It's get that gift time

Gifts, whether they be for a birthday, anniversary or Christmas, usually mean much more to the giver than to the receiver.

As the retailers tell us that time is running out to purchase our gifts, you know their ploy, "it's so-and-so many shopping days to Christmas" (aren't ALL days shopping days now?), together with the constant advertising in the media, I guess the usual panic of, "what are we going to get Uncle Jim", or "can you remember what Aunt Mable got us last year?"

I always enjoy the surprises I received from our family in Norfolk, England. Sarah always plans early and enjoys choosing original gifts, quite a few of which have travelled with us to North Carolina, via Spain! In fact already today I have used two gifts received from them in previous years.

Stuart, a typical man, leaves everything to Leslie. She is okay with that(?) as she, too enjoys surprises and takes immense pleasure in choosing gifts. I am, I suppose, a big let down for her expertise in this area as I am a simple man who enjoys simple things, and am happy for them to buy me magazine subscriptions. By this I have a surprise gift every month when our mail-man (oops!, I mean letter-carrier) delivers a copy of a favorite magazine.

Have we done our gift shopping yet? Oh, yes, gift-wrapped, packaged and shipped. Well, almost. Gail, together with a team from our church, will shortly be shopping for Christmas "boxes" for some of our homeless friends and my goodness, is she excited about that? You bet!

Social networking

I wish to offend no one. If this post does that I apologize in advance. You have been warned.

What is the point of "social networking"? Last evening a friend and I were enjoying real social networking - that is talking to each over the phone. Not texting, twittering or facebooking, but actually talking and enjoying our real conversation.

To be fair, I know millions enjoy making their innermost thoughts known to the world and his/her dog, and good for them. I have tried it, thinking it would be a tool for keeping in touch with family and friends worldwide. When I first announced that I was to deactivate my account because of the time spent reading how others (not all) were using theirs, several said how sorry they were to lose me. Lose me? Hello? I'm not a complete dinosaur. I use e-mail, can actually still write with a pen, punch numbers on a phone and I have to assume, they can too?

If, because I deactivate one of these accounts, I am losing "friends", I feel there is something sadly wrong with the human race.

Am I being hypocritical? Of course. After all I do post to this, and enjoy reading a few of the many accessible blogs, so I have related personal views on others.

You do your social networking in your laptop, iPad or iPhone and I'll do mine by sharing a meal with friends, having them come over, enjoying an event with them and if distance makes that impossible, by calling them, wherever they are located, and actually talking with them. Of course that works two ways and I would love to share a hug and a meal with those of my family who live thousands of miles away.

Okay, I'm now donning the flak-jacket!

A Taste of Autumn

A friend of over forty years emailed me yesterday to "check all was well". Nothing strange there, that's what friends do. John was concerned that he had not heard from me for a while and that this blog had not been updated lately. My apologies to John and my apologies to you. I admit I've been a little lazy with my "correspondence" lately. I have excuses of course, but not really valid ones. In this age of lightening communication, there can be no excuses. We still have to make the effort - technology, as wonderful as it is, cannot do it for us (yet).

A couple of weeks ago I received a letter from the trustees of my pension fund. Basically, they wanted to know if I was still alive! At first I felt rather indignant, but on reflection realized that they had every right to inquire. After all, I hadn't lived in England for nearly ten years let alone seen any of them. The staff at my doctor's office found it amusing when signing the form - "you look alive to us!"

A few days later I attended the funeral of a dear friend. At 91 he had lived a very active life to the last.

I guess my point is that I'm reminded of that old proverb "never put off till tomorrow what you can do today." If it was good enough for Thomas Jefferson, it is certainly good enough for me.

Mind you, Mark Twain said "Never put off until tomorrow what you do the day after tomorrow."

As much as I admire Mark Twain, I think Jefferson got it right!

Retail gimmicks?

Last weekend was the annual "Sales Tax Holiday" here in North Carolina. Not on everything you understand, but on "back to school" supplies and clothes. This does, however, include all clothes and footwear and on computers and peripherals up to the value of $3,500.

Here, unlike England, where there is no equivalent tax (V.A.T.) on children's clothes, sales tax is charged at the standard rate (currently 7.75%). So fitting your kids out for school can be made easier if you are prepared to shop during this three-day "holiday".

We make a point of shopping for clothes (no, you don't have to be of school age) during this time. In fact, as long as we make a list of "needs" rather than "wants", and of course stick to it, we do save.

The "gimmicks"? Retailers use every trick in the book to help ease those bills out of our wallets. I can never remember paying the "ticket price" for any clothes or shoes since we moved here. Trick number one then - print an artificially high price on the ticket.

We tend to shop for clothes at a local outlet mall, so there are the displays saying - 50% off, but wait, by their sides are other displays saying take an extra 10 or 15% off. This is where it starts to get complicated.

We choose our purchases, take them to the register and produced our 10% off coupon received through the mail. Exciting this! We then show our "Rewards" card - off comes another 10%! "Are you a AAA member sir?", asks the associate. I produce my AAA membership card. "Well, as you purchase is over $50, you are entitles to 10% discount".

Finally, there is the fact that there is no added sales tax.

"Good grief", I feel like saying (but don't), "How much do you OWE ME?"

Sales tax holiday or not, why cannot retailers be up front with their prices? My point is, I really don't know if I'm saving money or not, do I? But there, that's all part of the "kidology", like making every price end in .99.

Fiesta for Iniesta

As much as I wanted to use "Viva España" for this title, I couldn't resist the above.

A hard-fought, bad-tempered, nail-biting game it certainly was, but Spain deserved to be World Champions for the first time (as I predicted before the competition got underway).

I also forecast before the game that The Netherlands would finish the game with ten men (it could easily been nine).

My favorite moment was the shot of Queen Sofia's reaction when Spain scored - did she really stand on her seat?

My friends in Málaga certainly won't get any sleep tonight!

Still on track (2)

I can just imagine what it was like yesterday evening and, no doubt, well into the early hours, in Spain generally and in the area where we lived in particular, following yesterday's emphatic win over Germany. . . .

LOUD!

Phew! What a scorcher

This title has a tradition of being the headline of popular English newspapers if the summer temperature reaches 70°F! To be fair, dear old England have been having a share of eighties weather in recent weeks. Even Wimbledon escaped any rain-off's - that must be something of a record.

In March I was complaining (what me? complaining, never!) that we had had the coldest winter since leaving England (Weather and Critters). To quote:

"Whilst I usually enjoy the four seasons, temperatures here have generally been considerably lower than normal, and I'm now ready for warmer days. We have forecasts of a warm-up next week - 65 on Thursday. Bring it on! Bring on the 80s too! And when we are sitting on the porch during the 90s, yes, you've guessed it - I'll be moaning about the heat!"

Last month was, here in The Triangle, the hottest June on record - 22 days of 90°F-plus temperatures. We have had a cool down for a few days (mid 80s), but now we are hitting the high-90s again - in fact triple-digit temperatures are forecast for later this week - even in New York!

Am I moaning? No - just wilting!

Yesterday, July 4th, Independence Day. A cook-out and fireworks at Kate and Monty's. What a wonderful celebration, what wonderful food, what wonderful company.