Our day in Stratford

Had a great day at the paralympics on Friday! We were in the athletics stadium and have the photos to prove it! On the right is the BP photo opportunity they give you if you allow them to offset your carbon footprint to the games.

We were sitting near where they present the medals and we saw Aled Davies win bronze in the shotput.

It was a great day out, a fantastic experience in the stadium and the tickets were only £5 each!  AND that included a Travelcard, valid from Brentwood, so travel cost us nothing!

You suddenly realise that "disabled" is completely the wrong word to describe the competitors as they are able to do many things I can't!     Still, I need to keep in shape now I've retired.  Maybe I'll just go for a cycle ride.  But I need a cup of tea first!

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!

Attention flagging?

Oh dear!  They showed the South Korean flag on the giant screen when it was North Korea on the pitch!  Did the person in charge of the screen miss day one of the flag recognition course?  Given the degree of 'friendship' between the two neighbours it was fairly disastrous.  I wonder if anyone today is looking for a "New Korea"?  (best to say that out loud to get it, by the way).

And another thing, whilst we're talking about the Olympics.  I read in the paper that half of our athletes won't be out at the opening ceremony.   Now I've done no research on this, but wasn't the idea that the opening ceremony was about the contestants from all the countries parading together to start the games?  But now there's so much emphasis on the 'extravaganza' that the fact that 50% of the athletes won't even be there doesn't seem to matter.  Sad, really, isn't it?

And finally, in honour of the games, I'm thinking of changing our answering machine so it kicks in after five rings ...

Retiring, but not shy!

Hi everyone!  I've just retired so I've dcided I ought to start blogging again!  Having said that, we are moving house soon and BT can't come and fix up our new telephone line until 20 August, so I can't do much until then.

It's was quite an emotional weekend, especially with a special service at Laindon on Saturday, where people from previous churches spoke; then on Sunday, a baptismal service, which was a very exciting way to end my ministry at Laindon.

There was a retirement cake, of course, which had decorations including an armchair, slippers and a Bible.  The previous week I'd had a birthday cake and the decoration on that was a vicar!  So we thought we'd sit him in the chair - see picture!

Unfortunately as we are moving house, there's not a lot of sitting around at the moment!

P.S. I know I need to update my profile, it's in hand!