Blue Witch

Stamp on it

Just a short Value message from The Coven Hospital...

Don't forget 1st and 2nd class stamps go up in price by 2p from Monday.

From Monday, it will be 32p to send a letter below 60g for first class, and 23p for second class.

But - stamps printed '1st' and '2nd' are valid indefinitely.
So, buy today (maybe with your supermarket shopping) and save.
Pay with a cashback credit card, and use a loyalty card, and save even more :)

In a couple of months the whole system of postal prices changes as everything will be related to size. Royal Mail have already distributed carboard cut-outs to businesses to help them work it out. Mr BW gave me the one he received. I'm still trying to fathom it.

Apparently the price rise is to pay for the Royal Mail pensions black hole.
And then there's the shares for posties scheme, which is in the news again today.

Great to know our money is being used wisely. Now, about the fact that we haven't had post delivered to The Coven before noon for months...

Thought for the day

ZZZzzz_{zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...}

Webcams

I've never really been into watching webcams, and, having had to spend years more than everyone else on dialup before broadband came to The Coven's neighbourhood, most of them never worked for me anyway. I still can't be bothered with ones that only work via 3rd party software.

To have any chance of maintaining my attention-span of a goldfish atention, it has to be actually on the screen, auto-updating every 10 seconds or so.

A few months back, the Kruger National Park wildlife one recommended by drD intrigued me for a while, but not so much that I didn't lose the link... (but luckily a quick Google found it).

However, this one (found last weekend via) of a Paris bakery is wonderful. Baguettes and croissants in action, during baking hours.

This one (via) of a gravel pit is also highly amusing.

Anyone got any other good webcams?
(and please mark any NSFW ones as such ;))

Thought for the day

What's another word for Thesaurus?

- Steven Wright

Sea Green

Thank you so much to everyone who made suggestions for New Familiar names and new mobile phones.

Blogland at its very best that kind of thing :)

Having spent the day across on the east coast attending a 'Paint the Seashore' course (an 80 mile round trip, which in my current 'weakened' state I could have done without, but Good Friend BW and I booked it back before the FOTCR™ and I felt I couldn't let her down by not going) it was great to come home and have my phone problem solved, effortlessly.

There was a message on the answerphone from someone wanting to buy some D'Oves, and while Mr BW was ringing him back, I tried to use the second phone line to order a new mobile - only to find it was not working, so that was another half hour spent fighting the BT automated system to report that to get it sorted.

Having just watched the excellent new 7-part programme on BBC2 (8.00pm, Tuesdays until 9th May) "It's Not Easy Being Green" (Googling a link for that, I am reminded that it was originally the name of a Muppet song), I'm annoyed again about the seeming impossibility of finding some way of heating a piddly amount or water for the new extension, whose main roof faces south, using solar energy.

I know that a couple of panels can't possibly cost nearly seven grand (it's just new-energy companies being greedy and trying to make a fast buck from people they perceive as having money to burn), but I can't find anywhere where I can buy just panels, for us to fit ourselves, for a sensible, reasonable price. I'd even go abroad to collect them, if I could only find some. This is doubly daft as only today it was announced that the Government are going to fail in yet another of their manifesto pledges, to reduce carbon dioxide emissions (and is it surprising, given that they discontinued the green grant programme at the beginning of this month, and have not replaced it with anything else, yet?). We want to help, we really do, but not at any price.

Luckily the bui1ders, who were due to start next Monday have had a few problems with the other site they're working on (around the corner - so we know it's genuine!), so we've a 14 day reprieve, which is just as well, given the way I'm feeling. I couldn't have emptied The Coven Attic over the weekend if my life depended on it. Anyway, they're now starting straight after Easter, and are prepared to work weekends to get it done on time, so I'm more than happy.

Most interesting results from yesterday's pants survey... Currently 7 other people wear more than 1 pair a day, 48 (75%) wear one pair a day, 4 change every two days (so, we're a much cleaner bunch than the survey sample!).

But... what intrigues me most... would the 4 readers who claim not to wear underwear please identify and explain themselves (I'm just intrigued y'know)? ;)

Ringing priorities

My phone has just died, at the most inopportune moment. No time to do research for the next few days...

Same problem it had a week before the guarantee ran out - charging socket won't accept charge. Not worth paying to have repaired, as it also needs a new battery after 2.5 years (actually, it may be 3.5 years).

So, I need a new one.

Must be Orange (or unlocked - haven't got time to mess with men in markets), so I can put in my existing on-an-excellent-Value PAYG type contract SIM card (the EVQ Virgin one that is so excellent that Orange won't sell it anymore).

It must be new (not eBay etc - don't want to buy a 'hot' phone or one with a knackered battery).

I'm not at all up on this Value market.
All I need is a phone that will make and receive phone calls and the occasional text message. That is all.

Anyone got any ideas/prices, please?

The New Familiar

More kitten pictures.
If you've got 'em, flaunt 'em ;)
Shame the cute one's not in focus, but...

We went to choose GT&WF's new friend last night.
She's three weeks old today, so GT&WF will have to be lonely for a few more weeks yet.

The New BW Familiar Kitten's in need of a name.

It has to be astronomological in nature (that word should exist, I've always felt, so I'm using it).
I'd call her Eclipse, except that the recent 1unar eclipse was a week after she was born.

GT&WF's real name is in that last para, by the way. She arrived on a full moon. Just to give you an idea of how BW Feline Familiars names are declining these days. Except that they're not declining in that sense, they're increasing. Obviously.

All suggestions welcomed.
If you come up with enough, that will save me asking again when GW&TF has her own :)

Thought for the day

Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space.

- Douglas Adams

Survey

Panting, the reason for the surveying

*clears kitten fluff and grubby pawprints from keyboard*

I wish I could say I was recovered. Did nothing other than put 3 months of photos in albums (Value Tip: Boots are doing their 7p per 6"x4" digital print deal again) all weekend. At least I've nearly stopped coughing, even if my head and sinuses still feel like they are about to explode, and my arms and legs still feel detached from my body and my shoulders and back of my neck feel like they've been stood on by an elephant. How many ibuprofen can you take before you self-destruct, anyway?

Anyway, a subject has been preoccupying me. A link from Lyle led me to this info from a survey about underwear carried out by soap company Surcare. Specifically, underwear of a lower vicinity nature.

One in 10 people wear their underwear for three days in a row... And a similar percentage of people has owned a pair of knickers or underpants for more than 10 years.

More than half of the population have 10 to 20 knickers or pants in their underwear drawer.

The survey showed 5% of the population also admitted wearing their briefs inside out to get an extra day's wear.

Now, I'll admit to having at least one pair of pants that are more than 10 years old, but they have only been worn twice. And I'm sure I have probably 25 pairs of pants in total (they are all exactly the same - M&S white cotton ones. No idea what they are currently called, as they seem to get renamed more frequently than any other item of clothing, but they are what used to be known as 'midi' ones - that is, not tiny, and not huge).

However, the thought of wearing a pair of pants for more than one day (or even part of a day, if I change to go out, I always change my pants too) is just beyond my comprehension. Even when I was a student and had to rely on launderettes, I always had clean knickers every day.

In times of dire need, Mr BW has worn my spare clean knickers rather than wear his own for a second day. Actually, lest you should get the wrong idea, it has only happened once, when he was unexpectedly able to stay in hospital with me in London overnight, and hadn't bought any changes of clothes.

And, worse than knowing that 10% of people wear their knickers for 3 days in a row...

The survey also revealed sharp regional variations such as 34% of people in the West Midlands spray their undergarments with perfume to make them smell better.

This compares with 17% of people in the South West and 19% of people in the North East.

There's no point discussing this, as those who do, won't, will they?

I'm off to set up a poll.
Then you can tell me, anonymously, that it's me, rather than you, who is abnormal :)

Thought for the day

Middle age is when you've met so many people that every new person you meet reminds you of someone else.

- Ogden Nash

Kitten Tails

I am not a happy Ginger Tabby & White Familiar.

Yesterday I was trying to make friends with those of the BWs' other familiars who are just appearing again as the weather is warmer.

One of them stung me on the lip and the whole of the left side of my face swelled up.

BW said it was my own fault as I didn't listen to Mr BW who tried to get me off the top of the open hive, where he was spring cleaning.

I thought I'd like a stripey snack, that I could play with before I ate it, but, alas, no, I didn't like it. It hurt.

BW tells me I've also developed unfortunate tendencies.

I've heard that The Ginger Familiar was a foot fetishist, so I thought it was OK to play that sort of game. But, BW seems to object to me snuggling up under her dressing gown when she hasn't bothered to get dressed and is crouching down to feed me or stroke me. It's not my fault that I'm a friendly licky cat with a rough tongue, is it?

Anyway, the BWs seem to think that I'm lonely, and so are arranging for a friend to move in with me. Apparently I have to wait a month though, because my new friend is only a couple of weeks old.

I can't wait.

I'm supposed to be telling you that BW still isn't very well (maybe she's got cat flu?), but hopes to resume normal service shortly.

You couldn't make this up

BW: So [name of 10 year old child] what's a homophone then?
Child: Is it what men that like other men use to talk to each other?

He does have a 16 year old sister.
I blame her.

Why green energy generation at an individual level won't work

1. Because those companies involved in it seem to be employing ex-double glazing salesmen - presumably as there is less business in double glazing than there was, as they've already saturated the market, and new houses have to have double glazing fitted as standard now. The characteristics of double glazing salesmen are detailed in the comments box under the post below this (although I think that I may have put contributors off by making it seem like it was one of my weird questions, which it wasn't).

2. The government have withdrawn all grant monies in the last month (although some companies are still claiming that you can get a government grant for 50% off the price of installing their product).

3. Although one accepts that it may be more expensive than conventional energy overall, one does not expect the payback period (cf using conventional electricity) to be 60 years when the product only lasts 15 years.

I had a bad experience with a Dolphin bathrooms salesman back in 1985. After 4 hours I had to pretend to call the police before he would leave. Drawing on what I learnt from that experience, last night I threw everyone's sterotypical image of a double glazing salesman a solar tube installation salesman out of The Coven after 30 minutes. He'd otherwise have been there for, as he 'joked' when he arrived half an hour late (because he was too dim to understand how to use the satnav system he had, and because he chose not to follow Mr BW's directions as he thought he knew better), "five hours".

Six and a half grand for a couple of panels to power the hot water for our new extension? Thing is, as he freely admitted, most people he visits get talked into it by the end of his presentation.

We're green Blue Witches, but not at that price.
And certainly not employing those sales tactics.

I've researched the solar energy market in this country fairly thoroughly this week, and researched the wind turbine market a few months ago. I'm not at all convinced that anyone except the people running the companies selling it are going to gain anything from it.

What's needed to make an impact on the energy issues facing this country is Government action NOW, not just a few individuals with environmental consciences trying to do their bit. From what I've read, and the conversations I've had recently, I think individual green energy generation schemes are a huge con.

Friday Question

Describe a typical double glazing salesman.

(Later I will reveal why - and it's got absolutely nothing to do with the psycho1ogy of stereotyping)

How not to do it

These are the sort of lanes near The Coven.

If you look closely you might see why I'm annoyed today.

Several local farmers round here think it's a good idea to trim their hedges using blunt machinery attached to their tractors. Not good for the hedges, but they seem to recover.

Well... I suppose the farmers probably don't think, or they'd realise that sharpening their cutting machinery would enable it to do a better job, in less time. However.

I'm even less sure about the use of blunt flail arms on a long row of fully-grown trees. All the light specks along the middle height of that row of trees are where branches have been hacked off.

A couple of close ups:

I was so upset at seeing this just now that I stopped at a nearby house (which is inhabited by one of the Nice Ladies), to enquire if she knew who was responsible.

Apparently it was the local council's 'contractor' who did this damage. I was told that one local lady walking a dog past there while the deed was being done stopped the butcher and protested, but was told not to worry and that, although it looked bad, it was "the latest technique". For some reason she believed him...

I have rung the council.
I have put in a complaint.

Both about the quality of the work, and about the attitude of the woman who answered the phone who said, sarcastically, "So, you're ringing to complain that some trees have been badly trimmed? They're only trees you know..."

I have asked that the council's arboriculturist (good job I know some long words, it helps make one's point...) meet me at the site to discuss my concerns.

I will let you know what transpires.

Thought for the day

I have learned now that while those who speak about one's miseries usually hurt, those who keep silence hurt more.

- C S Lewis

Budgeting

Please dont't gloss over and click away :)
There are some 'interesting' numbers below.

Gordon Brown will be delivering his 10th budget later today.

The BBC's predictions are here.

Apparently there's talk that the tax on condoms will be cut from 17.5% to 5%. Like sanitary products, then. But, I'm left wondering why such essentials should have any tax on them at all? I can remember when VAT was introduced on 10th April 1973 (as part of the requirements for entry to the EU). "Value Added Tax". What a stupid name! "Value Taken Away Tax" more like!

Let's not forget that taxes are at an all time high in the UK.

And, arguably, that services are at an all time low, while more money than ever is spent on bureacratic admin and monitoring.

More money is being taken in tax, yet it is not being spent wisely. Tens of billions have been thrown at the NHS, and at war in Iraq. All I see are unnecessary dead people.

Tax is now higher than in the 1970s under Denis Healey, when the top rate of income tax was 83%, and the early 1980s, when it was 60%.

An Ernst & Young analysis shows that the tax burden (excluding North Sea oil revenues), is 37.6% of gross domestic product this year, close to the 37.7% peak reached in the early 1980s, and that next year it will reach 37.8%, before rising to 38.1%.

Treasury figures show tax revenues will total £490 billion this year, up from £271 billion when Brown took office. The £219 billion rise is equivalent to £9,000 for every household in Britain. Or, alternatively, that the Treasury takes nearly £1M a minute in tax from us.

Under Brown the number of people paying higher rate tax has risen from just over 2m to 3.5m, according to Office for National Statistics data. By the end of this parliament it is predicted to have risen to 4m. The mega-rich get richer, yet still only pay 40% in income tax, while the economy is propped up by Middle England - those of us who work hard for little more than average wage, but spend prudently, and save for our own future.

The total number of income tax payers has risen by 3.5m to 29.2m since 1997, outstripping the rise in the number of people in jobs. Yet the government insists on complicating things with a system system of tax credits to give some of it back to the most needy that even their own civil servants don't understand (and I had a lovely link for that last week, but it's vanished!). The number of estates subject to inheritance tax has also risen from 15,000 to 35,000 a year.

Patrick Minford, of the Cardiff Business School, has caluclated that - including VAT, excise duties, National Insurance and income tax - a basic rate taxpayer pays £48.50 in tax on every £100 earned. Among higher rate taxpayers the figure is £57.10.

Businesses are also paying higher taxes. The corporation tax bill of Britain’s small companies has more than doubled in five years, rising from £4.4 billion to an estimated £9.5 billion.

Government debt, including public sector pension liabilities, is more than £1,500 billion, or 127% of GDP, if you believe the Tories, or £442 billion, or less than 40% of GDP, if you believe the Government. Either way, not a good way to run anything.

I keep coming back to the idea that people who can't manage their own personal finances shouldn't be put in charge of managing the country's. It's the same principle, just bigger numbers. How many people do you know who work in finance-related jobs who are badly in debt and have no idea of how much they spend every month on various things? I know of several.

And don't even start me on Council Tax.... up 121% since it was introduced in 1993. I wish our income had gone up that much in that time...

Our bill for 2005/6 has just come in - and is up nearly 5%. Just over a hundred pounds short of two grand. Two grand per year for two people to live in a 3-bed house in an area (unfortunately one of the top 10 most expensive council areas in the country to live) where there is no mains sewage, no mains gas, no street lighting, no pavements, no public transport, where we don't use education or social services (because we chose not to have kids or old people), or anything other than GP NHS services (and we have to pay tax on the private healthcare insurance that Mr BW gets as part of his salary pakage), and where the only refuse collecting system that we use extensively is recycling (which is self-financing in our area).

Bring back poll tax, or bring in local income tax is all I can say, we'd be quids in. No, hundreds of quids in. At least those are fairer systems. Taxation per head of service use, rather than arbitrarily on one's address, irrespective of how many people live there, or what services they consume. I've always found it really odd that people who choose to invest more of their income in the place they live are made to pay proportionally more than those who choose to live in cheaper places and spend their money differently.

Ranting's not going to change anything, of course - but it may have given some of you some new numbers to think about while you're earning your pounds today - remember 48.5p of every one will be taken from you, or 57.1p if you earn more than £32,400, after allowances.

Thought for the day

Hope is a waking dream.

- Aristotle

Coughs, crying and shoes

I'm still feeling ill.
All together now, "Ahhhh, poor BW!"

Thanks.
But I feel absolutely no better at all.

Just had to go out to get some more pholcodine cough linctus.
It's the only thing that ever works, and I only resort to it when things get desperate. Which they are - my voice sounds like Bonnie Tyler's, I've been coughing that much.

While waiting in the queue at Boots, a baby was screaming its head off, clearly in need of some attention, while its obese half-dressed teenage mother was laughing and joking with someone on her mobile phone and looking the other way, totally ignoring it.

A little boy in a pushchair, accompanied by a heavily pregnant mum, put his hands over his ears and shouted, "No, mummy, no, not like it!" "Well, Sam," said mum, "you'd best get used to it because we'll be having one of our own very soon." "No, no, no! Silly idea, no, no, no, don't want it!" he grumpily responded. "Silly idea? Yes Sam," sighed mum, "that's what I told your dad..." Why do these women do it to themselves?

While I'm moaning...

Why don't shops sell proper shoe cleaning materials any more? In most places all you can get is clear shine stuff, or black or brown polish. Even the shoe repairers seem to have stopped stocking a good range of cleaning products.

Whatever happened to shoe cream? Particularly in navy? OK so navy may not be this year's colour, but some of us buy quality shoes that we can keep until they wear out rather than change them every season, and some of us only have navy footwear.

I did a quick survey around town of people's shoes. Only about 1 in 50 pairs was what I'd call "shiny and cared-for". Is it now the case that no-one bothers to clean their shoes any more, rather throwing them away and getting a new pair when they're dirty or scuffed instead of spending 5 minutes cleaning them?

Make a point of looking at people's feet today and see if you agree.

Thought for the day

An optimist is the human personification of spring.

- Susan J Bissonette

Another sign of the times

1963 - John (Jack) Profumo lied about having sex with a prostitute and had to resign and then attempted to atone by spending the next 40 years doing charity work.

2006 - Tony Blair has lied about the evidence/reasons for going to war and about pounds for peerages, and the polls show that he's still way ahead of the opposition.

It's all happened in my lifetime.

Progress?
I think not.

The fabric of a society is woven by the political lead and milieu created by policy. If the political lead gives the message to the populace that it's OK to distort and lie, then what hope is there for truth, honesty, and plain talking?

Sign of the times

I'm considering changing my strapline.

"Attempting to keep the Marie Celeste* populated!" is my current favourite...

(* meaning, in this context, this little corner of blogland)

Thought for the day

The creative thinker is flexible and adaptable and prepared to rearrange his thinking.

- A.J. Cropley

Goodbye winter

Yesterday we finished off last year's garlic. Today we finished last year's carrots. Tiny they were. That's a mini-colander they're sitting in. The pots behind are 3" pots, to give you some idea of scale.

One of The Coven Kitchen's worktops resembles a greenhouse. Not that we haven't already got 2 greenhouses and a summerhouse full of plants, but. Let's hope the Environmental Health Officer doesn't decide to pay a visit, or he'll wrest my Essentia1 Food Hygiene Certificate from my mitts :) So, these are tomatoes and fuchisas (oh pretty babies, very rare, from a specialist Linco1nshire nursery where the nice lady who runs it rewarded my interest with tea and cake), and a few assorted other treasures. There are peppers and aubergines, and maybe some other things, but I've forgotten what, in the propagator at the far back.

And loads more seedtrays full of all sorts of other things that we sowed earlier, under the cold frames outside.

It was pseudo-sunny (ie sunny but chilly) outside today, although the thermometer did hit 13 degrees - at least 6 degrees higher than it's been for the rest of the week. A few buzzy stripey friends were visiting the crocuses, but there really aren't the bulbs out that there should be for this time of year. A few herbs have begun to put in an appearance - carroway, chives, sorrel, feverfew... but again, several weeks behind where we usually are by now. Much more like the months of March I knew as a Small Witch.

And it was light until nearly 7pm... at last!
Spring starts tomorrow (or is it Tuesday?), after all.

Apparently I have to post this and get you to guess what it is...

Ich bin krank

Und mein Broom ist auch krank.
Es ist at the Broom Garage until Monday because they couldn't get the necessary parts yesterday.

£250 to replace a hose - connecting the turbo to something else - with a tiny split in it. £110 plus VAT for the hose (it had better be gold plated) and the rest labour. Daylight ******* robbery.

I'm unable to reframe this positively as, "It could have been worse: Garage BW said it was the turbo itself rather than any of the hoses or clips," because it now means that Garage BW's diagnoses are questionnable. And it also gives us a dilemma. Having now spent nearly £600 since January on this Broom, do we get shot of it (which we've been debating about for months anyway), or do we keep it a bit longer and hope nothing else goes wrong? It's a diesel and has done less than 60,000 miles! The last one did 160,000 with less going wrong on it... Progress? I don't think so. New cars may be cheaper now, comparatively, but that's because the money isn't made on new car sales, but rather on repairs and servicing, so the whole business model revolves around cars being mechanically designed not to last.

I'm not sure why I was speaking in German.
Probably because I like the word 'krank' - it nicely sums up illness and kranky mood I always feel.

I was so krank yesterday afternoon that Mr BW had to get someone to bring him home (he'd gone to work in my broom, as the main dealer's workshop is next door to where he works, and had fully expected to be able to drive it home again) as I was incapable of getting out of bed. Nondescript very sore throat/ headache /sore muscles/ stiff neck bug, that isn't getting better fast, despite copious mugfuls of honey, ginger and lemon and ibuprofen.

Mr BW is busy making a cardboard model of the new rooms, just so I can take a picture and post it because I keep going on about having no mental picture of what the room is going to be like, as it's such an odd shape due to the way it's going to be constructed out of old roof space and new gable end over existing flat roof. Without a mental picture, I can't work out how to equip and furnish it, and without a new project, I'm getting frustrated. He's having a lovely time. He says he's going to make a scale model of me to go in it, so I can see how big it is. Apparently I may not be able to be wearing my hat as it may bump into the ceiling.

We're meant to be clearing stuff out of The Coven Attic in preparation, and I thought I was well enough until I started lifting stuff, then I got dizzy and hot, so we gave up for today. Bui1dDay -17. Oh dear.

Timing

Recently, for a variety of reasons, I've been sending emails to lots of 'official bodies'.

I've discovered that if one sends before 8.30am, one is much more likely to get a prompt response than if one sends at any other time.

I'm wondering whether this is because it's likely to be at the top of the receiving person's inbox when they switch on their PC when they get to work, and so likley to be dealt with straight away to get it off the pile?

What do you think?
What do you do when responding to work email?

Art Class: 15

There's a conspiracy.
To stop me finding out how to do seascapes.

I think I mentioned that Artist Tutor BW (Tuesday class) had to cancel last week's session, which was meant to be seascapes, as he was very ill? Well, rather than moving the programme on a week, he decided to just miss out seascapes and come back to it at some undefined point in the future. I tried to tie him to a date but failed miserably.

Then, yesterday I found that the Thursday Tutor had decided to move her subjects around, for no good reason that anyone could discern, so doing seascapes last week while I was in the frozen north with Mr BW. So I missed her version of seascape tuition and demonstration.

Hence this (as usual A3 and watercolour, and from one of my photos - which was taken from the top of a high cliff - even in the original photo, it looks very odd perspective-wise, which didn't help):

The sea hasn't reproduced very well - it's the best part of it, but doesn't look that way in this small, low-resolution reproduction. And something's gone wrong with the outcrop on the middle of the LHS. Thursday Art Tutor couldn't tell me what. I think it may be the darker green near the edge needs to swap places with the tan-colour on the RHS of the cliff, but I'm not sure I can be bothered to fiddle with it, as I'll probably wreck it. I might ask Proper Artist Tutor to fix it for me next week.

I haven't told Thursday Art Tutor that I've been working with Proper Artist Tutor on Tuesdays, so was pleased when she said to me yesterday, "Hmmm... Have you been practising at home between sessions at last BW?" I was able to say, with all honesty, "No, I've not been practising at home!"

After - um... how many years have I been painting now? Two and a half I think - I'm finally coming to the end of my original small (8ml) tubes of paint. First to be finished (two weeks ago), ultramarine (BW Blue, of course!), closely followed by raw sienna and lemon yellow.

In true BW recyclable stylee, I'm going to use them to make a 3 foot by 1 foot collage of them for the walls of my new studio (it's Bui1dDay -18, and hardly anything jas yet been moved out of The Coven Attic, which needs to be emptied, oh dearier, dearie me).

And finally - for the first time in 15 years, Garage BW have failed to fix a problem with my Broom. The turbo problem has no obvious cause, so it has to go to a main dealer. I have sent Mr BW as he is much less likely to be taken for a ride by car technospeak than me.

Thought for the day

Circumstances are beyond human control, but our conduct is in our
own power.

- Benjamin Disraeli

It flies flew like a bird oiseau in the sky

How on earth can Concorde be the favourite British design icon since 1900? (tube map second, Spitfire third)

It's half French for a start (and we even let them have an 'e' on the end of its name, as Daddy BW was fond of saying when I was a Small Witch)!

When video games come above the red K2 phone box (the BBC have messed up their links - the complete list of results should be here, but isn't).... all one can surmise is that a few people missed out on a few history lessons methinks.

Art Class: New Class 3

The theme of Tuesday's class gave me a good excuse to start singing FOTCR™ carols again.

Half of the We Three Kings was appropriate you see (who will be the first to get that?).

Watercolour on A3, from a photo.

Continuing my downward biorhythmal spiral (apparently my brain's still in stand-by mode, and I should avoid exerting myself), I now have the worst headache I have had for years, which is totally unresponsive to anything, and the Broom's turbo blew up yesterday afternoon (awaiting a verdict from the garage on that - could be a hose and a few quid or a new turbo at around a thousand, just what we need right now...), so I can only conclude that bed would have been a safer place to stay today.

Except that as we now only have one broom between the two of us, trips to and from Mr BW's place of work are required, as well as fitting in everything else that I had timetabled down to the last 10 minutes. I had timetabled anyway, until I lost the 3 sheets of A4 with my lists on them. Last seen in Lincolnshire. Now I wish I hadn't given up using the Palm for my lists.

Emotional biorhythm says, "You feel well and are in a good mood." Wrong. And woe betide the first person to annoy me...

Here's hoping it's Always Late Arch1tect who, as expected, only did one thing on time, and that was present his bill for payment.

After I told his new office girl exactly why I wouldn't be paying it until the Bui1ding Regs were passed by the council (ie because there are still errors in it, and he'd delayed us by 38 days with his unprofessionalism and lack of timeliness and then written us a very rude letter in response to our polite one about time slippages, let alone the fact that he forgot to tell the stuctura1 engineer that there are storage cupboard doors into the eaves that he hadn't marked on the plans, so some of the force calculations need redoing), when she rang up to chase payment on Monday, he then had the cheek to ring Mr BW at work, pretending that I'd said we wouldn't be paying at all, and demanding that Mr BW do something about me.

Sadly for him, Divide and Conquer is not a good tactic to try with us as Mr BW and I think alike, and we'd already agreed our Revenge Plan stance. When I do finally get round to paying, I shall be spelling the name of the company incorrectly on the cheque, and using a recycled 2nd class stamp (ie one of those that isn't visibly franked - so hopefully he'll get charged postage too), and omitting the postcode from the address so it takes even longer to get there.

Three things can always be guaranteed to wind me up - lying, rudeness and unreliability. Sadly he's pushed all three buttons at once, and will now come to learn the hard way why it's not a good idea to fuck with me. Grrrr.

Thought for the day

It's dangerous to blog when your intellectual and physical biorhythms are in a mess. I only ever look at them when I feel inexplicably odd. They never disappoint. My own Personal Jesus ;)

I often wonder what I'd be doing if certain things hadn't been invented. Today the thing under consideration is 'blogging'.

Thought for the day

The Pope told pilgrims outside his summer home yesterday that war and hunger around the world should not be forgotten in the race to conquer outer space.

He said: "In the ecstasy of this prophetic day - a real triumph for man-made means, for the dominion of the universe - we must not forget man's need and duty to dominate himself."

Three conflicts were raging on earth - in Vietnam, Nigeria, and the Middle East - and a fourth erupted recently between El Salvador and Honduras.

The Pope declared: "Hunger still afflicts entire populations. What would be the true progress of man if these misfortunes persist and worsen?"

- Guardian Staff Writer, Monday 21st July, 1969

Big Brother is Watching You...

... if you have an Oyster Card.

As I've suspected before here.

The BBC report today that the police have asked TfL for information on people's Oyster records 243 times, and have been given that information in 229 cases in total - and it's on the increase - 61 cases in January alone.

Whilst I have a pre-pay Oyster Card for Value journeys, and to save time queuing for tickets on the occasions I go into London, it's not registered and I only use cash to top it up. It's absolutely none of anyone's business where I travel.

Round here, theft of registration plates from car parks is rife - ony last week I saw a row of 7 cars in a supermarket car park with no front plates.

Now that new plates can only be (legally) made on production of registration documents, registration plates are valuable to those who want to travel around and/or speed and not be caught on camera. I'm sure there will be a growing underground market in them. Pick one from a car that matches you own in make and colour and you could get away with quite a lot - I imagine that it would be very difficult to prove that a car caught speeding on a camera wasn't yours if it looked like yours.

I suspect that it won't be long before every vehicle is fitted with a 'tracking device'. Of course, most people already carry them voluntarily... a mobile phone allows Big Brother to locate you - even, I read somewhere recently, if it's switched off.

It's not the coming of ID cards that people need to be worried about. It's the underhand personal tracking, and the way those keeping the records can choose, or be made, to disclose them.

Time Travel

Spending three days in Northish Lincolnshire while Mr BW did a b1acksmithing course was like being in a time warp.

It was so like 1985 when I moved to Somerset from Cambridge. Just so... backwards, comparatively. The West Country has now moved on - driven by the influx of expats from the Home Counties and London. But this little corner of England remains very much like it always has.

Progress is slow. Agriculture is still King, the class sytem still exists, New Money (pots and pots of it, but no breeding as I always say) doesn't seem to have invaded, and teenagers and children still look like teenagers and children used to, rather than like adults. And males have hair rather than the 5 o'clock shadows on their heads that you generally see round here. Tattoos, piercings, and other visible signs of a need to be individual and express urban discontent with one's lot just aren't in the evidence that they are down south (oooh, I'm so in trouble over that comment ;))

There are still Village Shops (with just two of everything on the shelf) and Village Post Offices (where the postmistress still knows everyone, and their business). Pubs still sell proper English food and look like pubs rather than like film sets or theme parks. Shopkeepers still have manners, and That Supermarket We Don't Mention On BW appears not to have a presence, so there are still Small Local Shops for Local People that sell all sorts of wondrous long-forgotten gems at sensible prices.

Junk shops and charity shops still sell things cheaply.

This little lot of objets, for instance (viz: 6 blown crystal sherry glasses, a goldfish bowl (the results of a previous spell no doubt, rather delayed), a pale blue enamel double boiler (ideal for small potent spells dyeing or candle making), 3 large blue glass plates, one very old glass sweetie jar with ground glass lid, one huge stone jar, one medium sized stone jar, 5 smaller stone jars (all excellent containers for arty bits for the soon-to-be-built Studio), plus one cream throw, and 3 metres of very high quality pale-coloured checked furnishing fabric (both currently in the washing machine), and Star Find - a copy of The Guardian (Manchester Edition - do they still do different geographical editions?) from 21st July 1969 - the day after the first moon landing.

How much for that lot? £28.70. Unbelievable. You wouldn't get much change out of £70 for that lot round here. Not that I'd pay that, mind, but.

I'll probably get round to posting some pics of the forge later.

Thought for the day

The consuming desire of most human beings is deliberately to plant their whole life in the hands of some other person. I would describe this method of searching for happiness as immature. Development of character consists solely in moving toward self-sufficiency.

- Quentin Crisp

White Doves For Sale

Traumatised, that's what I am.

First of all, having to spend three days "Up Norf" (of which more anon *shudders* (no, actually, it wasn't that bad, and Mr BW made one of the thingys pictured below - and it even looks exactly like one of those thingys pictured below - and a heavy implement for defending The Coven against burglars poking the fire)), then finding Arthur the Hen Familiar had finally died of old age (snuggled in her straw - she was just over 8, which is an amazing age for a hen) on our return, then another of the Quail Familiars made a successful Bid for Freedom while I was giving them fresh sawdust earlier.

And now, to cap it all, he's making me sell some of the children. He says we've got too many and it's that or he'll ring Hugh F-W, and I may prefer pound notes to pies.

*sobs*

Thought for the day

Everything flows and nothing abides, everything gives way and
nothing stays fixed.

- Heraclitus

Art Class: Supplemental

The Evening Art Group meets every two weeks with a mixture of demonstations and 'have a go' workshops.

After a very busy start to the week, and having been deprived of our usual Tuesday art class yesterday, Good Friend BW and I had great fun trowelling oil onto primed hardboard, after underpaining with acrylics (which dry almost immediately so speed up the process of producing a layered finished piece) last night. Neither of us had played with oil before, although GFBW used to paint in acrylic before we took up watercolour.

This one is 70cm square (28 inches for those who think in old money). From a photo of My Favourite Place.

Great fun was had getting our two wet paintings into one car, in the dark and drizzle. I haven't dared check out how much of the wet oil paint (they take weeks to dry out fully) jumped onto the Broom's upholstery.

It's so much more relaxing playing with oils than with watercolours. I much prefer doing this type of large slap-it-on stuff to the detailed and realistic watercolours we usually do at Art Class. I often get quite obsessive and despondent about the way a watercolour is going, whereas I just loved the layering and mixing involved in this.

It hasn't reproduced at all well as the texture, richness, shine and scale have got lost, and I need to do a bit more work on the comparative tones of all the land masses (background, foreground and island) in a couple of weeks when it's dried off a bit, but you probably get the idea.

Thought for the day

If A is a success in life, then A equals x plus y plus z. Work is x; y is play; and z is keeping your mouth shut.

- Albert Einstein

Update from in a hole

I have been cheated, cheated, cheated.
Today's seascape art class has been cancelled as Artist Tutor and his wife (who makes the yummy lunches) are ill.

Still, at least it made me get on and do some work yesterday.

Not that I did actually get it all done, but that was as a consequence of a very daft 'report' by a "Locum Doctor, Staff Grade" (any guesses? Houseman? Registrar?) claiming (in very broken English) that a child with very weird problems that I'd referred had a syndrome of which Normal Google has only two returns (both relating to c1oned mice born to diabetic mothers), and Google Scholar had none. That therefore required Witchy Input. It amazes me that headteachers can't write their own letters... Twas simple, "Dear Doctor, You're an idiot. If you don't know what's wrong with the child, join the rest of us who are puzzled, who probably have more than 100 years of experience in chi1d deve1opment and education between us. Have the guts to admit you haven't a clue, and refer the child to someone in a more specialist centre who might. Just because the mum appears a bit dim, she really wants the best for her child, and both have the right not to be fobbed off by your ignorance masquerading as informed medical opinion. Love BWx" Oh the joys of the NHS. That made me so cross. And ate 2 hours of my day.

Now, shall I apply for this ;)
(although I'm probably disqualified as I don't clean the loo with cola)

Onwards...

When you're in a hole...

Every time I tried to get in to post something yesterday there was a problem. The server status page this morning says that, "...we have now been moved to a new blade within the router at the data center - we are hoping that this may be the cause of these issues that we have been experiencing this past week." Me too.

Busy weekend clearing out The Coven Workshop and beginning to move some of the 'stuff' from The Coven Attic to make room for the Bui1ders BW. Somewhere between 21 and 28 days to go to complete that task. 4 or 5 boxes a day should see it all sorted. Except that we won't end up doing it in bits, so no doubt it will be one huge dash.

All volunteers for a Witchy Junk Moving Party will be welcomed...

The picture is actually the beginning of Mr BW's hole for Bui1ding Contro1 to inspect the existing foundations of the single-storey flat-roofed bit we're bui1ding out onto. Having finished everything outside and had a cleansing shower late yesterday afternoon he suddenly felt the need to check that we did have the requisite 3 feet of concrete. If not, Project Abadonment sets in as underpinning would be too costly and too destructive.

Whilst agreeing that we should actually check before signing the contract with Bui1der BW, I didn't altogether agree with the need to do it right then, or that standing outside in 3 degrees in my dressing gown, with wet hair, as the sun set, was a good idea. Although it was a very nice sunset. It's amazing how much earth comes out of a hole. Two huge wheelbarrows full so far, and not there yet.

11 hours sleep last night did not leave me feeling any less exhausted than I have been for the past couple of weeks. I spent the whole week last week avoiding writing a report (although I was doing other useful things, like acquiring some more of those 0% credit cards with 9 months balance transfer options that I'm so fond of - got to fund this bui1ding project somehow :)), so, as I want to get it finished today so I can go on a "Seascape Painting" course tomorrow, blogging is going to be curtailed today.

Anyway, to complete the post title, when you're in a hole, stop blogging. At least until you've done what you should have done last week.

The 93rd Make Blue Witch Laugh Award

What's a Witch to do when she discovers that there is only one copy and pastelet in her MBWLA file and even she doesn't think it's funny on another reading, although it most certainly was, in context, the first time round?

I know, I'll think about it, while sorting out some final points with Soon-To-Be-Formally-Appointed-And-Start-Work Bui1der BW, liming and composting the orchard in preparation for re-grassing before The Hens move back up there, clearing some space in The Coven Workshop for boxes from The Coven Attic (soon to disappear, see beginning of para) and several other things that Slave-Driver Mr BW has in mind.

Later: Well, we've done it, committed half the price of a Ferrari; Bui1der BW starts by April 3rd. We've seen and approved the stainless steel/glass system they're planning to use for the balcony - made very locally - and as seen in Stratford station and that supermarket we don't mention on BW's penthouses above their Is1ington development (the sale value of which more-than paid for the whole retail complex, apparently). I'm not too sure about having anything that is also supplied to that rip-off merchant, but, I suppose it's keeping local people in jobs. And it's nice.

So... on to this week's 2 point plus Trophy MBWLA winner.

DG's been enumerating his February Counts again (and the answer to the email from someone who reads both of us is, no, honestly, I have absolutely no idea either).

Several people started discussing the comparative number of hits they had. Ian (you need to know that he was helping out when DG's computer went squiffy (technical term), and got a name-check in the process) commented:

I personally found that digging some net random out of their hard disk crash was worth about 4 times my usual traffic.

One of those 4 people commented.

Ian | Homepage | 02.27.06 - 8:22 pm | #

I've sat down after all the activity outlined above, had 2 glasses of very nice white wine, and it's really funny again. Debster (see comments from earlier) was correct :)

A question: Does anyone know (for definite, not guesses, or 'ring them and ask' - I can do that) whether one should notify one's insurance company and/or one's mortgage provider prior to carrying out significant building work?

And finally: Surely the answer is: Go to hell, go directly to hell, do not pass go, do not collect £200?

How many pence in a pound?

"It's a rip off!" declared one of the older ladies in my art class yesterday.

"That's modern life for you!" I replied.

She gave me a withering look.

"You don't even know what I'm about to say!"

"My point entirely!" I thought to myself, but, she was going on anyway.

"Energy prices up 25% blah blah blah...blah.... blah..."

"So, what've you done about it?" I asked.

She looked slightly taken aback. I know where she lives. I know she doesn't ever close her curtains (aside - anyone else enjoy peeping into lit, naked windows, while passing houses after dark?)

I suggested that she could make considerable savings by pulling her curtains at dusk, so not heating the street, and that by turning her heating thermostat down 1 degree she could save around 10% on her heating bill. I told her that she could save even more by not leaving TVs, stereos etc on standby (they cost around 8p per day each), and not leaving mobile phone (and other chargers) plugged in but not charging (they also suck several pence per day - I've mentioned that before on here). I pointed out that everyone has to do their bit to stop the destruction of the planet. I did it ever so nicely.

She looked at me with contempt.

"But that's only pence I'd save... and when that idiot over the Atlantic starts doing something about all the waste there, I might start pulling my curtains!"

Some people just don't get it, do they?

I don't think it would be very hard for most people to cut their fuel bills by 25%, if they used power a bit more wisely. Low energy lightbulbs, switching off unnecessary lights. I could go on...

A plea for a fellow Witch

Could any kind person with a few minutes to spare who understands CSS please pop over to see Kitchen Witch who is having more than a few problems with her dressing spells. Actually, I fear it's one of mine gone wrong as usual, as tis true that I have been doing a few to help her blog less and PhD more. But ;)

She's thinking it's something to do with the vanishing Haloscan code, but it seems to me to be more widespread than that as all the java apps on her page seem to be buggered. I'm not going to speculate as I know diddly-squat about that sort of thing. That expression always amuses me by the way.

When is spam not spam?

Delving in the junk comments just now, which I haven't done before, I found that there have been 987 spam comments since September. Well caught MT anti-spam software.

Apart from the 20 comments that weren't spam that got treated as such, from Cat, e, Ham, Imperatrix and g.

Apologies to you all - if the spell works, you shouldn't have further problems.

Thought for the day

Have a heart that never hardens, and a temper that never tires, and a touch that never hurts.

- Charles Dickens

Frustration is...

When Pipex and 34sp are both mucking about at the same time.

Does 'technology' not like the cold or something?

I really don't know what to think about this...

I was clicking around randomly yesterday, trying to find something 'substantial' to think about to distract me from the work I should have been doing.

And then I found it.

One woman's attempt to put information into the public domain to assist women in South Dakota.

For those who don't know, last week South Dakota's legislature passed a bill that prevents almost all abortion within that State. The bill has taken several years to get through, but, it is now passed, and the State Governor, Mike Rounds, has said he is "inclined to sign it".

The bill includes no exception for rape or incest victims, but does allow an exception for the life of the mother and for a pregnancy that poses a "serious risk of substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function" to the mother. Doctors who perform abortions that do not meet these exceptions will be charged with a Class 5 Felony, which carries a punishment of five years imprisonment in the state penitentiary and, in addition, a fine of five thousand dollars may be imposed.

News today says that President Bush hasn't a clue what's going on. There's a surprise. However, he says that, "...my position has always been three exceptions: rape, incest and the life of the mother." So, clearly he backs an end to legal abortion too.

For those who didn't click the first link above, the information that Molly has put into the public domain is information on how non-medical people can perform terminations.

When I first skimmed the article my initial thought was, "How bloody irresponsible!" But, as I read through the many comments, I had many different thoughts. Not least of which was that, in this day and age, the first port of call for many people wanting information is the internet, and surely good quality information, with plenty of warnings, is better than some of the other stuff that is out there?

I'm left not really knowing how I feel about this. But, overall, I'm saddened that the grip of religion in America is so strong that such legislation could be passed. I saw mention that Ohio is also investigating this, and considering making it an additional felony to cross the state line to have an out-of-state abortion.

And the reason I'm raising this issue here?

Because where America leads we tend to follow, eventually.

These issues need to be publicised and thought about before such ideas lead to pressure, and legislation starts being quietly drafted here in England.

There are an awful lot of pieces of ill-conceived, and poorly drafted legislation that have crept into law recently. I'd hate to see an anti-abortion law become another. It's not a way of solving the problem we have in this country of the highest rate of teenage pregnancy in Western Europe (1 in 10 babies are born to teenage mums). But, it could be seen as one.

Thought for the day

Don’t raise your voice. Improve your argument.

- Desmond Tutu’s father

Dictionary definitions

Daisy has found how the dictionary will define you when you're famous.

Mine says:

Blue Witch [noun]: An alien

Perfect. They can have a MBWLA :)

How will you be defined in the dictionary?

The times they are a-changing

I am getting more and more exasperated by what I refer to as 'young girls' (ie early 20s) who seem, increasingly, to be running shops round here. Deli's, health food shops, opticians, cardshops, bookshops etc etc.

They've just got no patience. And very limited stock knowledge or desire to 'serve' you. No smile, no friendly chatter, just Estuary accents, over-made-up faces, false nails and too much cheap perfume and jewellery.

Ask for something a bit different, or fumble in your purse for change rather than simply handing over a note, or take more than 2 seconds to put your purchases in your bag, and they sigh audibly, roll their eyes to another (also young girl) colleague, or generally act in a very sullen manner, forgetting to say 'please' and 'thank you' and avoiding eye contact. All little things, and not really something that you can make a fuss about, but, annoying, and showing a lack of courtesy.

I've had several such unpleasant experiences just recently, and, fearing it was just me getting ever more cynical and fussier, asked a roomful of Nice Ladies. All of whom have noted it. And in every local town.

Where have all the pleasant, mature, ladies, who used to have these jobs gone?

I was saying to Mr BW last night (because one of his staff has just resigned) that, given the choice of employing someone of 25 or 55, I'd take the 55 year old any time. But, undoubtedly, my view on that one has changed over the past few years. Can't imagine why...

Update: Lunchtime BBC News reported that there are now 1.2M cocaine users (2% of the population) in this country. Given that the majority aren't going to be OAPs, or live in remote very rural areas, maybe that explains it...

Recycling

Has anyone used this read book swap service?

Addicted?

There was an, 'Are you a blogoholic?" quiz thingy around a couple of years ago. Probably still is, but it's not necessary to go looking for it because you've all seen it already, and no-one would want to click on the link anyway.

Now there's a blogoholics blog, listing 100 symptoms.
I scored 30.
I'm not sure what that means.

(via)

Thought for the day

Wisdom is the reward you get for a lifetime of listening when you'd have preferred to talk.

- Doug Larson