WHAT ATTRACTED YOUR ATTENTION TODAY?

[Tripps]

Nevertheless, new business making an effort, has to be a good thing. I wish them well.

I quite agree, and good luck to them, though they're not that new. "Brand Toolally officially launched at Stylist Live Weekend in 2015".

A good achievement to be selling plastic earrings for £45 a pair.

[PanBiker]

Oddly Google doesn't find them, but the address shows their 'marketing people' - thefabl.com

Toolally

Looks like more style than substance at the moment. Dragons' Den presentation sort of stuff.

PS. Ah - Now I've found them Toolally

Toolally currently lease what was Josh Elmers on Newtown in Barlick and they use it as a manufacturing base. They also have the shop opposite next to the butchers although that is currently unused. I think the unit in the Broughton Hall Business cluster is their marketing address.

[Stanley]

The fact that Mick and Susan pick me up later this morning and we are going to see my old friend John Ingoe and Vanessa, his wife who live at Crawshawbooth. I said I'd pay for lunch on the way there and I am told that we are going to the New Waggoner's Rest on Manchester Road at Burnley.I shall have a very light breakfast! Looking forward to it.

[Tizer]

Thanks for the Toolally information. They'll probably be a success - they've managed to reach my sister-in-law and she loves spending!

UK house prices have risen by 12% in the past year and the average house price in April was £267,620. I saw a report in The Times that first-time buyers in London and some other UK cities now need at least half a million pounds to buy a home in the city!
`House prices up 12% but rises expected to slow, says Nationwide' LINK

[Tripps]

I got a letter by Royal Mail today specifically to my address, telling me that my house would be very attractive to their customers in London seeking to move to my postcode. They said the demand was fuelled by people working from home, who no longer needed to be close to London, and wanted more property for their money.

Sorry Kimberly and Agnes of Exquisite Home - I'm going nowhere.

[Stanley]

The property market is fine as long as you have money. For the ones at the bottom of the ladder it is a bit of a problem. Once again, from the lofty heights of old age I look back and realise that I saw the glory days of property buying. Hey Farm was a big house with a barn and seven acres for £2,200 in 1959. Young people don't believe that and who can blame them. (I find it difficult to believe myself actually......)

[plaques]

Actually yesterday afternoon. Door bell rang, answered by Mrs P who came back in clutching a Conservative election flyer. "A Mr Stevenson asked if I had any questions he also asked if your husband has any?" Out of my trap like a greyhound. Sure enough Mr Andrew Stevenson MP by himself ready to take questions. How can one miss such a golden opportunity. After going through the errors in the 'Pendle Today' the discussions turned on Boris Johnson, Jacob Ress-Mogg. Brexit, and the general state of the twofaced voting in the House of Commons, I must say Mr Stevenson came over very well with nods of agreement on most items but clear to say where we differed, (Brexit). Thanked him for his time and he left more or less in one piece.

Mrs P's comments were " I bet he wished he'd never asked"

[PanBiker]

[Stanley]

How exciting! I congratulate you on your tolerance. I doubt if I would be able to give him the time of day. Interesting that he needed to see 'the man of the house'.....

[PanBiker]

He doesn't come to ours, maybe the red front door and the fact that he knows where we stand and would get a proper tongue lashing influences that.

A4A is about right, he's a waste of space.

[Stanley]

I suspect I'm on his black list as well. When he was first elected he wrote a letter to the BET gushing about honesty and transparency so I replied with a letter asking him if we could have transparency on the Ashworth funding of his campaign. No response and I never saw him expose himself again.... So I expect I am redacted from his Xmas card list.

[plaques]

I would have to be threatened with being 'hung, drawn and quartered' to vote for Boris's Animal Farm. Actually Andrew Stephenson MP came over as normal decent individual although this is based on a single face to face meeting. How or when he picked the Conservatives for his career move I have no idea but suspect the Tories will ditch him on the next big shake up. As I mentioned in our tête-à-tête his job as a Commons voting teller meant that he has little voting record to be challenged on. Too late to change horses midstream his days may be numbered.

[Tizer]

So I expect I am redacted from his Xmas card list.

Is that different from being removed from his list?

[Tripps]

Actually Andrew Stephenson MP came over as normal decent individual although this is based on a single face to face meeting.

That's interesing to hear. Can't beat one to one - face to face. I compare it to my doorstep chat with Heidi Allen, free of spin and minders, which seems an age ago now. I was similarly impressed, and she lived up to her promise. I see she went into the charity sector, ( via RSPCA?) but is Chair of a Housing charity CHS now. I somehow don't think politics has heard the last of her, but where she would fit in to the spectrum now is beyond me.

PS I am amusing myself, by imagining the 'redacted ones' being brave, and doing likewise - having a private face to face and trying to get their other point of view over to him.

[Stanley]

Peter. politicians redact and resile, it sounds more impressive.
Here's what Andrew Stephenson said in his letter of June 26 2009 to the BET:- Pendle Conservatives, nor I, have never received any money directly from Lord Ashcroft.
Note the weasel word directly.....

Later.... Old age is a bugger. I've just cut my toenails..... it used to be easy but now it's a major effort. Not earth-shattering news but very important to me, if your feet aren't right, there is no hope for the rest of you!

[Stanley]

I have been struck with a back storm and don't know what has caused it. Not happy but I am chasing the cause.....
(The result of the pain is that I have to take an Ibuprofen pain killer to get going and for me, that is a serious matter. Long term use of pain killers is not good. I have been there before....)

[Tizer]

Probably a result of contortions involved in cutting your toenails. I suppose the solution is to get someone to do it for you in future.

[Big Kev]

I'd second that Tizer.
Stanley, doesn't your daughter normally give you a pedicure?

[Tripps]

I'm watching racing on ITV from the Roodee - Chester. The rather creepy chap who often stands in camera shot and listens intently, behind the person being interviewed, during the post race interview has come back. I don't think he's Press. He's grown a beard, and is wearing a big fedora hat, but it's him all right. He's been missing for a while and I assumed someone had 'had a word' and warned him off.

Can't find any reference to him on the Interweb thingy.

[Stanley]

No, it wasn't the toenail cutting, I had it well before that. Yes Susan does do it normally but she has been unwell for while with post Covid problems so I don't oin her. It's quite good exercise to cut your own toenails, funnily enough the biggest thing that hampers me is not being able to see clearly, I have no problem reaching them, even with back ache.
David, I don't normally watch racing but I am sure I have noticed the same bloke occasionally and he has always struck me as an oddball. Did I see him at the National?

[Big Kev]

Shell's profits around 3 times what they were this time last year, something screwy going on somewhere. Rather convenient there's a war in the Ukraine to justify high energy prices.
https://www.ft.com/content/b2713bd1-afa ... 0c4e8a7ab7

[Tripps]

Popped intoTesco tonight. Never a dull moment. Last time it was the invasion of the Dragoon Guards - tonight it was the runaway car.

Walking back to my car, I paused to politely let another car out. It advanced very slowly, didn't turn at all, and it gradually dawned on me, that it had no one at the wheel., and was heading towards the opposite row. I called out a chap for help, and bravely tried to stop it and to my surprise succeeded. He rushed across, but by then it had stopped - more due to the gradient than my efforts I think. He said I'd done well - and modestly I didn't deny it.

I left it where it landed and went home, remembering Lester Pigott's wise advice never to catch a runaway horse as you didn't know how long you'd have to keep hold of it.

[Stanley]

Kev, I agree. My crap detector started whining when I saw the size of the profit and rose to a shriek when they mentioned 'despite losses on Russian business'. ( LINK)
Well done David, never a dull moment. Was it one of those cars with an automatic handbrake and no lever to pull?

[Tripps]

What caught my attention, and absolutely staggered me today -

I got an alert for an artist I like that a work of his was going for auction yesterday. I thought I registered to bid on Wednesday - in the event for some reason I wasn't registered. The bidding seemed to be all online. Of course I forgot about it all, and when I looked online couldn't make out what had happened. I rang them and was told "you've missed it, but it didn't sell". "Call us after the sale and we'll consider an offer at the 'low estimate' ".

I rang about 3.00 pm, and that was agreed, as was a fee for post and packing. I thought I'd give it a week or so for it to arrive.

Drum roll .... It's just about to be hung on my wall !! The frame is a little 'distressed' and I had to soak and remove some sticky tape from it, but that adds to the work. It's an original Walter Dusatti oil on canvas, and I'm very pleased with it.

So from North Shields to Cambridge area paid for, packed, posted and delivered by Royal Mail (Special Delivery by 1.00 pm) in 21 hours.

Remarkable.

dusatti.JPG

[Cathy]

Oh I do like that Tripps. Good choice

Here’s a set I bought a little while ago.
Up Along and Down Along in Clovelly, Devon.

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