Bring back Mel B on the X factor
There said it!
Mel B is hilarious and if Mr Cowell brings Mel B back for the X Factor I promise to watch it from start to finish.
She said it exactly as it was and nobody does that!
The X Factor is an entertainment programme and Mel B as a guest judge did just that.
Winchester County Council Elections 2013
Just a reminder that on May 2nd it is the Winchester County Council Elections of 2013.
You have a vote, I’m sure you have an opinion so why not vote?
And if you don’t vote then don’t moan when things happen that you don’t like. And if you did vote and things happen that you don’t like…then moan away. 
Did I catch the rat???
No!
But one night the rat trip did catch something.
I had to call for brave hubby as I was such a woosy woo and didn’t know what would be inside the trap….a mouse, a rat, a zombie, the arm of Frankenstein?
Hubby came out, not happy, but at least he came out into the garden and he took the trap and released the creature. I hid behind a wall.
Apparently it was a squirrel. It didn’t half run and for a while we could hear it in the woods, crashes and bangs. I think it was a blind squirrel.
Either that or the arm of Frankenstein was upon it.
So the rat still lives, but I haven’t seen it since we got back from our holiday so perhaps evil Garfield did scare it away…..I’ll keep you posted squeaks.
Mad about inches
and I don’t mean in a good way.
I am in my 40s and was never brought up with inches and that means that the metric measurement of cm has been with us for a very long time….nearly half a century.
So why is it everywhere I go people ask for measurements in inches?
Ebay….inches.
School form for a school production has just asked for my daughter’s measurements in ….yes, in inches. A school form…..
I despair.
I’m about to go and buy a tapemeasure that has inches as I am so sick of having to convert everything back into inches and don’t even get me started on feet. My children have just gone and told me to go into my “quiet room”….as I’m beginning to hyperventate at now having to work out my daughter’s height in feet. My tape measure only has metres, cm and mm, no sign of any feet whatsoever. And if it did I’d probably tread on them.
Remind me…..we are in the 21st century, yes?
and if at first you don’t succeed
try, try again….
Banoffe pie mark 2….
Banoffee pie, don’t do this!
I’ve just boiled for 2 hours what I thought was the right stuff to make toffee for a Banoffee pie.
OH DEAR.
Do NOT NOT NOT use evaporated milk when making a Banoffee pie. It won’t work. It will come out runny and smelling like sweet vomit (you know, when your child ate too many green and blue cakes at the party….)
You need evaporated milk.
SIGH…….
Mental note for the future….to read the recipe!!!! 
LATER…..with condensed milk the banoffee pie worked!!! Delicious with a cup of tea, and another….and another……
Nolan Daniels and that ticket
Nolan Daniels is a prime example of the increasing number of people that believe what they see and read on a daily basis and don’t filter.
Nolan Daniels posted a picture of himself with a lottery ticket saying that he had the winning ticket to over $588 million dollars and that if people shared his photo he would give one person one million dollars as a gift. Just a few hours later Nolan’s photo had been shared one million times.
A friend often sends me an email telling me to avoid lipstick as it contains anti gravity moon dust or to avoid going to petrol stations as there is the possibility that I could spontaneously combust. A nanosecond search reveals they are hoaxes and have often been circulated for 5 years or more but she believes them and passes them on. She now refuses to wear make up and travels everywhere on her 1950′s pushbike.
The Daily Mail often spouts out something about a scientist refuting the fact that butter will kill us if eaten a kg at a time or that exercise is most likely good for us and people then believe it rather than the fact that Daily Mail has just found one dissenting scientist amongst thousands that disagree.
What has happened to us that we now believe everything that we see and read?
Nolan Daniel’s winning ticket had the numbers in the wrong order, the picture was grainy but over a million people still believed it and thought that he would give them a million dollars.
Which reminds me I need to get my ticket for the Lotto tonight….and if I win I won’t be posting it up on Facebook because I don’t have Facebook.
Googles going down
I know people that have been badly affected by the Panda update. It should be called the Werewolf update as there is nothing, sweet nothing cute and cuddly about it.
Other people have had Google suddenly take away their revenue stream of Google adsense and appeals fall on deaf ears. Trying to find a way to contact Google is like trying to find the Holy Grail, nigh impossible.
I decided recently to start using Bing as I’m fed up of Google!
Today I saw a news piece that their shares were temporarily suspended and their share price has plummeted.
Seems like I am not the only one that is marching with my feet and using other search engines………GOOD!
GCSEs or O’levels?
The government plan to scrap GCSEs in certain subjects, do you have an opinion?
If you do go to this link where you can upload a word document with your thoughts/insights on the subject.
Things that Spain does better
I’m not having a moan…love living in the UK….but there are some things that when I compare, well Spain just does it better.
1. Rubbish removal.
In Spain there are skips for rubbish and recycling at the end of the street with lids to stop smells. The rubbish removal team come out in the early hours of the morning so there is never any disruption during peak time traffic unlike here in Winchester. The bins are also emptied every day apart from Sunday, unlike Winchester which is every 2 weeks. I’m still staggered that this is the case, it’s like some developing nation……
2. Police
They were high profile in Marbella but honestly where is the police prescence in Winchester? I don’t think I’ve ever seen a policeman or car on the road. In Spain they were everywhere……and god forbid if you spoke on your mobile phone whilst driving……Then again I haven’t heard of a drug gangland shoot out in Winchester but they did go on in Marbella.
3. Celebrations
World Cup, Fiestas, indeed any excuse to party and nobody was drunk doing it.
World cup day we had the streets lined with coloured flags, people dressed in red and yellow, cars with horns blaring, children dressed up, throngs of people so happy and together in spirit. On a world cup day here if England ever got through ( cough, and I just saw a pig flying down my chimney) the British would celebrate with their front doors doors closed, swigging beer and eating bag after bag of kettle crips.
4. Giving their children confidence
I never heard anyone in Spain shouting at their children that they must not run off because someone could steal them. I frequently here it here and how bloomin scary must that be. I know it does happen but we have around 60 million people living in the UK so sometimes bad things will and do happen but it is NOT the norm. In Spain children grow up on communities where they share a large garden with all the other families that live in the same area and the parents let them go and play without adult supervision. They are allowed the freedom to explore and play which frankly most of us had when we were children before the press made us think that everyone is out to get our children.
The children survive and the Spanish children are extremely confident individuals.
5. Shops closing time
Shops close around 8pm everywhere in Spain, so if you work you can still go out and get the things that you need. Here you have to go out at the week-end because by 5.30pm all the shops are closed.
But….still prefer living in the UK.
6. Family Time
The family all eat together late in the evening once the parents are home from work, the meal is often around 8 or 9pm. Eating together is a very important part of Spanish life and gives everyone a chance to catch up on the day and enjoy some home made cooking.Eating in front of the tv is not an option.
The shops are closed on Sundays so that day is also given over for family time.
The elderly are respected by everyone.There aren’t care homes everywhere like in the UK, the family look after loved ones when they need the help because the state and private sector don’t have the facilities to do so. If you go out in the evening or at the week-ends you will see large family groups out together having a wonderful time. From all classes of society the family bonds are very strong.
7. The community
The fiestas go on for several days and each year there will be one that will last a week where everyone in the whole town joins in celebrating something to do with their local saint! Shops close down, schools close down and everyone parties. Imagine those rare street parties in the UK, that only happen every 25 years or so where everyone has a brilliant time. Well that happens more than once a year in Spain. They do it each time there is a fiesta, they do it each time Spain gets near to the final of a football world cup or european cup, they do it each time Spain is doing anything connected with football!
They build whole developments where everyone has a tiny patch of garden but they all open up to a large shared field of grass with a swimming pool and often a tennis/paddel tennis court and a gym for everyone to enjoy and these are gated so only accessible if you live in the community.
Rather than the UK where we think having a huge patch of grass means that we deserve to be called Sir or Me Lady even though quite frankly we only ever go out there once a week in-between rain showers so that we can mow our huge patch of grass and think, ” this is mine, all mine and down with the peasants and chavs.”
The community planning in Spain means that children grow up together playing safely in the large communal gardens and parents have an immediate support network. Who needs a huge garden all to themselves? For me, the communities and these large communal gardens are a much better way of life for people living there rather than the way we build houses and communities in the UK. In the UK we seek large plots of land for ourselves, in Spain the large plots of land are enjoyed by many and the many form friendships for life……
8. The FOOD.
The Spanish supermarkets sell local produce and it is all shapes and forms and the red peppers look NOTHING like the versions I see in Sainsburys selling for a ridiculous 80 pence a pepper. The food is much cheaper than the UK and my daily bottle of wine used to cost the equivalent of 99 pence.
There are no aisles selling 5 chocolate cookies for £1.00, 4 blueberry muffins for £1.00 and bag of maltesers for £1.00. It just is not there in the Spanish supermarkets. Instead you get everything you could possibly want if you cooked food from scratch.
The result is that there is nowhere near the level of obesity. Since living in the UK all manner of junk food has come into our house, it’s so cheap and scrummy it takes the will power of an ox not to shift it and put it into your trolley, then your stomach and then your thighs.
Why buy two tiny pieces of chicken fillet for over £5.00 or 2 red peppers for £1.60 when you can eat a whole meal of only chocolate followed by more chocolate for under £2.50.
Off for a cuppa now and a double chocolate chip cookie………..