Blue Witch

Life - and death

Mr BW's father has been unwell for many years with a heart condition stemming from arrhythmia (problems with the electrical conductive pathways). Although I've known him nearly 13 years now, he has always had to lead a restricted life. He has always looked after himself, and never done anything excessively.

His condition deteriorated over the course of this year, and he has been seriously ill, and in and out of hospital, all summer.

We returned home from a week's holiday 12 days ago to find arrangements (a full care package and a sitting room full of hospital equipment) in place for him to come home to die. Unfortunately, after 36 hours at home, events overtook this plan and he had to be readmitted to hospital last Wednesday, as dawn was breaking.

Since then he has been sedated and receiving a level of palliative care. The family have been with him at the hospital around the clock - with Mr BW sleeping on the floor by his side at night to ensure he was comfortable and his needs not overlooked by an inadequately staffed night-nursing team.

After 4 days without fluid and 6 days without food, Mr BW's father finally slipped away at around 2.45am this morning, to all the family's huge relief. Peace for him at last. Seeing someone you love in that condition (for nearly a week), and being totally incapable of doing anything that can make a difference, is the most heartbreakingly difficult thing that anyone will ever have to go through.

If anyone needs an impetus to clean up their lifestyle, stop smoking, stop taking drugs, stop drinking excessively, or lose some weight, to reduce their risk of a similar end, may I suggest an extended visit to a respiratory/heart ward? I truly believe that most people don't actually think that that what we're doing to our bodies today will affect our future. Don't believe it won't happen to you. Unless you are very lucky, it will. Please think about it. And please do something about it. Today.

Art Class 2005/6

I did say we were having arty catch-up today.... :)

The first session of the new term was yesterday. Good Friend BW and I were tired of being unable to find somewhere to park on Wednesdays, so we changed from market day to the Tuesday class. This class is two rather than two and a half hours long, but, as Good Friend BW said, we'll get the same amount done.

Our previous wonderful tutor sadly decided not to continue teaching her groups at the community centre this year, so we had a new lady.

It started badly. The start time had been moved form 10 to 9.30, to accommodate the new tutor's other commitments, and several people, including me, hadn't been told.

So, by the time we arrived, those already there had divvied up the vegetables and started drawing them. The tutor enquired who could spare what from their still-life compositions, and hence I ended up with 2 mushrooms, 2 sticks of celery, a spring onion and a head of garlic. At that point I came up with a recipe in Ready Steady Cook stylee before remembering that it was an art class.

Then a pink piece of paper was passed round saying that hot drinks were no longer included in the session price, due to the effects of the Government's Minimum Wage. This, of course, set the Daily Mail readers off. I love OAP's take on the state of the country. It makes me feel that I'm not as cynical as I sometimes feel around blogland.

I was more intereted in the fact that the new tutor had been told we were all beginners, and had therefore produced her syllabus for the term accordingly. Although 50-odd, I think she's probably only just trained as a teacher as it all looked very college-y. She was even writing notes against each person's name on the register. But, she seemed to know what she was talking about, was very encouraging, and didn't try to draw on people's work if she wanted to suggest something. There is nothing that annoys me more than someone using my paper rather than theirs if they have an idea.

She asked if anyone minded if we did her syllabus anyway, and no-one did. After all, practice makes perfect. Or not. See below :)

(Oh - and - Mr BW has reservations about this picture - but only because it contains celery, his most hated food)

Paint Duck 2

Oooh, I'm all behind, as the cow's tail said. Or something...
Anyway, quick catch-up on my artistic goings on.

Those with minds for minutia, or the unfortunate knack of failing to prevent their brain storing unnecessary trivia, may remember that a couple of weeks ago I wrote about the first day of a two-day course on 0rienta1 Bru5hw0rk.

Having learnt to mix black ink and make the basic strokes on the first day, on the second day we progressed to colour.

Towards the end of the day, we were allowed to have one piece of rice paper (not the edible sort you use for macaroons I hasten to add), to do a 'best piece'.

I again did a bamboo. I'm a Bamboo Specialist. Which, of course, means that I didn't think that my efforts at the other basic forms were good enough.

At the end of the day, the tutor (who was also Art Tutor BW for my 2004/5 weekly art classes) gathered us all together to look at each other's work.

Most people had about a dozen pieces. I put out 3. "Where's the rest of yours BW?" she asked. "Not fit to be seen!" I muttered. She sighed, raise her eyebrows slowly, as only teachers, or ex-teachers, can (I know, I do it myself :)).

"You, BW, are the most self-critical person I've met in all my 34 years of teaching!" she declared. Good Friend BW (who also did the course) laughed. "Actually, it's worse than that Art Tutor. BW is actually the most self-critical person I've met in all my 71 years! But she's also the most encouraging of other people."

I doubt anyone ever gets over being a child of a hyper-critical parent, unless they happen to meet someone early enough in their life to counter-balance the negativity. Sadly, I didn't meet that person until I was 30, by which time the effects of years of failing to meet expectations, no matter what I did or how hard I tried, had become ingrained. Constant critical naggings in my head. Self-destructive forces that are so conditioned that there is no permanent escape.

But, I know I'm good at encouraging other (especially young) people to believe they can do things they've come to expect they can't. I know there are many people in the world who see themselves as successes rather than failures because I've bumped into them at the right moment, and said the right thing, or asked the right searching question.

And I guess that knowledge will have to be good enough for me, because, much as I know the formula that works when used with others, I still can't apply it to myself.

Thought for the day

Give what you have to somebody, it may be better than you think.

- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Reduced price airport parking

For anyone planning to use an airport carpark in the UK before 31st October, I've just found a Value spell.

Enter "bn221" in the 'promotional code' box on the BCP site for a 15% discount on all pre-booked stays.

Gosh, my blue and white stripes are prominent today, aren't they? :)

Value Tips and Tale

1. Spring bulbs are currently on BOGOF (buy one get one free) at Woolworths (unfortunately I couldn't discover how long this promotion is going on for).

Amazing Value, and Woolies bulbs are very reliable (and, if you can be bothered to keep your receipt in a safe place, if any don't come up, they will refund you). Bulbs are great grown in tubs (any old receptacle will do - old bin, old kettle, old bucket, old tin can... just make some holes in the bottom if there aren't any) and can be planted - and left outside - any time in the next couple of months. Maybe they'd make a nice personal xmas present for someone?

2. Boots are doing their spend £5 and get a free £5 skincare voucher again until 13th. If you choose wisely, you can get a free product :) (and, make sure you split purchases into multiples of £5 and then you'll get a free voucher for each).

3. For those of you playing stoozing/offset mortgage games with 0% credit cards, may I recommend the Co-Op Platinum Card?

Now, here's a Witchy Value Tale from today that some of you may like (although others of you will sigh in disbelief, but, since when has that ever bothered me? ;)

A couple of weeks ago I had two CDs of digital images made into prints in Boots. By paying separately for each batch, I got two vouchers for £2 off future digital printing. On that day, in that branch, Boots were doing triple Advantage Points, so I got 12p in points back for every £1 I spent. I paid with my Platinum AmEx card, so got another 2p back for every pound I spent, as well as two free entries in AmEx's free summer giveaway competition.

Yesterday I took in two more CDs for printing. I made sure there were just more than 100 images on each CD, as the price per print is then 7p rather than 10p (I don't think you can better 7p per print anywhere).

When I picked them up today, I again paid separately for each, so that I could use one £2 off voucher on each transaction. As each purchase was still just over £5, I also got a free £5 skincare voucher. Again I paid with Amex, so got 2p cashback for every pound spent, and another free entry in AmEx's competition. I also got 4 Advantage points per pound spent (including on the amount of the £2 off voucher).

I then bought a £4.99 pack of skin-cleaning wipes with each £5 voucher (I'm not a great fan of them as they're not very environmentally friendly, and certainly not good Value - I only ever get them when Boots do these free vouchers - but I like to keep them in the car for quick clean-ups), and Boots gave me another 4 Advantage Points for each pound spent, even though I was spending their free vouchers.

I can't be bothered to work out exactly what I saved/made, but I don't think Boots made anything at all out of me today :)

I do have a question though.
Why, when, if I choose, I can go out and earn x hundred pounds a day, do I take such great pleasure in such schemes and small savings? ;)

What a difference a dahlia made

Thought for the day

To disagree with three-fourths of the British public is one of the first requisites of sanity.

- Oscar Wilde

Indebted

I've seen it all now.

"Question: Is it possible for those Citizens effected by the lack of proper emergency support in New Orleans charge the City Managers for keeping them in Harm's Way? Reason & Logic says that there should be an avenue for them to seek relief in The Courts of The Land and if I'm not mistaken The Federal Government demands a comprehensive plan should of been in place. While a Class A Lawsuit may seem unproductive, the Settlement would allow many of these citizens to relocate or at least get back on their feet. Just wondering?"

(that was a comment/question from an American to a post on a US attorney's blog here)

And where the FUCK does the commentator think the money to pay out is going to come from???? In a country that is already begging the rest of the world for money for aid (am I the only one who sees shades of Bank of Mum and Dad here? Young offspring goes out, has a hell of a party, acts as irresponsibly and thoughtlessly as he can, gives not one jot of a thought for other people's feelings, spends as if there's no tomorrow on all sorts of crap he doesn't really need, then runs back to the parent asking for a hand out so he can go and do it all again, promising that he has learnt his lesson?). Oh please excuse my cynicism, and I know that there are some wonderful stories about individual humans helping individual humans out there, but this kind of thing is just so typical of the kind of 'America' that I was ranting about below.

Some of the poorest countries in the world - all of whom have their own needs - Africa, Bangladesh, Thailand, Sri Lanka - are all offering aid. And some idiot in an unaffected area of the US is saying, "Why don't these people sue the government?"

I was saying to Mr BW the other day that I'm sure the reason that most people think that official ('government'/'business') money grows on trees is because they have no understanding of finance.

Let's face it, most people in first world countries are in debt. Personal debt in the UK is now £1.1 trillion and growing by £12M every hour (that's two hundred thousand pounds per minute).

If people can't understand their own finances enough to be able to live within their means, then how can they be expected to understand the macroeconomics of the world?

The principle of all finance, at whatever level, is very simple.

Income > Expenditure, or there's a cost.

It's time most people wised up.

Harvest Festival

Glorious weather this weekend. Real summer. And then real thunder and lightning from about 5am until just now.

All you can do in this mad, mad world is make the most of what you have, and waste as little of the earth's resources that belong to everyone as you can.

So, here at The Coven we've been gathering in our harvest.

97 jars of it to be precise. Sage jelly (pictured), damson and apple jelly, blackcurrant and apple jelly, damson jam, spicy marrow and apple chutney, and damson chutney. Oh, and not forgetting 2 bottles of damson gin, for times when the rest of the world is just too mad to make any sense.

Update: As several people have enquired, I've just added the BW recipe for basic apple jelly (to which you can add other fruit or herbs as available) to the comments.

Thought for the day

To give real service you must add something which cannot be bought or measured with money, and that is sincerity and integrity.

- Douglas Adams

Well we don't understand why they called didn't call in the National Guard

Experience tells me that when you put people under extreme pressure, two things happen.

Either the very best, or the very worst, comes out.

If you put people who live under ongoing social and financial pressure under acute pressure, then it's unsurprising that what has been happening along the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast of the US occurs.

Fidel Castro has wasted no time in offering medical aid, with the words, "This is not the time to kick an adversary - while he's down." He's waited a long time for that moment.

Now, I'm a Simple Witch as I'm often saying, but, until this week, I've been at a loss to understand the economists' prediction that, by 2050, China will be the richest nation in the world.

Regular readers will know that Mr BW is spearheading his company's programme to open up trade with China, and has even begun learning to speak Duck to assist this process. But, despite first-hand information from him, eyes in my head to see the increase in goods for sale sporting "Made in China" labels, and ears to hear recent assertions by the media that "within 3 years, all clothes available in the High Street will be made in China," I haven't understood how China could become the richest nation in the world.

But, it's suddenly dawned on me. It's not just what China are doing. It's what America are doing, and, not doing, that will make the difference, and change the balance of power in the world in the next 45 years.

I make no secret of the fact that I despise the over-consumption, over-commercialisation, and gross inequalities, that exist in America.

The country that is currently the world's richest, but sets the worst example.

The country that allows the person in the street to have guns and presumes to dictate to other countries how to run their affairs, but ends up demonstrating how their formula creates civil war. At home as well as in Iraq.

What was the first thing Shrub did when news of Katrina hit? He offered a helping hand — not to the people stranded on rooftops in New Orleans, but to his friends in the oil industry. These were the same people who gave him $52 million in his last campaign. The president released millions of barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve so the oil companies would have enough fuel to make gas and keep the country going. But the companies don't need this oil. They're already swimming in it. And guess what? Europe is giving them more! As Mr BW said to me, it's a global economy. Europe would sell the last barrel it had to the US if the price was right.

It sickens me that Europe is doing this. Perhaps if Americans in general had to cope with fuel shortages, then they would stop and think a bit about what their gas-guzzling methods of transport and living are doing to our world. The importance of the Kyoto Protocol might begin to register. I wonder what percentage of Americans have even heard of it?

I hate America, I hate everything it stands for. I hate the way this country is becoming Little America. And it worries me that the growing discrepancy between the 'haves' and the 'have-nots' in this country will ultimately lead to the behaviour we have seen over there. As soon as the opportunity presents itself.

The American Dream?
The American fucking Nightmare more like.

I think I'd better stop now.

Update: Just finished writing this and clicked over to LaP.... the outsider and the insider concur methinks.

Friday research!

Please only vote for 3 things out of the 20
(I'll know if you vote for more and there will be spells ;))

*****THIS SPACE UNINTENTIONALLY BLANK - scroll down*****
(ie I have no idea why every poll, from whatever host, always posts with a great big gap)

Thought for the day

No loss by flood and lightning, no destruction of cities and temples by hostile forces of nature, has deprived man of so many noble lives and impulses as those which his intolerance has destroyed.

- Helen Keller

European Health Insurance Cards (EHIC)

A few weeks ago I wrote about the upcoming replacement for the paper-based E111 European reciprocal healthcare system.

Although the new plastic credit-card style cards were supposed to be issued from January 2006, ours actually arrived the day after I wrote my post.

You can now apply for your card on-line, here.

They're free, and valid for 3-5 years. Additionally, an increasing number of travel insurance companies now require you to have one, and to use it to obtain initial medical treatment in an emergency, in countries where it is valid.

I haven't quite worked out why, but it's being administered by the NHS Prescription Pricing Authority - most confusing when the cards arrive in the post in a brown envelope bearing their stamp.

And, just to annoy other Witanagemot Club members, they've gone to the expense of producing a version of the website in Welsh. Why?

What's the most annoying thing on a plane?

Lots of things were suggested yesterday...

List possibles in the comments then I'll make them into a poll for tomorrow.

And more

Interesting discussion in the comments just below yesterday/today.

As Mr BW said to me last night, 15 years ago there would have been outrage if someone had suggested banning people from smoking on planes. Now smoking is banned in public in many countries - although sadly not in the UK where facets of a certain Party appear to go so far as to condone its promotion by their leadership candidate). However.

There are now many places of entertainment where children are banned - and many more where there are age restrictions (over 25, over 30 etc). There are already mobile-phone free carriages on trains.

Who knows, one day there may be child-free planes.

I certainly hope so, and I really can't understand why anyone would wish there not to be. Equal opportunities? Well, I'd like my equal opportunity to have a quiet flight please. I can't remember the last time I was on a plane where there wasn't a child misbehaving. It only takes one on a plane of several hundred people to spoil the flight for everyone else.

Thought for the day

A man finds room in the few square inches of his face for the traits of all his ancestors; for the expression of all his history, and his wants.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson