NEW POST - THE WINE GUY

The Wine Guy is heading off into town tomorrow to go shopping and plans to visit Countdown and to take advantage of the 20% off sale.

He has some tips for how to get even better deals with careful buying.

BUYING MY WINE

I REALLY SHOULD LISTEN TO THE OLD GIRL

We've been enjoying some great weather up here with blue skies and sunny days. I've been making full use of the trailer and have taken over a dozen full trailer loads of tree cuttings, bushes, weeds, flax, creeper and weeds to the dump. The place is finally looking like someone lives here.

The evenings are starting to get a bit cool though and I haven't been for a swim for several weeks.

I lit the fire yesterday as Willow was looking cold.

I also wanted to test the chimney for safety and progressively added small amounts of wood to the fire while going outside to make sure that all was OK.

I'd already been up on the roof to do a physical check of the chimney tops for bird nests and any wind damage. All was OK.

I'd told Lynn that I was going to do this and she told me to wear sensible footwear.

I didn't listen choosing instead to wear my old trainers that have got bugger all tread left on them.

Guess what?

After checking the chimneys I decided to do a roof check on the seals and nails etc.
At the sea end of the roof I started to slip and slid down to the guttering just stopping with my heels on the edge. There is a reasonablee drop from here down to the deck. I gave myself a bit of a fright.

After I'd clambered (with difficulty) back up to the top I decided against further roof inspection particularly the steepest part where there's a drop down to the driveway.

Sometimes I really should listen to the old girl. She gave me a real bollocking when I admitted to her what had happened on our Facetime call last night.

SLEEPINESS

I get a bit sleepy in the afternoon and find that I nod off for a half hour or so while reading or listening to National Radio.

Look, I know that I'm getting on a bit - I'm even older than that old guy Richard (by 12 days) but wonder why this sleepiness is suddenly more pronounced.

OK, OK, no doubt some of the older readers will remember that my nickname at work was 'Sleepy' see HERE but I do feel that my sleepiness then was because I was bored and wished that I were retired. Now that I am retired and can do whatever I like why am I so sleepy?

Searching for an answer on the web lead me to discussions of sleep disorders among the elderly and  various chemical imbalances in the body like hormone depletion but I'm having none of that.
I try to keep active by walking (although my knee injury limits my steeper hill climbing), playing tennis and golf, kayaking and gardening.

I just get a bit sleepy in the afternoon.

Bummer.

PROGRESSIVE PONGS

No, not Richard after a night on the curry, 'Progressive Pongs' is a Mah Jong term meaning pongs which have been levelled up by one digit........ mmm, maybe that doesn't explain it well and in fact sounds even ruder.

Let's try Wind Seat, no, that sounds rude as well. How about Matching Chows? No, maybe not.

So why Mah Jong you ask? Well, TSB returned from the wilderness and his new blog post recounted a trip to Whangamata to play Mah Jong. Good on him. See HERE

I like Mah Jong although I haven't played it for many years.

In Wellington in the 1970s Roger was given a nice Mah Jong set that had belonged to his grandmother. It was a real nice set made from bone and bamboo and was most likely a valuable antique.

Roger, Geoff, Tony, Mike and I set about learning to play this game and spent many evenings and sometimes almost all nights playing it. The exoticism was the big attraction along with the esoteric terminology like 'pungs', 'kongs, 'twittering the sparrows', plucking the cherry blossom off the old tin roof' etc. Playing was accompanied by copious wine consumption as we were all keen oenophiles as well as practising alcoholics.

I can't remember if Richard was at these games. If he had been no doubt we would have thrown him out for some indiscretion or other. Richard has a low attention threshold when it comes to activity like this - anything cultural in fact. We used to throw him out of wine tastings as well. In the 1970s he used to get evicted from parties, music faculty events, libraries, official university clubs, Cosmopolitan clubs, poetry readings, concerts and pubs  - and those are just the ones I knew about.

****************

I searched for my own Mah Jong set only to remember that I lent it to a neighbour a couple of years ago. She was learning to play Mah Jong at the local community hall and I stupidly offered her my set to practise with. She hasn't returned it. I hate it when this happens and always tell myself (after the event) not to lend favourite books, CDs, DVDs, LPs etc. Now I'm going to have to knock on her door and ask for it back.

NEVER A LENDER NOR A BORROWER BE

(Good advice that).

My set I bought in the late '70s. It isn't bone (or ivory) and bamboo but is a real quality plastic set in a beautiful wooden case. 

Imagine the image here. I couldn't find a suitable one on the web and obviously can't photograph mine.

CAUGHT ON CAMERA

Robert was photographed by the GOOGLE Maps car in February 2015

He was caught either:

1. Trying to steal this car or,
2. Leaving his mistress's house

Either way he's looking furtive.

It's a wonder he wasn't wearing a horses head at the time.

NEW POST - THE CURMUDGEON EXPRESS

I heard something on the radio today which reminded me of the clown sets at the fair.

The Curmudgeon Express expands on that here:

WHERE HAVE ALL THE CLOWNS GONE?

CALL ME AN OLD FUDDY DUDDY BUT .........

Look I like my books, films, blogs and tv programmes with a bit of violence in them - I always have.
As a kid I read the Treece, Trease and Carey novels about rampaging Vikings and marauding Crusaders.

I read The Iliad and The Odyssey and some of The Bible (which was pretty brutal).

I watched Pekinpah and Jodorowski films and have seen many thriller, sci-fi, espionage, crime and horror films.

what really annoys me though is when any genre - film, TV, book, painting or poem uses murder and killing as a comedic device.
Violence should be depicted as antisocial, abhorrent, nasty and behaviour that should be avoided at all costs. When media, especially entertainment media show killing and violence it should be off-putting, not funny with clever 'wisecracking'.

It's for this reason that I don't like Quentin Tarantino as a director, never watched Bruce Willis, Arnold Scwartzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, Mel Gibson and the never-ending parade of crappy cop and sidekick films where there was a lot of shooting and killing done 'in fun' The worst of these are among the newest like Reds, Reds 2, The Kingsmen, Mr and Mrs Smith etc.

You leave your brain at home to watch this garbage.

There's a highly touted TV series on TVOne (demand) named Killing Eve. It is well acted, cleverly filmed and slickly produced but basically it's a nasty piece of work about a female assassin who smirks and smiles as she despatches her victims. Do we need this?  No.

SPAM SPAM SPAM SPAM, SPAM SPAM SPAM SPAM ......

The amount of spam mail coming through to my two Spark Xtra mail accounts is getting out of hand.

CUSTOMERS 'PUMMELLED' WITH SPAM - SPARK SAYS SURGE TO BLAME

SUSAN EDMUNDS
Last updated 10:59, January 17 2018



123RF

One customer said she was near her data cap because of the extra email volume.

Spark says a surge in spam is to blame for customers' accounts being flooded with messages.
Customers have been complaining about being "pummelled" with spam over recent days.
One, Suzie Benfell, said: "My email account is so overrun with spam emails I've just about given up. I contact Spark and all I get sorry there is a issue and we are working on it."
Others complained on Spark's Facebook page. Some said they were getting hundreds of junk messages a day.
Petra Zoe said: "The spam is increasing despite moving items to the spam filter. In 24 hours, I've moved about 60 items to the spam folder. It's too much."

In addition the phishing still goes on but not as bad as it was a few months back.

I'm getting sick of it. Using the me@rescam.org function is satisfying but I'm not sure of its effectiveness. I also use the 'Blacklist Sender' function but it doesn't seem to stop it. What's wrong with these people who send out this shit? I'm trying to be wary of on-line activity as our credit card details were misused to the value of over $10k recently (we are still waiting for BNZ bank Visa to sort this out) and send phishing emails to the various phishing checkers but there is always the possibility of mistakenly opening an attachment. Bastards.
I was a bit worried that it is just our computer, smartphones and iPads that were affected but according to the community web-pages I communicate with many other people are having the same problems.

As if that's not bad enough over the last several months (up here at any rate) we have been getting scam phone calls. How this works is that a call from overseas (Ukraine, Russia, China etc) comes through with the caller ID of a New Zealand number like 'Blenheim', 'Napier' etc with the appropriate regional number. When you answer this there is no answer and the call is disconnected. It's a bait to try and get you to call back on the number. I don't know exactly how this aids them but I assume that it registers your phone number as active and one that can be on-sold to crooks, scumbags and bastards. It doesn't sound much but these computer-generated calls could capture millions of numbers this way.

As I said before - what's wrong with these people?

DISTRACTION

Not this:

KEHLANI - DISTRACTION

Nor this:

JIMMY CARR - DISTRACTION


This:

distraction

dɪˈstrakʃ(ə)n

noun

1. 1.

   a thing that prevents someone from concentrating on something else.

   "the firm found passenger travel a distraction from the main business of moving freight"

   synonyms:

   diversion, interruption, disturbance, intrusion, interference, obstruction, hindrance "he called these stories a distraction from the real issues"
2. 2.

   extreme agitation of the mind.

   "her uncharacteristic air of distraction"

   synonyms:

   frenzy, hysteria, mental distress, madness, insanity, wildness, mania, derangement, delirium;

We know that religion has been used for centuries as a means of distracting the peasantry from the unfairness of their lot and aiding in the retention of power by the ruling classes. "Religion is the opiate of the masses" to paraphrase Karl Marx.

John Lennon had a take on it here: WORKING CLASS HERO

" .... Keep you doped with religion, sex and TV... "

*****************

The Philosophical Curmudgeon posted a link to a Noam Chomsky narrative HERE which discusses how the Republican party and the power brokers in the USA are using Donald Trump and his idiocies as a means of distracting the populace - both Democrats and Republicans - away from what they are really trying to achieve which is to make money for themselves and their cronies. Trump also plays the buffoon appealing to the disenfranchised and lower intelligent voters of either parties but especially the red-necked Republicans.

********************

Recently and culminating over the last week the UK has been running its own form of distraction, one that they wheel out repeatedly when things get tough - the Royal Family.

This bunch of braindead, inbred plutocrats somehow manage to enchant a populace who can ill afford to sustain them (but it does). BREXIT, failing banks, unemployment, rising crime, education and health system problems are all forgotten about when the Hoo Ha Henries, the Sloanies the twats and the bimbos dress up and parade down the aisles of Westminster Abbey. In fairly recent years they did that when the dumb bint Diana married the twit Charles and the not so bad Kate married the OK but overprivileged William.

Now the rebellious aged-teenager Harry has married a polar opposite of the royal family - the black, American, intelligent and someone with a surname Meghan Markle. The engagement, wedding planning, wedding and post wedding hysteria occupied millions of people in the UK and around the world.

Dupes.

ENLIGHTENMENT

I was inspired by Richard's latest post HERE  where the old guy gives advice on how to make blog posts more interesting.

I don't agree with all of what he says, well, bugger all in fact but he did make a passing reference to the windows in my house which I created a series of posts on some time ago. There were eight exciting posts and here is the eighth one: WINDOWS 8

I've been a bit remiss in not following up on these posts so Richard's comment is a timely reminder.

Bad news is that I've run out of windows to post on but remembered another feature of the house that makes for interesting reading - LIGHT SWITCHES.

We have a few different types of switches in this house that merit some attention.


1. The standard single switch. 

This is a classic that is found in many homes and has the popular dirt protector around it to protect the wallpaper. This unfortunately hasn't protected the actual unit where my poor housecleaning duties are evident. We have several of these.

2. Modern version of 'The Classic'

This also is found in many houses built after 1980. To my eye it lacks the reliable robustness of 'The Classic'. This one is unusual in that the surrounding face plate is a different colour plastic to the toggle. I might earmark this for donation to Western Spring's Science and Technology Museum if we do any renovations here.

3. Newer version of the Modern version of 'The Classic'

The toggle is larger and harks back to the reliability of 'The Classic'. Colour matching of the plastics used is an improvement. Like 'The Classic' we have a few of these in operation.

4. This one has a modernistic industrial look due to the face plate having been removed at some stage. I like it's 'deconstructed' look. It reminds me of sci-fi films like Bladerunner.

5. Double switch

There are a couple of these and I'm pleased to say that they work well allowing some multi-activity in the rooms that they are installed in. In the main bathroom one operates the lights and the other operates an extraction fan. In the kitchen one operates the kitchen light and the other operates the outside front deck lights. Neat.

6.  Single dimmer switch

This is the most popular in the house with several of them being installed. They are clever and functional.

6.  Single dimmer switch with some sort of fan toggle below. I don't actually know what the fan toggle does so don't use it.

7. Single dimmer switch with a standard switch.

Now this one is clever. It is in the sitting alcove by the kitchen and operates the kitchen light which can be dimmed and the outside front deck lights . I'm continually impressed by the marvels of modern technology.

8.  Double switch with the addition of a sensor switch

The double switch operates the hall light at the front door end and also the outside security lights.
The sensor switch operates the security lights but these will not stay on all the time as they have a motion detector installed.

I hope that you found this interesting. While going about the house photographing the switches I realised of course that in addition to the fixed overhead lighting we have many free standing lamps. I don't wish to overload you with information at this stage so will photograph these and post some time in the future.

JUSTICE

I see on a community website that scrotes are following postal vans around and stealing from mailboxes. Bastards!

With the advent of Amazon this is only going to get a lot worse with people making a 'career' out of this.

In the USA and UK this is a big problem and neighbourhoods are fighting back with innovative methods. I like the exploding boxes used that cover the scrotes in dogshit (and worse).

See: HERE

RICHARD, DON'T READ THIS POST*

* Because you don't like reading about the mundane day to day activity of other bloggers.


SO WHAT DID YOU GET UP TO TODAY? I hear people saying.

Well it's been a cracker day here with blue sky and no cloud or wind. I'm not sure of the temperature but certainly over 20. Being Sunday I took the day off from gardening (Robert will no doubt be shocked) and first thing went for a long walk around the bay which was invigorating.

As the water in the bay was like a millpond I took the kayak out for an hour or so doing some fast paddling as a way of exercising the upper body. I feel good for doing that.

I looked at the trees and bushes I'd trimmed in the garden and decided to give it a miss today and will do a bit of tidying finesse during the week.

It's rough but just needs a bit of sculpturing now

I couldn't see the road from the deck before

That bastard creeper took ages to clear but my trusty Niwashi tool sorted it out

I devastated the scrappy trees at the back and now am thinking of growing a hedge to separate the back lawn from the farmland beyond

My handy cage trailer. This I really recommend.

After lunch (a yummy sandwich made from home made wholemeal bread and sliced meatloaf from last nights dinner) I headed into town to buy a new knee support:

I bought a simple exercise bike off the local Neighbourly website which I picked up on the way to town:

I suspect that I'll have to buy something more serious if I persevere with this as the orthopaedic surgeon advised.

Luckily he said that I can play golf and tennis if I'm careful. He's an advocate of healthy exercise. I'll go to tennis on Tuesday and Thursday if the weather remains nice:

Our local tennis 'club' where oldies like me and even olderies play twice a week



I've got some community work to do next week as well but with luck I'll get some golf in which I'm looking forward to.

It's just after 5pm now and it's still lovely outside with soft golden light in the trees but at this time of year, when the sun finally goes down it'll get dark really quickly.
I've opened a nice chardonnay (Babich 2016 Hawkes Bay) which I'm enjoying and will finish later with the remains of the falafel ingredients from Friday night.

I hope that you all have had a nice Sunday as well.

NEW POST - THE PHILOSOPHICAL CURMUDGEON

2 MINUTES TO MIDNIGHT

NEW POSTS

It's getting a bit dire in the blogging community with bugger all posting being done.

Robert posts a few then deletes the whole lot as usual.
Richard's been doing the same thing, deleting posts the next morning after he's written something that attacks or insults Robert.
Richard's alter-egos have all gone to sleep.
So ...... I decided to check up on The Curmudgeons Inc.ⓒ and to my embarrassment realised that my lot haven't been keeping up either.

I contacted a couple of them and gave them a hurry along.

The rest should get 'pen to paper' later on.

NEW POST - THE DARKER CURMUDGEON

A CONFESSION

NEW POST - THE CURMUDGEON'S AGONY AUNT

SOME OLD WISDOM

NEW POST - THE TWITTER CURMUDGEON

GOD'S WILL BE DONE