Wednesday 15th May 2024 - Got to be Having a Laugh, NHS App, Windows & Swifts

I have two websites, this one and Clifftop Publishing where I showcase my books.  I use Wix for both sites and with Clifftop Publishing’s site coming up for renewal, I received a reminder which informed me of the increase in subscription.  Last year I paid £50.40, the renewal price is £129.60 – they’ve got to be having a laugh!  As I donate all the profits from the sales of my books, I try to keep costs to the basic minimum.  Therefore, there is no way I am going to stomp up £129.60, which I should add is for the plan only and does not include the domain name.  I have mulled over what to do.  I could go with another provider but on investigation, it looks as though they are all pretty pricey.  Free sites often come with space and bandwidth restrictions, as well as adverts from companies I may not wish to be associated with.  In the future I may find a suitable alternative but in the meantime I have transferred information about my books to pages here on Overstrand Life.  Having completed the transfer, I logged into Wix to cancel the subscription for Clifftop Publishing, whereupon I was immediately offered at 30% discount to stay.  That’s still £90.72 to pay and almost double last year’s subscription; they can forget that.  The site will remain live until mid-June – I wonder if they will come back with a further discount, before then.

It’s a rainy day today and looks as though we will have more of the same tomorrow.  I’m not going to complain, we have had some beautiful warm sunny days this month.  The garden will appreciate the rain; the ground in the flower borders were definitely getting dry.  With rain forecast, I have resisted watering the borders but I did fill cans from the water butts to give the pots a soaking.

Settling down to a day indoors, I started by registering on the NHS app.  What a palaver that was!  I’m not moaning as I do appreciate, they have to make checks etc. as the information held is very personal.  However, if people were honest and didn’t hack sites or scam this wouldn’t be necessary.  After this I ended up ‘spring cleaning’ some windows, two which build up mould on the frames over the winter months and another facing north which accumulates, what can best be described as, gunge plus dead ladybirds and spiders within the inner frames.  Come the afternoon the rain has reduced to a fine mizzle, enabling us to get out.  I am glad we did, otherwise we would have missed hearing, then seeing, the first swifts (a sure sign, summer is on its way) as they squeeled and zipped across above the roof of the village shop and across Cliff Road.  

Today’s photo is of a hound’s tooth (rather a strange name) plant in flower; spotted on one of our afternoon walks.