Things I Love. Things I Hate!


For the past week I've been all over the country, mostly in the south, with so little time to think let alone blog.  Then it was Father's Day on Sunday and of course the Euro football's been on. So, apologies to anyone who logged onto my blog site and found the last blog was a week old. Apologies to me also, because I missed writing them.

I thought for this kick-off I'd do some listing, partly because I like lists, but mostly because it gives other people the chance of jpining in with commented lists of their own. So here goes:

Things I Really Love-
 - Dogs of all ages, especially cocker spaniels.
 - Later Pink Floyd
 - Early Beatles
 - Real ale on a Friday night with a small group of friends
 - Curling up in bed with a really good book (any Bernard Cornwell or Terry Pratchett) with the side light on.
 - Sunday  lunch
 - Reading books new authors (David Robinson, Trevor Shaw, Gina Dickerson, Alison Wells, Mandy Baggot) and too many others to mention, but no less wonderful.
Reading work by unpublished authors (who will be) like Marit Meredith.
 - Walking in the rain with all my wet weather gear on.
 - Nostalgia.
 - Cathedral organ music deep bass nnotes that makes your trousers creep up your legs ....and the hairs follow them.
 - The Gower Peninsular
 - Peru (especially the Sacred Valley and Macchu Pichu)
 - Chilled Sancerre Rouge and raw oysters on the half-shell
 - Pete Green's Fleetwood mac.
 - Father's Day
 - Christmas with all the family.
 - Good malt whiskey.
 - Golf... when I'm playing well, which isn't often.
 - The Queen wearing ear-plugs at rock concerts.
 - My collection of vinyl records... scratches and all.
 - Writing books that people enjoy reading.

Things I Really Hate-
 - The National Lottery telling me "It Could Be You" when I never buy a ticket.
 - Politicians who keep using the word "clear" and mean anything but.
 - Politicians who say "it's time to draw the line" and mean the nasty truth is near the surface.
 - Phone calls to what is meant to be a banned line for marketing, telling me all about PPI.. It;s always a robot and it never listens.
 - Banks who pretend to be "friendly", as they drain every penny from an already empty purse.
 - Chancellors of the Exchequer who levy retrospective income taxes at the end of tax year (the current one did that in April 2011 causing me to have an unexpected PAYE tax bill on self-assessment.
 - Hypocritical people
 - People who write "there" when they mean "their"
 - Drivers who use their mobile phones nwho hold the drvice in their (note spelling!) left hands and put to their right ear, because they think people won't notice.
 - The pig-ignorant rudeness of young teenagers who know you can do nothing back.....or not what you'd like to do.
- Swearing, especially the F and C words in pubs, especially by girls.
 - Bad table manners.
 - London business men who wear suits, white shirts, posh coats, but no ties. Half-dressed to my mind!
 - Restaurants that grossly overcharge for very average food.
 - Restaurants that charge incredible high prices for the "extras" with your main course, like potatos, vegetables. extra gravy (because there's never enough), mushrooms etc.
 - Heights.
 - "Quiet Zone" carriages on trains where mobiles and earphones are banned, but the train company plays constant recorded reminders that we mustn't travel without a ticket (a bit late!) and not to leave our belongings behind. Oh and the next station is....where the platform is too short so everyone has to move to the front of the train, but you can't because the food trolley's in the way.
 - Postmen who leave notes saying "I called but you were out" ....when I definitely wasn't. I watched one guy walk up my drive without anything, put a card through my door and walk away again. I called to him from a window, but "he didn't hear me".
 - The 2012 Olympics. The games will be fine, but the corruption and organisational failures are going to be the same as usual.

That's enough to be going on with.
Let's hear from you with some comments.
Blog on, Dudes!