I knew I wasn’t going to make it…
From my Blogspot blog: Every now and again, you come across these funny little web quizzes, and I’m usually a sucker for them. This one, as the badge declares, is to find out whether you’re likely to live to 100 years old.
See the rest of the entry by clicking here.
Brief notes
Another quick round up of bits and pieces that don’t warrant a whole post on their own:
1. The advice to always read the small print is something that Piotr Staniaszek should have heeded. He’s just been hit with a mobile phone bill for $85,000 after thinking that his $10 a month plan would cover him for using his mobile phone as a modem and downloading HD movies and other large files. Come on, really? $10 a month is gonna cover you for that? Even if you haven’t read the small print, you probably wouldn’t expect that sort of use to be covered.
2. This delightful thing is what now adorns the Rowan Tree pub in the Cowgate area of Edinburgh. In case you can’t tell, it’s a flatulent cow that emits a burst of dry ice at 11am, noon and 1pm to tell all the locals what the time is.
Apparently it’s becoming as popular a tourist attraction as the nearby Greyfriars Bobby, and as much of a time keeper as the One O’Clock Gun. I’d be worried about some Council Jobsworth trying to do them for allowing smoking!
3. Just been looking at the TV schedules for Christmas. With my wide choice of four TV channels, I really am being offered some spectacular fare: on the Sunday before the big day I can watch the very Christmassy “The Great Escape”. Yep, that movie that’s on every Christmas (except it isn’t, it hasn’t been on at Christmas for years) is on once again. Christmas Eve isn’t too bad - there are some movies related to Christmas, and “Pirates of the Caribbean” which is always fun - but Christmas Day itself is awful; “Gone with the Wind” (yawn) or lots and lots of EastEnders (depressing) and ‘dragged out of the rubbish pile’ To The Manor Born. Bah humbug!
I can remember when…
Having just been ripped off (again) at the petrol pumps, where I’m now paying the ridiculous price of £1.03 per litre, I got to thinking about the price that petrol used to be. And that, in turn, got me remembering other things as well. So I thought I’d put together a list (you gotta love a nostalgic list, eh?). Some are humorous (hopefully), some are serious and some are just in-between. Some may not make sense to you if you didn’t grow up in the 70’s and 80’s, but some are timeless.
I can remember when…
… there was a big uproar because petrol had gone over 50p a gallon
… you always had to have a good supply of candles for lighting as you couldn’t rely on the electricity seven days a week
… school dinners were free and didn’t consist of chips with everything
… if you didn’t wear tartan, you had to wear glitter
… there was a big uproar because beer had gone over £1 a pint
… you could get enough sweets for the weekend for 10p
… TV was only three channels, which weren’t on all through the day and which all shut down overnight
… it was safe to let your kids roam the streets after dark
… it was safe to let you wife roam the streets after dark
… people respected people in positions of authority, like police officers, teachers and politicians
… all this was fields
What would you add to this list? Let’s get a few more on here!
You’re never too old
It all started with the WI in Rylstone in 1999 - getting your kit off on a calendar to raise money for charity. The Rylstone ladies have gone from strength to strength - raising over £1 million so far, having a hit Hollywood film made about their exploits, etc - and many groups have followed their example since.
The latest is Ancaster Athletic, a children’s football team in Lincolnshire. Not satisfied last year with getting the men in the village to pose for a calendar, the team has this year roped in the ladies of the village - including some of the mothers of the players and the wife of the coach - and scooped the big headline.
Nora Hardwick, who will be 102 next week, has posed behind the bar of the local to become Miss November. And let me tell you, she doesn’t look a day over 78!
This blog’s reading level
I love the comic Dork Tower and I also read the associated blog Muskrat Ramblings. The other day, I noticed a “Blog Reading Level” badge on one of the posts that I had not seen on anyone’s blog before. Intrigued, I clicked it.
What you get is this page, where you enter your blog URL and it tells you what reading level is needed to understand the blog. Muskrat gets a High School level, but The Wolf’s Howl gets a College (Undergrad) level; either you don’t have to be very intelligent to be a undergrad these days or my blog is better written than I thought it was. (Or maybe it’s worse than I thought it was, which is why you need a higher level of education to understand it).
Why not try it for yourself and see what you get. (And if you want to put the badge on your page, you might want to edit the HTML to take out what appears to be a hidden link).
Update: this post has apparently dragged me down - I now only get a High School level!
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