Everything and nothing. Read it, shrug your shoulders and move on.


Saturday, April 29

Disaster for England - Rooney injured!


Fuuuuuuuuuuck!

While Chelsea have just won the Premier League for the second season in succession by beating Man Utd this afternoon and therefore having an unassailable lead, the more important news for any Englishman is that Wayne Rooney could be out of the FIFA World Cup before it's even begun.

Fuuuuuuuuuuck!

Big Phil fallout

I certainly don't believe that the FA have been clever in any way, even if Big Phil sticking up two fingers to them works to the favour of some of the suits.
It's more likely another very English cock-up by the FA - think how pissed ofed we'd be if another FA was approaching our national manager weeks before the World Cup. Considering how we squealed when a fake Sheikh did it, it really wasn't the smartest or most gentelmanly conduct by the FA (Talking of gentelmanly, isn't this the WC we tried to stitch up the Germans over..) and who can blame the big man from Brazil for being vexed the announcement was all over the press before he'd even said, 'Yes'?

The English press eh? Who, in their right mind, would want to go through the sort of shite they'll chuck at you for being England manager....20 hacks hounding you before you've even taken the job is just the taster and Scolari is right to say,'Fuck off' in the face of that. The Englih press (Yep, even the moral high horses of the broadsheets) are a disgrace to us all when they hold the power over the England manager. Maybe they'll view this as a bit of a wake-up call regarding their behaviour, considering the majority of England fans wanted Big Phil for the job, but let's not be silly eh.

While I wouldn't baulk at O'Neil becoming Englands manager....does he want to? And why do so many (Although not all obviously) who call for him because he's British not realise that doesn't make him English, when they threw their arms up because Sven or Scolari aren't English? Fucking retarded bastards.

It's all academic anyway, whether the manager is English or not.....we just want to fucking win something and whoever gives us, and the best squad we've had for a long, long time, the best chance of that is all that matters.

Ah fuck it! Give the job to Peter Reid. He did pay £7000 for his coaching badges after all and that entitles him to a shot at being England manager apparently.

Friday, April 28

Charles Clarke brings terror to the streets of Britain

Charles Clarke has brought terror to the streets of Britain by his sheer incompetence.

Of the 1000+ foreign criminals released by the Home Office when they should have been deported, it has emerged that at least 5 of them have reoffended. Violent offences have been committed when the perpetrators should not still be in the country and Clarke is directly responsible for that.

The fact that he is still clinging onto power, with the consent of Tony Blair, is nothing short of a national disgrace.

The fact that Blair is defending the odious and patronising Patricia Hewitt over her disasterous dealing with the NHS and the fat sleazebag that is John Prescott, is merely to be expected of this rotten Government.

Big Phil rejects England

Scolari withdraws from the running for the England managers job.

Shit!

Put it down to the FA claiming they had their man prematurely (Scolari is still the manager of Portugal and has the World Cup coming up) and the media hounding the man already (No one knows what the English press are like until they experience the onslaught) .

Another great cock-up by the FA then, expecting Scolari to sign up before the tournament and letting the world know.

Looks like the next England manager will be the awe-inspiring Steve McClaren. I suppose at least he is the one English candidate for the job who has actually won a major honour, and has taken Boro to the final of the UEFA Cup this season.

What a nonsense.

Thursday, April 27

Big Phil gets support of the English

Football365 (87% Support) and read the mailbox, BBC Sport (64% support), Sky Sports (65% support) and anyone that i've spoken to personally....all are in support of Big Phil becoming England manager after the FIFA World Cup (Kick Off in less than 43 days now!).

Of course the traditional media are on the look out for controversy and a story because the new manager isn't an Englishman.

They're getting plenty of help from former players, managers and others involved in English football of course, not to mention a minority of England supporters.

There have been some real gems of stupidity from those against Scolari's appointment though...

Peter Reid:

"I have done my pro license like Sam Allardyce, Alan Curbishley and Steve McClaren. We paid £7,000 to do them and then when it comes to the top job none of the English lads get it, which I find really disappointing."

Ian Wright:

"I'd rather spend years in obscurity with an English manager than win the World Cup."

Not to mention the numerous half-witted responses from a minority of fans whose only requirement for the job is that the manager is English rather than successful. Don't suppose they'll complain if we win the World Cup this year with Sven in charge. Or complained when the Ashes winning England Cricket team was led by a coach from Zimbabwe .

The fact remains that Big Phil has won the South American equivalent of the Champions League twice, won the World Cup and been runner-up in the European Championship.

The English candidates have won, between them, the Carling Cup. Once.

Possibly the funniest and most retarded of the claims coming from those who want an Englishman is the call for Martin O'Neil as manager. They seem to forget that O'Neil is, as the name might suggest, Irish.

Thedacs fully support Big Phil as England manager and laugh in the face of those whose only criteria for manager of the national team is to be English. Their patriotism is misplaced (Although they'll squeal about being the true patriots) 'cos all that matters is England winning.

Big Phil accepts the England job!

Apparently

Big Phil for England

Luiz Felipe Scolari, the current coach of the Portugese national team and former coach of 2002 FIFA World Cup winning (And favourites for this year's tournament) Brazil, has been offered the coveted (Or maybe not...poisoned chalice might be closer to the mark) job as coach of England.

If true, and there is still no certainty that Scolari will accept the offer, it would be great for England as Big Phil is a proven winner and would gain the respect of the team while taking no nonsense. While not popular with some involved in British football (God knows what vitrolic shit some of the tabloid hacks will spout) it's also a decision that is applauded by others.

Let's hope the big man from Brazil accepts!

Wednesday, April 26

The Euston Manifesto


The Euston Manifesto

Support

Support the proposed Severn Estuary Barrage as it could provide 6% of England and Wales electricity supply and show the world that the British intend being world leaders in renewable energy production.

Support England during the World Cup.

Support the Observer campaign that calls for World Cup tickets to go to the fans of the teams playing and not coporate sponsors.

Support the call for domestic wind turbines.

Clarke MUST go

Charles Clarke has been the Minister in charge of the Home Office during the time a quarter of the missing foreign criminals were released. He knew there was a problem and for this reason, he must go now.

It's no good fronting up as he is now in the media, telling us all how he is going to sort the problem out and how he understands that people will be vexed. 288 foreign criminals were released back onto Britains streets since July 2005 on his watch. There can be no excuses for that rank incompetence. Clarke must go now!

Tuesday, April 25

Sack the bastard!

Not only is jug-earred Home Secretary Charles Clarke presiding over the intolerable imposition of ID cards on the British public, dismantling the civil liberties that Britain has taken centuries to aquire and firing off weak rhetorical replies to a wonderful argument against his policies....but the silly fucker (Along with previous Home Secrtary David 'Love them posh girls' Blunkett) has been responsible for the release of over 1000 criminals who should have been deported!

If that wasn't bad enough, a number of these criminals are murderers, rapists or child molesters.

When other Cabinet ministers have had to resign due to piffling matters in comparison, it's surely a no-fucking-brainer that the Minister responsible for releasing this terror back onto the streets of Britain must be sacked immediately.

And it was only last week I was roaring at this incompetent on the telly. Hah!

How great are Tesco!

Not neccessarily because their profits have soared by 16%, although i'm happy enough with that since Tesco provide the goods that I want at a great price and convinience, but because they're investing £100 million in environmental technology.
The pictures on BBC Breakfast showed Tesco stores with mini wind turbines atop them and it's this sort of take-up of renewables by commercial companies that should be applauded.
Firstly it should stimulate production in the technologies, enabling the costs to come down significantly.
Secondly, it has a huge customer base that may cotton on to technology it hasn't been massively aware of before and decide to invest in themselves (Like Conservative leader David Cameron has has done), and thirdly, it shames our Government and their feeble investment.
Good on Tesco!

Dahab - I was there

D - Well, I was there about 12 years ago but still, all the memories of the place came flooding back (Not that many admittedly, the copious amounts of weed smoked while there added to the chemical drugs messing up my mind tends to screw an already shite memeory) , the sitting around all day in our favoured restaraunt, smoking fresh-off-the-bush weed, eating pancakes, watching the local guys fishing, avoiding the flea-ridden dog, spotting the Israeli's freely mixing with Egyptions and watching the World Cup.
The dudes at our restaraunt brought the tv set out from the building and over to the flimsy shack where we loafed all day (Dahab then, dunno if it's changed mind, was one dirt track along the Red Sea front, with buidlings like restaraunts and crappy hotels on the desert side, and small shacks covered in cushions squeezed into the space between the road and the sea) and every nationality sat around watching the Romanians tear teams apart with great control at pace and Stoichkov marshalling the Bulgarians to great heights.
Great days, and i'm sure that many other people, Egyptians, Israelis, Westerners and Muslims were enjoying themselves when another terrorist attack tore apart so many lives.
I do hope that none of the guys I shared those times with were hurt.

Monday, April 24

Fuck ID Cards

Just thought it needed saying again

NHS cuts

Can't help feeling that the Government might have more luck with the staff crisis in the NHS if they didn't have such a cunt as Patricia Hewitt trying to calm fears.
Even C hates her and she isn't even employed by the NHS anymore, so you can imagine how popular Hewitt is with hospital nurses or those nursing students facing up to graduation with no job prospects.

Hewitt, Clarke.....New Labour are cornering the market in patronising, hated figures at the mo. Not a good sign for a Government led by divisive figure like Blair.

Sunday, April 23

Which one for England?

Stevie Gerrard or Frank Lampard for the England central midfield role eh?
After the two played directly against each other, in yesterdays FA Cup semi final between Liverpool and Chelsea, it was tempting to assess the players merits for that England place.
While Sven may opt to play the two together with a holding midfielder like King or Carrick picking up the pieces behind them, the chances are that in a tournament like the World Cup, circumstances will dictate that the shape of the team will change for either tactical reasons or through misfortune.
With only one starting place available in the central midfield position and two top-class players to fill it, a difficult decision awaits the England manager sometime this summer. Who Sven utimately chooses ahead of the other during England's best chance of winning the World Cup since 1966, probably rests on two or three points.
The first is really nothing the players can do much about themselves and says far more about one of Sven's weaknesses than any the players possess, namely the Swede's habit of sticking by certain players. Gerrard has been the beneficiary of this largesse more than the Chelsea man in the past, possibly due to being such an influence at Sven's dream start with England when they thrashing Germany.
The manager may not favour one over the other the same way he favours David Beckham, even when the players form has dipped drastically, but the possibility is there for another tactical mishap Sven is notorious for.
The second point is form itself. Aside from a recent flourish of goals from Lampard, he hasn't been anywhere near as influential a prescence on the pitch as he was during the first half of the season, whereas the Liverpool Captain is in a good vein of form that he has sustained from the remarkable achievements of last season and Istanbul. It was evident during the semi final on Saturday, certainly in the first hour where Lampard was rarely noticable, that Gerrard is still capable of driving his team forward and inspiring the best from his team-mates along the way. Taking such form into the World Cup would not only ensure the player himself is at his peak, but also greatly help the national side in progressing through the tournament.
Lastly, how each player fits into and enhances the midfield around them should be high on the managers priorities. Hopefully Sven has dismissed the idea of playing Beckham anywhere but the right side and with Joe Cole playing consistently well on the left for England, the team is fairly well settled and stuffed with quality players. Playing Gerrard and Lampard alongside each other in a traditional 4-4-2 has always left England looking vunerable for long periods of a match and shouldn't feature in the manager's thinking. If Sven goes for King or Carrick as part of a bolstered five man midfield, then the two should fit well into a strong, attacking England side with a great chance of winning the World Cup.
Sven may play more conservatively though with a traditional midfield encompassing a defense minded player partnering either of Gerrard or Lampard.
The Liverpool man always appears to have a more maurauding and inspirational game about him, but doesn't seem to have good, or lucky, tournaments and has an annoying habit of attempting 50 yard cross field balls that concede possession. Lampard however, while sometimes going AWOL for periods on the pitch, has usually come up with the goods and the goals when playing in the England jersey.
Personally i'd go for Gerrard if the choice had to be made, with the satisfaction of knowing I had the opportunity to bring on the Worlds Scond Best Player to make an impact if I needed to.
A managerial headache like this is one that managers are supposed to relish. With these two experienced, world-class players at his disposal, alongside many others in the first team, Sven has a gilt-edged opportunity to write his name in history as the man who led England's finest to World Cup glory in Germany this summer.

Friday, April 21

Action

Kismet is now licking her fanny.

Time to boot her off and slap C awake...

This is a Friday night?

All is quiet in thedacs household.

C is fast asleep on the settee after working a night shift (On the same day she worked an early - what a star).
A is upstairs amusing herself as she has been lately (As pre-teens do I suppose, although it's good for her especially when she powers through a book as she has done recently)
Kismet is asleep on a chair.
Dusky is sat by the backdoor.
And Scruffy is no doubt still outside hunting for the mouse she was playing with earlier (C pulled Scruff indoors and locked the catflap to allow to mouse to escape....it's against Nature I say)

Time to put some life in this house on a Friday night. A has come down onto her computer (Got a text from a m,ate to go on MSN MEssenger I reckon..) so it might be the chance to shake C awake.
Might get me shouted at, but pretty much everything I do gets that reaction so fuck it.

Will have to wait for a mo though as Kiz has plonked herself on my lap and started kissing me. Awwww!

Channel 4 listen to me on Lost

Craven Channel 4 have spinelessly crumpled under the one-shot onslaught aimed at them by this blog over the lack of a start date on trailers for Lost!
See here for the stunning original blog post that forced C4 to stick a start date of Tuesday 2nd May on their latest trailer.
One -nil to the bloggers!

Jesus, I think i'm pissed/stoned/delete as appropriate

Kismet


Have a picture of the lovely Kismet

Thursday, April 20

Grouchy but it's New Labour so i'm right

Don't know whether it's because i've whizzed past 30 and am gestating the grouchiness of middle-aged obscurity, or because i'm right, but I found it extremely difficult not to scream, 'You Cunt! You fucking weasel Cunt!' at Home Secretary Charles Clarke on tonights Question Time.

He was talking shit at the time, I think, on the subject of Tougher curbs on freed criminals and giving it on how he agrees there are problems in all these services such as probation.

The stoopid New Labour twat has had, or his party has had, nine fucking years to sort it out!

How vigilant an observation or how much chin stroking does it take to realise that letting out violent offenders on early release is a really dickwadded practise? Because of this Governments* rank incompetence, innocent people like John Monckton and Mary-Ann Leneghan have had their lives brutally ended, and evil Kevin Hazelwood was allowed to destroy another young life because the Government permit known offenders of the vilest crimes to end their prison sentences early and roam the land.

I know all that sounds a bit Littlejohn, but I don't fucking care. Lives were ended and lives were shattered, and it was preventable. Utterly and easily preventable. This Government has really fucked up yet they've had nine years to identify and prevent this horror from occuring. And for jug-earred fuckhead Charles Clarke to sit there and not fucking prostate himself before us for his total failure led to the embryonic grumpy old man in me to burst forth.

But I know i'm right.

And I know that every single member of The Cabinet has taken on the face of the smug, patronising cunt with no idea how loathed they've deservedly become, that the Tories wore in their dying days.

* and I fucking voted for them twice...

New technology - less carbon. NOW

This was my response to an article on Comment Is Free today discussing if Chancellor Brown has been any good for the environment or will be in the future...

Encourage individuals to take control of their carbon footprint by offering subsidies to stimulate demand. Not the greatest solution if you're not too hot on Government subsidies in other areas, but hopefully the outcomes would be more positive for the nation as a whole.
Measures such as encouraging the domestic take-up of emerging technologies like mini-wind turbines and solar panels (Cool toys for Dads) would not only allow individuals to take control of their carbon footprint, but would save them their hard-earned cash in the long term.
Ditto a move to make fuels such as E85 not only widely available at the pumps across the country, yet compulsary for all new cars.
It will be money that forces the change in behaviour on a large enough scale to matter, rather than calls to limit your carbon emissions.
In which case, the Government could speed up that process by investing to make the technologies and accessibility to them more affordable for the majority, before the cost of the present methods leave us all skint and facing a move to the new technologies regardless.Off you go Mr Broon.

Lazy bastard for doing a simple cut and paste job eh?

Wednesday, April 19

Tom Cruise has had a baby!

Tom Cruise has had a baby! Well his missus, Katie Holmes has anyway.

A bouncing baby girl weighing in at 7 pounds and 7 ounces, that the parents have named Suri.

Personally I couldn't give a toss but C has become a bit infatuated with the whole thing. Getting broody I think, especially since her Sister is 5 months gone.

Oh well, celeb-goss-tastic!

Jerry Springer The Opera and the Christian Protestors




Jerry Springer The Opera opened at MK Theatre last night and knowing that there would be a protest demonstration by some Christian groups, thedacs and P (Over for a Chinese meal. Which was lush by the way) decided to go for a little drive to check it out.
We got a few pics, but they're not much cop (Talking of Cops, two Policemen were watching the demo from a discreet distance away) and we didn't want to stay long.
We had a little chat with a lady handing out leaflets and told her, diplomatically, that we understood why people can get offended if they believe, to which she reeled off, 'I do believe. I believe in Him and that He will live again. When He is resurrected the makers of this show will go to Hell'.
That was our cue to ghost away and take a few pics, only after taking a leaflet though.
The leaflet was produced by Christian Voice by the way.
The turnout of protestors (An estimate of 200 was given by the Police) was more than i'd expected but less than the Bibical hordes assualting the heathen theatre that i'd been hoping for. Those that were there though were in fine voice it must be said.

Tuesday, April 18

Lost

Channel 4 have started to run teaser trailers for the second series of Lost lately.
Wish they'd just get on with showing the thing (I know it's out in the US and available to download but it's not really worth the effort quite honestly) instead of the endless trailers with no series start date shown.
We'll watch the show because (After a period of not watching mid-series) it's a good show that sucked us in, even if the ending of season one left us (In the words of the C4 trailer) feeling shafted.
So it will be must-watch tv when it's screened but we ain't gonna start getting stiffies over it. Especially since we'd completely forgotten about it...

BNP

Over the Easter weekend a story regarding the British National Party has opened, primarily due to the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust issuing a report that stated up to 25% of voters may consider voting for the BNP, and Employment Minister Margaret Hodge claiming that more white voters are being tempted by the BNP as they feel their concerns are not being listened to by Labour.

Can't say that it comes as much of a surprise to be honest. Whether those people flirting with the BNP are full-on racists like many in the party itself or simply tired of being neglected themselves and finding a shoulder to cry on is something that can never really be quantified I guess.

Chances are that many of them are just fed up with what they see as preferential treatment toward ethnic minorities or new immigrants/asylum seekers over and above that shown to them, especially in relation to issues like housing.

I'm sure that the right-wing press and the BNP themselves are fueling that feeling with half-truths, distortions and downright lies, yet the main political parties and media consensus are refusing to confront these issues and resentment for fear of appearing racist themselves.

Having allowed the culture in Britain to become one where the percieved threat of racism is prevalent and the worst crime imaginable, the liberal left have added to that resentment with cries of 'Wolf', boorish lecturing, dismissing or ignoring issues and taking offense on others behalf.

Where all of this leaves the ethnic minorities who bear the brunt of racism remains to be seen. In fact, i'm not so sure that this growing debate has much to actually do with racism at all, but is rather a case of the lecturers having their arses bitten by those they see as needing their lectures.

Sunday, April 16

Spring is in the air

The garden furniture has been dusted off and hosed down after a year in preparation for the days spent sitting in the sun and the inevitable BBQs



The vegetable patch still looks a bit dead mind
At least the trees are in full blossom along the street...

Easter Sunday

It was only when walking to (Alright, stumbling bleary-eyed and with my heart racing at 100 bpm due to last nights excesses) the shop this morning and hearing some distant church bells ringing in the distance, that I realised it was Easter Sunday today.
Not being religious, as no one in thedacs is, it just feels like a normal Sunday with a newspaper on the go, car washing to be done (Finally, after 3 months), Shipwrecked on the telly and a faint sense of boredom.
Everything in England is usually shut on Easter Sunday (As it is on Christmas Day) and there is some talk in Government of relaxing the Sunday Licensing Laws which restrict the hours of trading allowed on a Sunday, and allowing trading on Easter Sunday itself.
Even though we're not religious ourselves, we're more than happy for Easter Sunday to be a day where shops, especially supermarkets, are closed (Although not newsagents obviously or I would have had a wasted walk this morning) and those who work in them can get a day off, and everyone else can have at least one day where they can't descend on the stores and worship Mammon.
No one loses anything by not being able to shop and consume on a couple of days a year. There is however, a lot to be gained, such as having the time to visit far flung family or just reaquint yourself with the notion of being bored and needing to find alternatives to amuse yourself.
Of course, it also allows those who are religious the opportunity to worship the way they wish to without the pressures of modern life intruding onto a time that is obviously pretty special to many people.

Saturday, April 15

Jury's Inn death

D - Bad news arrives after the Jury's Inn scaffold collapse today, after it emerges that one of the three men injured has died.
Dunno whether or not that makes me feel like a ghoul for going up to the site and taking pictures the day after the disaster. Probably not in all honesty.
Does remind me though of when I was living in NYC and one aquaintance decided to work his way up to the Twin Towers to take photographs of the disaster. Some thought that was extremely ghoulish. Seem to remember just making a few, halfhearted, 'That's terrible' noises.

Friday, April 14

Good Friday

D - Miserable outside, got no money so can't out and spunk it up the wall on crap and, as is trditional on this weekend, DIY stuff. Can't even be arsed to shower which is just completely minging. Suppose at some point I might go out and finally plant some seeds in the vegetable plot I dug in the garden over the past few weeks. Then again I might be as lazy as i've been over the past few weeks and just sit on my arse. We shall see.

Thursday, April 13

Jury's Inn medical mobilisation

C was on a night shift last night (Nicely tucked up in bed now) at MKG Hospital and asked the Sister on the ward what had happened regarding the scaffold collapse at Jury's Inn a few days ago.
Apparently, Two Shires sent out a call that the hotel had collapsed and 200 casualties were coming in (Something like a dozen ambulances, two air ambulances and more were sent to the scene), so MKGH discharged around 127 patients to clear up beds, halted operating theatre lists and brought in 100 A&E staff to cope with the tide of wounded and dying.
The first casualty comes in and is whisked away with efficient professionlism, and the second and the third casualty and then......nothing. Nada, no more casualties. Everyone standing around twiddling their thumbs.
Kudos to MKGH for leaping into action and being prepared for a major incident at the drop of a hat, not so much to Two Shires however..

Wednesday, April 12

The weather tonight


Fuck knows, i'm not opening the door to find out in case I freeze my bollocks off...

Jury's Inn Scaffold Collapse

Thedacs went for a little drive today to run some errands and decided to go and have a nosy at the collapsed scaffolding at the Jury's Inn in CMK.
You can read about the story here and see some pictures here.
Our pics (All two of them) are on the Flickr site and further down the sidebar of this blog. We got a few more from other angles around the site but they don't show the collapsed scaffolding, so aren't worth putting up.

The weather today


Glorious, if a bit windy. Wish we had a wind turbine and Pv panels..

Tuesday, April 11

Crappy Company

D - Last week I wrote of how we'd gone on a bit of a Techno Spree and were waiting for a 32" LCD TV to be delivered. Well, it never arrived.
Not much of a surprise to anyone who has waited in for something or someone to turn up on the appointed day and found themselves twiddling their thumbs for most of it.
About 2.30 on that day I phoned the company Look Again to find out when/if this telly was going to turn up and was told that it wasn't even in stock. In fact it wouldn't be in stock until the tenth.
Today C phoned them again to check that we were still going to recieve it. Now they needed to do a credit check on us, something we weren't told in the two previous conversations we'd had with the company representatives. Plus we had to stick a significant deposit on the item.
All fairly standard stuff but not made clear on the catalogue we'd recieved from this company and not once explained on the phone.
I'd expect at the least for such things to be discussed when the order was placed.
The chance to get the perfect tv for us and not have to pay anything until Jan '07 was too good to be true for us and I suppose at the end of the day it revealed itself to be so.
Nevermind, we're not out of pocket (Other than wasting a day sitting in waiting) , are under no obligation and simply won't be bothering with this company again.
Lost sale guys.

Bedford

C had to make a trip to Bedford today and so all thedacs went with her to enjoy the delights. It was also something of a reminiscence trip for C and D as a night in Bedford was also the first night that we spent together two years ago (Glamourous locations we frequent eh?) .
Have to say that towns like Bedford are always a bit of a culture shock coming from MK as the High Street is jam packed with traffic ad all the shops look dowdy. Having a one-way system and bugger all parking doesn't help either.
Mind you, the embankment and river are wonderful and especially so at night when all the trees that line the embankment are lit up.
We popped into a cafe for a hot chocolate before we left and that in itself was a big culture shock for A. It didn't look like it had been decorated since the 70s, didn't look like its clientele had changed since the 70s and hadn't changed its smoking policiy since then either. A had her coat pulled up over her mouth and nose to try and escape the smoke wafting sround, but still managed to get her moaning heard through the cloth.

Weekend

Another fun weekend for the three of us. A went out on a double date to the cinema and came home as miserable as sin because they'd all sat next to the wrong partner and consequently all sulked. D and C had a great time alone during that time though.
Had roast lamb on Sunday too which was absolutely lush.

Friday, April 7

Painting


Started work on a 100 by 50cm painting of thedacs that will go on the wall in our lounge.

Getting a bit annoyed with it already and i've only sketched the bloody thing out and slapped a bit of white underlay on it so far. Not sure whether to try a do it realistic or use my usual style that allows me to play with the colours (And gloss over bits which I find too tricky/boring to do). Maybe i'm just being a pussy and bottling out of trying something challenging? Wouldn't be the first time.

Anyway, you can see how far (Or how little) i've come so far. Arctic Monkeys and some older tunes have been banging out during the process in case you were interested..

Thursday, April 6

Ken Livingstone

Think I might start referring to Ken Livingstone (London Mayor and alleged anti-semite) as Ken Livingstein. Much the same as i'll always call the charming leader of Zimbabwe Robert Mugaybe.

Seems Mr Livingstein has been Suspended from office after comparing a Jewish journalist to a concentration camp guard. Wonder what will happen about his Go back where you came from comments made to two Jewish businessmen after the journo incident?

Wednesday, April 5

D-D-D-Dixons

Dixons, the long established British electrical goods retailer, is abandoning the traditional trading outlet of the high street shop and becoming an internet-only retailer.

Ok, so the existing stores are simply being transferred to another part of the Dixons group as reported in the Guardian, but I guess Dixons should be respected for waking up and smelling the coffee when it comes to the changing face of consumerism. We buy almost all of our electrical goods from internet retailers and the rest we'll get from specialist retailers that offer the cheapest price and ease of convinience.

What Dixons, and the rest of their group including PC World, need to understand is that there prices are astronomical and their levels of customer service pretty shit. At least by dumping the inefficient stores and surly staff they could bring their prices down and compete with other retailers who are pissing all over them quite frankly...

Tuesday, April 4

HBS once again

D - Recieved two letters from HBS this morning.

One was a response to the letter I sent regarding the termination date of my contract. HBS fucked up and have apologised for their error. Good.

The second letter was from Sean Hanson (HBS Partnership Director....never seen by us and about the third manager in the position in 12 months) delightedly confirming a base salary rise for me and also this gem...

'May I take this opportunity to thank you personally for your contribution and commitment to the business last year. The Partnership in Milton Keynes is certainly much stronger as a result of all your effort, culminating in the Council's nomination for Partnership of the Year in the LGC Awards. I look forward to working with you next year in delivering even better services to our customers'

Hahaha fuck off Sean, your organisation doesn't know it's arse from it's elbow!

In fact, just emailed my mate B who still works there and the place is falling apart. Another staff member has gone off sick with stress (And still not been offered a decent contract either), an important front of house position that has been vacant for a month or so still hasn't even been interviewed for. The work is seriously piling up and the backlog will mean that HBS fail to meet the targets they set for themselves, and doubtless the targets set by Government too.

Like I said, don't expect your planning applications to be dealt with anytime soon in MK.

Techo spree

D - Been on something of a technology spending spree the past few days (And all of it on a buy now pay later basis..) and today I have to sit tight with A while we wait for the biggest item to be delivered.
We got ourselves a wicked 7 megapixel digital camera from Argos for £165 since our previous digital camera had started playing silly buggers and was shit. The new one though, a Samsung is amazing in comparison and was used by C to capture the rainbow pics we 've put on Flickr.
Finally got myself a little Bluetooth adaptor which took moments to install and not much longer to get all the files from C's phone onto the PC, which i've dying to do since that phone contains the only pics and videos that we have of Kismet as a kitten. I accidentally deleted those on the memory card for the camera and haven't heard the end of it since so it's a bit of a relief too.
Also got a headset for A to use withMessenger, although that's a bit useless since we can't get it to work. How hopeless that is, it's a fricking microphone and headset yet it's beaten us.Don't think we're total retards though. A's computer had to get repaired a little while ago and they changed the soundcard to fix it. Unfortunately the colour plugs no longer work in the corresponding colour sockets with the new soundcard, so while we can get sound, microphone capabilities are beyond us. I'll either have to spend a bit of time fannying around with drivers and all that malarky to sort it or go out and buy a USB headset..
Feel like I can go USB crazy now that i've got a 7-port USB hub and don't have to feel all the blood rushing to my head while i'm upside down fighting through the jumble of wires to reach a strategically difficult to reach USB hub. IN case you think i'm obese or something 'cos I can't reach a poxy USB port, our PC doesn't sit on a normal desk but rather an improvised worktop that will, one day, be turned properly into an elegant and efficient Techno Corner..

Anyway, we're sitting in waiting for the biggest TV that any of us has ever owned.
32" LCD, HD Ready, Digital, PC input, bloody USB port.
Where the fuck we're gonna put it in our tiny home is bit of dilemma. Probably up on the wall with the help of a kickass bracket that turns 360, but until we get one we have a problem when it's delivered. Especially as they'll be a hairy-arsed bastard installing it (For free) and we have to move the old, two-ton, tv first. Should be fun...