Perhaps the Heat Has Got to Me This Week

Hi Everyone

What a relief to realise that the central heating has been off for some weeks now, and as we pay the same amount for our energy each month, we will soon be reaching the point where we will be in credit to the energy company instead of owing them money. With the lovely warm weather comes the opportunity to sit in the garden. This week our grandchildren came to visit us, so it was a perfect opportunity to have lunch in the garden with a table of pizzas, fresh vegetables - some from our garden  - fresh fruit and soft drinks were the order of the day with some good conversations along the way. In the Netherlands, our son asked if anyone had taken photos of the spread, as nowadays mobile phones are used to record practically everything. Three photos were duly sent, followed by a reply from our son saying that they were very fortunate to have grandparents like us, as he recalled visiting his grandparents, you know the Senior and Junior Partners, on a very similar summer day when they were young. On this occasion, a fold up table, a table cloth and two chairs were prepared by the Junior Partner just outside the Kitchen window as the Senior Partner prepared ravioli from a tin that probably started its life in our food cupboard, together with a bottle of Coca Cola. Naturally, both our children liked Italian food and Coca Cola so they sat with eager anticipation. In the Kitchen, all the Senior Partner had to do was heat up the ravioli and pour the Cola into two beakers. With the ravioli heating in the saucepan, she decided that it was a “bit runny” so added baking powder to thicken it while the anything for a quiet life Main Contractor looked on in horror. You can imagine the look on the faces of our children when the first fork full was eaten with the Senior Partner looking from the kitchen window, smiling with pride, and the Main Contractor staring daggers at them to make sure they ate it all. To add insult to the Cola had been opened about three months earlier, and as the fridge was turned off as it used electricity, the Cola was warm and flat. While our children were less than impressed with the whole episode, I was reminded this week that I just laughed.

We have a photograph taken in the 1930s, before I was born, of the Senior Partner playing tennis. Well, she was not actually playing tennis, she was just standing in a white dress with a tennis racquet in her hand. I thought that I would share this Rubbish with you, as although I played tennis with my friends as a boy, like I suspect the Senior Partner, I was enthusiastic but totally without talent. These last two weeks, our TV has been awash with tennis at Wimbledon. Normally, I would watch very little of it, but as I am approaching middle age, and it has been too hot to be out during the middle of the day, I have watched a number of matches. One thing is very apparent, professional sportsmen and women are playing a completely different game than the game we aspired to play, probably because our tennis balls had to last years rather than eight games and we spent more energy retrieving the balls than playing the pesky game. Add to that our bike ride back home was all uphill. Happy days.

If you would like to start a new business but are short of ideas, just buy, rent or make friends with an elephant. This entrepreneur in India has a successful business converting elephant dung into paper which is good quality, recyclable, environmentally friendly, and does not smell. Apparently, one fully grown elephant produces about 220lbs of dung a day or 40 tons a year, so apart from the equipment for converting the dung into paper, you will need a large shovel and wheelbarrow or better still, a JCB. Perhaps your biggest obstacle, however, is watching your financial advisor's eyes glaze over when he reads your business plan. 

Just a Thought : 

What can you add to ravioli to make it taste better? The word “free”.

My friend told me that his dog can retrieve a tennis ball that landed 2 miles away. Sounds far fetched to me. 

Why do elephants wear shoes with yellow soles? So that they can hide upside down in a bowl of custard. (Sorry!!)  

Brian