I just love the Woman's hour newsletter - just a little fluff to brighten Friday afternoon - read on, you know its worth it http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/features/womans-hour/newsletter/

The recent Govt. spending review is obviously very necessary and everyone is ready for cuts and to do their bit I am sure but is it just me (very probably) or are the recent proposed changes in Child Benefit completely unfair?   Now don't get me wrong, it is pretty obvious that those earning over the 40% tax threshold probably do not need a government handout everyweek but why cannot this proposal be implemented in an equitable way - by which I mean that there should not be the anomally that if a family has 2 workers, both earning under the 40% limit ( a possible total of £84,000) they would still get the child benefit payments but if there is only one worker in the family unit but that person earns just over £44K then the family would not get it.   I am not often moved to write to my MP, but on this occasion I did and his response indicated that he thought that I was cross at no longer having a spare bit of cash.  Not at all, I accept that our family should not have this money as we can probably muddle through (although it is very handy and is very often needed) but I just feel that they have not thought this proposal through and if they propose to implement it unfairly it will always be disagreed with and any compelling argument in favour of it looses its impact.   It seems to me that the reason that the proposal can be applied to those earning over £45K is that presumably the Inland Revenue can just do a little PAYE/Self Assessment search and find all those people earning over the limit and just write to them asking them to declare whether they/their partner is in receipt of Child Benefit.  However, my MP says that for those families with the high joint income "the only way to assess such joint income families would be to create a new complex, costly and intrusive means test, bringing every family in the country into a new tax credits system where they had to provide details of their household income every year" - really?  Why can't the Inland Revenue just write to those people too asking them to declare who they are married to/cohabit with and then link everyone up - just like they are doing to those earning over the high tax bracket.    Of course, the reason they don't want to do this is that this will cost money - and by the time they have written to everyone concerned, chased up responses, administered fine letters/taken people to court (surely not?)  for not responding etc etc it will probably wipe out the savings altogether.  This may be so, but if they are going to get rid of a benefit that they deem too expensive to carry on long-term then they need to get on top of who gets what and have a properly linked up Revenue/Benefits system is probably what they need anyway (of course it all does smack a bit of '1984').   Anyway, enough ranting, but whilst Mr Lilley believes "that Ministers are absolutely right to take the view that we are all in this together", it is clear that some of us are more in it together than others !!!

I love it, every Thursday night (and especially rejuventaiting after I have jsut spent 3 hours of my life watching a year 6 school play) I get a little pick me up and here it is, the Woman's Hour newsletter and it can be yours too for the fantastic price of nothing....always brings a smile to my face....just do it http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/features/womans-hour/newsletter/

 

Recently, I was diagnosed with A.A.A.D.D. - 
Age Activated Attention Deficit Disorder. 
This is how it manifests itself:

I decide to water my garden.

As I turn on the hose in the driveway, I look over at my car and decide it needs washing.

As I head towards the garage, I notice post on the porch table that I picked up from the postman earlier.

I decide to go through it before I wash the car.

I put my car keys on the table, put the junk mail in the recycling box under the table, and notice that the recycling box is full.

So, I decide to put the bills back on the table and take out the recycling first.

But then I think, since I'm going to be near the postbox when I take out the recycling paper anyway, I may as well pay the bills first.

I take my cheque book off the table and notice that there is only one cheque left.

My extra cheques are in the desk in my study, 
so I go into the house to my desk where
I find the cup of coffee I'd been drinking.

I'm going to look for my cheques but first I need to push the coffee aside so that I don't accidentally knock it over.

The coffee is getting cold, and I decide to make another cup..

As I head toward the kitchen with the cold coffee, a vase of flowers on the worktop catches my eye - the flowers need water.

I put the coffee on the worktop and discover my reading glasses that I've been searching for all morning.

I decide I better put them back on my desk, but first I'm going to water the flowers..

I put the glasses back down on the worktop, fill a container with water and suddenly spot the TV remote control. Someone left it on the kitchen table.

I realise that tonight when we go to watch TV,I'll be looking for the remote, but I won't remember that it's on the kitchen table, so I decide to put it back where it belongs, but first I'll water the flowers.

I pour some water in the flowers, but quite a bit of it spills on the floor.

So, I put the remote back on the table, get some towels and wipe up the spill.

Then, I head down the hall trying to remember what I was planning to do.

At the end of the day:

The car isn't washed

The bills aren't paid

There is a cold cup of coffee sitting on the kitchen work-surface

The flowers don't have enough water,

There is still only 1 cheque in my cheque book,

I can't find the remote,

I can't find my glasses,

And I don't remember what I did with the car keys.

Then, when I try to figure out why nothing got done today, I'm really baffled because I know I was busy all bloody day and I'm really tired.

I realise this is a serious problem, and I'll try to get some help for it, but first I'll check my e-mail.....

Do me a favour. Forward this message to everyone you know, Because I can't remember who the hell I've sent it to.

Don't laugh - if this isn't you yet, your day is coming!!

yep, this is my mum (hidden away on the stage somewhere) amongst the latest singing phenomenon that is Rock Choir.  Started in Surrey with just a few women it is now a 4,500 strong choir - along with their on-stage bopping and harmonizing - it is quite something to watch.  It has been an amazing new lease of life for my mum (who always loved a bit of  a sing-song and loved being a Black and White Minstrel (soooo unPC but all the rage in 1970s Lynton and Lynmouth where we lived) and she has now performed at EuroDisney Paris, Royal Albert Hall on tour with The Soldiers and now an album launch at the Hammersmith Apollo.  I don't think any of them are going to get rich on the royalties once they are split 4500 ways !!!  but they are all having a ball.

  Now I love a bit of Stritcly Come Dancing and do enjoy my fair share of I'd Do Anything or Somewhere Over the Rainbow (minus the dodgy shoe-handover scene - I can't help but imagine the sweaty feet after an hour-long show and all that nervousness) but Britain's Got Talent...hmmmm....I just can't get into it.  Simon Cowell always seems at his cruellist, Amanda Holden is...hmmmmm and Piers Morgan...hmmmm...and then there is the 'talent'.    So, here is the answer - be your own judge - I am reliably informed by the lovely ladies from Woman's Hour that this has changed their Saturday nights (or whichever night BGT is on, as I have no idea  - in fact it seemed to be on every night as far as I could work out !!).  So go get one now.. only £6.99.

I love a good rummage through an old magazine or two - all those little websites that get a mention for pretty quirky things that you don't need now but might be great for a sister-in-law present in times to come... and then how do you keep tabs on those websites?  You'll never remember their names again and you don't want to keep stacks of magazines...so what do you do....I suppose you have a blog !!!   www.rosablue.co.uk

I love daliahs - I know they are quite old fashioned, very blousy and fantastic colours but they just say summer to me.  For those of you that are not into your garden, these are as easy as pie.  Ideally they get planted out into the ground but best is just to plant the tubers into large pots and let them grow - you will be rewarded with fantatsic blooms for ages and ages and the more you cut them the more they bloom and they last really well in a vase.... and best of all you can clash all the colours and it all looks OK.  As ever, I have only just planted mine (which is a little bit late...but nothing new given we had so many frosts) and am watching the little green shoots pop their heads up.  Definitely give them a try - they give fantastic colour in the garden and are very easy