Showing posts with label F1. Show all posts
Showing posts with label F1. Show all posts

Saturday 4 February 2012

Gassing up: Gassing down: Money talks: NIMBY Owen Jones: Ferrari box: Biting the bullet: and Iglu-Dorf.


Even colder at the Castle this morn, the butler has stoked the furnace to the brim with drunk, fat teenagers and the ground is so hard that I have had to issue his Maj with a pick so that he can do his business.

Le Lurgy is still hanging around and I have this strange urge to wear a beret and built up shoes.



According to “officials” the freezing weather sweeping across Europe has led to a shortage of vital Russian gas supplies to several countries.
Poland, Slovakia, Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, Greece and Italy are allegedly seeing gas supplies decrease.
Gazprom, the Russian gas export monopoly, said on Friday it was supplying as much gas as it could spare.
"We are doing everything possible... all the systems are working in a stable manner," spokesman Sergey Komlev said.


Time to get the “Snuggly” out....



The new Energy secretary Ed Davey has pledged to tackle soaring power bills in the first few weeks of his new job.
He will set out new plans that will allow homeowners to group together to buy cheap gas and electricity at knock-down rates. Bills have soared over the past five years.
The plans are based on the principles of the ‘Groupon’ website, which features discounted gift certificates for members that can to buy expensive products cheaply.


That’ll help-not....


A Freedom of Information Act request has disclosed that in the year after the general election, £32,651 was spent on refurbishing the Chancellor’s traditional residence and the flat at No 10 where reptilian alien in disguise George (my wallet is so full I have to use a van to move it about) Osborne actually lives.
David Cameron was previously forced to publish details of a £64,000 makeover of the flat in 11 Downing Street, where the Prime Minister and his family live.
Allegedly £32,651 was spent on “maintenance works” at the state rooms, offices and the No 10 flat.
Work carried out specifically on shit faced Osborne’s flat in 10 Downing Street included “electrical works and plumbing, structural improvements, general maintenance and restoration and flooring”.
A Treasury spokesman said last night: “No. 11 Downing Street is a Grade I-listed building and as such the Government is obliged to ensure that it is maintained to an appropriate standard.
 

Ah... the old if it’s old throw money at it excuse-unless you are a pensioner....




The former head of cosmetics giant L'Oreal, Lindsay Owen-Jones, has asked a court in France to shut down a chip stand near his apartment in the ski resort of Val d'Isere.
Owen-Jones, a British citizen who led L'Oreal from 1988 to 2006, filed a complaint along with three neighbours in October asking a court in nearby Albertville to order the chip stand closed as a neighbourhood nuisance.
The complaint said the stand was a visual, auditory and olfactory nuisance and was violating local planning by-laws. The plaintiffs are also demanding compensation for a decrease in their property values.
 

Because he is worth it.....



Ferrari unveiled their ‘Scuderia Ferrari 2012 single-seater’ on the team’s website after snow disrupted plans to launch in front of a selected audience on Thursday.
However, although Ferrari’s driver Felipe Massa described the new car as ‘aggressive’ looking, F1 enthusiasts flooded social networks and message boards with criticism over the ugly 'boxer's nose' design.
‘Ferrari F2012 is not a looker. Back to ugly noses like the shovel experiments of the 70's,’ said one Twitter user.
‘Ferrari F2012 is one ugly F1 car. Is it the ugliest car to ever wear the Ferrari badge?’ asked another.
Drivers Massa and Fernando Alonso were on hand at the unveiling to chip in with their less than overwhelming take on the new design.
‘We still need to get used to his new nose which is very strange, but apart from the nose the car is very aggressive, very nice, and hope we are going to see a very competitive car from beginning to end,’ said Massa.
While Alonso said: ‘With the new car the first feeling has been very good from the beginning.
'I like the creative shape that we see in this new car and I think when a car surprises you from the first look it is usually a positive thing. I quite like the car, I hope it is fast.'


Designed by BMW?



A 74-year-old man died when he swallowed his dentures during a sex session with a prostitute.
The pensioner collapsed at the end of a 30-minute session with the 62-year-old hooker.
Paramedics rushed to the scene but the man, known as Chen, was pronounced dead by the time he arrived at hospital.
Medical staff later found his dentures stuck in his throat, following the incident in New Taipei City, Taiwan.
The prostitute told authorities: "He fell back onto the bed. His eyes were open but he was not moving although I shook his body and tried to wake him up."


At least he went with a smile in his neck....


And finally: 


Iglu-Dorf- a concept hotel that offers igloo villages in seven locations in Andorra, Switzerland and Austrian which are rebuilt every year, using 3,000 tons of snow from the Pyrenees and the Alps.
At first, the igloos were built block by block, the old Inuit way, but that took a team of five people two weeks to build just one 8-foot-wide and 8-foot-tall igloo, and they could only open the resorts at the end of January. They had to come up with a faster way, and found balloons were the best option. They filled up these big balloons, covered them up with snow and waited until it hardened, then simply deflate the balloons and voila, perfect igloos.
Although Iglu-Dorf does offer heated rooms with a stove, most of the snow igloos are only equipped with sleeping bags to keep you warm, but there is the cheese fondue fountain, or you can jump into the hot-tub built right in the snow.
Prices start at €99 per night, and go all the way up to €439, on New Year’s Eve.


Think I’ll stay in the Castle…




And today’s thought:



Angus

Thursday 2 February 2012

The MOT M.O.T.: Formula 0.5: Cutting costs: Big Apple leper colony: Chilly Chilean: Damp dining: and Fancy retiring to Ecuador?


It hasn’t been as cold as this at the Castle since yestermorn, his Maj still refuses to go out and le lurgy France’ has progressed to the point where I can’t feel my dangly bits and I am farting garlic gas.



Has done yet another U-Turn, this time over the plan for the need to have an MOT test every two years instead of annually.
Transport Secretary Justine Greening said she had decided to stick with the present system, which had been under threat in a review of red tape.
Instead she set out a series of measures designed to improve the service offered by garages after official figures showed more than a quarter of tested cars had defects missed or wrongly assessed.


That’s the problem when you put a Lady in charge of transport-she has the map upside down.....




McLaren have unveiled the new MP4-27 for this year’s F-0.5 season, shame we license payers will only see half of the races in full.


And apparently:



Is on target with its cost-cutting, Analysis by the National Audit Office found departments spent £7.9bn less in 2010-11, as capital, administrative and programme budgets were all reduced.
Departments "successfully managed" within the new limits, it said. But it warned most had "no detailed plan" on how to meet tougher targets by 2015.

Ministers said plans were "on track".


Oh joy; and I expect that those who have seen their standard of living plummet to poverty levels, have waited months for a hospital appointment and have to choose between “heat and eat” will be bleedin ecstatic...




Just 350 yards from the Bronx there lays an abandoned leper colony, North Brother Island was first employed as a quarantine centre in 1885.
It was soon a home to six lepers. Its most notorious resident was 'Typhoid Mary' - the first healthy carrier of any disease ever to be identified - who spent years confined in its bleak woods.
Closed in 1963, it is now a haunting labyrinth of crumbling ruins, protected birds are its only inhabitants and the waters around the island are patrolled by armed coastguards who ensure the sanctity of the former quarantine zone is never violated



Reminds me of Grimly Dark ‘Orspital...




Police in the southern Chilean city of Cochrane arrested a man who attempted to steal over five tons of ice from the Jorge Montt Glacier, 1,700 kilometres south of the capital Santiago, El Mercurio daily reported on Wednesday.
A truck loaded with five tons of ice was stopped near Cochrane, the city’s prosecutor Jose Moris told the El Mercurio
Police think the ice was to be sold to Santiago bars for mixing cocktails, the paper said, adding that the driver would face charges of theft and damage to the nation's cultural heritage.
Ice theft is considered a major crime in Chile, according to the daily, as the Jorge Montt is one of the most rapidly receding glaciers. It is a part of the 13,000-square-kilometer Southern Ice Field, the world’s third biggest frozen landmass, shared by Chile and Argentina.
The seized ice, valued at an estimated $6,000, will be used for irrigating drought-hit local crops in Cochrane, El Mercurio reported.


Don’t they have fridges in Chile then....



In the Quezon province of the Philippines, Villa Escudero is a nice hacienda-style resort with cosy rooms and an exotic atmosphere. But the best bit is the waterfall restaurant that allows tourists to enjoy a nice meal right at the foot of a small waterfall.
People are encouraged to take off their shoes and get as close to the falls as possible. Set right at the foot of Labasin Falls, this special place invites customers to taste popular Filipino dishes, while fresh spring water from the falls flows under and over their feet.


Lovely; apart from the yellow streams running over your plates….


And finally:



An international magazine is looking for volunteers to spend a month in Cuenca, Ecuador to test its potential as a retirement destination.
"We're not giving away a free vacation," said Jennifer Stevens, the executive editor of International Living magazine, which launched the competition.
The winner of the competition, who will be announced on May 30th, will receive round-trip air fare for two, a furnished apartment and $1,500 in living expenses, according to an ad posted on InternationalLiving.com.
The magazine said the competition gives it the opportunity to show readers the benefits of retiring abroad.
Applicants must be near retirement age and be willing to relax, explore shop, try local restaurants, maybe take a Spanish class, and report on their experience during an all-expense paid month in the Latin American country.


The only snag is that you must live in the United States or Canada.


Oh well nobody’s perfect.....




And today’s thought:





Angus