Well the Spring Budget has arrived and as ever the smokers and drinkers are hard hit, this year the spirit drinkers have been especially hit hard with a 55p increase per bottle.  Cigarettes are increasing by a not-too-shabby 11p a packet (making quite a dent in your finances if you smoke a packet or more each day).  The 14p a bottle increase on wine surprised almost as much as the increase in family allowance coming a year earlier than was anticipated. 

I’d love for someone to explain to me why there’s such a huge difference between the heating allowance afforded to those aged over 60 (increasing to £250), and those over 80 years (increasing to £400).  Do houses get more expensive to heat the older you get?  Or is it simply that many people aged 80 and over are in some form of institution and therefore their heating allowance from the government helps the overall financial picture of such places?

Ow on a work front.Well I've totally finished the equine insurance part

Share This

It’s been one of those weeks.  What is it with these stomach bugs?  Why do they have to be so strong and knock out the entire family one by one?  Why is there nothing yet in our modern medicine defenses that can take one of these bugs and pummel into the ground before it strikes an entire household? 

It started off last week with the youngest member of the family.  He probably caught it the same way all small kids do – sharing who-knows-what with his friends at school whilst on this treasure hunt they all went on together!  The bug took him out of school for a few days, and then we returned to some semblance of normality (once all the additional laundry that this bug created was taken care of) for all of two days before it was my turn.  Within a day my partner was also down with it – we probably caught it from our adored youngest child, one of us from cleaning him up, and the other from cleaning his bedding and clothes!  We were just pulling ourselves together and enjoying the first decent night’s sleep without stomach cramps in a few days when we heard it strike our firstborn.  Not as heroic, or independent, as his younger brother, the bug turned firstborn into a drama queen for 24 hours until it ran out of steam – or became bored with our son’s desperate attempts to convince us he was dying from this bug that had already passed through the rest of us without permanent damage. 

%more%

Today everyone is more or less healthy again, and as there’s no more humans in the house, hopefully the stomach bug will have packed its bags and left to make another home a misery for a week or so.  Unless of course it realizes that it missed the cat and comes back to create a little bit more worry and mess! 

Share This

So Kevin Keegan’s taking over as Newcastle United Football Club in a return to the footie club that needs the “it” factor that he brings to it.  Newcastle loves “Wor Kev”.  Sure Alan Shearer is a contender for management, he’s surely earned his right to wear a manager’s shirt rather than a player’s shirt, but he’s still a rookie and untested in the management field for a major club.  It’s going to be interesting to see what happens next – Shearer is being quoted in the media as being amicable to working alongside Kevin Keegan, if Keegan were to ask him, but politics would suggest that this may be a recipe for disaster with Shearer’s younger opinions getting in the way of Keegan’s more management experienced demands. 

If there was a way that these two could work things however and work together to build the team, then the support that the area, and of course the enthusiastic “Toon Army” fans, would be tremendous.  The love affair that the local area had with both of these ex NUFC players is long standing, and it’s going to be interesting to see how this lifts the morale not only of the players, but also the city that loves its footie almost as much as its beer!

On a more positive note.Josie has completely re-designed the overseas investment property for sale part

Share This

The NHS turns sixty this year and so the battle resumes for the political meddling that has become so common in Britain's cherished health service.  While everyone in the country, myself included fully appreciates the system, there is something deeply unsatisfying about how the whole set up carries on.

Maybe it is the fallacy of the trust system, the post code lottery that has now passed into everyday lexicon.  Or maybe it is the queues in the Casualty departments up and down the country, especially now that winter is upon us.  Or maybe its to due with lack of funds for cancer research, whilst the BACD crys for changes in legislation go unheard. Or maybe it is the fact that avoidable diseases are still prevalent due to simple procedures in hygiene not being followed.

There is also something in the amount of money that every taxpayer stumps up in terms of National Insurance, something that was increased a few years ago yet there has been no real improvements that have been visible to the voting public.  Something to remember on its 60th birthday, for all politicians out there.On a positive note.Pat has redesigned the microdermabrasion london pages

Share This

Michael Jackson was recently on the cover of “Ebony”, the premier magazine for African American men and women. He appears without his usual face mask–and looks nothing like he used to. In fact, he looks rather like a white woman. What happened to Michael? How on earth did he decide to basically change his race through plastic surgery? Apparently, plastic surgery can be quite addictive – perhaps he suffers from that peculiar mental addiction. Or perhaps he’s just crazy. Could success and fame during his early formative years have had this impact? Could too much money, too soon, too young have caused Michael to lose his mental stability?

Now let’s take a look at Miss Spears. She went from being America’s Virgin Sweetheart–to basic trailer trash. Sad, but true. She has been brought to court for several cases of child neglect–she’s in a terrible battle for custody of her children–speaking of which, rumor has it she’s pregnant again! Does a woman who shaves her head and drinks herself into oblivion really need to have a third child? Again, the question of early success and fame during her formative years comes up–Has too much money, too soon, too young caused Miss Spears to lose her mental stability?

Is it possible that: PRETEEN FAME & FORTUNE + LITTLE GUIDENCE = CRAZY PERSON?

Ow, a little news on the work front.Well I've totally finished the buying overseas property part

Share This

Why is it that there are some people who can’t just accept art for art’s sake?  Why can’t they read a book, or watch a movie, or even look at a work of art and accept it for what it is?  Why are they looking for a hidden meaning?

Recently an email list that I’m on had a thread about the new Nicole Kidman Movie the Golden Compass, and rather than just give opinions about a movie they’d seen the list members were complaining about the anti-Christian message it contained.  Worse still, they weren’t even basing their opinions on the movie itself, but rather on what someone else had told them about it.  It was the same with Narnia.  Even Harry Potter has been bashed around in various pulpits as having deeper meanings.  I just don’t get it. 

%more%

I haven’t seen the new movie yet, nor did I see Narnia, but I did read the books and I enjoyed them.  I didn’t “see” any of these so-called religious references that are supposed to be there.  I saw characters and situations of good and evil in a work of fiction.  Does it matter whether or not the author of the book is pro or anti Christian?  It’s just a work of fantasy fiction.  Why can’t people enjoy it as such?  If their church is preaching against the movie, or if they listen to what someone else says without seeing it and making their mind up themselves fine, but why then try to force that second-hand opinion on others?  And then, why do other people listen? 

When I read comments from these people about something they’ve never watched, or if they did then watch would do so with such a biased eye that they couldn’t fail to see what they had been “told” to see, I have to wonder if they approach their relationships in the same way.  Do they always look for an ulterior or hidden motive behind what’s being said?  I don’t have a hidden agenda or motive in my interaction with others, and I don’t see them in movies or other media formats either, but I have to wonder about those who do, are their social interactions tinged with hidden agendas, or are these just something they judge others on.

Share This