World Cup Hype

As I am Prophet of doom at the best of times caused by be a Charlton supporter for the last forty years' I had a sense of unease all last week about the outcome of Englands game with the USA last night.Seeing all the England flags on cars and painted on roofs of houses,a lot of people saying this will be our year was making me increasingly nervous.Then I watched the news showing Ten Downing Street with the England flag flying and David Cameron wishing the team all the luck in the world.This is from a Prime Minister of Scottish decent!
The match itself started very well with a goal after four minutes which of course I missed as I was a bit late home from walking the dog! So as my confidence of giving the USA a good thrashing grew I almost forgot my role of being a prophet of doom.So it had to be left to Rob Green to make a goalkeeping blunder for reality to be restored.Anyway it gave the Rottweilers of the press something to get their teeth into. So I hope there will be an improvement in the next game but I will probably view it,as I do for Dr Who, from the safety of behind the sofa!

Confuse the Meerkat

Thanks to the price comparison web sites I have saved one hundred pounds on my car insurance but what I thought would be a simple task that would take ten minutes actually took about a hour.I suppose typing in gocomparetheconfusedmeerkat.com wasn't a good start.Eventually I managed to answer all the questions including detail of my wife's speeding endorsement for which I spent twenty minutes looking for her driving licence to find the date! At least they didn't want the exact location of the camera on the North circular.Finally I managed to get some quotes and the cheapest was the company I was already with! So now i had to phone them and after pressing buttons3,6,1,2,4,and 7 finally managed to speak to someone who ,to cut a long story short was able to reduce my renewal premium to match the quote! The only downside is that my wife has been replaced by a meerkat as second driver!

General Election

The first sign of an impending General Election arrived today with a newsletter from the Dartford Labour Party which amongst other things introduced their new prospective parliamentary candidate as the current Mp is standing down.The article went on to say that he went to a comprehensive school, graduated at University and then joined the Bank of England where he helped regulate the banking sector.Obviously an intelligent man but in view of the problems with the banks I couldn't help wondering about his degree in Physics and whether the Bank of England used formula's such as E=MC2 to calculate bank lending ratios!
Apart from that it was a typical political news letter saying how wonderful things will be if we vote for them and how we will all be doomed if we don't.Next week the Conservative one will arrive saying the exact same thing. Perhaps the candidate will work for the law commission and have a degree in Chemistry!

Bobby Robson

I was sad to hear about the death of Bobby Robson.With money ruling football more than ever and clubs wanting instant success I wonder if anyone will achieve success in the way he did especially at Ipswich.A relatively small club achieved success in the 1970's in the top flight of English football with mainly home grown players.This included finishing second in the league,winning the FA cup and uefa cup.He also proved his ability to handle the big stars with his achievements at Barcelona and as England manager.I watched all the tributes to him and just couldn't help feeling how highly regarded he was by everyone.

We're all dooomed!

With one day of my shift left,i'm looking forward to a rare weekend off. I managed a Saturday last week but this week it will be Friday,Saturday and Sunday.Just hope I avoid the swine flu which according to the newspapers everyone will be off sick by the end of August and it will prolong the recession by about ten years!I know ,though, if I am unfortunate enough to go down with swine flu, it will either strike on a long weekend or when I have holiday if it follows the same pattern of when I get a common cold.I wonder what the headlines would be if they had to report on the great plague!Anyway,I must stop promoting all this doom and gloom. Lets hope for a fine sunny weekend especially as the sun has only another six billion years of life according to a documentary I watched the other night.Figures may not be accurate so please check again nearer the time. I'm sure something will be mentioned about it in the newspapers!

Metric Imperialisation

Now I know a lot of people in this country are against metrication and I am quite happy dealing in pints, miles and stones. What really annoys me is that everything is so mixed up at the moment.This happened to me recently when completing an order form for a new uniform at my work place.I ticked a box for my shirt size 15 1/2", Fleece 42" chest then trousers,please state your waist size in cm,AAARRGH!!!
This is something that happens all the time. Why are television screens still measured in inches. You can buy 2 metres of 3 1/2 plywood.I just wish that we either scrap metrication altogether or go 100% metric. Australia and Canada managed it so why can't we! In the meantime I will continue to drive my car which has an average fuel consumption of 5.6 miles per litre!

The news without Michael Jackson

The death of Michael Jackson regardless of whether you love hime ,like him or hate him was a colossal news event which was reported in virtually every country in the world. But what else happened in the last week.Farrah Fawcetts death was mentioned as was Mollie Sugden but they did not get the coverage they would have done otherwise.Likewise coverage of the 4th anniversary of the 7/7 bombings in London also suffered. So I was wondering whether anyone has taken advantage of this. It is a perfect opportunity for a government or a big business to pass something unpopular through without anyone noticing.When all this dies down we may find a 3rd runway at Heathrow under construction, planning permission for a Nuclear power station on the outskirts of Ashford,20% VAT and the retirement age raised to 77.