JR’s Blog

[Brissles]

Clearly these presenters Kabler/Flint/Roberts -- anyone else???? have so little going on in their lives other than QVC (to pay them pocket money), that they have time to actually sit down and write a book !! Do they employ a cleaner or live in chaos ? do they employ a chef or live on takeaways ?

Will they all sit on the edge of a swimming pool with their back to us - long hair flowing under a massive sun hat (like Roberts did on the cover of her other 'novel'). I should think this time around her whole body will be under heavy veiling !!!

 

[candycane]

We are all hopeful that someone of note appears from the mist of time but I think JR is just waiting to find out who, not if.

Hey! What if she's related to Debbie Flint :mysmilie_17:

CC

 

[loveallthingsitalian]

Clearly these presenters Kabler/Flint/Roberts -- anyone else???? have so little going on in their lives other than QVC (to pay them pocket money), that they have time to actually sit down and write a book !! Do they employ a cleaner or live in chaos ? do they employ a chef or live on takeaways ?

Will they all sit on the edge of a swimming pool with their back to us - long hair flowing under a massive sun hat (like Roberts did on the cover of her other 'novel'). I should think this time around her whole body will be under heavy veiling !!!

There is a picture of the new book cover on her blog.

 

[ohnonotshoppingagain]

She writes crap as does Mz Flint I cannot imagine who buys that stuff. Kabler on the other hand Ihave time for in the writing sense as she is trained in journalism and doesn’t write rubbish. I am a non fiction writer which is why I spot the inept writer a mile away.

 

[Evie]

She writes crap as does Mz Flint I cannot imagine who buys that stuff. Kabler on the other hand Ihave time for in the writing sense as she is trained in journalism and doesn’t write rubbish. I am a non fiction writer which is why I spot the inept writer a mile away.

I would imagine that without them using QVC as a platform to publicise their books very few people would buy them. That is why the whole thing is so distasteful. Whether it’s books, guest houses it’s all free advertising going unchallenged. Throw in loads of freebies and we end up with the calibre of presenters we have now. I used to enjoy shopping from QVC but not anymore!

 

[ohnonotshoppingagain]

I agree with you Evie. I have to say though Jilly Halliday isn’t a bragger, I think she comes from a nice family background. It seems like last week when she was talking about her upcoming wedding, and showing us her ring when she got engaged, but not in a bragging sense more as a young blushing woman, and I don’t think she has changed.

 

[ERICS MUM]

I agree with you Evie. I have to say though Jilly Halliday isn’t a bragger, I think she comes from a nice family background. It seems like last week when she was talking about her upcoming wedding, and showing us her ring when she got engaged, but not in a bragging sense more as a young blushing woman, and I don’t think she has changed.

Jilly is my favourite woman presenter although Jacky is a close 2nd.

 

[Brissles]

I would imagine that without them using QVC as a platform to publicise their books very few people would buy them. That is why the whole thing is so distasteful. Whether it’s books, guest houses it’s all free advertising going unchallenged. Throw in loads of freebies and we end up with the calibre of presenters we have now. I used to enjoy shopping from QVC but not anymore!

WELL SAID !

I don't know if its my age or what,- and irritability comes with age, but I'm finding nearly all of the presenters thoroughly p..s me off at the moment. If they're not shouting and talking at 100 mph, like the new girl Katherine, chavvy Chloe and the other young ones, they're waving their arms and hands about to distraction like gasping Craig, or promoting and pimping themselves to anyone who'll listen.

We need the professionalism of presenters like Leslie Tebbuts, but she's a dying breed sadly.

 

[Lemonpop]

WELL SAID !

I don't know if its my age or what,- and irritability comes with age, but I'm finding nearly all of the presenters thoroughly p..s me off at the moment. If they're not shouting and talking at 100 mph, like the new girl Katherine, chavvy Chloe and the other young ones, they're waving their arms and hands about to distraction like gasping Craig, or promoting and pimping themselves to anyone who'll listen.

We need the professionalism of presenters like Leslie Tebbuts, but she's a dying breed sadly.

I often think back to the late Steve Whatley, he was a good presenter with the details he gave. I remember him saying that he'd had a problem with his eyes at one time and his sight wasn't too good so he gave as much information as he could for partially sighted and blind shoppers.

 

[Dream Girl]

Maybe in a very nice area but Julia talks of her home as though it’s a large state palace, hardly such.

 

[Bettyboo]

I don’t know who my distant and ancient relatives were I care more about the ones I can remember. My maternal Grandfather was a carpenter but when he was out of work in the 1920’s he worked as a ferryman ROWING a small boat across a quarter mile stretch of water there and back for pennies. My paternal Grandfather was a Train driver who unfortunately died when he was only 42 years old a few years before I was born. When my Dad was a teenager he had to line up with other young men hoping the farmer would choose him to work on the farm for a pittance. I am so proud of them all.

 

[Brissles]

I agree BettyB, but its all the more reason for generations to talk to one another, so that information about their lives can be handed down. I regularly would listen to my old granny (born in 1899) for hours about her life as a young girl and the eldest of 14 children, going to school on lard sandwiches, and then my Dad telling me stories of him working in a coal mine at the coal face of only 3' high.

I have saved the boxed wedding anniversary cards and photographs of my now deceased parents, which are a tangent keepsake for my nieces and nephews and their children of their grandparents. I have one brown and white photograph of my greatgrandparents (born in 1870 and 1875)and only scant knowledge of them, but what a treasure house of information there would have been if only I had talked more to the elderly aunts and uncles.

 

[SisterBliss]

There is a picture of the new book cover on her blog.

Surprised anyone?

 

[Twilight]

I agree BettyB, but its all the more reason for generations to talk to one another, so that information about their lives can be handed down. I regularly would listen to my old granny (born in 1899) for hours about her life as a young girl and the eldest of 14 children, going to school on lard sandwiches, and then my Dad telling me stories of him working in a coal mine at the coal face of only 3' high.

I have saved the boxed wedding anniversary cards and photographs of my now deceased parents, which are a tangent keepsake for my nieces and nephews and their children of their grandparents. I have one brown and white photograph of my greatgrandparents (born in 1870 and 1875)and only scant knowledge of them, but what a treasure house of information there would have been if only I had talked more to the elderly aunts and uncles.

I've found Bettyb's & your comments really interesting. I love 'Who Do You Think You Are?' & nearly every programme shows a personality & one of their relatives discussing the fact that there were so many things they hadn't known about their background. I have found out as much as I can about my paternal grandfather's WW1 military service, my aunt is his only surviving child & I've been surprised at how little she knows about her parents' lives; her understanding is that previous generations didn't sit around & share their feelings. She said that her evenings were spent going out dancing & if the family was home they would listen to the radio, play cribbage or do a quiet hobby like embroidery. Our grandchildren are very young but I too have photos, cards & newspaper articles so if at some time in the future, they want to look & listen it's all ready for them.

 

[loveallthingsitalian]

I agree BettyB, but its all the more reason for generations to talk to one another, so that information about their lives can be handed down. I regularly would listen to my old granny (born in 1899) for hours about her life as a young girl and the eldest of 14 children, going to school on lard sandwiches, and then my Dad telling me stories of him working in a coal mine at the coal face of only 3' high.

I have saved the boxed wedding anniversary cards and photographs of my now deceased parents, which are a tangent keepsake for my nieces and nephews and their children of their grandparents. I have one brown and white photograph of my greatgrandparents (born in 1870 and 1875)and only scant knowledge of them, but what a treasure house of information there would have been if only I had talked more to the elderly aunts and uncles.

My dad did a family history back in the days before computerised records, visiting churches and record offices etc and he tried to talk with all the females in the extended family as they were the ones who remembered their parents talking whereas males often weren’t interested enough to listen to all the old stories.

Very true as I know more about Mr L’s family history because I was forced to listen to his late auntie who knew everyone back a hundred years but he just let her rabbiting float over his head whilst reading the paper.

 

[Vienna]

My Dad was born in LIverpool in 1914. His father was a regular in the Army, the Royal Field artillery and so he was part of WW1 from the beginning. He was killed in action in 1917 and my Dad was just 3 years old so couldn`t remember him.
After his Dad`s death my Gran began drinking and neglected her children plus she took up with an abusive man who physically beat her. Dad bore witness to this abuse and one of his earliest memories is seeing his Mum give birth to premature still born twins on the floor after a particularly violent episode.
They were evicted from their home and ended up living in a cold damp cellar in a slum area of liverpool. Eventually my Dad was placed in an orphanage, his older sister who was 13 went into service as a scullery maid and his 2 older brothers aged 14 and 15 joined the military as boy entrants. The family were literally broken apart.
When was was 12 my Dad went to Canada as a Barnados boy and was sent to the other side of the World all alone and was very badly treated by the people he went to live with and work for. He was literally used as slave labour on their farm.
When he was 18 he left the farm and worked on the Alaskan trawlers and then went on to join the Merchant Navy. When WW2 began he worked his way back to the uk so he could try to trace his brothers and sister and also to enlist.
He discovered his Mother was still alive and living in Liverpool and that he also had 2 step sisters and when he went to find his sister at the house where she`d been in service he discovered she`d married and had left service to go live in a small village where her husband was a game keeper He tracked her down, moved in with them, traced his older brothers via her and also met my own Mother who was living in the same village. They married in 1941.
His older brothers were both still in the forces and both at War, one was taken as a POW by the Japs the other was dropped into France to work undercover with the resistance. Sadly Dad was rejected by the Military because he`d had TB when he was in the orphanage but he became a driver for the MOD and drove munitions through the night to be loaded onto ships undercover of darkness so they could sail with the first tide. He always said that driving a truck loaded with bombs and bullets through an air raid over London, Liverpool or Glasgow was like playing Russian roulette.
He never contacted his Mother again and she died before I was born. She was an alcoholic. He did keep in touch with his step sisters though.
He finally got to visit his Dad`s grave in France at the age of 74 and he always said how different life might have been if his Father had lived and his Mother hadn`t gone off the rails but such was life and he made the best of it. He never drank, never raised a hand to any of us and lived a simple but hard working life until he died when he was 87. He`d always said he`d witnessed enough violence and drink induced hardship to turn anybody against doing either and his wife and children were everything to him.

 

[Twilight]

Vienna, I absolutely love the way you write. The best thing a student said to me was that when I talked he could see 'mind pictures' & I was the only person he had known who could do that. I feel the same when I read your words.

 

[SisterBliss]

I love your stories too V, but they are always so sad. Please continue, but I'd love some happy endings too.

 

[Vienna]

I love your stories too V, but they are always so sad. Please continue, but I'd love some happy endings too.

Ah but we can`t rewrite history to make it happier Blissy and I`m simply recounting snapshots in time but to cheer you up I`ll add a bit to my post above.
When my Dad moved in with his sister and her hubby in a small Country village where everybody knew everybody`s else`s business, people didn`t realise she was his sister. They thought he was a lodger which was quite normal for war time.
When he saw an auburn haired 19 year old beauty, 7 years his junior and asked her to go on a date with him, she blushed, refused and said he`d have to get permission from her Dad. He decided to wear his best suit and bowler hat and go ask the girl`s Father for permission to court his daughter but what he hadn`t realised was the jungle drums had got there first.
He`d lived in Canada from 12 so he didn`t have a local accent and had lived and worked alongside French speaking Canadians. When he turned up at the young girls house ( my future Mum ) he was met with my Grandma wielding a huge broom and my Grandad holding a poker. The locals had been convinced he was a spy and rumours had spread that my Mum had been seen talking to him so they decided to "see him off".
My Gran literally clobbered him with the broom, my Grandad waved the poker in dad`s face and chased him up the road.
It took my Auntie Gladys ( Dad`s sister) and her husband to go explain that he was far from being a spy, that he was actually a relative of theirs and they also had to appease the local bobby who`d been notified that a spy was living in their tiny backwater village and was trying to woo a local girl !

 

[Bettyboo]

Vienna your post is brilliant. Life was hard for your Dads family but he obviously rose above it and had a good and meaningful life.