Word of the day - ONOMATOPOEIA

The word today is Onomatopoeia 

Onomatopoeia is a noun and from my research means the following:

- The naming of anything such that its vocalisation/sound is similar to that it describes or represents.

- Words are said to exhibit Onomatopoeia when they sound like what they mean.

This is a word little used by anyone, but for more info ...

England pronounces Onomatopoeia like Onno-Mat-O-Peer. 

Here are a few more words more words that are exhibit Onomatopoeia.

There is an index of words of the day.

If you are brave or foolish enough to dig into the different types of words in English, try this.

Word of the day - MELANCHOLY

The word today is Melancholy 

Melancholy is a noun and from my research means the following:

- Sadness or depressed spirit often with a sense of gloom or foreboding.

- Pensive contemplation of something, sometimes wistful or desirous.

- An induced state of longing, often self-induced, tainted with self-pity. 

 

Your suffering of melancholy is melancholia.

Your character my be said to be melancholic.

There is an index of words of the day.

If you are brave or foolish enough to dig into the different types of words in English, try this.

Word Of The Day - ENNUI

The word today is Ennui 

Ennui is a noun and from my research means the following:

- Listlessness / dissatisfaction resulting from lack of interest; boredom.

- A painful or wearisome state of mind due to the want of any object of interest, or to enforced attention to something destitute of interest; the condition of being bored, with tedium.

- A feeling of weariness and disgust; dullness and languor of spirits, arising from want of interest.

England pronounces Ennui like On-Wee.

There is an index of words of the day.

If you are brave or foolish enough to dig into the different types of words in English, try this.

DEPRESSION TALKS

For the twisting of feelings,

the deceptive ease of use;

for the guilt I've felt

and the switchback affair,

and festering resentment in its throes of death.

For all this

and fears of uncertainty;

womankind I dismiss.

There was more to this ...

AFTERMATH

I can see us drifting apart,

I can see a fond farewell,

a bitter-sweet

on a screen in the back of my mind.

I feel sorrow deep inside

apprehensive and tense,

not wanting a conclusion

for fear of an awful truth,

not knowing what will happen,

not knowing what I want to happen.

I feel lonely,

a spectator at my own loss

as the wedge of uncertainly

drives us apart.

There was more to this ...

LONELINESS

Loneliness is isolation;

loneliness is a dark room

with smooth walls,

a cold floor

and endless expanse.

A chasm of fear

with no key,

for there are no doors in the room,

no escape 'cept upward;

pulled out by a friend.

Personal thought - Written in my youth, I had yet to realise that a single person actually helped me realise that I had locked myself in a small mental space that disallowed me from seeing a sunny world. A single new friend.

Youthful depression makes you become alone as you slowly withdraw from the "real world" and it is not easy for others to spot. Usually slow, yet insidious, the sufferer may actually assist in their descent by always feeling like "the odd one out".

You may be able to be someone's single person.

P.S. Teenage mental health and emotional instability is becoming more prevalent, possibly because we are now more willing to acknowledge it.

Truism (for saving money #2)

A good form of saving is the avoidance of tax.

 

Personal thought - This realisation came to me when bank interest was as low as I can remember (in 50 years) and I needed more of what I earned to stay with me. 

Tax avoidance, as opposed to tax evasion (illegal) is where I am now and I tell you this from the perspective of being a UK resident. 

The biggest dent in take-home money is taxation of all "taxable money*" that comes to yourself and whose amount exceeds a nominal poverty-level "personal allowance", dictated in law by the state. For the majority of people this tax is 20% and upward. This is money taken by the state that you should aim to keep, to help you and your dependants.

Tax avoidance is a career for many professional advisors but many other advice sources are free; to either of these you should turn for  research for your own circumstances.

For me and my partner, our monthly income is fixed and savings are not funding our retirement as they should, but we have a solution.

I found my wife's pension would never exceed her personal allowance and that, as spouses, she could transfer that part of her unused personal allowance to me, i.e. £2000 of my earnings suddenly became non-taxable, making me/us better off by the amount of tax I formerly paid when that £2000 of my income attracted taxation. (£400/year)

Our life savings were devaluing with inflation and terrible interest rates didn't help, so we moved all of those savings into 2 equally apportioned Premium Bond holdings, such that any winnings (tax-free) would either buy more Premium Bonds, or be paid to our current account. Returns were tax free and poor, but better than virtually nothing from the banks; it's like gambling with your savings without any likelihood of losing it, but it minimises exposure to tax on money we earn/win.

As bank interest rates began to rise (currently 4%) we realised our Premium Bonds were not achieving this so we thought we would move our life savings back to a bank, but being aware that only the first £1000 of bank interest is given free of tax, equating to £24000 max per person, we placed some money in an ISA (because it's returns are tax free) and now monitor and balance our life savings (in the bank or as Premium Bonds),  in order to never pay tax on any of their returns. 

We are trying to avoiding tax on our life savings as best we know.

* Taxable money is money that comes to you, by whatever route, that is deemed taxable by the state and is above that deemed to be non-taxable (tax-free).  E.G. ISA's, Bank interest below £1000/person, profit from the sale of your primary dwelling, bank loans, etc. To see what tax you might pay (in the UK) take a look here.

South Africa To Leave The Commonwealth?

Attitude not acceptable ...

With this sort of attitude South Africa must surely leave the Commonwealth, or at the very least have membership benefits suspended.

S. A. cannot have it both ways.  Sucking up to the Russian state will only alienate them from former friends and force them even further into their self-inflicted demise; a travesty of Mandela's reported aims for his "new South Africa", now ruined by inept and corrupted management surely?  

South Africans, where there was hope and wealth and international respect; all that is or has been syphoned off. Leave if you can for lawlessness is on the horizon.

Mandela's dream in ruins ...

Who are they kidding?

S.A. Cracking on ethnic lines ...

Criminals and organised crime are taking over ...

The ANC destroyed S.A. ...

Oh yes they did ...

Farewell to an uneasy S.A. ...

S.A. Intolerance

As an aside, are there many African countries that are actually prospering nation states? 

14/01/20204 - South Africa are doing some good it seems, for they have become the only country prepared to call out Israel for their way-over-the-top retribution upon the Palestinian region called Gaza. South Africa have called the Israeli on-going military action(s) as a genocide and seemed to have prepared their international court case case meticulously. More recently (June 2024) an election result seems to flag the end of the ANC's dogmatic and ultimately flawed (ineffective) leftist regime for shared, free market, government.

Tinkerbell found by the James Webb telescope

  Tinkerbell found by James Web telescope? ...

 

Here I am trivialising the (potential) contributions of the James Webb space telescope to understanding cosmology, but you cannot be anything other than amazed at the images it is capturing, even if in this case it reminded me of Peter Pan's attendee called Tinkerbell.

New discoveries by the James Webb telescope continue to amaze.....

More new images from the James Webb telescope and 19 spiral galaxies exposed.

N.B. James E. Webb was not an astronomer, but a high-ranking administrator of the early American space program, after which the telescope was named in his honour.

                      

QR Code (Possible scam)

I cannot vouch for this information as I use a 3G phone for security and privacy and am unable to scan QR codes for direct access to further online information; but the following came to me from a reliable source (David Pattenden on UK Facebook) and may be of use to some of you who regularly scan QR Codes.

"...... A nasty scam that I think would catch most people out.

The scammers obtain your details by you scanning a QR code with your phone and it sneakily starts taking payments from your bank under the name of STH-1 or QSTYRSA. The amount is always £29.99 and it will continue to take these payments until stopped. They scammers are using QR codes linked to car parking, Sky TV, Discovery+ and several others. If you upgrade to Discovery+ from a TV screen, or pay parking via your phone bank app they take your money.

Its a scam called piggybacking where the scammer hides code which obtains your card details.

Please share. ......"

I don't know how you go about elimination such malicious code from you phone, nor if this story is true, so over to you and your research. Possibly starting here ...

Where is that Emu?

A total time waster, but can you spot the Emu?

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If you like spotting things try others here.

Truism (for saving money #1)

The best form of saving is the avoidance of debt.

Personal thought - This was passed to me by dad, warning me that interest paid on a debt actually buys you nothing - you wasted that money that you worked for!

Someone who doesn't believe

Illeism

Think more wisely?

Happy Woman

In the world of social media, often based upon triviality, FOMO, falsehoods and often vicious rumourmongering, I was reminded by this happy woman that there can be undiluted pleasure in your life, if you let it in. Too often we care too much, to our detriment, of what other people think of us. 

Thank you HAPPY WOMAN ...

Jousting a Gumtree scammer (I think)

I love the concept of Gumtree and because I invariably sell locally I have never been scammed, though sometimes I have suspected the motives of some who send messages.

Today I posted an ad to sell a guitar I no-longer have space for and in less that a minute a person purporting to be 'Z' messaged me. This to me is suspicious as they responded so quickly; was I indeed so lucky as to be posting something that someone wanted just at the same time they were browsing? I think not. Here is our conversation.

Z - 14:13:    Hi, is this still available? (An early response!)

Z - 14:14:    ??

Me - 14:35: I have just posted the ad Z, so I guess it is still for sale. 

Z - 14.36:    Email my mate he'll be really up for this. His email is ........

      Z tempting me to use my email system outside of Gumtree to get my detail.

Me - 14.38: I'd rather you tell your mate so they can take a look.

Me - 14.38: I'm thinking you're a scammer. Do you want this or not?

Z - 14:38:    Lol.

Z - 14.39:    I'm not mate.

Me - 14.39: Not interested or not scamming?

Z - 14.40:    I'm in Luton. Can you come over with it?

Me - 14.40: Too far for me and will not post as guitar big and high value.

Me - 14.41: Is your mate in Luton or nearer to me (see map).

Z - 14.42:    You mail him he might come and see it. What's your number or address?

      Z is phishing for my telephone number or address now.

Me - 14.42: To speak to me your mate must contact me through Gumtree.

Z - 14:43:    He isn't on Gumtree yet.

Me - 14.43: He should join - It's good. 

Me - 14.45: We're getting nowhere Z - too far apart -  this is the end of our line.

Z - 14.46:    What do you mean?

Z - 14.46:    I really want this guitar and will wire you the money and pay postage.

       Z attempting a quick sale unseen so he can complain about damage later.

       Z might be in America as few in the UK wire money - we transfer.

Me - 14.47: Goodbye Z.

Z - 14.50:    My mate will contact you about this.

       Z trying to disrupt sale as I don't know his mate's Gumtree ID.

Me - 14.55: Bye Z - go phish and scam elsewhere.

Me - 14.57: Deleted Conversation.

Truism (regarding personal debt)

Debt is like cheap jewellery as it glitters for a while but no-one wants it from around your neck.

Personal thought - This is another from my dad's compendium of advice (to me)  about living a good life. 

Patrick McCreesh and his kind

S C U M  ?

Shut the fuck up McCreesh and pay.

Stop trying to raise money from other saps and pay,

for the whiff of a Ponzi scheme is now strong.

Use your own money or get a loan 

or ask that scammer friend of yours (Phillip Nunn)

or get your parasitic Surge friends to help you, 

but grow a pair and pay.

When your life starts going wrong, 

as it will, 

think of us fools awaiting our payments.

N.B. Scammers Phillip Nunn and Patrick McCleash masterminded the £80m Blackmore Bond and Blackmore Global Fund pensions and investments scams.

The not so honourable Phillip Nunn

UPDATE: Feb 1st 2020 - He/they didn't pay again (for the 3rd time) - where are you FSA, you toothless bunch of 'slickers.

UPDATE: Feb 19th 2020 - He is a busy boy

On 2019-12-20 17:01, Blackmore Support wrote:

Dear Bondholder

I wanted to take this opportunity to update you on the good progress we are making with our projects (please see attached report).

We are starting to see the rewards of all the hard work on our projects and will be paying the outstanding interest as soon as possible.

We are hopeful that we remain on track to pay the January interest on the due date.

We are continuing to develop our online client portal area, and, as a part of this development, we are also creating a phone app to allow for easier access to your account. This is planned for release in the first quarter of 2020.

Once again please accept my sincere apologies for any inconvenience or distress the late payment of your interest may have caused you, but allow me to re-iterate once again that our model remains strong and we look forward to a more positive 2020 now that the political uncertainty has eased, with all the forecasts for the property market looking to improve significantly after the recent election.

Please note that our offices will be closed from 20 December to 3rd January.

Best wishes

Patrick McCreesh
CEO Blackmore Bonds

UPDATES FOR THOSE THAT CARE ANYMORE:

Not fit in 2016 yet FCA / FSA let him rob us

Financial Conduct Authority found to be inept in this case ....

Nov 2024 - the FCA still deemed incompetent by MPs - why are they protected?

Two crooks? !!

UPDATE: Oct 30th 2020 - Still no (nor ever will be) returned money. I have received plenty of pages of waffle from the appointed receivers yet none from the Financial Services Authority (FSA) and the penny has dropped for me because of the Blackmore fiasco. 

RECEIVERS ARE CALLED RECEIVERS BECAUSE THEY RECEIVE ANY RESIDUAL VALUE IN A COMPANY; THEY HOLLOW OUT COMPANIES BY FINANCIAL FILIBUSTERING THAT ONLY CONCLUDES WITH THE CESSATION OF THE FLOW OF RESIDUAL FUNDS TO THEMSELVES. THEIR JOB IS THAT OF A VULTURE: TO ASSET-STRIP THE WARM  BODY OF A COMPANY AND HAND BACK WORTHLESS DRY BONES OF DASHED HOPE TO THE INVESTORS. GOOD JOB EH?

UPDATE: Sep 6th 2022 -  BBC Panorama TV report

Bastard scammers one and all ...

Riad Salameh

MISS ME A LITTLE BUT LET ME GO*

I have come to the end of my journey
and the sun has set for me,
but I want no rites in a gloom filled room;
why cry for my soul set free?
Miss me a little please
but not for long with heads bowed,
remember my love or friendship
and smile though I’m not around.
Take care of yourselves my friends,

may your care of others abound;

take time to reflect upon the Earth

and what you leave to be found.

* This poem was inspired by the original by Christina Georgina Rossetti

Christina Georgina Rossetti

When I come to the end of the road

And the sun has set for me

I want no rites in a gloom-filled room

Why cry for a soul set free?

Miss me a little - but not for too long

And not with your head bowed low

Remember the love that we once shared

Miss me - but let me go

For this is a journey that we all must take

And each must go alone.

It's all part of the Master's plan

A step on the road to home

When you are lonely and sick of heart

Go to the friends we know

And Bury your sorrows in doing Good deeds

Miss me but let me go.

Wed 12th Aug 2020: I came across more to the original poem ...

Don't grieve for me, for now I'm free

I'm following paths God made for me.

I took his hand, I heard him call

Then turned, and bid farewell to all.

I could not stay another day

To laugh, to love, to sing, to play.

Tasks left undone must stay that way

I found my peace at close of day.

And if my parting left a void

Then fill it with remembered joy.

A friendship shared, a laugh, a kiss,

Ah yes, these thing I too will miss.

Be not burned deep with sorrow

My life's been full I've savoured much.

Good friends, good times

A loved one's touch.

Perhaps my time seemed all too brief

Don't lengthen it now with undue grief.

Lift up your heart and share with me

God wants me now - He set me free.

PERSONAL COMMENT

Wow, I can see why the shortened version of this poem is commonly cited, for the first 4 verses distil the whole poem into a desire to be remembered, expressed with humility.

The "extra" verses give rise to the thought that more is somehow less: too much pathos in this remembrance "cake" and too much indulgence by the poet who appears (to me) to have stopped talking to her friends and set about "bigging herself up" with grandiose words, such as

I'm following paths God made for me

Tasks left undone must stay that way

And if my parting left a void

Be not burned deep by sorrow

God wants ME !

BREXIT FLAG

BREXIT  Brexit  Brexit GREXIT Grexit Grexit BREXIT NEWS 

I have tweaked an old nationalistic poem of mine to comment about the UK's impending departure from the EU (European Union), formerly the EC (European Community), the EEC (European Economic Community) and the ECM (European Common Market); each possibly unintended steps toward a "Euroland" stabilised by the mighty financial muscles in Berlin.

The UK will eventually leave the EU without a meaningful deal (for any jurisdiction) and "pain" will be felt by many (though stresses and strains are more likely), before a new paradigm evolves, probably as a result of multinational traders dictating terms to a  political oligarchy that will oversee a "Euro" oligopoly. 

There will be some anger and pettiness and (French) pedantic behaviours (as seems usual), but life will go on, though the departure of the UK may be a catalyst of further change, with EU countries reviewing what they want from their membership (fee); especially Eire who may decide to follow the UK when told to construct a border regime because the UK never will (it did!), thereby compromising their 90% export trade with the UK. Belgium may also wish to review their percentage of UK bound exports.

Anyway, enough of me rattling on. 

Good luck Europe and for the good of Germany, do not implode!

UPDATE (26th April 2021) - Well! The UK seems to be doing OK without the protective arms of the EU trying to crush us with their political polemic and though there are still outstanding contractual contributions to our old "club" (until 2060?) our world has not fallen in; food still arrives, medicines are not scarce (nor Covid-19 vaccinations!) and the anti-brexit naysayers have finally shut-up. There are niggles of course, with more to come probably, but I think the EU apparatchiks (for the EU is seemingly being run as a communistic centralised control exercise) are getting our message at last: We bear you no ill-will but we have to go our own way now. 

UPDATE (11th Jun 2021) - President Biden warned Prime Minister Boris Johnson about not upsetting Northern Irish people with regard to the infamous "Brexit Border Problem", but a newly elected NI party leader told him (Biden) to keep his nose out of their issues and to clear off! 

How did the UK let themselves be railroaded into this poorly conceived  "agreement"? (The same one Boris "the bumbler" Johnson ousted the then UK Prime Minister Teresa May over.)

Prior to Brexit, why didn't we ask the EU how it protects its far-flung borders from illegal or "tariff" imports AND THEN ASK THEM HOW THEY PROPOSED TO PROTECT THEIR NEWLY ACQUIRED FAR-FLUNG BORDER WITH NORTHER IRELAND?

My point is, why are we the UK having to do the work the EU should be doing. THEY (the EU) should be telling their member (Eire) to monitor their (the EUs) border. Not us in the UK;  it should never be a problem for mainland UK to trade with ANY of its member states and the EU should be doing their job from their side of the "Irish Border" .

UPDATE (7th Feb 2025) - The bottom hasn't fallen out everyone's life in the UK, as doom-mongers predicted, and the economy has not imploded; indeed by many reported criteria the UK is holding up as good as or better than our ex EU partners. The "promise" of border security has not happened however and literally millions of new illegal foreigners seem to think this is their new home, whilst the huge amounts of money we'd save by being outside of Europe seems to have been a lie. That said, Europe is struggling and yet Prime Minister Starmer wants the UK back in (on their terms only no doubt), which is a bit like leaving a small seaworthy life-raft for a larger one that is sinking. Not much sense in that I'd say.

BREXIT FLAG

I saw our flag

flapping and stuttering against its pole.

I saw our flag straining,

writhing and contorting

in a wind of change.

I saw the pole unbending.

Dogmatic in its stance,

leashing and lashing the flag

that gently stroked with fraying edges

its master's stand.

I saw our flag,

with a forced embrace,

envelop the greasy pole

and then, as if to retain dignity,

I saw it fall.

That flag caressed my soul,

but I saw a truth profound

as I picked it from the ground;

for there was a hole through which all could pass,

to corrode us from inside.

Our flag had lost its heart,

but we have found our heart.

At the foot of our Brexit pole.

PATRIOTISM Patriot PATRIOTIC ImmigRENCEAUX England LAURENCEAU Lawrenceaux LAWRENCEAU Laureanceaux LAURANCEAU B rexitb, BREXIT,Lawranceaux LAWRANCEAU Loranceaux LORANCEAU Lorranceaux LORRANCEAU POETRY Prose POEMS Social Comments HUMOUR Humerous SMILE Smiling LAUGH Laughing LAFF LaffingBREXIT Leaving Europe Bye to Europe BYE  BYE  CYNICAL Truism TRUISMS Welcome HULL Kingston-Upon-Hull Kingston Upon Hull KINGSTON-ON-HULL Kingston On Hull YORKSHIRE East Yorkshire HUMBERSIDE Yorkshire DEPRESSION ThisISUll FED-UP Pissed-Off LONELY Disgruntled DISSOLUSIONED Blue BLACK Thinking BLOG Blogger LYONEL

No To Melrose Industries And GKN

Melrose Industries want GKN, no doubt because of its eventual break-down price, and will rely on shareholder greed to facilitate this. They appear to be a parasitic money-grubbing enterprise, that in decades past would have been called asset-strippers.

I say no to Melrose.

I say no to the breakup of GKN; a profitable UK manufacturer we will need post Brexit.

I say no to the greed of parasitic asset strippers.

UPDATE (19/01/2018):
"Melrose is poised to offer to funnel £1bn into GKN's pension fund in a last-ditch attempt to win its £8.1bn bid for the engineering giant".

- " Offer"? - Of course they will eventually do that. Surely?
- This sounds a bit like Kraft taking over Cadburys in the UK.
- Promises are cheap and often forgotten and this bribe to the workers is cheap.

UPDATE (28/03/2018):
Bye-bye GKN? (stupid government?) ...

UPDATE (30/03/2018):
GKN "succumed" to hostile Melrose bid.
- UK government confirmed as spineless.
- UK politicians traitors to British industrial global reach.
- Is UK run by a bunch of self-serving, infighting wastrels?
- Good luck GKN workers, you will need it.
Too little, too late (as ever) ...
The vultures have arrived and the goverment dithers ...

UPDATE (25/11/2018):
I knew this would happen - the rape of mother GKN begins...

UPDATE (23/02/2019):
View the ongoing story by the BBC...