Friday, September 30, 2011
I'll make that VENTI!!!!
I am so frustrated. Banking has become an absolute nightmare. It was not so long ago I was hailing the ease of bill paying online but this has all changed.
Now I am living in the UK the Bank of Amercia has instituted this next level of security. Everytime I want to make a transfer to my UK bank account they have to text me SAFE PASSCODE. All well and good IF you have an American cell phone. Because I do not have an American cell phone I have had to have the texted code sent to Charlotte who has to send to me. This gives us two minutes for her to send me the code and for me to input online.....first nightmare!! So I am dependant on her schedule, her mood and her ailing cell phone. On top of that, now she is here I have to find someone else to send these codes to.
If that was not bad enough, my UK bank account is with Barclays Bank. Online banking here is even worse!!!!!Not only do I have to have a special membership number every time I go online, I need a pin number and a secret word. Everytime I go online it tells me that I have to put in the second and fourth letter of my secret word, or the second and the fifth etc. etc..........
If that is not enough, they have also send me this special little tool that resembles a small calculator. I have to then turn it on, slide in my bank card and it then transmits a code number. This morning it has taken me 10 minutes to go through this chain of events and when I have done the last piece a message pops up saying ONLINE BANKING IS TEMPORARILY OFFLINE.........grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
I AM OVER THIS. What little money I do have I want to withdraw and spend on queludes and alcohol to get over this ridulous mess. (I actually don't know what a quelude is but it sounds good!!!)
Now I am living in the UK the Bank of Amercia has instituted this next level of security. Everytime I want to make a transfer to my UK bank account they have to text me SAFE PASSCODE. All well and good IF you have an American cell phone. Because I do not have an American cell phone I have had to have the texted code sent to Charlotte who has to send to me. This gives us two minutes for her to send me the code and for me to input online.....first nightmare!! So I am dependant on her schedule, her mood and her ailing cell phone. On top of that, now she is here I have to find someone else to send these codes to.
If that was not bad enough, my UK bank account is with Barclays Bank. Online banking here is even worse!!!!!Not only do I have to have a special membership number every time I go online, I need a pin number and a secret word. Everytime I go online it tells me that I have to put in the second and fourth letter of my secret word, or the second and the fifth etc. etc..........
If that is not enough, they have also send me this special little tool that resembles a small calculator. I have to then turn it on, slide in my bank card and it then transmits a code number. This morning it has taken me 10 minutes to go through this chain of events and when I have done the last piece a message pops up saying ONLINE BANKING IS TEMPORARILY OFFLINE.........grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
Monday, September 26, 2011
Forest Jewels
How can nature this beautiful be replicated by man....the vibrance of colour, the perfect shape, the delicate form....it's ours at no cost other than a gentle step and acknowledgement that it is to be respected and shared by all.
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| Amethyst Deceiver |
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| Fly Agaric |
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| Woolly Ink Caps |
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| Water Droplets |
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Bubbles
Was drifting off in some evacuous state last night and started wondered how many bottles of champagne I have drank over the years. Definitely over 100 as I was working in 'the city' in the eighties.....so a bottle of champagne was almost a daily given after work. Should also throw in another 50 or so for the couple of years I had enjoying London's West End as a single girl.......hmmm....better make that 75....plus working as a cocktail waitress......it was common to be sent over a bottle of champagne......then the random bottles for Christmas and Birthday celebrations and the 'what the hell' celebrations or non-celebrations....I must easily be exceeding 300.....
I remember my first glass of bona fina champagne and being instantly transfixed by the pale liquid, exploding with bubbles....this was certainly more enticing than Baby Cham! It was 1976 and I was with my boyfriend stuck in a traffic jam on my way to Biggin Hill Air Show. The traffic was at a stand still and I could not help but looking at the glamorous scene in front of me. Little red sports car, sophisticated man in forties with obvious younger blonde. Suddenly, they both just get out of the car, Mr. Sophisticated lays a blanket of the ground where blonde sexily plants herself...he then pops a bottle of chamapgne and pours them each a glass. I must have been staring, quite captivated by the scene when he pulls out another glass, walks over to our car and hands it to me. At the time, I found this to be one of the most glamorous things that has ever happened to me. I don't think a glass of champagne ever measured up to that first but I have certainly enjoyed going through my life trying.
Cheers!
I remember my first glass of bona fina champagne and being instantly transfixed by the pale liquid, exploding with bubbles....this was certainly more enticing than Baby Cham! It was 1976 and I was with my boyfriend stuck in a traffic jam on my way to Biggin Hill Air Show. The traffic was at a stand still and I could not help but looking at the glamorous scene in front of me. Little red sports car, sophisticated man in forties with obvious younger blonde. Suddenly, they both just get out of the car, Mr. Sophisticated lays a blanket of the ground where blonde sexily plants herself...he then pops a bottle of chamapgne and pours them each a glass. I must have been staring, quite captivated by the scene when he pulls out another glass, walks over to our car and hands it to me. At the time, I found this to be one of the most glamorous things that has ever happened to me. I don't think a glass of champagne ever measured up to that first but I have certainly enjoyed going through my life trying.
Cheers!
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Ten Years
One bright summer morning in September, the sky was clear and blue, New York was green and promising and the New Yorkers were excited that Fall was almost here....and then within minutes, the illusion Americans' had been carrying since the Forefathers was shattered. They were not indistructable, just because they were in America, that did not automatically make them safe....the rose colored glasses shattered and splintered in a million directions along with the Twin Towers, a wing of the Pentagon and four planes.
The automatic response many of us have had since the playground was fight back, lets get 'em.....and Get 'Em they did....Got the Iraqui's, Got the Afghans, Got the Pakistanis....but at some stage the flailing has to stop, we have to step back and really ask who is the enemy. How many innocents have been collateral damage, how many people in the Middle East lost their jobs, homes, education, future....how many families have lost a loved one because they bravely enlisted as a soldier, how many more people are we going to make suffer just to make outselves feel better.
Thousands of lives are gone, cruelly stripped from their families, their lives, their futures.......WHEN will the Phoenix rise from the ashes and make some good out of this violent situation.
Build schools in the names of the dead, provide scholarships in the names of the dead, build power supplies in the names of the dead....let their names provide something positive for the future........ENOUGH, ENOUGH...let's lead by example.......let there be Peace.
The automatic response many of us have had since the playground was fight back, lets get 'em.....and Get 'Em they did....Got the Iraqui's, Got the Afghans, Got the Pakistanis....but at some stage the flailing has to stop, we have to step back and really ask who is the enemy. How many innocents have been collateral damage, how many people in the Middle East lost their jobs, homes, education, future....how many families have lost a loved one because they bravely enlisted as a soldier, how many more people are we going to make suffer just to make outselves feel better.
Thousands of lives are gone, cruelly stripped from their families, their lives, their futures.......WHEN will the Phoenix rise from the ashes and make some good out of this violent situation.
Build schools in the names of the dead, provide scholarships in the names of the dead, build power supplies in the names of the dead....let their names provide something positive for the future........ENOUGH, ENOUGH...let's lead by example.......let there be Peace.
Suspicious Minds
Being the parent of a teenage girl (Charlotte) has prepared me for super 'sleuth-dom' BUT unless you are being paid for it, it far from pretty AND unless you are really careful, it is REALLY UGLY!
A million years ago (well ten) Andy broke up from an eighteen year relationship with Miranda. Since then he has had another long term relationship of six years, and one of the reasons it was not successful was his ongoing 'friendship' with Miranda. When we first got together he told me about this friendship and asked me if I would have an issue with it AND at the time, I thought not. Well, after her regular bi-weekly phonecalls, her then wanting to produce his book, her showing up at his gigs among other ongoing instances, I changed my mind - I DID INDEED HAVE A PROBLEM WITH IT! Wasn't this really the equivalent of an ex-wife calling every couple of weeks. The more I thought about it, the more it festered and I then caught myself doing ugly things, like checking his texts....ughhh....this can't be me...I am not like this....but I could not help myself. I tried to be reasonable, have the stiff upper lip but it kept giving an involuntary curl to the side until I was practically snarling 24/7. Something had to be done.
Andy was starting to get the hint that I may be having an issue with it when snide remarks started slipping out, like....'eff off and marry her instead of me'....and other subtle comments of that nature. Eventually, I wrote him the longest 'love' letter, sharing how we would be spending our life together in detail, from the ongoing walks, holidays, wikpedia searches, to grandchildren to mushrooms, to music, to films, to art showings, to cozy nights in by the radiator, to meals, to Kenwood etc etc. It was loving, alluring and eloquent AND all true...however.....
The last paragraph told him how much I loved him, how much I wanted this and how important our future was ...................BUT, it could not happen if he did not end this relationship/friendship. That is what you call 'iron fist in velvet glove'.
So, he did indeed tell her that all contact had to cease, that his future was now with me etc. etc. AND as far as I can tell it has stopped. The funny thing is, I wonder if I have created a far worse situation with this ultimatum. It is like telling your child thay are not allowed to smoke, not allowed to drink. not allowed to have sex.....they say they won't but they know there is a good chance that they will.
Moral of story.....trust must prevail because at the end of the day you cannot control everything, you cannot be everywhere and who wants to be a dictator. AND at the end of the day, Andy is with me, has asked me to marry him and wants to spend his future with me AND shouldn't that be enough.
And if I found out there was a violation of trust, I could appear to wave the white flag and invite Miranda around for breakfast with Andy and I. I could then serve them both up a nice helping of the above mushroom......Death Cap.....just a thought...!!!!!!
A million years ago (well ten) Andy broke up from an eighteen year relationship with Miranda. Since then he has had another long term relationship of six years, and one of the reasons it was not successful was his ongoing 'friendship' with Miranda. When we first got together he told me about this friendship and asked me if I would have an issue with it AND at the time, I thought not. Well, after her regular bi-weekly phonecalls, her then wanting to produce his book, her showing up at his gigs among other ongoing instances, I changed my mind - I DID INDEED HAVE A PROBLEM WITH IT! Wasn't this really the equivalent of an ex-wife calling every couple of weeks. The more I thought about it, the more it festered and I then caught myself doing ugly things, like checking his texts....ughhh....this can't be me...I am not like this....but I could not help myself. I tried to be reasonable, have the stiff upper lip but it kept giving an involuntary curl to the side until I was practically snarling 24/7. Something had to be done.
Andy was starting to get the hint that I may be having an issue with it when snide remarks started slipping out, like....'eff off and marry her instead of me'....and other subtle comments of that nature. Eventually, I wrote him the longest 'love' letter, sharing how we would be spending our life together in detail, from the ongoing walks, holidays, wikpedia searches, to grandchildren to mushrooms, to music, to films, to art showings, to cozy nights in by the radiator, to meals, to Kenwood etc etc. It was loving, alluring and eloquent AND all true...however.....
The last paragraph told him how much I loved him, how much I wanted this and how important our future was ...................BUT, it could not happen if he did not end this relationship/friendship. That is what you call 'iron fist in velvet glove'.
So, he did indeed tell her that all contact had to cease, that his future was now with me etc. etc. AND as far as I can tell it has stopped. The funny thing is, I wonder if I have created a far worse situation with this ultimatum. It is like telling your child thay are not allowed to smoke, not allowed to drink. not allowed to have sex.....they say they won't but they know there is a good chance that they will.
Moral of story.....trust must prevail because at the end of the day you cannot control everything, you cannot be everywhere and who wants to be a dictator. AND at the end of the day, Andy is with me, has asked me to marry him and wants to spend his future with me AND shouldn't that be enough.
And if I found out there was a violation of trust, I could appear to wave the white flag and invite Miranda around for breakfast with Andy and I. I could then serve them both up a nice helping of the above mushroom......Death Cap.....just a thought...!!!!!!
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Farewells & Family
My wonderful Mum was bid farewell yesterday; per her wishes, her simple coffin laden with daisies and marguerites only.......nice and simple....no fuss. Lorraine, Adam, Charlotte, Andy and I followed her final journey in the hearst, through the village of Fairlight where she was happy to spend her last 20 months of life. From an emotion standpoint, I actually felt quite removed from the proceedings which is probably a bad sign......it hasn't hit me yet.......I cannot begin to imagine what I probably have coming.
Our sombre ride ended at Hastings Crematorium where we were joined by my brother Robert, his partner Caroline and her daughter Emily. About twenty of my mothers friends were there to pay their respects. The service was brief with a selection of music chosen by my Mother, the Eulogy delivered by Lorraine and a final message from myself before the committal.
A small reception was held at the local pub where about twently people joined us. I was thrilled to see my father's best friend from his RAF days, Nigel, who I had not seen since the age of eleven and his wife, Jenny, who I had met when she was just a little older than Charlotte is now. I will never forget how she gave me a pink frosted lipstick, and at the age of eight, it was beyond exciting. The highlight for me, was a gift left to me by my mother in the form of a meeting with her second cousin and Goddaughter Caroline. With a family as small as ours this is so exciting. She is a few years older than I am, absolutely lovely and has invested some serious time in discovering our family history. I know we are going to end up very close.
This would really be the opportune time to say some final words about my Mum and an eloquent goodbye but I can't not yet....in time....but not yet.
Our sombre ride ended at Hastings Crematorium where we were joined by my brother Robert, his partner Caroline and her daughter Emily. About twenty of my mothers friends were there to pay their respects. The service was brief with a selection of music chosen by my Mother, the Eulogy delivered by Lorraine and a final message from myself before the committal.
A small reception was held at the local pub where about twently people joined us. I was thrilled to see my father's best friend from his RAF days, Nigel, who I had not seen since the age of eleven and his wife, Jenny, who I had met when she was just a little older than Charlotte is now. I will never forget how she gave me a pink frosted lipstick, and at the age of eight, it was beyond exciting. The highlight for me, was a gift left to me by my mother in the form of a meeting with her second cousin and Goddaughter Caroline. With a family as small as ours this is so exciting. She is a few years older than I am, absolutely lovely and has invested some serious time in discovering our family history. I know we are going to end up very close.
This would really be the opportune time to say some final words about my Mum and an eloquent goodbye but I can't not yet....in time....but not yet.
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