Monday, 7 March 2016

Three meals a day.

Hello. It's been a typical Monday here, Crafty Club, dog walk, sewing, library, three mile walk, feeding cats and dog. Good news, Heidi is making improvements, taking more notice of what's going on, and eating normally. Looks like the tablets are working. 
My breakfast this morning was bran flakes, nuts and seeds whizzed in the mini chopper, exotic fruits, and rice milk with plain yogurt. I absolutely love this.  
I bet you are wondering what this yukky stuff is, ha ha. Red cabbage and kale soup made to my own secret recipe. I can't tell you what's in it because I've forgotten already, that's the secret. I won't say it was wonderful, it was very nice but not exceptionally nice. I ate it and it filled me up, all for about 5p.

Now this looks a whole lot better, the usual plate of steamed veggies, just cooked and not mushy. Sprouts, broccoli, cauliflower, potato, parsnip, carrots, and peas. Nothing on it, completely nude, can't beat it for taste and flavour. If I could get this kind of meal at a reasonable price in a restaurant or pub, I might be tempted to splash out on a night out.
No I haven't started eating fish again. I bought this bag of white fish for the kitties. It's £2.30 and has quite a lot of pieces in it. It's quick and easy to put a piece on a pyrex lid and microwave it for a minute. All the cats like it, but they don't get it every day, it's a treat.

I don't have to to out and do my walk tonight, because I did it earlier just before dinner. Not a lot to to talk about, so I'll sign off and say goodnight. Thanks for popping in, and we'll catch up tomorrow.
Toodle pip.

Sunday, 6 March 2016

New exhibitions at The Ropewalk

Aye up me ducks, how ya diddlin. I was a bit fed up of being indoors today, so I went out. I noticed in our free paper, in the guide to local events, that there are two new artists exhibiting their works at the Ropewalk Gallery in Barton. Just the ticket to get me off my bum and go and have an eyeball. 
Amanda Cobbett is a paper and textile artist. I liked the look of the work on her web site, but was a bit disappointed that her exhibition was a bit small and did not contain many pieces. I was particularly interested in her embroidered pictures, but there were none on show. It focused on her birds, flowers, and mushrooms. 
The detail in these small pieces is amazing, the birds are papier mache covered in machine embroidery. There are more pictures on her web site. I didn't photograph the mushrooms because they were inside a perspex case which would have caught the reflections in the room. 




The other exhibition was a bit strange, I am not sure how these images were made, but if you are interested here is a link to Lou Hazelwoods blurb on the Ropewalk site. There is a short video explaining the methods she used. 

Luckily the Ropewalk is right next to Tesco, so with a bit of careful timing I was able to scoop quite a good haul of yellow stickers. I made a stop halfway home because the sunlight was making interesting pictures. These two photo's were taken in exactly the same spot, first looking away from the sun, then into it. 

Here I have £15.09's worth of food, for which I paid £2.19p. There's salad leaves, rocket, cauliflower, bananas, apples, prepared fruit, wraps, carrots and peas, and I had a treat of four blueberry muffins for 18p. I did try to resist them, but the price swayed me. I have plenty in the fridge now, don't need anything else this week.

Well it's time for me to go walkabout, I really must try and get it done earlier. I see a lot of our walking group members are making a big effort to top up their miles. Every little helps, every mile counts towards the big 1000. Don't worry if you are going at a more leisurely pace, it isn't a race, the taking part is more important. There are no prizes for those who go through to the finishing line, except the uplifting feeling that you have achieved your goal, and you are a lot more fitter and healthier than when you started. Well done everyone. Keep walking.

Thanks for popping in. Catch up soon. Toodle pip.

Saturday, 5 March 2016

I went to a party.

Hello. Well well, it's 22 years to the day when I sat down to dinner with Edwina Currie, at the Lady Truckers Women of Achievement Awards Presentation Dinner Dance. The idea for this event came to me when I saw an article in a transport magazine about an awards ceremony in London for top people in transport. There were twelve photographs in the article and only one women among the suits and ties. I thought it wasn't fair, it should have been more balanced, where were the women? 
Only one thing to do, I decided to organize our own awards ceremony for our fantastic Lady Truckers. I wrote to Edwina Curry to tell her of my plans, she lived not far from me although I had never met her. I needed the support of a well know person which would enable me to approach possible sponsors. Edwina wrote back and said she could arrange it for us to have the event in the Terrace Bar at the House of Commons. I was amazed, I would be able to get lots of publicity for our club. 
Sadly I had to write back and decline the offer, it wouldn't have been very practical for us, where would the Lady truckers park their trucks? I wrote back and thanked her, and said I had chosen a hotel in Leicestershire and she was very welcome to come. I had a letter back accepting the invitation, whooopeeeee, I was dead chuffed. 
I set about looking for sponsors, I wanted £100 for each of the seven winners in each category, plus a cut glass engraved goblet. The seven runners up were to get £50 each. The day kicked off at 12noon when the ladies began arriving, some of them pulled into the car park in their trucks, their sleeper cabs being their bed for the night. My ex boss at Leicester Heavy Haulage sent his driver with their newest truck to put on display.  
Here are the seven categories that the women could enter for, and the sponsors providing the prizes. The United Road Transport Union were the main sponsors, they paid for the souvenir brochure layout and printing costs. The ladies had to prepare their own entries, produce a folder with any information that might help their bid for a prize. Photographs, certificates, magazine articles, statements from employers and friends. I found four people who held top positions in large national transport firms to judge the entries, and sat round a table with them as they made their choices.

I sold advertising space in the brochure. One of the pages was bought by the company I had learnt to drive a lorry with. J. Coates is still going now, and has expanded to several depots all over the country. I worked for them for a while as an agency driver. 
The other people in this photo are the Truckfest Team, Live Promotions. They were very good to us over the years and gave us free space at the truck shows for our club stand. The URTU was also supportive, inviting us to share their marquee when the weather wasn't so good.

I hired a Radio Derby presenter to be master of ceremonies and announce the winners. A friend of mine made a big cake in the shape of a lorry, and I was presented with a silver engraved tankard as thanks from the members for getting them all together. It was a belting night, one that will stay in my memory forever. 

Here are some of our members having a good time at the shows. I remember most of their names, Wendy, Alison, Jenny, Linda, Annette, Anita, Jane, Margaret, Soo, Elizabeth,  and Sarah, 
I've still got copies of the magazine articles we were featured in. We were in all the truck magazines, and had a six page article in Marie Claire, the top women's magazine at the time. Local newspapers also printed the story. Just as the media have pestered me over the last few weeks, they also did then. I remember doing several radio interviews, usually going into Radio Derby studios to be linked up down the line. I even spoke to Radio 702 in South Africa. They rang me on my mobile as I was travelling down to Shepton Mallet for a truck show, and I had to go into a truck stop to ask if I could take a call on their landline.

I was so busy at that time promoting the club. I loved my job, and running the club added another dimension to it. I became a campaigner for women in transport, I made a lot of friends, and it also became my social life. I like to take a trip down memory lane sometimes, I have got so many good memories.

It's been dry and sunny today, but oh so cold. The ground is still boggy from the heavy rainfall so I haven't been able to get out into the garden. Shopping bags have been made, and more stitching on the picture. Heidi has perked up a bit, she likes it on the kitchen worktop so I am not going to move her. I have had to move my food preparation elsewhere.  

Thank you for popping in, have a good Sunday. Catch up soon. Toodle pip.

Friday, 4 March 2016

Do you have trouble getting the kids out of bed!

Hello. Thank you for your good wishes regarding Heidi. You can be assured that I will do my best for her. I am coming to terms with the fact that sometimes things happen like this, animals can be born with hereditary conditions just like humans can. She was lucky enough to come into our rescue with her four kittens, I decided to give her a home after the kittens went to their new homes, now it's up to me to look after her . 
This is the chaos at tightwad Towers in the morning. I am the first to stir from my bed, but before I can get the coffee on the go, I have to open the back door and let the kids out. As you can see, the place looks a mess. Rocky has been out for a pee, Bugsy had a quick look outside but soon came back in when the white stuff landed on him, he didn't like that, and Mayze couldn't be bothered and stayed where she was. 
The newspaper is spread around because Bugsy was prone to bringing up his food. That problem is now solved through a change in diet, with smaller portions and more frequent meals. I leave the paper there just in case of accidents. 
Next they demand food, so I serve up a bowl for each of them from the extensive menu available, ha ha. Talk about pampering. I have usually put the bed away by this time, but this morning Mayze absolutely refuses to get up. Bugsy gazes contentedly at the gas fire in the hope of getting a tan.  
Heidi has decided not to join in with the crowd, preferring the quiet of the kitchen. She is still a bit sad, but hopefully she will pick up a bit once the tablets start to kick in. She was camping out in the bath, but now has found a better place in a basket on the worktop. I have had to move my things out of the way to a different part of the kitchen.

Normally they would all go outside for a mooch round, but none of them fancied it this morning. A quick pee for Rocky and straight back in. Don't like this white stuff. You may not be able to see the flakes falling, at this stage they were quite small. 
Half an hour later.....

And an hour later......we all decided to stay indoors.

The snow became quite heavy and I thought the best thing I can do is go to the shops and get a few bits of shopping to make sure I have enough in case we are snowed in. I also needed to go to Tesco to take a phone back for a refund. It turns out that I didn't need a new phone after all, I needed a new sim card, which was sent out in the post from Talk Mobile. I had to ring them up and get the number changed back to the old one, the number that everyone else has in their phone. The man was very helpful and that was a success, but I have lost my contact list so now I am asking everyone to text me so I can start a new list. 
My lunch today, which I have just scoffed. The boiled eggs and spinach came in a little pot from Tesco, 13p instead of £1.25. I have another one for tomorrow's lunch. Tomatoes were 7p for six, instead of 69p. Two kinds of cheese, not yellow sticker, and couscous which I made yesterday. It was chuffin lovely. 
Well the snow has now stopped and it's beginning to melt. I hope we don't get any more. I have been getting on with sewing, the picture is coming along nicely, it shouldn't be too long before it's finished. I am liking the fact that it is smaller than what I usually make, so won't take as much time up. More shopping bags on the production line, using up the roses fabric which was given to me.

I'll get off now, a scruffy little dog is looking at me willing me to get off my bum and take him out. I can't resist that gorgeous face.

Have a nice weekend. Catch up soon. Thanks for popping in.
Toodle pip.

Thursday, 3 March 2016

Sweet Heidi

Hello. Poor Heidi has not been very well again, so it was a visit to the vet today. It's the same recurring problem with her red blood cells, they are not reproducing as they should and she is anaemic, resulting in tiredness. There is no cure for it, all we can do is blood tests, and medicate, and monitor it. The vet said she will have a much shorter life, it's not possible at this stage to put a time on it.

She has had an injection and I have to give her a tablet every day, and we'll see how it goes. Poor little Heidi, such a sweet little thing, so affectionate, it's such a shame.

I'll make this a short one tonight, don't much feel like writing.

Thanks for popping in. Catch up soon. toodle pip.

Wednesday, 2 March 2016

Best friends

Can't resist putting this one on before I close down tonight. These two are the best of friends. 
Goodnight. Catch you tomorrow. Toodle pip

Will be interesting to see how they sort this one out.

Hello. This is going to be interesting, an article in the Guardian about charging people to watch BBC iplayer on a computer. The Government is to rush through legislation to close the iplayer loophole which allows people to watch BBC shows on catchup services without having a TV licence. As you know this is what me and millions of others are doing, perfectly legally. 
Apparently the BBC are losing out on £150 million a year. I think they maybe should have thought of that when they joined in the rush to build their internet site. Surely the present situation was predictable, they broadcast programmes which can be seen live, and an our later on catchup, and people can access either from their computer. You do need a TV licence if you watch live TV. A detector van will pick up the signal if you are watching on a conventional TV set, but I'm not sure how they can police it if you are not receiving a signal from an aerial on the roof of your house into your computer. 
It will be interesting to see how they are going to get people to buy a licence. I don't think anyone will be flocking to buy one. You don't need a licence to watch the other channels because they raise their revenue through advertising, so what's to stop people saying they only watch the other channels? How are they going to prove that you are watching BBC? 
It's going to be one hell of an administration and technical nightmare to sort this out. There are so many different devices to watch TV on, and not all are static and connected to a socket on the wall. How will they be able to keep a check on every one of those, especially when millions of people are on the move. Is everyone going to need to get a licence irrespective of whether they actually watch BBC TV or not? I can't see that happening. We already pay for broadband, or maybe an extra charge will be added to that, but then there is a lot of free access to wifi now. Maybe will we be able to opt out of the BBC television web site? Perhaps they will block it and you have to buy a code to unlock it. I will watch with interest on how this story unravels.  You can read the full article here.   
In the meantime, I am not worried about what might or might not happen. I see television as a want, not a need. When I first had a computer I didn't watch television on it. Then I found out I could watch programmes on catchup and I thought it was a nice little bonus. I don't watch much at all, only the odd one or two that interest me. So they can do what they like, I am not bovvered.

I can still get my entertainment from Yooootooob. Watch as much as I want from all over the world.

From ITV.

From Channel 4.

And Channel 5.

I have also been snooping around the net, and there are lots of other sites where you can get free television from all over the world. Sorry, but I won't be buying a licence.

Look at the time, I've been waiting for the rain to stop, must get up off my bum and do three miles.

Thanks for popping in. Catch up soon. Toodle pip.

Tuesday, 1 March 2016

Fame at last for Joanna and her 1939 house

Hello. I went to see Joanna at her 1939 house today. You may remember I wrote about her in June 2013. I did four posts about her house because I took loads of photo's. The first one is here.  If you want to read all of them click on 'newest', when you get down to the bottom.


I passed her details on to the Yorkshire Post journalist a few weeks ago, with Joanna's permission, and her story is now out in the newspaper. Take a look at it here. You might guess what has happened, she has been inundated with requests for interviews and photographs. So much so that she is finding it a bit overwhelming and has brought in a friend to act as an agent and sort it all out for her. Unlike me, she would like to be paid for her time. I hope she makes a few bob out of it.

There is an article about her in the Daily Mail, which has some lovely photo's with it. She must have had a different photographer to me because they are a lot better than mine. Take a look here.

 Joanna doesn't have a computer or broadband so she is not able to see everything written about her. When she has some time to spare she will come here and I can show her. She is not up to speed with modern electronics and can just about manage her mobile phone, which she needs so her customers can contact her. She works part time as a cleaner in private houses.

I'm just off to update the walking group list, thanks to everyone for sending in your miles. There's no stopping some of you now you are on a roll. No matter how much or how little you do, every step is doing you good.

Thanks for popping in. Catch up soon. Toodle pip.


Monday, 29 February 2016

Home made cheap ready meals.

Hello. I spent Monday morning at Crafty Club, almost a full house this week. I took this picture with me to work on. Still a long way to go but I thought I would give you an update.

I had to leave promptly at 12 noon to get back for a phone call from Newstalk, an Irish national radio station. That came at 12.30pm. Not sure if the interview was live or if it was recorded for later. I'll have look to see if I can find it. 
This is an M & S yellow sticker, apparently they mark down at about 5pm, there wasn't much when I was there last week, so I don't think I will be making regular visits. I made a very nice pan of soup with this, plus I added a large handful of spinach. There were two portions and it was lovely. 
Tonight I couldn't be bothered to cook so I took a veggie stew out of the freezer. This was made with yellow stickers and cost very little. Even if you made something like this with full price vegetables it would still be cheaper than buying ready meals, and it doesn't take much effort to make it.

Perfect. Still tasty after reheating in the microwave. .


It's that time again guys and gals, the end of the month where the walking group send in their total mileage to date. I have finished Jan and Feb on 176 miles. Thank you to those who have sent your miles, you are doing just great. I am updating the page as the new figures come in. I'm pleased that you are still keen to carry on. If you haven't yet got off the starting block, or have got a bit behind, don't worry, there is still ten months left. Still time to catch up. Looking after your health and fitness levels is the best thing you can do for yourself. 
Let sleeping dogs lie. Shhh, don't disturb him. 
There is a new follower working her way through the whole blog. Mila is getting lost in 2012 at the moment. She has a mammoth task ahead of her, only four more years to catch us up. Everyone cheer her on.

It's bed time, thanks for popping in. Sees you soon. Toodle pip.

Sunday, 28 February 2016

Free haircuts for life.

Hello. It had to be done. When my hair gets to a certain length it irritates the hell out of me. A floppy fringe gets in my eyes, straggly bits down the sides wafting in my face, and hair getting trapped inside collars feels uncomfortable. Long hair makes me feel grubby, so time for a cut. I did my usual trick, two mirrors facing each other, spread fingers of left hand and lift clumps of hair through fingers, and chop with the right hand. Trim around the bottom. I wrote about it previously here. 
The 'before' pictures. 
Too long, the weight pulls it down, it just hangs, no shape in it.


Half an hour and the job is done. 
That feels better.

Here is the 'before' of the right side.
And the 'after' of the right side.



Not bad at all, that will do me for six months. I have always hated going to the hairdressers, so now I don't have to, hooooray. Free haircuts for life.

I've been playing outside today, it's been sunny. The rotting pallets have been removed from around this raised bed, and replaced with bricks. This one is ready for planting up now. I shall have to make a trip to the tip with the scrap wood. I've got some more bricks, but not enough for what I want to do, so the search goes on.

That's all for now, time for dinner. Thanks for popping in. Catch up soon.
Toodle pip

Saturday, 27 February 2016

Can we tempt you with more dosh?

Hello and Good Morning. It's Saturday and Sounds of the Sixties is just finishing, so I'll turn the radio off because it's a distraction. No point in leaving it on if I am not listening to it. 
This post has connections with the 'No Quick Fix' theme of yesterday. All will become clear if you read on. Below I have copied a letter I received from my bank, dated 6th June 2008, yes I keep all my banking correspondence filed away for future reference. If you want to read it you might have to magnify it, but the gist of it is that they are offering me a Personal Reserve fund, an amount of money that I can use if I have exhausted my balance and my overdraft. I have never had an overdraft, by the way. When there is no money left, this Reserve Fund kicks in. Well isn't that nice of them! 
The letter states that the Personal Reserve is help when I need it most, so nothing to worry about then. When I am absolutely skint there will be money in the pot to enable me to carry on spending. Such a comfort to know this. But hang on a minute, there has to be a catch, there usually is. If I go into the reserve I have to pay a fee of £22 for the first five consecutive working days, and if I am still using the reserve there will be a further fee to pay of £22 for each subsequent five working day period, regardless of the number of transactions in that period. Now for someone who sees the word 'interest' as a dirty word, that arrangement sounds horrific. 
This letter arrived at about the same time as I was reducing my working hours which reduced my pay. My bank balance was slowly shrinking, almost to the point of dropping below the bottom line. It never did though, I always pulled myself back up again. 
Of course there are a couple of other niggly charges that they can add on as well. Returned transaction fee £8 per transaction, and Guaranteed transaction fee, £8 per transaction. So if you take your eye off the ball and slip up it will cost more, which is what happens normally if you overspend or make a mistake with transaction dates.

Did I sign up for this fantastic offer? What do you think? Nope, I wrote and declined it. If you have been reading my blog long enough you will know that I don't spend more than what I have coming in. Below is a little snippet from the top of my monthly statement. Emergency Borrowing NIL. You can see that they have thrown a tempting morsel my way of a personal loan of £20,300. They don't give up do they.

Right, what you see here is how much credit I can have with my one credit card. I could have a nice treat with that, but, and here's the catch, the same rules apply to the reserve fund and the overdraft, IT ISN'T MY MONEY. A lot of people would look at that and think, let's spend it, I deserve a holiday. Not a good idea, because it has to be paid back with that dirty word, interest.

Every time I use my credit card, I have the funds in my bank account to pay it off. I use it for convenience, and for the consumer protection it gives me on larger purchases that might go wrong, and it gives me points. I put part of my car payment on this to help rack up the points. All of my small purchases I pay for with cash. It's very rare I use a card in the discount stores.
 
Now I need to make the connection with what I have written here, to 'No Quick Fix'  There are thousands of people with lots of small debts spread around lots of companies. Lots of bits of paper coming through the post, asking for payment. Lots of bits of paper getting lost, shoved in a drawer, and ignored. It's called burying the head in the sand, I'll sort it one day. Keeping track can make it very difficult to balance money coming in with money coming out.

Wouldn't it be much easier to have one payment going out to cover all the bills? Debt consolidation sounds like a good idea, get a loan and repay all the debts with it, then there is only the loan to pay off every month. Simple. Sounds like a good quick fix to me, or does it?

A loan does not get rid of the debts, it just moves them to a different place. Get the loan, pay off the cards, and bingo. The cards are cleared, the catalogues are cleared, the payday loans are cleared, the overdraft is cleared, giving you a fresh new start. But it isn't. What happens if an unexpected expense occurs, something breaks and has to be replaced, or the holiday of a lifetime opportunity is too good to turn down, or a wedding is planned, or even a night out on the town with your mates is on for next week? That's OK, you still have the cards to pay for it. And so the downward spiral starts again.

Moving debts onto a consolidation loan is a quick fix which is not going to work, if you haven't learnt any lessons. If your attitude to spending has not changed, you will find yourself back at square one, with even more debt. It is all over Money Saving Expert Forum that it is not a good idea to move debt around, with the one exception of moving some of it to a 0% interest card, and even then, that 0% is only going to last for a year or so. If you have not paid off that card before the time runs out you will find yourself with even more of that dirty word, interest, to pay.

Forget quick fixes for sorting out debt, the remedy needs to be long term. There is a Statement of Affairs calculator on MSE where you list all your incomings and outgoings. Fill that out to get a better picture of where you're at.

It's not rocket science, changing your mindset about how you spend over the long term is the key. You don't lose weight by a frenzied stopping eating over a couple of months because it will pile back on again, and you don't get out of debt by juggling it around and shifting it to different places, it's still there.

Grey skies today, I won't be going far.

Thank you for popping in. I hope you have a good weekend. Catch up soon.
Toodle pip

Friday, 26 February 2016

No quick fix.

Good morning. The idea for today's blog post has come from an article in The Times. There is a huge growth in online gambling, which is driving addiction among young people. The number of 18 to 35 year olds calling a leading gambling helpline has jumped by 177 per cent in five years. Campaigners say that an advertising free for all has encouraged young people to take up gambling in record numbers. The online betting industry has grown rapidly in the last five years.

I find this pretty scary because the gambling gene has bypassed my brain. I have never felt the urge to risk my money on the turn of a card, toss of a dice, or press of a button on a machine. Yes, ok I admit to putting pennies in a slot machine at the seaside, but I soon learnt that the only winners were those who owned the arcade. I had a flutter on the national lottery when it first started, but the odds are so dire, it was soon apparent to me that I had less than a splash of gnats piddle of winning.

For some people the thrill of  the gamble is the fun of  it. That's ok if you have got the money to lose, and know when to stop. But for others it will be the urgent need to increase their income, and will be viewed as a short cut, a quick fix, to their money problems. Sadly when gambling is seen as a way to make money, the logic of quitting when you are ahead goes out of the window, and one win is never enough. You cannot gamble your way out of insolvency.

I can think of several scenarios where quick fixes don't work, and long term solutions are the key to achieving where you want to be in life. Off the top of my head.........

Spending money on faddy diets that promise weight loss results in a few weeks. OK, so you might drop a few pounds, but what happens after? You can't drink shakes for the rest of your life. That is no quick fix. Long term healthy eating is the solution, educating your taste buds, and exercise.

Getting your boobs pumped up. Fashions come and fashions go. Some famous people who went down this route are now reversing it and having their airbags removed completely, or they are downsizing. If there is something you are not happy with about your body, there are so many procedures that can now be done to correct the perceived imperfections. They might give a short term solution and make you feel good for a while, but the long term solution is to take a look inside your own head. I struggled for many years with low esteem because of  how saw my face, there were times when I absolutely hated it. But now I have come to terms with it. I decided not to let it get in the way of me doing what I want to do. I chose a job which brought me a lot of attention, I chose to become a pioneer for women in transport, and I chose to write this blog and put myself out there in the media. So, my long term solution for accepting my looks has gone on for forty years.

As well as gambling there are other addictions which do not respond to quick fixes. Alcohol, smoking, food addictions and eating disorders. These type of addictions destroy lives, they have got such a strong hold it's not a matter of turning off the switch. One glass of beer, one crafty fag, secret raids to the fridge, binging then vomiting all need a long term solution, often with the help and support of family and friends, and professionals.

Ok, let me summarize. I've talked about quick fixes not working, but long term fixes will not work either if there is no commitment. The choice is to bimble along and be happy in your own skin, or pull out all the stops to get where you want to be. Me personally, I would like to hang on to my good health and fitness levels, so I have to work at it. I will walk the three miles a day, and longer walks in summer, I will make time for it. The long term goal is to reach 1000 miles in twelve months. I will stuff my face with veg, but may occasionally have a cake or an ice cream, which will keep my spirits up. I will wake up every morning and marvel at the brand new day ahead of me. These are not quick fixes, but long term fixes which will hopefully work.

I've been looking for some videos on good old yoootooob, to illustrate my points, and have found three. Each with a different scenario, but the same message, there is no quick fix. Something to ponder over the weekend.

Have a look at Karen on her treadmill, she could be my sister.


Want to get fit, listen to Justin.


Want to improve your life with meditation? Listen to Khandro


Thank you for popping in. I hope you have a great weekend. Catch up soon.
Toodle pip

PS. Just got to come back and add this, I can't stop laughing. Go back to the previous post and see what troll has been commenting on. You will wet your pants, ha ha.