The last post…….

 

I will be signing off for a while, due to unforeseen circumstances. Thank you for watching the posts. 

Best wishes and kind regards
Margaret

You will never get rich or famous doing housework.……

Sometimes there are words that go together naturally, like “clean and tidy”, but if you turn this phrase around and make it “tidy but not clean”, then that puts a whole new perspective on the gentle art of doing housework.

I used to berate myself for not doing all of the housework to my critical satisfaction, fretting about dust that could have come from Mars.  However, as I grow older and my eyesight dims, I realise that what my eye doesn’t see clearly, my mind doesn’t fret about.  So, with that mind shift firmly in place, I now make a big effort to be “tidy” and don’t worry too much about being “clean”. After all, if your house is tidy then it is performing an optical illusion, as people just cant separate out the term “clean and tidy”  If they see tidiness, they naturally assume that it’s also clean.  It would be nice if this was always true, but there you are, I am old, I can make excuses!!!

However, you need to be consistently tidy and I do this every morning under the guise of “self maintenance”.  I put on the timer for, say, twenty minutes, and go at it.  So, stop worrying about the dreaded housework, which, left unchecked, will expand to fill every minute of your day.   Use my version of the turn of phrase “clean and tidy” and enjoy all of the extra time you will have, and the compliments on the order of your house.

After all, no one would be cheeky enough to run their finger along the windowsill, would they dare?

Fast track by ambulance…..

This week’s adventure was a visit to Auckland Hospital, and, as usual, it was by ambulance.  I haven’t had to go to the hospital for quite a while now, so I wasn’t all that pleased to once again be visiting the Accident & Emergency room.  I would like to say a word of thanks to the staff at the hospital, who were, as usual, so kind and helpful, and got me up and running again in a couple of days. This is a world class hospital, located right in the heart of Auckland. We are so lucky to have such a facility on our doorstep, and its free!!! And St Johns Ambulance were, as always, life savers par excellence. 

A word on being prepared for unexpected trips like this.  My hospital visits became almost a shuttle service by ambulance a couple of years ago.   I am now a seasoned traveller and I always have a small bag packed, just in case.  In it, I put things like toiletries, comb and small mirror, etc and a change of clothes as well as night attire and slippers or shoes.  I  have a small radio and earphones, cellphone  and a few dollars  Then, when the unexpected need arises, I just pick up the bag and go.  I also have a  file with a list of my current medications, medical notes, contacts etc, which makes admission to the hospital go a lot faster. The reason I take a change of clothes is that I usually arrive in hospital in my pyjamas and need clothes to go home in. 

So, be like the Boy Scouts. Be prepared!!!!! 

When prosperity comes, do not use all of it. Confucius

Having money troubles?  Read “The Richest Man in Babylon”. Save 10 percent from the top of your net income  and you will never be broke……



Some years ago, when I was into self-help books, mainly business, I came across this little gem of a book written by George Glason, who wrote it in the 1920’s.  This book has been in publication ever since the first printing.   It has been updated, and I haven’t read the new version, but I can most certainly recommend this as the most useful money management book I have ever read.  It seems simple and is written in parables, but, what dynamite suggestions!!


The secret to this 10 percent savings plan is that you squirrel money away for yourself, and don’t make any announcements about it. This is your money to do with what you want without having to discuss it or ask permission to spend it.  My late sister, who only had her pension, was talking to me one day and I made this suggestion to her. She immediately put it into place, and she told me she actually had some money of her own for the first time in her life, and had gone from zero to $2000 in a very short time.


So, give it a go, you have nothing to lose and a whole lot of money to gain.


"What can a book written in the 1920s tell modern investors about their finances? A whole lot if it's George Clason's delightful set of parables that explain the basics of money. This is a great gift for a graduate or anyone who seems baffled by the world of finance and a wonderful, refreshing read for even the most experienced investor." -Los Angeles Times

If you are lonely, start a blog.

 

 I live with my daughter and, really, I  live alone in a little unit on her property.  While I always see the family every day, most of the time they are busy with their own lives, so sometimes I don't get to talk to anyone all day.  I just wave as they leave to go to school and work.

That’s not to say I am entirely on my own, not with three galumphing dogs in the background. I had no experience with dogs in my life, yet I seem to have acquired the wellbeing of these mutts.  The biggest one, Obie, is black, very large with long white fangs and a lovely smile.  He doesn’t take kindly to strangers, so I guess you would call him my bodyguard. After all, he is dressed in black and only needs a black pair of sunglasses to complete the picture!! He has no social graces, having come to us too late to be really socialised, and he is a sneak thief. No food left lying exposed on benches will escape his snaffling intentions.

I think being alone needs to be addressed in some way, and as I am not a particularly social person, joining the various clubs that are available to senior citizens is not the way forward for me.  No, now that I am a “blogstar”, I feel that I have lots of contact with other human beings.  Blogging always seemed to me to be a mysterious art form, something like magic, but it is not.  It is really easy to set up, get a techno savvy person to do the initial work if you don’t feel happy doing it yourself, and start posting.

You could be surprised at the valuable knowledge you have accumulated over the years. Maybe you are a potential cooking blogstar or a gardening blogstar, or who knows what hidden talents are waiting to come to the surface.    Don't worry about nobody reading it.....you are speaking of your life, and you are listening and remembering.  

Don’t take blind leaps into the unknown……

I was doing my computer housekeeping yesterday, and while I was clearing some of the many emails, I also had a look into my filing system, which is chaotic.  I found that I had started to write children’s stories some time ago, a pursuit which I had long forgotten about.  Anyway, to cut to the chase, the following is a story I wrote for my granddaughter as a school project. I don’t know what marks I got.  Read this and I hope you have a laugh!!!

THE MONKEY AND THE FROG

Once upon a time there were two creatures who were supposed to be friends. The monkey was very friendly but the frog was very pompous and was always bragging about how far he could jump.

One day, the monkey got fed up with the frog always talking about how good he was at jumping, and he decided to teach him a lesson.

So he said to the frog “I am going to challenge you to a leaping competition. I will jump over this little puddle and we will see if you can do it too.”

“No problem,” said the frog, “anything you can do, I can do better!!!”

And so the monkey took a big jump right over the puddle. “Your turn”, he said to the frog.

The frog puffed himself up and jumped right over the puddle. “There you are, see” he scoffed.

The monkey said “ Ok,  here we go again. I will leap over this bigger puddle” and, with that, he ran and jumped right over the water.

The frog took one look , did a giant leap and landed safely. 

Now, the monkey said to the frog” Well, you are very good at this, aren’t you? “

“I sure am, I am a much better jumper than you will ever be”, the frog boasted.

The monkey now took a scarf from around his neck and said “ Well, how about doing a jump with a blindfold on? I bet you can’t do that!!”

“I most certainly can”, laughed the frog, “ here, let me go first”

And so the monkey tied the blindfold around the frog’s eyes and led him to a much bigger pool.

“Go on, jump now” said the monkey.

The frog took a huge run forward and leapt high into the sky, but, as he couldn’t see the pool, he didn’t know that the monkey had tricked him. He fell into the pool with a giant splash, and , unfortunately,  there was a monstrous crocodile waiting for him with his jaws wide open and the last thing the frog heard was “SNAP”

And so the moral of the story is:

DON’T TAKE BLIND LEAPS INTO THE UNKN OWN

Dredging the River of Memories…..

 

My best advice for this dangerous pursuit is to watch out for the crocodiles on the river bank!  Don’t let them snap you up!  Sometimes, in dredging, you bring up the mud of your life, and sometimes you come unexpectedly upon some lost treasure of a memory.  The secret is to dump that sludge and enjoy the treasure.

Why crocodiles on the river bank?  Well, my last great adventure was the trip to North Queensland, and the first far northern city I called in at was Cairns.  I did some of the usual tourist things, and, as I had a few hours to fill in before flying on to Gove, I went on a “river” tour in a smallish ferry.  To call this a river was a flight of imagination ….. it had been dredged out of a muddy mangrove swamp and was now home to a lot of Australian Naval vessels. On this particular morning, as we drove past the shores, there were lots of crocodiles there, sunning themselves on the banks.  There weren’t many passengers on board, and I was sitting close to the skipper, who  had a friend with him on this trip.  A chance to catch up on the local gossip.  The friend was telling the skipper of an “ hilarious” incident that had happened the week before to a group of Japanese tourists.  The tour operator had landed them on a beach somewhere, and they all came running back, screaming that the beach was full of crocodiles!  He, of course, thought they were exaggerating, but, when he went to check,  found it was true. The entire contents of the crocodile farm nearby had escaped.  Luckily, none of the tourists was eaten. I don’t think they would have thought it was very funny. 

Not to be outdone, the skipper then told his friend about another tour operator who had recently taken a small band of tourists up into Cape York, a very wild place.  He said he had let the tourists sleep in their tent on the ground while he slept on the roof of the Land Rover. Was he scared of the roaming buffaloes and crocodiles, not to mention the snakes and spiders?   No, of course not. Once again, the tourists all made it back safely to civilisation.