Gotta laugh

For years, the UK Libs held the middle ground but occupied the moral high ground.

Less than a month in to the coalition government and one of them had to resign his post due to an expenses scandal.

He was replaced.

Now the replacement is involved in a similar scandal, claiming one thing with one department and maintaining the opposite with another department.

Ha bloody ha.

Whatever happened to red?

I have always preferred it when England wore red. We always played better than in white.

Then today happened. That was the pits. Two own goals turned a defeat into a 2-1 win. Totally undeserved. Absolute dross.

And we wore red.

Eurovision Song Contest

I was browsing the footie streams and I was astonished to find there was a stream for the song contest. It looks abit different to the last one I saw. Not that I'm staying tuned in for it.

Nor am I watching a review of WC98 on CBC. The narrator is deathly dull.

NewsBiscuit

Discovered a new (to me) site today. NewsBiscuit.

At World Cup time lots of footie fans show their allegiance with flags on their cars. Not just footie of course.

A spoof news story says the reason is people are having to do it to inform other drivers of their stupidity.

A sample:

Stupid drivers forced to display white flags with red cross

Under new proposals to improve road safety during the summer season when traffic levels on Britain’s roads peak, the government has rolled out plans under which the stupidest drivers in England will have to identify themselves by displaying distinctive red and white flags on each side of the car. In extreme cases, more than two flags will need to be carried.

The opposite

After a very hot couple of days (30+) it's been a cold few days. Unbelievable difference. Worth putting the heating back on.

I discovered a decaf coffee that is actually drinkable. That was a shocker.

Lucky escape

Another railway station, another kid in a pram/buggy rolling off the platform onto the tracks as a train pulls in.

Both Melbourne.

Amazing.

World Cup Songs

I've been checking out some WC songs. Pretty dreadful.

New Order's "World In Motion" and The Lightning Seeds "Three Lions" are classics and far and away the best.

I do like the official WC song, though. Waving Flag.

Dread

England playing a friendly at Wembley today. The pitch has been dreadful in games over the last ferw weeks.

I am filled with dread that someone important will pick up another injury so close to the world cup.

* * *

It's been a warm couple of days, but can someone explain why some members of the household are uncomfortably hot when the temperature inside is at the level they complain is too cold in winter?

The Special One rules

As expected, I settled for rooting for José Mourinho's Inter and they did indeed win.

Next stop for José, it seems, is Real Madrid. That will be very interesting given the temperaments of Raúl and Ronaldo.

Poverty or failure to budget?

There was another blog in yesterday's Guardian about poverty and incentives to help people back into work.

There were the usual knee jerk reactions on both sides of the debate and the debate was very much on single people, so remember what follows is only about singles, not families.

I commented that part of the problem was the mindset involved; that people got used to living on their benefits. They would see their Housing Benefit for rent at £115 (in Bristol) plus Job Seekers Allowance @ £65 would give them £180 a week. So when an otherwise suitable job came along that would "only" give them a take home pay of £240 they were negative about it because they would then "only" be working for £60.

I went on to say that was understandable in a way, but many people were actually working and doing fine on that £240 (thinking specifically about me and the many work colleagues I knew who earned less) and they don't even think about that £60 difference.

I was trying to explain that the difference between real or potential benefit levels and take home pay existed for everybody but people in work tended not to focus on that while people out of work did. Some people on JSA aren't interested in that job because it's only worth £60, while nobody in that job gives it up because it's only worth £60.

But, of course, I got jumped on. Someone asked how "fine" and I answered. I said it paid my housing costs (very much in line with rent) and bills, paid for internet, cable package including sport and movies add ons, other essentials and two fortnights holiday in Greece or Spain each year plus other time away and entertainment. That seemed good enough to me and a big enough incentive to get off benefits.

Those who expressed disbelief got "recommendations" by other posters for simply saying so - presumably because that suited their kneejerk reactions. One even analysed my figures in much detail and concluded the £125 left (the £60 gain on top of JSA @ £65) after bills was manageable although a friend of his led a similar lifestyle, was much higher paid than me, but was hugely in debt.

So, while poverty exists and it's relative anyway, not necessarily meaning destitution, for some it appears to be more about money management.

And, maybe, about entertainment habits. A few pints followed by a take-away does make a big hole in finances. So look for an alternative if you can't afford it too often.

Holiday weekend

Victoria Day on Monday. A holiday in Canada. Funny that. The UK is much more into matters royal than Canada.

So it's a holiday weekend.

Champions League final tomorrow and I still don't know 100% who will get my support. Probably Inter rather than Bayern but it could change.

It should have been ManU and Chelsea again but glad it's not. England would have half a team playing. Too much chance of injury with the world cup around the corner.

Justice, fair play reappears

Hooray for the appeal court in overturning the outrageous decision I mentioned the other day - even if it was only two to one.

Olympics logo

I hadn't seen this before today.

It really does look like Lisa Simpson on her knees and.....

Whatever happened to justice and fair play?

Unbelievable.

Thousands take part in a vote with 80% voting one way and less than 20% going the other way.

Eleven votes were spoiled.

Eleven.

And the courts have invalidated the vote because those meaningless eleven spoiled votes were not notified to those voting along with the result.

Of course it was the party on the losing side took it to court even though they were unable to find anyone entitled to receive a notice who didn't know and none of them complained.

And this after a National election where people were actually denied the vote.

Putting the knives in

You can tell the world cup is approaching. The British media is beginning to put the knives in anything England football related.

Wait for the next big "scandal"...this is just small stuff.

TMI

Readers of a sensitive disposition should look away now.

I stood up from my sitting position and looked down into the lavatory pan to see I had produced a question mark.



Not green, obviously.

Christmas Dinner

A couple of months ago we had the best Turkey I ever cooked. It was butter basted and I don't know if that was why it roasted so well but they were less than half price this weekend. So I bought one for Xmas.

This one is stuffed and it says to cook from frozen. Not sure about that.

* * *

It was the cup final today. Quite an entertaining game for the cup final.

Friday

I haven't worked since I took early retirement five and a half years ago. But Friday is still the start of a weekend even if its little different, for me, to the rest of the week.

There's still the full program of footie games (in season) at the weekend compared to during the week and the weekend papers with their supplements.

Speaking of footie, it's almost the end of the season. I remember as a boy thinking it would be so long before it started up again and how would I get through all those 'boring' weeks?

It's not the problem it used to be, of course. As an adult there are other things and time goes by more quickly. But as a boy, there was only the World Cup every four years whereas now there is a European Tournament bigger than even the WC used to be, so there's a filler for every other season break.

Coalition

The UK has its first coalition government in my lifetime. And I don't live there anymore.

I shall follow events with interest, of course. It seems to me that the LibDems are very much taking a back seat. They do have the position of Deputy PM but they only have a fraction of the Cabinet posts.

I expect the problems will begin when the LibDems are seen to be propping up a government dismantling various parts of society that Brits have become accustomed to. Perhaps the word 'collaborator' will come into usage.

You read it here first ;)

Horror

Last month I commented on one of those incidents that could only happen in America and how it happened in China.

Unbelievably they've had another - this time half a dozen kids stabbed to death by an attacker at a nursery.

Last month it was reported as being the second such attack, but now the Guardian says five of them. Attacks, that is, not victims. All in China.

So near yet so far

I have been searching for an online version of BBC's compilation of Italia 90 for ages.

My VHS copy is not compatible with the players here.

Yesterday I thought I'd found it. Well, I did...sort of. Someone had uploaded the first ten minutes on youtube (ITV's version too) but that was all.

Rats.

No news yet

Still no sign of what the new UK government will be. I suspect the LibDems will be bought off with something that falls short of electoral reform.

A sad, sad, state of affairs

Chelsea 8-0 Wigan. Chelsea wins league.
ManU and Arsenal both win 4-0 finishing second and third.
Liverpool finishes their season in seventh, a whole 23 points behind Chelsea and 7 points adrift of the cherished Champions League fourth spot, with a 0-0 against already relegated Hull.

Someone. Make it stop. Make it stop. Please.

Out of a cake

Fantastic opening to Doctor Who today. Not just jumping out of a cake but the suggestion that it wasn't his first time. Brilliant.

My live stream kept breaking up unfortunately so I'll have to catch a rerun later.

The Day After

I saw a little of the BBC's election night program. It reminded me of how irritating politicians can be when spouting about the opposite party behaving exactly as they would.

So it's a hung parliament with several coalitions possible. We'll see.

Meanwhile the BA cabin crew have again voted for action with another very large majority. Remarkable.

"staying up"

I used to stay up late on election night in the UK long enough to get an idea who won.

Four hours behind here, it will simply be evening when it's happening. It might be fun to watch.

"Poverty"

Once again there's something in the paper about poverty and it doesn't really reflect reality.
Obviously poverty is relative and measures change. I remember when my Gran didn't have a fridge. The milk bottle stood in a bowl of cold water. They had an outside toilet too.

My parents had a fridge and even central heating and they were always saying, "tut tut...young people these days...they have to have fitted carpets in their first home while we had to wait a few years."

They didn't think that they had something from an early stage that their parents didn't have.

Anyway, it's not that aspect I'm talking about. It's that the benefit rates for children have seen big increases over the last few years to the point that people already receiving benefits saw increases in their income and more people became entitled to the benefits than previously and their incomes rose too.

So now we have reports that more children of more households than ever before "have to rely" on these benefits but the real effect of this is that the poorest parents of children actually have more money for their kids. That's good isn't it?

The gap between rich and poor may widen but that doesn't mean the poor are poorer.

Star Wars

Happy Star Wars Day

May the 4th be with you.

Bank Holiday

A strange day today. It's a Bank Holiday in England (May Day) but not here. Couple of games of footie at "Saturday" type times and on TV here the times seem odd for a Monday.

Grass cutting

I have heard lawn mowers going twice in nearby gardens today. Our grass doesn't look in need of cutting yet. Maybe it'll shoot up in a day or so.

It's too much for me these days, there's so much, so SS finishes off.

He does most of it, to be fair.

Budgeting

Following on from my comments yesterday, there was research about people running out of money before their next benefit income was due.

It doesn't automatically mean they suffer does it? I quite often run out of money before my next income. It happens when the bills have been paid and I have shopped for groceries. There's more than enough food in the house until the next money. It's no big deal but technically I have run out of money.

It reminds me of my days back in the DSS when people would complain "I haven't had any money money for a month" which sounds quite dramatic until one realises that a month ago they had a month's income, just like everyone who is monthly paid has a month to wait between paydays.