a shopping trolley with a seat.

london

I was walking back from my gym yesterday, and passed a rubbish tip. I saw this amongst a lot of rubbish. (see picture). Its a shopping trolley. Once, i saw a shopping trolley which was just the right length for attaching to my bike, but did not take it, and wished I did. Since then, I have been on the lookout for another one. so i did not hesitate to take this one even though I did notice it was a bit unusual, and its bag was missing. I can always use another bag, so it does not matter. The important thing was it has nice big wheels, which makes it very quiet to drag along. And it is very light. The frame is made of aluminium.

It was only later, when i came home and took a closer look at it, that i realise the tartan cloth is a seat. It pulls down and rests on supports. What an extraordinary design, and so practical really, because I am sure what any shopper would love to have is a place to sit built into the shopping trolley so they can rest anytime they want, especiallly after a busy and long day shopping. I was thinking it would be useful also to carry picnic things on a country walk or a day out on the beach. You dont have to carry the heavy picnic things by hand, and still be able to sit on it avoiding sitting on wet grass or muddy ground. I think it is a good thing for the elderly, and maybe that is why it was thrown away? It does give a old fashioned image of age. haha. And yet it is so cleverly designed. Still faultlessly working even though it is obviously very old. I was thinking i would be right glad to have it when i grow older and would love to rest my feet. now of course i m still young enough not to mind sitting on the ground. haha. I am glad i rescued it. I think they are marvellous objects to have and to use.

one person's view (continued)

london
I read a refreshing article in the dailymail by liz jones. She is highly paid to write this blog like column of hers. She hints that she gets a six figure salary, so we cannot be far wrong if we guess it is about £500,000 and more likely to be on the higher end.
her latest article is about her debts, £150,000 in credit cards etc, not counting mortgage.
At first reading, u might think what a foolish person. but really when u analyse it, her debt is manageable. it is less than 25% of her income. And in the process she enjoys her money, which is one way of enjoying life.
I know thrifty people like me wont do it, but then we trade it in for other things, like peace of mind, and not having to work churning out article after article every day haha. Though, I am sure she is the kind of lady who likes writing the way she does, so it comes as second nature and not a big chore. She is using her talents to write in a way that provokes people or voice their feelings.
I used to wonder why people get into debt and why they are so silly. but reading her i get an insight into it, and look at it from her point of view. I realise there is quite a lot to be said for her choice. After all she cannot take her money with her when she dies, so she is enjoying it now.
I am glad that she wrote about her debts and gave me an insight into another way of seeing debt.. I daresay she will get criticised, as allready some people in the comments section are allready doing, but I can see how she is enjoying spending her money and I can see how she is not that reckless with it, by keeping it within the 25% mark. She can most probably get debts of 50% of her income for short periods without affecting her too much. When you are playing with half a million £s income, u can play a bit and spend a bit with gay abandon. haha.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1225842/LIZ-JONES-I-spend-money-hole-soul--Im-150-000-debt.html

one person's view

london
is very limited. I can read the papers and there you will find plenty of opinion but how relevant it is? As our world gets 24hr news, there is too much information, a lot of it contradictory, so that we dont know what is important and what is dross.
All I can say is thank goodness a lot of it does not impinge on me. I have taken myself off the mainspring traffic and I am glad of it. It must be tough to be working and being in debt. And i mean a mortgage, not just money borrowed to buy things. I have never wanted to work till retirement, or beyond, as some people want to do. It seems to me crazy to want to work for so long. Its a bit like the slave who is afraid of being given his freedom. He is so used to being a slave, not having to make any decisions about his future, but to rely on his owner that being retired is akin to being freed from servitude. That may explain why so many are so fearful of retirement. They say it is because they will have reduced or no income, but if u have been working for so long that u retire, u have a pension, and it will be enough. So that cannot be the reason why they fear it. By working, they have a structure to their lives, someone else dictates what they do. Like slaves. not for nothing are these people called wage slaves. when people retire, they should if they want a happy retirement, clear all their debts, especially pay off their mortgage. It is very cheap to live if u dont have to pay rent or mortgage, and own ur home outright. I have found that out, and so my life is worry free. But i have never heard anyone advocate the same thing. why? Maybe because by not spending and not being in debt, we are of no interest to the middle men, who take a commission only if we spend. people like me are not profitable to anyone out on the make, trying to drum up business, as they make a commission only if i spend. No one will give u that advise. They will keep asking u to spend. If u are savvy, u will make ur own observation and act accordingly. I have lived about 9yrs now without needing to work, and my income is small, and yet i m able to live a very nice life, and not depriving myself of anything I want. I can consider myself an expert on the money free life. EAch of us decide when to stop work. Some are forced to do so, others like me volunteerily give it up. It is better to be the latter. I cannot imagine going back to work now. To me that is a horror. haha. But it is not so for others,i know. Just today, i visited a friend who told me he have to work. He would be bored if he did not, as he discovered when he was made redundant in the past.
Even having a lot of money can be a headache. Trafigura , the company accused to dumping toxic wastes in the ivory coast, have given millions for the victims, but now it seems there is dispute about who can distribute it. There is fear that whoever distributes it may be dishonest. I have often found out that too much money is a curse and this one confirms it.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/8347513.stm

bargain offers

london
I was as usual at the library yesterday, reading the papers, I read it first in the daily mirror, which is really a good newspaper for these things. It alerts me to go to the supermarket and get them before they run out. I saw an advert by tesco offering 4 400mg cans of heinz baked beans for £1. usually it is £2.15. That is a very good price. So i went to my local tesco, but there was none to be had. however, i saw they are selling 2 cauliflower for £1 and i bought them as i have been fancying eating some vegetables and it is not often they are reduced. It was a one off for that store,I have noticed that they reduce a veg everyday, but usually i dont go in the morning, and by the time i go late at night it has all sold out. That is worth remembering in case i crave veg again next time.
but I did get my baked beans in the end, i walked to the big tesco store in vauxhall. They have almost run out but i got 2 4-packs. Baked beans are rather nice with sausages, mushrooms and eggs for a cooked english breakfast, and make great beans on toast. I seldom buy them as they are normally about 50p upwards which for what they are(just suger and salt really) seem to me rather expensive. I also bought heinz 700mg tomato ketchup too, another special offer. It is something i seldom buy, but it was a nice bargain, as Heinz products are the standard by which others compare. They have lots more beans in them.I dont buy these things that often, as there is too much suger in them, but i guess now and then on special offer it is ok. I am glad these reduced price offers from heinz come up quite rarely or i shall be tempted to eat them more often.Of course own brand tomato ketchup are half the price but they are not so good as heinz and i am not tempted to buy them.
The metro newspaper, the free newspaper given out in the morning at the tube stations, says the daily mail is offering a small laptop for £80(includes £10 postage and packing). I went to my gym to get the daily mail. I did not notice it when i was reading the paper in the morning because it was not prominently displayed. I forgot to keep the copy and bring it back. I had to go back to the gym in the evening to have another look at it. Unfortunately the laptop has only 128MB of memory, which is very little, otherwise i would send off for it. Pity that because it is nice to have such a small laptop to carry about. I have not used a laptop with such small memory, but simon says it is too slow. one day i shall try it and see if it is as bad as they say. since i shall use it just to access my email and my gay website, such small memory should be enough won't it?
Computer random access memory(RAM) must be expensive, because those that have 1G, like this laptop i m using is about £300.
Eating in and cooking your own meals are very cheap. If people say living in london is expensive, it is because I think they rent, eat out a lot or buy readymade meals. Sandwiches cost £2-3. Think how many sandwiches u can make with that money.
I think the pizzahut is trying to entice people to eat out. Pizzahut in the metro newspaper yesterday offers half price meals with the voucher. Their drinks are £2 each. But that is how restaurants make profit. Here in uk pizzahut dont do anything other than pizza, pasta, salads. I just read in a blog that in malaysia, pizzahut offers a lot more dishes.
http://sloppychic.com/why-you-should-go-pizza-hut-for-the-new-crunchy-cheesy-bites-pizza-now/
And Macdonalds are offering vouchers for £1.99 meals of big mac, or fillet of fish, etc plus medium fries. Even i was tempted, until i hark back to our hamburger made with minced beef that costs only 13p each, tasting so much better and so much cheaper, and i came to my senses. haha.

It is really very cheap to live in london, in spite of all those people who say otherwise; and so many things happen in london, for free. For eg, the bonfire happening all over london over the next few nights to celebrate guy fawkes. I am spoilt really because i find they are too far from me to walk there. And even when it is quite nearby i dont seem much bothered to go. somehow just looking at fireworks do not get me very excited these days. Getting old I guess. But also to make a good display requires a lot of money spent on it, and many of these events dont have the money.
My life must seem very boring to anyone bothering to read all this. However, i enjoy doing these things immensely. I think because they can be unexpected and unplanned as i dont really know day by day whether there will be bargains like these. I think the unexpectedness of it all is what makes it exciting for me. I dont know what i might find.
I was passing the recycling bins and saw a really good push pram folded up. It can carry two children at the same time. I was thinking what a find if i were a parent with young children. I did not take it and tomorrow it will be gone as anything left there is quickly removed by the recycling workmen. The area round those bins is always clean and have no unsightly objects lying around. It stops the neighbourhood looking like a dump.

Added 8.11.09. i had a chance to eat those beans, and am a bit disappointed. They seem more watery than I recall. I have not eaten heinz baked beans for a long time,(since childhood) maybe my memory is playing me tricks, but I thought they are much thicker than these. I remember they would stay as a lump when u spoon it on a plate now they spread out thinly over the surface.

hearing insults where none is intended

london
Reading this reminded me of another incident where race was an issue.
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23764695-fired-n-word-man-i-said-bigger-but-they-misheard-me.do
3 people thought he said nigger instead of bigger, and wrote in to complain, and he got sacked.
In this day and age, it should have been obvious no one in their right mind would say that word, but 3 people misheard him, and were too eager to complain. so many times we have seen people who are too sensitive to imagine insults where none is intended or said. and these people will be too eager to complain. but it is the duty of management to consider how reasonable the complaint is and to be brave enough to dismiss it. But it takes a brave management to do so, that is for sure. Easier to just follow the trend.
There was a black couple in a restaurant who complained about that the receipt which identified them as the black couple. They said they were the only people in that section, and complained of the use of black to describe them.
They said they had been to a racist course, and maybe that is the trouble.
It makes me wonder , is black a dirty word now? I remember someone saying that to me once, and i was surprised because i have always used that word to describe blacks.It seems u must use 'african american' now. Though if they are not american they might object to being called that too.They expect us to know their nationality now?(Just like some singaporeans who get insulted for being mistaken for malaysians, or vice versa or other nationalities who feel insulted if mistaken for another nationality.Irish or scots for english for eg. or chinese from china for japanese. These people are really too much into themselves.) So what shall we call Blacks now?i know if a chinese couple were described as chinese couple, no one would object. Just as a white couple in a chinese restaurant might be so described and think nothing of it.So it seems to me that if u have an inferiority complex, no matter what people call u , u will object, because u are so insecure. That is your problem, but society is so afraid to offend these people,or to be sued using the race laws that are so prevalent now, that they pander to them.
http://www.vnnforum.com/showthread.php?p=1068422

the switching on of the oxford st christmas lights

london

this year they make a big deal of it, providing shows and tying it with the disney film animation of Dickens' christmas carol. Though it was constantly referred to as Disney's christmas carol, that it wont surprise me if future generations grew up to believe Disney wrote the story.

the shops were opened, but i doubt they got any business, as most people were out in the street. It attracted a large crowd considering it is for nothing more than to switch on the chrismas lights. haha. Previous years it did not attract much attention, no shows, so that it did not keep the crowds in the street but in the shops, which is the whole idea, isn't it? this year with all the activity in the street, the shops may find that there is not as much business as they had hoped. The oxford st lights were more bright and colourful. I stood on one of the portland stone traffic islands at oxford circus, and had a chance to stand in the middle of it afterwards.

The cleaners were very quickly at work immediately it was over, so that the streets were cleaned again very fast. the Mcdonalds were doing good business afterwards. I strolled down to leicester square, where the whole square was condoned off. there was a screen showing what was going on inside, but i could not be bothered. Its fun to look at the lights and the people but the PA annoucement after the lights came on was quick to tell people the show is over and to make their way to oxford st tube to go home. then, after a bit, it said oxford st tube is closed. haha. So many have followed their instructions.

bargains at the sainsburys

these are the mince beef which was normally £3.19 reduced £1.59 in their promotion, then today reduced progressively to 65p and finally when i saw it , to 40p each. i bought 7 of them. there were so many left.

4 multigrained bagels for 10p, the 6 oatmeal sweets topped with nuts and raisins for 10p for the lot, cheesecake for 80p(fr £3.29). i also bought 2 packs of 8sausages for 40p each (normally £2.25 each.

london

I went to oxford circus to see the lights switched on and after all that it was only 8pm. so i thought i shall stop off at my local sainsbury's to see if there is any bargains. i was thinking i would like some minced beef and visualising them being reduced.

I bought the bagels etc at the bakery section, and saw a polish man with a trolley of minced beef at 40p, and i mentioned to him he got a good bargain there. He then told me there are lots more. I said where is it? and he pointed it to me. They were all at the minced beef area. So many of them. I took 7. I would have missed them entirely if not for that polish guy. Normally, i never bother to look there as they are all full priced. but it seems that sainsbury has abolished a dedicated place for reduced meats and simply mix it up with the normal priced ones. And a guy who was there told me he was waiting because he overheard the manager tell one of the women sales person to come back at 8.30pm to reduce it further. We were chatting away, he telling me he once bought wine which was normally £10 for £2.80, he bought 6 he said. (I warned him that with the law, they can jack the price up and display it for 2wks, and then they can legally quote it when they reduce the price)

And we were moving away to find that sales woman when the polish guy came up. He looked at the guys trolley and saw the minced beef, and noticed their price 40p, and realised she had reduced them, because when he saw them it was 65p. So he hurried off to get them before they are sold out. There were plenty still left. I thought it would be expecting too much for them to reduce it to 20p, haha. 40p is a good bargain, they are 500mg, 16% fat and is in their better quality range.The sausages at 40p, reduced £2.20 are not such good value, but it is nice now and then to eat sausages haha.

Simon was so hungry when he saw the mince beef when i got back, he wanted to cook hamburgers straight away and he did. he opened a 500mg pack and divided it into 3 portions, and cooked two,with garlic, ginger, onions and it was delicious, so much more meaty and thicker and more solid than the hamburgers from macdonalds or burgerking.The secret he said is to cook them at high heat, and keep turning them so they dont get burnt.We thoroughly enjoyed our hamburgers and for me all the better for being such bargain buys.

A funny thing happened when i tried to check out at the self service tills. It toted up the beef, as 40p minus 80p, 7 times, and did the same for the other goods, and then came up with the total of -£1.00 and refused to take my money, saying it wont accept my card, even though i have not put in a card.

So i took the whole lot to the human cashier, and he routinely passed them over the machine, until he saw the total, -£1.00 and did a double take.he was thoroughly confused and said he owes me £1. he called the supervisor, who, after grilling the cashier, said 'ask him to give u £1 but dont give it back to him'. The cashier objected saying i must pay for what i bought. I was laughing away, and so did the next customer. I said 'that would serve u (meaning sainsbury)right for relying on the computer so much.'

In the end, they wiped out the transaction and did it the old fashioned way, calculating the amount and keying it manually into the till.

It came to £4.60 for goods that would have cost about £23 normal price.

Observe the mince beef came to only £2.80. A real bargain.I wonder whether the oxford st lights switch has attracted a lot of office workers who did not do their normal shopping after work, but went there instead. That might explain why there were so many of these minced beef for sale at such a late hour.