PPP Dave C does ANOTHER U-TURN: Rip off supermarkets: No fun bag juice: Nobel lottery: Old Peugeot fetches $2.5 million: Reverse driving: and Ladies sauntering.

Test post on my new-old Blogger site-all comments very welcome.

Bit on the temperature challenged side at the Castle this morn, the kitchen is once again filling up with broken computers, but the first daffodil has opened in the garden.

Piss Poor Policies Dave C’s  hopes of following Tone into a Middle Eastern country have been dashed it seems.

PPP Dave was forced into an embarrassing retreat over military action against Libya yesterday as the Coalition announced the biggest cull of the Armed Forces in a generation.

Within 24 hours of announcing that British warplanes might enforce a ‘no-fly zone’ above the crisis-torn state, the Ministry of Defence revealed plans to axe two RAF Tornado squadrons and fire 170 trainee fighter pilots.

Defence Secretary Liam Fox’s decision to axe 11,000 military personnel in four years cast doubt on Britain’s ability to carry out such ambitious missions.

Just to make Dave’s day, the Prime Minister was forced to downplay his assertion that he was prepared to arm rebels seeking to oust Colonel Gaddafi. 

Even Libya’s opposition told Mr Cameron they don’t want his help, unveiling a banner in the rebel stronghold of Benghazi which read: ‘No Intervention.’

Take the hint Dave-we don’t want you either.

The Castle cupboards are getting empty, the reason being that the price of food seems to be linked to the price of oil.

Supermarket giants seem to be boosting their profit margins and blame rising inflation, a leading City bank warned today.

Analysts at UBS said of the seven leading world economies, prices in Britain were rising at the fastest rate - and by far more than is justified.

The sector could now come under intense political pressure or face a formal investigation, they suggested.

'UK food prices are rising more rapidly than most other developed economies' food prices, and have significantly outstripped food retailers' cost inflation,' they said.

'This could allow UK politicians to suggest that food price inflation is 'unfair' or 'excessive'.'

Analysts at the Swiss bank found prices in Britain were rising at an annual rate of 4.9 per cent - against 3.6 per cent in Germany, a euro zone average of 1.8 per cent and a U.S. increase of 1.5 per cent.

Won’t be long before I can’t even afford stale bread and gruel.

Back in the smoke

A London council has confiscated supplies of breast milk ice cream from a specialist parlour which launched the new flavour in the British capital last week on concerns the frozen treat may spread viruses.

Westminster Council said it had visited the Icecreamartists restaurant in London’s Covent Garden and removed all ice cream containing breast milk for testing after being contacted by members of the public and the Food Standards Agency.

“Selling foodstuffs made from another person’s bodily fluids can lead to viruses being passed on and in this case, potentially hepatitis,” Brian Connell, Westminster Council’s cabinet member for business, said on Tuesday.

He added that the owner had agreed to cease making and serving the ice cream while it was being tested.

Sod it! And I have already bought my train ticket.

Over to the land of Dynamite

A record 241 nominations were submitted for the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize and the Norwegian jury has now begun the secretive process to select a winner, the panel's spokesman said Tuesday.

Russian human rights activist Svetlana Gannushkina, secret-spilling organization WikiLeaks and Cuban dissidents are among the candidates who have been publicly announced by those who nominated them.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee does not reveal the names of nominees and doesn't discuss any candidates until the winner is announced in October.

Geir Lundestad, the permanent secretary of the committee, told The Associated Press that 188 individuals and 53 organizations have been nominated for the prestigious award.

Other nominees are-Tone Bliar, Gadaffi, Mugabi and Ahmadinejad-apparently.

And talking of the Scotsman who doesn't  like his food.

“Och me dinners bad” has just seen his 1977 Peugeot 504 sold for $2.5 million.

The "company who purchased the car for 25 billion rials wanted to remain anonymous", it said after the auction in the south-western city of Abadan.

"My client bought the car because of a personal interest in president Ahmadinejad and his spirit of anti-arrogance and anti-Zionism," said lawyer Mahmoud Esari, who acted for the firm that bought the car.

SWO chairman Ahmad Esfandiari said more than 500,000 people registered on the bidding website, with most saying they were doing so because Mr Ahmadinejad leads a simple lifestyle.

He said there were bids from Europe, Asia and the United States.

On January 1, Mr Ahmadinejad launched a website to invite international bids for the car, with the proceeds funding a project to build 60,000 homes for disabled and needy women who are providing for their families.

Bit annoyed about that, according to “we buy any car” the Rover is only worth fifty quid; maybe I should change my name.

Left to the land of sun, surfing and more sun

A Glendale man allegedly drove in reverse for more than three miles down North Glendale Avenue on Saturday, without crashing or hurting anyone.

An off-duty police officer saw Gurgen Gukasyan, 49, driving at about 30 miles per hour with his right arm on the passenger seat and his head turned, according to the Glendale News Press.

Gukasyan was arrested on a misdemeanor charge of reckless driving, according to the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department inmate report.

Gukasyan was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol and no injuries were reported, Glendale police Sgt. Tom Lorenz told the Glendale News Press.

He reportedly told police he was driving to a friend's home.

"This is just sheer disregard for public safety," Lorenz told the newspaper. "It appears that he did want to take that vehicle and have some fun with it."

But this isn't the first time Gukasyan has allegedly made the road his playground.

He was also arrested in December after he allegedly drove his car onto Verdugo Park, causing thousands of dollars of damage before stopping his car and blasting music.

Maybe he should have a word with PPP Dave C, he can reverse as much as he likes and get away with it.

And finally:

Ladies sauntering.

That’s it: I’m orf to cheat the law of light

And today’s thought: Some days you're a pigeon . . . and some days you're the statue.

Angus

A FEW MORE OLD CARS

In my post on - OLD CARS I said that we stuck with Hondas’ but, I was watching “On the Buses yesterday” and it reminded me of another couple of cars we had, I can’t remember when but it must have been the mid seventies.

The film reminded me of the time we went to Windsor Safari Park on the day it opened, and we had a Ford Prefect, the only ford I have ever owned,

Mainly because when we were going through the lion enclosure the bloody thing broke down, and wouldn’t re-start, we sat there with lions all around us and, I kept “tooting” the horn.

I could see the “Rangers” and they could see us, but they seemed to think it was funny and took ages to come and rescue us, by which time I had started the car and driven out.

Apart from that heart stopping moment we had a great day, they had dolphins doing their bit and a Killer Whale, which leaped out of the pool and managed to soak about half of the audience when it landed.

We got really close to the Elephants and Giraffe, managed to drive all the way through the Rhino enclosure, and lost both windscreen wipers in the Monkey enclosure.

Needless to say I sold the Ford soon afterwards, it was an awkward thing to drive any way, it only had three forward gears and reverse was where you would expect first to be, which gave a few scary moments when trying to pull away from traffic lights.

The other-other car was a Vauxhall Viva HL I think, and to be honest it was the worst car I have ever driven, the electrics were about a reliable as the weather, the fuel gauge would change minute by minute, from empty to half to full and back to empty.

The number of times we ran out of petrol in the damn thing was countless.

The temp gauge was just as bad, it blew headlight bulbs almost weekly, and it rusted away before your eyes and the timing chain rattled like the ghost of Christmas past.

That one didn’t last long either.

Perhaps that is why I didn’t mention them before, having a pair of lemons is nothing to reminisce about.


Angus

http://www.nhsexposedblog.blogspot.com/

OLD CARS

Posting this today because I won't be around on Sunday.

We are now well beyond “first cars” but we were faithful to Triumph.

Our next car once the Vitesse had gone was the Triumph 1300 FWD, a four-door saloon that was very well equipped and comfortable.

The 1300 was front wheel drive, Triumphs first, and the engine was “fore and aft” with the gearbox under the engine, not transverse, as in the Leyland cars.

This layout provided advantages because the engine was very easy to work on, but strangely it was the only FWD that Triumph ever produced, they did come up with an updated version but it was never produced.

Because it was such an ugly bugger.

We had her for a while still doing the “Sunday Run” until one day we were in North Camp, I was turning left off the main road and was braking, unfortunately the lorry driver behind us was watching a young lady on the other side of the road and managed to smash into the rear of our Triumph.

Because it had no headrests the next week or so was spent in a neck collar, with whiplash.

I never brought another car without headrests.

A friend of ours had just bought a MK2 Jag, he went for the 3.8 manual, shame really because the 3.4 was almost as fast but the handling was much better.

I like the MK2 it is very pretty and comfortable, but I found it a bit cramped; there wasn’t much elbowroom. Another problem was the lack of space around the engine, and yet another problem was the brakes, they worked OK, but when he was showing me the engine he managed to crimp a small tube. We went out on a test drive and there were no brakes! The tube he crimped was the vacuum feed to the “brake booster”.

So we decided against a jag, and instead bought a Honda Accord 1.8, 3 doors, which we named the space shuttle.

Because the interior was full of switches, buttons and dials, a real “boy toy”, it was ultra comfortable and reliable. But had the "Honda Rot" as they all did in those days, the most dangerous "rot" was the feed tube from the petrol cap to the tank. You would pull into the garage to fill up and end up standing in a gallon of petrol.

And that really is the end of “old cars” we stuck with Hondas until today, mind you my Honda civic is 18 years old, I just don’t get on with new cars.

We had many happy years touring around and visiting our favourite, and new places, still making friends and enjoying our old cars.

Driving was a pleasure then, no road rage and not many jams, much more civilised, not like now, but as they say that is the price of progress.

One more thing, pop over to http://ritaismypal.blogspot.com/ and leave a comment for our Rita.

Angus