Drifting through life

 well, a couple of sentences . “Buying from an opportunity store has become the fastest new way to make money. Savvy shoppers are scooping up bargains and reselling them online at such huge mark-ups many have been able to quit their day jobs. Some charities running second-hand stores have cottoned to the practice – embraced largely by Generation Z – and have begun marking their goods up to compensate.”   There is more to the story, mostly extolling the virtues of GenZ giving new life to old things and so on, but I have a different point of view: 1: these young people scoop up the best of the goods, leaving little for older people to choose from. 2: This marking-up of second-hand goods and clothing is just one of the reasons many older people surviving on pensions, are no longer able to go clothes shopping even in thrift stores. In one store local to my area, they are so far “up-market” a single second-hand t-shirt, of decent wearable quality, can be as much as $10. Older pe

  Long ago, Kim of Frog ponds Rock, (who no longer blogs), dreamed up a meme called Sunday Selections.  A place where those who were willing could put up photos they wanted to share, new, old, good, bad or indifferent, any photos you please.  Nothing rude or vulgar though. And we don't mind at all if overseas bloggers care to join us. The meme is now continued by Elephant's Child and I occasionally join in as do a few others. Andrew is one.  Messymimi is another. Drop in to them and have a look. Just a short selection this week, I haven't been out with the camera, I don't want to get it wet in all the rain we've been having. Beginning with the birds: notice the browning on that one in the middle? He still has his crest but also has the browning above his beak and on his tail. I know that sharing the food is probably helping to spread the disease, and I am feeding less until I run out of seeds and stop, but I am not the only one here feeding these birds. I discove

  The original Words for Wednesday was begun by Delores and eventually taken over by a moveable feast of participants when Delores had computer troubles. Sadly, Delores has now closed her blog forever due to other problems. The aim of the words is to encourage us to write. A story, a poem, whatever comes to mind. If you are posting an entry on your own blog, please let us know so we can come along to read it and add a few encouraging words. This month the words/prompts are supplied by ME and can be found right here This week's words/prompts are:  1. study  2. exercise  3. gnome  4. cagier  5. fountain  6. super  7. enigma  8. sludge and this image: (an aerial view of one of Adelaide's beaches) Here is my story: From my upstairs study window, I could see the refurbished fountain in my front yard, with a newly purchased Fishing Gnome perched on its rim. The newly installed goldfish were in no danger of being caught, his line had neither hook nor bait. It had taken several wee

  The original Words for Wednesday was begun by Delores and eventually taken over by a moveable feast of participants when Delores had computer troubles. Sadly, Delores has now closed her blog forever due to other problems. The aim of the words is to encourage us to write. A story, a poem, whatever comes to mind. If you are posting an entry on your own blog, please let us know so we can come along to read it and add a few encouraging words. This month the words/prompts are supplied by me and can be found right here This week's words/prompts are:   1. study 2. exercise 3. gnome 4. cagier 5. fountain 6. super 7. enigma 8. sludge and this image: have fun.

 Long ago, Kim of Frog ponds Rock, (who no longer blogs), dreamed up a meme called Sunday Selections.  A place where those who were willing could put up photos they wanted to share, new, old, good, bad or indifferent, any photos you please.  Nothing rude or vulgar though. And we don't mind at all if overseas bloggers care to join us. The meme is now continued by Elephant's Child and I occasionally join in as do a few others. Andrew is one.  Messymimi is another. Drop in to their blogs and have a look. Starting today with the price of meat in Australia these days: see the faint red circle around that price? $65 per kilo (just over 2 pounds) for fillet steak. This pack held two tiny steaks each small enough to fit in the palm of my small hand. Beef mince is cheaper, a 500gram (just a fraction over a pound)  pack is $9.50 (it used to be $7) I bought two packs of the beef mince and now have 20 burger patties in my freezer. to sweeten the meal I made two pineapple meringue pies w

  The original Words for Wednesday was begun by Delores and eventually taken over by a moveable feast of participants when Delores had computer troubles. Sadly, Delores has now closed her blog forever due to other problems. The aim of the words is to encourage us to write. A story, a poem, whatever comes to mind. If you are posting an entry on your own blog, please let us know so we can come along to read it and add a few encouraging words. This month the words/prompts are supplied by ME and can be found right here This week's words/prompts are:  1. donkey  2. battleground  3. spatula  4. outside  5. bridge  6. stars  7. rescue  8. scorching and this image:  Here is my story: Gemma sat with her mug of hot chocolate and stared into the fire. Her fire this time, not his. Her mind wandered back to his fire, in his living room. She had moved in willingly, foolishly, and things had gone downhill fairly fast. She recalled him sitting by the fire, strumming his poorly tuned guitar, sin

  The original Words for Wednesday was begun by Delores and eventually taken over by a moveable feast of participants when Delores had computer troubles. Sadly, Delores has now closed her blog forever due to other problems. The aim of the words is to encourage us to write. A story, a poem, whatever comes to mind. If you are posting an entry on your own blog, please let us know so we can come along to read it and add a few encouraging words. This month the words/prompts are supplied by me and can be found right here This week's words/prompts are:  1. donkey 2. battleground 3. spatula 4. outside 5. bridge 6. stars 7. rescue 8. scorching and this image: have fun

 On Wednesday the 19th, my Words for Wednesday will be here, but I may not be. In the morning I'm having an eye test where they put drops in your eyes to expand the pupils and see how the cataracts are developing. I'm told that I may not be able to see well for a few hours after that, which means no computer. Possibly. We'll see how that goes.  I've never had this before and hope I can see well enough to get off the bus at the right stop when coming home. 

 Long ago, Kim of Frog ponds Rock, (who no longer blogs), dreamed up a meme called Sunday Selections.  A place where those who were willing could put up photos they wanted to share, new, old, good, bad or indifferent, any photos you please.  Nothing rude or vulgar though. And we don't mind at all if overseas bloggers care to join us. The meme is now continued by Elephant's Child and I occasionally join in as do a few others. Andrew is one.  Messymimi is another. Drop in to them and have a look. I haven't linked Andrew in case he doesn't yet have something going. You may remember google is giving him grief. Starting with the birds this week: a couple of days when the whole crew turned up at various times look at that wing span and notice also the browning of his belly, the first sign I believe of the beak and feather disease look at that clever one checking for traffic before crossing the road these five look healthy enough but there are several now with obvious feathe

  The original Words for Wednesday was begun by Delores and eventually taken over by a moveable feast of participants when Delores had computer troubles. Sadly, Delores has now closed her blog forever due to other problems. The aim of the words is to encourage us to write. A story, a poem, whatever comes to mind. If you are posting an entry on your own blog, please let us know so we can come along to read it and add a few encouraging words. This month the words/prompts are supplied by ME and can be found right here on Wednesdays This week's words/prompts are:   1. covered  2. alloys  3. skidded  4. potpourri  5. fixation  6. chemical  7. earmarked  8. lettuce Here is my story: continued from last week After the covered trucks had skidded to a halt inside the facility gates, the children were carefully loaded onto stretchers and wheeled to their dormitories, where they were placed onto beds and left to awaken in their own time. Tiny cameras mounted in the corners of the ceiling

  The original Words for Wednesday was begun by Delores and eventually taken over by a moveable feast of participants when Delores had computer troubles. Sadly, Delores has now closed her blog forever due to other problems. The aim of the words is to encourage us to write. A story, a poem, whatever comes to mind. If you are posting an entry on your own blog, please let us know so we can come along to read it and add a few encouraging words. This month the words/prompts are supplied by me and can be found right here This week's words/prompts are:   1. covered 2. alloys 3. skidded 4. potpourri 5. fixation 6. chemical 7. earmarked 8. lettuce use them all or just a few, but have fun