It's that time of year again.....New Year!

Yes, New Year has passed and now it is the time for resolutions, diets and bargain hunting in the sales that seem to have been going since about last October. Big high street names falling by the recession laden wayside the likes of which we never thought would go down quite so rapidly.
Woolworth's disappearing like it has seems incredible and sad. I remember way back when Rolls Royce went bust just how shocked everyone was yet now all we see are hoards of shoppers
tearing at the remains of a dying animal. I have to say that trawling the sales I have not seen one real bargain, but then I suppose I am not seriously looking.

So, we have survived Christmas and also the contents of the large tin of Quality Street that has added several inches to my svelte and lithesome figure, the washboard stomach has gone the same
way as much of my remaining hair. But all in all, I could do worse! Alcohol levels are considerably reduced so I am NOT as "fat” as I could be.

So my resolution will be that I pledge to be back to my fighting weight by the end of February (and living in our own house too I hope).

Just before Christmas the last of our boxes and furniture arrived from Ibiza and thus the mystery of the missing tax papers and tool boxes was solved. Seems that our foolproof numbering and labelling system was "compromised" by our shipper! The old devil tried to fleece me on the Euro exchange rate by asking for payment at the rate on the day of delivery rather than on the date he actually said he would deliver! There was a 5 second stand off before he grudgingly took the bundle of notes from me and passed me a scribbled receipt in return.

The result is that I now have a room full of boxes and the remaining times of furniture making the spare bedroom looking a bit like Steptoe’s Yard.
I am not going to bore you with our obsession with "Financial Markets" as it has bored me no end too. But if interest rates keep falling and houses for sale seem even more scares, rare even, we will have to consider buying Iceland ( the country that is) so that we can be certain of where to live!

I was looking back at the many irritating things about 2008 (apart from the financial crises and Gordon Brown saving the world!)
and I found there were many so here are just a few!
• In the X-Factor there was Louis Walsh for being Louis Walsh, Dannii Minogue for her frozen face and having too many i's in her name, the little Irish Lad who cried a lot, Alexandra Burke for being hysterical and the voters who voted out the Spanish beauty Ruth Lorenzo.
• In Strictly Come Dancing's - John Sergeant, the "Dancing Pig", Craig Revel Horwood for being such a slimy creep, Jodie Kidd for being so tall, Jessie Wallace for just being a real nasty piece of work. I have to stop because I will run out of space here just on who I cringed at.
• George Bush, Gordon Brown and so many other Parliamentarians that made me grind my teeth.
So what have been the good things about 2008?
• The town’s people of Wootenn Bassett who have turned out onto the streets for each and every serviceman and woman killed in action and repatriated.
Sadly I can think of little else apart from the impending arrival of my daughter’s baby in 2009!! I suppose he started out in 2008 and at least he will grow up when thing are much improved as the world economy improves.

OK enough of this now, it's back to the obituaries to see who has left this green and pleasant world during 2008 and to see if there are names I recognise. It's also time to reflect on those friends and family who have passed over the last years also but it is also time to look forward to a happy and healthy 2009 to my reader!

Happy New Year everyone!

Good Will to all Men?

It's that time of year again.  Reams of wrapping paper adorning the shelves of all the shops, Christmas decorations everywhere, stacks of Christmas cards piled high in almost every shop you enter.  The streets adorned with the latest Local Authority "cost reduced" street lighting or trees, come to that I have only seen one Christmas tree in a street and that was  in Chichester NOT Portsmouth!  I shuddered that the possibility that the tree had been omitted in Portsmouth for fear of offending non-Christians, lets hope not.

Mind you dear reader, I do have to admit that once the Christmas season starts, which seems to be shirt after either Halloween or Bonfire Night I get that sinking feeling.  Oh no, cards to write, addresses to find, lists to prepare and then the age old question.  "What shall we do on Christmas day dear?" - I somewhat tongue in cheek this year suggested, "get a duvet and lots of booze and lay in bed watching TV from the sofa".... I'm not sure this fits with the 2008/2009 Low Carb Diet that is fast approaching.  

I suppose that Low Carb Cabbage, GI and the simple Calorie Controlled diets have all been tried and tested but for me the only one that works is the one that says, "don't eat the whole curry and the 2 pints of extra strong Cobra Richard"!!! 

The last bits and pieces of our "retreat from Ibiza" were supposed to arrive today.  I say supposed to because until 11:30 that was the plan but as sure as eggs are eggs, it was not to be.  Our furniture is currently stranded in Bexley Heath while our driver is subjected to a medical - how were we to realise that he had not had a medical for his driving licence? He is after all over 70 and it has been his vehicle that has been of most concern to us since we loaded it last September in Ibiza.  I have been reminded several times that this use of "cost saving" was not the right choice.  Yes, we should have used White & Co. as the overall cost to us been the same and I wouldn't have had to load and unload!! 

Now, what else has been happening.. oh yes, house hunting with the prospect of success fast dwindling we have now looked over more than 30 properties with little success.  Now I know you are all going to yell "location, Location, Location" and "something will come up"... well, we have done much of the first thing, that is, look for a house in the right place.  There are plenty of those but at the wrong price. So what about others? We have found the right place but no homes for sale or right home, wrong place.  I have always considered myself the optimist in this household but I fear I am now so pessimistic that if there were a Rickter Scale for pessimism - I would be off it! I just want to settle, unpack, settle again and then get on with life, fingers crossed for the New Year!

Happy Christmas and a prosperous (recession type) New Year if you can manage it!

 (Bah Humbug )

Compulsive Viewing

The Department Store

Only on the BBC could you find such a gem as the programme on TV tonight. You could never have searched for this programme or even expected to find such comedy as was presented in this documentary about a Department store in Huddersfield (for my non British readers this is a town in the North of England, West Yorkshire). What added some unwitting comedy to this programme was the presence to one corner of the screen of a “signer” for the, rather oddly I thought, high number of deaf viewers that the BBC were clearly expecting to tune in. Her antics were only surpassed by some of the real life characters who appeared in the programmes and populated the town where Peter's (the Department Store) was situated. Its main customers, not one of whom was under the age of 60 were and it seems were and are Peter's staunchest supporters.

But for me, the star of the show had to be the lady who frantically waved her arms about and made appropriate, if not a bit contorted, faces to convey the various moods of high drama or sadness that accompanied her translation. These having be delivered in sound bites made off camera by the wonderfully droll Richard Macer, the narrator and cameramen all in one! One classic moment saw him in reflection as the lift doors opened to allow some elderly shoppers in to take the short upward journey to the restaurant. Another priceless moment came when another older lady told her husband to “just wait a minute, I'm having my photo taken” while she stood staring at the TV camera being held by Richard Macer. Amusingly he had clearly decided NOT to comment, instead happy to leave the poor woman waiting for the flash that never cam. Finally after what seemed a lifetime she said “OK, have you got it now” and wandered off to her bemused husband with a smile and a rather regal little wave.

Only on British TV and wonderful too... lets have more of this please!

"Strictly Come Dancing" still grabs our attention every weekend and also every night as Claudia Winkleman interviews the dancers and digs up all sorts of bit and pieces about the event... this is the first time that it's been hard to pick a winner!! I am sorry to say that this has become compulsive viewing but who cares.

X Factor, I am not so keen now that the insults have stopped but again I have to admit to keep watching. Sorry to see the lovely Spanish girl, Ruth Lorenzo, leave the show and I do wish she had sung in Spanish now and again.