Yesterday it was Green Shield stamps. No idea why I suddenly thought about these little green demons. I was a passenger in a car at the time.
Who remembers Green Shield Stamps? When you purchased something from a participating outlet you received green stamps which you then licked the back of (which was very unhygienic) and stuck them in these books which often fell apart.
You could then exchange the books for gifts which you could chose from a catalogue. In Norwich I remember a shop in Prince of Wales Road close to the railway station where you could take bags full of these books and exchange them for luxury goods such as a plastic duck or a lamp shaped like an elephant.
The scheme was introduced in 1958. It lasted for just a few years but it is something that has remained long in the memory. At a later point goods could be bought with a mix of stamps and cash and then with cash alone as it morphed into Argos.
Now if you are feeling nostalgic you can buy some stamps on the internet - a full book for £3.99. I suggest you really have to be a nostalgic nut to bother about that.
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Developers always use tingling titles for their new builds. Elysian Fields, Shining Oaks, Angel Heights etc etc. Nobody ever calls a development Crap Stuck Together Cheapo Homes or the likes. Just another random thought.
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I see Rod Stewart has taken to repairing potholes near his home. Good for him. Of course his local council has come out to say something along the lines of "this is all very good but we don't suggest other people do this." It sounds a very good idea to me. You will probably wait months or years to have them filled in. Stewart's actions certainly speak louder than words and this week we have driven over many many large and dangerous potholes. Perhaps Sir Rod should become Minister for Holes!
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Time for the song that's going through my head. This one seems very appropriate in the current circumstances.
I have seen the rock band Starsailor three or four times and there's a song from their first album called Good Souls which has the following lyrics.
As I turn to you and I say,
Thank goodness for the good souls,
That make life better,
As I turn to you and I say,
If it wasn't for the good souls,
Life would not matter.
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Prices are threatening to go through the roof. A cup of coffee in most places is now over £3. A few days ago we refused to pay almost £30 for the two of us to go up Broadway Tower in the Cotswolds. It just wasn't value for money.
I mentioned a few weeks ago not going into Canterbury Cathedral for the same reason. On Monday we went to Gloucester Cathedral and thankfully there was no charge.
It is a beautiful building and is promoted so well. Everywhere in the building are descriptive boards. We declined to go into Canterbury Cathedral, refusing to pay £30 for the privilege. But we did make a donation in Gloucester, spent money in the shop and had coffee and cake in the tea rooms. So which cathedral got the most out of us - Canterbury with their ridiculously high entry fee or Gloucester? It doesn't take a genius to work that one out.
Enjoyed the visit to Gloucester. It's another city to cross off our list of places visited. Like so many others there were good parts and bad parts but overall it's definitely worth a visit even if you only go to the wonderful cathedral and the historic dockland area.
It was such a warm day that we found a pub by the dockside and sat in the sunshine enjoying a Newcastle Brown. I could think of worse ways of spending a couple of hours.
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So here's the good news (well almost). This blog and future blogs were seriously under threat yesterday by new security measures put into place by Facebook.
They told me that due to the number of people reading my Facebook posts, I required additional security. Of course this was a simple thing to achieve. All I had to do was follow some very easy steps.
That always raises the alarm bells with me and sure enough I tried to follow their steps but got completely confused. They would send me codes via SMS messages. But these never arrived. Then I could download an app but it wouldn't download. Then I could put in codes but that didn't work.
I tried a few more things and eventually one of them worked. So sadly for you all, my twitterings look as if they are here to stay.