Sixty? It's the new forty.

Over the last couple of days, I have been looking at some of the comments, posts etc on the internet about John Sargeant and his situation on 'Strictly'. From what I've read, he still has a lot of support out there but what REALLY annoyed me was a comment on one site which referred to him as 'an old man'. He's 64, for heaven's sake!! Don't they know that 60 is the new 40? In case I haven't got my message across - 60 is NOT OLD!
Oh, and Arlene Phillips, one of the judges who has been less than polite towards him, is the same age and apparently, doesn't dance at all any more.
By the way, anyone who thinks I have a personal axe to grind here on this age issue is definitely barking up completely the wrong tree - completely.

Yesss!!

Yes!!! He's back to fight another week! You just can't keep a good man down...

Vote for John Sergeant!

Throughout the ancestral pile chez Jennyta cries can be heard as an 'animated discussion' gets underway over the merits (or otherwise) of one of the contestants of tonight's edition of Strictly . Yes, it's good old John Sergeant, the contestant I'm rooting for. Keith, incomprehensibly, doesn't really rate him; in fact, he thinks he should have been out of the competition long ago. I however, appreciate his gentle, self deprecating wit and think he's an all-round good egg. OK, so his terpsichorean ability would not set the world on fire but you have to admit, he has put in a lot of effort, sufficient to lose two stone in weight in fact, and the clip of him dragging his poor partner across the dance floor a few weeks ago is sufficient to set me giggling any time it comes to mind. Check it out yourself
While dancing ability is undoubtedly important, 'Strictly' is a family entertainment show, which means that personality has to be a vital ingredient and John certainly has that.

I would really like to see a burgeoning 'John Sergeant' fan club with a rapidly expanding sideline in stickers, banners, flags with captions along the line of 'Vote for John Sergeant - Strictly's next winner!' I want to see houses festooned with banners across their front windows, cars with stickers on their rear bumpers.

Come on everyone - VOTE FOR JOHN SERGEANT! You know you want to!

(No, I haven't even started on the red wine yet!)

Remember, remember the 5th of November

An experience to avoid - counselling clients during the evening of November 5th. The repeated explosions in the immediate vicinity are not conducive to a peaceful session!
Speaking of which, can anyone explain why, in this era of Health and Safety overload, in which the Nanny State involves itself in every minute aspect of daily life, it is still regarded as perfectly acceptable to buy explosives and set them off in the privacy of your own garden?

Looking after pets

This post on Daphne's blog stirred up memories of when my children were growing up and the boys had a variety of animals between them. Mostly they were Younger Son's, though and at one time we had 13 rabbits, several mice, hamsters, gerbils, a couple of chinchillas and weasels and then there were the reptiles, an iguana and a water snake. The iguana feasted on crickets for preference and these were bought from the local pet shop. The water snake, on the other hand, was partial to baby rats, dead ones, which were also bought from the local pet shop but, being dead, had to be frozen until they were used. You see where I'm going with this? The clue is in the word 'frozen.'
Which is why one day at work, I received an extremely irate phone call from ex-husband who had plunged his hand into the freezer to find something for dinner that evening and had encountered a plastic bag of frozen baby rats.
The only thing which puzzled me was that, as I had had no idea that YS had put the rats in the freezer, it should have been my fault. Perhaps one of those examples of how 'a mother's place is in the wrong'?

Snow???

Well tomorrow, it seems, it's officially winter but someone didn't tell Wales. This morning, my neighbour had a visitor in a snow covered car and the forecast for tonight is minus 2 degrees.
Just one problem - I'm still waiting for summer!

Vive l'internet!

Reading Gemmak's latest post this morning led me to pondering on how important the internet has been to me. Having come to computers in the days of the BBC microcomputer (32 bit memory!), I was hooked immediately, but it was some years later when I made the acquaintance of the internet. In fact it was when Elder Daughter went off to university and we were able to set up a dial up connection which was temperamental, to say the least. But it was a start and eventually we graduated to broadband and the delights of the world wide web became more accessible.
Now, I am well and truly hooked and couldn't imagine having to do without it (witness my withdrawal symptoms when I am away from home and have no access!) I have made lots of online friends through Blogger, of course, and emailing friends and family is so much easier and more immediate than old fashioned 'snail mail'. When Elder Son is abroad on a tour of duty, I can email him and he receives the email within a couple of days rather than having to wait for weeks and during my last few years of teaching, internet access in the classroom through an interactive whiteboard was a real thrill for me, although the six year old pupils were so much more blase about it, of course.
Through the internet, I have renewed contact with people from my past and when you have an intenet 'presence' who knows who you might be reunited with or what new friends are just a click away? It can be a two-edged sword, but my life would be very different now were it not for the internet and yes, I'm happy about that.