I was just wondering if this blog still functions or is defunct....it seems it still functions if I need it too.

1918 Bangalore

The New Double Word Verification Box

I'm posting this on all my blogs because I have different readers on each. I apologise if you are one of those who visit more than one and read this more than once.

There has been a lot of complaints recently about the new double word verification box on Blogger. People who run Challenge blogs and have to visit lots of blogs have been making pleas for bloggers to turn off wv. I thought I had complied; I turned it off on all my other blogs a couple of years ago. Recently I have read many more comments and complaints refering to it, I have even had a comment myself today.  I have visited other blogs written by the very ones pleading for its demise only to find that they have it in place themselves. I decided to check my settings and found that the option to turn wv on or off has disappeared. Not only that, but in blogger help, the link to an explanation of wv led to an error notification page. I Googled and eventually read the suggestion that one try clicking on the question mark at the side of the wv box...and this is what I learnt:

Helping the World One Word at a Time

By entering the words in the box, you are also helping to digitize texts that were written before the computer age. The words that you see were taken directly from old texts that are being scanned and stored in digital format in order to preserve them and make them more accessible to the world. Since some of the words in these texts are difficult for computers to process, we are using the results of your efforts to help decipher them.

There followed a link to another page with more information. It made interesting reading, but I was still no nearer to finding out if wv is now compulsory or not. I searched on and found the answer eventually. The only way to have the option to remove vw is to go back to the old Dashboard interface! So there you have it. Write on an all singing, all dancing new version of Blogger and you are stuck with wv.....but you can click on the cog, go back to the old version of your Dashboard, change and save your settings, then go back to the new version and hopefully the new settings will stick!

Friday Fill-in

1. When it comes time to make a decision, I go with my instincts.
2. Keep your word, that must be the rule.
3. Ma says, you make your bed, you lie on it.
4. I often read a book at the same time as eating and drinking.
5. I never saw an elephant fly.
6. Necessity is not a new invention.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to tomorrow, tomorrow my plans include collecting family from the bus station and Sunday, I want to enjoy their company!

Friday Fill-in

1. Go ahead, don't let me stop you, there's some polish and a cloth somewhere.

2. Procrastination? I'll get that soon!

3. Don't worry, at least not until it happens, and then there isn't any point, it's too late.


4. I have carried enough wood up for the day....but still have to haul enough up for the night.

5. Pretty much anything anyone else cooks suits me fine!

6. Your secret is safe with me.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to being warm, tomorrow my plans include staying warm and Sunday, I want to be warmer!

It's Cooooold!

The Siberian "ola de frio" has reached Castellon, Valencia and now Alicante. Not quite Siberian temperatures, but -11ºc is cold enough, thank you very much. Luckily, that is inland from Castellon in the North of the Province.  Here on the coast the temperature only dropped to 2ºc overnight and now the sun is trying to break through we are basking in a salubrious 6ºc. The local press are searching their records and bringing out the "coldest since..." stories. In fact it isn't that long ago since we had weather like this, we had ice on the fishpond one night last Winter, and if you happen to be browsing my FB photofiles there are photographs of snow on the mountains taken on my birthday in 2009. What is different this time is the "wind chill factor". The air is really icy, there is a stiff breeze and the sun doesn't seem to be having any warming effect.

It is to be hoped they have opened the doors and windows of the Diamante Beach and Spa Hotel down the hill and let the icy blast blow through. Not that it will make any difference to the poor sods who have died of Legionella, but it might wake up the hotel management who have been doing their best to cover up the outbreak. Saga holiday makers were informed by a note under their doors that they were being moved to another hotel. When they enquired at the desk why they were being moved they were told that it was because Saga would not pay the extra cost involved in their staying in a four star hotel as a opposed to a three star! Saga, it has to be said, seem to have acted in an exemplery manner. As soon as it was confirmed that someone had died of Legionella they transferred all their clients to another hotel in Calpe and explained the position to them. Many of these people come out for a month at a time, and they were given the option of staying in the alternative hotel or returning home. My 'source' had conversations with 6 different guests and they had all decided to return home, not because of fears of the disease, but because the alternative hotel, the Ifach, was poor in comparison with the Diamante and they would prefer a refund. Scruffy rooms, unpalatable food and surly staff was the opinion, not a patch on the Diamante.

The UK press has been reporting the outbreak, but only as it applies to UK citizens. No mention of the four local waiters and cleaning staff affected, or a local resident, a hotel pool user, who is also in intensive care. The first case occured on the 14th January. We first heard rumours about the outbreak on the 16th January. When was the hotel closed to guests? Last night, Thursday the 2nd of February, and it was only on Wednesday that the Health Authority were forced to come out and admit there had been a problem. I don't suppose the fact that our dear Mayor and his Councillor for Tourism have been doing the rounds at all the European Travel Fairs promoting Calpe as a holiday destination had any bearing on the delay.

Friday fill-ins

1. It's time to put my feet up.

2. Dish up the Coq au Vin ... and don't forget the vin!

3. I'm trying to ignore the ironing.

4. "Are you going to the disco tonight?", was the last funny comment I received.

5. Please send sherbet dabs.

6. Get me some shoulder padding 'cause I'm in it for the long haul.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to not watching the snooker, tomorrow my plans include not watching the football and Sunday I want to go for a walk!

A quiet, hazy Saturday morning...

...with no need to slog around the shops, but not wanting to sit at home all day, we decided that a quiet stroll along the Paseo filled the bill. Quiet being the key word; we hardly saw a soul apart from a young woman in running gear loping along accompanied by a panting, tubby Shitsu and an older couple sitting in the sun. She was on a mobility scooter and we noticed it was sporting a numberplate on the back, a similar size to those on motorbikes. We surmised that she had brought it from some other European country where stricter regulations are enforced.

Here there seems to be no National norm, each town's police force has its own ideas. An acquaintance, struck down by polio as a child and left with one child size leg as the rest of him grew normally, drove out from the UK with a specially adapted car that allowed him to be as mobile as he needed to be in his new home. Some years later, through no fault of his own, he was involved in an accident and his specially adapted car was a write off. His Spanish insurance company was only prepared to cough up the value of a normal car of its age, and this did not cover the cost of adaptation let alone replacing the car. His solution was to buy a sturdy mobility scooter with a large battery that promised a good mileage. He lived in a residential complex a couple kilometres outside town, and he would trundle down the hill to do his shopping, go to church and even go out at night for meals. As he grew more confident he even went as far as Moraira, holding up the traffic as he followed the winding coast road. All went well until he decided to change his living arrangements. He was finding it increasingly difficult to manage at home on his own, but he could not afford to pay the cost of residential care where he was. Someone at his church told him that she had a friend in Altea who took in elderly PGs and was a much cheaper alternative to a large residential home. The upshot was that he made the move and was very happy in his new home, but the new local bobbies were not very happy with him. As he began to explore his new environment, he found his scooter was too wide for many of the very narrow footpaths in his new town, and often he had to take to the road. He was informed, very politely, that if he was using his scooter on the road in their town, that he needed insurance, lights front and rear and he would have to apply for a numberplate at the Town Hall, then pay road tax and get his vehicle MOTed...

It seems that the UK is considering new rules for "invalid carriages" as well.