I just had to post this as it is another great example of the clever ingenuity with words that I remember from Africa. Classic.
Stay well
Source bbc world news
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I just had to post this as it is another great example of the clever ingenuity with words that I remember from Africa. Classic.
Stay well
Source bbc world news
I’ve been kicking an idea for a book around for a while; and this year seemed the perfect opportunity to do something about it. It’s a brilliant ‘job’ and I am loving it, although I soon learned (and am still learning) that I needed a whole new wardrobe of ‘hats’.
But learning new skills is something I like to do because I am generally too mean to pay other people to do things that I, in theory could do myself. But oh boy, is there a lot to learn about getting a book onto the shelves!
So far I have needed to study…….
There’s also that unshakable feeling that you really should stop wasting time daydreaming about earning a living electronically and get a ‘proper job’. This feeling goes against how we ‘ordinary’ people were brung up and is never spoken about by others, although often ever so slightly implied.
And then there is the f e a r. The fear that the end result will be crap and that no one will want to read what you have invested so much time and effort on. The fear of being arrogant, ‘who am I to assume that I have anything worthy to say?’ kind of thing. The fear of ridicule, the humiliation of putting yourself ‘out there’. But then there is also the fear of that ‘proper job’ to spur you on
.
But if there is one thing I’ve learned about this whole process; it’s all too easy to give up. Fortunately thick skin and persistence have accounted for more entrepreneurial successes than any other method I’ve read about. I can be persistent, I can do the late hours. Whether I have any talent, is fortunately decided by others, thank God.
Oh and anyway, it’s way too cold to be working outside in the winter here……….
Stay well
After many years of wishing I could afford the latest generation of digital hearing aids, at last I have a pair of Oticon Agil Pros. With only a small deposit and the Norwegian Health Service picking up the rest of the tab. High taxes have their benefit after all!
After being fiddled about with for an hour or so with all manner of hi tech wireless transmitting devices, I was finally fitted and declared good to go.
I cried. Couldn’t help it, I was overwhelmed. The new generation of aids reach a far higher frequency than before, exposing me to sounds that I had never heard in 43 years. I felt like the man in the movies who leaps out of his wheelchair yelling, “it’s a miracle, I can walk!”.
They are so good, I feel like I’ve had “the operation”, because they are so much smaller, lighter and clearer, I can hardly feel that I am wearing them. Cia still hears things that I don’t, so I am not pretending that I am totally ‘cured’ hearing wise, and I may never experience what the majority of you take for granted, but for now I am thrilled and impressed with how much more I am hearing. Bravo Oticon!
The digital technology focuses on speech and suppresses unnecessary noise, like vacuum cleaners, fans, and rather coolly, things like saw noise. Brilliant for me at work. They also ‘talk’ to each other wirelessly, great for identifying sound direction and not getting run over!
Being deaf is unique amongst disabilities you see. Because you are ignorant when you don’t hear something. Bird tweeting in a tree. Didn’t hear it, didn’t know that I hadn’t heard it. No problem. Whereas, you know if you can’t see properly etc!
The only problem is (and I am definitely not complaining!) is that my new world is rather noisy! Jeeze do kids make a lot of noise and whats with all the SHOUTING! I now hear many things that I never used to hear, good and bad! Oh, and the car that I thought was running quite OK for a 15 year old, turns out to be a creaking old rattle box
Stay well and like me, listen to the birds!
P.s. They also have a volume control…….ah, that’s better….pesky noisy kids, maybe being deaf is not so bad after all
Stansted Airport Security Staff stopped me yesterday for the henious crime of trying to smuggle out of Britain……………… a jar of Marmite!
Could there be anything more terribly British than wanting a little slice or should I say spread of England on ones toast in the morning? Damn the terrorists for causing the current rules that denied me my basic rights to Marmite.
And Marmite, how about a 100ml jar for the Englishman abroad?
Congratulations to the Security Staff though, to spot a small jar amongst the fully packed case and of course the whole thing was treated with amusement by all concerned. Nice to know that the only horrors on board are the Ryanair non reclining seats and the price of drinks!
I guess it means I still qualify to be an English man then, even after living abroad for a while
Stay well
Take one 15 year old Saab (Swedish), add one Bosch (German) alternator and you would think that you have a solid bit of engineering.
Or rather you would have if Bosch had not outsourced the bearings (the round and roundy bit for those not technically minded) to a third party………..NSK. Although I suppose that technically, we could blame the Japanese, since they now own the company.
The big Swede’s engine bay is normally whisper quiet and the new horrendous noise was finally identified as coming from the alternator, (there are 8 pulleys to chose from!) Being environmentally friendly (read skint), I thought that I would take it apart and see if it was economically repairable, rather than simply replacing it.
Imagine my disappointment to find that the failed components were the British bearings…..with NSK clearly stamped on the side, most likely made in my very own home town. Hitting the forums, I find that apparently it is a common failure point for this car.
But it is unfair for me to hit out at the poor blokes who made these bearings. I assume that they were only doing as they were told with the machines and materials supplied to them. I wonder if the real culprit is endless cost cutting to maintain margins but still drive down prices to win ever more contracts, in the relentless drive to expand and crush the competition.
There was a time when British engineering had no equal and in some fields it still doesn’t. But those fields appear to be getting smaller and smaller every year as more and more companies sacrifice quality to try to please the shareholders instead of the customer or ‘end user’ as we are known.
Unfortunately, it would take too long to wait for the new bearings to be posted out to Norway, so a brand new looking, reconditioned one, was mine in exchange for about a hundred Guineas. Being the second item to fail on this side of the engine; I can now put the long serpentine drive belt on and off with my eyes shut!
My recent experience shows that you don’t always get what you pay for with quality products, especially if they have an outsourcing policy and lets be realistic, these days, who doesn’t?
Caveat emptor…….. as they used to say
Stay well