Sunday 29 July 2007

Fame at last...

I've been scanning the BBC News pages to try and come up with inspiration for a post.

Chanelle leaves BB. Who cares?

Tour de Farce has finally finished. No excitement about that. Even the bloke that won must feel a little let down and disillusioned by it all.

England back to losing ways in the cricket. Quelle surprise!

So there is obviously only one newsworthy item to celebrate...

Congratulations to Hazel for now being a world famous published photographer!!!

In case you missed it...http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/

Wednesday 25 July 2007

Damned if you do...

With apologies to Ben Elton, I am about to get a little political!



Poor old David Cameron. I am not disclosing whether I am a supporter of his in particular or his party in general, but I do feel for him as a victim of our insistence on form over substance, appearance over reality.



What could he do? He is expected to APPEAR statesmanlike, which involves such activities as foreign trips, even though he can DO nothing while he is there. He is also expected to APPEAR to be helping in his flooded constituency, even though the reality is he can DO little if anything.



OK, he could have picked up a bucket and started baling...but to what effect? Are the people of Witney whose houses are flooded baling out? No, because there is no point until the waters go down. They have hunkered down and are more bothered about getting a bottle of clean water. Can Cameron get them this water? Well, the government, environment agency, supermarkets and various others seem to be doing a prety good job.



The job of an MP, in particular an MP of the opposition (whether the leader of that opposition or a simple back bencher), is to represent his constituents. Only when in government does the job change. David Cameron is not in government, therefore his job is to represent his constituents. Turning up and smiling and shaking hands does not represent them. Arguing in future for more flood defences, more aid etc may well be called for but at the height of the floods it is not the time for this. It is simply a time for whatever practical action can be done.



Incidentally, I am not entirely sure how he was representing the people of Witney in Africa either. But then that's the point...he feels as though he has to be there because the expectations on him are unfair.

Friday 20 July 2007

Just like London buses...

To continue the bus driver/public transport theme, job proposals seem to have been extremely thin on the ground until this week when four of them have turned up all at once!

It's so nice to be wanted! My plan is to pursue all four of them as far as possible in the hope that I will find out more about all the opportunites and be able to make an informed decision on which one fits me best, if any. In terms of culture, I may simply have to choose whether Irish, stuffy English, down-to-earth English or Qatari suits me best. I like Guinness, didn't go to public school/Oxbridge, am trying to get rid of my builder's cleavage rather than being proud of it, and I don't really do temperatures over 18 degrees C without breaking into an embarrassing flood of sweat. Shame the Irish one is probably the least successful of the companies and the most likely longer term dead end for me.
Any competitive bidding between the relevant corporate giants on salary and package that might also happen is completely coincidental...

In case you were wondering, becoming a bus driver in Germany isn't one of the options.

Just in case my career (never forget that the Oxford English dictionary definition is "to swerve violently out of control") takes a sudden turn into politics, I wanted you all to be the first to know that I am in the Gordon Brown camp (oo-er) regarding cannabis smoking. Never been there, not got the t-shirt. I, unlike GB, am not satisfied to answer with a simple and emphatic no. I just have to go further to admit that I was always just too darn goody-goody and chicken to ever go there. Let's face it, I'm the moose that has only ever been drunk twice in my life and only one of those times so horribly that I threw up. I hate being out of control (and therefore outside my comfort zone) so much it's a state I avoid with the paranoia of Jeff Goldblum avoiding ultra-violet lights in a chip shop.

That makes me think about an alternative perspective on the character traits and principles of our politicians and their suitability for high office. Would we rather have boundary-pushing, brave renegades or staid, don't-let-me-out-of-my-comfort-zone wimps as our Prime Minister, Home Secretary, Chancellor etc?

And, maybe more importantly, are their 20-year-old youthful attitudes to illicit drugs really a good indicator of which camp (there I go again) they are in?

Monday 16 July 2007

Jobs for the boys

My thoughts today have been focussed on getting a job. I went to visit an old boss who has now changed companies. I am seriously rethinking the overtures that his new company (it is Corporate A for those of you who remember...) are making as the one huge thing to be said for them is that they will give me a job that suits my rather unusual portfolio of skills and interests.

Although maybe there are other interests (if not skills) that could be enflamed in other jobs. I'm also thinking of becoming a bus driver...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/6901576.stm

I do speak German after all!!!

Saturday 14 July 2007

We won!

Again.

I hadn't mentioned it recently, but then I haven't mentioned much recently at all, except in an e-mail to Hazel, but we had our school appeals panel yesterday. And we won! The 'again' is because mooselet #1 only got into this school on appeal too. We now count ourselves as experts in primary school admissions appeals having a 100% record.

I have been rather busy over the last week preparing the case. At least the mooselets will be at the same school next year - a huge relief to us all.

I hope to get back to slightly more regular blogging in the coming week.