Showing posts with label Daily Express. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Daily Express. Show all posts

Sunday, 15 July 2018

Is It Too Darn Hot?


Yesterday I was in Edinburgh and at times in was so hot that had to dive in to shade to get a little relief. While I am not a hot sun person, I definitely prefer the weather sunny that to grey dark skies. I alsthink of the walks to work with the wind is so cold that it's almost trying to burn your face off. We've also not had much rain, last year was almost perfect, sunny during the day raining at night. It is great wehn you don't really need an umbrella.

Today it's so hot in th ehouse that even a nightgown is uncomfortably superfluous, but luckily I have a couple of old Preston North End replica shirt that hide my body from the public while keeping me cool, after all in our Daily Mail / Dail Express / Sun dominated nation we don't want any bare flesh unless it's some photo shopped female in one of those rags do we. Some people are only happy when they have something to be offended by.

I finally cut ties with someone on Facebook when he tweeted that there was no need to demonstrate against Donald Trump and everyone should just chill, which in my opinion is there a backing for racism, misogyny, bullying (fill in your list), this comes on the back of him trivialising my friends and continually criticising while excusing Tory misogyny and racism.

Anyway today France play Croatia in the World Cup final, and I have just had the most awful cup of instant coffee, and it's L'Or and it is truly bitter and awful , the jar is going in the bin when I get down. I have had their stuff before and it was fine, this is disgusting. God I am sounding like a Daily Mail reader. I AM NOT.

Anyway I am now going to have a coldish shower, and go out and get the papers. Today is a day when I am expending no effort whatsoever. I wasn't even going to write this, but I already have done. Two songs have been going through my mind "Too Darn Hot" by Ann Miller from Cole Porter's musical "Kiss Me Kate" for obvious reasons and "Too Much Ain't Enough" by Tom Petty, because even though I've said I'm going to do nothing, I will do somethingand I probably will overdo it and at the end of the day think there is something else I should have done.

So you get both songs and now it's shower time.


Saturday, 3 March 2018

Almost Like Christmas


Although the snow is slightly melting it almost feels like Christmas. Then you realise that you have work on Monday, all the shops are open, and there are no presents to open and no Christmas Trees in peoples' windows.

The sky is still grey and featureless. Footpaths are still walkable and today I manage 8.5K steps so I'm only 17K steps down for March which , in theory, I could make up in a day.

The snow is meant to be gone my Monday but it's not showing any signs of retreating at the moment, well maybe it's getting a little warmer and there is a little melting , but this is not the "Killer Winter Weather" forecast by the Daily Express a couple of days back, though I just look at their front page for a laugh these days as ist's either Armageddon weather or some Jeremy Corbyn fake news.

Of course this gives me another excuse to share The Raveonettes "Christmas Song" with you which as you know by now is my favourite Christmas Song ever. Dobbies even used it for a Christmas advert of theirs which is where I first heard it.

Anyway enjoy your SAturday night and we will see what tomorrow brings.

Wednesday, 21 February 2018

Have A Cuppa Tea (Have Another One)


Although I hadn't particularly planned it I chose Gong's "Angel's Egg (Radio Gnome Invisible Part II)" and, while I knwo it is a great album my Emopeak headphones seem to reveal new sounds and atmospheres. At time the music seems just like it's knocked together or a singalongs in an English pub, French dive or Morrocan Souk. "Flute Salad" reminds of the feel of the Ethiopiques recordings, simple but sophisticated with guitar and flute playing the same motif.

Many of the songs are acoustic while other go into full blown rock and electronics. Two saxophone guitar riff driven standouts are "I Never Glid Before" and "Eat That Phonebook (Coda).

The "Have A Cuppa Tea" comes from a refrain from "Givin My Luv To You" (though it may be something else as the Gong mythology takes in flying teapots and pot head pixies. You can actually buy a flying teapot here. All in all another great Gong album.

When it came out as teeneagers we were  impressed by the music, but were well aware of the sexually explicit drawing that made up the cover. You can see it by clicking through on the link above, This was at the time of Mary Whitehouse but I don't remember any particular furore over it. I remember at some point a sticker being put on the explicit area of the cover and then another version came out with a hastily redesigned cover (which you can see here), but I'm happy to see that the original cover is the norm in shops these day.

This morning is quite warm so will be walking into work, though the Daily Express are forecasting another Ice Age . My steps for February are going well and I need to average 8.5K a day to hit my target for February, so it hasn't been that difficult a month to maintain my steps.

Also quite please that Preston came out of two matches against two of the best teams in the Championship with draws , though dodgy refereeing decisions cost us in both matches.

Anyway I found a live take of "I Never Glid Before" demonstationg the chaotic precision of this amazing band in black and white ofn French Television,




Friday, 19 August 2016

Shine A Light


I got up this morning and needed lights on everywhere. The days are getting shorter. The Mail and Express blame it n foreigners . Seriously, we're still in summer, the weather has been great , it's Friday which means the weekend is here, so all is good.

This is my 1100th post on here, that's quite a lot , and does provide me with a great online diary of stuff worth remembering.

Think Differently
Recently I started another blog just for me to let off steam here as I do like to keep this one positive,and there are still lots of great things to be positive about. The UK are doing well in the Olympics and the EU actually tops the Olympic table , or it would do if we were part of it.

The obvious song for this post is Shine A Light , not the Take That version, or even The Rolling Stones.

I decided to go for the Gallagher and Lyle song of that name.

Anyway, as I said it is Friday, the weekend is nearly here , the weather is great (although skies at the moment are grey) so everything is in place for maximum enjoyment.

I know this isn't a particularly memorable post but 1100 is not a particularly memorable number really.

Go on enjoy yourself, you know it makes sense.

Saturday, 14 December 2013

The Fear Of God


I always thought it was odd that the devil was the bad guy and god was the good good guy but sometimes he was painted as loving and caring and other times as the classic "dies irae" , angry , vengeful, and fearful . so we had to toe the line , go to church on Sundays and basically be scared of him (oh and yes he was a white man). The sequence in Monty Python's Holy Grail gave be a decent slant on this (where he complains about how depressing psalms are).


The thing is if a being is omnipresent and omnipotent then that being will not be concerned with human emotions and motivations , in fact if you can do anything , then pretty soon you would get very bored , well I would. Part of the the joy of living is the uncertainty if things and striving to achieve goals and not knowing what's going to happen next. Yes there are certain things in place and the sun tends to rise and the seasons are reasonably predictable (though still waiting for The Daily Mail & Express's ice ages and tsunamis), so you have reasonably solid foundations to build on when you want to do something.

If there is a god , and I'm hedging my bets by being agnostic, I believe that the god would want us to tho live our lives to the best of our ability, and be kind to every living thing. The insecurity of life is demonstrated in the TED talk below which I found difficult to take in just because of the concepts including the Higgs-Boson particle , and in a tangential move away the seasonal song is "I Smell Winter" by the Housemartins, which I don't think has appeared on any Christmas compilations.

Also the fact I'm doing a seasonal song a day and tagging it with Christmas , means that Christmas is now one of my most common tags on here , soon to outstrip Apple and iPhones! It's quite funny that some of my most used tags are about things that I don't particularly care about , a bit like on Twitter , where if you want your tweet to go viral usually it's a complaint , which surely is not what our god would want if that god were on Twitter.

Oh and I do follow God on Facebook here , he is very good and I can live with this God's existence. Have a brilliant weekend everybody.

Monday, 25 November 2013

Not As Cold Today

...but winter is here, and so am I. While I love snow, it's only when I can get get into the warm and admire it's beauty from a position of comfort. I now have to leave to go to work , so need to wrap up and brave the elements. So thought the Dean Martin performance was an ideal soundtrack, because according to the Mail and Express two weeks back we are due six inches of snow (naughty joke for Game of Thrones fans). But if they keep saying it one day they will be right.


We are closer to Christmas, and although it's Monday there are lots of things to look forward to. Have a brilliant day everyone.

Saturday, 16 February 2013

Pause For A Hoarse Horse


Watch movies online and free tv

I nicked the title for this post from a seventies album by the band Home, which you can sample here . This is going to be a short post just about the whole kerfuffle of Findus Beef Lasagne and Tesco's burgers being contaminated with "horse meat". It's not poison !!

How often have you be so hungry you could eat a "scabby horse between two bread vans" ? When you go to a restaurant and order steak , you just expect beef , but it could really be any meat and the vendor would not be done under the trade descriptions act.

There's talk of criminal activity and nefarious dealings but the basic facts are that beef costs ten times as much as horse , and let's face it , when it's minced it becomes even further removed from the source animal. Also it's the risk and price you pay for eating ready meals and convenience foods.

It really isnt that difficult to make meals fronm scratch. Get meat from your local butcher (NOT Morrison's Market Street or Waitrose Meat Counter) , support your local butcher . The meat will be local , and visible and trustworthy . And you will probably find it's a lot cheaper.

Also did you know that supermakets plump up their bacon by injecting it with water , which means when you cook it , it shrinks to about a tenth of the original size you thought your were getting.

Anyway I still can't get over the media and gullible public's reaction to this . I'm surprised David Cameron hasn't applauded them on the meat suppliers cost cutting initiative ,I mean he expecte deveryone else to do it. But the Mail and Express et al continue on about the scandal . I mean it's not like we're eating Soylent Green ...... yet 


Thursday, 24 May 2012

Panic

In 1990 I remember seein a TV program in which some expert reckoned the average family had to spend £2000 a month on insurance premiums to cover them in case something went wrong. At the time my wage was about £1100 a month . I think you can spot the flaw in his argument, Basically he was trying to scare me into a situation where I'd be too frightened to do anything.

Today I saw a sign reminded us that the Digital Switchover is coming as though it wer the ent of the world . "You could lose ALL your TV channels!!" . Well no , actually , you wont , worst case is you will lose the ability to recieve the channels if you dont have a way of receiving digital channels and if you you buy a TV they have a digital receiver built in. But they're still trying to frighten people.

In Michael Moore's film "Bowling For Columbine"  he wonders why there are so many gun related deaths , compared with Switzerland who have mandatory gun ownership , and Canada where guns and ammunition are as freely available as in the USA. This is a very nice little theory cartoon from the film:


These days if you take out a new mobile phone contract you really need to insure against it been stolen of getting broken. The only insurance you really need is to back up your data and phone numbers . Insurance isn't cheap when the list price of a replacement iPhone or iPad us up to £700 !!

In Britain the Daily Mail and Express have a new crisis every week. Bird 'Flu , Pension Crash , The Economy is going to explode , Britain is going to be hit by a Tsunami , turned into a desert or flooded. The list is endless. Oh yeah and there's Al Quaeda , a convenient bogeyman . It was Iraq , now it's Iran , then it'll be China - oh sorry they have money so like the USA can do what the hell they like.

Anyway , my advice is take reasonable precaution , enjoy life . If you want to avoid pregnancy during sex , wear a condom , don't dismember  the guy or woman!!

Sunday, 20 May 2012

Another Summers Day .....But It'll Either Rain Or Go Dark Before Morning

A Sunny Corner of The Garden
Well although theres a bit of rain , and summer doesnt really start while about June , loads of people have been whining about the fact we've had no summer and thats it for this year and the British weather is appalling . It's weather , it's unpredictable , get over it.

We've ad the Daily Mail and Express predicting froods , and snowdrifts akin to The Day After Tomorrow , and ...... we're still here , no state of emergency. In fact today has been a great day weatherwise as you can see from the photograph of my garden. It's been a great daty for sitting out and talking in the weather.

It seems lots of people arent satisfied until something bad happens and they'll point out that they predicted it . Well as a farmer I knew once said  "It'll either rain or go dark before morning" , and you know what ... he was always right!!

Thursday, 10 May 2012

My God How Much Rain?



Well I'm glad I worked from home today , it has absolutely poured down. Raining like mad. The Daily Mail & Express will have us preparing for the deluge as that's an easy one. It's weather it does what it wants, if you're lucky to can forecast a couple of days in advance assuming no one throws a spanner in the works.


Roughly it's cold in winter and you might get snow , in springs things generally start to grow , summer is generally hotter and autumn things start to die.  But that doesnt preclude getting all four seasons in one day.

My other thing this week is the Raspberry Pi . The cheap (£25) computer meant to get kids properly interested in programming. Almost every guy I know has one . I'm feeling a little left out. There's and excellent blog on the subject here. A great way of getting kids interested in actually doing something. Don't but FIFA 2012 buy a football , want to be famous for a reason.

I wonder if I should buy one ......

Wednesday, 2 May 2012

Just Wondering ...

In October / November 2011 it was World Novel Writing month and and at the time I wondered if I could sit down and write 2000 words from scratch. I managed to do it here , and got to thinking could I write a blog entry for a day for a month?

Last year I also managed 100 blog entries for the first time , that's two a week.

People keep diaries and that's all a blog is , albeit an online  version, and to be quite honest , you could easily write  forty entries in a day , maybe short ones, but nonetheless you could do it, and maybe I will actually try that one day.

For the time being I may actually try to complete at least one a day for the month of May 2012. I may do more than one a day but will at least post one entry every day this month and see if I can find something to post about.

Newspapers have to fill themselves everyday and there must be days when nothing really newsworthy happens , but that wont stop the Dail Mail and Daily Express coming with some scary headline or the Dail Sport finding a knicker shot of some C List celebrity to fill their front page