Credit Crunch?

Good to see it isn't all bad news. Phew!

My wife.

Is such a lovely woman. But I still can't understand why she bought enough tulle to stretch across a football pitch. 100 YARDS of it!

Imagine.

Just imagine the horror.

I could spend all day writing about this, but I shan't.

Credit crunch and the UK made easy.

Interesting graphic here:


So, in bailing out the ailing banking system in the UK by spending at least £500bn, the government is over-stretching its spending projections by 81%. Where's Prudence when you need her? What's the bets that it'll be health and education that get squeezed (or squoze if you are Utahn, apparently), rather than say defence (now there's a misnomer) expenditure? And how many of these banking executives will be losing their jobs for messing up so spectacularly? How many won't get their bonuses this year? How many will do the honourable thing and resign their positions in light of their outstanding failure? Aye, nane. And whose money will they be spending? The taxpayers'. For the £50bn part-nationalisation component of the bailout alone it is going to cost each taxpayer £2000. I wonder if the banking executives will notice it in their annual bonus this year? I'm guessing not.

Even I'm tempted by this.

Well, apart from the cigarettes. Ooft, can you imagine the carnage in your stomach after some of that? All available from here. I realise as a vegetarian it is probably against my better judgement to advertise that place, but it does look good and tasty. I mean, look how happy this guy looks!

Guess I was wrong.

You know how I wrote a post about the Al Burj in Dubai being massive? Turns out it's not so massive in comparison to this badboy:



Ridiculous! It is part of a litany of projects that are mooted for construction in Dubai, of which more can be found here. I particularly like the Dubai Death Star and The Cloud. Sounds like some architects have been watching a little too much Star Wars.

London is expensive.

I've complained about it time and again of course, so Mitch and I have been thinking about ways that we can raise our standard of living and have hit upon this! Isn't it great? I mean, 437.4% apr?! Sounds like a bargain to me! Or loan sharking. Scum.

Crane Operator Needed.

Anyone fancy a job as a crane operator on the Burj Dubai?


Can you imagine if you needed to go to the loo?

As tall as that ridiculous building is, it's not even going to be the tallest! The Al Burj on the far left is going to be bigger:

My busy morning.

So, it turns out when Mitch goes away I revert to my usual working hours which are staying up late and getting up early as a consequence of writing. Or, burning the candle at both ends as my dad would tell me when I was a lad staying up watching tv or reading then getting up early and doing a paper round at the age of 12. So what does this all mean? Not much, but I was up late reading and trying to write Nigerian post-colonial monetary history last night and got up early this morning to organise collecting data on Hong Kong sterling holdings from the Bank of England. Then I got a buzz at the door - I answered (don't worry this is going somewhere, honest) to be told I had a delivery! That was a nice surprise. The guy asked what floor I was on and I told him the top (it's a 4 story building so not too high) to which he replied, and I quote, 'we don't do stairs'. Pardon? 'We don't do stairs, we're not insured'. So yes, that delivery charge I paid for didn't actually include the package getting delivered to the door. I would swear but I'm trying not to be to potty mouthed in case my in-laws are reading. (For swearing I suggest go here, here (sadly departed, but still makes me laugh) and here.) They all do swearing as I probably would if I wasn't trying to keep it clean.

So anyway yes, they don't do stairs. Because they're not insured. What is this? America? A place where suddenly even delivery men are considered so potentially litigious that they no longer have to walk up stairs? Ridiculous. And before I'm (perhaps correctly) accused of indolence, this is what I ended up carting upstairs (flat-packed) and then putting together:



I'm off to the Bank of England now. At least there they'll bring the folders I want to look at to me. I wonder how long it is until archivists are considered so potentially litigious that they'll be banned from that on insurance grounds?