ear infection (idiopathic canine vestibular syndrome, to give it another of its names) she is taking antibiotics, corticosteroids (for 3 days only), anti-nausea tabs, and improving, she should be back to her cantankerous self within the week and on this morning's wobbly walk tried to hurl herself at a scooter - fell over, but at least she tried, which is a very good sign laugh
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There goes the neighbourhood

so how many of yeah wanna be all right abought everything with your opinion
***
Video evidence at hand and you are just too blind or ignorant to see.
***
an little *** worries about his little kindergarten feelings getting hurt cause I busted him in his continuation of his bullshite, an loving to pick on people calling them down. You've been busted and called out, who the phoque do you think you are
***
Oh I'm so sorry. I didn't know there was a rule that blogs can only be posted if you approve of them. I'll try to be more careful next time.
NOT!
How about this novel idea my little dictatorial friend:
You post what you are interested in and I'll post what I am interested in.
***
I'm surprised you haven't figured that out by now. After all you do think you're smarter than most.
***
Yup big - he's a fart smeller, awright
***
GOD PUT TRUMP IN OFFICE & YOU CAN’T STOP WHAT GOD HAS ORDAINED!
***
(in response to "I can't write this with a straight face") Then I suggest you attempt it with the fat, ugly one you are currently using.
****
(bloggers) instead have this deranged compulsion to read it and then writhe in agony?These people are truly mental cases.




My point? I don’t have a point. People cherry-pick offence from everything I say, so I have instead copy/pasted comments from current blogs. One of them had been addressed to me, the others are neighbourly chitchat.
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