Hit The Hut?

Well not exactly. More like one of their rivals but the pizza and garlic bread was good, or so Little Lad thought. Mmmm....

Took a trip out to Henley on Thames today. Fed the lad and then fed the ducks LOL.












Reading 0 - 1 Nottingham Forest

Countdown...

Dates for your diaries, Quidditch fans...
















17 July 2009. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

19 November 2010. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I

15 July 2011. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II


Read here.



Wendy Richard 1943 - 2009.

WIP

(Work In Progress)

Just a quick pictorial update....

















Off to be fired now.

Am I Missing Something Obvious?

So the UK government is to announce* on Thursday plans to sell a 30% stake in the Royal Mail, probably the oldest postal service in the world with a proud tradition of carrying mail promptly anywhere in the country for a set charge.




Top employee Pat always gets the mail delivered on time LOL.









Apparently the service needs modernising and the only way to do this, so the argument goes, is to sell it off to a rival. Go figure. You would have thought with the "global credit crunch"- our governments preferred phrase- it is not the best time to sell off a state asset, when market prices will be at an all time low. Not to mention the alleged hole in the company pension that needs plugging. Will a new part-owner willingly take this debt on? I doubt it.

Then again you have to remember our Prime Minister Gordon Brown is the man responsible (as Chancellor of the Exchequer) for selling off the vast majority of our Gold reserves when those prices were at an all time low. So not exactly a great track record getting the best deal for the nation. Not to mention this same man, who by means of heavy taxation, raided public and private company pension plans to such a degree we will all need to work longer before we can afford to retire. Unless you happen to be a Member of Parliament of course.

You know, Dad was telling me recently that since he retired in 1996 his pension has risen steadily each year but thanks to increased taxes, he gets far less net pay now than he did at retirement.

So where Mr Brown, has all that money from the 'good times' gone? You spend billions part or fully privatizing our banks but you can't support an already state-owned service. And that's the rub- I thought the Post Office was meant to be a service for the benefit of the nation, not a company that turns a profit. I don't understand, am I missing something obvious?

* Am I the only one getting annoyed with the current trend of pre-announcing everything?

Tolerance?

Apparently the BBC has received a number of complaints from parents about new CBeebies presenter Cerrie Burnell. Parents are worried she will scare their kids, rather than act as a role model. She was born without an arm below the elbow.

Cerrie with co-presenter Alex Winters








To be honest Little Lad has seen this girl on TV and not freaked out. He also had a pre-school teacher with a similar "condition" and I can tell you all the kids there seemed fine. This sort of thing makes my blood boil to be honest- how can some people be so small minded? What next- get rid of the blind character from Me Too? Ban Justin Fletcher from featuring disabled kids on Something Special? Grrrr!

Tolerance in a modern Britain? You decide.

What Happened Boys?

Reading 0 - 2 Bristol City

Do you want to get promoted back to the Premiership? You hammered these guys so not long ago.

Feeling Sorry For Myself...

It's Lemsip week this week. I seem to have picked up a head cold: fuzzy feeling, bunged-up head and a sore throat. Awwww poor me.







It's not quite full on Man-Flu but in case it develops, here's some useful instructions...

Sir Terry

Today Terry Pratchett was knighted by the Queen for his services to literature. Sir Terry has also been leading a campaign for awareness of Alzheimer's disease, having been recently diagnosed himself. Well done Terry, you deserve it!


Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II honours Terry, in a rare image of the author without his trademark hat LOL.







Oh and well done me, 300 Blog Posts today. Cake anyone LOL?

Commercial Break

A quick advert...

That happy little Aussie known as Wunderlust has started a story blog- Campfire Tales- and has asked me to join, oh the honour and the fame LOL! In fact I had the dubious pleasure of kicking off the first story effort.
Between us we have sent a few invites out to others we think might enjoy contributing, to see what we can come up with creatively as a smallish group. Nothing serious, just a bit of fun you understand. A contribution might be several paragraphs or just a couple of lines that take the story in an interesting direction.

We'll aim to wrap up each effort by the end each month and start a new story, although maybe for particularly promising (or enjoyable) efforts we might return to pick the tale up later. Please take a look see, there's the posting rules and of course the fiction itself, let us know what you think...

Be My Valentine..?

To lovers everywhere, have a great day!

And in Part III...

An hour and a half to get to the office today grrr.













And yes last night I got in so late (and hungry) I didn't get to college, so no progress or pictures for a while longer. Sorry.

Arrgh Part II

Over 3 hours to do 6 or 7 miles (about 10 to 11 Kilometres) by car. Left the office at 5, got home after 8.15pm. Grrr

Normally this journey takes no more than 20 minutes.

The river Loddon burst it's banks in several places today after nearly 24 hours of rain and of course all the snow melting from last week. Added to that there were several incidents on the M4 Motorway today, putting pressure on the local roads.

At least I had a dry home to come home to...

Arrgh!

Little Lad is having some problems, particularly at school, at present. Won't go into details but don't know what to do...

One Point

Reading 0 - 0 Preston

The Royals picked up one point for the draw, while table leaders Wolves lost away at Coventry, closing the gap.

The Coca-Cola Football League Championship : Table 07 Feb 17:09

			| Home					| Away
	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	W	D	L	F	A	GD	PTS
1	Wolverhampton	32	11	3	2	35	17	8	3	5	29	25	22	63
2	Reading	31	12	3	1	37	8	5	5	5	21	18	32	59
3	Birmingham	31	10	3	3	21	13	6	6	3	17	15	10	57
4	Cardiff	29	9	3	2	23	11	4	9	2	18	15	15	51
5	Sheff Utd	32	7	4	5	22	16	7	5	4	21	13	14	51
6	Preston	32	11	2	3	24	14	3	6	7	19	25	4	50

You Should Always Check Your Kids' Homework

Submitted by a first grade girl for a homework assignment...
















After it was marked and the child brought it home, she returned the next day with the following note:

Dear Ms Davis,


I want to be very clear on my child's illustration. It is NOT of me on a dance pole on a stage at a strip club. I work at a DIY store and commented to my daughter how much money we had made in the recent snowstorm. This picture is of me selling a shovel.



Mrs Harrington.


LOL

Closed

Britain is closed today or at least that's the way it seems, all over a few inches of (predicted) snow (that blew in from Russia I understand).

The trains, planes and buses have pretty much all stopped operating. Most schools in the area are closed. And of course would you believe it, the Council road gritters failed to go out over night, meaning the roads are quite nasty.

So anyway I spent the best part of an hour with a colleague outside our office waiting for a key holder to show up and let us poor minions in. It would appear the key holders are either "sick" or have chosen to "work from home" today (a choice I don't get) or more likely play in the snow. Anyway after an hour, the call came in telling me one of the Directors had decided the office would not open today.

Snow fight anyone?


Oh by the way, happy Ground Hog Day everyone. Let's see what ol' Punxstawney Phil predicts this year...

Do You Require Assistance..?

According to ClustrMaps somone has been viewing this Blog from the mid-Atlantic... Who are you? Are you drowning, do you need help? LOL