Friday 5 September 2014

So, what's happened this week?

A week of high's and lows, ups and downs, toing and froing, coming and going. Some fun, some far from fun. But the one thing you can say for the past seven days... they were a week.

So what happened:

1. A people carrier, a tank and a jet fighter were all on parked on a fairway at Celtic Manor in Newport. The members of the golf club must have been overjoyed and anyone who had booked months in advance to have a quiet golfing holiday buying Cameron, Obama and the rest a beer in the hotel bar. Surely the world leaders didn't need to meet at a golf club, any old Travelodge would have done. Having said that, last time it was Gleneagles that took the strain, so maybe they do need the odd hole in one! Let's hope it's not all golf and they actually do some good.

2. The Islamic State morons, once again proved they have nothing to do with Islam and everything to do with pure vitriolic hate and terrorism. They have to be stopped now, and the radicalisation of our children needs to be halted at schools, mosques and universities. It has to be said that it's down to the Muslim community to handle that one.

3. England once again showed their true cricketing prowess in a One Day International match. Bring back Geoffrey Boycott and Beefy Botham!

4. Poor old Luke Donald was left out of the Ryder Cup team, while Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter were picked as wildcards in his stead. I have to agree with the decision though. Poulter is such a fighter and so passionate, while Westwood always does well in the Ryder Cup. Luke Donald isn't having a good year and although he's a very technically precise player, he's not as passionate as the other two. Let's hope Obama, Cameron and crew get off Celtic Manor so the team can practice!

5. A Jamaican who had spent some years in prison (for rape, I believe) and was being expelled from the UK, suddenly remembered he was gay as he boarded the plane in handcuffs. He was immediately take back to prison (presumably) and is now allowed to stay in the UK on the basis he might be persecuted in Jamaica because he's gay, plus of course he has the right to a family life. Was he gay when he was raping women, or had he forgotten? Besides, if he's really gay, who would know in Jamaica, unless he was going to tell them. He certainly never told anyone in the UK before! The "Get Out Of Jail Free" card!

6. In line with event #5 Manchester United's new signing is having problems. He's being paid £300k a week and he's being given a gratis club house (it won't be a 2 up, 2 down) so he's hardly going to be a drain on the UK economy, in fact at current tax rates we'll benefit to the tune of £120k a week and you can bet he won't be shoving the rest under a mattress! Local garages, clubs and boutiques must be rubbing their hands in anticipation! The problem is his work permit isn't quite right and without that he can't come into the country. He should have said he was a gay Jamaican.

7. Also on the question of immigration, the migrants in Calais are getting more and more desperate, even to the extent of climbing into the boot of a private car. The man in question wasn't discovered by the driver until she was in Dover, by which time it was too late and the population had increased by one. With well over a thousand migrants at the port of Calais trying to get to the UK by any means, and many more heading that way, the situation is critical. Open borders in the EEC is fine, providing all countries are equal, but they never will be, and the poorest people from the poorest countries will always try to get the better off to improve their lives. That was always going to happen, so why didn't our politicians recognise the fact instead of pussyfooting around talking about Human Rights Acts?
Now we have the mayor of Calais talking about closing the port. Not good.

8. On a personal note, we booked a week's holiday in Tunisia and plan to visit Carthage, something I've always wanted to see. We need the break after my daughter's wedding and the wind down from that!

9. After some weeks trying to get action, BT have eventually agreed to disconnect one of the BT lines I have in the house (one was for home and the other for business). We only now need the home line as I've effectively retired to become a blockbusting success as an author! The trouble is I have BT Infinity Broadband on my business line and I want it moved across to the home line. Trying to explain that to India has been a nightmare. They threatened me with massive penalties if I cancelled and large fees for doing the work. On one occasion the line just went dead. Eventually I spoke to someone in the UK by pretending I wanted to buy something and after much slow explaining got the guy to understand what I want. The engineer is coming Monday to do the entire job. Firtsly BT are charging nothing to do the work and secondly there is no penalty (Yah, Boo Sucks to India!). Better than that my home tariff including broadband has gone down by nearly £10 a month and I no longer pay for the other line, a saving of over £60 a month!. On top of that I will now be able to get BT Sport for nothing, even though we have Sky! Result!
Naturally Royal Mail tried to deliver the hub / router yesterday while I was out, and even though there was a big label on the slim box saying it was designed to go through a letterbox, they took it away and I had to drive 6 miles today to pick it up.

9. Marit Meredith's long-awaited anthology of poems and stories for children called The Shambelurkers Return came out in paperback this week. At the moment it's available from Lulu, but it will be out on Amazon hopefully next month. Proceeds go the children's section for NAS which desperately needs the money. It's actually also a rather good read!

That Was The Week That Was!

Blog on, Dudes!