SATURDAY SNIPPETS 4

First a bit of a ramble, is there a bug going round? One that makes your bowel explode and doubles you up in agony with cramps?

Because if there is I have caught it, four days in now and just beginning to feel a bit better, this is just a warning to anyone that is thinking of dropping in, don’t, unless you want to spend most of next week within three feet of the loo, because that’s the furthest away you can be and keep your dignity. It is my own fault I went to the Surgery to get the results of the blood test, happens every time!


Now back to “business” excuse the pun.

Ananova - Fitness trainer piles on the pounds yep this pillock is half-way to his new year's resolution goal of piling on seven stone to understand his overweight clients.

Paul James, 32, of Melbourne, Australia, has ballooned from 12½st to 15½st, but he claims he won't stop overeating until he hits 20st.

He has been feasting on kebabs, pasta, cream sauces and chocolate in a calorific carbohydrate diet.

And has cut out all daily exercise and has started drinking beer every evening. He aims to hit his target weight in March.

I love this one.

Ananova - EU's costly insult EU bosses paid an artist £350,000 for a sculpture - only to find it insulted virtually every member state. David Cerny, 41, was supposed to commission other artists to help create a piece representing the European Union nations for its Brussels HQ.

But he kept all the money and knocked out the mickey-taking piece himself, reports the Daily Telegraph.

Jaws dropped after the artwork, called Entropa, was unveiled at a special ceremony.
Bulgaria was depicted as a toilet, Romania as a Dracula theme park, and France as a map with the word Greve - French for 'Strike' - across it.

Germany was a motorway map resembling a swastika, Holland was underwater, Belgium a box of chocolates, Denmark was made of Lego and Sweden was an Ikea flatpack.

And Britain looks like it has been snapped away from the rest of the sculpture - showing our detachment from Europe.

Love it or hate it!
Builder's Marmite diet An East London builder has lived on a diet of Marmite sandwiches for the past 25 years.

George Lambert, 35, of Hackney, loves the savoury spread and eats it for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

His monthly intake is the equivalent of a stack of sandwiches 7ft high, reports The Sun.
Mr Lambert does include other fillings, like beetroot, bananas, celery and sardines, but there is always Marmite as well.

YUM!

From Creation tips: A chicken caused six people to drown when it fell down a 20-meter (60-foot) well in the Egyptian village of Nazlat Imara. Police said farmer Allam Sabet al-Sayyed climbed down the well to rescue the chicken. His sister Zeinab, brothers Sayyed and Ahmad, and two other farmers who came to help, followed him. They all drowned, apparently victims of a strong undercurrent in the water. The chicken survived.

Personally I’d get the Paxo out.




From ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) Woman finds $1.73bn in bank account
A Swedish woman received the shock of a lifetime when she found $1.73 billion more than expected in her bank account.

Cornelia Johansson discovered the windfall on Monday after she logged on to her internet banking to pay some bills, regional daily Goeteborgs-Posten reported in its online edition.
"The balance was more than 10 billion kronor. It said the amount had been deposited as a correction for a credit card purchase," Ms Johansson's boyfriend, Daniel Hoeglund, told the newspaper.

On Tuesday morning the money was still credited to her account but a few hours later it was gone as mysteriously as it had arrived.

A press spokeswoman for Nordea Bank, the largest bank in the Nordic region, later explained the mystery as "a technical mistake made by a company".

Bit slow there MS Johansson.

And finally, because I am at present twenty feet from the toilet.

Also from ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) a 13-year-old Beijing boy commandeered a city bus when its driver stopped for a bathroom break, going on a wild joy-ride that left a trail of smashed cars and other damage, China's state media said.

The incident on Sunday morning (local time) began when a bus driver returned from the bathroom at a transport terminal in eastern Beijing to find his bus gone, Xinhua news agency said.

The vehicle had been driven off by the 13-year-old, who zigzagged through traffic, crashing into two cars on the road and about 10 parked vehicles and knocking down two electricity poles.

Anymore fares please!

“It is less of a problem to be poor, than to be dishonest” Anishinabe

That’s your lot, just in case.

Angus
NHS Behind the headlines

Angus Dei politico

RIP OFF BRITAIN SURVIVES THE RECESSION

There was quite a lot of news today, the USA is going to pour more troops into Afghanistan, and expect the rest of us to do the same.

The guy who threw his shoes at George W goes on trial and is facing up to 15 years. Personally I would give him a gift voucher for Barratts, and charge the so called “security” people.

18 people survived the helicopter crash in the north-sea, and good luck to them.

Jackie Smith is at last being asked to explain the £116,000 of our money she claimed in expenses for her “second home”: And rightly so.

And the man who “saved the world” is spouting off about how to “save the world”.

All of these stories can be found here in one form or another.


But the thing that caught my eye was the article on rail fares in our green and pleasant land.

Personally I don’t use trains, they are often dirty, crowded and you can’t have a fag, so I drive.

But for the millions of people that do the cost of getting to work is rising at a staggering rate, Passenger Focus said "turn up and go" fares to London from elsewhere in the UK generally cost more than similar journeys in other European countries.

On average, fares were 50% higher in Britain than on the continent.

The Gov of course plays down the prices “but ministers said fares had fallen relative to earnings.” whose earnings?

The Passenger Focus report said “it also found that passengers wanting to travel at short notice or who needed flexibility in journey times would generally be charged more, compared with European ticket-buyers.

For example, in Britain long-distance turn-up-and-go fully flexible day-return fares to the principal city (London) were 87% more expensive than in the next most expensive country surveyed - Germany.”

“This type of British fare was also more than three times more expensive than in the cheapest country surveyed - the Netherlands.

British annual season tickets for journeys of no more than 25 miles were 88% more expensive than the next most expensive country - France - and more than four times pricier than the cheapest country - Italy.”


I think I may have said this before but the Government keeps telling us to “get out of our cars” and use public transport, which millions do, only to be ripped off by the train companies with above inflation fare hikes.

Transport minister Andrew Adonis said the government was committed to "sharing the cost of rail services fairly between taxpayers and passengers".

"It is estimated it would cost taxpayers an extra £500m a year to bring UK commuter fares in line with these other European countries, which are more heavily subsidised," he said.

Which is a drop in the ocean compared to the billions they have poured in to the banks, and has benefitted no one.

He argued that since 1997, regulated fares had fallen sharply relative to earnings, and that with inflation now falling, train fares would drop further.

If the Government wants to protect jobs allowing the rail companies to increase fares above inflation is not tenable, if it costs people more just to get to work it means that there is less to spend in the economy, it seems to me that the Gov is protecting the private companies and bugger the rest of us.

I will keep using my car, it is comfortable, un-crowded and I can listen to a CD or the radio, and of course I can smoke that is until they ban that on health and safety grounds.

“My favorite thing is to go where I've never been.” Diane Arbus


Angus

NHS Behind the headlines

Angus Dei politico

THE GREAT FOOD RIP OFF

I have posted this on my NEW blog Angus Dei politico (shameless advertising) it is just getting going but take a look.

From the BBC “Food prices rose sharply in 2008, after years of food price deflation, research from Verdict shows.”

They have been telling us for months now that food is cheaper, but it isn’t.

Up to the end of December food price inflation hit 11.9%, while the monthly increase from November reached 1.4%. Inflation is currently at 3.1%.

We are being robbed.

Will the supermarkets tell us why their prices have increased by four times the rate of inflation? Of course they won’t they will moan about how much their profits have shrunk Corporate Watch

October 2008.

Sainsbury's reported a 13% increase in half-year profits to £272m

Asda, the UK's second-biggest supermarket chain, reported a 6.9% increase in like-for-like sales in the three months to the end of September.

Tesco reported a 10% increase in pre-tax profits to £1.45bn for the first six months of the year.

Nough said!


Angus

CHRISTMAS PAST

Ok that’s Crimbo out of the way, the world can return to “normal”.

I hope you had a good time, and got your hearts desire contained in the wrapping paper.

I had a reasonable time, great dinner with the neighbours, ate too much went home and fell asleep during Wallace and Grommit, but I have it on DVD so I didn’t miss too much.

I don’t tend to do “Religion” I don’t have many problems with “God” as such: it’s religion I have problems with.

But anyway I don’t “do” religion, so on to other things.

I know I said I wouldn’t be back until tomorrow, but this “tale” has pissed me off.

But what I do “do” is idiots, a friend of mine’s car had a puncture while at work, she called out the rescue services, who duly arrived and did the usual intake of breath, because she had the forethought to fit locking wheel nuts.

This gets a bit complicated so bear with me, the “key” for the nut was missing, it was there before because she had the car serviced at a Vauxhall main dealer two months previously, and I presume the “technician” removed the wheels as part of the service.

So, the breakdown guy couldn’t change the wheel, but recovered the car to the said main dealer.

The guy at the Vauxhall garage said that they couldn’t change the wheel because-yes-the key was missing, they also said that all four tyres needed replacing and that there was a bad oil leak from the front of the engine (very precise). All in all the cost would be about £700.

So, Christmas Eve I took the lady to the so called Garage with my little compressor, and inflated the tyre, I then went to have a word with “the man”, I explained to him in simple terms that the locking wheel nut could be removed with a socket and a hammer, which he agreed, but didn’t bother to tell my “female” friend.

I also explained that the key for the locknut was probably in the “technicians” toolbox and had anybody asked him, the answer was a blank stare, I then went on to explain that the oil leak could probably only come from either the “rocker box” cover, which if removed during the service to adjust the valves, could have been refitted badly, or the that the oil filter was badly fitted, or that the head gasket was leaking. As the car runs perfectly I doubt the last has happened.

And was again greeted with a red faced blank stare.

So I drove the car back to my friend’s house and will remove the wheel nut as described earlier, I have given my friend the web address and she has purchased four new tyres “which will be needed, not immediately but better to be safe than sorry”, for £160 fitted, and I will investigate the oil leak myself.

Total cost probably less than £200, some £500 less than the quote from the main dealer.

It seems that “Rip off Britain” is still in full swing, it seems that garages are still treating the feminine sex as an excellent target for outrageous profit because they presume the “ladies” are ignorant of mechanical matters, and so are a lot of men.

So, just a bit of advice to the mechanically disadvantaged, when you take your vehicle to a garage, find someone who knows what they are talking about to go with you and always ask for the parts removed, which the garage says need replacing.

A bit of advice for the garages, stop FIRKIN ripping people off, play fair, if you do then you will get repeat business, and recommendations, a short term profit will not solve your cash flow problems, it will only make them worse in the long run.

Angus

The Cost of Living

Just a quick one today, I have fallen behind and have loads to do.

I have just returned from the local Smash and Grab-Tescos, it may be me but I have heard that food has reduced in price.

So why am I paying £10 a week MORE for my shopping?

I tend to buy the same things every week so I notice these things.

I know there is inflation, but a 50% increase is a bit much.

I live alone so my diet is crap, but, the basics such as bread, potatoes and meat are rocketing in price, just an example-I buy a particular brand of Corned Beef (yes I know it’s full of fat) but several months ago it cost 87p, now it costs £1.49, that is 52p more.

A month or so ago a loaf of bread was £1.29, it still is today, what drop in price?

Last week a pack of biscuits cost 36p, this week they are 46p. The price of fuel has dropped-eventually at my branch, they kept the price high for a couple of weeks more than the other Smash and Grabs.

But I can buy shrimps cheaply, or other “bargains” that I would never purchase, no bloody wonder Tescos profits have dropped, they are ripping us off.

They seem to think that we don’t keep receipts, well I do, and I can prove that they have increased prices or not reduced them since the so called “price drops”.

By the way, it is Pissing down here in ‘ampshire, and it is also freezing cold and very windy, just to let you know if you are thinking of visiting.


Angus