You are currently browsing the The English Guy's Personal Blog weblog archives for July, 2008.

 

Posted by richard

35% raise on the bills from British Gas! Bloody hell!

Where is the average normal person expected to find this kind of money without a cost-of-living raise every year? No-one gets that, so this just makes life tough beyond words. I thank God I don’t own a car…

Tags: , ,

 

Posted by richard

After a long day in stifling heat, it was nice to drive home with the window wound down and arms outside in the breeze. It just got right into my t-shirt and cooled me down, just what I needed. It has been hot and humid here today, downright nasty really, strength-sapping to a point.

More of the same tomorrow, but with rain/thunderstorms promised in the afternoon. Hopefully it will clear away some of this humidity.

 

Posted by richard

It has been such a great weekend – the weather has been perfect. Just thought I should note it.

Now I hope it remains the same until the next weekend at least, some serious partying to get done!

 

Posted by richard

Maybe not ‘young’ in this case since I’m talking about meatballs I made yesterday, but you know when you’re a kid and growing up, you have your favourite recipes? You know when you grow up and although many of us take precious little interest in cooking, we eventually come round to it, and long for those same recipes we had when we were young.

What I’m talking about is something I had when I was visiting the northeast of the US, a business trip and I had some meatballs in spaghetti sauce as this little restaurant, a mom-and-pop kind of place. They were amazing, and although the ones I cooked last night were great, still not the same.

My spaghetti bolognese recipe, nearly got that right. This despite the fact I even have the same recipe as my mum used, still doesn’t taste the same as I remember it. I have now ditched the wine, the cinzano (she used cinzano though, not wine), and added mushrooms and I’m so very close.

I think I’ll still be another year before I get it right, another ten or so times to cook it to the point of where it’s the same as my memory reminds me.

Tags: ,

 

Posted by richard

Yeah! That title sounds like some catchy jingle don’t you think?

After all this time Labour is beginning to slowly realise that the usurper, Gordon Brown, is as useless as tits on a brass monkey. He really is doing nothing for the country. Sound bites on news programs reveal he seems rudderless and just out of it. Now the Cabinet has given him two months to raise Labour’s popularity or face a revolt.

After he commented that he was concentrating on doing his job, that’s what the people wanted him to do. Correction Mr Brown: the people don’t want you in office, and didn’t vote you in office either.

Moreover, if he, and the government, were doing their jobs they’d realise that putting taxes up on petrol, or inaction on rapidly rising fuel costs (EDF just increased prices by 22% for example), we’d get some relief from it. Postponing taxes on petrol isn’t going to help is it? And surely the government can cap prices for fuel?

Two months in my mind is a bit too long, Mr Brown is getting way out of touch with the average person, and everyone I talk to is sick of the state of the country. Moreover many of the people I talk to about this are fed up with so many people on benefits, just sucking money from the state (read: us, our taxes) and not working.

The only good thing so far that we’ve heard of is making people work for dole money. Yes! Finally someone gets the idea!

Update: One last bit I remembered from the news last night. Someone was interviewing the deputy PM, and they asked, ‘Do you support My Brown?’ – she replied, ‘I support all the work that the Prime Minister performs.’ LOL, talk about a fine bit of sidestepping politics!

Tags:

 

Posted by richard

Standing there in my bathroom this morning, shaving and wondering about various things, I noticed some small text on the back of the deodorant bottle. I usually don’t read it, like pretty much 99% of the people in the world I suspect.

It said this though: no CFCs contained in this product.

That’s been around for a while now, but it did make me wonder about something else. Two questions really:

  • Why do we need this on products after this long? Surely we all know that CFCs are not in anything these days.
  • More (vastly) importantly: what replaced CFCs, and will they be the next CFC?

Tags:

 

Posted by richard

I saw a shock pink car (taxi) today. What on earth possesses someone to purchase something that colour?

The fact that it’s a taxi negates that somewhat – I can understand that the owner might want people to remember them for a long time, and having a shock pink taxi certainly wouldn’t shift from your memory in a hurry…

Tags: ,

 

Posted by richard

I’m a big fan of Coldplay, loved their music for years now. I was a bit disappointed in the lack of albums over the past couple of years but let me set that straight now, their new album, Viva la Vida, is great! Definately worth the wait, for sure. I would recommend this for anyone, and it’s not the same music as previous albums, there’s some new elements in almost reminiscent of the Beatles’ late stuff.

Tags: ,

 

Posted by richard

And if that title weren’t enough to really interest you – here’s what I didn’t write: the Swiss are having a referendum on whether to . Completely and utterly. Man, what an interesting thought!

From the US we can see that strict laws on personal possession don’t work, they just fill prisons up with normal people who aren’t really “criminals”, they just like to relax and smoke pot instead of drinking a case of beer.

Here’s what the article said:

Mark this date in your calendar: On November 30th a referendum will be held among the people of Switzerland about whether to completely legalize possession, sale, and cultivation of cannabis. We’re talking *legalization*, not grey area style toleration as in the Netherlands. Meaning, that if successful, pot would be sold in supermarkets just like alcohol, if you’re an adult. (with the only ban left being advertising of cannabis, so it would be similar to tobacco ad bans)

The funny thing is the initiative is even supported by conservative politicians there, conceding that past drug policies have failed in reducing the number of cannabis users, thus they’re now willing to try the legalization/regulation route. Talk about a progressive country!

It would be interesting to see what happens with regards to the prison population, and the amount of people that smoke cannabis if it is legalised.

Tags: , ,

 

Posted by richard

If you’ve ever received one of those computer warehouse-style catalogues you’ll know what I mean when I say this: it’s computer nerd porn. (obviously, not as good as real porn)

I ordered some bits and pieces the other day, and I got a brand new catalogue with them. Thumbing through I’m sat there thinking to myself, ‘I want one of those’, ‘One of those’, ‘Oh I could do with that’, ‘Wonder if I have enough money for that?’ – it’s just so bad for me. I have to give up the habit, I really do.

On the bright side, I have a new computer case fan, a wireless network adapter, and a bluetooth earpiece. More stuff will be coming soon, no doubt …