Wet

We've been having some crazy summer weather here in the UK. Friday night we had the worst thunder and Saturday night was torrential rain for hours! But England seems to be more badly affected (wish I could feel for them lol.) I read an article this morning about the fear of a dam bursting in South Yorkshire where hundreds have fled their homes after cracks appeared in the wall of the reservoir.
In Sheffield, there has been significant damage to the city, damage which they think could run into millions of pounds. I know that this "off the scale" crazy weather and its consequences are not to be taken lightly, but I can't help but think of New Orleans. To them this is merely a puddle and residents are freaking out! Hopefully it will take something like this close to home to open people's eyes to the natural disasters taking place all over the world.
I had to laugh though... There was a comment on the BBC news website from someone stating "It took me 4 hours to drive the 10 miles home from Sheffield yesterday." You know, sometimes it's ok to walk lol.

Ok that's my piece for the day. :o)

WD-40

After getting a little fed up with all the talk about missing Madeleine in the news, I decided to go looking for something a bit more light-hearted. As usual this comes from the Barbados Nation News:

Jamaicans using WD-40 for Arthritis Pains

KINGSTON – If you have an annoying, squeaking door hinge or a corroded screw to loosen you'd probably reach for a can of WD-40. But what about a painful, squeaking knee or creaky elbow?
The Sunday Observer has learned that WD-40, better known for releasing rusted screws and lubricating corroded metal, is increasingly being used by Jamaicans to relieve arthritis and joint pains.
Some people are still willing to look past the warnings of possible irritation to the skin.
When the manufacturers said on a WD-40 tin that it could loosen rusty parts, stop squeaks and free sticky mechanisms, they meant metal – not knees and elbows. But the slick substance appears to be working for human parts as well.
"I suffered from arthritis pain, sometimes my knees just couldn't move. I've been using Voltaren, but it hasn't been helping, so I went on the Internet to seek a home remedy," one middle-aged woman who requested anonymity told the Sunday Observer last Friday. "That's when I saw it (the suggested 'remedy')."
The arthritis sufferer said she sprayed the metal lubricant on her knees, and within minutes the pain had stopped and she was able to walk unhindered.

Paypal Sucks Big Time!

I bet almost everyone reading this uses Paypal. When you buy & sell on eBay it's an essential part of the trading process! Up until now I've been happy, happy, happy with their performance but this week I've lost all faith in them altogether. :(

Basically, I'd sold an item on eBay. The sale was a complete success. It was purchased, paid for through Paypal, posted and recieved - no problems, glowing feedback and not a bad word to be said. 2 or 3 weeks later I was shocked to see that the payment to me has been held by Paypal while they address a "dispute". The annoying thing is that there was no dispute code - to this day they can't give me one! After requesting a huge amount of information, Paypal's investigation began. What a bloody joke! Within 5 days they concluded that the buyer was rightfully due the refund!! A refund that neither the buyer of I had instigated. When I try to contact Paypal, well I can't. I have rightfully sold my item and now the buyer has their original payment as well! Both my pockets are empty! I'm so annoyed with Paypal! Considering the mammoth fees they take and slow service they provide, the least they could do it treat you with a bit of courtesy!

I filed a complaint with Watchdog yesterday so we'll see what (if anything) comes of it...
Here's a link to the BBC's Watchdog Website.

Red Nose Day :O)

It's Red Nose Day today! :O) I'm ashamed to say that I don't have a red nose yet... must go buy one at lunchtime.
Lol, for those of you who are non-UK residents and think I've gone mad, click on the big nose above to learn more about this eventful day.
Accross the UK, people are bathing in a bath full of cold custard, men are being waxed, heads are being shaved, cakes are being baked and sold, and literally everyone in the UK is wearing something red today. WHY?? I hear you ask! Well, they're all raising money for thousands of poor and disadvantaged people across the UK and Africa. They're helping them get the help they need to turn their lives around. Whether it be a woman living down their own street who is being abused by her partner or a child struggling to survive on the streets of Africa... all the cash raised is helping to improve, and in some cases save, lives.

We've got a sweepstake going at work ~ a poster with 40 people all dressed in red and white ~ each person costs £1 to bet on. We've all picked people and whichever one is revealed under the scratch-and-reveal nose wins £20 ~ the remaining £20 goes to Comic Relief! Plus there's been donations handed in all week. I'll let you know by the end of today how much money we've raised! :O)

Finally a medical justification for shopping at lunchtime!

There was a front-page article in the paper this morning which has generated quite a bit of discussion here at work...

"Sitting at Your Desk is a Killer!"

NOT to be interpreted as you yourself actually being a killer, or somebody else sitting at your desk about to murder you, but the action of sitting at your desk killing you. Am I making sense lol.

Basically, research suggests that workers who spend excessive amounts of time at their desk could be putting their lives at risk. Researchers at The Medical Research Institute in New Zealand found that a third of patients admitted to hospital with DVT were office workers who spent hours at a computer. The study will be published in the New Zealand Medical Journal if anyone's interested in reading the whole thing. DVT is the formation of a blood clot in a deep vein, most commonly in the legs. The clots can travel to the heart, lungs or brain, causing chest pain, breathlessness or possible death from a heart attack or stroke. Lead researcher Professor Richard Beasley said some office workers who developed clots sat at their screens for 14 hours a day. He said: "Some of them were going three to four hours at a time without getting up."
People nowadays have a tendency to work longer hours than ever before, and often don't take a proper lunch break, preferring instead to eat a sandwich at their desk while attending to emails.

Hands up who's guilty of this! *Putting my hand up* I don't go out of the office at lunchtime. Yes, I sit and eat at my desk... not while attending to e-mails... but while blogging lol. I always get up and walk around though (I go to the printer, the water cooler, to get a coffee...) But starting today I'm going to start going out for a 30 minute walk each lunchtime, at the request of the Chief Exec. He's a Starbucks man so I have a lot of respect for him lol. Mind you, I think he meant a brisk walk, whereas I meant a walk to and around the shops lol.

And just to finish this post on a real downwards spiral, DVT affects about 100,000 people and kills up to 1,000 people in the UK each year!!

The full BBC story can be read here.

Such a Sweet Tale

I was reading (seriously, that's twice in one month lol) an article in the Barbados Nation News today that made me smile and I thought I'd share!

Basically it was about a Husband, 100 and Wife, 97 who have been married for a whopping 73 years! Their secret? They've never argued a day in their life! :o) Can you imagine??
They first met while working as labourers at a Plantation and were married on Christmas Eve back in 1933.....
"All I can tell you is our secret was loving one another. We didn't have any arguments; no fighting; no quarrelling; and we didn't leave each other. We kept like that from the first day up until today," said Ma as she is called by everyone.
"From the first time I saw her, I knew I loved her. We courted for a little bit before we got married. And though it was the custom back then, I didn't have to ask permission from her mother or father," said Pa who has a remarkable memory for a man his age.

Hahaha, Derek can barely remember what he did yesterday never mind 73 years ago!!

This part made me giggle - When it was time to pose for pictures. Pa jumped at the opportunity to plant a kiss on his wife's cheeks and was happy to accommodate when the photographer asked for a few retakes. Heehee.

They had 8 children and Pa worked until he was 70 years old - phenomenal! And they have a wealth of knowledge ~ staggering for a combined age of almost 200 years! :oO

And when asked if they were still in love after all these years, they affirmatively responded.
"Oh, yes," said Pa emphatically.
"Yes, yes, yes! Praise the Lord!" Ma chimed in.

Apart from being a nice story, I also learned that they used to use shillings in Barbados ~ I didn't know that!

Yes, I Read the Papers (the free ones anyway...)

On the train into work this morning I had time to grab a copy of the Metro, the free commuter newspaper. After skimming through the pretty drab pages a wee article caught my eye and my immediate thought was "Ooooh I could post this on my blog tonight!" And post it I did lol.

The article was entitled "The jargon we should all sunset" and basically it was all about new indecipherable management speak likely to be hot in offices around the country in 2007. Currently used expressions like "thinking outside the box" and "park that thought" are likely to have passed their sell-by-date but here are some buzzwords you can come to expect this year...

• Getting down with the kids meaning a manager trying to interact with junior staff.
• Open up your kimono meaning putting your cards on the table.
• Let's raise the anchor and let this one drift meaning to forget about a bad idea.
• A thought grenade is the result of a productive thought shower, it is an explosively good idea.
• Let's sunset that is what happens to bad ideas - they never surface again.
• Workers will never again attend meetings... information touchpoints will be on the agenda instead.
• Little 'r' me is the new request for a private answer to an e-mail.

So there ya go. I'm not totally convinced these little gems will appear in my office any time soon! I do like a couple of them (let's sunset that and information touchpoints) but seriously, open up your kimono lol. And how patronising would it be to get down with the kids?!?!

Anyway, while I'm on the subject of newspaper articles, I was reading a pretty funny one in the Scotsman online today about the warped view of the foreign tourist to Scotland. Click here for the full article. Basically it was saying that although tourists to Scotland in 2006 may have displayed excellent taste in their choice of destination, they really could and should have researched a little more. Here are some of the stupid questions put to VisitScotland (the tourist board) last year...

• Clearly confusing Loch Ness with Sea World in Orlando... "What time of night does the Loch Ness Monster surface and who feeds it?" Answer - Nessie is pretty much a mythical creature who tends not to leap through hoops!
• Not realising that an island in Scotland was the same as an island anywhere else in the world raised the question of "Which bus do I get from the Orkney Islands to the Shetland Islands?"
• Because Scotland's two major cities often get confused *sarcastic roll of the eyes* the question of "Is Edinburgh in Glasgow?" was raised. Just while I'm on this, I'll clarify that Scotland is, in fact, not in London!!
• "What time does the midnight train leave?" There are no words!
• The small island of Iona was pointed to on a map while one tourist asked "How do I get to one zero NA?" *Sigh*

Oh I could go on and on and on and on and on... but I won't! Lol. Ok just a little (Az this is really for your benefit 'cos I know you deal with these eejits everyday lol. A couple of other really bizarre questions were "Can you tell me where the mountain is in Scotland?" and "Are there any curves in the roads here, or are they all straight?"

I know we all have our moments and hey, I even have ditsy and dense moments lol, but come on people! Would the same people ask which subway line runs between New York City and Seattle? Or where the ruin is in Rome? Or if Canada is in America?

Actually... I think they would.....