This and that.

Running (oops, sorry, that should be jogging, as agreed some time ago) round the village this morning, I came across old Jack walking his dogs as usual. Unexpectedly, he told me rather too much about his constipation problems. So we swapped dietary ideas for keeping regular. But, truth to tell, there are some things you don't need to talk about on a fine sunny morning. 

A little further along the route, my phone pinged. A message from the daughter. Could I collect an item from a house in Delph? Oh, and did I mind paying £65 for it. She would reimburse me later. It's a good job I had my bank card with me so that I could get enough money to pay for said item. There's a sort of group on Facebook called something like "Things for Sale in Saddleworth". Our daughter, and various other people I know, buy and sell second hand items. A bit like eBay but without the postage as all the buyers and sellers are within a smallish area. It seems to work. 

So I withdrew some money while I was in the Coop and called in at a complete stranger’s house to do a little informal trading. Networking of sorts, I suppose. 

I must remember to take this item with me when I go to my daughter's house later. And to reclaim my £65!! 

Today I learnt my latest bit of Spanglish, via my Vigo friend Brendan on Facebook: el "chill out". How long will it be before we speak a strange mix of all languages? 

We are all international now! So why are there bits of the UK, and Spain for that matter, still agitating for independence? Yesterday waiting for the bus to Oldham, I got into conversation with an old lady of 92. We often meet this old lady, a former land girl during the Second World War. She is always immaculately turned out - white raincoat and smart white hat yesterday with a sturdy furled umbrella in lieu of the stick she really needs but won't carry - and drops hints about a dramatic past. Anyway, yesterday she was railing against the prospect of "losing Scotland", as she put it. Part of her justification for our staying together is that in the event of war we need the men of Scotland to fight for us. Ok, that's an argument I've not heard before! 

Later in the day I heard that the writer J.K. Rowling had donated a million pounds to the campaign to keep Scotland in the United Kingdom. How nice to have a million to donate but good for Ms. Rowling. I'm with her on this. Once it became public knowledge that she had donated this sum, however, she started to get abusive tweets. This is one of the disadvantages of the social media world we live in: instant criticism! 

It's rather a sad indictment of our modern world that criticism has to be accompanied so often by nastiness. 

I shall continue to refuse to tweet and twitter!