You tube

I am an old OK middle aged ranting spinster.  I haven't a clue about why anyone would want to watch stuff on You Tube.  Just what is the attraction?  Why does anyone want to watch other people just chatting about normal mundane things?  Why does anyone want to read about the rantings of a middle aged spinster?  No I'm not on You Tube.


Staying with my 15 year old niece over Christmas has made me want to go into mega rant mode??!!


I can now totally understand how many people are stupid enough to think that they 'know someone' that they have only talked to/communicated with online etc etc.


Try as I might, I could not convince my 15 year old niece that she did not actually know the girlies that she follows on You Tube.  The most I could get her to do was admit that they are not her 'besties'.


But she really believes, that because they 'blog' everyday and talk about their lives on You Tube, that she knows them and knows everything about them.


OK; so I'll compare that to my crush on the popstars of the 1970s.  I kept scrap books of every picture I could find of my chosen crush.  Every time I found out a new fact about them, whether it was their favourite colour or what their first pet was called, I recorded it in my scrapbook.  I guess at the time I probably did think that I knew every single thing about them.


However, I was still grounded enough to know, that because I had never ever met them, I didn't actually know them in real life.  Sure I knew a lot of trivial facts about the mundane aspects of their life, but I knew that if I ever did meet them in real life and spend some time with them, I'd find out a whole lot more.


The worrying thing about my niece; is that she really believes that she knows these You Tuber girls in real life.  She doesn't seem to realise that she only knows what they have chosen to share with the whole world???
In today's world of internet, Skype, text, facebook, intergram, snapchat, twitter, etc, etc, etc, kids actually believe that they 'know' someone if they have communicated with them in one of the above ways?????  In fact, in today's world, it's the only way that some of them communicate with their so called friends.  In today's world kids can sit in their bedrooms and just have online communications with people and think that they're actually in a 'proper relationship'.


Todays world is a bit scary!!!


I could RANT about loads of things that I've mentioned in this post.  There's probably about five or six things that I've talked about that I could rant about, but obviously I won't because this rant is supposed to be about my naïve niece and You tubers!!!!


As mentioned above, I will freely admit that I know nothing about You Tubers.  But the thing I find really worrying is the fact that my 15 year old niece really seems to believe that she knows everything about these people's lives.


...................And nothing I can say otherwise will convince her that she doesn't!!!

Opticians

..............So today I went for an eye test.  Hadn't had one for a couple of years and as a 'very good ranting middle aged spinster', I like to keep all my health checks up to date.


I go to the dentists regularly, I always go for my smear tests, though I think I might stop doing this cos I absolutely hate it and I go to the opticians every couple of years.


Gone are the days when you just read a few letters on a board!


Trainee optician had to go through a load a questions with me first:


Trainee optician - 'What do you wear your glasses for?'


Me - 'Long distance stuff, driving, watching TV, walking the dog'.


Trainee optician - 'How often do you use a computer?'


Me - 'Haven't a clue.  I work about 28 hours a week & a lot of that time I'm on the computer'.


Trainee optician - 'I'll put down 3 hours a day'.


Trainee optician - 'Do you drive?'


Me - 'Yes'


Trainee optician - 'Do you have any hobbies?'


Me - 'Not really'.


................................Long silence!!!!!


Me - 'I walk for a couple of hours a day.  I've got a collie dog'.


And then 'trainee optician' made me look at a load of 'dots' through some stupid screen and then she took some 'photos' of my eye and asked me a load more questions about my family history, which was already 'on file'.


................And then she made me go and see the 'optician' who had all this information in front of her and who asked me the same stupid questions all over again.  And all the time I was thinking.........  I thought this would only take 10 mins and my hours car parking ticket is going to run out any minute???


And the optician told me that I hadn't had any new glasses since 2006?  Well actually I have because I bought some from 'Glasses Direct' in 2008, when I realised that I could get them for less than half the price.


However I have to admit, that because my prescription hasn't changed I haven't bothered to change my glasses.


And then she gave me the 'big sell' talk about how I could get an extra pair of glasses for half price, etc, etc, etc,.  I had a quick browse of the glasses on show and most of them started at £150 and that's not including the lens or anything else???


So I said, 'My parking tickets just about to run out.  Can I come back next week to choose new glasses?'


....................I will not be going back next week to choose new glasses and I will probably not be going back there for an eye test.


However, as a very conscientious middle aged spinster, I go for eye tests every couple of years, so I will go again in December 2016.


...................Probably not at the opticians I went to today.  LOL LOL LOL!!!!!


................And I will buy some 'very trendy glasses' from a cheap site on the internet???!!!!

Christmas cards verus Facebook

Today I have written all my Christmas Cards.  Christmas Cards aren't really that expensive.  I always try to buy 'charity Christmas Cards'.  This year I'm supporting the RSPCA, Marie Curie Cancer Care & Cornwall Hospices.


Stamps are extortionate!


I've spent about £10 on cards (because W H Smith were selling boxes for buy 2, get one free) and about £30 on stamps?????


Why am I sending Christmas cards to people that I don't actually see from one year to the next, they're my friends on Facebook, so actually why don't I just send them an e-card??????


Christmas is getting more and more commercialised every year.


And now I'm just sounding like a 'grumpy old woman' or a 'middle aged ranting spinster' - both of which I'm guessing I am???


However............................. as a 'ranting middle aged spinster.................... there's still something really nice about receiving a Christmas Card.  One has a 'physical thing' that one can display on one's mantelpiece.  OK I don't have a mantelpiece but that's not the point.


Christmas cards show that friends new & old are thinking of you at Christmas.  Sending a card signifies that an effort has been made to buy a card, write a card, put a stamp on the envelope and post the card.


Like many of my lovely FB friends, I'm sure I will pen a post on Christmas Eve which will say something like, 'Wishing all my FB friends a fabulous Xmas & New Year'.


I know I'm a 55 year old middle aged ranting spinster.................  But there's a lot to be said for sending good old fashioned Christmas Cards???

Another car parking RANT!

I am seriously NOT happy!!!


...........And I actually don't care who reads, sees or makes this RANT go viral.


To explain...................


I live in a house within a complex of 12 properties.  There is one allocated parking space per property.


One of my neighbours is having a lot of alterations done to his house and he asked me, a few days ago, if I would mind parking in one of the other spaces for three days because he had a lot of stuff to be delivered/removed etc etc.  My parking space is nearer to his house and he wanted all the delivery people to have easier access.


Obviously I agreed because I am a very nice neighbour??!!


However, whenever anyone else has work done to their property they have to make arrangements for where the workmen can park.  When any of us have people to visit we have to make arrangements for where people can park. Etc,Etc,Etc.


Anyway I have parked my car in one of the other parking spaces because I know its not being used by the owners because it is a 'holiday let' property and there is no one there.


........And now ..................I have just arrived home and found my neighbour parked in my parking space????  This wasn't the deal??  The deal was - they could use my space for workmen for three days???  NOT use my parking space for their own use!!!


I actually like MY parking space.  I bought my house 12 years ago with an 'allocated numbered parking space'.  I like my parking space because it's the furthest space away from the main road and it means I can unload my shopping, let the dog out of the boot, and get into my property easily.


And while I'm having a RANT - the other good thing about my parking space is - another car can actually park behind mine without blocking anyone else in.  For more than 10 years this is what friends have done if they're only popping in for a couple of hours.  Now it would seem that one of the other neighbours doesn't like this.  Apparently it's spoiling her view???


Get over it love!  You buy a house overlooking a car park - expect to see a few cars!!!!


However, out of respect for the neighbours, and because I actually hate confrontation, I've actually asked my friends to park elsewhere.


.....................Won't be doing this anymore.


For the last six weeks, I've had to go knocking on my neighbours door to ask the builders to remove their vehicles every time I go in and out. 


Neighbour that has moaned about my friends parking behind my car for even just 5 mins, (while they pop into my house to pick up my dog), doesn't seem to have a problem with a huge Volvo or van parked right outside her window for weeks on end??  Also didn't seem to have a problem when her daughter was parking a car in the middle of the car park which was only blocking in her car & her boyfriends???


Seems to me that there's 'two rules' going on here.


Not happy!!!  Hence this RANT!!!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Haven't ranted for a while but I'm now going to seriously have a rant about Christmas.


It's November for goodness sake.  Only half way through November, yet every shop one goes into has it's Christmas tree and Christmas decorations up.  And irritating piped Christmas music is blaring from everywhere.


OK, I must admit the 'John Lewis Christmas Advert' (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iccscUFY860) is fabulous.  I love the John Lewis Christmas Advert.  Though I have to admit to being a victim of 'social media'.  The John Lewis ad popped up on my twitter feed so I knew it was the John Lewis Christmas Advert.....................  But how does anybody know that it's advertising John Lewis until the very end???  OK, I guess everyone knows,  because it's the John Lewis Ad and everyone has social media.


Anyway, I live in Cornwall.  It's not exactly the metropolis of the universe and yet today when I went to a 'retail park' it was jam packed.  I can't mention which store I went into because I might end up on the 'Jeremy Kyle Show'.  However an overheard conversation went a bit like this..................


I think they were mother & daughter. Both in leggings, both had hair tied back in a greasy pony tail and both had teeth missing!!! ................OK this is me making assumptions now!


Mother - 'You've got some vouchers.  If you spend £30 you'll get £10 off.


Daughter - 'Well I'm definitely going to do that anyway'.


Mother - 'What are you getting'?


Daughter - 'The leggings are two for one'.


Mother  - 'Lets get a trolley'.


Daughter - 'They've got sexy santa underwear over there.


Mother - Do you think they've got some in my size?  That'll get Dave going.


Daughter - £8.99's a lot of money to spend just to get it ripped off in minutes.


Mother - 'I'll make Dave wait!'


...................At which point I wandered off. 


OMG!!!  This is Britain in 2014.


I know that I'm a 'middle aged ranting spinster' but really?...........................


No way would I ever have had that kind of conversation with my mother.


It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.


........................More Christmas RANTS will follow.  LOL.

Waiting for a mammogram result

So....................  Some of you may know.........................  Some of you may not know..................


Three years ago I had breast cancer.  Fortunately it was diagnosed very early and I did not have too much of a traumatic time. 


However as a result of that I have to have a mammogram every year for the next 5 years.  This is year 3.  I feel fine, I look fine.  I am fine.  Having said that - it's exactly what I said 3 years ago after I'd had my very first mammogram aged 52.


On the 17th September at my 3 yearly check up I was told the results would be with me within 2 weeks.  I was handed a little card which said, 'If you have not heard from us within 2 weeks please phone this number'.


Well the two weeks were up just before I headed off to Spain for a holiday.  I hadn't heard and I didn't want to phone because I didn't actually want to know what the results were.  As far as I was concerned I was off on my hols and if something was wrong I would deal with it on my return.  And also I was sure that a letter would be waiting for me on my return.


.............A letter wasn't waiting for me on my return.


By this time it had been more than 3 weeks so I plucked up the courage and phoned the number on my little card.


The person who answered the phone said that the results were taking up to 4 weeks, she didn't know who was writing 2 weeks on the 'little cards' and was I worried???  Well of course I was worried!!!  3 years ago I had breast cancer, didn't know I had breast cancer, had no symptoms, felt fine, etc, etc.  Who's to say it's not come back again???


Person on the phone asked if I wanted her to try and find out more and she'd phone me back.  That was really nice of her.  But actually I don't want to know.  I feel fine.  I am fine.  If I'm dying is a couple of weeks really going to make any difference???  I told her I'd just wait for the results to be sent out.


But tomorrow it will be 4 weeks since my mammogram and I still haven't had the results.  I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing??


.................And now I think I do want to know.


I'm working all day tomorrow but if there is not a letter lying on my doormat when I get home from work tomorrow evening, I will be phoning the hospital on Thursday and demanding to know what is going on.


Surely looking at a mammogram x-ray thingy shouldn't take this long?????????????


This is 2014 - Technology is brilliant so surely if there'd been something seriously wrong with me it would have been picked up straight away and the hospital would have contacted me???


There again, too many ill people, too few beds in hospital, poorly paid nurses, not enough staff.


Nobody cares.  Patients these days are just statistics???


.....................I'm scared that there is something seriously wrong with me and I won't get the treatment that I need.


Having said that...........................  I feel absolutely fine.  There again, I did 3 years ago ................And then I was diagnosed with breast cancer!!!!!!!!!!!

Seriously annoyed!!!

This evening I am seriously annoyed.


I am going to have a rant about CHAT magazine.  CHAT magazine, as far as I am concerned is a magazine for chavs??  It's not the most upmarket magazine in the world but actually I quite like it.  I like reading about betrayal, affairs, tragedy.  CHAT magazine is like reading about a 'Jeremy Kyle' show instead of watching it.


Anyway I have just been on my hols so I took along a couple of CHAT magazines for trashy reading in the sun.  I read them, I did all the puzzles and on my return I thought I'd fill out the online competition entry form.  After all I could be in line for a few thousand pounds worth of prizes.


So I registered, I filled out my entry forms for the last two weeks of CHAT magazine and then a message popped up.  Something about answering 2 simple questions before I could submit my answers???


I actually couldn't submit my answers???  The two simple questions wanted me to tick a load of boxes.  But if I ticked the load of boxes that meant I'd be getting a load of emails from a load of places that I don't actually want???  And as far as I could see there was no way of by passing all these stupid boxes.


I'm furious!!!!  I've just spent ages trying to submit some answers to a 'chavvy mag competition' and it seems that I can't unless I tick all the boxes which from what I can see is signing me up to all sorts of crap.


I like to think that I'm a reasonably intelligent person????  A lot of the people reading CHAT magazine are not.


Fabulous marketing ploy CHAT magazine???


.................I won't be buying you again.