Bureaucracy

From Facebook Archives

13 August 2010 at 16:33

We’ve had an afternoon of petty bureaucracy.   

First up to Oxford Centre to get Ease-extra cards: which entailed signed passport photos, copies of birth certificates and proof of address (they sent the forms to me so have that anyway) for combined under 16 travel/library/proof of age card.   

And I had to have both boys with me to get their photos taken for the card.

Back home, get myself and Ferretfingers into wellies and raincoats and up to FourLaneEndsMetro travel shop to put in the form for his concessionary travel; which involved passport photo, form from Social Services and proof of address.   

So I took Schools Transport letter and two letters from Department of Work & Pensions re Disability Living Allowance and told the woman to choose one.  

Am now wet through from the knees down - despite wellies.   

How come bureaucracy spelled correctly looks wrong?

Miss Fiddle  Wish I'd worn the wellies - I've wet feet from doing the supermarket shopping :-mainly from the flood in my drive - the holes my neighbour drilled through the concrete have filled up....

Bentonbag  Don't fall in them - you may never be seen again ...

Miss Fiddle   But I'm not Dr Foster!!!

Bentonbag  Nor are you from Gloucester.

Mrs Frayarn  They are a pain in the ass.  My daughter and son aged (back then) 7 and 5, were charged full fare because they didn't have their under 16 card on them.  I wasn't there, a friend had taken them to school who didn't want to cause a fuss and coughed up.  Still makes me mad thinking about it.  I remember taking both in at age 5 to have their photo taken etc and, like you say, all the ID that goes with it.  Over the top.

Bentonbag In other parts of the country (including London) there is some common sense and you don't have to prove your child is young enough.  God only knows why Tyne&Wear Nexus has to be so mean spirited.  Can you imagine visiting here with a young child?  It must do wonders for the tourist trade.  It also costs money to make and administer the system and it would be so much simpler to take people's word for the age of their children.

Miss Fiddle Good job Kent didn't insist on proof of age - I used to pay half fare until I was in my early 20s......

Thankfully over the past sixteen years some common sense has been applied and things are much simpler for parents now – well on this front at least.   Although, being a cynic, I think the cost of administering the system weighed more heavily than either common sense or the inconvenience of parents. 

 

Wii Age

2009 was the year we got Ferretfingers a Nintendo Wii for his birthday, and the accompanying board.

It’s not been used in ages.

From the very first volume of Facebook Archives

29 July 2009 at 10:18

Depressed. Ferretfingers’ WiiFit board says my body is 4 years older than me.

Ms Exlibris That’s not bad, first time I went on I was about 60!

Now I'm down to 36!  Pity it’s not reality..

1 August 2009 at 11:17

Today my Wii age is down to 37, that's down by 17 years in 3 days

Ms Exlibris  If only it were that easy....we could be teenagers again!

Bentonbag  Let’s - only I didn't really enjoy being a teenager much - 20s and 30s much better (give or take bereavement) - 40s and so far 50s not too bad either

9 August 2009 at 21:28

My Wii age is down to 31.   

I remember when my body was 31: there was 20% less of it and much less of it ached.

11 August 2009 at 16.33

My Wii age has gone back up to 54!

The Squireen  Much more realistic

Bentonbag  Much more depressing

Faye  Crikey Ben your Wii age is all over the place! Maybe it's measuring the age you feel?

Bentonbag  It was back down to 34 last night.   

It's the balance test that does it, when it gives me a new one my age goes up.   

Apparently I'm unbalanced - but I don't think anyone needed a Wii to work that out.

 

Flowers By Air

Cliff at Dad's 90th birthday do, 21 July 2006

Cliff and Marion have both passed away, so I’m using their real names.

From Facebook Archives 

10 August 2013 at 10:05

What a lovely surprise.

Roused by postman ringing the doorbell. 

Flowers By Air from my Dad's old workmate Cliff Carter (and Marion).  

Cliff and Dad met in 1958 when Dad left the RAF (after 24 years) and started to work for the Pumpsaint & District Farmers Wholesale Co-operative Society (known as the P&D) in Llanwrda.   

Cliff must have been in his twenties then but had a car and regularly gave Dad a lift home, so I've known him since I was three.  

Dad taught Cliff how to swim in the river Towy at lunchtimes, and Cliff taught Dad how to drive.   

The P&D were lousy employers 

(even by 1950s standards).

Cliff left for a better job managing a Co-op in Llanelli, met and married Marion, and Dad became a postman, but they and the families always kept in touch.

DarkLady  Now I want to know.  Is it your birthday?  Why the flowers came by air?   

Is this stalwart friend Cliff living abroad or still in luvly, luvly Wales?😃 x

Bentonbag  They'd just got my marriage announcement card.  I think they used Flowers by Air because Interflora might not be available.  Cliff and Marion are still living in Llanelli.  

I remember a couple of days before their wedding Mum and Dad took me on a visit to Cliff's mum (probably to take a gift).  The Cake was on the kitchen table and Mrs Carter senior took us in to see "all the little stupids in the icing around the sides"

DarkLady  I love that... 'little stupids'!

That cake sounds Stupendous! 😋 x

 

Wasps

This Facebook thread was inspired by an article about wasps and how ecologically useful and important they are, as this is the time of year when they get a bit “radgy.”

9 August 2019 at 09.01

My Grandma used to put an unwashed jamjar with an inch or so of water in the bottom on the outside kitchen window sill.  A circle of greaseproof paper held by a rubber band as a lid, with a wasp sized hole in.  Wasps fly in, eat sugary stuff, drown, suffering over.  You can do the same sort of thing with a Coke, or other sugary soft drink bottle (they have no interest in diet drinks).   

She also used to say "If you kill a wasp six more come to its funeral"

Fester's tip “If you have a wasp in the house, turn off all the lights and open the window.  The wasp will go towards the sunlight.”

If you happen to have a feather duster you could use that to waft the wasp towards the window.  If you’re lucky (and persistent) you can get the wasp to grab hold of the duster and then shake it out of the window.  This also works with bees.

The good thing about the feather duster method is you're a good three foot away from the wasp (six if it's an extendable one)

The velux in our kitchen roof is an excellent insect trap so we've become quite adept at escorting them out of the window.

Miss Doozer  I'd possibly have more sympathy if one hadn't landed on my leggings as I walked past its nest on my way to the bus stop, then proceeded to repeatedly sting me through the material. I smacked it with a folder, cursing it to high heaven, then realized there was a group of school kids walking past who can now add "vicious stripy f*&king b&stard f#!Ker" to their vocabulary.

Bentonbag  The only time I was stung by a wasp was through leggings, must be something about the material that attracts and/or traps them. Vinegar is supposed to help calm wasp stings.

Miss Doozer  More research is needed. Just not on me.

Dr E  We use scrumpy in plastic bottles as wasp traps they love it. We tried using woodpecker cider and the wasps ignored it.

POST SCRIPT

Fester has made me much more wasp friendly.   

They had a nest near the back gate when I was pregnant with Thunderthighs.   

One morning eating breakfast at the dining table, which looked out over the back garden, I noticed wasps flying away from the nest carrying stuff.

“I can understand them carrying food and stuff into the nest” I said to Fester “But why are they carrying stuff away?”

“It’s shit” he replied “they’re cleaning the nest.”

I was quite impressed at this idea and decided the nest could stay as they were causing no nuisance.

Until Thunderthighs was a couple of weeks old and I was out hanging babygrows etc on the whirligig washing line.   

A wasp landed on and got caught in my leggings and stung me in its effort to escape.  

I could not risk this happening to toddler Ferretfingers or baby Thunderthighs so went off to B&Q for poison.   

That evening, scattering the powder around the entrance to the nest so that they would carry it inside, I felt like a latter day Lucretia Borgia.