My debit card expired today. Has my bank – smile – sent me a replacement? No.
I’ve been chasing them up for a week, trying to get some information, to no avail. Finally, I got a message – my new card had been blocked because they didn’t like the look of my credit rating. To be fair, it sucks, but it’s sucked for years, and it’s never bothered them before.
Anyway, my credit status should be Continue reading
As I mentioned in a previous post, I’ve bought a batch of stoneground, organic flours from Shipton Mill, and I did so before realising that storage would be a problem, as I would have far more flour than I’d usually have.
Storing flour for any length of time means finding somewhere cool and free from vermin. The coolest place is my bedroom, on the floor (I keep my mobility scooter in there, so no carpet). There is, though, a slight problem with silverfish (pretty harmless, easy to kill, but very hard to totally eradicate). I don’t know if they can Continue reading
The following is from an article in Pulse magazine. You may have to sign up to read it.
“Elderly patients have been advised by researchers to reduce the risk of broken bones through falls by taking up judo.
Scientists at Vrije University in Amsterdam claim osteoporosis sufferers could be trained to turn falls into rolls, wearing special hip protectors in their training to make it safe.”
Preserve me from ivory-towered scientists and their crackpot ideas – I don’t Continue reading
If you get an email like this, ignore it – it is NOT legit, OK? For a start, I don’t have an HSBC account. And banks don’t work this way anyway – ever.
This was viewed in Mailwasher Pro, by the way, a worthwhile investment if, like me, you get a lot of spam – most is snagged Continue reading
I came across this, today (here).
The healthy alternative to pasteurized milk is raw milk, which is an outstanding source of nutrients including beneficial bacteria such as lactobacillus acidophilus, vitamins and enzymes, and it is, in my estimation, one of the finest sources of calcium available.
Yeah, right…
Let me say, upfront, that Continue reading
In the Guardian there’s an article claiming that the prime fish on our plates – cod, haddock, hake, etc – is quite possibly not what it purports to be, being, in reality, lower-quality fish.
I’m not surprised.
On several occasions, over the past year, I’ve bought Continue reading
For anyone interested in creating their own bread recipes, rather than just following someone else’s, this is how I work up a new recipe.
The first step – beyond thinking about if for a while – is to put together a recipe that should get you reasonably close to what you want to achieve. Some times you get lucky, and hit the perfect combination of ingredients first time. Mostly, though, it takes a couple of attempts.
You should, though, get something that’s
Continue reading
New Age fruitcakes and bandwagon-jumpers have been panicking about, or attempting to profit from, fears centred on 21 December 2012, a date for which they believe, or would like you to believe, the Mayans forecast the end of the world – or some other undefined but almost equally cataclysmic event.
The reasoning Continue reading
I came across this nugget of cobblers in the Guardian this morning, vis-à-vis the egregious Snakes on a Plane movie:-
“…the internet (sic) had actively rewritten parts of it to make it even more stupid,”
Really? The Continue reading
According to the Guardian, today, the government’s plans for getting the 200,000 people “stranded” by the ban on flights home include:-
• Deploying the Royal Navy, cruise ships and commercial shipping to transport passengers to the UK if the crisis worsens.
• Using Spain, which Continue reading
Ron's Rants... 