Today I went to a supermarket which is a part of a large Australian chain to stock up on  my staple food, Gingernut biscuits.  I have been to the same supermarket chain in numerous occasions for the same purpose, and often that is all I go in there to buy. I am happy with the Home Brand label variety, and they were less than $1.00 a packet so quite reasonably priced as well.

Having reared numerous children who were in the main big eaters, I was always aware of the prices I paid for items and would generally do a running total in my head so that there were not any nasty surprises at the check out

A few weeks ago, during the time of the Victorian Bush Fire appeal I commented to my husband that this particular chain of stores was offering to give the takings [presumably the profits] for the whole day, rather than another store from a rival chain which was promising 10% of their profits to the Victorian Bushfire appeal.

I was quite impressed with their generosity,  and decided to shop there more often.

A few days later having had visitors who also like Gingernut biscuits, I went to restock the pantry and noticed that the said biscuits had increased in cost by 20cents a packet, now 20 cents is not a lot in the scheme of things however it was over a 20% price increase which considering inflation and CPI indexing etc was quite a lot. However I like Gingernut biscuits, so other than commenting on the price difference to my husband it did not make a great deal of difference to me.

Today I went to the same supermarket chain and bought the same brand of biscuits again, and once again AND for the second time in three weeks the same brand of biscuits has increased in price again. Not as much as the last rise I must admit,  this one is about 6%, However that is a 26% price increase on the cost of a packet of biscuits in a three week period. So the home brand version of my favourite Gingernuts has increased from $0.89c to $1.15. in a short three week period.

Now the words daylight robbery come to mind, as does the greed of big business and I began to look at who was really supporting the Victorian Bushfire Appeal.

Was it the apparent generosity of the Supermarket Chain, or is the customer who shops there and who may not notice the regular increases in the odd item here and there, which over a large number of customers could well make up the donation to the appeal and more.

I personally will be sourcing another store to buy my Gingernut biscuits from now on, and the well known ‘W’ chain will lose out on my custom.

I could ask is this an isolated case, or have other supermarket chains done the same thing? Not having shopped anywhere else for the same item I do not know, however I would urge everyone to be aware of the costs of what they buy, and if needs be shop around.

Peace Love and Light

Sheila

The Computer, a strange title for a blog perhaps, and especially as this is my second blog in less than 24 hours as well. So why am I writing about ‘The Computer’?

Well, computers and I are not great friends! There I have said it, and it is not to disparage the computer, that may well come later, it is my lack of understanding of ‘just how it works’.

I can talk reasonably intelligently about what is inside the ‘box’, even if it is by relating it back to things I understand, for example the processor speed to me is the same as the motor in a car . So it is a 4 cylinder, a 6 cylinder or even a V8. Now from past experience this does not always go down well with Computer Buffs [having lived with one some time ago] however it works for me. And I can replace my own CD Burner including setting the Master/ Slave ? pins so I do have an understanding of the physical workings.

However WHEN you go to work with this conglomerate of electrical parts which make up this to me ‘magical’ system, and no matter how often I have been told that it is merely a glorified calculator, to me it has a mind of its own!!!

So one of my biggest time wasting exercises is with the program known as My Documents. They were MY Documents until they went into the maw of this monster, who chooses whether they are edible or not, and I am sure munches happily on the ones which taste good.  When I go to find them, they have apparently disappeared leaving NO trace.

Now computer literate people will tell me that this is just not possible, that they are there and that I just need to go to the Search component and put in what I am looking for. ‘Sooo Easy Sheila’

Now for computer literate people that may be so, However this is me we are talking about, I am normally very logical, until it comes to computers.

So I will give you an example. I decided a few days ago to begin my long overdue Masters thesis, I had hummed and hawed over a couple of topics for some time, and put it on ‘hold’ until I actually decided.

So having made the decision, I created a word document to put my research notes into and saved it in My Documents. That is when it ceased to become MY Document. Did it taste good and the computer eat it? Probably not, the logical explanation is what did ‘I’ call it?

I looked under Thesis, No, that was my format for setting it up and having it ready to print.

Reincarnation, the subject I had chosen, not a sign

Masters, ditto, nothing there either

Sedona University, nah,

I then put fingers to keyboard and wrote a poem about the computer, at least that alleviated some of the stress.

Coffee break, and a chat with two good friends who are staying with me about MY Documents, and the situation became even more complicated, I was asked which drive I had saved it in?? ‘Drive’ to me  is some thing I do when I get behind a steering wheel in a car.! Had a done a word search? Well that would help if I remembered the words I used, and many of them that could be possible would bring up numerous listings for me.

So I decided I would write. Not about not about the myriad things I have saved in My Documents, all because they might be useful one day and the fact that they are the bane of my husbands life if he ever has to find anything on My Computer in My documents, [I know it takes all day to scroll through them, I do it regularly!] However about the fact that I am not computer literate a all, and my hope that in writing about my missing document might somehow jog my memory as to where I had put it or even what I had called it.

And thank you t did, the word University came to mind as I was typing just a few lines ago, now I hadnt got to the bottom of the list, that was an age away as I scrolled down, so it seems I filed my document under ‘University of Sedona’, not as I had previously thought ‘Sedona University’.

I will however share my computer poem with you, which may well give you a laugh.

My Computer

There it sits in a silver box

Its wily and cunning like a fox

It hides the things I have stored so well

And where they are it will not tell

My Masters thesis I did begin

I opened a file to put it in

Yet when I went to add to it

I couldn’t find it, not a bit

My Documents is where it was

How do I know? Well just becos’

That’s where they go those things to keep

Then some where they go off to sleep

But then to find them that’s the task

To remember the name is more of an ask

What did I call that idea true

That came to me straight from the blue

Scroll up and down and peer at the screen

Surely the name will then be seen

What did I call it? Think aloud

Why is my mind off in a cloud

The subject matter is that it

Why no its not, it doesn’t fit

So start again and recreate

For that document was surely ate

I am sure by the wily fox

Who lurks inside that silver box

Peace Love and Light

Sheila

Today a dear friend spoke to me of Gratitude, and I have just sent her a poem I channeled last year on the same subject.

So after our conversation I thought about gratitude, and what do I have to be grateful for:

Too many things to list, I would be here all day, and yet I would like to share some of them with you if I may. These are not in any level of importance, just as they come to mind.

Health, happiness, my children [numbering many], grandchildren, great grandchildren, [now almost 3]  parents, mine, theirs, good friends, colleagues, the special people in my life, spirituality, beautiful days, rain, rainbows, sadness for it allows me to experience the opposite of joy, mountains, clouds, waterfalls, sunshine, mist, trees, flowers, a smile from a stranger, a hug from a friend, letters which say I care, an unexpected call or visit, lying in bed listening to the rain on the roof, words-one of my passions, a walk with the dog,  a lazy river flowing by, silence, music, laughter, my twin flame who is my husband………

And on the list goes, how often I question do we acknowledge the things we appreciate in our life, or do we in our lives just take them for granted, forgetting in our ‘busyness’ that they are there.

So today I honour Gratitude, and may I wish you Gratitude also as you identify the special things in your life that you have to be grateful for.
Peace Love and Light

Sheila

When I wrote a few days ago I spoke of moving and packing, as well as letting go of the things we hold on to.

This month I have been fortunate to be a featured poet in a forum at Adlandpro, a Social Networking Site I belong to, and to ‘showcase’ much of my poetry.

Having read the poems of the previous poet of the month, and being quite taken with one about his British heritage, I decided to write one of my own.

So here it is to share it with you

My Journey

Scots and Irish Welsh and Manx

For these I give my family thanks

Yet who am I what’s my description

Made up as I am of their encryption

Born in Britain, Motherland

Yet jungle and forest took me in hand

Until the dawn of my fourteenth year

And then Australia had a care

From then the West to the Apple Isle

Then to the mainland brought a smile

A move again, and further north

Grapes and wine then showed their worth

But home it called, red dust and heat

The feel of sand beneath the feet

But only for a little while

Then the Pyrenees they brought a smile

The trees and the gold of triangle deep

Brought peace and calm and restful sleep

Then back again to the Apple Isle

Just for a visit, yet stayed a while

Back again to the mainland true

Yet ready to move a time or two

Up to the bush, then back to the sea

And Jack the dog he came with me

Then came the man who stole my heart

Another state, a brand new start

Almost a year and then move again

For him the packing was a pain

A scant nine months to find the place

That brought a smile then to his face

The house that we will then call home

And hopes well he I will cease to roam.

Peace Love and Light

Sheila

Many of the people who know me are aware that I like to move, house, state, and country over the years. I have become very good at packing, and seldom have a breakage of anything in the move.

Over the years I have disposed of and re-bought houses, furniture and the like, however the one thing I have seemed to have kept is paperwork.

Boxes of it, seriously. From time to time I throw a lot of it out, however it still accumulates, and almost seems to breed all on its own.

Last week I went through a box of receipts and bank statements, and by some judicious removing of statements from envelopes I managed to halve the contents of the box, quite a good job I thought.

Today I managed to compact three boxes into two, slowly and in some instances painfully as I decided which brochures, papers, cards and letters that I could really ‘do without’.

There are a lot of memories in some of those discarded items, the lady who approached me at a Mind Body and Spirit weekend and left me with her brochure. Old brochures of my own from places where I have worked in different states, phone numbers scribbled on the backs of envelopes, and messages on company letterheads. Some brought a smile, others a moment or two of remembrance of the person, or the situation.

Some things I hesitated about throwing away, and then made the supreme sacrifice of letting them go, after all how many copies of the one thing do I really need?.
Some of the things I found were treasures indeed, one was an importnat part of my realisations some years ago of how our bodies can be affected by other people, and as I was away from home and driving when I had the realisation, I pulled over and  scribbled my notes on a file divider for want of something else to write on.

This realization will be a great subject to write about another day, and yes I kept the file divider with my notes, even though they have long been typed into a computer file.

Until then

Peace Love and Light

Sheila