Phones 4U
Rant over.
E-Ffffffooooouuuuurrrrrr!
Rant over.
Big Brother & Davina McCall
Rant over.
Lost
Home Sellers Packs
Rant over.
Past its sell by date
Rant over
Zoe Slater is The Bionic Woman
Rant over.
No. 2 - Roman Abramovich
The following was taken from Wikipedia:
"Abramovich started his commercial activity in the late 1980s when Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev's reforms permitted the opening of small private businesses, known as co-operatives. In 1992 to 1995 Abramovich founded five companies that conducted resale and acted as intermediaries, eventually specializing in the trading of oil and oil products. In 1995 Roman Abramovich, together with Boris Berezovsky, acquired the controlling interest in the large oil company Sibneft. The deal was within the controversial Loans-for-shares program and cost the partners $100m, although the real cost of the company was in billions of dollars [3].
During the 1990s, through their holding company Millhouse Capital, Abramovich and his business partner Eugene Shvidler acquired significant stakes in Russia's largest air company Aeroflot and the aluminium giant Rusal, as well as in smaller companies in the automobile industry, pharmaceuticals, food processing, real estate and other sectors. Most of those assets were sold for hefty profits in 2002-2005. Most notably, Millhouse Capital sold its stake in Sibneft to state energy giant Gazprom for 13 billion dollars, and its stake in Rusal to Oleg Deripaska for 2 billion dollars.
In 2004, Swiss criminal investigators abandoned an investigation into an alleged fraud involving a $4.8 billion loan from the IMF to Russia, in which Abramovich was one of the investigators' key suspects, after the United States and Russia refused to divulge information on the scandal; Laurent Kasper-Ansermet, the magistrate in charge of the Swiss investigation, was also beaten unconscious while visiting St Petersburg.[4]
In 2005, France commenced money laundering investigations into companies linked to Abramovich, following an earlier investigation by Tracfin, an agency of the French Finance Ministry.[5]
He was named the second-wealthiest person in the UK in the Sunday Times Rich List 2006, with an estimated fortune of £10.8 billion."
Really takes a genius to become a billionaire when you manage to purchase a multi-billion pound company for £100 million. This b*stard is an out and out criminal - should be properly investigated and deported back to Russia to stand trial for robbing the Russian taxpayer.
Rant over.
Chasing Cars and Magic FM
Talking of Snow Patrol, have you noticed how "Chasing Cars" seems to be incorporated into American TV series such as Grey's Anatomy and ER. Everytime there is a musical interlude where they show you all the poignant bits that the main characters are up to they are playing "Chasing Cars"... and why is it called "Chasing Cars"??? Is it about dogs or something?
Rant over.
Any Dream Will Do
Rant over.
Cape Town II - The Wedding (Part 10)
The next two days passed quickly. A trip to Kirstenbosch Gardens and an excellent meal at Pigalle were the highlights. We saw T off at the airport and it wasn't long until my Mum and I were making the same journey back to Cape Town International and then homeward bound back to the UK (N would be leaving the next day). I watched Rocky Balboa on the plane (very good end to the series) and apart from a very annoying and obnoxious American who kept his seat reclined deliberately, the flight was uneventful.
The next day I returned to Heathrow to pick up my wife!
Coming soon Cape Town III...
The Wedding DVD
Cape Town II - The Wedding (Part 9)
To be continued…
Cape Town II - The Wedding (Part 8)
Once all the food had been eaten and all the drink had been drunk and the cake had been cut and distributed, N and I left the venue to go to Llandudno beach for the last of our photographs.
To be continued…
Interlude - Spiderman 3 Review
Rating: 7/10
The Best Man's Speech
I would like to start my speech by saying how honoured I am that Mark has asked me to be his best man. It's a bit nerve wracking to be honest but an honour... thanks Mark for putting me in this position.
I think I speak for everyone when I say what a lovely ceremony we have just seen. I think N looks very beautiful today, closely followed by the lovely Mle her bridesmaid. I'd also like to mention (little) c, The Ring Bearer who looks great. I thought she bore the rings very well.
I would like to echo what Mark has already said at this point and say how lucky I feel to have been invited to your country to take part in today's events.
Myself and Mark's mum have been well looked after and been made to feel welcome. For this I'd like to thank - N, N's mom, G, L and C for the meals they have cooked and the lifts they have given us and the events they have arranged for us.
I'd also like to thank - J, Msa, Mo and Na for giving us a great day out and showing us around the Cape and Simons Town.
Myself and Mark aren't normally this colour, pink, but it's a result of that day out as it was very hot. We are very English and we do burn and we forgot.
For those of you who don't know me, my name is T and I live close to Mark in England. I'm sorry about my English accent... it's the only accent I've got so if you can't understand me - I would appreciate it if you could just keep quiet and pretend that you do!
As I say, I live close to the H's and I've known Mark for about 28 years, although of course it feels a lot longer. We went to the same school together and after we left we kept in touch. We generally kept in touch by meeting in the pub 3 or 4 times a week. Our friendship wasn't entirely based around beer though. We did go through a 4 year period when we went to the gym 3 or 4 times a week. I'm sure you can tell just by looking at Mark that we've given up the gym - Still drinks the beer though!
I was going to ask you to stand up Mark and show everyone but I'm sure they will look later.
As I say, I've known Mark for 28 years and it struck me as I was trying to write this speech that I could highlight a couple of behaviours which I've noticed in Mark which may help N... warnings if you like!
The first area is cooking. For as long as I remember it's been a running joke with our friends that Mark is the worst cook ever been born or yet to be born. He can't boil an egg. I always thought this was funny but probably exaggerated -- It's not!
The other day I was chatting to N and I asked - how is Mark cooking. She turned to me and said - he can turn the oven on. That is the extent of Mark's cooking skills it seems... which is no good for a 39 year old man, I think you'll all agree.
My advice here N is to sign him up for some cookery lessons - I'm sure he'd enjoy it!
Maybe putting a lock on the kitchen door may help as well - lock him in - that's what I say!
The second area that I'd like to talk about concerns Mark's bedroom habits (not a nice thought is it?) I've slept with Mark on many occasions. Not in the biblical sense of course - but when we've been on group holidays and had to share rooms.
Mark, I'm afraid is notorious for his snoring... it has become legendary amongst our group of friends. Probably amongst the hotels we have stayed in as well. Maybe even the campsites. Over the years various methods have been tried to stop the horrible noise. One friend tried throwing chocolates at him in the hope this may make him turn over. It didn't work and he just woke up in a bed of melted chocolate. He must have wondered what had happened!
Another method was tried when a friend switched the light on and off quickly in the hope it may make him turn over. That didn't work either. In fact there is no technique that's been found to work - Not letting him sleep?
I don't know what to suggest to you N... I think you're on your own with this one! Get a bed put in the spare room maybe - or have the bed put in the garage and move the garage to a different town.
Anyway I could go on telling you stories about Mark for hours but I think you would get bored and most of them I can't tell as there are ladies present.
There is one last thing for me to do though... so if everyone has a full glass.
(Lift glass)
I'd like to propose a toast to Mark and N.
We would all like to wish you the very best for your future together.
The new Mr and Mrs H
M & N
Cape Town II - The Wedding (Part 7)
What I forgot to mention was the fact that clipped to my tie was a microphone which had been attached by the videographer. Now we haven't seen the DVD yet (N's mom has it and is about to post it to us) but I'm dreading it - because it contains the most excrutiating singing ever heard to man.
Apart from having to restart All Things Bright and Beautiful, forgetting to lift N's veil and Pastor C repeating himself on one bit unintentionally, everything went without a hitch! We signed the register and the photos were taken and then of course everyone went inside for the meal.
To be continued...
Cape Town II - The Wedding (Part 6)
Anyway rewinding back a bit - Sunday night I slept like a log. Nothing new there then. Woke up at about 7am and strangely felt completely relaxed. Showered, got dressed and took three attempts to put my tie on satisfactorily.
At 9:30(ish) T, Mum and I were picked up by a chauffeur driven Mercedes which whisked us to the venue.... About 20 minutes later we were there and believe it or not I still felt relaxed however everyone else said I looked nervous (not to my face, I hasten to add).
Slowly but surely the guests started arriving... I recognised some of them from my earlier trip to SA but a few were unknown to me. I chatted to N's dad for a bit and after a while it was time to make our way outside as the bride was about to arrive...
To be continued...