Hi Everyone
As a young boy the Senior and Junior Partners would take me sometime during the summer on a Sunday afternoon trip to a well known local beauty spot. It has a river, lovely walks, a hill and unfortunately, a car park. I looked forward to two things, as well as an ice cream of course, walking across the river on the stepping stones and climbing the hill with the Junior Partner to take in the wonderful views. Back then few people had cars so even at the weekend when most people were not working, only a small car park was needed and you only had to wait a few moments for your turn to cross the river. I am telling you all this Rubbish as it is in the news this week as this beautiful place is being ruined by the number of visitors and, more importantly, by the amount of litter they leave behind, people lighting BBQ fires and even children throwing stones at the ducks. As one lady said "We seem to be in a race to the bottom. I am glad that I am in the autumn of my life". That may be an extreme assessment but it is not a place we would want to visit anymore. Sadly, too many people do not appreciate or respect their precious environment.
Did you know that there are over four million CCTV cameras in the UK and that you could be captured on screen nearly two hundred times in one day? That assumes that you leave your house of course but even if I stay at home all day, I have a feeling that the Main Contractor has me under constant surveillance. I am telling you all this Rubbish as this week we went to our local DIY warehouse. I bought a boring tin of paint and a bag of potting compost while the Main Contractor made for the half price almost dead plant rack as our garden is full of half price almost dead plants that have escaped the compost heap with some tender loving care. After a careful inspection, a plant was chosen. Now in this section ,each pot has a half price sticker on the plant pot but there was no red sticker on this particular pot, so as there was nobody within twenty yards I suggested that I take a red sticker from another pot. The Main Contractor who has never knowingly broken the law in her life demolished my bright idea as it was pointed out that somebody would be watching us on a CCTV camera. She then decided on another plant which this time had a red sticker on the pot. When we got to the checkout the young man scanned our items and I produced my contactless debit card to pay. After all that was done the Main Contractor pointed out that the young man had missed the red sticker so we had paid full price for the plant. At that point, the young man was totally confused as he now had to rescan the item so that we could get a refund and I had to use my debit card again for the money to be returned to our account. By the time the supervisor had been called to sort out the problem and as only one checkout was working at the time, there was a queue of seven customers in various states of irritation. Now the original plant without the red sticker was marked originally at £10, so a £5 bargain. The original price of the plant at the checkout was £1-50 so the Main Contractor had brought the DIY warehouse to a standstill for a 75p refund. And there was I thinking that I had spent all my life assuming that the Senior Partner was the only person I knew who was tight with money. No doubt next time the Main Contractor goes in search of half dead half price plants the CCTV camera will be on the case before she even reaches the front entrance.
We watched some of the Athletics world championships on TV this week. As well as the UK medal winners, the highlight for me was the ladies' pole vault when an American and an Australian could not be separated after a great competition. They had to decide if they should carry on as they had both reached their optimum height. The American lady was the current world champion, whilst the Australian had achieved the highest jump of her life. The two had a conversation and it seemed that the American offered to share the gold medal with the Australian. I have heard all this stuff about having to win at all costs but that was true sportsmanship and respect. In fact, during the whole week, there were many instances of respect for each other despite every single one of them wanting to be a winner.
Just a thought:
Do you want to hear a DIY joke? Just wait a minute, I am working on it.
We saw a lady caught shoplifting in our DIY store. She had a ladder in her stocking.
My friend called his dog "six miles" so that he could tell all his friends that he walked six miles every day.
Brian
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