Oxford

A three bus journey to the VS branch in Oxford today. Joyful.

Don't shope stoned

D - This is my advice, drawn from bitter-sweet experience after a day off smoking weed and shopping today, don't shop stoned.

It's expensive!

I had every intention of spending roughly £200 today, due to a £100+ gas bill, £40 to clear the credit card (Until the 2 new phones appear on it next month!) and a budget of £50 to spend at an art supplies shop in Bletchley that was closing down tomorrow. As it happened, I spent £6 under budget at the art shop, although I did pick up a nice lengthy strectched canvas and two very dear acrylic brushes that balance very weightily in the hand.

I would have been chuffed with that layout at the beginning of the day, but in the half hour spare we had after dropping A off at school and the art shop opening, C & D decided that a nice spliff was in order. So C rolls a strong one and we troop out to the shed to smoke our little minds away. We than have a choice to relax for a bit or go out and both of us realise the danger of crashing on a sofa and monging for the next two hours, so we head out into the bright, oh so bright, world of fresh air and other people. To Bletchley. Hey ho it's where the cheapo shops are and we stocked up on some other bits so it was an enjoyable experience, even if the old town of my birth is a desperately poor area from another world compared to the brash and smooth Milton Keynes.

Either way, we both spent a good few pounds and came home for a cup of tea and a joint. This was after scoffing a massive chunky Yorkie Chrimbo bar that was on sale somewhere. Then the expensive choices were acted upon to due C's encouragement and D's future finances. It was after looking in the Argos catelogue for an easel (The art shops choice started at £50) that caution was thrown to the wind on the back of a 6 Month Buy Now Pay Later offer and the easel was joined by a swish purple iron (With ceramic plate. Ooooh!) and a fucking metal shed!

That was a bruising £234 in all. Add the other £200 and my happily stoned self happily racked up a days spending of a thumping £430! Ouch! It hurt to absorb that financial pain all within a few hours, but the opportunies, joy and creativity to be unleashed by the art materials, easel and, when it finally gets delivered in over a months time, the shed-cum-studio will be more than worth the expense.

In fact, as I was stoned off my head for most of the time, it was a really fun day!

PS3 launch date announced

March the 23rd has been announced by Sony as the launch date for the long-delayed PS3 in Europe.

Gamers in Japan and the US have long been able to get their grubby little mitts on the console, now it seems that the eager British gamer will have just under two months to start saving the whopping sum of £425 for the PS3.

thedacs made a decision late last year that the PS3 would be their next console of choice, however since that announcement of our own we might have changed our minds.

The Nintendo Wii appears to be a completely different way of gaming, and far more inclusively fun for all, than sitting slumped in a chair staring gormlessly at a screen for hours on end. It's a gaming method that seems to find approval from traditional non-gamers and helps to keep the gamer active while burning off those excess calories.

All the reports of broken windows, smashed televisions and black eyes though have put a bit of doubt in our minds, especially as our front room is absolutely tiny!

In all honesty thedacs probably won't buy any console until the second half of the year at the earliest. Finances are always tight after Chrimbo (In fact the gas and electricity bills have arrived today and yesterday, so that's the price of the Wii already earmarked!), we have other technology to buy first and let's be honest, we're not massive gamers anyway.

Britishness is withering

According to the Social Attitudes survey, four in 10 people in England now regard themselves as solely or primarily English rather than British.

thedacs would probably see themselves as one of those 4.

Ten years ago I would have seen myself as British no problem. Over that decade though, it's been a steady progress to seeing myself as English. Probably due to the constant denigration of 'Britishness' rather than devolution (Which means bugger all to me really, although the West Lothian Question and it's related issues are becoming more important).

Unfortunately, for him anyway, Chancellor (Soon-to-be Prime Minister) Gordon Brown has chosen this moment to launch an assault on behalf of Britishness and British values in the wake of the 300th anniversary of the Act of Union between England & Scotland. Ironic really considering many of his supporters take great pleasure in claiming (Sneering) that Britishness doesn't exist or is irrelevant. Brown has left it far too late. The cat is out of the bag and the concept of Britain is starting to lose any allure. Brown sucking up to the English by 'supporting England' in sporting competitions will only make him look more foolish.

I have no problem with Scottish or Welsh independance. Having grown up around Celts and having a soft spot for them (Even got some Scots blood as it happens) I would wish them well in going it alone (All the way to the EU) and hope the ties we have remain pretty strong.

But i'm an Englishman, and would really rather like to go it alone ourselves now thanks.

Adopted

thedacs have been adopted by a cat.

In thanks, we are to feed & home her.

We have named her Meg.

Scruffy, Dusky and Kismet don't like her. Yet.

Milton Keynes is 40 today!

Hurrah!

The glorious city is officially 40 years old today.

Having lived here for 31 years (Give or take a few years spent living & travelling abroad) D has seen the city grow from a small town into a thriving city of different cultures, races and faiths while still maintaining the fantastic green open spaces that make MK the envy of other urban areas.

C & A, as residents for the last five years, absolutely love the place and, like many immigrants, will happily settle down to plant some roots in a very un-English city.

Happy Birthday Milton Keynes!

Bungles Bugle

Another decent week in the Fantasy Premier League for thedacs team, Bungles Bugle.

The Gameweek score of 44 points wasn't a particuarly good tally, although considering the average score over the million-plus teams in the game was a measely 31 points, it was enough to ensure that Bungles Bugle continued their recent upwards progress in the player rankings.

Indeed, as the graph above shows (Gameweek on the horizontal axis, Rank up the vertical) Bungles Bugle have broken back into the top 200,000's! In fact their precise Rank is 278,502nd. Rough calculations tell us that score is in the top 25% of players, which isn't bad considering the slow start to the campaign (Due to laziness/forgetfulness).

We're gonna push on over the remainder of the season and look for a spot next in the top 250,000 players and by the games climax, the top 10% of Fantasy Premier League players!

Credit to our score this week goes to: The Liverpool trio (Gerrard, Carragher & Finnan) for half of our points, with an excellent contribution from Hunt of Reading. Honourable mentions to Barry and Carsley for solid performances.