Outstanding.

I haven't blogged in a while for a variety of reasons, primarily apathy and procrastination I should admit. However, I was moved this morning to get back on the blogging trail by this frankly outstanding pice of human endeavour. How good is this?

Credit Crunch?

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

Old men.

I've just witnessed a guy who had left his seat for a couple of minutes in the British Library with the desk full of his stuff including several books and his computer plugged in and turned on have his seat taken by an old guy who has now refused to budge for the last 5 minutes and made a ridiculous scene. I've spent a fair bit of time in libraries in general over the years and it never ceases to amaze me that it is singularly old men who I've seen cause problems by taking people's seats when they are clearly taken. I can't wait to get old, it's going to be so much fun.

Neglectful me.

I realised I've been somewhat neglectful of this blog - working full time, looking for jobs and doing Mitch's Honey do list means I don't get much time to write more, honest. So, in order to rectify this a little, I've got a pictorial catalogue of some of the things I've been up to over the last few months.

So, in no particular order:

I was joint best man for one of my oldest and best friends' wedding:


Mitch and I went to South London to visit my friend Stig where his daughters painted Mitch's nails, much to her, their and our general delight:


I went to the Falkirk Wheel! It was aces:


I'd wanted to go for ages and finally made it. It's powered by something like the equivalent of 8 irons plugged in. Or the same amount of electricity needed to keep Mitch warm.

I also went to Bergen and stayed with my friend Per down by the fjords. It was lovely. I also presented at a conference, but really that's an aside compared to staying at Per's house:



It was so fantastically dark at night that the window became a veritable mirror:


Per's neighbours had a nice hoose, but a wee bit remote for me:


Okay okay, I'll show you a picture of Bergen proper as well, since it is so pretty:


You can see the UNESCO World Heritage site just to the left of the picture there, it was pretty cook if a little rickety. Not really surprising given its age of course.

Mitch and I went to Brighton where we met up with her brother and his fiancee. Mitch looks pretty in black and white:


I adopted 3 cats. Well, I say adopted when I really mean looked after for a week through visitation rights. The one on the far right under the bed is called Sarah, the one with the arched back is called Stone and the other one is called Kans. We were best friends for a week. Probably because I could guarantee access to the dried tuna. No probably actually, definitely.


Duncan grew a ponytail and had me laughing like a drain:


My sister and her family came to see us and we went to the Natural History Museum and had a great time looking at all the animals:



We also went to St Andrews for a wee trip:




See, I have been busy!

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!

Berlusconi Mk II.

Give Silvio his due, just when you think he isn't capable of being any more idiotic than he has been, he does it again here.

Silvio thinks Obama is 'tanned'.

Imagine.

Just imagine the horror.

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

Wrong again.

Turns out I was wrong, but boy am I pleased about it!

Just to clarify.

I REALLY hope Obama wins. That's all.

Happy Birthday!

Diego Armando Maradona is 48 today. Probably one of the best footballers I've ever played against. Actually, I've never played against him, but I surely couldn't have done worse than this lot right?



Perhaps not.

The ridiculousness of the market.

Did anyone see this? Porsche, a company worth around about $7bn has managed to acquire options of up to 75% ownership of Volkswagen, a company worth up to $115bn, by playing the hedge funds at their own game. Of course, now the hedge funds are complaining about it which is a real shame for them. I particularly like the comment made by the former Deputy Chancellor of Germany, Franz Munterfering, re certain people in the financial services industry:

"Some financial investors spare no thought for the people whose jobs they destroy. They remain anonymous, have no face, fall like a plague of locusts over our companies, devour everything, then fly on to the next one."

Masters of the universe, if you will. Or not.

Another graphic.

The US election is nearly upon us and it's looking interesting. Obama is in the lead, but McCain's been the underdog before and still won the nomination to run. Who's going to win? No idea, probably McCain, perhaps Obama. Obviously I'd prefer the latter by virtue of the fact that the current Republican administration has been an unmitigated disaster in almost every way - the economy, foreign policy, domestic security and making the current regime the most invasive, power hungry and in thrall to big business government the US has ever had. For the so-called party of economic growth the following graphic shows succinctly that it's no more than a lie that the Republicans are the party of economic growth and prosperity:


Quite how they managed to pull that lie off is alien to me, but I will say one thing for them, they've got misinformation down to a fine art.

But, there is always room for a chuckle in any election so click on this and then click away to your heart's content. Made me laugh several times.

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.

The worst film of all time, ever?

I've just saw a trailer for what might be the worst film idea and execution of all time. You know The Warriors? Cult classic story of a gang trying to get back to its turf set in 1970s New York? Great film and one of my favourites. Well now we have The Purifiers. Set in a futuristic Glasgow and a rip off The Warriors movie, with KUNG FU added in. I watched the trailer and I can still smell it. It stinks.

Worst. Movie. Idea. Ever.

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.

Stevie Wonder.

So Mitch and I, as a consequence of the Bishop of her church's generosity, got to sit in a corporate booth and watch Stevie Wonder at the O2 arena on Tuesday night.

Our view of the stage before Not So Little Anymore Stevie Wonder hit the stage:


Here's Stevie doing his thing, doesn't he look good?


Aye, he's a showman for sure. Here he is again, right in the middle at the front of the crowd:


All in, I thought it was a great show although I'd have preferred if he'd played some of his early Motown stuff but it'd be churlish to complain given he played Living For The City, Higher Ground and Superstitious. I'd have killed to see him do Uptight though.

I should also note that all the way through Stevie kept referring to how he was voting Obama and that anyone with a vote should be doing the same. A sentiment I certainly agree with, but it made me think of the alternative. Isn't she lovely?

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:

Isn't Sarah Palin a lovely woman?

I mean really, isn't she?! The first one was the clincher for me. Such compassion.