Why Do They Do It?

"Why, oh why do they do it to themselves?" - that was the question posed to me by a colleague the other day as we observed a young girl standing outside our offices. I had no answer for him other than "Each to their own." 

The young girl in question must've been around seventeen years of age, quite slim and possibly quite pretty (I say 'possibly' because no-one could ever decypher how she really looked for the inch of make-up plastered on her face and neck!) Her earlobes were 'adorned' with two of the biggest gold hoops I've ever seen - they were actually touching her collar bones. Above the hoops, for the full height of each ear and at seemingly non-specific points were a further six or seven hoops and studs. The piercing process had been repeated several times at various locations around her face - eyebrow, nose, cheeks, tongue.  Around her neck hung enough 'gold' chains to keep Mr T happy for a few years, and on each finger of both hands (including thumbs)she wore at least three equally 'gold' rings. Each finger was topped with an enormous sparkling nail at least half as long as the finger from which it protruded. She was standing in a bus queue, raking around in her purse for change for the bus - she dropped the coins and her entire rucksack at one point, the coins were left where they fell.

She was wearing cut-off jeans and a red, sparkly 'boob tube' - this on a day when the temperature hadn't exceeded 5 degrees above freezing. Her feet were dressed in Dr Marten boots - green leather with approximately 16 lace holes - how did she lace them up with those nails???

She had no coat. What was showing of her legs was bright orange, tinged with blue, her chest, shoulders and arms were more a walnut colour, but only on the fronts, the backs of her arms and her shoulders were flesh tinged with blue, her face resembled one who'd been Tango'ed several times.

I always reply "Each to their own!" when posed with a question such as "Why do they do it to themselves?" and it's true, I really do mean each to their own - it would be a pretty awful world if everyone dressed and acted the same, but really, in this instance, in my head at least was the thought that somehow, somewhere, someone had told this young girl that she looked good. She certainly acted confident enough despite the obvious jaw-dropping of passers by.

I admired her bravery.

I was going to say that the youth of today have no respect for conformity, or tradition but then realised that that is what youth is, and has been for many years, a desire to make your mark on the world - the same can be said of Teddy Boys in the fifties, hippies and glam rockers in the sixties and seventies, punks in the eighties - remember how outlandish and ridiculed they were? Life goes on - and gets more and more outlandish with each generation I suppose. It's fun to watch.

www.mcarthurbaker.co.uk

Misery Guts.

In my teens (and even before then) I was always an optimist. Always considered every angle and always looked on the bright side of things wherever possible.

 

As I grew up, and the world enveloped me, my cynical side began to grow to the point it is at today - "Grumpy Old Man!" Negative thoughts abound on the state of the world, how different it is now to how things 'used to be', how much better things are today in terms of technology - but how that negatively impacts on things like schooling and social development - the list can go on and on.  I wear my grumpy old man label with pride at times and yet, occasionally, my more relaxed and open minded younger self will rear his head and try to counter the negativity. It is a welcome break and I enjoy seeing my old self every now and then.

 

But, there is one person in my life who positively exudes negativity - and as far as I can see always has. I'm talking about my Mother in Law - I call her "the Portender of Doom!"

 

The PoD is my wife's mother and she loves her dearly - but I can see how Lesley has been strongly influenced by the negativity of her mother over the years. I myself have been affected by her in the twenty or so years I've known her - to the point of depression.

 

A typical conversation with her goes like this:

 

Me: "Hello, isn't it a lovely day?"

PoD: "They've got snow in Cumbria. It's heading this way."

Me: "Well it's not here yet, lets enjoy the sunshine, catch some rays."

PoD: "It was on the telly about all the skin cancer. It's rife."

Me: "Pass me that razor blade, would you!"

 

Lesley suffers so badly with anxiety and panic attacks and we've been looking for a cause - her father's death when she was eleven? Being bullied at school? Well, yes, to an extent, but since these events she has lived with her mother and all the doom and gloom that seems to emanate from her - it's no wonder she's anxious. Even now, married for fifteen years and with a young daughter of her own, she is dominated to the point of being scared of her mother.

 

It's a very true story in a lot of households up and down the country - 'your parents screw you up!"  My own Mother domineered me to the point of physically abusing me. She was a bully, still is no doubt but thankfully I broke free when I was sixteen - with my mother's blessing I might add. Unfortunately Lesley did not, and has not yet.  What gets all of us, as offspring of crazy people, is that they often quote the biblical saying that you must "honour thy father and mother." and we try so hard to live up to this edict, that we end up being miserable old gits and hating them for it.

www.mcarthurbaker.co.uk

Goodbye 2008.

What a year!

Financial meltdown, wars, famine, terrorism, housing market collapse, record petrol prices, insane hikes in gas, electricity and food prices. On a high note - Barrack Hussein Obama being elected president of the USA! Back to the low-notes - the wettest summer ever recorded, health scares, expanding dole queues, factory closures, reduced production, redundancies, interest rate cuts, taxpayer bailouts of bust banks, VAT cut by a MASSIVE 2.5% to stop the rot in the high street (he (Darling) was obviously having a laugh)

And we said goodbye (or will be any time soon) to Woolworths, Adams, MFI, Zavvi, Whittard of Chelsea, USC and The Officers Club - all huge retail chains who were allowed by the greedy banks to borrow more than the companies were actually worth = and (after HM Treasury) who gets first bite at the Administration cherry, who is repaid ahead of staff, suppliers and all other creditors? - that's right, the greedy banks. (Makes my blood boil somewhat!)

On a personal note I was diagnosed with Crohn's disease, put on steroids which destroyed my immune system and led to infection after infection, these were treated with antibiotics which undid all the good the steroids had done. I end the year as I began it - steroid free and still with dodgy guts.

So, that was 2008 - much turbulence on the Sea of Life. Bring on 2009, I'm setting sail for another challenging journey!!

Fuel be Sorry!

If the price of unleaded petrol is linked to the cost of a barrel of crude oil - as we know it is - why does the following ring my alarm bells...

Today - October 2008

Crude oil = $50.67 per barrel - equating to a pump price of £0.91.9p per litre? (average)

When, in August of last year (2007)

Crude oil = $78.77 per barrel - which equated to an average pump price of £0.91.9p per litre?

Someone, somewhere is getting very rich very quickly.

And it's not us drivers.

Is it any wonder...

Lesley and I sat down for a long chat last night about our current situation.

We married in 1993 and spent the first ten years working (both of us) to sustain a lifestyle that we wanted (at the time) and we became completely dependant upon each other emotionally, spiritually and financially. We never saved. We lived for the day and enjoyed a relatively comfortable lifestyle. We couldn't invest in a house on a newer estate as Lesley, who doesn't drive, needed to be close to her mother, so we bought the house we're living in now in 1997. Since then the area has become depressingly 'depressed'. We've never taken a holiday abroad, or anywhere else for that matter, in all our married life. Not because we couldn't afford to, it was just our choice to spend our time 'doing up' the house with the odd trip into the local countryside thrown in for variety.

When our Daughter arrived five years ago it seemed that the jigsaw was complete. But Lesley started showing signs of anxiety within hours of the birth. This escalated, untreated, to the situation described here. It became so bad that in the end Lesley could not return to work - she tried hard to do so, but the anxiety would win, or circumstance would. I became the sole bread-winner - luckily my job paid enough for us to do this - and Lesley stayed at home, something she did not adapt well to. Family situation is not good - I have no-one and Lesley only has her aged mother to help with childcare. We have no friends locally. So, from day one, it was down to us to do everything for our girl. Lesley didn't want to put her in a nursery - I disagreed. I thought it would help Lesley get to know people (other mums) and also give Emily the early care and social interraction she would need later, it would also give Lesley a break from home. We went, once, to a local mother and baby playgroup and were apalled at the state of the place and it's occupants. So snobbery won the day and we never took her back. The same happened when Emily began school. It was filthy, some mothers would drop their children off in their pyjama's (the mothers not the children) I've even witnessed one young mother (in pyjama's and an overcoat) smoking and coughing up phlegm onto the infant's playground - the area where my daughter would be expected to play later. I witnessed this from the car, so couldn't get to her to say anything, had I been there I would have done so - and probably got a mouthful of abuse - but some things have to be said. Emily too reacted badly to the environment. She became withdrawn and seemed to get illness after illness. She was not happy, and so we took her out of school to home educate.

And so we found ourselves, late last night, discussing where it had all gone wrong.

We're getting into a mindset of misery. We hate where we live but cannot move. Lesley misses a working life but cannot get a job. We all reacted badly to Emily's school and we can't find one that we feel would suit her sensitive nature. The credit crunch has had its effects too, where once my wage provided a comfortable living, we now find ourselves cutting back and back. With no family or friends in the area we are the sole providers of care for Emily - we also try our best, but realise our limitations, as far as her education is concerned.

With no 'us-time' or 'me-time' our relationship has suffered immensely and we find ourselves rowing more and more about petty little things. We want Emily to go back to school - but a decent, clean school where parents and teachers alike care for the children - we've looked but can't find one (perhaps we're too picky or snobby for our own good - or perhaps we just expect basic standards of hygiene and care which none of the schools local to us seem to offer.) We want Lesley to get a job, even for a few hours a week, just to get her out of the house and interracting with adults rather than focusing on a child. We want some 'us-time' back, where we can go out to a movie or for a meal once in a while.

So, is it any wonder we find ourselves in this rut of depression?

Well, yes frankly. Our lives have been enriched by Emily. We should be relishing this time surely?

Blogged Out

It might be a useful tool to impart news and evidence our daily activities, but blogging can also turn into a realisation of just how empty your life is. Such has been the case with me over the past two weeks or so.

By 'empty' I certainly mean the exact opposite. By 'empty' I mean entirely crammed with completely and utterly mundane, every-day tasks - not worthy of a mention here. Things like - getting up, feeding self, feeding cat, feeding daughter, feeding wife, getting ready for work, going to meeting after meeting, writing up endless case notes, making endless referrals to external agencies, completing endless applications for funding, reading and reviewing other people's business plans and ideas (and thinking "Why didn't I think of that?") coming home, feeding self, daughter, wife, bathing, watching "Road Wars" or "Booze Britain", retiring. See? Not worthy of a mention here? Utterly mundane and every-day stuff which, for the past two weeks, has formed the bulk of my life.

I could always fall back on the weather - which for some reason has decided to revert back to 'spring-like' despite being almost October - but I did that all through the Summer-that-never-was. I'm sure you must be as bored with weather as I am. I could write about my other hobbies and interests, the bike project, gardening, swimming, writing. Or I could write about the more personal, emotional stuff - my wife's illness, my illness, but when you live with it all day sometimes it's nice to get a break away from it all, rather than sitting and writing about it. Dwelling on it.

So, what I'm saying, in my usual and very round-about way, is that I've been so busy lately, doing absolutely nothing worthy of note, that I haven't had chance to blog, though I've made the occasional visit.

Fear not, fine blogging friends - for I shall return! I just need to do something interesting enough to write about!

Frustration

I tend to be growing more and more impatient.  I don't know if it's an age thing, or if it's down to the medication I'm on for Crohn's. (It certainly WAS the medication when I first started to take it - the steroids made me aggressive and short tempered.)

I don't mean impatient with my wife's condition or my own - though these must surely be contributory factors - I mean an overall and very general impatience with everyday life.

Take automated telephone systems for example - I was always the one who had the patience of Job with these things - now I listen to the first message and if it doesn't have the phrase "Or to speak to an operator press the hash key." I hang up. A few years back I'd have gone for the option most closely associated with my query and then found myself lost in a telecommunications nightmare maze - but I'd have navigated my way out of it.  My doctor's surgery has recently decided that all calls into it have to be greeted by such an automated system -  with the only option being to speak to one of the receptionists!! I mean what is the point?? So now when I call the doctors for an appointment I'm greeted by a recorded message which must've been made by a drunk or heavily sedated receptionist who says:

"T h a n k   y o u  f o r  c a l l i n g   C*******  H e a l t h   C e n t r e. I ' m  s o r r y  b u t  a l l  o f 
t h e  r e c e p t i o n i s t s  a r e  b u s y.(No, they're not)  I f  y o u  w o u l d  l i k e  t o  h o l d, 
o n e  o f  t h e  r e c e p t i o n i s t s  w i l l  b e  w i t h  y o u  s h o r t l y.  I f  y o u  a r e 
c a l l i n g  b e t w e e n  6 p m   a n d  8 a m  p l e a s e  c a l l  t h e  o u t  o f  h o u r s  
s e r v i c e  o n ***********,  o r  i f  y o u r  c a l l  i s  m o r e  u r g e n t  d i a l  t h e 
e m e r g e n c y  o u t  o f  h o u r s  s e r v i c e  o n *********. I f  y o u  a r e  c a l l i n g 
b e t w e e n  8 a m  a n d  8.30 a m  a n d  y o u  r e q u i r e  a  h o m e  v i s i t  p l e a s e 
c a l l ********. O r,  i f  y o u r  c a l l  i s  u r g e n t  c a l l  t h e  e m e r g e n c y  o u t  o f 
h o u r s  s e r v i c e on ***********. I f  y o u  w o u l d  l i k e  t o  s p e a k  t o  a 
r e c e p t i o n i s t  p l e a s e  h o l d." 

At which point you are promptly cut off if you have called at 8.29 and 59 seconds, so you have to redial quickly in order to get an appointment and then you have to listen to it all again, so that by the time you get to speak to an operator at 8.53am all of the appointments have been taken.

Is it just me? Am I simply an impatient, grumpy old man (at 42) or has the world gone mad?

Pure, Unadulterated GREED! - The Proof.

Further to my recent post (Pure, unadulterated GREED! 23rd Aug) The article below is proof that the energy companies are in it for the profits for their shareholders.

On the pretence that recent hikes in energy bills are "to remain competitive in a difficult market, whilst worldwide fuel costs are rising and to sustain investment in energy supply links and infrastructure." the following release kind of blows that theory out of the water:

"Research commissioned by the Local Government Association (LGA) revealed that altogether the six biggest (energy) companies paid £1.635 billion in dividends last year - a 19% increase on the 2006 total of £1.378 billion.

LGA acting chairman Sir Jeremy Beecham said the figures demolished claims by the companies that they needed to protect their profits in order to invest in new forms of energy for the future.

"This research torpedoes the energy companies' justification for their profits," he said.

You can read the full article here - MSN - News/Energy

It almost makes you want to dig out your placard from the 1970's/80's and start a protest march. I would, if only the British Apathy Party hadn't taken over.

So I, like the rest of the ripped off consumers of the UK, will just sit back and watch in the hope that someone else starts a protest I can sign up to (perhaps online - so as I don't have to leave the house!)

Well? What are you waiting for? (Yes, but I'm waiting for YOU!)

So Endeth The Month

Firstly my apologies for not being around in Skywatch Friday for a couple of weeks - I've been trying to avoid looking skyward all month!! Here is the reason:

August. Ever since I can remember August has generated some of the hottest days of the summer months in Britain. It is the month for record temperatures and blazing, burning sunshine. The month when rainfall stops and the daily task of watering the flowerbeds and lawns begins. The month when most factories have two-week closedowns to allow workers to enjoy the best part of the summer. The month when water companies start to highlight the need to conserve water by threatening hose-pipe bans.

August, a hot, dry month. Ever since I can remember.

Not anymore. This August has been the wettest, most miserable month of the year so far. We haven't come anywhere near our average hours of sunshine figure - in fact I can remember only three occasions where the (weak) sun has shone for more than an hour.

August has lived up to it's reputation as being the month for records - not only by being the month in which Team GB did so well at the Olympics, but also by being the wettest August since records began!! Oh, how I love the British weather. Happy(?) Skywatching.


To join in with Skywatch Friday visit The Skywatch Blog and sign in on Mister Linky.

Pure, Unadulterated GREED!

My energy company announced a massive hike in profits a few weeks ago - I'm talking billions in PROFIT - not turnover. A few days later it also announced some 'cost efficiency measures' to further strengthen its position in a competitive marketplace. Basically this meant they were looking to reduce their wages bill by laying off a few hundred people.

Today they also announced that they were hiking up my electricity and gas charges by 21% and 29% respectively. How nice of them.

Why are they doing it?

Simple answer: GREED. The greed of the big fat cat shareholders, looking to further line their already richly lined pockets.

Oh how I miss the days when the Gas and Electricity 'Boards' as they were known, were controlled by the state. At least then an unpopular government could gain some ground by freezing price hikes, or cutting charges.

Bring back state ownership of the utilities. The competitive marketplace in essential utilities is a complete farce - there's no such thing as competition - they're ALL raking in millions and millions at our expense.

Rather than taking over troubled banks, the government should be investing that money into our utility infrastructure to rid us of the scourge of greedy private shareholders.

Rant over. Happy weekend. Stay warm - but don't put the heating on!!

Sky Watch Friday - Some Inky Blackness...

I'm not the best photographer in the world - or even in my household for that matter - but I wanted to capture the very last of the day's heat. After I'd taken this I realised that the glow wasn't coming from just the setting sun alone, but also from the local steel and chemical works!! How beautiful is that!!??

My, how we laughed at my foolishness!

For more Sky Watchers visit the Sky Watch Blog.

I think I'm becoming...... Right Wing!!

I don't like to discuss my politics - suffice to say I am an open minded individual who looks at all of the promises and lies and makes a judgement when the time comes. In most of the general elections held since I was 18 I have voted Labour - based on the fact that I either couldn't stand the Government of the day (18 years of Conservatives got a bit boring and decrepit), or that Labour seemed to be doing a decent job of the economy etc.

I also have a strong sense of social justice - in my teens and early twenties I was almost as red as Ken Livingstone in the fight for the working class - I read the Ragged Trousered Philanthropists - all of that stuff, and in the main agreed with it.

BUT - (see how big that BUT is?) age has me viewing a very different picture. These days I don't see people mistreated by society and cast out because they are unemployed or of poor educational standard* - these days I see scroungers, living off the back of my enormous tax contribution, living on benefits to which they are only entitled by the "system" and not for any real or moral reason - (*I do still see these people, but they are very few and far between.)

These days I see (especially where I live) able bodied young adults, cashing their giros for god knows how much cash supposedly to feed and clothe their enormous families,) stacking their supermarket trollies full of cheap 'budget' brands, endless bottles of fizzy pop and microwave burgers, topped with two or three crates of beer or lager, then heading to the fag-counter for a hundred Benson's, pulling out wads (and I mean wads - much more than their giro just gave them I'm sure) of cash and handing it over without so much as a grimace. They are dressed in designer sports wear, the girls have the latest clothes and shoes and enormous cheap gold earrings, the boys have the best hair do-s of their generation, designer trainers, speaker phones, ipods, Wii's etc. They walk around the estate as if they own it, bringing disruption to other residents with their late night (and daytime when / if they're awake) antics, showing no respect for anything or anyone, including themselves. They are quite capable of work, they just don't have to. The state pays for them to live the life of Riley. The state pays their rent, their council tax, their health costs. The state pays for their milk, fruit and veg and then gives them some cash for other things - usually spent on beer, fags, cheap gold earrings or another tattoo. They have no responsibilities, they have no respect, they have no need to provide for themselves. The state pays. Their parents taught them how to 'work the system' in the late eighties and early nineties and to them it is now a way of life. I do not blame them. I blame the 'system' for allowing it to happen in the first place.

So I was very pleased to hear yesterday that the government was considering another overhaul of the welfare system which forced people to work for their benefits and which brought about the introduction of benefits being a stepping stone into employment, a temporary benefit to help you find work. Yippee!! At last a sensible fresh approach I hear you cry, except that this isn't new Labour thinking at all, this isn't even a fresh idea, this was the policy bandied about in the late eighties by the Tories and called something like "Workfare" a policy to which I was vehemently opposed, and it's this that makes me think I'm becoming more Right Wing in my old age.

Of course it will only work if they make some provision so that the genuine cases aren't hounded out of the system - which seemed to happen with a similar overhaul of the Incapacity Benefit system a few years ago!!

Hot July Brings Cooling Showers....

Had the worst torrential downpour of the summer so far today - garden was under two inches of rain within twenty minutes.

So much for hot July!! What a bloody awful summer it's turning out to be!

Rising Food Prices (MSN News 160708)

The price of some food staples has shot up over the past 12 months as global commodity prices have hit record highs.
The average family shopping bill is up by more than 20% on last year according to figures released this week by the website mySupermarket.com. It found that a typical basket of 24 staple items, such as bread, milk and eggs, now costs around 21% more than in July last year. If you add the increase onto a typical £100 weekly shop for a family of four, households are spending an extra £1,092 a year on food.

The research named and shamed Sainsbury's as the supermarket with the biggest price hikes - the 24 food staples have gone up by 25.7% over the past 12 months.

We all tend to notice if prices rise, especially if the rises are so steep. But there is another, more subtle, way that manufacturers can protect their bottom line: they can give us less for our money.
A jar of mayonnaise, for example, might shrink from 600g to 550g. You wouldn't notice, would you - especially if there was no discernible difference in the size of the jar.
Or what about a bag of nappies? Last summer you might have bought a pack of 96 nappies; now you might only get 92.

It's the incredible shrinking groceries!

The phenomenon has been dubbed "short sizing" and has already hit the shops in America.

Short sizing is perfectly legal. There are some exceptions, but manufacturers can generally sell you as much - or as little - as they like, as long as the net weight is displayed somewhere on the packet. But just because it's legal doesn't make it right. Consumers don't want to be short-changed, especially not in the current economic climate.

We don't want to pay more and get less. Nor do we want a price hike to be disguised by a weight loss.

Shoppers might think it is harder for manufacturers to short size customers with products that are sold by number. You might notice, for example, if your pack of 36 Weetabix suddenly shrank to a pack of 32. But what if the manufacturer keeps the number the same, but cuts the size of each individual Weetabix? Or you might still get six yogurts in a pack, but each one might be that much smaller.
Keep an eye on products that are sold by weight. Would you really be able to tell if a packet of pasta shrank from 500g to 475g? Or what about a ready meal? The portion size could get smaller and you would barely blink an eye.
Foods that are made from wheat, flour or dairy products are particularly vulnerable to short sizing because these ingredients have risen sharply in price, making it harder for manufacturers to protect their margins.
Remember that manufacturers are clever. The packaging is likely to remain the same size, making it harder to detect any changes. So make sure you check on the net weight before you buy.

Extracted from: The incredible shrinking groceries - By Naomi Caine. Courtesy of MSN News
Read the full article here. http://money.uk.msn.com/consumer/article.aspx?cp-documentid=8912279

New UK Comedy Double Act

My Wife and I watched a fantastic new comedy show, broadcast live from The Mansion House last night. It starred Mervyn King, Governor of the Bank of England (Below Right)and Alastair Darling, our much troubled Chancellor of the Exchequer, (Below Left). (Pictures courtesy of the Press Association and Reuters.)

Darling and King

The New Morecambe & Wise?

We were in fits of laughter when both men urged restraint in wage demands to combat higher prices of, well everything really!

They both demanded that we keep our wage rises below 4% - absolutely hilarious!! I was given 2.5% this year, my wife's employer didn't put her wage up at all, I don't know what Mr King is on but I know that Darling and the rest of his fellow MP's voted themselves a pay increase of around 25% (No, I haven't missed a decimal point out!) in April / May time.....

Did they know something we didn't??

A Horror Story (A Victor Meldrew moment!!)

We live on a fairly rough estate in the North East of England. It wasn't always this way, I grew up here as did my wife, and our reasons for buying a house here ten years ago were so she could be close to her mother, but also because we have happy childhood memories of the area. That was then. What follows is the now:- (I make no apology for the censored version below!)
A conversation overheard outside our house a few days ago:

"What did you do that for you stupid f***ing c**t?"
"I didn't."
"Don't f***ing lie to me or I'll f***ing batter you. You nicked our Kelsey's f***ing lager, didn't you?"
"I f***ing didn't, you stupid old c**t!"

And so it went on, for about ten minutes, right outside our house. What is horrific about this conversational gem is that it took place between a mother and her child, the child was about five or six years old, the mother about twenty, and the conversation took place at around 11:30pm.

What's more, the mother was drunk.

I could lie and say that this sort of occurrence was unusual, but I'm afraid it's not - it is the norm around here. I see it every day (and night) and I see more and more of it. Parents who are still at school, 'caring' for the offspring they got whilst drunk, or in order to get a council property that they could mess up along with the rest of their lives, children who have to grow up so quickly so that they can fend off their parents. It saddens me, and it scares me.

What is worse than all of this is that nobody says anything - no one dares to confront these people for fear of the backlash, not even the police or community wardens who, if we complain to them about antisocial behaviour (and we used to) tell us we have to be tolerant of those in a worse off position than us - I'M the one who's worse off!!! THEY live the life of Riley on MY taxes, and whilst I'm out working all day, they slob around in their filthy hovels (complete with all the latest technical gadgetry that I couldn't possibly afford) only venturing out to sign on, or go shopping with their milk tokens and my money (taxes) buying enormous cheap gold earrings and the latest sports shell suits and Reebok trainers, and then at night, when I want to settle down, out they come with their incomprehensible music(?), cheap lager or cider, foul mouths and even fouler attitudes.

It may sound like I'm on the verge of a nervous breakdown letting all this stuff get to me (or perhaps I'm turning into a Tory!!) - I assure you I'm not, it's just that at times I have to write down what I see around me and note how it makes me feel - otherwise I probably would 'snap' through the injustice of it all!!

Tolerance, my ar*e!! (Vicky Pollard image courtesy of the BBC)

What has happened to the good old English Pub?

Since the smoking ban I have been to the pub three times. This is not unusual for me, I usually go three or four times in a year, I'm hardly what you would call a regular at my local.


Initially I was appalled at the fact that smoking had been banned in pubs, I thought it would be devastating for the trade. I thought that people would - given the choice of staying at home with cheaper, supermarket bought, beers and wines and being able to smoke to their lungs content - they'd steer well clear of the less than atmospheric public houses. Initially I was wrong. People persevered with the ban, went outside in all weathers to smoke their dreaded weed, but still enjoyed the social interaction of a visit to the pub.


Now, almost a year after the ban the situation has changed. The very people who demanded a ban, who moaned constantly about going home stinking of fags, who said they would only come back to pubs once the ban was in place - and who did return for a few occasions - now realise that pubs without smokers are not really very jolly places at all. And so they stay away - or visit even less frequently than they did before the ban.


The reason? Pubs have no atmosphere. Instead of reeking of old smoke, they now emit an air of stale beer and sweat. The goody two shoe brigade now miss the very people they hounded out. Let's face it, at least they could have a conversation with a smoker about how nasty it was, and how they hated them, and how they wish they'd ban it altogether - now the smokers are gone, or are outside, the anti smoking lobby have no one to moan at, the pub is empty, they sit in their 'clean air' snug and berate the fact that there's no one to talk to, that people just don't come in any more and that the drinks have got more expensive. I wonder why?


I visited one such pub yesterday afternoon. A year ago, on a sunny Sunday, this particular pub was a thriving centre for the village in which it is situated. Seats were filled with a mix of smokers and non-smokers, meals were being served, the football would be on a widescreen TV, the banter was good, you could barely hear the cash register ringing up massive takings above the conversation in the room. Yesterday afternoon, a beautifully warm and sunny Sunday, there were five people in the pub, two of which were family of the landlord, one was an old vagrant who was eventually ejected for forgetting himself and 'lighting up' and the other two were myself and my mate. The Guinness was £2.70 per pint - a year ago it was £2.37.


Depressing. We won't be going back. The smoking ban is yet another nail in the coffin of Britain's sense of 'Community'.

A View of The Hills

I'm new to this Skywatch Friday malarkey hosted by Tom at Wiggers World click on the link to join in.

When we first moved into our home ten years ago one of the things that attracted us to it was the panoramic view from our front of the Cleveland Hills - stretching from Eston 'Nab' right the way to Roseberry Topping.


In the winter months we were able to see the snow clouds building up on the other side of the range and then prepare ourselves, or watch the spectacle of the hills gradually disappearing behind the freshly falling snow. I used to love sitting in my chair watching the approaching storm rolling down the hills towards me.

In the summer the view was equally beautiful, and we've witnessed some pretty big grass-fires when it's been particularly hot and dry - always a frightening spectacle, especially at night when you get the illusion of a volcanic flow.

And then the town planners got to work....


and within a matter of a few months, a hideous carbuncle was constructed. To my mind it resembles a crash-landed spaceship, half embedded in the earth.
The New Unity City Academy is not only to blame for ruining our view, but we now have the added distraction of watching this particular carbuncle's contents spill out twice a day, creating havoc in ways only new teenagers can.

God bless those planners, eh?

Is it any wonder we're fed up??

Britain's tax bill has increased by more than 50% in the past ten years under Labour, it has been claimed.
A report by the TaxPayers' Alliance (TPA) pressure group said that the total tax burden now stood at £517 billion a year - the equivalent of £20,700 per household.
That compared with a tax take of £294 billion in 1997-98 when Labour came to power, representing a 76% increase in cash terms over the decade or 51% if inflation is taken into account.
The TPA said much of the increase was accounted for by little-noticed "stealth taxes" or by "fiscal drag" - failing to raise tax thresholds in line with earnings - which the TPA now estimates accounts for £14 billion of the annual tax take.
The fastest growing tax was said to be stamp duty which now brings in £14.3 billion compared to a take of £3.5 billion ten years ago - an increase of more than 300%.
At the same time, the TPA said that fees and charges by local authorities and other public bodies had been "ratcheted up" and become much more widespread.
It said that school dinners charges had risen 50% over the decade to £1 billion a year, parking charges and fines had risen to over £1 billion, while charges for hospital car parks now raise now over £100 million in England alone.
The report's author, Mike Denham, a former Treasury economist, said that the Government had used "every trick in the book" to drive up the tax burden.
"People are increasingly beset by record levels of taxation and growing service charges, but there has been no improvement in services in return," he said.
"We find ourselves paying more and more for less and less. With rocky economic times ahead, this rate of taxation simply cannot be sustained."

Now I know why I'm becoming more like Victor Meldrew every day!!
Article courtesy of MSN News. Photo courtesy of The BBC.