People are just stupid!

My make-up ebay selling total is currently at around £130, with a few more items unsold, so will keep listing them.

But now I have moved onto craft things. To be more precise, rubber stamp things. Some of these are things which I have duplicates of, such as ink pads, still in their shrink wrap. Others are brand new stamps I bought from an American website, which I haven’t got around to using, and probably never will. Other stamps are very lightly used, in that I have stamped them once in my ‘catalogue’, and yet others are still more used, but perfectly usable, just a little bit of ink staining on the wood.

The crafts - while what I make on this isn’t pure profit, since most of it I have spent money on (most of the cosmetics were the freebies you get during the ‘bonus’ specials they sometimes have) - are turning out to be extremely lucrative.

But, well, people can be just downright stupid.

Somebody has bid £3.21 for an inkpad. A black inkpad. A common or garden inkpad. They will pay £1.25 for postage.

This is an inkpad which costs £2.99 in the shops.

The total for craft stuff is currently around £30 for finished auctions, and a further £40 already bid on auctions left to run.

My ebay total is just shy of £200.

I might go on holiday!

Now, looking in the mirror isn’t something I do a whole lot. But today, for some reason I decided to assess just what the exercise regime I have been on has been doing.

And it’s weird.

I can definitely see my legs are in better shape - still a long way to go, it’s all relative, but still, definitely better. Skin is better too,

I have also started to notice some muscles lurking under the surface of my arms - and again, the skin is looking a lot healthier.

My waist is definitely smaller - but then I knew that from my belt, I would say I’ve lost about 3 inches from there.

However, I don’t think there is any difference in the flab above the waist. It’s really weird. And gross. Below the waist I can definitely see where the situps have been working. But above the waist to under the boobies, it’s like nothing has happened. And, if anything, it looks like it’s sticking out more than my belly.

I don’t like it.

Will have to ask aerobics teacher what I am doing wrong in my situps that I am missing that bit out.

Last night I had the most hilarious conversation with LELI ever.

It started with a text from him saying “Funny went to the doctor apparently i am not registered i have to wait till tuesday dangerous to be ill in the uk.”

I responded, already laughing because I assumed he hasn’t bothered to register with a doctor despite living here for over 3 years. Or possibly didn’t tell them of his change of address. Or any number of idiotic things - he is incredibly clever, but incredibly stupid when it comes to everyday things. My response - “Are you okay? Did you register before?”

He rang me then. I can just imagine him jumping up and down, waving his arms in his cute Italian way. “I went to the doctors. Of course I was registered, they removed me from the register.”

“Why did they do that?”

“They said they sent me a letter, and I didn’t respond, of course I didn’t I never received the letter so how could I respond?”

“Did they send the letter to your old address?”

“No, they sent it to number 33, they got the address wrong, they said I told them the wrong address but they are the idiots who got it wrong, so now I have to re-register and I can’t see a doctor until Tuesday, I could be dying and the system here doesn’t care.”

“So, let me get this right, you turn up at the doctors unannounced on the Friday afternoon before a Bank Holiday, you aren’t even registered with them, and they have got you an appointment for Tuesday morning. That sounds pretty good to me.”

By this time I am almost rolling on the floor laughing, as he get’s more and more hysterical.

“But this is stupid, I want to turn up and see a doctor, I could be dying, rant rant rant.”

“LELI, you have a bad eye, you are not dying.” (he has a sore bit on his eyelid for god’s sake, that is all).

“The health system in this country is rubbish, I could be dying and they do not care.”

“But you are not dying, so you can’t actually comment on that. And I don’t believe if you turned up on a Friday at a doctor’s in Italy they would see you immediately.”

I then made a mistake. “Why don’t you try the pharmacist?”

I hear the explosion on the other end of the phone. “I went there already, and from 20 miles away he looked at my eye and declared it was not conjunctivitus, but suggested some cream which I looked at and it is mostly water so why should I put that in my eye if it won’t help anyway…….”

Bless.

He had an opticians appointment this morning, I haven’t yet heard how it went!

Now, this isn’t going to be an entirely unbiased view, as I am currently working for a UK bank. In fact, I have worked for all but one of the major UK banking groups in my time.

I am getting a bit pissed off with all the ‘get your fees back from the money grabbing banks’ which has been going on recently. And the attention given to the industry and fees it charges.

Don’t get me wrong - I think in most cases they have been set far too high - and I have been on the end of the bounced Direct Debit for £15, and being charged £20 for it! But a quick call to the bank, and they reversed the fee. The next time it happened, they gave me half of it back. After that, I had to pay.

This, I think is fair. The banks quite clearly state what they are going to charge if you commit an ‘offence’. If you don’t like it, don’t do it.

Banks are not charities. They are businesses. They are in it to make a profit. And make a profit they will.

So, now we are seeing the introduction of annual fees. It is starting gradually, with many of the banks charging for ‘low usage’. But mark my words, the end of ‘free’ credit cards is coming to an end.

And why? Because the banks *will* make money, and now they can’t make it off people who can’t follow the rules. So instead they are making it from the people who do follow the rules. It doesn’t seem fair to me. You pay less in insurance if you are less of a risk. It used to be the way with banks, but not for much longer.

I don’t go into Sainsburys, buy a loaf of bread for 75p each week, then after 6 months sue them for charging me more than it costs them to make/bake/package and sell me the bread. This is what is basically happening to banks charges.

The last few years I have ’suffered’ from tops that are too short! The fashion has been for tops to just reach the top of your jeans - if you wear normal jeans that is. If you wear those hideous hipsters (which make stick insects look fat - what on earth is the point of them?) then there is a big swathe of flesh.

Obviously in my case this is totally inacceptable. Flesh is not to be exposed to the unexpected stranger - there is just too damn much of it.

So, happily I have noticed that tops are getting longer.

The other day I bought 3 nice new tops online (even when I am ill I can still perform that wonderful pastime that is ’shopping’!), which arrived this morning.

One is what I would consider a ‘normal’ length - just reaches to the top of the hips.

One is slightly longer than this, but that’s fine, anything which hides my hips is a bonus.

The third. Well. How can it be described as a top? It reaches down to just above my knees - it’s a bloody dress!!!!

Not that I would wear it as a dress - my knees are something else to be kept hidden from view.

I should be the healthiest I have been for a long time. I have been exercising regularly. I am eating healthier (if not always healthy). I am happy in my work. Life is generally good.

So why have I come down with yet another infection? Antibiotics yet again.

And how embarrassing, when the doctor asks to look down your throat and say “Aarrgghh,” and he then goes on to comment, “Oh yes, it’s all red and inflamed, and there is the characteristic smell which goes with the infection.”

Ugh. Bad breath all over him!

I hurt all over.

It’s taken me two hours to get out of bed - and all that has consisted of is pulling on a pair of jeans over my shorts, and a cardy over my tshirt.

I guess this is flu - proper flu, not just the bad cold I normally call flu.

I feel dreadful.

I still haven’t sorted out selling my car, so today I decided to take it to have it washed and polished, so I can take a photo of it.

It’s been sat on my drive since I got my other car - 7 weeks or so.

It started first time.

I am so going to miss that car. It’s easy to spot in car park too - this new one takes me ages to spot, it just blends in.

Text exchanges with LELI are still cute!

Me - I fell asleep, only just woke up, I missed the belly dance party. 3 hours of dancing is exhausting.

LELI - Sport is good the harder the better

Me - I could say something *very* rude there

LELI - That is true also but it is not a sport

Me - Belly dancing is hardly a sport.

Another exchange later on -

Me - I think I am getting a cold. I ache, and not just the belly dancing, getting a sore throat too.

LELI - Have an early night and take some tables it should help

How big does he think my mouth is??

After writing the last post, I decided I’d have a quick nap before showering and getting ready to go to my hafla.

I woke up at 10 to 10. Whoops.

I hope I am not coming down with anything - I went back to bed at 1 in the morning, then woke at 8.30. It took me so long to get my arse in gear - breakfasted, showered, etc - that I didn’t go out until after 11.

And now I feel like I could do with another nap.