Journal Entries
I've paid off my credit card
Posted Jun 13, 2015
That's not as bad as it sounds.
Several years ago the former Mrs Gosho suggested I get a credit card because it would be another tool in building a credit rating besides, eg, paying your utility bills on time. I wasn't keen on the idea but she said it'd help because a good rating is useful in all kinds of ways that I couldn't even begin to think of, not just for getting a lower rate on loans, for instance, and even getting a job. That's just not right as far as I'm concerned, but it's the way things are 
So I did, and I used it sparingly, always staying within my limit, but only paying around 90-95% of the balance each month because I'd heard somewhere that credit card companies don't like people who pay all their balance every month (because they don't make as much interest off people who do that), and that it's not unknown for them to simply close your account. That was some time ago; I don't know if they still do that, or are allowed to. I wouldn't be surprised if they can.
Any road up. Over the years I've used it less and less, partly because I can't see the point of buying something with a card, that's going to charge me interest, for something I could buy with cash, which won't, but mostly because we now know how much data about us corporations are collecting, almost minute-by minute. The credit card company will have been doing that and profiling me through my purchases, and although I'm sure that by now they already have a pretty good idea of what kind of person I might be based on their algorithms and judgements, but I want to minimise that as much as I can from now on.
(Did you notice there how I avoided using that ghastly buzzphrase 'going forward'? 
)
There are going to be times, such as online payments, where I don't have any choice but to use some form of plastic payment, and I'd rather it be a credit card rather than a debit card because if someone gets your CC details they're spending money that you, in all likelihood, won't have to pay (that's been the case with me twice now), but if they get the details of your debit card there's always the possibility they could empty your bank account. A remote possibility, given the way that unusual activity is flagged these days, but a possibility nonetheless.
So this month, for the first time, I wrote a cheque for the full amount of the (very, very small) balance, and will continue to do so from now on.
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Latest reply: Jun 13, 2015
This is getting ridiculous
Posted Jun 6, 2015
I've been working a regular Monday to Friday schedule for three or four weeks now. I don't care for it, but that's another conversation. Yet another conversation, which I think we've already had, is my tendency to fall asleep on the sofa at some point during the evening for anything up to three hours.
Last night I got home from work around 5.30pm. I took off my boots, got out of my travelling-to-work clothes, took my work clothes out of my bag, made a cuppa and sat down on the sofa. Next thing I know it's almost dark outside and the clock is telling me it's 9pm. Oh well, there goes half my Friday evening, let's get a bite to eat and watch something. One pork sandwich, one episode of The Avengers, this week's Have I Got a Bit More News For You (did Gary Squeaky-Clean Lineker really say *that* word 
), and halfway into listening to a Goon Show, I fall asleep again... must have been around 11pm. I wake up at 2am.
Sigh. Oh well, I might as well go to bed and read until my eyelids can't stay open any more, which was only about 15 minutes, and after I switched out the light it wasn't long before I nodded off. My radio alarm came on at 7am, and I was still fast asleep at the time, despite having had about six hours kip during the previous evening, and another four and a half in bed.
Excluding evenings when I've gone out, which is only once a week, if that, I can't remember the last time I didn't fall asleep on the sofa for at least an hour (usually more) during the evening. Okay, I know that my alarm goes off at some time between 5am and 6am on work days, depending on what time I'm scheduled to clock in, and that I usually go to bed around midnight (I know that if I go to bed any time before midnight I'll wake up at 5am anyway), but you're supposed to need less sleep as you get older. After a year of working at my first job on a 8am to 4.30pm schedule, I switched to working 7am to 6pm each day, Monday to Friday. If I went over to a friend's place of an evening I'd start falling asleep soon after 10pm, but I was only 19 then and needed more sleep that I do 40 years later.
I've turned into my dad.
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Latest reply: Jun 6, 2015
Today was a good day
Posted Jun 5, 2015
I didn't break/run into/scrape/squish/poke a hole in/knock over anything with the forklift 
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Latest reply: Jun 5, 2015
A Gosho's work is never done
Posted May 31, 2015
Been slaving over a hot oven all day. I started off with a trip to the local co-op this morning, for supplies. First task on return - get some bread dough fermenting. Second task - full English breakfast 
After breakfast, get a recipe of home made Hobnobs ready to go in. Give the bread dough a second knead and transfer to a loaf tin to prove. Put the Hobnobs in about 15 minutes before the bread's ready, take the Hobnobs out and put the bread in. After the bread comes out put in a recipe of Melting Moments (recipe below). After they come out, put in a joint of pork. When they pork's cooked, put in a loaf tin filled with cider cake batter. While that's baking make an eight-egg Spanish tortilla.
Phew 
I was going to make kedgeree too, but cobblers to that. I'm cream crackered.
By Jove, the Hobnobs are good 
Not too far off the real thing. I might put chocolate on some of them.
In such a hectic schedule something had to give. I forgot to cook the sausages that were supposed to go into the tortilla, and I forgot to add the parsley too. I'm sure it'll be fine without them. It's going to be breakfast all next week.
Melting Moments
Makes 20 - 24 biscuits.
Ingredients
150g/5oz self raising flour
75g/3oz caster sugar
40g/1½ oz lard (if you don’t want to use lard replace this with butter)
65g/2½ oz butter
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract
Desiccated coconut or rolled oats for rolling the biscuits in
Glace cherries for decoration
Method
Grease two baking trays with a little butter and pre-heat the oven to 435°F/180°C/gas mark 4.
In a bowl beat the butter, lard and sugar until very light and fluffy. Add the beaten egg and vanilla extract. With a spoon stir in the flour making sure it is well mixed. The mixture will be quite stiff [don't be fooled - it isn't. I have to use a disher to scoop it out and put it on the baking sheet].
Take a small amount (about a teaspoon full) and roll into balls with damp hands. Then roll each ball in the desiccated coconut or rolled oats and place onto the baking tray – leaving a gap between them as they will spread as they cook. Place a quarter of a glace cherry on top of each one flattening the ball slightly [quarter my Aunt Fanny - put a half cherry on it].
Place in the oven and bake for 10-15 minutes until golden brown.
They will be slightly fragile straight out of the oven so wait a few moments and when you are able to handle them move them onto a wire rack to cool. If they are not all eaten they can be stored in an airtight tin for about 5 days.
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Latest reply: May 31, 2015
File this one under 'There's something you don't see every day'
Posted May 27, 2015
I'm sitting at the bus stop this morning at about 6.30, minding my own business, waiting for the bus to to take me to work, when I sees this young kid, maybe late teens/early 20s, walking past.
Stark naked 
Not a stitch on him, calm as you like. Just walking down the street as if it's the most normal thing in the world.
The bus arrived moments later so I've no idea what happened to him, but the last thing I want to see, at 6.30am, or after breakfast, or any time at all really, is another blokes meat and two veg 
I have to figure that he was either sleepwalking, or he has... issues.
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Latest reply: May 27, 2015
There is only one thing worse than being Gosho, and that is not being Gosho
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