Good Friday

From a personal view point I don’t have too much to complain or moan about right now, oh alright I do but there is no point of going over old ground. Talking of old ground our neighbour today offered to fill our fish pond, which we have been emptying, with rubble and earth he was due to throw into a skip he had hired to clear his garden. With the aid of his father-in-law he not only helped take out the lining from our pond but also threw all their rubble and earth as requested into our now empty pond. My partner helped them with the earth moving and within the hour our now defunct pond was nearly full to the brim.

We have had frosted relations with our neighbour at times but today we saw a completely different side to him as he went out of his way to assist with our pond task. He did end up claiming the lining to the pond for use in his own garden for laying down a base for a wooded bark play area. My partner had agreed his taking of the lining without realising how useful it would’ve been for our own purposes of re-landscaping the area once occupied by the fast disappearing pond, however the pond is as full as we could have hoped for just for the price of asking for someone else’s rubbish.

Taking of rubbish, I shudder to think how much waste and cardboard will be generated this weekend when all the Easter eggs are removed from their boxes. I’d noticed that the local supermarket had got on sale Easter eggs that did not sit in a box at all, unfortunately they were not moving off the shelves in great quantities, unless they were and I was just not there to witness the restocking of shelves.
We have, for our part, purchased larger bars of chocolate for our girls mainly due to them being so much older now but also from a value for money viewpoint; the lack of packaging is also a big bonus.

Another bonus for me today is in believing that today is Saturday and not Friday, therefore psychologically I have gained a day, and today really is a good Friday.

Bush's view: Iraq 5 years on

Says it all really...

[Steve Bell: Guardian Unlimited]

Bush, still adamant [arrogant]

Do you know, I feel much safer now than I did before the war in Iraq began.

Has it only been five years since we invaded Iraq?

I must thank Mr Bush for all his efforts to rid the world of the terrorists that threaten and kill people on the streets of New York and London as well as other cities throughout the world.

These terrorist are probably the same ones who were, and possibly still are, hiding weapons of mass destruction in their back gardens. Do they have garden sheds in Iraq?

It is good to know that we can stand down our security and intelligence services because of all the good work he has carried out for us all the Middle East.

The money, the loss of life, the lies, the political fallout and the environmental costs are all insignificant when compared to the relief one must feel knowing that the Iraq people are enjoying the same freedoms as the rest of us; the freedom to write books and draw cartoons etc.

I wonder how free and safe people of Islam feel in any Country now that Bush has saved us all from Osama Bin Laden and the al-Qaeda organisation?

I was so glad when they captured them all and broke their network of terrorist cells so that we no longer need to worry about terror threats at home or abroad.

And don’t you wish that people would stop banging on about the cost of the war? It is not as if the US and the UK needed that money for things better spent at home.

Feeling better now everyone?

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Thank you Mr. Bush, you infuriating Arse! And that is something I have always been able to say, even without your phony war.

You can read his speech commemorating the fifth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq here from the BBC. But if you cannot be bothered, or have already seen or heard it, then here is yet another ill conceived statement taken from the end of that speech:

Today, standing before men and women who helped liberate a nation, I reaffirm the commitment. The battle in Iraq is noble, it is necessary, and it is just. And with your courage, the battle in Iraq will end in victory. God bless.

He still doesn’t get it does he?

It could be your perfect union

I have just finished reading Barack Obama’s speech ‘A more perfect union’ and despite the religious basis for his reasoning, mainly due to his comments surrounding Pastor Jeremiah Wright, I am truly moved by a political speech so bold in its sincerity.

If I were American I would be proud of this boldness in someone who is risking his candidacy by being as proactive as he is.

Even putting the issue of race to one side, which is something Obama is not for one minute attempting to do, may I warn those of you that may stumble upon this blog that he talks of the stark truth when he discusses the loss of jobs and skills when he says ‘This time we want to talk about the fact that the real problem is not that someone who doesn't look like you might take your job; it's that the corporation you work for will ship it overseas for nothing more than a profit.’

We, in the UK, have for a number of decades now seen our businesses moved abroad, whether they be a failing or a successful company matters not. What it all comes down to is shipping work and skills overseas for profit.

From shoes, to vacuum cleaners, from customer help lines to engineering; we have sold out to Asia and, dare I say it, even the US. We have lost jobs and industries that will never be replaced and the utopia that Obama is now talking about for the US is one you can achieve if the opportunity is grasped now.

As for us in the UK, well we will become nothing more than one big runway for overseas tourism and, given that the Airbus A380 super-jumbo has completed its first European commercial flight [when a plane from Singapore landed at London's Heathrow airport], it will only be a matter of time before the only thing we have to offer is an array of airport lounges.

This fate awaits Countries that stand still looking forever backwards whilst believing that the World is their oyster whilst others are putting out the dredgers to fish for them.

...that money just can't buy

So, Heather Mills and Paul McCartney [Sir] had their day in court and she was finally awarded £24.3M, a part of which is the princely sum of £35,000 a year for their daughter Beatrice until she reaches the age of 17. That amounts to almost the same amount of money for the seventeen year old as our household budget, before tax, for the one year!
The ex Beatle is worth in the region of £400M in assets and the couple allegedly blame media intrusion for the break up of their marriage. Having watched Ms Mills’ on TV during the build up to this conclusion and the press release she personally gave after the arrangement was settled I can only say she got far more than she deserves for marrying a man of means and then leaving with a cool £17,000 for everyday of their marriage. What a whingeing, two faced, media-manipulative person she appears to be. Perhaps I have misjudged her and I could marry her and then make off with some of her money as part of a settlement.

We will be eating bangers and mash [sausage and potatoes for tea], Heather Mills will be eating money, and the dented Beatle will be making even more money per minute than I can eat sausages.


Just to prove the point that money doesn’t necessarily bring happiness I think it is about time that Mohamad Al Fayad gave up his quest to have the British Monarch and her hubby appear in court over the death of the once Princess, Diana. If the establishment really wanted Diana dead does he not think that a better way other than the chance crashing of a car could’ve been found? By her own admittance on television to having had suicidal feelings it would have been easier to fake a suicidal death than to have made the car she was in crash in a city such as Paris. A quiet country lane I could understand, but Paris?

I think in both cases that sometimes money can make you sadder or madder [or both] than actually not having any money at all.

The small amount I had put aside in shares to pay for our new, second hand, car, is now unlikely to reach the required amount once sold, but I would rather have that than to have a life blighted by what money cannot buy, such as happiness or the return of what was probably a loving son or daughter.

And just for the hell of it here is a Beatles song lyrics, because I like it…

Can't buy me love, love
Can't buy me love

I'll buy you a diamond ring my friend
If it makes you feel all right
I'll get you anything my friend
If it makes you feel all right
'Cause I don't care too much for money
For money can't buy me love

I'll give you all I've got to give
If you say you love me too
I may not have a lot to give
but what I've got I'll give to you
For I don't care too much for money
For money can't buy me love

Can't buy me love
Everybody tells me so
Can't buy me love
No, no, no, no

Say you don't need no diamond ring
And I'll be satisfied
Tell me that you want those kind of things
that money just can't buy
For I don't care too much for money
For money can't buy me love

Can't buy me love
Everybody tells me so
Can't buy me love
No, no, no, no

Say you don't need no diamond ring
And I'll be satisfied
Tell me that you want those kind of things
that money just can't buy
For I don't care too much for money
For money can't buy me love
Ooh, can't buy me love, love
Can't buy me love, no

Great big melting pot.

Today I read about so called ‘water-wars’ that most of you environmentalists with be pretty savvy to. No sooner have Countries gone to war to secure oil supplies and for long standing diplomatic disputes it now appears that glaciers are in decline and as a result the rivers they produce will also begin to disappear, leaving millions without fresh water supplies. These volatile environmental essential giants are situated, or at least supply further down stream, water to the some of the most hostile of nations in Asia.

Before the shortage there will be more water than most can accommodate as wide scale flooding in Countries such as China.

If you think we are safe in Europe, North America, South America and Africa then think again, the apparently the only Glaciers that continue to rise are those in Scandinavia.

The continuing ignorance most of us show towards preventing global warming will only hasten the environmental and politic catastrophes now being predicted.

I do not know what the long term answer is but I do believe we as guardians of this planet will, like an ant colony, eventually out grow ourselves beyond the point of sustainability. The fate of the human race will depend entirely upon just how tired this wonderful Earth has become with us.

[See report from guardian.co.uk/envirnoment]

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On a much smaller scale I will be investing in a water butt for the garden shed, inspired by my neighbour’s pipes and water container collecting from his greenhouse, to water the small vegetable patch I begun last year and intend to continue with again this year. I will eventually get around to posting a picture or two of the vegetables we are able to grow for ourselves on such a small piece of earth, I wish I had more of it.