Home Alone!

Even as we speak, Pinky is about to depart for Gatport Airwick to fly off and spend Chrissy Mouse with his frennids in Portugal. These are the same frennids he went to stay with in the summer. I thought I had some photos to show you where he'll be, but he must have just brought them over on his "dongle" to show me and not downloaded them to my pooter. It's a lovely place anyway, so hopefully photos will be winging their way through the ether before long!

This will be the first Christmas I've spent alone since my darling Mum died in 2004. I don't mind, I'm a bit of a recluse anyway, and so was Mum, but we always kept in touch by phone, telling each other what we were watching on telly, our culinary disasters (both of us great cooks - not!) and whatever else sprang to mind.

I'm invited to my half-sister's in Canada but I can't do all the travelling stuff, since I can barely do the stairs or walk down to the corner shop without being afraid of falling over (have several times on stairs!)

xxx

Monday Movies and Synchronicity

As you probably all both know, I can never keep up to date with all my adoring fans' two readers' blogs because I have far too many in my Bloglines, but I can't bear to delete any coz I love you all! So I kind of stick a proverbial pin in the list (after, hopefully, I have visited all who have kindly left comments for me) and one of those tonight was A Dog and 2 Cats. This is where the synchronicity (or possibly just coincidence) comes in and I think the best way I can demonstrate this is simply to quote the (first) comment I left for them:

"Hello! I clicked your link to watch the squirrel video and got this: http://www.http.com//www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ikH9ZRcF2Q.

There was a certain synchronicity here as Pinky and I have been looking into waking up our computers over our networks and over the internet when we're not at home, so I clicked on the last link in the list and got this:
https://www.gotomypc.com/mm/g25af_hybridLMlp.tmpl?

In fact Pinky installed stuff on my laptop to enable me to wake up my pc from my laptop today. We tested it several times and it worked perfectly. However, since he went home it hasn't worked! Doh!*

I haven't seen any squerls either, haha!

BTW, the wordy verification thingy is "ulegral". Could this be interpreted as "You all growl"? Oh, I crack myself up!!! :) xxx"

*The boldifying and redenning were not in the original comment but I've now added them to draw Pinky's attention!

Anyhow, I was curious about the squirrels so I went back to YouTube. There are loads of squirrel videos but I came across this one which I think is pretty amazing - and cute!

So then I noticed I had email and my Dad had sent me this:

Okay, okay, I know the "synchronicity" came before the movies but I didn't think that "Synchroniscity and Movie Monday" really worked!

xxx

P.S. If you use Firefox, don't use its spell-checker. It will totally screw your post!!!

Randombankness

I think maybe I should explain my last post a little lest my adoring fans readers think I was up for sympathy. I'm not a "victim" of over-borrowing or anything like that. I was brought up to believe that if you can't afford it, you can't have it, so the only loan I've ever had was a mortgage (fortunately paid off a few years ago, thanks to my lovely Auntie J, who told me she thought the money she was going to leave me in her will would be more useful to me then rather than later).



No, my anger was about the irresponsibility of the banks and how I (and probably most citizens of the world) can't trust them any more. The thing is, the British Government has guaranteed an individual's cash (savings plus current account etc.) in any one bank up to £50,000, so if you've got more than that in your bank and it goes tits up bankrupt, hard cheese, you lose the rest. So my darling Mum died just over four years ago and me being her only child, she left me all her worldly goods, including her flat. There were complications in the sale (which I won't bore you with) and the proceeds were less than the flat's worth (::dah di dah, di dah di dah:: sang the violins) so it was only a few months ago I received the proceeds of sale. I put them in a savings account in my bank, as you do... They were more than £50,000...

A few weeks later I get a phone call from my bank. To put it shortly, it goes something like this: "Have you got short-term plans for this money?" "Possibly." "We have several packages which could ensure you... blah, blah, blah..." "Thanks, I'll just leave it where it is for now please and thank you."

A week or two later I get another call, ditto the above. By now I've heard stirrings about the possibility of the "Credit Crunch" not just affecting bad debtors and stupid, greedy American banks, but stupid, greedy British banks as well. "No," I thought, "I'm not looking for a loan and I don't owe nobody nuffink, so I'm probably okay". "How safe are my accounts?" I ask. "Oh, safe as houses, we are part of one of the biggest banks in Europe, there's no way we are in any trouble. But we can offer you a package that will give you a greater return on your investment blah, blah, blah..." "Well, I'm thinking of buying a bungalow or having my current house improved to make it safer for me as I can't see very well so I don't want this money tied up for yonks" "Okay, no problem, let us know if we can be of any... blah, blah, blah...".

Then the news comes that the bank who owns my bank has been bailed out by the government. Bearing in mind that only last year my bank, let alone the bank who owns it, declared net profits of, I think, approximately £10 billion, I'm stunned!

This has become a very long and probably extremely interesting boring shaggy dog story account so I'll leave it for now, but:






Still to come in a forthcoming episode (da dah!):

What I Learnt at the Bank!!!

Oh No! Why?

How come the £ has gone so low against the $ when it was the American banks who started the "Credit Crunch", which turned into the "Economic Downturn", which has now, or is apparently about to be, a full-blown "Recession", with their "Toxic Loans"? This seems so unfair! My Mericky friends, please don't take this personally, I'd have to go a long way to find a better bunch of cats and beans outside of the Cat Blogosphere, other, of course, than also all the wonderful cat-loving nationalities in there that I'm honoured to count as friends. Um, does this make sense? Probably not; I just hope you know what I mean.

Well, the British banks also jumped on the bandwagon and lent far too much... blah, blah, blah... We all know the mistakes the banks in many countries of the world have made. Only last year (and in many previous years) I was aghast at how much profit my bank, for just one, declared! I wondered, "Why is some of this money not being channelled into better benefits for their savers?" So where have all these billions of profits gone? Where??? Why, then, did the bank who had bought my bank out (as an apparently thriving concern) need to be bailed out to the tune of millions by the British Government? A bank whom, I must say, is "owned" by a country in the British Isles who wants to be independent...

Just wondering...

Luvya! ('cepting you banks!)



xxx

Awards!

I have received several awards during the time I have been having computer problems and I feel so honoured but also guilty because it's taken me so long to thank the donors!

From Chica and Pumuckl

Thank you so much, I love it!

And these are the rules:

~ Put the logo on your blog.

~ Add a link to the person who awarded you.

~ Nominate 10 other blogs.

~ Add links to those blogs on yours.

~ Leave a message for your nominees on their blogs.

As Chica and Pumuckle themselves said, "10 other blogs? Wow, that's a lot! (But still not enough for all our dear furriends)".

So I nominate:

Luxor
Daisy
Mickey
The Fab Five
The Ballicai
Faz
Aoise
MoMo
Empress Bee
Pearl C. Pritchard

From Karen Jo

"With the Premium Dardos, recognize the values that each blogger shows each day in commitment to transmit cultural values, ethical, literary, personal etc. that, in short, demonstrate their creativity by alive thinking that remains intact from their letters and words."

In giving me this award, Karen Jo said, "for the sheer fun of reading her blog." I feel... I think... I can't express what this means to me!!! Karen Jo, you have made me feel I'm not totally useless! Thanks!

I nominate:

William
The Kracker Cat Blog
Kimo and Sabi
His Royal Highness Yao-Lin
Victor the Vampire Kitty

From Sukie

Thanks Sukie, it's beautiful!

1. Those who have received this award, can add the pic
2. Add a link to that person’s blog who awarded you
3. Choose 7 others to receive this award and add links to their blogs
4. Leave a message to their blogs so that they know about this

I nominate:

Angel and Taz

Grrreta

Sweet Ariel

Sweet Praline

JB

Maggy and Zoey

Kaze

I'm sorry it's taken me so long to post these awards. I've had a few technical hitches. I'll bore entertain you with these on another occasion.

In the meantime I hope you all have a lovely easy Sunday:)

XXX

Wordless Wednesday

Don't Worry! You Too Can Have Super-sleek Furs!