Just One Evening In Skegness.

We went for a pleasant tootle along Skegness sea-front. I was forced to eat an ice cream dipped in hot chocolate against my will [yum].

As usual the local loonies were revving up and racing around the big car park near the boating lake. 'Wouldn't it be great if a police car came now? That'd make them behave.' was the general consensus. Right on cue a police car did a circuit of the car park completely ignoring the loonies who were by then miraculously sitting and behaving, then it carried on along the promenade.

We were a bit speechless, well I was, madam was busy talking to her hubby on the phone, covering all the obligatory subjects -
'What's the weather like?'
'What did you have for your dinner?'
'Did you go shopping?'
'Who did you see?'
'What did they say?'
'Did they wonder where I was?'
'What time did you go to the toilet?'
[I may have imagined the last one ... but only just.]
'Ooh, it's lovely here, we've got a sea breeze, we've been out in the sunshine all day without getting hot, aren't you jealous?'
'Remember me to everyone.' blah, blah blah ...

We carried on our merry way, admiring the flowers, we'd watched the gardeners planting some earlier in the day. You can say what you like about Skeggy but they always make a big effort with the gardens. We then sat and watched some firemen playing with their big ladder on the other side of what's left of the pier. When that entertainment proved to be less than thrilling we tootled off only to be met by a gardening massacre. There are new huge tubs with a Silver Birch in each with flowers planted around them. They were fine when we passed them earlier, but in the space of an hour someone had uprooted some of the plants and thrown them on the floor to die.

Just after this between the pier and the Suncastle is a new play area, it used to be a paddling pool. It was full of adolescents, lots of them were drinking [it wasn't pop] and there were empty cans strewn around. Why don't their parents know where they are or what they're doing? If they do know, do they really care? and who is selling alcohol to children so young? [or fetching it on their behalf]. No-one dare say anything to these [very young] teenagers, there's far too many of them together. You daren't even look in their direction for fear of causing unnecessary trouble for yourself.

A few minutes later we passed the Suncastle where we stopped to watch some crumblies playing bowls, then we noticed three boys crashing through the bushes, deliberately breaking them down, they were about 10 or 11 years old. We continued on our way back muttering and moaning. We managed to get madam past her favourite chippy without resorting to too much violence.

Now I'm not suggesting that as children we were in any way perfect. We weren't [I came pretty damned close though]. It's fairly normal for a child to rebel and to see how far they can push authority. The big difference is, we as children DID recognise authority and once an adult told us off [any adult], we accepted it and went on our way suitably chastened, obviously muttering under our collective breath. What we didn't do was answer back or intimidate by our sheer numbers. We were instilled from an early age with respect for all adults. This respect for others and their property has all but vanished.

For some reason a lot of today's children believe that adults are simply a minor aggravation somewhere convenient in the background as a source of funds and an endless supply of the latest gadgets and designer gear. I blame children's television for a lot of this attitude. they nearly always portray adults as moronic, interfering, stick-in-the-mud dinosaurs and children are always, ALWAYS right and proved to be so on a daily basis.

I know these are only minor, trivial misdemeanours that I'm moaning about but where will it end, if these little vandals carry on getting away with doing what they like and not recognising right from wrong then in a few years time they'll be the one's revving up in the car parks [or worse] and racing around and nothing will be done about that until someone is tragically killed.

It's a shame that Skegness is abused by losers who think it's an achievement to get an ASBO. Skegness is just one town and I can only write about my own experiences but it's a safe bet that this abuse of communal [and private] property is occurring in every town in our country by the mindless minority who give a bad name to the rest of the youth of today ...

Packing the Cat & Other Holiday Pleasures

I have been warned not to write a blog about when I'm going to be away as it's an open invitation to burglars.

Apart from the fact that I've got nothing at home worth pinching, we've got good neighbours who know when we're not here, plus our walls are paper thin [1 brick]. Sometimes it's like being in the same house, conversations aren't even slightly muffled. We've even had to move our bed because our neighbour on one side told our neighbour on the other that she could hear things! [this had to be her imagination].

My cat has gone AWOL, she is most untrusting, I can't understand it, but she wasn't ever so pleased about coming home last time, I caught her completely unawares & she seems to think that I was cheating somehow.

When we arrive at our caravan aka the manor, two of our friends will be installed as they've already set off. By this time tomorrow, one of them will be on his way back home having left behind his wife. This is a mixed blessing - terrific for him, slightly less so for me. I will need tranquilizers & painkillers in vast quantities.

There is shopping to be done! - We have a couple of favourite shops where we can spend an entire afternoon in the changing rooms, or in my case, walking backwards & forwards to the changing rooms with the same things in different sizes for madam to try on, in other words I'm just a glorified shopping assistant!

Madam also has a mobility scooter to whizz about on, so has her hubby & ahem, he leaves it for me to play on when he goes home. This causes much hilarity wherever we go, mainly because in the absence of obvious brakes on the scooter I have a habit of using my feet to stop; instead of simply letting go of the handle.

This is not advisable, as
1 - it hurts
2 - your bag & cardi that are stowed away in the front basket end up shooting over your head.

Still, it amuses those that witness it.



The best way of describing us is as 'recycled teenagers'. We constantly moan about the youth of today that whizz around the car parks, then race up & down the sea front at Skegness. They have their blacked out windows fully open so we can hear their music that goes bump, bump bump, only to realise that we're guilty of exactly the same thing, but in a much smaller 'twice around the flower bed' kind of way, with indicators winking, lights flashing on our heads, [oh, that may just be me] & of course singing.

Last time we did the above trip early one evening, Madam was quite determined to buy some chips, hungry or not.

"Do you want some chips?"
"No"
"Fish?"
"No"
"Pie?"
"No, I'm not hungry"
"Are you sure?"
"Yes... Oh by the way, you've got dog poo on your right back wheel"
"Oh have I?... Well never mind, I'll wipe it off with me chip paper on our way back"

We had chips...

Heanor Haulage fumes!

Heanor Haulage, your crane fumes are horrendous this morning!! Do you have to work right under my window??

Asda's latest Langley Mill Exhibition

We went to the Bridge Centre 'Asda Exhibition' on Wednesday evening, spoke at length to a very nice lady from Amber Valley Council Planning [Development Manager].

As well as our major concern over Heanor Haulage & their proposed workshop, I told her that there were bats roosting somewhere, but that we weren't sure which building they're in [I like bats]. At some point I suggested that it would be useful for privacy on both sides if they could retain the trees behind us on HH land where they propose to build houses.

She told us to put all our comments & concerns in writing [before 13 July]. There were printed sheets for us to use & a box to put them in or we could take the paper away to fill in & post, plus there's an email address for those of us who've lost the art of handwriting or are just too mean to buy a stamp [that covers both me & the grumpy old man].

What the f*** are Heanor Haulage doing now? The noisy b*****ds!!

I digress, but I'm having trouble concentrating with all the noise on the back from HH playing with yet another crane!

Now where was I? I've completely lost the thread now. Oh yes, Asda...

We then spoke to one of the Asda planners. We told him that we were very much in favour of the proposed Asda store but were worried about the close proximity of the Heanor Haulage workshop, he promised that they'd look into it, he seemed understanding about our concerns. We discussed where we went shopping now, agreeing that we liked Morrisons. I said that we'd definitely shop at Asda as we liked shopping there, but the most convenient Asda store for us at the moment is Sutton-in-Ashfield.

Whilst we were on 'all things Asda', I think I even managed to sell him Asda mobile - at 8p a minute & 4p a text that I'd converted some of my friends to, [It's one of my duties to find the best deals for my crumbly friends] he said it'd be ideal for his sons. As he already knew that Asda mobile piggy-backed on Vodafone I suspect he may have been humouring me.


There was no-one there to represent Heanor Haulage. Now why doesn't that surprise me?...

Been for my Retest at Specsavers

Had the retest, as I half expected, there was no significant difference in the result between this one & my last.

I was taken back downstairs & handed back over to my new bezzie mate, where he again sat mentally scratching his head. He said they were the correct prescription even though I maintained everything was still a blur through my left eye, he tested the glasses twice. Now I was genuinely surprised as I'd thought the axis problem would have been picked up at this point, but I was wrong.

Ok then -
'Ahem, when I tilt my glasses in this direction, I can see clearly.' You could see the lightbulb starting to flicker above his head. He looked at his notes that he'd made when ordering my glasses & compared it to the computer print out that he took the prescription from.

'Aha, I've found it, it's my fault' he said, 'read that line for me', I wasn't in all honesty expecting this as I'd thought it had been an error when the lenses were made.
But there it was - cyl 00 sph +0.25 axis 53. Only it wasn't, the axis was 153 as I knew from my copy but the 1 had printed on the line of the little box it was meant to be in so was all but invisible.

So it was 100 degrees out, not a bad guess on my 90 degrees. But to be completely fair, I'd have made the same mistake reading my prescription from that piece of paper.

'Couldn't you just sit with your head tilted to one side?'
'I think not'
'It'd save us some money'
'I'm not bovvered'
'BROWN', I said
BROWN he wrote
'how long?'
"2 weeks"

MORAL OF THIS SAGA

Don't knock Specsavers if you never go back with any problems. I found the staff to be professional [where necessary], efficient, polite & friendly. They were only too happy [or they did a damned good impression] to try & sort out my foibles. I couldn't do their job, not being of a natural pleasant disposition, I may be lovely [& modest], but not that lovely ...

50,000 miles.

We celebrated clocking 50,000 miles in our car on our way to Skegness today, we knew before we set off that it was going to happen, it was just a matter of guessing where. I picked the correct stretch of road, the A17, not too difficult to suss out as we know roughly how far we travel on any routes of our choice.

As we got closer we were both glancing myopically - ok, presbyopically as it's age related poor sight - at the odometer, between us we decided we were on either 49,999 [me] or 49,998 [him] so it was a case of reaching 50,000 either at the bottom or top of the crawler lane. Ah! my eyes were best, his excuse was he was wearing his distance glasses whilst I was wearing my new, soon to be adjusted varifocals, amazing I saw anything really as they're rubbish.

50,000 miles is an awful long way to go just to escape from Heanor Haulage, but that is what the bulk of our travelling has been for, well half of it, the rest was just taking me back, whereupon my reaction on turning onto Bridge Street, each & every time for the last 5 years has been 'That bloody building is still there'.

This was way before we'd heard that Asda wanted to be our neighbours. I had harboured notions of petrol bombing the place, even going so far as to see how to do it on the Internet. Of course I'd never have done anything of the sort but there's no harm in a little escapism is there? Apart from anything else I'd already told everyone I wanted to do it, so the first place the police would visit for questioning would be here.

Likewise ways to get rid of my ex-husband, there wasn't much chance of me bumping him off, as over the years I'd jokingly told everyone, including him, of my chosen methods - poisoned mushrooms, loosening the stairs carpet & rewiring the kettle. It was a case then of making sure he stayed alive, much to his amusement. Especially one day when I went to fetch our pooch [shared custody], he was mowing the lawn with a lawnmower that had a cable chavelled in places where he'd run over it with the mower exposing bare wires, I went loopy at him!

'I thought you'd be pleased, you'd get all my money if I frazzled' [we weren't yet divorced then]
'No you moron! Everyone knows I've still got a key, they'd think I'd been in while you were out & tampered with your cable. I'd be languishing in prison, not spending your money!'

I got my grumpy old electrician to sort out his cable ...

Is It Only Me?

Recently for some bizarre reason, my grumpy old man has taken to calling me Judy, it's a nice enough name but it's not mine.

I've put it down to senility on his part but was still a bit puzzled when I questioned him why he would think that Judy was anything like Julie.

"Well it sounds the same" was the reply upon interrogation about who this 'Judy' might be.
But I don't get it, the only similarity is that it starts 'Ju'. So I interrogated a bit further, in my own nice way.

"When you say or think a persons name, do you see it spelt out?" was my first question.
Reply "spelt where?"
I could see this wasn't going to be easy, my victim, sorry I mean my grumpy old man was either being deliberately obtuse or as I was beginning to suspect, it's me that's odd.

"Ok, when you think or talk do you just see the entire thought or can you see it spelt out, sort of inside your forehead?"

Victim's vague reply "um, owd on a minute, I've gorra 'oss in this race".

End of this line of interrogation - I know I'm wasting my time when the racing is on. So, Judy it is then, makes a refreshing change from 'me duck' I suppose.

Conclusion - I'm weird, everything I think or say is spelt out. I never have a single thought that I don't see whizzing across my brain spelt out in words, even the misspelling of the few I get wrong like nessessary [I have to look that one up every single time I use it], there's no wonder I get headaches...

My Views on Asda's Plans for Langley Mill

Ok, I've seen Asda's & Heanor Haulage's plans for Langley Mill.

So what was all that tripe about showing us the plans in early April where they would 'try to incorporate our suggestions where possible'. They haven't budged an inch as far as I can see. We're still going to have an enormous Heanor Haulage workshop across from us, it's not so bad further down the street where the offices plan to be, they're set further back & aren't so high or indeed likely to be noisy.
We were told by Asda representatives that the Heanor Haulage building would be two stories high, they were either fibbing or didn't know what they were talking about. I assume it was the latter as they had no reason to lie, a little retraining required I think before the next public exhibitions.

And where are my trees? the only ones near us look like they're getting the chop as they'll be in the way of Heanor Haulage & Asda's grand plan [yes, am in a mood].

I noticed on more than one page of the plans that they're quite chuffed to let us know how high the current building is & how high their proposed elevation will be, yes, it's lower, but that's from number 40 Bridge Street down. Only where Asda itself is, no mention of what it'll be like opposite the buildings of Heanor Haulage, quite nice where the offices are, set back away from the road, but we'll have the noisy high workshop, very close to us.

I also noticed that on every ASDA sign on the plans it said '24 hours', oh what joy, I'll be able to nip down for a bottle of milk in my nighty & slippers if they keep me awake.

Where's the rest of Heanor Haulage going? & why isn't it all going? This has me baffled but I'm only a simple woman, not privy to the machinations [what a lovely big word] of Mr Heanor Haulage & Asda.

I'm wondering if writing any sort of objection about the Heanor Haulage part of the plans will have the slightest bit of impact with the council. I've now fully accepted that Heanor Haulage is here to stay but a little more leeway in their building positions and LOTS OF TREES FOR ME!! would be appreciated.

Also there's the housing, now if it was being done on the back without Heanor Haulage on the front it'd be ok. I know I constantly moan about Heanor Haulage behind us but at least now we can see beyond them from the upstairs window & there's plenty of light. With Heanor Haulage's new proposed HIGH building on the front & modern 'get as many 3 story houses [up to 60] as you can on as little land as possible' attitude on the back, the overall view we're threatened with will be akin to life in a prison, although I've heard that it's much nicer in some prisons.

Anyway, how can we object to 'an outline' of the housing plans? there's nothing specific to point out & say "we don't think it's right".

I suppose it's our fault for being peasants & living where we do in the first place but before Heanor Haulage moved in it was lovely & peaceful even though it is dark on the front with the brick building & tin shack next to it. In winter the sun hardly ever reaches downstairs.

'Well established' I've seen Heanor Haulage described, as a firm it may well be, but it's suggested that they're 'well established' in Langley Mill. If you count 13 or 14 years as 'well established' fair enough. If this is the case then my grumpy old man, who has lived on Bridge Street since 1962, must by now have 'Stonehenge' status.

We're still puzzled about how the 'well established' firm Heanor Haulage got here in the first place. As the name suggests, Heanor Haulage originated elsewhere, in fact they've had several changes of address so I don't know why they wouldn't like another one, somewhere like, oh let me see, Heanor?

Oh yes, back to how they got foisted on us at Langley Mill. A big building firm wanted their land on Lacyfields road. It was all very hush hush, no-one knew they were coming, there were no notices anywhere. I know I'm repeating myself but they just turned up one Sunday afternoon.

All in all, I have to say despite my grumbling of things past that cannot be undone. I am in favour of an Asda store being built in Langley Mill. But unless it can be categorically proved that Heanor Haulage won't be a noise & pollution nuisance as they are now, then I will object to their part of the plans. And believe me, in the future after my objections have been completely ignored & Heanor Haulage are installed in their new workshop & strangely larger offices for a downsized company, I will be in touch with environmental health whenever I think it's necessary & be ignored a bit more.

As regards to the demolition & rebuilding, I expect noise & disruption, as long as the rules are adhered to about times of work & noise, then I won't be complaining too loudly, except of course here in my blog.

Oh yes Asda, don't forget the BATS, the man who checked for their possible roosts was too early, they arrived mid-May & they come every year, we're not sure exactly where they roost but we think it's in the building across the top of Bridge Street.

Asda have now written to us twice so far & we've recently had a letter from the council telling us how to have our say if we object to the plans. Now that is what I consider a courtesy by Asda & proper procedure by the council.

We've heard nothing from Heanor Haulage. I use that term loosely, I meant we've had nothing delivered in the post from them, about their plans & how they will affect us. Perhaps they're not legally obliged to, but surely it's in their interest not to alienate the residents by not even acknowledging their existence. I for one & others I've spoken to would like Heanor Haulage representatives to make themselves available for questioning on 24th June at the Bridge centre. We want to know what impact it'll have on our lives moving their workshop so close.
Questions about where the compressor will go & will it be soundproofed enough? How will they get rid of diesel fumes from the building? Are they likely to come our way? These are pertinent questions that we need answered, not just the nit-picking of a grumpy old woman - I mean me in case you were wondering...

Been Back to Specsavers

Well I went back with my shiny new glasses as I said I would, this alone was an achievement, I may be grumpy & moany but I'm also very English & as a race we don't like to go back and complain about anything.

I must point out that my eyesight isn't bad, I can manage without glasses just for normal everyday looking at things but I can't cope with sunlight too well, if I went outside without tinted lenses my eyes would be streaming & I'd never see where I was going even on dull days.
I, in my expert wisdom, consider my left eye worse than my right, but what do I know?

I saw the same lovely man who sorted me out as before, he was a bit puzzled by the grey reactions as he'd wrote it down & said he wouldn't by choice have put grey with gold frames, We put it down to 'he'd misheard something I'd not said'. But it was no problem, they're going to change them, but my second problem had him stumped, in 25 years he said he'd never come across what I told him. I said that I'd been practicing a lot with my new glasses I discovered that my best vision was at an angle, facing left & looking right which makes me look even more odd than normal.

I've now got an appointment on 22nd June with a lady who deals with oddeties like me.

Oh dear -

The very day after I went back to Specsavers with my glasses I was doing a bit more practice, & noticed apart from the 'squinty, looking down my nose' bit & have discovered that -

1. If I turn my glasses around approximately 90, oh where's my degrees button? I've got one on my pocket doo dah, anyway 90 degrees, everything is clear through the left lens or -

2. If I take my glasses off my ears, tilt them back & look through the top 2 millimetres I can see clearly, therefore my ears need lowering!

'Aha' methinks, 'they've done the axis wrong. Shall I phone them or pop in and tell them that I probably don't need a retest after all?'

But no, 12 years of never really being able to see through glasses satisfactorily [& not going back about it] was making this worm turn.
'BUGGER IT!' was my next thought [after the other 96 mini-thoughts about wasting peoples time & money], 'the optician still may have got it wrong'. This worm was not only turning, it was doing a jig - in a worried, hidden behind the sofa kind of way ...

My Experiences with Opticians

I sometimes wear glasses, have done since I was 19. My first pair were brilliant & I could actually see through them, They were also photochromic, quite heavy as they were glass & cost £39 + £5 for the test, a weeks wage.

The optician visited Edwinstowe where I then lived, on a friday afternoon every 3 weeks, he'd test your eyes one week & bring your glasses the next time he came.

I wore those glasses when I needed to, which was outdoors for the sun but mostly at work, I was in quality control at Mansfield Hosiery Mills [they made jumpers for Marks & Spencers by the time I worked there] which meant I was looking at jumpers for missed holes with bright lights behind them, nearly everyone in the same job ended up wearing tinted or photochromic lenses as our eyes had become sensitive to light.

A few years went by, I changed addresses & jobs but still wore my glasses whenever I went out to help with the light sensitivity, I could also still see perfectly well with them so don't think my prescription had altered much.

Eventually after about 12 years wear they ended up getting damaged beyond repair [yes I sat on them once too often], but then I could hardly afford the eye test, let alone new glasses so bought photochromic sunglasses from Boots as my prescription hadn't been very strong anyway.

By the time I reached 35 I decided it was high time I had an eye test, I went to Anthony C Stephens in Heanor. By then I was well able to afford decent glasses, the test was done & went to pick my frames. I wanted frameless glasses but the man said my glasses were for reading & frameless wouldn't cope with being constantly on & off so picked out some 'Joan Collins' frames, they were [and still are] lovely. As I'd been told by this man that I needed them for reading I didn't bother with any sort of tint.

I collected my glasses, looked through them, everything was huge & out of focus.
I tried them for a week, but couldn't read with them & was now suffering with headaches so went back. I asked the receptionist to check what my glasses were for because I could read perfectly well without them & with my book virtually at the end of my nose, I demonstrated it with a magazine for her, she wasn't really impressed.

The optician came out. 'They're not reading glasses, they're for distance'. She said that they are my prescription & was told to 'let your eyes relax into them'. The stupid man managed to look sheepish while the optician glared at him as she'd guessed what he'd said about them being for reading, obviously he was a complete t***er & I vowed never to return [very quietly, under my breath of course - I am English]. They cost £139, I can't remember how much the test was then.

I wore the glasses, they looked fab [I was told as I couldn't see myself properly in the mirror]. They made me physically sick, they seemed so strong, everything was swimming & I was dizzy. I persevered for 2 weeks until I could cope no longer with them & put them in the draw where they still live. I got them out the other day & was amazed at how strong they are.

For my next test I went to Specsavers at Sutton in Ashfield, I took my 'Joan Collins' with me as requested when I made the appointment so they'd know my last prescription.

Had my eye test, was told that my sight had improved since my last test, chose my frames, got 2 pair of glasses, 1 tinted brown, the other clear. Collected them 2 weeks later, hmm, 'everything is blurred' I said. 'Give them time', I was told.

I gave them 2 years, where I lived in a blur with them on so only wore them at work where there were no great distances to make me feel sick [they weren't too bad mid-distance] & went back to photochromic sunglasses for outdoors.

I went to Specsavers [when reminded] at Sutton again.'why?' you may ask, 'still trying to fathom that one out myself' is the answer. Had the test, 'Oh your eyes have improved again'. I chose 1 pair of reactions [photochromic] as they were on offer.
At last I can nearly see, the reactions were great but things still weren't what I regard as clear.

3 years later, Sutton Specsavers again, had the test, yep same story 'your eyes have improved'.
New glasses, 2 pair, 1 of them reactions [wrong time of year for the reactions offer, so paid extra].

Another 3 years went by. After constantly being reminded that my sight test was long overdue I made us appointments at Skegness Specsavers as we spend more time at Skegness than at home.
They checked the strength of my glasses, had the test, 'there's no significant prescription difference from the glasses your wearing now but you need reading glasses', I had suspected this as I'd taken to wearing my distance glasses for reading. I was asked if I'd considered varifocals. I hadn't so decided that I'd just pay for the eye-test & buy some cheapo reading glasses from the £1 shop [I've got a pair in every room].

Two weeks ago, I again had my eyes tested at Skegness Specsavers which was a bit of a farce to start with, as the day before we were due to go, they confirmed our morning appointments by text then an hour later phoned to change them.

Of course this was whilst I was in Bon Marche changing rooms balancing on one leg, half way through trying on a pair of shorts. My grumpy old man usually phones me whilst I'm in roughly the same position to tell me that he's finished doing whatever he does at the bookies [he has explained how it works, many, many times, I so wish he wouldn't] & is waiting outside. Unfortunately [at times] my ring tone for him is a recording of him singing 'Chantilly Lace' starting off with 'Hello you good looking thing, this is the killer speaking, do I like what? I sure do like it baby' & finishes with me laughing when he's forgotten the words. This has caused many titters in adjoining changing rooms as it takes quite a while to find the phone in my small bag of many zipped compartments.

Anyway, to cut the phone conversation short as I'd got one leg & my bum stuck up in the air & was holding myself steady by leaning against the wall with my forehead, I told the lady that I'd call in to Specsavers to rearrange my appointment as I was already in town. They managed to get me in that afternoon & the grumpy old 'Jerry Lee Lewis' fan the following afternoon.

Had the test, you know how it goes, flash! flash! photo's of your eyeballs, look at the balloon, then sit to wait your turn with the optician.
I went in. The optician had a good look at my eyeballs which were healthy as usual. Aha, crunch time. I'd now decided that I wanted glasses I could see through so told the optician [optometrist, whatever] that I couldn't see though my glasses & wore them outdoors out of habit because they were reactions but found I was mostly looking over the top of them. He said "no, you won't be able to, [you've guessed it] your eyesight has improved". He told me to read the letters with my glasses on, I got to the 3rd line & got no further, "ok, try without your glasses" I read that line & the next, he tried 1 lens, "better or worse?" "about the same" I told him. That was the extent of my test apart from the peripheral test I had afterwards.

Decided to give varifocals a go this time as my most crumbly friends are always extolling their virtue.
Picked nice 'elegant' frames with the aid of one of the friends. Was sorted out by a lovely man, the offer was either 2 pair of glasses, £49 off the total or free reactions. My choice was obviously the reactions.

Went to pick them up last Friday, S**T, 'um, my distance is blurred'. 'varifocals take some getting used to, try them & any problems just come back'. My other half also collected his glasses at the same time, he'd had the same, varifocals & reactions. Just before we came away the nice man looked at our paperwork & said to my grumpy old man 'yours will change to brown' then to me 'yours will go grey'.

I was rendered speechless by this statement, I'd once tried grey photochromic sunglasses, I had them a week, I threw them away as they were so depressing. Everything, even though it was summer looked wintery & dull.

I hadn't been offered a choice of reaction colour & automatically assumed they'd be brown as it had never entered my head that they offered grey. My frames are gold so the grey lenses look naff as well as being depressing, I made my other half look through them to prove my point about how depressing they are, he agreed, they're awful. Apart from that, I have got used to the varifocal bit but I still can't see through them clearly through my left eye, not without turning my head to the left & looking through them at the inner most point.

Guess where I'm going tomorrow? Put it this way, I ain't paying £234 for 'reading' glasses I can only wear in the dark! ...

Hoax email - Baby Alexandra

I received a hoax email last night, one of many. I tell my crumblier friends to pass them on to me then I check them out. They could check it themselves but I'm the one with the BIGGEST soapbox to spout from.

The latest I received was hopelessly out of date [2005] about a baby, badly burnt in a fire, the story, sadly was genuine, as was the photo of this poor baby [it makes me cry every time I see it], but the baby's name had been changed. Apparently the original email DID have a bank account number where you could donate money.

How can any sick, twisted piece of garbage derive pleasure out of making ordinary, kind and sympathetic people think they can help by forwarding this kind of hoax email, they want their heads testing - I was going to suggest something a bit more violent - like oh, um - having their typing fingers mashed to a pulp with a brick, but decided against it ... 'What? Did I write that after all? Oh dear'

The Email

If you don't forward this___you don't have a heart!

Dear All,

Alexandra came out of a fire alive, but now has to fight for her life and a normal future. She is 14 months old and she has burnt skin all over her body, damage facial bones (as a result of very high temperature). She does not have half of her face. She is in hospital In Krakow - Poland and one of the best specialist is looking after her. However she still has to go through many surgeries and then long rehab. Unfortunately her parents do not have any more money. Therefore we are asking for your help. For each forwarded email her parents will get 3 cents. Please help them and forward that email to as many people as you can!

My advice is if you get any email stating that money will be donated by forwarding it is to delete it and slap the person who sent it to you around the chops [ok, maybe not] or at least check it out, if you forward it you're just making psycho's happy.

There are plenty of places to check hoax email. I use www.hoax-slayer.com but just use any search engine. I simply typed in 'baby alexandra burnt' and there was a lot of similar answers regarding it being a hoax, in future this will be another.

Oh and the Mars close encounter, way out of date - and looking bigger than the moon - forget it.

And how many people sit waiting for something AMAZING! [you're not going to believe this, just forward it and see, you'll be amazed!!] to happen when they've forwarded an email to 5 people? HELLOOO! it's rubbish, just reading it tells you so or how would they know it was going to be amazing before they sent it if it happens after it's gone.

Don't even get me started on chain emails, what sicko's started them, frightening children by telling them they'd die if they didn't forward them to their entire address book within an hour of reading! My [then] 11 year old granddaughter received one and forwarded it to me as I'd told her to. There are lots more similar emails about receiving good luck if you send it to about a zillion people and dire consequences if you don't. I delete them all and [to quote my favourite author Terry Pratchett] I'm still not dead [yet]...

Asda's Langley Mill plans submitted

Well, they've done it, it's a case of seeing what the plans are now. [big downloads, too much for my pocket pc] Whether or not I'm going to like them is entirely a different matter, but I'm sure to have an opinion when I've seen them...

Getting Older

I chose my a-grumpy-old-woman blog address to amuse myself, seeing as I didn't really think for a moment that I was old. Now that my, ahem 50th birthday is fast approaching I've decided that I no longer want to be known as 'old'. I think it's a woman thing so women readers will get my drift & men readers, well who cares?!

Therefore I'm going to transfer my entire blog over to my grumpy goddess blog, which sounds much younger, it's also a shorter address to remember & at my age the shorter the better.

I'll leave a forwarding address on my grumpy old woman blog for anyone who cares.

Oh, flipping heck, I'm having second thoughts now, I'm actually starting to feel sorry for my grumpy old woman address. Hmm, I'll think about it a bit longer - quite a bit longer actually ...

Been Out to Avoid Listening to Heanor Haulage

It's a rum do when you can't stay in your own home because of unnecessary noise, we had to go out as I couldn't bear it any longer.

Of course this meant that we missed the man from Environmental Health who called, but I did do some filming on my trusty camera before we went out if he's remotely interested.



We have to put up with that crap from Heanor Haulage every late spring/summer, I don't know why they don't do it on their front yard instead of at the back of us, it's plenty big enough [where Asda hope to go].
Actually I do know why they don't do it on their front yard, it's because it's effin NOISY! & they wouldn't want to disturb the office workers, bugger the nearby residents that Mr Heanor Haulage told my other half years ago that he didn't want to upset, because they planned to be here a long time.

My other half, never giving it a thought, had left the car windows open a little before we decided that we couldn't stay in & listen to the noise any longer, the inside was covered in gritty dust, obviously the outside was just plain filthy as were all the other cars up here.

Does Asda seriously want to be neighbours with Heanor Haulage?

I've finally come to the conclusion that Mr Heanor Haulage is an ignorant man & does exactly what he wants, when he wants & where he wants!
I wish I could have the the same attitude & be as happy with myself as he is after causing so much upset & bother to other people who so obviously just do not matter.

And PMB Pallet Express [in Heanor Haulage buildings], will you stop waking me up at 5.15 virtually every morning?!

My exclamation mark key is getting very wobbly!!!!

I AM NOT IN A GOOD MOOD!!!

Heanor Haulage Sandblasting!!

Heanor effin Haulage are taking the p**s again, it's a red hot sunny day & we've got to have every door & window firmly shut. My washing that I've just put out has had to come back in because they're sandblasting bits of crap [ready for painting] 10 yards away & it's bl**dy filthy not to mention effin NOISY!!!!!
Asda please hurry up with your plans for Langley Mill. I don't know if I can cope with Heanor Haulage at the back of us for much longer!