Pedants anonymous

I know I'm being picky, but the sign in the car park at Orford Ness say "Have you Paid and Displayed", as in the photo. Now  why is there a capital letter on 'Paid' and on 'Displayed'?  And, where exactly is the question mark?  Come on, official sign writers, pull your socks up!

And another thing... why do so many people have to add 'today' at the end of a question?  At Sainsbury's cafe I was asked, "Have you got your Nectar card today?"  The word 'today' is superfluous.  She also asked, having ordered a cup of tea, "Would you like anything to eat today?"  To which I wanted to say, "Yes, but at home tonight!"  But I didn't, as she probably wouldn't have understood, and, to be fair,  she's probably just following the script.

Not an ordinary vase ...

I'm pleased to say the only thing that got broken during our move was a glass vase.  So we decided to buy another one to replace it.  But this wasn't just an ordinary vase, it was an M&S vase!  And, as the label stuck on it said,  "We're bringing you innovations in handmade glass technology.  Non-stick coating for easier cleaning and drying."

Sounds wonderful!  The only trouble was, I took me an age to peel the label off the "non-stick" surface!

The perils of moving house

As you may have gathered, we've moved house and for a period of time had no telephone or internet access.  So we wrote to our respective car insurance firms to notify them of our change of address.  Although different companies, - esure for me and Sheilas' Wheels for my wife - I noticed they were both at the same address.

NINETEEN days later they wrote back to say we must ring them as they don't accept notification of change of address by post (?!?) and so we may not be insured!  And guess what - they sent the letters to our OLD address, which they knew we were not living at.

Oh, and by the way, when you DO ring up and the change goes through, they charge you and administrative fee of £25.  That's even though I was paying for the phone call!

Back in business

We've now moved house and now at last we have a land line and internet access - it only took BT nearly a month to "fit us in"!

And on reading the newspaper the day after we were connected, I read that MP's are trying to get out of paying some taxes.  Yes, I know you're amazed!  Apparently, when they hire an accountant to fill in their tax forms they think the fee they pay should be tax deductible (it isn't for any other employed person).  The so-called "Independent" (quotation marks mine) Parliamentary Standards Authority think MP's shouldn't pay tax on the fee and are arguing with HMRC over it.

But that's not all, the "Independent" Parliamentary Standards Authority, when they think there's a tax MP's shouldn't pay, they pay it for them.  Which actually means WE pay it for them!  Can other people have an "Independent" watchdog that pays taxes for them??

AND, is the tax paid by IPSA for MP's a taxable benefit?  I bet it isn't!