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We all know that when the wind is howling & the rain lashes down the kids get bored within seconds & there’s never anything good to distract them on TV, when this happens you need a new game to make the day fly by & loft fishing is a great start. We all throw stuff into the loft, it’s always stuff that we’re never going to use again but think that we might, aside from the Christmas decorations though we never do, what makes it interesting though is that we’re not alone in this. Over the years houses have many occupants & upon the day of their departure they look into the loft & despair, then they collect the Xmas tree & the baubles & set off for pastures new leaving the detritus of years behind them. After this someone else moves in & unless they ambitiously decide to convert the loft to another bedroom they simply continue to hurl things into it until either they leave or else the ceiling comes down. (continue reading…)

It’s a problem that doesn’t seem to be going away even with the banks’ share prices coming along nicely, that’s the trouble with rushing in, it might need doing but it’s just never that simple. The fact is that this country borrows too much whether it’s a good year or not & then when the brown stuff hits the fan we’re stumped, it doesn’t even matter who’s in power either, they all do it. Given that simple maths tells us that we’ve got to take a few years to sort this out & that other things are going to happen there ought to be a proper plan. That the Tories want to play hack & slash is no surprise to anyone, it’s sadly the only plan they ever have, that the Lib-Dems are going along with is slightly amusing though. Selling out is always awkward & no matter how they dress it up it has always been a case of selling out for them, it was their only chance for power. Like many people I was hoping that with the return of vast profits to the financial sector we could be spared some of the pain caused by the financial sector, this doesn’t seem to be coming though, apparently we only count when they’re broke. (continue reading…)

It’s certainly meant to be & they’ve certainly worked on it & done their best to get all their users to understand how to tweak it but has it worked? In an always on world it’s easy to leave your personal data public in places you’d rather not & with FaceBook in particular this can be a big deal. It’s all very well being impressed that everyone online can find you but in many sad cases there are those people who you’d rather be invisible from, these problems can be taken care of within FaceBook but it’s not always either easy or clear. Even within your own friends list there may be areas where a little discretion can work wonders, I don’t think people should be friends with their bosses online but if you’re going to do it then a few fences are justified. It may be that these precautions are a step too far for most people & that they couldn’t care less who sees what but these people are going to become fewer & fewer as time passes, it may seem trite now but if you can Google yourself & chuckle at the results then so can anyone else. (continue reading…)

I mean without a plane obviously, or a helicopter or balloon or hang-glider etc, we’ve been trying for a few years now & with all the progress we’ve made everywhere else we ought to have produced at least one superhero by now. I thought most of them were created by weird accidents or pollution anyway? This is clearly rubbish since we’ve had no end of accidents & have patiently polluted the earth from one end to the others, we should have supermen flocking like starlings but have we? No, we haven’t even got the stretchy ones that have to walk everywhere but can still do some good stuff, we haven’t even got any psychic ones, it’s a disaster. Evolution may be a force of nature but aside from getting a bit taller & better at pushing buttons the human race isn’t exactly motoring along, I don’t mean to come over as expecting a freak show of epic proportions but we should have something. I’m not talking Superman, he was an alien & nothing to do with humanity as well as being fictional but we could have a webbed wonder or an invisible man or just one flying silly bugger! (continue reading…)

The Summer holidays are well underway & like Santa at Christmas going to the cinema comes up a lot more often in the right season, the rain helps as well. Since this year 3D is being flogged as the greatest thing since they sold enough HD ready equipment it was only a matter of time before it came up, ok so you get the choice between 2D & 3D but it’s only a couple of quid difference & tech’s tech right? It is if I’m paying anyway & although I may not see the point of 3D television because watching a soap isn’t an event I do sort of see it working in the cinema where people have made an effort to be entertained. The kids were quite excited about it as well & were looking forward to seeing amazing special effects & having a new experience to scream out over Facebook, so off we went to see Toy Story 3D in the sure knowledge that Woody & Buzz would save the day but that it might be fun anyway. As far as it went the film was alright, there was one point where it looked as if all the toys were going to be incinerated but the director bottled it presumably in favour of Toy Story 4D, as for the 3D, well, it works but it has issues. (continue reading…)

It’s always nice for politicians to have an easy target & for the Americans right now there’s no-one easier than BP, it doesn’t matter how much money they can throw at the Yanks, they’re still going to hate them, which is stupid. Okay if you were going to pick a group of companies that could be hated even more than the banking system then the oil companies are a fair point to raise, the profits they generate are obscene & they’re forever involved in the less democratic areas of the world in their endless search for fresh supplies. On any level despising the oil industry is peachy, it’s like loving the addiction but hating the dealers & we can all relate to that, after all it’s our way of life that spawned them & continues to feed them although we intentionally ignore this because it spoils all the hating & resentment. Even amongst the oil companies themselves there’s always one that gets to be singled out for a special dose of hating due to whatever disaster it caused or was attached to, at least until one of the other oil companies causes a fresh disaster & claims the crown back that it is. Right now BP is right up there as demon number one & if the oil spill had happened anywhere else in the world I’d be right there hating the company along with everyone else, but I can’t do it, it can’t be done & shouldn’t be done, as much as I’d like to join in with the abuse it’s just not right. (continue reading…)

The kids broke up today & as July seems to be behaving itself they’ve got nothing to complain about & endless weeks in which to run free. They’ll do nothing of the sort of course & instead will find the quickest route to being bored out of their minds that they can, it’s odd but they manage this every year without fail. I can remember being bored rigid during the long Summer holidays as well but as I recall we didn’t manage this until at least a few weeks had passed & all the bikes were broken. These days it’s something of a criminal offence to not to offer the kids constant stimulation but even here there’s a problem since as soon as a chance to learn something comes up they all moan that they aren’t at school anymore? They don’t make it easy, there are things they want to do but since these things always involve quite a big outlay of cash it can be tricky doing more than one or two of them when cash is tight. You’d expect this point to be appreciated by children who live on a council estate which contains mostly poor people but in all honesty they don’t see it, they just expect it to happen. I’m not moaning about this, I’d like to just whisk us all off on a new adventure every day until they were begging me to be allowed to stay home but it’s simply not possible & what is possible isn’t up to the required standards. (continue reading…)

I’m not going to mess about here, this isn’t a post that pretends to explain whether Fridays are evil, they are & that’s all there is to it, the only real question is whether they’re evil by design or intent? I mean Fridays do seem to set out to destroy us, oh they’re great at first, when you’re sat at school first thing Monday morning the coming Friday looks like a beacon of hope in an otherwise bloody bleak world. It shines with the promise of fun & freedom where you can escape the pressures of life & just let it all go. It’s still keeping its’ glorious glow long after our school days are over, it’s still the end of the week after all but now we’re allowed out later at night & after a heavy week drudging the boards for pennies Friday & the bright lights beckon cheerfully. There’s hope attached to Friday that Monday just can’t carry off, yes Saturday always gets top billing but deep down we all know that Friday is king of the hill & that Wednesday is boring, Tuesday’s hardly a day at all & who cares about Thursday? The only reason anyone gets worked up over Thursday is because it’s Friday the day after, & so it goes on, the years pass & we’re lulled into thinking that Fridays are our friend, it’s not though, Friday is out to get all of us. (continue reading…)

There are a few things that get a bad press time & time again but drinking is by & far the winner, there’s hardly anyone in the newspaper or magazine business that wants to do anything except explore the dark side of drink. Okay so it causes untold misery to millions & is responsible for countless accidents & early deaths but aside from that is it really all that bad? The statistics seem to be painting a fairly grim picture of cause & effect & there does appear to be some circumstantial link between consuming large volumes of alcohol & bad things happening but is drink to blame? Even if it is are we only examining the evidence from one side? Hasn’t our addiction for intoxicating beverages brought us anything worthwhile at all or have we been fooling ourselves all along? Could drinking or not drinking make a difference to our lives? Well, if you’re about to fly a plane or perform an operation then nipping out for a few pints is probably not a great idea, then again if you’re a referee you might as well, it might help a bit & you’d resent the booing less. (continue reading…)

Remember your teenage years? The hormones, the first tentative forays into the mysterious world of girls that you still haven’t really got the hang of? The knowledge that it didn’t matter what you wanted to do or whenever you wanted to do it there was no way of doing it? & the discovery that any attempt to do anything wondrously grown-up whether it was drink or sex related came with its’ own embarrassment potential? Of course you do, we all do as we now laugh & wince our way across the adult landscape that’s now somewhat less wondrous but at least free to be explored, well I bring news, if you’ve had kids then your teenage years are coming back. This is not to say that they’re coming back in a good way, just that they’re coming back & with a special twist in the tail to boot, you may think you suffered enough at the hands of your parents to be entitled to occupy their exalted position in your own home bit it’s not going to happen. We aren’t the same as our parents & far more to the point the teens today aren’t anything like the teens we were, we didn’t have expectations without limits & although we were just as selfish & lazy we never expected anyone to approve of it, you might have had it bad growing up but it’s worse when they do. (continue reading…)