Please Sir, may I have some more....

So the MPs who are being forced to stand down because effectively they have been caught with their fat, grubby fingers in the till are now asking to stand down at the next election.

This shows the weakness in our prime minister and his opposition leader. Flash Gordon Brown and Delboy Cameron should make these people go immediately and not receive the perks of an honourably retiring MP.

Not only have they stolen the tax payers money but now want rewarding after being caught. They should be stripped of their MP priviledges and their title "The Right Honourable...". What a joke that title is!

This option should be denied them, sack them now !

Europe......

Like I have said I am back, or to put it correctomundo, John and I are back after our short raid on Europe. Not much damage done and we maintained our usual relationsip with the continentals.

Details and photos to follow as soon as I am organised.

Some Good News....

....and a little bit of good news.

Well done to all the Gurkhas and their supporters who have succeeded in their fight against the parliamentary terrorists led by Flash Gordon and his fingers in the till cronies!

With a special thank you to Joanna Lumley, what a lady!

FACT, FACT, FACT.......

Well after a short break on holiday I am back on site.

While I have been away a new FACT has been established Senor Fat Waiter aka Rafa Benitez,

Manchester United have won the Premiership three times in a row for a second time!!

That time of Year Again

Just back from North Wales with SWMBO and Harvey (the dog) and time to prepare for our (John and me) trip to the continent.

After last year's trip to France, Spain and Gibraltar we are taking it a little easier this year and we are going to treat the Swiss Miss' to our company. A two day day pootle through France, ravage and rape Switzerland, then a pootle back home through France.

If we are lucky we will see the Swiss Navy, dying to get hold of one of their Swiss Navy knives then I'll have the full set. See one of the Gnomes of Switzerland and finish off with yodelling lessons!

"The Mad Mullah of the Traffic Talliband"

Is it true? Richard Brunstrom is to retire in July?

Has he been pushed or did he jump?

What a Sad day......

On the day that four of our servicemen have died in Afghanistan, our leaders, from the Prime Minister, Gordon the Dreadful Unelected, 'a son of the manse' (?), and his Cabinet members down to the run of the mill members of Parliament are screwing the "expenses system" for every penny its worth and stumbling around saying they are legitimate claims!

Where is the honour?

How can this pitiful government justify itself?

By denying true homage and support to the past (Gurkhas) and present serving soldiers while they line their own pockets with the tax payers hard earned funds.

Such a shameful group of grabbing Brits!

Turned out nice again...

Well, not really. Today is probably the worst day of the week so far. Extremely overcast and cold with strong winds. Earlier in the week we have had sunny spells, quite warm for this time of year.

So nice I exposed the scooter to its first outing of the year. I'm not exactly a fair weather rider but as a pensioner I can pick and chose when and why I venture out. I'll ride in the rain if it is necessary but I'll chose my riding weather whenever possible.

Well Monday was quite pleasant. Jumped on the scoot and blasted up the bye-pass then pootled down the country lanes to my son's. Not a long ride but a pleasant ride with the sun on my back.

Now all set for a week's riding in North Wales at the end of the month then a ride through France to Switzerland in May. As these dates are written in stone I just have to accept the weather of the day, hoping for a little bit of sunshine at least.

First of April........

Well, what a start to April!

Half past four on Wednesday morning I awoke with a terrific pain in my chest, pain in my right arm and jaw. Sitting up eased the pain slightly. Managed to take my tablets but still no relief. So apologising I woke up SWMBO. She clicked into action, phoning '999'. A paramedic turned up quickly followed by an ambulance and off I was packed to the local A&E to be diagnosed with a MI (Heart Attack to you and me). Transferred to a medical ward, given morphine, intravenous paracetamol, blood tests and a blood pressure dropping through the floor.

The medical staff gave me a 'thrombolisation' (think that's the right term) to flush out any clots in the heart. The doctor then asked me, "How long have you had an irregular heartbeat?" What a question to ask me I'm not very 'medical' inclined - just know when I have man-flu!

So when my BP started to rise and normalise I was transferred to the Coronary Care Unit (CCU) for five days. Tied down to bed and wired for 'sound', more ECGs and morphine, blood tests.

Halfway through the night I called the nurse for the commode as I was wired up, restricting me to my bed area, she brought me some brilliant news. "You can walk down to the ward toilets. Your blood test has returned 'negative', you haven't had an heart attack."

After morning rounds, on Thursday, the doctor discharged me with outpatient appointments and new and changed medicine.

So a whirlwind thirty six hours! I am now bruised and exhausted but at home with thanks to the medical staff at Macclesfield Hospital especially A&E, MCU and CCU.

Sorry.....

'Sorry', when and why has this poor overused phrase become the norm for taking responsibility?

Bankers are 'sorry' for negligently wasting our invested funds and then taking their begging bowls to the tax payers (not the 'Government' please note; that is just our agency for ruining this once great country.) to rescue the financial standing of the banks in order to award their most useless and senior staff pensions which can be compared to winning the national lottery.

Government ministers are 'sorry' for stretching the rules of allowances to the limit of law and not the spirit of law, again robbing the under pressure tax payers. Many of these tax payers are paying income tax on their meager pensions.

Why should these representative members of our society renege on taking proper responsibility? What has happened to honour, has it been rejected in favour of political correctness?

Today's News.....

Well it may be news depends on your view......

On the dark side of F1 news, Max Mosley, he of F1 racing car fame, says the News Of The World (UK newspaper) had taken his dignity and hurt his family by revealing his attendance at a sado-masochistic party. Apparently Mosley had been "doing this for forty five years and there had never been a hint and nobody knew."Apparently, Mosley, president of the International Automobile Federation, said he was ,"outraged." He added: "It's not even talked about outside the circle. Nobody knew. My closest friends didn't know. My wife didn't know.

"The fact that that had worked so well... made me feel confident."

Well, my take on this is that if he didn't want people to know, why did he attend this kind of party?

On the bright side of F1 news, Louis Hamilton, the youngest world champion driver, received his MBE, from Her Majesty The Queen. Louis said he was ,"humbled by the massive honour" .

What a difference in behaviour by two members of the racing fraternity.

Well done Louis!!

Another little job...

Had a look in my Givi top box. Amazing how much junk and bits of kit accumulate over the year.

Again, I have decided to down size and just carry the essential emergency stuff. First problem, what is 'essential'? And for that matter what is 'emergency' kit?

Who made life this complicated? Why can't I just go on my merry way making a pig's ear of the country's banking and have the country's leader, Flash Gordon, award me a 650k annual pension. No, I have to go and complicate life by having a Givi top box!

So I turf everything out of the box and divide my stuff into two piles. Guess what? Yeah, the keep pile is the largest and there are only two items in the disposal pile. Why do I bother?

So I reload my stuff into the top box, what a useless exercise though I must say I reloaded the box much more neatly. Well, until the next time I need something.

Those little jobs

With the temperature rising to ten C I stirred my old bones, stepped outside and whipped the cover off the Burgman.

The seat was full of cat hairs where a stray had made its winter home. Erm, I'll have to apply a bit of soap and water to the bike but first things first.

I had ordered some of those weird rubber nuts that attach the windscreen to the frame, the old ones had become a little chewed up through having to remove the windscreen to do various jobs, there must be a technique to undoing and re-fitting these fiddly bits.

Applied a little washing up liquid to lubricate the rubber and the first one slipped in like a charm. Had a devil of a job with the opposite side. Took near on an hour to get the holes of the windscreen, decorative tupperware and the frame to line up. Story of my life. Eventually seem to get the hang of it and managed to fix all six nuts before sunset.

Checked the oil levels, kicked over the engine and it fired up first time after being laid up outside for four months. Checked all the light, indicators and horn - all working ,no problem. The tyres too had held their pressures.

Ready for the road!

Just Like Watching Brazil....

A real treat tonight! Brazil v. Italy at the Arsenal ground.

A really good game with fast flowing football from both sides. Nice to see Guiseppe Rossi making progress with Italy, ex-Manchester United player who we nicknamed Joe Red.

Both of Brazil's goals scored by Manchester City players - Elano and Robinho.

Even the referee, Howard Webb, and his officials had a good game.

Sorry? Sorry......What do they mean bleedin' sorry?

Appearing before the Treasury Committee, today, the former bosses of the two biggest UK casualties of the banking crisis have apologised "profoundly and unreservedly" for their banks' failure.

Below is their earnings (???) for year 2007.

RBS

Sir Tom McKillop, Chairman, £750,000
Sir Fred Goodwin, Group chief executive, £4,190,000
Johnny Cameron. Chairman, global markets, £3,256,000

HBOS

Lord Stevenson, Chairman, £821,000
Andy Hornby, Chief executive, £1,926,000
Peter Cummings, Chief executive, corporate division, £2,606,000.

These are just two banks senior officials who were so overpaid, their salaries blinded them to the actions of their staffs that has almost brought this country to bankruptcy and all they can say is sorry. In my opinion these pathetic men are no better than Nick Leeson (who caused the collapse of Barings Bank).

Their negligence needs punishing and all forms of pay back should be instituted. "Sorry, my arse!" as Jim Royle would observe.

Further, investigation needs to be carried out to find out who appointed men of this calibre to these positions. Obviously, the headhunters, interviewers have serious problems with their remits and standards of selection and need to be replaced with men of integrity, honour and knowledge.

Selfish Adults 'Damage Childhood'

...so says a report on BBC.

Apparently a panel of 'experts' spent three years on this study. The panel of experts, consisted of eleven members, eight being universtity professors.

Family breakup, unprincipled advertising, too much competition in education, and income unequality.

On family breakup. On my return to the UK in the seventies, my father, who was an astute observer, told me about the growing number of young girls who couldn't face up to problems with their parents, purposely became pregnant, ran away from the family home and successfully obtained tenancy of council property becoming the youngest tenants. Here they tried to raise their children and obviously without any experience of employment became parasites on society, expecting the taxpayer to fund their lifestyle.

With the liberal life style of the time this situation was allowed to expand. Now these children are approaching adulthood with problems.

The report cites research suggesting that three times as many three year olds living with lone parents or a step-parent have behavioural problems compared with those living with married parents.

"Children with separate, single or step parents are 50% more likely to fail at school, have low esteem, be unpopular with other children and have behavioural difficulties, anxiety or depression."

Also, working mothers are establishing more economic independence causing family breakup.

**********************************

As a child of the Second World War, the majority of families were one parent families and working mothers. I experienced this as my father was abroad in the army, serving overseas. There were many other families who had lost their fathers in battle. The mothers had to go to work to replace the serving men to support the war effort.

Different times, same problems, but different outcomes!

Then, people lived up to and respected their responsibilities and commitment to their family.

Now, we have a liberal, selfish, individualistic society with these disfunctional single parent families assuming the State is responsible for their families.

The answer seems to be in the resurrection of the family.

More responsibility by the parents of teenagers who use the birth of babies to blackmail society into providing a parasitical lifestyle.

Encouragement, by the government, to re-establish the institution of marriage, by re-introducing marriage allowances in the taxation system at the expense of single parent benefits.

Young teenage girls should not be allowed to take priority of the housing authorities systems, they should be accommodated by their parents thus creating family support and responsibility.

It's Snowing

A shot from my toilet window.

Yes it's snowing big flakes.

I don't usually take my camera to the toilet but it's the easiest and most accessible view.

People from mainland Europe might wonder about the fuss but we don't usually experience snow of any significance. In fact the last heavy snows I remember were December 1978, 1963,
and the daddy of them all 1947.

The Royal Family

Where have they gone? They seem to have disappeared off the face of the earth.

Nothing from society, armed forces, charities, newspapers or the political correct, where are they?

On the road again.....

Ah, I am smelling it now. The open road, petrol fumes, and the noise, croissants and baguettes!

Already I have the route plotted, hotels and Euro Tunnel booked, ready to ride off into the wild blue yonder. After last year's trip through France and Spain down to Gibraltar, this year John and I are planning a shorter trip to Switzerland. To see the lakes and the Alps. Wonder if they still make cuckoo clocks and have gnomes in Zurich?

Let's check the bike!!!

Presidential Medal of Freedom

H'mm, just noticed George Dubyah has awarded Tony Bliar the highest US civilian award, the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his support of the USA against terrorism. Yeah!

They didn't find the weapons of mass destruction, which could strike the UK inside forty five minutes, did they? How can Bliar accept this medal for lying to the UK electorate. I wonder what 'Flash' Gordon, our latest superhero, thinks of all this?

While on the subject of Bliar, where is he, the super Middle Eastern envoy, during the current Gaza troubles?