NEW POST - THE CULTURED CURMUDGEON

 

TONIGHT'S THE NIGHT

NEW POST - THE CURMUDGEONLY INVENTOR

 

NO NEED TO THANK ME

BLUDGERS

 You may have picked up on my hostility to Britain's Royal Family in past posts I've written.

In these I've described them as in-bred, over-privileged and anachronistic rich people.

There are lots of other over-privileged rich people in the world - think Kardashians, Trumps, Musks and others but this 'royal' lot take the cake (as over-privileged royalty do according to the vox populi) since, because they are so 'special' normal rules don't apply to them such as sleeping with underage girls (Andrew), being sympathetic to Nazis (King Edward VIII), being a racist, a homophobe and a misogynist (Philip) and not paying taxes) all of them).

 

See this:

 UNTOLD RICHES

Today, the Duchy of Cornwall owns the landmark cricket ground known as The Oval, lush farmland in the south of England, seaside vacation rentals, office space in London and a suburban supermarket depot. (A duchy is a territory traditionally governed by a duke or duchess.) The 130,000-acre real estate portfolio is nearly the size of Chicago and generates millions of dollars a year in rental income.

The conglomerate's holdings are valued at roughly US$1.4 billion ($2.3 billion) compared with around US$949 million ($1.5 billion) in the late queen's private portfolio. These two estates represent a small fraction of the royal family's estimated US$28 billion ($46.6 billion) fortune. On top of that, the family has personal wealth that remains a closely guarded secret.

As king, Charles will take over his mother's portfolio and inherit a share of this untold personal fortune. While British citizens normally pay around 40 per cent inheritance tax, Charles gets this tax-free. And he will pass control of his duchy to his elder son, William, to develop further without having to pay corporate taxes.

I think this stinks but then I'm anti-royal and an atheist to boot.

I understand the Monarchy's involvement in British and Commonwealth parliaments including our own and that a lot of legislation will be required for a change (Constitutional Law was one of the subjects I studied at university) but .... a change is going to (gonna ) come.

 

APPLE TIES

 

"Surprise"

I note that Robert has been having some problems setting up his new computer and that this might place limitations on his posting and commenting on the blogs.

Being without Robert's posts and comments is like being without  ........ never mind.

But seriously though I hope that he gets it sorted though as it's a bugger having to battle with computers and software. 

I just bought a new (refurbished) iPad series 9 which is quite a  step up from the series 2 that I bought 9 years ago. The old one worked OK but Apple, in their canny and sneaky wisdom has made it impossible to upgrade to the newer operating systems that are required to connect with, well, basically everything. I got frustrated at being unable to access mail, blogs, games, news sites and may other things so bit the bullet and bought the series 9. I got it at a good price, about half the cost of a brand new one and the refurbished ones come with original Apple packaging and guarantees.

What it also comes with is the very annoying Apple connectivity. This is where, if more than one Apple device is owned Apple thinks it's a good idea for the machines to cuddle up and swap information, photos, files - everything. This becomes extremely frustrating when trying to change passwords and settings on one device without one of the others interfering. We've got several Apple devices:

• The new series 9 iPad
• The old series 2 iPad
• The Old Girl's series 1 iPad
• The old Mac desktop computer
• The new Mac desktop computer
• My Macbook Air laptop.
• My old series 6 iPhone
• My 'new' series 8 iPhone

The old iPhone and Mac desktop I usually have disconnected but if I do turn them on they are like little overactive puppies trying to get to know everyone.

When I bought the iPhone 8 I had similar issues and shut down a lot of the iCloud functions.

With this new iPad I've tried to follow the internet instructions which on the face of it is simple but are actually useless.

Well that didn't work so I've been going through the settings of all of the devices looking for any 'sharing' functions and turning them off when I find them.

In my internet search I discovered this:

The guy asking the question described himself as an accomplished technician in the building trade but for the life of him he couldn't make sense of the advice and information he was being given.

I scanned through the Q trail which went on over an 18 month period and noted that he was getting more and more frustrated. I guess he went out and bought a Samsung or something.

I feel the same. Once I've turned off all of the crappy and unwanted sharing functions and deleted all of the unnecessary and battery wasting Apps I'll be down to:

• Calls
• Texts
• Occasional eMail
• Photos
• Blogs when I'm not using the desktop or laptop computers.

Sometimes I feel that the computer and communication industry is just getting too smart for itself.

NEW POST - THE MUSIC CURMUDGEON

 

GRACE

MAKING A SPECTACLE OF MYSELF

 I've been having problems with my eyesight recently and considered going to the opticians to update the prescription.

Last time that I got new specs was about four years ago and these were from Specsavers. I was attracted by the deal admittedly but, after going through the process and with my special requirements (I'm blind as a bat) the savings were a bit of a myth. I took the buy one get the other for half price deal and with the 'other' bought a pair of prescription sunglasses. These work well but the standard, day to day pair have declined in their power somehow. Basically the lenses are crap and fail after a few years.

I did a bit of research on-line and it seems that the discount opticians use cheaper lens providers. You get what you pay for. QED, but hold on, I was still paying close to the standard or top rate. I think I'll use another provider.

I actually made an appointment with Specsavers a couple of months ago but had to cancel due to a medical issue that put me in hospital for a week. I booked with them because I recently bought hearing aids from Specsavers (which have proven to be very good) and did so when I was getting a hearing check-up.

The Specsavers spectacles have basically failed and I found an old pair that I bought about 8 years ago from a very good (and expensive) optometrist in Auckland. I wasn't expecting these to be any good after such a long time but they have proven to give me better sight than the newer Specsavers ones. I gave up using these because they were broken. This happened in The UK a few years ago when I was stranded in the fast lane of a bloody motorway. As I stepped out of the car the slipstream from a truck barrelling along at about 120KM managed to whisk the glasses off and the frame broke on the road. See: HERE. I taped them up and replaced them with a cheap pair from a UK-type Specsavers. I don't know where these are now. Anyway, when I tried these specs on again my vision was so much better. I got out the trusty superglue and liberally applied to the broken frame while squeezing the lens in. Result? Not pretty but it works. 

I think that I'll keep using these.

Over the years I've had many different pairs of spectacles and the types reflect the fashion of the decades - metal framed, transparent plastic framed, ''frameless', dark framed etc. As a myopic person my eyes deteriorated over the years necessitating stronger lens prescriptions and it's only recently, with old age that the process has slowed down a bit.

This is what I wore in the mid 1980s - larger frame tortoiseshell:

No doubt if I tried these on now, if I could find them they would prove to be ineffective.

Some people, probably most people, are lucky that they don't have to wear spectacles and, when they do, often use them only for reading.

The Old Girl, my partner has good vision but always has a pair of reading glasses around.

With

Without

Because she doesn't have to wear them all the time though she's forever losing them and looking about when she needs them. I often threaten to buy her one of those old lady spectacle chains to connect to them so she can have them around her neck.

To date that idea hasn't gone down well.

SO WHERE ARE THE JOKES?

 UK's new Prime Minister is crazy woman Liz Truss.

Now, given the difficulties that UK has faced over the last few years, in particular with a Donald Trump-type buffoon leading the countries (Boris Johnson) and in sore need of some sort of surgical remedy, Liz Truss comes along and I've yet to see anyone making a joke about her name.

BOGGER!

 Yesterday The Old Girl, when out on the deck by the recycle bins (IN MY TERRITORY) looked at the kitchen window and said "Matey, we need to get this window replaced".

Fear gripped my heart.

That expression needs embellishment with the sound of thunder, darkness  and flashing lightning but I don't have the computer skills and frankly, I can't be arsed. You can imagine it.

This window is a large and characterful one and, I think that it's still in pretty good condition. You remember that recently we replaced the kitchen French doors, the study window, the two East facing bedroom windows and the bank of North facing bedroom windows with modern aluminium fittings. These are great, and, admittedly the original wooden ones were in very bad condition  but I still like the originals.

I had a close look at what The Old Girl had been looking at and yes, there was a disturbing amount of rot at the bottom left corner of the outside frame. I tapped it. It sounded hollow. I poked at it with my finger. My finger went straight through. I fetched a screwdriver and poked some more. Big chunks fell out. I kept poking, prodding and rummaging and removed a lot of dry, almost desiccated timber remnants. When I'd satisfied myself that I'd removed as much as I could and was happy that the remnants were dry rather than wet I then sawed up and packed the hollow with pieces of dry weatherboard. This is probably kauri and long-lasting. I had bought some Builder's Fill from our local hardware store and mixed it up.

This is the first time that I've used this product and wasn't sure how effective it might be. I bought the smallest container (plus additive) of it to try it out. It mixed up well  but application was difficult as it set so quickly. I was relatively pleased with the result though. Job done.

If you look closely you can see the bogging work I did on the window frame.

I put it down to the fact that the builder's fill is a pinkish colour and stands out a bit.

It's also a bit solid and doesn't appear smooth.

As I started to gather up my tools I had another look at my handiwork and wondered what The Old Girl would think of it. Would she be happy? Would she say "well done Matey." I decided that she wouldn't.

Bugger!

I went to my toolshed (a space in the basement I created) and found the electric sander we bought in a hurry before Christmas last year because The Old Girl wanted to immediately sand down some furniture. The job was so pressing she didn't want to wait for th Boxing Day sales. Needless to say the sander was sill in its box, unopened and unused.

I assembled the components (sort of) and proceeded to sand down the bogging work. This was quite difficult as the fill set like fibreglass and I needed a mask to prevent breathing in the fine and dangerous dust. After about an hour I decided that it was near enough and wiped all the dust off and applied a thick coat of undercoat.

Job done!

Next!

CAN YOU KEEP A SECRET?

 It's been a really nice day today and I set off to tennis earlier than usual. It was very chilly though and I wore my sweat pants over the op of my shorts.

After parking the car, getting out my tennis racquet and bag I crossed the road to the tennis club and felt that something was different and not right.

I looked down and saw that I was still wearing my house slippers and had forgotten to put on my tennis shoes.

I shuffled back to the car and drove home to change footwear.

Oh, the joys of getting older.

DOING MY BIT

 I'm concerned that posting on this blogging community is becoming banal and, in some instances, frivolous. It's time that some real issues were identified and commented on.

Today I went to town and bought some hardware items (an exciting post on the reasons why will come later) and, while there I called into not one, but three lunch bars in search of something that I haven't seen for quite some time.

I had a craving for a croquette.

No. not this

Definitely not him

Kind of like this but not as fancy

For many years, when buying lunch at 'sandwich bars' the good old potato croquette was a stand-by if the other offerings weren't appealing. Usually there was nothing that the proprietors could muck up because the recipe was pretty basic - potato (grated or mashed, mixed with cheese, ham or fish, shaped into an oblong, coated with breadcrumbs and deep fried). Easy peasy. Simple but delicious.

In recent years these have been hard to find. There may be a few reasons for this:

• They have fallen out of popularity.
• Younger people buy other things
• The standardisation of 'Vietnamese-type' owned bakeries hasn't included the croquette as a staple.

I prefer the last one. The 'standard fare' of the average sandwich shop nowadays is  just that - standard. The offerings are a bit boring and don't vary much from one place to another. It gets to be a complete waste of time to travel from one to another and another of you are looking for, for example a cream horn, a Sally Lunn bun or, in my case a potato croquette (fish, ham or cheese or any combination).

My cravings went unsatiated. I bought a sausage roll instead. Admittedly the sausage roll was good and, once bitten into (uninvited), The Old Girl concurred. I worry though that the good old sausage roll might disappear as well. Heavens above! What will commercial cleaners and others still in the workforce without access to fancy staff cafeterias or expense accounts do?