Walking on Alligators

So many things buzzing around my head that the scorpions have moved aside for the alligators.

An American Alligator in captivity at the Columbus Zoo, Powell, Ohio. via Wikipedia

• Of course, the number one concern for those of us who live in this beautiful country is the fate of the Rena.  This is the container ship that is lodged on a reef outside the Tauranga Harbour.

17102011.Photo:Craig Simcox copyright Dominion Post/Fairfax News

As you can see the ship is in real danger of breaking up and the rest of the oil being discharged into the sea.  It is reported today that  “Last night nine men aboard the wreck were frantically working to remove thousands of tonnes of oil from the ship before it breaks apart.
However heavy swells of between 2.5 – 4m forced crews to stop pumping last night at 11.25pm, Svitzer spokesman Matthew Watson told Radio New Zealand.”

Some good news is that the beaches may be reopened to the public today but for how long if the rest of the oil discharges into the sea?   Some 1700 tonnes of oil were on board when the ship foundered and very little has been removed so far.

• New Zealand is hosting the Rugby World Cup.  The NZ team (the All Blacks) beat Australia in the semi finalslast weekend and so NZ will now meet France in the finals.

I have no great interest in the game.  As I said when my husband died one good thing was that I NEVER have to watch another rugby match.  However, one can’t help being swept up in the euphoria of our team beating our arch rivals Australia.  Next Monday is Labour Day here and the final will be played on Sunday night in Auckland, so there will be a lot of celebrating if our team wins, or much drowning of sorrows if it loses.

• On a personal note I have a problem and would like some advice from my knowledgeable and helpful blogging friends.  Maybe I should write to Dear Abby!

I have a couple of  male friends with whom I go out to dinner or the movies from time to time.  Recently I have been seeing one almost to the exclusion of the others and now have to tell one other in particular about the change and the budding relationship.

Question – should I send him a Dear John letter/email; should I phone him or should I arrange to meet him and tell him face to face?   My gut feeling is that anything other than face to face, while being easier is the cowards way out.

As I married at 19 this is a problem that hasn’t occurredin my life for more than half a century.   Help please!

• I have been thinking a lot about technology recently.  How dependent we are on it these days.   We all have our laptops, i-Pads and phones.

When did you last go out without your cellphone?  I have been known to return home to pick mine up.  My father often used the comment “like a one-armed paper-hanger’ and that’s how I feel without my phone.

The first thing I do in the morning is turn on the PC and it stays on almost all day.  I no longer purchase the daily newspaper, I read the news on line.  I then sit down with my breakfast tea and toast to read about my blogging friends’ activities.  As I subscribe to many blogs, this can take a long time.

The PC also keeps me in touch with other friends around the world.  And particularly my sisters.  However, one day last week I absolutely hated it and wordpress.  I typed my blog and then lost it in the blogosphere.  So I retyped it and it happened again.  Where do all the lost posts and blogs go?  Is there a returned mail office in the blogosphere as there used to be for posted mail?

My late husband was a gadget freak.  How he would have been in his element at all the things available now.  When he died in 1998 the internet was pretty much in its infancy and cell phones were not nearly as sophisticated as they are now.

• I am despairing over the use of texts and the way in which they are affecting the use of the English language.

I received a text from a friend – my age and education – that had no punctuation at all and ended with ‘thankx”.  What are we teaching our young (and old) if this is acceptable to us?  I should say here that I dislike texts and hated the word “texted” with a vengeance.  Text is a noun not a verb.

• I am compiling quite a long list of pet hates at the moment – a sign of the advancing years perhaps?

• Another vexing matter is that the younger generation don’t seem able to add simple numbers and have to resort to the calculator.

I recently had a light lunch with a couple of friends.  I ‘owed’ one for recommending me as a life coach to a woman and so I was taking her. When we were leaving we went to the desk to pay.  I told the girl that I would pay 2/3rds and my other friend would pay 1/3rd of the bill.  After we were told that the bill came to $45 and I proffered $30 to the clerk, imagine my surprise to be asked how I worked that out.  She then took out a calculator to check.

And this was not an isolated instance.  I know that much headway is made in teaching today with the use of computers, i-pads etc, but surely young people should be taught to count as we were.

Oops perhaps that is to be added to another list of things to rant about.

• On a lighter note we learn that an unknown actress is suing Amazon for revealing her age on a website.  Apparently she is  “alleging fraud, breach of contract and violation of her private life, as well as her consumer rights.” Read more about this frivolous action here.

And now it’s time to walk Lotte before the rain that is forecast sets in.

“I know who I WAS when I got up this morning, but I think I must have been changed several times since then.”
Lewis Carrol from Alice in Wonderland.

Related articles

• NZ oil spill: pumping resumes on Rena (guardian.co.uk)

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