Saturday night at the movies » Personal

Annual Leave

Lee — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 18:53:22 +0000

Nearly a month since I last posted anything and for once I can't blame it on me being busy as I've been on annual leave for the last couple of weeks.

Of course I have not spent all of that time sitting in front of the computer doing nothing, I did go to Somerset for the weekend and have been going some more research on my family tree. The weather we have had over the last few weeks has been fantastic and even though my hay fever may have been triggered it has been nice to get out and about. I've taken a few photos and have had two enlarged as I am pondering the idea of selling some photos – have not really thought where I would sell them or if anyone would want to buy them but its an idea.

This photo was taken just up the coast from Watchet in Somerset, I took quite a few photos of the setting sun.

3rd June and I celebrated my birthday, a rather quiet day with me searching graveyards looking for potential relatives. I enjoy walking around graveyards but have to admit to feeling a little sad when reading some of the inscriptions or seeing a grave that seems to have been neglected. One section of the graveyard I visited the headstones had not weathered particularly well and it is a shame and did get me wondering if I should take photos and record the inscriptions so that the resource can be used by others tracing their family trees.

Annual Leave

Lee — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 18:53:22 +0000

Nearly a month since I last posted anything and for once I can't blame it on me being busy as I've been on annual leave for the last couple of weeks.

This photo was taken just up the coast from Watchet in Somerset, I took quite a few photos of the setting sun.

…So Don’t Make Costly Mistakes

Lee — Wed, 12 May 2010 10:48:32 +0000

Rather annoyed to get to my car today to find that the local authority have kindly given me a Penalty Charge Notice. I can't really blame anyone except myself as I was the one who parked in a council run car park without displaying a valid ticket. For most of the week the car has left the car park around 8am which is when it operates from but there are the odd few days when the car is left in the car park a little longer and even then it is normally moved before 9.30am and before the car park starts getting busy!

So this week as I am off work I arrive at the car about 9.30am to find that I have been issued with a PCN, open it up to see that if I pay it within 14 days it will be half price and only set me back £25. This is only the 2nd time I have been issued with one of these fines both in the same car park and both for the same reason. However I noticed that this one had been issued at 8.40am, so well within the opening times of the car park but I wonder if this is a new hard line stance by Carmarthenshire County Council to try to boast their coffers now that there is a new privately run car park which I would assume is taking away some of the income generated from the council run car parks in the town.

I will still continue to use the car park and I will still continue to park my car there without buying a ticket, it would cost me £1.10 a day to leave my car in the car park for 2 hours or I could buy a season ticket meaning I could leave my car all day every day for three months for £63.

Looking at it from a money saving aspect a fine of £25 for not having a parking ticket costing £1.10 means that as long as I get away with parking without a ticket for more than 23 days I will not have lost anything. I can't find anything in the archives regarding the last ticket I got but that would have been when I was working in my last job pre 2006 so a fine of £25 is nothing for me to complain about.

…So Don’t Make Costly Mistakes

Lee — Wed, 12 May 2010 10:48:32 +0000

Every Penny Counts…

Lee — Mon, 10 May 2010 16:14:39 +0000

I checked one of my email accounts today and saw to my horror that I had 240 unread messages, I guess this gives you an insight into how my online priorities have changed and a reason why this site is not updated as often. A quick look through these messages showed that most were Facebook updates and all the other related spam you get from them. (In fact there would have been no more than 10 messages that involved me actually reading them)

Well I am on annual leave at the moment and am pretty much off until the 7th June so not sure exactly what I will be getting up to for the next few weeks. I did some filing yesterday and it was interesting looking at my various bank statements to see when and what caused my spending habits to change.

Not been able to actually pin it all down to any particular point in time or a reason but November 2008 would have been a pivotal point – I would guess with Christmas approaching more money was being spent on credit cards and since that time I have been happy to pay the minimum amount each month while I have been building up my savings.

Of course I now realise that instead of putting money into savings accounts I should have been clearing these debts (various reasons why I have not done this) so I think once July is over I will be looking to use savings to clear these debts as the monthly interest charged is considerably more than the interest earned all all the savings.

Farewell My Friends

Lee — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 15:31:41 +0000

I posted at the end of December last year that I had had attended a funeral for a family member and that it was unlikely to be the last funeral I attended. Yesterday I attended the funeral of my cousin (well second cousin) his parents were not at the funeral in December because he had been taken into hospital. Strange to think that at that time his condition was still undiagnosed, it however was not long before stomach cancer was mentioned. Barry John Rees passed away on the 7th April 2010 aged just 37 leaving behind a wife and two small children.

In the past the services I have always been to have been for elderly relatives who have passed away so to attend a funeral for someone so cruelly taken away so early seems unfair.

FAREWELL MY FRIENDS

It was beautiful as long as it lasted, the journey of my life.
I have no regrets whatsoever, save the pain I'll leave behind.
Those dear hearts who love and care…

And the strings pulling at the heart and soul
The strong arms that held me up, when my own strength let me down.
At every turning of my life I came across good friends
Friends who stood by me, even when the time raced me by.
Farewell, farewell my friends, I smile and bid you goodbye.
No, shed no tears for I need them not, all I need is your smile,
if you feel sad, do think of me, for that is what I'll like
When you live in the hearts of those you love,
Remember then, you never die.

by Rabindranath Tagore.

Cooking and Saving..

Lee — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 15:28:33 +0000

Well after my success at making cawl last week I have invested in a slow cooker and am already planning on making a sausage casserole this week – have bought the ingredients that I was short of today so will have to see how I get on. However one of the rings on my cooker has stopped worked (burst into flames last week) so now I just have the one smaller ring to use when cooking. I have attempted to remove/replace the larger ring but seem to be having some problems getting the ring out of the cooker.

Had dentist appointment last Thursday and finally gave notice to the dentist that I would be cancelling my Denplan contract. One of the main reasons for cancelling has been that over the years the number of appointments with the dentist/hygienist have reduced.
The last two years I have been visiting the dentist 3 time a year and that has been costing me about £25 a month. When I spoke to the receptionist at the dentist she suggested that if I wanted to have more appointments they could raise the amount I paid monthly, I kindly refused and informed her that in future I would be paying privately for my treatment and arranged my next appointment for the start of September. The money that I would have been paying to Denplan will now be saved in a separate account (should be about £300 a year) and it is this money which I will need to use for any future treatments.

My ultimate plan is to find a dentist that does not charge £30 for a routine check-up, or starts to find work that needs to be done now that I am paying.

New Year Update

Lee — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 20:12:06 +0000

It is photos like this that make me realise why I love going out armed with my camera. New Years Day and the snow began to fall and actually stuck but I was not able to get any decent photos as the light had escaped me, so I was hoping that the snow would still be around on Saturday so I could get out and about and take some photos.

I would have walked about three miles taking photos and hoping that my batteries would last while I was doing my circuit and it did – I actually took about 200 photos so difficult to know which one to add to this post. Of course not all the photos turned out as I had hoped but I am happy with the majority of them. I really will need to make sure that I get out more this year with the purpose of taking photos as it was good to go out and just take in the scenery.

Took out the subscription to access the 1911 census records and have already begun looking at distant relatives while adding and extending more branches to my own family tree, so it has already been worth the cost involved. I think this year might be an expensive year for my research as I am going to need to get a lot of birth and marriage certificates.

The Final Flight (I’m Free)

Lee — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 19:49:12 +0000

Today I attended a funeral of a family member, someone who I should refer to as a close family member but for circumstance never got to be called grandfather by myself or my brothers but rather by his first name. I have no idea what he felt about that he did have grandchildren that called and knew of him as granddad. I am never good at funerals, saying that this is only the fourth I've attended and I am sure it will not be my last.

This poem was read at the service, I can find no details of an author and it seems that it may be known by different names.

Don't grieve for me, for now I'm free
I'm following the path God laid for me
I took his hand when I heard Him call
I turned my back and left it all.
I could not stay another day
To laugh, to love, to work or play.
Tasks left undone must stay that way.
I found that place at the close of the day.

If my parting has left a void
Then fill it with remembered joy.
A friendship shared, a laugh, a kiss.
Ah yes, these things I too, will miss.

Be not burdened with times of sorrow.
I wish you the sunshine of tomorrow.
My life's been full, I savoured much.
Good friends, good times, a loved one's touch.

Perhaps my time seemed all to brief;
Don't lengthen it now with undue grief.
Lift up your heart and share with me
God wanted me now, He set me free.

Author – Unknown

Gwynfor Owen Lewis passed away on the 21st December aged 86 and just a few short weeks away from his 87 birthday but I need to remember that it was this time last year he was not expected to live more than a few days (in fact he was dead for a few minutes) but somehow managed to fight for every last moment of life, and to be honest with you there are very few things that you should fight for but life has to near the top of the list. He died peacefully after attending a Christmas party at the residential home – his fight finally over.

Censorship

Lee — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 15:09:23 +0000

It is a shame that in today's society people are automatically treated with mistrust and suspicious. Last week I was stopped by the police after taking a walk around the local area armed with a camera. The local carnival was being held and as someone who is interested in community events and especially the carnival and how it is being run and organised I thought I would get some photos. Unfortunately I knew that I would not be welcome at the actual event so kept away only taking photos of the stalls and the event from the public road. I must have been slowly walking down the road taking the occasional photo for about half an hour and it was only as I was getting towards the end of the road that I heard someone in the field shout that I was there talking photos. The daughter of one of the committee members then starts walking/running across the field shouting at me and causing quite a scene (in fact I have actually captured this moment on camera) which is attracting the attention of other members of the community who are at the event. It does make you wonder what those other people must have thought when they see this girl crossing the field shouting the term "PEDO" at me?

Now most people know what this term means and speaking to a solicitor regarding the circumstances has been very interesting.

Anyway please be aware that you are able to take photos out in public.