Lucky You…

All this talk about Scottish Widows has reminded me of this old advert post, published on my original blog in 2011, and then given another airing on this blog in 2016. 2016 was a long time ago wasn’t it? I can air it again.

Due to the sluggish financial market, staff at the Halifax have little to do. They are under strict instruction to only authorise two mortgages per year, and can only lend to people who don’t need loans. The financial advisers have all been made redundant, leaving the entire operation propped up by overenthusiastic members of the catering team. To improve morale staff have been authorised to set up a radio station in the basement of an NCP car park in Brewer’s Lane, London. They broadcast daily, via telegraphic transfer, to five mountain goats, three pigeons, and a lama in Suffolk.

Scottish widow Sandy and Co-operative Carol provide an entertaining breakfast show. They are a tight knit team. Originally they bonded over unit banking, which naturally progressed to a mutual interest investing their extra digits in hedge funds. Alas, they are so enamoured by one another that they have failed to notice the potential threat of a hostile takeover bid from tea boy, Derek. He has coveted their breakfast slots from afar and, in a spiteful effort to remove the women from the helm, he has sabotaged Sandy’s liquid assets. He completes this arm’s length transaction by passing Sandy her mug, the compromised handle breaks causing hot tea to spill across the mixing desk. Unfortunately for Derek it appears that Carol and Sandy are unfazed by life’s little dramas, after all they have each other, meaning that any accelerated depreciation is negligible. They smile sweetly and, still laughing, still singing from the same spreadsheet, they tell Derek that life is better with a beaver.

I have edited the hell out of this old post – if I ever publish it again it’ll probably be reduced 3 sentences and a photo of a cat.

Chasing a Pension Pot

They have my money but will not help me find my old pension pot. I have sent them two letters with forms downloaded from their website with ALL the information they need to trace my pension. I have phoned them – they did try to help over the phone but eventually told me to send my documentation by email – which I did. They then claimed that my documentation wasn’t attached to the email – it so was, and I can prove it…. Ack. They are sending me round in circles, despite encouraging people to trace their old pensions, THEY ARE NOT BEING HELPFUL!!!! I have been trying to get information from them since January. I don’t know why I am surprised by their incompetence, as a page has been set up on Facebook to complain about them. I am so frustrated.

I have now decided to make my pension tracing efforts into a calligraphy project. My first envelope to them was addressed in block capitals in Bic Biro. This is my second envelope…

address envelope in copperplate calligraphy

It is a little more fancy, but nothing over the top. I intend to add more decoration and flourishing as the months go by, and then maybe, just maybe, I might get a reply – even if it’s just a cease and desist notice.

Sunday Music Calling….

Sundays are easy!! Sunday’s are always about kicking back and listening to favourite tunes…but, we have been chatting about party lines, old phones, and phone boxes this week so some more about what I remember about early phone use:-

1) The phone was generally located in the hallway, often by the front door. This was usually the coldest part of anyone’s house. Everyone sat on the stairs to talk on the phone – having to lean into the wall if anyone wanted to shuffle past with a basket load of laundry.

2) You had to ask permission from a parent to even think about using the phone; they would glare at you after 15 minutes of chatter, and then shout at you to hang up at around the 40 minute mark.

3) Without fail my mum would say: Who’s that? whenever the phone rang without moving a muscle to answer it.

4) My sister would use the phone as a weapon of abuse. If we’d had a row [often] she’d dramatically dial up a friend and tell them, loudly, how vile I was and what she thought of me. So childish.

5) I hated waiting for boys to call me – devastated if they didn’t – too embarrassed to speak if they did because of my mum and sister hovering in the background.

An appropriate bit of Sunday Music for Mitzi

Did You See?

It’s Saturday. This is my 4th post of my 10 day stint!! I know, time is flying and Jon will be home before he knows it, his holiday already receding into the past in 6 days time…
Anyhow as it is Saturday, and we all want to chill, I am simply going to upload some weather pictures that feature sky…and er…clouds and weathery imagery. But, quick question: Did anybody see The Northern lights last weekend??? I saw nothing – I did have a picture of a black sky. I have excluded it from this little gallery of the weather that was this week…

Have a lovely weekend! Or feel free to continue the chat about party lines and telephone boxes.

P.S Click on the gallery to make big to see the weather in all its glory!

Lost Time and Loopy Letters…

As a child I could often be found in the living room studying the Yellow pages. My natural inclination has always been to gather information – any information – stuff about plumbers; electricians; piano tuners; and even astroturf. When I grew up the internet came along and I found myself lost in a vast vat of Yellow pages – a veritable walk-in wardrobe of cobblers…

Well, that all sounds a bit peculiar. This is because I have lost the last 5,623 words of this post and I can’t be bothered to type them out again – especially the morose bit about feeling like an unwanted dog at a rescue centre.

Crikey, the gist of it was that I spend too much time fannying about on the internet to get anything done, and I have lost opportunities because of this – AND that I feel sad about all of that. And I regret all the time I have wasted reading about stuff that really is none of my concern.
However – I DO NOT REGRET BLOGGING!!! I mean the random surfing stuff.

Right, that’ll do. I really DO have OTHER STUFF to get on with. AND, be very grateful that those 5,623 whining words were lost as you might have been tempted to read them.

My most recent collage:-

gilded-letter-g

gilded g on dictionary page experiment

I so want to make more collages with calligraphy….
This is the first bit of gilding I’ve done for a few years, I think. It’s a bit rough around the edges as it was an experiment to find out if I could gild on to any sort of paper – yes I can!

Do you know what I often feel glum about? Those loopy letters that I never sent. I failed. Maybe I will still send something to the addresses I have – though some of you have probably moved – which could be interesting!

More tomorrow.

Calligraphy and Spelling

Calligraphy has been in the news lately thanks to Stephanie von Werthern-Gill writing 11,500 words of exquisite copperplate for the King’s coronation roll. I feel a faint coming on at the very thought of being asked to do such a thing! She must have nerves of steel. She wrote all those words without making one single spelling mistake!! I am in awe.

By comparison, here is a recent practice sheet of mine where I was recalling, from my poor memory, Shakespeare’s Sonnet 116….

copperplate calligraphy with spelling errors aplenty

What the hell are impendiments????? And what is a Zeba??? And why, in the middle of trying to recall a Shakespearian sonnet did I suddenly feel the need to write Zebra – for that is what I believe I wanted to write – ?????
Let me not be too harsh on myself as this was most definitely a practice sheet where I was actually testing the nib/ink/paper combination – hence why I switched to black ink towards the bottom of the paper. [Hunt22B, Gouache, then Higgins Eternal, on Crown paper, for those who want to know]

Normal practice on a Rhodia pad looks like this:-

Rhodia pad for copperplate practice

Normal practice, for me, is just about rhythm and flow, and making sure I can still hold a pen. Please note, my numerals are always a bit hit and miss – mostly miss.
Anyhow, I have now set myself a challenge to see how many words of calligraphy I can write without making an appalling spellinges mistake – my current record is 67.

There may well be another calligraphy post on Friday. Who knows. Maybe there will be more about impendiments and Zebas. Excituing!!