Trivago

Trivago... another highly original parasitic price comparison site! This time for comparing other online travel websites - where will it all end? But as for the TV advert... what is all that about?? Attractive woman pays over the odds for a holiday. Ugly fat b*st*rd (see photo above) books through Trivago and gets the same holiday cheaper. So it implies that only ugly fat b*st*rds use Trivago. Brainless!

Rant over.

Ironclad

I've been meaning to watch Ironclad for ages and a couple of Fridays back I managed to do so. The film basically concerns a group of men led by Brian Cox defending Rochester Castle from the evil King John and his army. James Purefoy plays an ultra-violent Templar who wields a massive two-handed sword, the skinny bloke from The Office is an expert archer and Derek Branning from EastEnders is a rather bad tempered thug with a penchent for chopping peoples arms off and beating them to death with their own severed limb!

Yes... the film is violent. Very violent. In the fight scenes you see Purefoy slice someone straight down the middle vertically and Brian Cox has his hands and feet lopped off at the orders of King John somewhere near the end.

There are some quite impressive sequences involving siege engines and trebuchet - but what disappointed me was that the acting could have been better... especially considering the talent involved. Having said all that I did enjoy it even if it did end a trifle predictably.

Rating: 8/10.

Natalie Imbruglia

Honestly... who the f*ck is this non-entity? A one hit wonder (and the song was a cover), who has been dragging on for years lurking in the background but clearly still soaking up the cash.

Apparently she has put her house up for rent along the River Thames in Windsor... for a paltry £6,000 per month.

UNBELIEVABLE!

Rant over.

Nice fat cheque for Bono

I read in last weekend's Sunday Times that U2 lead singer Bono (stupid name - reminds me of dog food)... is likely to receive an enormous cheque for $1 billion because he owns 0.0000000001% of Facebook. Apparently he invested $90 million a few years back (where do they get these astronomic sums?) in the social networking site and because the company is now being floated on the stock exchange he is going to receive an enormous pay out.

On a separate point but still to do with Facebook, I also read that Zuckerberg's company has an elaborate procedure for paying tax (or not paying it)... by channelling everything through Ireland and the Cayman Islands.

Greedy b*st*rds!

Rant over.

Karl Lagerfeld

Dickhead.

Rant over.

Off The Cuff Rant No.10

When it snows why does the man of the house deem it necessary to get out his shovel and clear the path in front of his house... only to find that his cleared path ends at a snow covered pavement. Pointless.

Rant over.

Ice cubes...

Now... I must admit, I am partial to the odd gin and tonic and Wispa bar - especially on a Friday evening (I find it rounds off the week).

But what really p*sses me off is when I'm making the gin and tonic and it comes to putting the ice in. Always and I repeat ALWAYS... I bang the ice cube tray on the back and cubes at the wrong end of the tray always fall out onto the kitchen work top or the floor. Never into the glass! NEVER!!

Rant over.

Fred "The Shred"... F*cked

So at long last the b*st*rd who was responsible for so much misery heaped upon so many people has had his knighthood stripped away... and about bloody time too. Quite why the f*cker was given a knighthood in the first place puzzles me. Again it is services to his own pocket!

It would be great to see a few others knocked down a peg or two.

On thinking about it - why are so many senior bankers or company bosses given knighthoods in the first place? What is the criteria?

Rant over.

RBS boss receives whopping bonus...

Okay... so fat cat Stephen Hester is to receive a bonus of £963,000 in shares for doing such a good job at the 80% publicly owned Royal Bank of Scotland. Understandably the majority of people are disgusted that such a large sum has been awarded, especially after he has made so many RBS employees redundant and the bank's share price has slumped.

What I found particularly obscene was the fact that Hester earns more in 3 days than what a soldier in the British Army earns in a year.

But when you think about it... how are you going to employ anyone to do the job for a lot less? Apparently Hester could have earned a hell of a lot more than what he is getting at RBS elsewhere. It is a catch 22 situation... unless there is a fundamental change to the pay of all senior execs - I can't see anything happening. It can't happen. And that is pretty depressing...

Rant over.

Afternoon tea at Luton Hoo

For the last two years N and I have had afternoon tea on or around Valentines Day... this year as N's mum was over we decided to have afternoon tea earlier and as we now have two new editions in the form of our twin daughters little "n" and little "p" also closer. Hence Luton Hoo.

I had heard of Luton Hoo but didn't know anything about it... so it came as a pleasant surprise to discover it is a rather large and majestic hotel near to Luton (surprise surprise). After a walk pushing the pram from the carpark to the main entrance we were shown to a very comfortable dining / lounge area.

We placed our orders and settled back for a relaxing afternoon. The quality was very good but still inferior to Claridges and the Regency Hyatt... and much to our annoyance if you wanted a sandwich replenishment it cost you another £6 each - which I thought was a bit much. Mind you consequently I didn't feel as stuffed as I had the last two times.

All in all I would recommend afternoon tea at Luton Hoo but if you want the very best you are better to face the trek into London.

Rating: 7.5/10