10 December 2011
From yesterday’s doom and gloom to the mundane but to me probably my biggest problem. What to do with my defective laptop screen that does not leave me without the means of continuing my blog and answering my daily e-mails? Fortunately that good Paul ‘the computer, came round this afternoon so that Alice who could go and do some Christmas shopping. We have found a relatively inexpensive way of replacing the screen which Paul is clever enough tofit himself .so I shall not worry the MND Association – whose computer iit is -or my own insurance company but just pay for it myself.. We spent three happy hours together fiddling around with the computer, tidying things up and investigating sources of improving its performance. Paul is so experienced that it is a pleasure to learn from him how some of these things are done.
Talking of Christmas, the winter is coming with a vengeance, icy roads and blustering winds, although the middle part of most days we are treated to a blue sky and sunshine. Great fun if you’re young and fit and I used to enjoy playing golf in such weather provided I was well muffled up against the cold. Much of the country north of Birmingham has already experience heavy snowfalls. Certainly our pretty local historic town of Saffron Walden..pulled out all the stops, as they do every year with their Christmas Fayre! Market stalls selling all sorts of little gifts; Father Christmas ringing his bell; the local church choir singing carols around a tall twinkling Christmas tree,with hot mince pies and gluvine on offer, or if your preferred it, a little bag of hot roasted chestnuts straight from his brazier fire..Although I didn’t manage to make it this year seeing that always made me feel that at last Christmas was upon us. Such a pity there was not an inch or two of snow on the ground which would be made this timeless scene all the more magical.
I wonder if we will have a white Christmas here, which is the driest county in the United Kingdom. I hope so, so that when the grandchildren come they can build their snowman and get out our ancient sledge. Much more fun for the the little ones doing something in the country rather than in their pocket handkerchief size garden in London.
We had a kindly gift from our local MND association, a pretty Christmas card with a £25 voucher to spend at Marks and Spencer. In the same post we received a request from the MND head office for a donation. I sent them a cheque for £50!
For those of you who retain any residual doubt about the part played by the American bankers in the recession which started in 2008 you really must try to see the BBC film Storyville, episode 14 , which is only available for viewing, on BBC iPlayer,for a few more days. It is really a film about the hardly believable greed of the top echelon of American bankers hedge fund managers (There was one CEO or MD interviewed who had obsemely ‘earned’ £485 million, in salary and bonus, in one year and shamelessly faced the camera and claimed he deserved it.)who ignored all the warning signs and when the bubble burst, tens of millions of people lost their job , their savings and their homes , A salutary lesson which one can only pray the bankers have learned from or alternatively the supervising bodies will prevent a repetition .
In these hard times this little  nugget of sound advice may well strike a chord with some of you. Click here to read it.