Skip to main content

How would you cope?

Because I am saving money to go to Russia again I decided that when appliances broke down I would not replace them.  So my hair drier stopped working. Now I dry my hair under the fan heater in the bathroom. My microwave went up in flames, so now I remember to get things out of the freezer in time for them to defrost naturally.  Microwaves can be very good and save you money, but I didn't want the expence of getting a new one. My home phone broke recently but I had a spare very basic version in a cupboard.  O.K. so I can't walk across the room with it and it doesn't have an answer machine or remember numbers, but for Russia putting up with that nuisance is worth it and I'm used to it already. I suppose I'm on the road to being a minimalist. My carpet was looking shabby, but instead of spending out hundreds of pounds on a new one I bought some cheap rugs and the room looks so much better. Be creative, save your money for what you really want.  Be disciplined about your spending.  It is so easy to desire all the latest gadgets.  I like gadgets. I got an iphone last February in time for my first visit to Russia and was able to keep it on airplane mode so that I wasn't getting expensive updates from home, instead I  used Whatsapp and the ship's wifi (I was on a river cruise from St Petersburg to Moscow)to communicate with home. A friend showed me that trick and it's a good one.  Not bad for a canny Granny!! So what could you do without, if you really wanted to?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Denial Over Corona Virus

When something very nasty comes our way we can only take in some much of the horror of the situation and then our minds protect us by putting us into a state of denial.  It's all very well sitting cozy in the middle of a storm, but by doing that you can put others at risk.  It is tempting to think that the corona virus situation is not real and won't touch you and your family, to think that somehow the heads of state who appeared so lately to be at loggerheads are in fact manufacturing the whole thing for their own purposes.  Just see how the mind wants to divert us from the awful truth. Do you realize we could be on the point of the total collapse of civilization? That's why people panic buy because inside they realize food production and distribution could break down.  Of course the little store they have been able to stash away will not last long. Deny us our food and we turn into much nastier human beings, well no that's the way we always were but this brings out...
Post a Comment
Read more

What has Lockdown taught us? Will we listen?

  It was time for me to stop chattering on, thinking I knew so much and could teach the World how to believe.  Just like everyone else I have had a time of thinking things through. Suddenly the world changed over night and we were left alone with our own thoughts.  What IS the meaning of life? What really matters to me? How important is family? How important are friends and those people who are more than acquaintances? Can I live without them?   I'm beginning to realize how isolated I had become.  Most of my meals were alone, that is before Covid. We crazily live our lives in isolation and find that this means throwing away so much good food because you can't eat a whole cauliflower on your own before it's too far gone.  A tin of baked beans is too much for one and you don't fancy sardines on toast two days running. Life is built around being together, even if it's only two of you.  You don't have to live in the same house, you can share with a neighbo...
1 comment
Read more

The Cull

The gamekeeper looked over the moorland with a keen eye at the herd of deer grazing happily.   Of course he was not their owner, he had gone on a long journey, but he had been gone so long that the gamekeeper, whose name was Godred   Selfishman, had for some time come to see himself as the owner of the deer and as the best person to fashion the herd according to his own desire. He had forgotten that the owner had a special affinity with each individual deer.   He knew them all by name and they would come to him when he called. They were precious each one and woe betide anyone who would hurt any of his deer. Once Godred had known all this but over the years he had forgotten. He looked at the herd in the valley eating grass and flicking their ears.   They were content, unsuspecting. He had told the neighbouring farmers, “There are too many deer; they are eating your crops.” Unlike most farmers these did not think for themselves, they did not remember that the...
Post a Comment
Read more