The Rules Have Changed........

I read Frugal Queens post this morning about Who to Trust and commented on it there, but decided to post the content of my comments on here too.

I bank with a major high street bank and have been with them for over 30 years. My current account where mine and Himself's wages are paid in is there and we have 2 credit cards with them. The cards are pretty high in debt (dont go there) but we pay a little over the required payment every month in an attempt to get the debt down as fast as possible.

We have been charged 17.9% interest on these cards for the past couple of years, the bank sneakily upped the interest rate from 14.9% and seemed to have 'forgotten' to tell us, yea right. Well now, in a time when the Bank of England Rate has been 0.5% for ages and ages, they sent me a letter telling me that as I have considereable debt (yes, I know that fact and didn't need reminding) I am considered a bad risk and as such they have decided to increase my interest rate to 27.9% !!!!!

Hello, our debt has been going DOWN for over 2 years NOT UP !!! How on earth do they decide that we need to pay more when our debt is coming down ?????

So now they have increased our debt mountain for us and are intent on keeping us tied prisoner to them for even longer, nice of them eh? They were already making a very nice profit on the 17.9% - but now they are just becoming greedier and greedier. We have never ever ever ever missed a payment !!!

I also presume that if any other company did a credit search on us, they would jump to the conclusion that we are some sort of bad risk and maybe do the same. The whole system nnow stinks. The thieves at the top who make these decision are getting richer whilst us poor phlebs at the bottom of the pile are being kept down by an increasing debt level whilst working our socks off trying to pay it off !

So in answer to Froogs Question, I dont trust anybody in Banking, Finance, large newspapers or Government, regardless of their party.

As I said at the top, the rules have changed, but nobody is bothering to tell us what they are, we just have to keep trying to work them out as they constantly move the goal posts about.

I just want a desert island, with a bit of sunshine and wind for power and a patch of ground to grow on. Then all these damn parasites can bugger off and leave me alone. I want nothing off them and they can have nothing off me !

Sissinghurst Smallholders Show

I had wanted to go to this show all week, but it was looking extremely doubtful if I would be able to go, due to family commitments, so I hadn't even bothered mentioning it to Himself. However family commitments changed slightly on Sunday morning,so I dropped it into the conversation over toast and homemade marmalade, that Hugh (Fernley Whittingstall) would be talking at the show. Appetite whetted (we have watched River Cottage over and over again) and as Himself is currently based only 40 minutes from Sissinghurst, it was a fairly easy decision to make - I am pleased to report.


Daughter in tow (who thinks her Dad and Step Mom are everso slightly mad at the best of times, we set off and managed to get there just as the site was opening. I have always wanted to see the gardens at Sissinghurst but again I didn't manage it - never mind, an excuse to go back on my own while Himself is still working in sunny Kent!

The show wasn't huge, but for me (and himself, after daughter left a couple of hours later to go and visit a friend) we had a lovely day. I managed to hear Hugh talk about his new show that is just finishing filming, and then later in the day we had front row seats to listen to Sarah Raven and Mark Diacono (River Cottage Head Gardener and smallholder himself). There were chickens, pigs, cows, sheep and alpacas - they are so cute - I just wanted to go and cuddle them!





We didn't spend much and had we been more organised would have been able to take a picnic with us. I did however manage to buy some more cheese starter bacteria (we make both soft and hard cheese) and the company I buy from were exhibiting there. Also I found a hand grain grinder that I want to save up for. We make our own bread and I want to go a step further and actually mill the grain ourselves. The company that we spent ages talking to Grains2mill, can provide us with the wheat berries in bulk as well as the grinder. For the moment I will be use up the flour I already have in stock, and maybe with some good ebay sales, I might be able to buy the grinder before Xmas.

Even Sicker

The video footage just shown of an injured half conscious young man, helped to his feet, somewhere in London, and then had his back pack STILL ON HIS BACK looted by two men as he staggered forward, the footage then shows this cockey bastard throwing half the contents that he had looted from the injured young man, over the nearest wall and swagger off with what ever it was he thought was worth keeping.

I wish there was such a thing as a zap gun to send these bastards to the moon where they cant live in a respectable society.

I'm watching my country disintegrating in front of my eyes and I cant do a damn thing, and the government isnt doing a damn thing, just cutting the number of police that we have.........I want out......desert island......just somewhere away from this disrespectful, lack of morals country that we are becoming.

I am sick to my stomach

I am watching the news this evening and I am sick to the very pit of my stomach watching the riots unfolding on the TV. Areas of London, Croydon and now Birmingham.

There is an almighty great big fire in Croydon and I am hoping and praying that there is nobody trapped in that huge burning mess that is filling the screen. Its almost unbelievable what is unfolding minute by minute. How can people be so senseless, how can they be so wicked and so cruel. What are they hoping to achieve by all this????

I dont understand it, its just carnage and organised vandalism and theft. Hard working people are losing their homes, their possessions, their businesses and their livelihoods - it is sick sick sick.

Police, Firemen and paramedics are putting THEIR lives on the line to deal with this mess and they are going to get hurt to.

Sick sick sick bastards, I cant even find words strong enought to express how I feel right now