White Magic?

Once again, the Malignant Washing Machine Fairy ensured that I failed to remove a Kleenex tissue from some obscure pocket in either my jeans, or my navy blue, fleece backed trews. As a result, the latter have emerged with a bad case of White Measles, while the denim jeans have sundry white pimples, but to a lesser degree.

I've decided to wait for both pairs of Kleenex adorned trousers to dry, in the vain hope that paper pieces will adhere with less determination. If I didn't know better, I'd say that Fairy was a follower of the black arts, but on reflection, I've chosen to assume she is an advocate of White Magic, instead, for obvious reasons...

P.S. Don't you think this looks like a night sky with assorted snow flakes? LOL

Is The World Ready For This?!

Hehehe! Not Armageddon, folks, merely the results of my latest absence from Blogland. Here I give you proof positive of my activity, in a nightmarish rendition of a Growling Jinksy Viking - or should that be 'Viqueen'?

I was inspired by a picture on Google, and I didn't rest until I'd tracked down a pattern by Tessa Murray which was available as a PDF downlosd from this website  www.mamachee.etsy.com   

For a modest PayPal transaction, the hat pattern was with me in a twinkling of a mouse click, but the horns and the beard were another matter all together...
Eventually, a horn pattern was found here,  and a basic beard base here. 

But I added many of my own adaptations to both of these, not least of which were the 300 double strand threads which I looped onto the base to produce a beard like you never saw before! 

To make the photo as realistic as possible, I tried layering lipstick over my eyebrows, to give them a reddish tinge, but the result was strange, and I had to top that with mascara. Then in an attempted to get into the swing of things, I growled a war cry as I clicked the shutter...

The whole ensemble is now in the hands of the Post Office, as it wings its way up country to a friend who had a yen to own such a creation, and for me, it's back to the crochet hooks as my brother and sister-in-law have ordered his-'n'-hers, iron-coloured horned hats, but minus beards. If any of you thought I was mad before today, well, now you can be certain!

And it being Friday an' all, here's a late addition of 55 words for G-man!

In days of old, brave men and bold
like Vikings, fought for glory; 
but me, I stand for womenkind-
and that’s another story.
I never fight - except with words
over patterns less than perfect-
but now this headgear is complete
and I can hold my head erect
with a beard that looks all gory!
 
 

Time To Rant

For the first time in 2013!  BT Telecom are well known for making enormous profits. I have been a customer of theirs for way over forty years, and would expect their phone service to be just that. A service.

However, with the growth in technological wizardry which allows scam artists to ring home phone numbers with spoof messages, I think they need to pull their socks up, or their fingers out! After receiving a growing number of nuisance calls recently, I rang BT for advice. I have long been a member of the TPS ( Telephone Preference Service ) but that has obviously not been doing a satisfactory job, either.

BT could only offer me 'call blocking' service as a choice - IF I PAID A FURTHER THREE POUNDS A MONTH !!! Talk about adding insult to injury.

I've started writing down the numbers these calls are supposed to come from; two today were as follows: 02921390035 and 01133100149, the area codes of which purport to be Cardiff, and Leeds, but both numbers, when dialed, have an American sounding voice saying 'This number is not in service.'

Service? Huh! Total non sequitur.

I wonder whether Blogpals across the pond get similar hassles?

Back To The Drawing Board?

But only figuratively speaking. At the start of 2013, when the traditional cries of Happy New Year have had a somewhat off-key overtone for so many people, thanks to a countrywide proliferation of winter germs and illnesses, I wonder whether those poor souls whose homes have been flooded over recent weeks have been able to say the phrase to each other with any degree of hope, let alone truth?

It raises the question of what is meant by the word 'happy'. Happy to be alive? Happy to be well? Happy just to BE? That is maybe the hardest one of all to achieve, for it implies  no  dependence on material wealth to achieve a state of happiness...

As the first few hours of the new year creep around our world, I can do no better than to wish you all you might wish yourselves, with perhaps an added reminder to 'Be careful what you wish for...' But on a more positive note, I  shall once again dust off and share my old poem with its crop of new dreams attached!

New For Old

Seasons roll forward,
Earth spins onward
in its elliptical round.

Old Year to New Year,
time’s cogs change gear.
Bells herald it with their sound.

Flaunting its drab gown,
Old Year winds down,
greeting the year that’s to come.

Wipe all the slates clean,
then dream a new dream.
Happy New Year everyone!