Follow on from Friday

1. The rich have legislated themselves into prosperity.

2. Corporate bosses and executives pay themselves more and more despite doing little or no extra work, whilst the pay of everyone below them falls far behind in spite of working longer hours.

3. Large corporations and bankers have become immensely rich from government subsidies, favourable contracts, privatisations and outright fraud, all of which have to be paid from public money, whilst the public services that the rest of us have to use are getting worse.

4. You can keep yourself wealthy by not sharing it.

5. When bankers, hedge fund managers and financiers get the idea that they can gamble with other peoples' money, and not have to pay the for consequences of their actions when it all goes wrong whilst ordinary people feel that their taxes are being used to 'take care of them' then that is the beginning of the end of western civilisation....

..... but the politicians have already taken this on board, as they and the wealthy are in league to maintain the status quo.

Saturday Satire : The Brother in Law?

A man suffered a serious heart attack while shopping in a New York store.

Of course the store clerks, who were trained for such emergencies, called 911 and tended to the man when they saw him collapse. Paramedics soon arrived and rushed the man to the nearest hospital where he had emergency open heart bypass surgery.

After a while, he awakened from the surgery to find himself in the care of nuns at the Catholic Hospital he had been taken to. A nun was seated next to his bed holding a clip board loaded with several forms, and a pen. She asked him how he was going to pay for his treatment.

"Do you have health insurance?" she asked.

He replied in a weak and raspy voice, "No health insurance."

The nun asked, "Do you have money in the bank?"

He replied, "No money in the bank."

"Do you have a relative who could help you with the payments?” asked the irritated nun.

"I only have a spinster sister, and she is a nun."

At this the nun became agitated and announced loudly, "Nuns are not spinsters! Nuns are married to God."

"Perfect,” replied the patient, “Send the bill to my brother-in-law."

Politicians Please Take Note!

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Will politicians ever take this on board

1. You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity.

2. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.

3. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.

4. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it!

5. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that is the beginning of the end of any nation.

Love on the Transplant List

I watched this programme on BBC3 the other night, moving, it had me in tears hoping and praying that Kirstie would get her transplant.

Suffering from Cystic Fibrosis and aged only 21, she had only 16% lung function and the consultant in charge of her case said that they referred people to the transplant team at 33% so she was well below that. To her sitting in a chair was like us running up stairs, for Kirstie walking along a corridor is like us running a sprint... you could see her struggle for breath and it was hard to watch.

Having said that, it was a very much upbeat programme, and Kirstie was always upbeat, never down, never doubted that she would get her new lungs, and even had her wedding while seriously ill but battling to make it down the aisle. The doctors wanted her to get married in hospital, but Kirstie wasn't going to settle for second best and it brought a tear to my eye to watch her walk down the aisle with her family to marry the man she loved.

The end of the programme was just sheer joy, after two disappointments, she received a new set of lungs and the improvement immediatly was obvious. Yes, it was sad for the donor and their family, but the gift of the lungs gave Kirstie back her life and she will make every moment count I am sure of it..

I have made my views clear to my family, after I die, anything that can be used to help someone else should and could be used... my personality, my soul will no longer require my earthly body and if like Kirstie someone can benefit then I hope they will with my blessing.

Glee Cast - Little Drummer Boy (Glee Cast Version)

A weekend of sport

Not content with refereeing on Saturday, SOH decided to do the same on Sunday morning. Luckily the Saturday game was down at Clijah fields so the boys and I walked down to meet up with him at half-time and then walked home again. The weather is dry and mild, which is good, but the boys boredom threshold is even lower than mine. Normally I sit in the car with a good book, or work to do - I have even been known to do some marking!

Sunday, I didn't go with him, instead preferring to get the lunch ready, we don't normally have this at lunchtime, but in the evening but it is nice to have a midday meal.

Interspersed with the football, we have watched last weekend's european rugby action with Bath v Montpellier and the premiership of Northants vs Saracens something we have been lucky enough to be present at when we lived at the back of beyond.

I have in between times, pulled the sofa's out from the wall and hoovered the carpet underneath and moved one round to make room for the christmas tree which won't be too long in going up although one house in a nearby road has had its christmas decorations up for a couple of weeks - too early methinks.

Saturday Satire - Wot a Wupert!

An RAF Group Captain was about to start the morning briefing to his staff.

While waiting for the coffee machine to finish its brewing, the Group Captain decided to pose a question to all assembled.

He explained that his wife had been a bit frisky the night before and he failed to get his usual amount of sound sleep.

He posed the question of just how much of sex was "work" and how much of it was "pleasure?"

A Wing Commander chimed in with 75-25% in favour of work.

A Squadron Leader said it was 50-50%.

A Flight Lieutenant responded with 25-75% in favour of pleasure, depending upon his state of inebriation at the time.

There being no consensus, the Group Captain turned to the Corporal who was in charge of making the coffee. What was his opinion?

Without any hesitation, the young Corporal responded, "Sir, it has to be 100% pleasure."

The Group Captain was surprised and, as you might guess, asked why?

"Well, sir, if there was any work involved, the officers would have me doing it for them."

The room fell silent.

God Bless the lower ranks.

I won something!

Nope, not the lottery! ::sigh::

Where I work have had some email competitions recently, I am still hoping to win tickets to see the Cornish Pirates at home but as yet have not been lucky.

So when they had an email to win tickets to see Robinson Crusoe and the Cornish Pirates at Hall for Cornwall, I sent in an email with few hopes, but this morning have found out that I have won two tickets to see a Panto and I am absolutely chuffed to bits.

I remember a lot of my childhood, but never going to see a pantomime, and always felt as though I had missed out on something special; so now I am going to have the opportunity.

Sunday Sunshine

Yesterday we, in Cornwall, were blessed with sunshine and warmth. Unusually so for a late November day, but we had the windows and doors open, the washing on the line and even enjoyed a cup of coffee on the patio.

So it was somewhat of a surprise to hear how badly the eastern partof the country was affected by thick fog and bad weather so much so that flights were cancelled or delayed at many of the airports.

This time last year we were full of ice, cold, snow and dreadful weather. So much so that road clearing had to take place to get the cars out of the estate. Going home was equally problematic, and filled me with trepidation until I was safely parked and in the house - only to face the same thing the following morning.

The big kid in me wants to have snow, for the pond boys to run around in and run off some of their excess energy. Jasper is the big puppy dog, and full of beans luring Murphy into wild chases and slipping over in the muddy grass but both of them enjoying their walks together and much more calmly now we have halti's on them both.

Jasper has truly settled in at Tre Agan, and Murphy looks after him, ensuring his ears are clean - however this is not reciprocated by Jasper who is a bit of a Kevin at times... the unruly teenager just enduring care not appreciating it.

I don't know if this is true or not, but like it

In an Underground station in London

There were protesters on the concourse handing out pamphlets on the evils of Britain. I politely declined to take one. 

An elderly woman behind me was getting off the escalator and a young (20-ish) female protester offered her a pamphlet, which she politely declined. 

The young protester put her hand on the woman's shoulder as a gesture ...of friendship and in a very soft voice said, 'Madam, don't you care about the children of Iraq ?' 

The elderly woman looked up at her and said, 'My dear, my father died in France during World War II, I lost my husband in Korea and my grandson in Afghanistan. All three died so you could have the right to stand here and bad mouth our country. 

If you touch me again, I'll stick this umbrella up your arse and open it.

......................... God Bless Great Britain (What we have left of it!)

Saturday Satire - The Wise Old Dog

An older, tired-looking dog wandered into my yard.

I could tell from his collar and well-fed belly that he had a home and was well taken care of. He calmly came over to me, I gave him a few pats on his head; He then followed me into my house, slowly walked down the Hall, curled up in the corner and fell asleep.

An hour later, he went to the door, and I let him out.

The next day he was back, greeted me in my yard, walked inside and resumed his spot in the hall and again slept for about an hour.

This continued off and on for several weeks.

Curious I pinned a note to his collar: 'I would like to find out who the owner of this wonderful sweet dog is  and ask if you are aware that almost every afternoon your dog comes to my house for a nap.'

The next day he arrived for his nap, with a different note pinned to his collar:

'He lives in a home with 6 children, 2 under the age of 3 - he's trying to catch up on his sleep.
Can I come with him tomorrow?

Have you ever been?

I have been in many places, but I have never been in Cahoots.
Apparently you can't go there alone. You have to be in Cahoots with someone.

I've also never been in Cognito. I hear no one recognizes you there.

I have, however, been in Sane. They don't have an airport. You have to be
driven there. I have made several trips there, thanks to my family,
friends and those where I have worked.

I would like to go to Conclusions, but you have to jump and I am not
too much on physical activity anymore.

I have also been in Doubt. That is a sad place to go and I try not to
visit there too often.

I've been in Flexible, but only when it was very important to stand
firm.

Sometimes I'm in Capable, and I go there more often as I'm getting
older.

One of my favorite places to be is in Suspense. It really gets the
adrenalin flowing and pumps up the old heart. At my age I need all of
the stimuli I can get.

Now if I can just avoid getting in Continent.

With many thanks to Uncle Pete Dawes :-)