an open letter to our neighbours

to all of you:

  1. the plastic crate does not belong to us. The plastic crate has *never* belonged to us. We do not know who owns the plastic crate, but it is not us.

    please therefore stop a) putting it right in front of our gate, so it has to be moved by anyone who wants to come through), b) putting it right in front of our front door, so we have to move it if we want to gain ingress and egress to our own house, and c) [boggle] hurling it into our front garden.

    it is by our front wall in the probably vain hope that the dustmen refuse disposal operatives will remove it on Thursday. If they don’t, I suppose *we’ll* have to take it to the sodding tip, even though it is NOTHING TO DO WITH US.

  2. you over the back fence – yes you. I’m sure that buying your children a huge trampoline and putting it in a garden the size of a pocket handkerchief struck you as a good idea, but perhaps you could ask them a) not to have the entire rabble of neighbourhood children round to play on it, b) not to scream quite so loudly, and c) to get off it at a reasonable hour of the evening (i.e. before 9 p.m.). Haven’t you noticed what time it gets dark now?

    thank you

    I also note that your house is now up for sale – I presume that your planning application to extend it and block all our light has been turned down. I wish you a swift and easy sale; I’ll even help you pack, starting with the bloody trampoline.

  3. you over the road. Yes, you – the ones who built a bloody car pull-in and DO NOT USE IT FOR A CAR, because it is Too Short (we told you so). Don’t you know how stressed parking is round here?

    having built it, please try not to dump your household rubbish in it – my sleep is not enhanced by having 8 to 10 rowdy and drunken yoofs playing foopball (yes, really) with your old bath at 1.15 a.m.

  4. love
    no. 20

impressed

look at www.apple.com.

I’m *deeply* impressed that a business would put a tribute to Rosa Parks on their home page.

memememememe

gacked from captainblue, which Lost character am I?

blimey

I quite like Orvis for odd bits of clothes. We went over to the Bath store a couple of weeks ago when kalunina was here, as there were a couple of things in their catalogue that I liked the look of.

they had a “fill this in to win a gift certificate” thing going, so I did.

and I’ve won a £500 gift voucher! I think that’s the first competition I’ve ever won *in my life*!

shamelessly nicked from lots of people

most news on the bird flu threat to the UK

brick

perlmonger is in charge of the bread machine – I am just a gurly, and cannot be expected to understand technology.

we don’t use it all that often – once or twice a week – but we have had it for years, and it rarely produces a bad loaf.

however, take it from me that you really, really do need to put the bloody *paddle* in the pan if you want a decent loaf … I shall be sending him to the bakery shortly.

life laundering

a bag came through the door – from the British Heart Foundation, I think – asking us to fill it with “clothes and bric a brac” for their charity shop.

given that I had been cruelly encouraged by kalunina to buy a load of new clothes at the weekend, I decided to have a sort out.

four bags of clothes, and a box of shoes (yes! throwing away shoes!) for BHF, and a bag of stuff that really couldn’t be given to anyone. Even Pete shed some of his beloved, but ancient and worn out, shirts, and a couple of suits.

now there’s loads of room on the clothes racks, so I can go and shop some more!

madness, utter madness

“CHILDREN under 16 would be automatically reported to the police if they seek advice on contraception, pregnancy or abortion, under government proposals.”

more here (The Times).

mememememe

gacked from cookwitch

ocelot
You are an OCELOT! You are very strong minded and you are a great warrior. Even for a small feline that’s the same size as a housecat, you are always getting yourself into quarrels thatyou ALWAYS win. Being tricky and sly is another one of your good traits. You can get away with almost everything!

Which FELINE are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

shopping

yesterday perlmonger, kalunina and self went to Bath. We decided to use the train, so obviously there were engineering werks, and we were transported by coach; so instead of the journey taking 12 minutes, it took 35-40. Still, it saved the hassle of trying to park, and so was worth it.

after half an hour, we split up – there’s only so much mother and daughter poor perlmonger can take when it involves credit cards. We had a good mooch around, and when we met up again, we were carrying bags from Russell & Bromley, Monsoon, Jones the Bootmaker, Marks and Spencer, and Next.

clearly I fancy a change of image, as I bought skirts(!) and fitted tops (!!) – all very odd. As an example, I bore home this skirt from Monsoon – it’s not at all the sort of thing I’d normally wear.

it has to go back, though – it’s the wrong size. It’s *TOO BIG*. Which is pretty amazing, because this time last year I couldn’t get into a Monsoon 18, and now it hangs off me. Well chuffed.