Bliss!

The Maldives

We're off to The Maldives on Sunday so there will be no new postings to my blog after the 29th... well at least for a week or so!

I hope everything goes well on 4th August for P and N... not long now until it is "GAME OVER"

Aaarrrrrgggghhhh! Stop bloody grinning!!!!

Myleene Klass

If you read up on Myleene Klass' background on Wikipedia you suddenly realise how much she has done in a short period of time. An impressive pianist, shortlived member of a pop group, TV presenter etc... However I am sick to bloody death of seeing images of this grinning bint everywhere you soddin' well look!!!

Rant over.

The Great Flood of 2007

I cannot imagine what it must be like to have your home ruined by floodwater and it is certainly not an experience I wish to gain. I watched a news report on how the majority of the storm drains in the UK date back a hundred years or so... which made me think - how the hell can the government let these hugely profitmaking water companies make zero investments in upgrading the drainage network? Thames Water must be one of the most ineffectual, most pathetically run companies in the UK - it makes 100s of millions in profits and just dishes them out to its shareholders. A*seholes!

Rant over.

Cash for honours

LONDON (Reuters) - "No one will be charged with the illegal sale of state honours as a result of a police enquiry that dogged former Prime Minister Tony Blair's last months in office, media reported on Thursday.
Police completed their probe three months ago and handed their findings to the Crown Prosecution Service, which has to decide whether to press charges.
Media said the CPS would announce on Friday its decision not to bring criminal charges."

So another load of crooks get away with it... How very very depressing.

Love the hair...

Vote Boris!

It's a pity that I can't vote for the London mayor... because if Boris Johnson becomes the Tory candidate he would definitely get my vote. The guy is a total nut... but he definitely has charisma!

Mmmmmmm... Danone!

I tell you what really irks me... those bloody adverts for things like Actimel or whatever it's called - followed by that irritating female voice that says "mmmmmmm... Danone". What's all that about?

Rant over.

The Proms and a bald headed guy...

There is nothing better than spending a warm Friday evening (knowing that work is over for 48hrs) at a Proms concert. P, T, S, Mo along with N and I (that is me) did exactly that last Friday and enjoyed an excellent performance of Beethoven's 9th Symphony at The Royal Albert Hall. S spent some of the first half dozing and T's camera started beeping at a particularly quiet and therefore embarrassing moment and I scoffed a Cornish pasty at Kings Cross station on the way back... bleugh!

Saturday... we watched Die Hard 4.0, which I must say was a thoroughly entertaining film. Mind you the bit where Bruce is standing on the top of an airborne F35 JSF was a trifle unbelievable and more than a bit ludicrous.

Rating: 7/10

The Queen and her photo session...

Why is it that I get the impression that someone from the royal circle had a word with the BBC governors who then told someone at BBC News that they were out of order and then concocted a story that the shot of The Queen storming off was actually taken out of sequence and was a shot of her arriving. I don't believe a word of it. It's a case of her being asked if she could take her tiara off by a professional photographer to achieve a different kind of photo than normal and because no one dare ask The soddin' Queen to do anything she took umbrage at it!

Sod The Queen... and b'llocks to all royalty.

Rant over.

Rise of the Middle Man

Following on a bit from my rant about the printing industry, I can't help but notice the sudden proliferation in adverts for price comparison websites. Suddenly they seem to be on the TV all the time. What do they actually do? They get quotes for you and tell you (apparently) the cheapest... and that's it!!! Talk about galling if you are a company that directly offers the service, and they seem to be making shedloads out of it. Directline though are advertising that you won't get their prices via one of these para-sites. Good for them!

Rant over.

W*nker!

Couldn't you just beat this a*rsehole senseless. What an absolute loathsome, vile piece of work Alistair Campbell is... Actually he should have been high up my hate list - however because he had kept a low profile I hadn't included him. Now he is making even more money from his book. Even the picture shows what contempt he has for anyone else. SCUM!

Rant over.

Big Conk!

Look at the size of that nose!!!

A Sporting Sunday

I unfortunately missed the British Grand Prix and was naturally disappointed to hear that Lewis Hamilton failed to achieve an historic victory... I'm sure he will win it in the future. I did catch a bit of The Tour de France though. These cyclists have incredible fitness levels but the chances of doing consistently well at it seem next to impossible. Apart from the odd cycling hero like Lance Armstrong you seem to have a life of total obscurity doing it... very strange. Probably why there are very few British cyclists, British people want fame and loads of cash! Hence football... and no cyclists.

One sport that has no shortage of well paid superstars is tennis. Again I caught the last set of the Wimbledon men's final. Now I have absolutely nothing against Federer but you feel obliged to support the underdog... although in this case I couldn't - as what a sour faced longhaired tosser Nadal is.

Rant over.

Lord of The Rings: The Musical

N and I went and saw this on Saturday afternoon at The Theatre Royal Drury Lane. It was always an ambitious idea to adapt such a long and complex story into a stage version and as you might expect the story was highly abridged to fit a 3 hour running time. The songs were not very memorable and the acting was okay... however the stage effects were very impressive. N had the fright of her life when an orc crept up behind her and snarled at her. We were sitting on the end of a row in the stalls so she was a prime target! More of orcs prowled around the audience and were actually quite creepy. The actor who played Gollum was typically hamming it up but then I suppose it is difficult not to ham it up. If you haven't read the books or seen the films then you aren't going to follow the stage version as too much is missed out. A couple of points that surprised me were that they touched on the scouring of The Shire and there was a reference to Tom Bombadil... both these details were not included in the films. All in all a good afternoon's entertainment.

Rating: 7/10

No 1 – The Printing Industry

Where do I start?

Having spent my entire working life in the commercial printing industry I can categorically state that it must be one of the worst managed industries in the UK.
Virtually every element of the printing industry is shockingly amateurish. The standard or lack of proper management in the majority of firms is breathtaking. The amount of money that is bled from them to line certain pockets indicates the utter contempt employers have for their employees. I personally have encountered company chairman that have just sucked out all the profits with no intention of ever investing properly in the business or investing in the people that worked for them. Basically selfish thieving scum, who couldn’t give a damn about anyone else other than themselves.

It is a paradox that an industry that has embraced the advances in technology offers hardly any training. Employees are just dumped in at the deep end and expected to learn as they go along. No support no nothing.

But that is just a part of my rant. The printing industry has been screwed (as I suppose has most manufacturing) and whilst a part of that has been from within, most of it has come externally at the hands of others. Who are these “others”?... well I just need to say two words: Print Management.

These days lots of companies seem to exist that don’t actually do anything other than act as middlemen or brokers – they pretend that they match customer’s requirements to a database of suitable suppliers. Like hell. These companies employ arrogant, ignorant retards whose sole purpose is to go to 50,000,000 suppliers to get thousands of prices and screw them into the ground - and those they place the work with are expected to give backhanders. They are a cancer to all industries… and in particular the print industry. Companies such as Comunisis (even the name makes you want to vomit being utterly bland and meaningless) actually go out of their way to do reverse auctions – a truly despicable and amoral way of doing business.

Unfortunately it seems that for the foreseeable future these companies are here to stay… and probably the only answer is to try and pick off the customers they have ensnared and convince them that these outsourcing print management companies are simply parasites.

Rant over… and the list is complete!