WHAT ATTRACTED YOUR ATTENTION TODAY?

[Wendyf]

Silly me. The tyres are on the sides of the cattle grid to stop little lambs finding their way along the edges.

[Stanley]

Wendy.
What grabbed me yesterday was the realisation that it was time I did something about the state of my old aluminium colander, it is quite disgusting! I couldn't find one in Barlick so went online and ordered a stainless steel one and while I was at it new sieves as well. It's funny how you let things drag on in plain sight. Every time I have got the colander out I have noted what a state it was in. Standards are being maintained!

[PanBiker]

They have a range of pans and utensils at Aldi, saw them the other day. Don't know if they had a colander though as I wasn't particularly looking for one. Sorted anyway so no worries.

[Stanley]

Never thought of the supermarkets, more interested in supporting the local shops....
I'm not a tennis fan but I watched Coco Gauff marching forward to round 4 at Wimbledon. She is very impressive! What struck me was the way her expression never changes while she is on court, no show of emotion at all, a very strong mind. Good luck to her.....

[Big Kev]

I'm surprised they never had one in Shambles or Redmans...

[Tripps]

I watched Coco Gauff marching forward

I watched until she was a set down and 1- 4 behind in the second. "Ah well it's all over, it was good while it lasted" I thought, and changed channel. The rest is history.

[PanBiker]

I watched Coco Gauff marching forward to round 4 at Wimbledon.

So did I, riveting tennis and a match that upset the TV schedule. She is totally focused on court and seems to be un-phased about her surroundings on the global stage. She has it all going for her and if not on her debut she will be one to watch over the next few years, I like her. Mum and dad were "made up" you might say, well done that girl.

[Stanley]

Bugger! I never thought about Redmen's....
The thing that struck me was the fluid way Coco moves, lots to be said for youth!
The thing that grabbed me yesterday was that Naomi and John were fascinated by my 80th birthday montage and both immediately homed in on Brigitte Bardot which gave me a chance to tell my story about The Kiss!
It reminded me of another time. I was in the Langham Hotel in the days when it was the BBC staff canteen with Roger ? with whom I had been doing a screen test for a projected series when a stunning group of women walked in and one detached herself from the group, came across and gave me a huge hug. I was the envy of every man in the room and Roger was most impressed. I had to explain, it was Shireen Shah who appears frequently on BBC drama and used to be a regular visitor at Hey Farm.



Here she is at the farm playing with the kids in 1976. Lovely memories.....



And again with Vera.

On another front, I was listening to Desert Island Discs yesterday and the man who was the subject mentioned what he called the defence of 'Constructive Paranoia'. As he explained it I realised that what he meant was his version of what I call 'One hand for the ship and one for yourself'. I find it's a good strategy, always being aware of what could be worst case and bearing it in mind, a simple example is always holding the bannister rail when descending the stairs and thinking about each step. It extended through my life, sometimes in some very dangerous situations. It may be why I have survived over eighty years largely unscathed!
I recommend the concept to all of you!

[Stanley]

Have a look at THIS BBC report of the death of Eva Mozes Kor, Auschwitz survivor.

[Stanley]

A programme on R4 on the Hanseatic League (LINK). I've always been interested in it and I decided I must know more. It turns out that a good place to start is Norman Davies's account of the history of Poland 'God's Playground' and I have that so I know what comes next after Roy......

[Tizer]

Renewed our LV house insurance today. Same premium as last year, about £140. I've been renewing with them for several years now and the premium has been about the same. It's nice to know that not all businesses are ripping us off. Service is good too - a response within 5 minutes on a Monday morning is good and all done within a few minutes. No attempts to sell me something or extract more personal data. Full marks!

[Tizer]

Beware!! Amazon are currently using `forced trials' to get people onto Amazon Prime subscriptions. I've always said they'll never get me on it and I'm very careful to make sure I never click anything that will sign me up to Prime. I've just ordered a new electric fan from them and had to jump through the usual hoops and avoid the elephant traps. I navigated through using only the normal `Free Delivery from Amazon' links and didn't click anything relating to Prime. But once I'd paid I was told I'd signed up to a `Free One Month Trial' of Prime. This is what the marketing industry calls a `forced trial' - you don't give the customer a choice, you just sign them up. In its original form it was acceptable because it was used where you sent the customer a free item and that was all, you just hoped they'd like it and would buy some more. But now ethics are thrown to the winds and it's used for open-ended subscriptions with the onus on you to find a way out of being locked in. And, by golly, Amazon make it hard to find your way out of Prime, there must be many people locked in and unable to find their way out of paying £7.99 a month.

[Stanley]

They caught me once and that was enough. I am always super careful now and you're right, they embed it in the process and you have to read every word on the screen and check afterwards.

[Tizer]

The fact that you had managed to cancel the Prime subscription was a comfort for me - I knew there must be an exit! But Amazon have overstepped the mark now. I definitely didn't click on anything to do with Prime. Every click was on the standard free delivery which I always choose. They are getting away with forcing it on us by saying it's a `free trial'. They might get a lot of complaints and I wouldn't be surprised if it's dumped quickly. You know what companies are like these days for `trying it on'. It's a business model now!

[PanBiker]

Can't you take them to task under fair or distance selling rules with one of the Ombudsman services? It's basically a con and could be construed as a fraudulent transaction if you are duped into accepting something that you don't want.

[Tripps]

Can't you take them to task under fair or distance selling rules with one of the Ombudsman services?

I suppose so, but life's too short? Despite being on guard, I was tricked into joining Amazon prime. It was a while ago, and I managed to cancel it - with some difficulty. The idea of Tripps v Amazon has no appeal at all. I hardly use Amazon at all now.

I was irritated recently when the price of my car service included membership of a rescue service, which I didn't want. They said I could reject it if I chose to, but they wouldn't give me any refund for not taking it. I made an effort to fight it, but soon gave up. I wanted the Main Dealer stamp in the service book, and I'll cancel my existing rescue service when it's due. I might call both if I breakdown, and see who comes first.

[Tizer]

I agree with Tripps. Amazon would simply say that the customer can cancel the service at any time. I've seen these sorts of problems raised with the companies by newspaper journalists but they (the companies) have always got ways around any attempts to pin them down on any misdemeanour, let alone fraud. I once had a big argument with Ebay because they suddenly banned me and implied that I'd committed fraud. I'd only just joined and had spent all of about £20! I can only think they confused me with someone else or that I'd been `set up' by someone who I outbid for an item. It took lots of my time over many weeks before I could get them to re-instate me. They never apologised or admitted their error. These tech companies are too big, too powerful and believe themselves to be not subject to the laws governing other businesses.

[Stanley]

I need cheering up! And here you are doing your best to depress me....
What's grabbing me is feeling lousy after yesterday's treatment. It won't be long before I am back in bed...... All expected but even so, depressing!!

[Tizer]

This might cheer you up. John Major on Today this morning touched on the issue of the UK ambassador and Trump calling him stupid. He pointed out that the the man is officially `Her Majesty's Ambassador' to the US. It's now time for us to tell Trump he has grossly offended Her Majesty. You know how much he dotes on the Queen (`A lovely lady, true, the loveliest, that's a real fact') so offending her is probably the one thing in this world that would get Trump down on his knees to beg forgiveness!

[PanBiker]

Yes the Ambassadors are effectively acting as a forthright voice on behalf of and for the Monarch who has to remain neutral. Ambassadors are encouraged to be candid about how they see the circles they have to operate in. This bloke has done nothing wrong, just his job and no worse than Trump himself who sends derogatory tweets about anyone he wants. The fact that he uses that particular medium to voice his opinions as one of the most powerful leaders on the planet speaks volumes. Puts him firmly in the moron category as far as I am concerned, don't think I'm alone in that regard either.

[Tizer]

Agreed. What we should be concerned about is the leakiness of our diplomatic service. In fact, the leakiness in many aspects of our government structure.

[PanBiker]

I am sure that whoever leaked the information will probably have a confidentiality clause within their contract. It is they who should be hauled across the coals and dismissed in my view for breaching that.

[Tizer]

And now the ambassador has resigned too.

Talking of leaks, we seem to be having too many of them...
`HMS Queen Elizabeth: Leak forces aircraft carrier to abandon sea trials' LINK

[Stanley]

What attracted my attention was something a bit more obscure. Have a look at THIS news report on the spread of African Swine Fever across the world. It's serious because it is 100% fatal, has no vaccine and is not found easily because of the enormous number of back-yard pigs in under-developed countries. China is particularly affected. Only good thing is that it isn't transmitted to humans.
This is massive and dwarfs any problems we have but gets hardly any air time, it's in far away countries and so of no interest to us.

[chinatyke]

ASF.
China is particularly affected. Only good thing is that it isn't transmitted to humans.

Big problem here at the moment. There is a national campaign ongoing with TV education programs and enforcement at field level. I've only been in one pig farm here and it was spotless and impressive. You walked through disinfectant troughs and so on. I'm guessing it will be the little guys with a few pigs who are the problem.