Today is Tuesday

I make the announcement for the benefit of anyone else whose temporal bearings are disturbed by bank holiday Mondays.

When Monday is so much like Sunday, it is easy to mistake Tuesday for Monday. Occasionally my disorientation lasts for most of the week. However I'm making a special effort today, and am sure it's Tuesday, and that tomorrow will be Wednesday.

A Fuss About Information.

I have quite a few interests and have therefore arranged for various organisations to send me information about their activities. Recently I've been irritated to receive numerous messages telling me that 'data protection' legislation requires that the flow of information must be discontinued unless I confirm I still want to receive it. That seems to me impertinence on the part of legislators. If I change my mind about a source of information, I can easily have those emails discontinued, without the intervention of self important politicians.

Check Your Insurance Charges

It will soon be time to renew my house insurance, and I noticed the premium had risen a good deal in the last two years.

I rang to question it, and secured a reduction of about £190 in the premium.

A Happy Coincidence

From time to time the flow of news in the media is disturbed by some event of no great consequence which still attracts unreasonable attention.

Today two such events coincide - the royal wedding and the cup final, so the tranqility of our thoughts is disturbed only once even though there are two distractions.

Happy day!!!

Learning from Poirot

I recently gave into an impulse to buy a mango, my memories of the last time I wrestled with one having become faint.

As I wondered how to deal with it I remembered a television adaptation of a Poirot mystery, in the course of which the resourceful detective demonstrated the use of a dessert spoon to remove the stone from a mango, which he then turned inside out exposing the flesh.

Although I didn't make as neat a job as Poirot, who probably had support from the television studio's mango evisceration team, I found that mango much easier to eat then others I have dealt with.

A Devious Television Set

I recently bought a new television set. After using it for a week or two I found that it is sometimes very slow to respond to its remote control.

Using a combination of reading glasses and magnifying glass I was just able to read the instructions, and noted that the set can be connected to the Internet. So far as I know no connection has been made, but it might have detected the WiFi signal in the  house and attempted to connect.

Unplugging the set and leaving it unplugged for several hours seems to have restored correct operation, at least for now.

An Insight into Local Money

I've long been puzzled by so called 'local money' - notes that are bought with orthodox currency, but can only be used in a certain locality "Why Bother?" I used to wonder.

Enlightenment was provided by a discussion of Lake District money on today's television news. Tourists who buy the local currency often don't spend it all. Some apparently keep notes as souvenirs. Although that wasn't mentioned on the program, I suspect some don't notice they have unspent local currency until they've gone home where they can't spend it. Lake District Pounds issued now are valid only for this year, so any not spent this year will become valueless. The local notes that can never be spent represent profit for the organisation issuing them.

I thought there must be a catch of some sort. It's quite satisfying to have found it.