Rather miscellaneous

So – I was planning to give you a lengthy rant in the form of an anecdote.

Yesterday was the Day. The day when some person or algorithm decided it was my turn to be told that my National Insurance number was about to be frozen because I had misused it. This particular scam had not arrived at my mobile before, but I had three phone calls within about two hours, all from different numbers that began 07999566, one of which claiming (before I answered) to be the Burnt Umber Brasserie, giving a number and phone number that bizarrely appear to relate to an actual restaurant in London.

In the days when my mobile number was restricted to close family and friends, this did not happen, but covid has forced me to embrace Whatsapp.

What do such cruel fraudsters deserve? To go on a summer holiday when it rains every day; to inherit a priceless but uninsured heirloom which they immediately drop and smash; to represent the UK in the Eurovision Song Contest and be humiliated on international television… to go to jail for a long time.

You were going to get a much longer rant than this, but I shall simply say: If you want to contact me by mobile, please text first, because my new policy is not to answer. And literally as I type I’ve put this policy into effect, and reported another spam call.

On a much happier note, I would like to introduce you to the Woman Alive Book Club #bookbingo.

Woman Alive is a magazine for Christian women. On Facebook it runs a Book Club discussion page, which isn’t restricted to subscribers, and which I have enjoyed belonging to for several years.

You can discuss or review any book, but only in very exceptional circumstances are you allowed to advertise your own. Obviously many of the books discussed are very specifically Christian, fiction or non-fiction, but many of the group have wide tastes, and I’ve made some very amiable FB friends. It is excellently run by Amy Boucher Pye, whose charming memoir “Finding Myself in Britain” I commented on here: https://www.penelopewallace.com/putting-the-kettle-on/

and to which I gave four stars on Goodreads.

The Book Bingo is a challenge chart for the summer, when we’re all supposed to have so much time for reading. (I didn’t get very far last year.) I think the idea is to read each book for the first time, but I’m going to give myself some leeway, as there’s no prize involved. You can aim for a line, or of course a full house…

The chart is shared below with permission.

I’m amusing myself by wondering how many boxes the Tales from Ragaris would tick. Dorac is certainly a protagonist over 40…

Love from the PPI Blogger