My brother lives in England, & he sends me all sorts of articles, chiefly from the BBC site.  He also answers my questions; the ones generated by my deep interest in all things British.

Princess Anne is considered the "hardest working" royal because of her support of charities & making public appearances (mostly for the causes she supports).  Because she divorced her first husband; she’s probably ineligible to inherit the throne. Yes, Charles was divorced, but was considered a widower after Diana died.  (During my last trip to Britain, someone tried to explain the reasoning for that to me but I didn’t understand it).  Princess Anne’s children do not have titles because their father didn’t take one (I’ve heard some claim he refused, I’ve also heard that Princess Anne didn’t want him to take one for reasons I’ve forgotten).

 As to women having equality in "throne inheritance"; the Swedish government did that; their crown princess (the oldest royal child) is first in line for the Swedish throne.  It’s about bloody time the British government did the same.

I’m going to retire before the end of the year. 

Can I afford to?  My house is paid for, I have no debts.

I haven’t saved enough; a trip or another pile of books took prededence over a fat nest egg (& according to my late mum, bailing out my financially irresponsible sister & kid brother took precedence over any plans of mine).

But, as I’ve said before, I have a job that requires me to run (sometimes literally) around outside in all kinds of weather, & deal with angry geese, dive-bombing gulls, lost citizens who aren’t sure how they wandered into a supposedly secure facility, & an occasional suicide jumper from the bridge over part of my work area.  I’ve been having trouble with my joints (have had one replaced), & I feel it’s time for me to get out of the way for someone with better knees.

I admit to some apprehension (OMG…how will I afford this?). 

I’m going to fix up the house so I can sell & downsize.  I’m down to one cat/companion, & when he’s gone to Kitty Heaven, my house will become just a place to sort out pics from the last trip & plan the next journey. 

I am planning on refreshing some long-unused skills & learning others so I can support myself if I have to go back to work.

The closer I get to being able to leave work, the more  excited I get (& the lower my blood pressure gets…lol). 

Quote by Pamela Lawrence: "How many of us with rocks in our hands and venom on our tongues have not made mistakes, been selfish, acted immaturely?"

 

I agree, we’ve all made mistakes, acted immaturely, etc. 

 

But how many of our mistakes have impacted the lives of 14 innocent children?

To Frantic: pack, herd the kids into the car, & leave.  A mama’s boy won’t get better unless he wants to; yours obviously doesn’t want to get better.  I dated a Mama’s Boy years ago.  He frequently prefaced decisions by wondering whether his mom would approve & act accordingly.  Unfortunately, she had died before I met him.  It was creepy to have a dead woman involved in his life, but ultimately, his drinking drove me away.

I’m of the opinion that with iPod & iPhone being so popular, Apple can pretty much charge "all the traffic will bear".  I’m of the opinion that part of the iPod’s charge is just for the ‘prestige’ of the name.

I have an MP3 player & I’m very happy with my Zen by Creative Labs.  It’s a lot bigger, but it has an FM radio tuner, a voice recorder, & a screen big enough to watch videos on without strain on my aging eyes.\

 The gadget that does tempt me is the pocket-sized video cam that Creative is offering on it’s site at a great price.

Madonna (& any celeb that has latched on to Kabbalah annoys the tar out of me.

 

Kabbalah is NOT a religion.  It is an aspect of Jusaism, & it annoys me to no end to see what I consider a bastardisation of my faith.   Yes, I know that a lot of my fellow Jews have latched on to the pot-of-gold that Kabbalah has become; they tick me off, too.  IMHO, either convert to Judaism (as I did) & accept the whole package, or leave it alone.  Don’t just pick up the trendy bits & jettison the rest as not glamorous enough.

My tirade is over; it’s safe to come out now.

So Madonna dates younger men.  Good for her!  Of the last four men I’ve dated, three have been younger ( six to ten years).  One roped me in with his Southern charm & accent ( he could make me laugh just by saying "nekkid") & one astonished me with his intelligence, interest in politics, & willingness to discuss all manner of subjects.

If it’s okay for men to have a youger "trophy" companion, it should be equally okay for women.

Here’s another "Everything"! Sometime between Independence & Labor Days I’ll complete thirty years of service with my employer, which means I’ll be able to retire.

I’m trying to declutter my life, & fix up the house with an eye to selling.  I love my house, but it’s too big for a single person.  I have three bedrooms; I sleep in one & the other two (as well as the basement, attic, & tiny den) are full of crap I keep simply because I have a place to put it.

With a smaller house I (hopefully) won’t have to take in my sister when our dad dies.  I know how cold & mean that sounds, but my sister is so negative/toxic (not to mention a professional-caliber moocher) that it’s exhausting (as well as exasperating & sometimes enraging) to be around her. 

I have to do the decluttering alone.  My currently-unemployed kid brother has offered to help, but he packs up the stuff I want, need, & love while insisting on my keeping the stuff I’ve already boxed up to give/throw away. 

Thinning out my library is especially daunting.  I love my books.  To me, being rich is having lots ( & LOTS) of books so I always have something to read.

I plan on travelling as much as the budget will allow & am exploring things I can do on a temporary basis (bartending, teaching English), to support myself if I land in some pleasant place that I want to stay in for awhile.

I didn’t expect facing retirement to be this scary (OMG! What will I do with all that free time?) but my bad joints say it’s time to let someone younger/in better shape run around outside in the cold, rain, etc.

I started watching Rachel during the election.  I find her informative, amusing, & polite.  It’s refreshing to me that she has admitted making mistakes (once she referred to herself as a "giant doofus".

During the election, I got into watching news for most of the afternoon/evening (Chris Matthews, local news, ABC Evening News, BBC America World News, Keith Olbermann, Rachel, the News Hour with Jim Lehrer).  If I hadn’t worked the night before, I’d watch the Sunday morning political talk shows, & later that day, the Leon Charney Report.

I still watch little else but the news, especially now that "Dr. Who" has ended for the season.

OMG…I sound SO pathetic,,,the news & Dr. Who!

 

Tell us below: What’s the best word to describe Bernie Madoff?

 

Momzer.

Ryanair doesn’t have a good repution for customer care.

 http://blog.wired.com/cars/2009/02/ryanair-slams-p.html

I hate winter, & have a job that requires me to be outside a lot.  I despise slogging through snow & over ice & trying to avoid goose poo & crap tossed off the bridge that soars over my area of the plant.

I go out as little as possible; at home I curl up with the remote & news channels or a book, or sit in front of the computer.

I cheer myself by reminding me that this is the last winter I’ll have to work outside; next winter I’ll be retired & can stay more than a week or two when I accompany Dad to Florida in January.

Ummmmmmmmm…………….well……………..

 I’m speechless.

I really liked the president’s speech.  While I agree with some reporters who thought it was "short on numbers". it made me feel more hopeful about not only my future, but the future of the country I’m so proud to call home.

Did anyone else catch the First Lady whisper "I love you" when the President introduced her?  That was so sweet.

On the other hand, I wasn’t very impressed by Gov.  Jindal’s speech.  It seemed to me (& this is only my impression) that he thought he was addressing a bunch of not-too-bright people.  I found the "the government screwed up during Katrina so all government is very bad" tone to be puzzling.  Even David Brooks, the conservative voice on PBS’ "News Hour with Jim Lehrer" was astonished by it.  He said that only the federal government is big enough to pull us out of the big mess America is in, & couldn’t understand why Gov. Jindal thought otherwise.

 

"We aren’t quitters".  IMO, that’s going to define Obama’s presidency. 

Marjorie, while I generally don’t agree with what I perceive to be your conservative politics, I have to say that you’ve hit the nail on the head.

There are some kids that just are not "university material"; that are much more mechanically inclined.  There are still manufacturing jobs in America (watch John Ratzenberger’s "Made in America" on cable TV). 

I’ve spent the last 30 years as a sewage treatment plant operator, making more money than most of the kids I graduated from high school with who went on to college.  Of course, many of them (especially the guys who wanted to avoid the draft) went for what were considered "easy ride" degrees; liberal arts & political science. Some of those kids ended up in low-level sales clerk jobs; one I know could only find work at McDonald’s.

Fortunately, there is a good technical & trades high school here, & the public tech college sysytem is good, too.

As you said, the world is always going to need plumbers, electricians, lathe operators, (& sewage treatment operators).  I sincerely hope the president’s vision of a college education for every kid includes tech & trade schools.

Both radios at home &  the FM receiver on my MP3 player are tuned to NPR, & when I get to work, I change the radios in my three work areas to NPR.  We’re lucky enough to have two NPR stations here…WUWM & WHAD.  I love "Prairie Home Companion"  & Michael Feldman’s "Whad’Ya Know?".  I don’t drive but I listen to Car Talk because Click & Clack are so funny!

I really enjoy the old-time radio shows WHAD airs on Sunday evenings.  Both stations air BBC World Service at night, which I look forward to.  My older brother lives in England, so I have more to talk about with him, because I have an idea of what’s going on "across the pond".