Following my Blog

I have only recently realised the implications of Google shutting down Google+. It means that all my friends who read my Blog don't get any notification when I do a new Post any more. They may think I no longer have anything to say - (surely not!) Or they may think I have died - (again probably not!)

Whatever they think, there only seem to be two ways of receiving or being notified of my new Blog Posts:-

• Clicking on the link in my email signature at the bottom of my emails, (which obviously only works if I have sent you an email)
• Going through a complicated palaver which I am about to outline.

The Blog is called Senile Sealion.

https://senilesealion.blogspot.com/

1. When you open a Post go to the "Subscribe to" box in the top right hand side of the Post & click on the drop down arrow in "Posts".
2. Then click on Netvibes & set up an account if you haven't already got one. (It may also work in the Yahoo link, but I haven't tried that).
3. I signed in with Google, so it's linked. 
4. The only thing I selected from the menu of things you could chose to be notified about was Womens Blogs. I don't want all the other dross that's in there.
5. Then I put in Senile Sealion & Dashboarded it.
6. So on my Dashboard I have a tab which says Interest - Senile Sealion. 
7. It doesn't give me all the past posts, but I think it will show anything I do from now on.

This Post is by way of being a test. So if you have done all this,in which case you get the Carlill special medal for persistance,& you now get notification of this Post I will be well chuffed.

If it doesn't work I have no idea what to do.

Do let me know - Hurray!!! Apparently it works. 

Fraud & Fraudsters

My Santander credit card has been hacked - again! It is really frustrating because the first thing the bank do if there is a suspicious transaction is stop the card. So you have to wait for a new one.  It therefore pays to have more than one card & account.

Banks have quite sophisticated fraud detecting software. My accounts are probably scrutinised more than average now. Banks are quite good at compensating card holders if any money has actually left the account fraudulently.

I simply don't get how my cards can have been hacked. https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/credit-card-fraud-works-stay-safe/

I keep mine in one of those supposedly protective aluminium boxes. I don't give my cards to anyone else. I do buy quite a lot on line though, but I look for the padlock sign & only go to reputable sites.

The trick is to act quickly to stop the fraudsters using the card. Banks now text to tell you there may be a problem & you text Y or N according to whether you recognise the payment.
https://www.rd.com/culture/credit-card-hackers/

The idea that there are rings of people all geared up to use your card as much as possible in as short a time as possible is a revelation to me.

Just think what the criminal mind could achieve if they put it to beneficial use.

Face the Fear

I've just bought an automatic transmission car after driving a manual car for over 50 years. My thinking was that, given that my body is definitely wearing out, I would be better off not having to change gear. (A left shoulder rotator cuff injury a couple of years ago keeps resurfacing).

I had driven an automatic in America a very long time ago & the salesman did go through the "how to" instructions. But it was at the end of a long buying process with a lot of information & form signing. My brain was on overload.

So the first problem was facing the fear of actually driving it home. I managed not to hit anything, especially when manouvering into my very narrow carport. Then I tried to get the key out of the ingition. It wouldn't come out. I had the shame of having to ring the saleman. It's a safety feature. You can't get the key out unless the car is in P (Park). Who knew?

Days went by & the car sat in the carport in splendid isolation. I just didn't want to face reversing out & driving away. In the end I decided that I was being ridiculous & needed to just face the fear & do it.

I got in & tried to start it. Nothing happened. You have to have the gear in P (Park) & your foot on the brake in order to start the engine. I may have been told that but I didn't remember. I had to get out of the car & do what I should have done in the first place - read the manual.

What would be helpful, instead of a big book with instructions for both manual & automatic cars, plus instructions for intelligent or non intelligent keys, would be a simple Key Points flow chart for starting & stopping.

There is an art to writing instructions, but sadly very few manufacturers have mastered it.

So I've contacted a couple of driving schools to arrange an automatic driving lesson. While I'm at it I'm going to re-learn how to reverse. I live in fear of having to do that because I know that my crumbling neck limits turning my head. (Yes I do know that I should use the wing mirrors & I do try).

All in all, my message is that whatever your fears are it's no good hiding from them. They aren't going to go away, they will just nag at you.

Be brave - Face the Fear. Every time you do your confidence will increase.

Collapse - The Descent of Man

The last paragraph of Jared Diamonds' excellent book says "Past societies lacked archaeologists & television". (I would add computers & social media). "We have the opportunity to learn from the mistakes of distant peoples & past peoples." As in:- the decline & fall of Easter Island, the Greenland Norse, the Khmer Empire, the Anasazi, the Maya or the Myceneans....The world is on the way to becoming Easter Island. We are literally chopping down the trees as fast as we can. I worked as a volunteer in Malawi for MicroLoan Foundation & saw first hand the deforestation for farming. Never mind what grazing cattle & planting trees for palm oil is doing to vast swathes of virgin forest.

Human beings don't seem to learn though. We are in the process of a collapse of our planet, not just a civilisation. Although we seem to be doing our best to achieve that too.

On a Spring day it is hard to believe what a parlous situation we humans have created in our world. I think Greenpeace's "Climate Emergency Mainfesto" is excellent & must have involved a lot people in a lot of work.  

https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?tab=wm#label/Charities%2FGreenpeace/FMfcgxwCgVPzPSdMRhBTZStCmrjWzDfn?projector=1&messagePartId=0.1

I can understand, as an informed lay person, what the issues are & the implications of the massive shift which needs to take place. I also know that if humans are to survive, significant action needs to happen now. We cannot risk any more delay .

I have three issues about tackling Climate Change:-

• Many people in the world do not have the benefit of my education & access to information, so will not understand that there are very few choices left. People need clear, step by step, brief, actions they should / should not do. Like an A4 sheet of Key Facts in insurance policies
• The main problem lies with big multinational companies, not Joe Bloggs in the street. Big business creates the pollution, is ruthless & is profit driven. There needs to be a clear program to tackle the issues with business - a combination of carrot & stick, because we are already at, or close to, the tipping point. The legal situation needs to be clarified, strengthened & enforced.
• Politicians are the key. If there isn't political will then change either won't happen or will happen too slowly. We need to lobby hard & make this the most important political decision today. Brexit pales into insignificance in comparison, but is sucking all the air out of every other political issue.

I'm 74 & have a daughter of 51 & twin grandsons of 13. I can envision a future of civil strife, being on a war footing regarding our food security, inadequate power for light & heating, more chronic illness due to poor air quality....What on earth, (literally), has my generation done? This has happened on our watch & there is enough scientific evidence to show how bad the situation already is. Maybe we need a Grannie Revolution!

Greenpeace is doing a great job - Our lives & the future depend on it. But we, individually, are all responsible for what we have done & what we need to do now. No one can "pass the buck". Or we are just lemmings running over the cliff edge.

Future Proofing my Life

"Anticipating the future and developing methods of minimizing the effects of the shocks and stresses of future events". It's got a lot to do with sustainability.

People I know seem to be dying or incapacitated with increasing frequency, so I'm applying the concept to me. I'd like to be independently sustainable for as long as possible.

I've had some things in place for a while:- 

1. I've got a personal alarm wristband linked to the phone, which I wear all the time in the house. (Outside too when I forget, but obviously it doesn't work there!)
2. I keep my cordless phone next to my bed, set to press any key to call my designated number, in case no 1 doesn't work. (You can't be too careful!)
3. I've got an adjustable bed in case I'm really incapacitated - (It's nice anyway if I'm too uncomfortable at night).
4. I've got a wall hung washbasin & loo in my wet room ensuite, normal ones are too low. Mine are easier to use for creaky bodies. I've also got a walk in shower with nothing to climb over or into. (I might need to get a seat sometime, but not yet thank goodness).
5. I have ordered a stairlift, although I anticipate carrying on walking up & down stairs. It is increasingly difficult to go upstairs carrying anything. I might just send whatever needs to be upstairs or downstairs  on the lift. Stairs are good exercise - Use it or lose it. (PS - After months the supplier decided my stairs weren't wide enough - So no stair lift!)
6. I have wall mounted ovens in the kitchen - my body has lost it's bendiness. 
7. Picking things up from the floor might become impossible. I have this vision of a house full of things I've dropped, which have to stay there till someone comes to pick them up. I've got a grabber, but they are fairly useless.
8. I've just bought a new car with automatic transmission & parking sensors. (Boy do I need those!)
9. I've got enough books to read to last a lifetime if I'm housebound.
10. I'm good with the computer so can do virtually everything on line. 
11. I moved from rural Gloucestershire to Oxford, so I live very close to really good transport links & in walking distance of my doctor & dentist - Providing I can still walk!
12. I've also got a will & Power of Attorney sorted.

So - I think I'm future proof. Now I've done all that I'll probably just drop dead. (Like carrying an umberella guarantees it won't rain).

Journeys

"Travelling from one place to another"
"A long and often difficult process of personal change and development"

A journey has a beginning and an end with lots of peaks & troughs of emotion along the way. There may be mountains to climb or deep gorges to navigate. There are diversions & obstacles. The road may be straight or winding, wide with plenty of space for maneuver or narrow & confining.

You get the picture? You see where I'm going with this?

When you get to my age you do think a lot about life & death. About what is important & what isn't. About the point of it all. About what you really want to do with the rest of your life & how you wasted some of it. About how much of it there will be. About who you want to spend precious time with - Who radiates & makes life good, who drains & makes life negative.

We squander life when we are young - We can't conceive that it will end. As we grow we take on responsibilities & we change little by little. We learn through experience, some good, some bad, some really dreadful.

Life is the most exciting journey. We never know what will happen & how well we will deal with it. We also never know when & how it will end. It truly is the biggest lottery ever.

Buddhism teaches that "existance is suffering" / Suffering is caused by craving & attachment / Nirvana is the cessation of suffering  - The path to Nirvana is the Eightfold Path which is - right views, right resolve, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration.

So it's really easy - follow the path & Nirvana is yours. How to navigate the journey of life itself. I have the intelligence to understand the teaching & the will to put it into practice. However it somehow isn't that simple. Life intervenes in all sorts of ways. 

The thing is, will I feel the journey has been worth it at the end? Will I feel I behaved reasonably well? Have I made a positive contribution to other people, to the planet & to my own journey? Will I see Nirvana, (I suspect not).

I haven't got a clue. How can you possibly evaluate yourself impartially?  

Preservation & Reconstruction - Notre Dame

Notre Dame in Paris was engulfed by fire in Paris this week. On the same night the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem was ablaze. Both iconic & ancient religious buildings. Over the years there have been similar buildings catastrophically damaged by fire - Windsor Castle,Glasgow School of Art,York Minster & many churches in the UK,the National Trust's Clandon Park....It's a long list.

Already 800 million euros has been pledged by outrageously profitable French companies like Gucci & LVMH (Dior, Louis Vuitton, Moet / Hennessy). The money continues to come in - there is a website where you too can donate.

These buildings are old, unique, built by skilled craftsmen, architecturally & culturally significant. The question is "what is appropriate to do to restore them"? How much time, effort & money should be spent on the restoration? They have all been altered according to different styles & fashions over time, so what is original & worth preserving?

Such large sums of money can be used in many ways. How do we prioritise what it is appropriate to spend that money on? Is restoring a building top of the list? If so - why?

Should we seriously consider the alternatives? Everything has a lifespan. Everything is born, has a life, fades & dies. That is the natural order. Why should buildings be any different? When a building either reaches the end of it's life or is destroyed in some way, what is the best way forward?

Dresden is an example.
https://mashable.com/2017/01/28/rebuilding-dresden/?europe=true
Most was not restored. The Frauenkirche remained untouched as a symbol of the futility of war & a memorial to those who died in the bombing.

I seriously question spending vast sums of money on re-constructing / restoring any building which has been badly damaged by fire, storm, war or anything. Yes, make it safe & preserve what can be preserved. Coventry Cathedral was not rebuilt. Instead they left it as a memorial to war & built a new one next to it.

 

The symbolism of a new church, which is of it's time, rising from the ashes makes sense to me. Recreating a modern facsimile of an old building at great cost doesn't. However well done, it's fake.

I hope the French think very carefully about the way forward for Notre Dame. There is great unrest in France & all over the world about poverty, lack of opportunity, good education & healthcare, climate change. A great many people are disadvantaged & worse. They may feel that 800 million euros could be better spent.