Category: Local (To Me !!!)

Bloated ?


Just over two weeks ago I set off to France on vacation.

Every time I go away I make several promises to myself. I’m not going to overeat, I’m going to eat lots of salads, I’m going to lay off the bread and I’m going to get some exercise.

Of course I jettison most of those within about two nano-seconds of arrival. Salads are easy and I’ll always eat plenty of salad stuff, box number one ticked. The exercise one is sort of easy too since we are going sight-seeing and maybe swimming so that’s tick number two in the boxes. So that leaves the overeating and the bread.

As it happens I find that I actually pick less, no meals between meals if you see what I mean and when I am sightseeing i.e. busy then I don’t get hungry. So the overeating box is lightly ticked as I will go for the full three courses at the main meal and of course I’ve probably had some kind of breakfast.

Which leads us neatly to box number four.

BREAD

How can one go to France and not eat bread ?

Every morning the ritual was to get up and head down to the nearest boulangerie, just three kilometers. The joy of walking into that shop with the fresh loaves displayed behind the counter and the smell, Wow !!

Getting the still warm loaf back to the gite, cup of tea or coffee and then slicing through that crust unleashing more fresh aromas. Slapping on the local charentaise butter and taste buds all jumping for joy.

I can taste it now.

Now, I failed this promise in a big way. Bread (toast) for breakfast, bread before and during meals. So many different styles of bread. Many times I started of the day full of bread. Full but never bloated.

So why is it that after just two slices of Hovis, I feel both full and bloated ?

I know the style of the bread is different and this Hovis stuff is effectively production line, factory bread. What do they put in it that has this bloating effect.

I am seriously thinking that I must take up bread making again even if I have to do it by hand. No Kenwood Chef and Dough Hook, No Kenwood Bread Maker.

I don’t like this bloated feeling.

Police want to contact girl about Waterlooville attack – Local – Portsmouth News


I’m plagiarising the whole article from the news in order to help spread the word. We don’t need this sort of activity in Waterlooville.

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3258401638

POLICE have released an e-fit image of a teenage girl they want to speak to about an attack on a couple in Waterlooville.

An 18-year-old man was walking with woman through an alleyway from Stakes Hill Road to Purbrook Way when he was sprayed in the face by a teenage boy who was passing by with a teenage girl. Some of the spray also went in the woman’s face.

The girl is white, about 18 and has a boyish pixie haircut with dyed blonde hair. She was on a bicycle.

She also had arched and thin plucked eyebrows and at the time of the incident she had black eyeliner on both eyelids drawn to a point at the outside corners. The offender is white, of medium build with short, dark hair. Det Con Pete Budgen said: ‘This type of assault is thankfully rare. It was a mindless and unprovoked incident. The couple who sprayed the substance may have thought it was a joke, however the consequences could have been more serious.’

Anyone with information can call 101.

Police want to contact girl about Waterlooville attack – Local – Portsmouth News.

Back To Earth With A Bump


Yes indeed. Back to earth with a bump. Back to work, in the office. Its soggy wet outside. Raining hard and blowing a hooley.. Its only taken two days for the holiday shine to be tarnished.
Ce la vie !!!

Big Thanks To The Blood Suckers


I’m sure they have been called worse but truly a big thanks for the speedy service.

I arrived at the Phlebotomy Clinic, in Cosham, at around 09:00. They operate a numbered ticket process and the next one up was 26 but the number on the ticket I received was 43.  My heart sank as I calculated a rate of one person every five minutes. That was my guesstimate of a best case rate. I’m off on holiday today and with lots to do the last thing I wanted to do was sit in this waiting room for an hour or two. I was also concerned about my car which was parked in a free space with a one hour limit.

Luckily, for me, they had two nurses on duty and with a number of no shows I was in and out again 20 minutes later.

So thank you to the staff who were operating the conveyor belt today.

Low-cost office lets trial for new businesses in Waterlooville


Hooray. Somebody trying to encourage businesses by reducing the overheads.

Now all we need is the owners of the empty shops in Waterlooville to do the same thing and we might see some growth in our little town.

Low-cost office lets trial for new businesses in Waterlooville – Local Business – Portsmouth News.

500,000 buttons and counting for Waterlooville school’s Holocaust project


I well remember seeing the 2004 movie “Paper Clips” that has so inspired these pupils and their button collection.

The movie is a documentary about the children of the Whitwell Middle School in Tennessee who try to collect 6 million paper clips representing the 6 million Jews killed by the Nazis. They did this whilst studying the Holocaust.

I wish the pupils of Oaklands Catholic School, in Waterlooville, well in their endeavour and hope that the additional publicity that I can gain for them through this post goes to help with their button collection.

500,000 buttons and counting for Waterlooville school’s Holocaust project – Education – Portsmouth News.

A Secret Well Kept


A big thank you to all my friends and family who did such a great job of setting me up for a surprise meal to celebrate my birthday

A big thank you to my wife who arranged it all and managed to keep me in the dark until we arrived in the restaurant, even though she was getting stressed waiting for the taxi. And then, when he arrived, tried to make him take the long way to the restaurant to allow the other guests extra time to arrive.

A big thank you to my granddaughters and great granddaughters, who played a blinder by coming and visiting me just a couple of hours before, knowing they were going to see me later. I didn’t have a clue.

A big thank you to my granddaughter for making my birthday cake, cakes I should say as there were those lovely cup cakes to support the Camera Cake.

Camera Cake
Camera Cake – Baked at ISO 60 (ISO = I’m So Old)

A big thank you to all my friends, family, relatives, acquaintances, colleagues, indeed everyone that have wished me well via the many cards, phone calls, texts, Facebook messages.

You ALL made it a truly special day.

To all of you I say,

THANK YOU

I LOVE YOU ALL


There Go The FIfties


Despite the best efforts of those around me, I managed to hang right on in there up to the very last second.

I was fifty-nine, still in my fifties, and then it happened.

Didn’t feel a thing. Still feel exactly the same. Yet, things have changed. I can no longer say that I am in my fifties. I don’t have to pay for prescriptions anymore.

It was bad enough when my grandchildren thought I was old because I was over forty. At least everyone was telling me that life begins when you are forty and we all know now what liars they were.

So I guess I’ll just have to, whats the current term, suck it up. I’ll have to live with the fact that I cannot turn back the clock, that mother nature continues to play the sickest of jokes, regardless of what my mind thinks. I just grew another year older. In less than the blink of an eye …..

I AM 60

Why ?


Tomorrow is my birthday.   Tomorrow I will be 60.   Tomorrow I am supposed to celebrate.

So Why Is Everyone Reminding Me That Today Is The Last Day Of My Fifties.

I feel like I am hurtling towards a cliff and everyone is laughing

And The Wally Of The Week Award Goes To ……….


Follow the link below to read all about the idiot who admitted to attacking a friend’s father, on Facebook, while still in the middle of the trial.

How his Facebook confession was printed and handed to the prosecution, anonymously.

Confronted by the new evidence Ruse, who had used the name Michael Miles online, had little choice but to change his plea to guilty to assault causing actual bodily harm.

Not content with the online confession he then proceeded to make comments, again on Facebook, about the judge before the sentence had been passed.

Judge Ian Pearson said Ruse’s stupidity was no excuse.

‘You pleaded guilty part way through the trial only really because you were stupid enough to put on Facebook what amounted to a full confession,’ he said.

‘Your stupidity really is not much mitigation.’

For that reason I award Michael Ruse the Wally Of The Week Award.

Russell Pyne, defending, said his client had planned to move away from Leigh Park and change his ways.

‘He needs help with regards to thinking skills,’ he added.Russell Pyne, defending, said his client had planned to move away from Leigh Park and change his ways.

‘He needs help with regards to thinking skills,’ he added.

You don’t say !!!

Facebook boast to his friends lands dopey thug ABH conviction – Local – Portsmouth News.