Thursday 20 November 2008

Overjoyed

A follow up to this post.

After four months of going backwards and forwards with the insurance company; face to face interviews, phone interviews, more face to face interviews (it was obvious from the start that they didn't believe what had happened...), I was doing some oboe practice last night, for the first time in ages (blush); after doing my practice, I delved into my bag to get out my cork grease.

This is into a pocket that I very rarely use.

As I looked in it, what looked back up at me, but my rings and my watch!

I don't remember going anywhere near the bag on the morning that I lost my rings, but I have a black hole in my memory that covers most of what happened between picking them up and realising that I'd lost them.

So, I am still in shock, and having little wibbles every so often, but I've called up the insurance company and cancelled the claim. Now, of course, I've had a phone interview (and am expecting more) trying to explain *why* I didn't look in that pocket before, and why I've only just found them!

Very very happy.

Wednesday 12 November 2008

We will remember them

I am still writing the New Zealand diary - promise! Events have overtaken me, and have made it difficult to sit down and write...



However, today, it is 90 years since the end of World War I, a war which changed the face of the world; the "war to end all wars".

The number of casualties recorded is only an estimate at best: this website gives figures of between 7 and 8.5 million dead; 22 and 37 million total casualties (not including MIA). (This one concurs with the slightly lower numbers) This is only for soldiers, of course, and doesn't count the civilian casualties.

For a perspective, Wiki gives the 2006 population of Greater London as 7.5 million. The Stats NZ website gives the entire population of New Zealand as 4.2 million.

And the "War to end all Wars" has been followed by conflict after conflict after conflict; the whole 20th Century has been marred by continuous violence.

It would be so nice if we could use this anniversary as the marking line, to say "No More".