Who wants to be a Millionaire ?

and before you ask, the answer to that most definitely is "I do" !

Todays post relates to the most excellent show 'The Secret Millionaire" which is currently doing the rounds on Channel 4.

For anybody who's not seen the show, they take a millionaire out of their usual daily routine, and they have to live 'undercover' for a week mixing with people who they would usually cross the road to avoid. At the end of the week the millionaire generally has a different view of the people that they have had to work with, and then millionaire gives money to the people or causes that they feel most deserves it. Its a simple idea but some of the peoples plights are really deserving and they really do need a bit of help.

Last nights show was very good, the millionaire went to work as a council 'street warden' in a run down mining village near Durham. The guy was really genuine and looked really interested in helping the people out.

My only criticism of the show in general is the 'reveal' at the end. Now I know the millionaires are giving away their own money, and the 'gifts' that they give the people or charities is probably the most that they have ever received. But when they sit them down and say "I'm afraid I've not been totally honest with you, I'm not a dustman, I'm really a successful businessman and a multi-millionaire" - its the look on the persons faces.

You know that they are really pleased to get a donation to help their cause, some of them life changing, but you know deep down they are thinking, "you're a multi millionaire and you've given me a cheque for £10,000 - you mean bugger !"

At last !

After suffering two cancellations due to high winds and bad weather, it finally looks like Brian and I will be taking the airship flight tomorrow morning at 10am. Brian got the call this afternoon to confirm that it will be taking off so that is good news. It would have been a real pity if we hadn't been able to get on this flight as its virtually the last chance.

Now I'm having a mad panic making sure my camera batteries are charged up and ready to go :)

In other news,........well there is no other news really :O) all been pretty quiet of late.

Anyway, drop by tomorrow and hopefully I should have some of the airship pictures loaded up

bye for now !

Best made plans

Well its looks like this weekends plans have gone tits up :O(

As you know I was planning to go to Brighton today for Pride, and then take the airship ride tomorrow to start my week off with a bang.

I desperately needed a haircut too, so despite waking up really too late to go to Brighton to catch the parade I went to my regular barber who is just up the road. Unfortunately instead of the regular Jovial Giovanni, there were a couple of chavvy girls in there who kept me waiting 10 minutes whilst they were laughing and joking out the back - still, once I eventually did get it cut she did a pretty reasonable job.

Now I'm sitting here and its 11 am, I'll never get to Brighton in time to see the parade and its raining - so thats really put a damper on today.

Now the airship is another matter - you have to check the traffic lights on their website to see if the flights are going ahead. The airship can't fly if its too windy or its raining. Most of this week the lights have been either red or amber which is cancelled or unlikely.

So yesterday Brian rang me at work to say that he'd had a call from the operators to say that due to the Red Bull Flugtag thing taking place on the Thames this Sunday, the route would be altered and we would miss out flying over docklands and the Dome. They gave us the choice of cancelling or rearranging the flight - which we've re scheduled for next Sunday the 10th when hopefully the weather will be better and we'll be able to fly the full route as advertised.

Now Im thinking that I might go to see the Dark Knight this evening - I've heard its a very good film and I'm guessing that theres not much that can go wrong at the cinema !

A rush of blood to the head

I did something really silly today - I've booked up to take an airship flight over London this coming weekend.

My mate Brian sent me the link this morning, by lunchtime he'd booked his seat and then after lunch I'd done the same :O)

http://www.staroverlondon.co.uk

So next Sunday morning I'll be gliding over London taking pictures like some crazy tourist, weather permitting !

and now I'm quite excited about the idea - it makes me feel quite young and impetuous ! ha ha

a nice hectic weekend

This weekend was quite a busy one for me (which makes a pleasant change).

On Saturday I went to the British Motor Show over in Docklands with a couple of mates. I'd been looking forward to going quite a lot, as there were quite a few cars there that I wanted to see - despite only having bought a new car less then two months ago. My argument was that it never hurts to have a wish list!

Despite TFL's best efforts to scupper our day with train delays, cancellations and having to go on a bus (I physically feel sick saying it, lol), we all met up at around twelve and stayed until just after four pm. There was a lot to see there and I highly recommend it - its just on saturday it was so hot both inside and out that we started flagging after four hours. The best of the pictures can be seen on my Flickr site.

Sunday was slightly more sedate as I was going to a friends for a birthday BBQ. I thought that I'd made a cake as something to take, but something went horribly wrong between getting it out of the oven and onto the plate :O( Instead of it being a perfectly risen feat of baking excellence, the middle flopped out when I tried to get it out of the tin, so all I was left with was a three inch circle of cake surrounding a big hole. I could have iced it and claimed it was one of those ring cakes but that would really have been cheating !

Anyway I had a great afternoon, nice food, good company and plenty of sunshine - what more could you ask for !

Out brothers Out !

For the past two days, Council staff who belong to the Unison union have been striking in support of our pay claim.

Now I’ve never been one for unions – it probably comes from growing up through all the strikes at British Leyland in the 70’s (look where that got them) and then the miners strike in the 80’s. Living in London, unions were for people in the North who always looked grim when they were on picket duty. Hard faced men jeering at the ‘scabs’ and waving their fists at anybody who dared to cross the picket lines.

Since I’ve been in this job I think there have been three strikes and they’ve never really been that noticeable. The most you’d have is a few people milling around outside the main building handing out leaflets and holding balloons. Not very intimidating and quite a nice way to get your point of view across. This time however its been quite different – they were quite a large crowd of people outside the main building, accompanied by a rather vocal woman on a megaphone. Ok, it’s a bit of a novelty at first, but after 20 minutes of “Whaddoo we want, fair pay, whendoo we want it , NOW” I was sitting here wishing that she’d get a flat battery, or laryngitis or both. It didn’t help that yesterday was quite humid and we had to have the windows closed in order to drown her out.

This morning the pickets got really brave, making their way around the car park to come and stand outside our building – oh joy. Megaphone woman was back and in full voice, thanking us for all our support whilst stomping up and down the pavement.

Things like that don’t happen in Harrow – we should have had sweet, blue rinsed ladies in tweed two pieces handing out leaflets along with tea and a slice of cake, who would apologise to you profusely if you didn’t want to take one of the handouts.

Come the revolution…………

Sunday night, Monday morning

I've never really felt that the weekends are long enough. Not that I usually do anything very exciting, but I could do with more than just the two days off from work - do you know what I mean ?

This weekend was quite busy for me. I went to my brothers in South Harrow yesterday for a BBQ and to see his two new rabbits Smokey and Sandy. They are a real handful and want to be into everything, bless 'em. The BBQ was good and as usual, there was far too much food on offer - thankfully I showed a great deal of resolve and didn't over stuff myself.

Today I've been very industrious ! Anybody that knows me will tell you of my love for getting a bargain and stocking up on things that are on BOGOF in the supermarkets. As a result my very small kitchen often looks like a corner shop with stuff piled up on top of the units. So my plan was to buy a couple of kitchen wall units and put them up in the lean to next to my kitchen. Anyway, I wandered into Watford to begin with and found a bargain carpet shampooer thing in TJ Hughes which was going for half price (Since I've had the cat, she brings all sorts of stuff in on her paws and its a bit too much for the hoover to cope with) HALF PRICE, well it was rude not to :O)
Then I went to Wickes and bought a plain white cabinet which although cheap, turned out to be very solid when assembled. Getting it level on the wall was a bit of a performance but it looks straight and hasn't fallen off yet.

Then I decided to give the carpet shampooer a go - after ten minutes using it I can see why it was half price ! Well to be fair it is very effective at sucking the mess off the floor, but the racket it makes it unbelievable. At first it just sounded like a regular vacuum cleaner, but then it started to whistle - and the whistle got louder and louder and more ear piercing - in the end I had to plug my ears with cotton wall balls to stop them from bleeding ! Thankfully the noise was worth the effort as the carpets and rug are drying up very nicely.

Last job of the day was to cut the back lawn. Since the demise of Chunky and Fluffy I've had to buy a mower and cut the grass every couple of weeks - I just never realised that they ate so much of it ! it makes me hanker for getting another couple of rabbits before too long :O)

So now its 7 pm on a sunday night, I'm just letting a rather large dinner of sausages, mash and fried onions with gravy settle down, them I'm going for a quick walk round the block - like I said, two days off just isn't enough !

Two hundred and seventy days !

Well will you look at that, three quarters of a years gone past since my last post and I bet you didn't miss me at all !

And so much has happened, went to the lake District with Odd Thomas, adopted a cat, had Christmas, had my birthday (don't ask - ok 46th !), bought a new car, had Easter, lost Chunky and had to have Fluffy put to sleep.

So now I'm getting used to being 'rabbitless' for the first time since I moved into my house nearly 11 years ago. I will get another one or two eventually, but not for a couple of months yet. I did go to a place called Fairydell Farm just outside of Apsley last weekend, as they have a big selection of rabbits, but there was nothing that really grabbed me. Its going to take something special to replace those two bundles of fluff and hair.

Still, my brother and his girlfriend bought two bunnies a couple of weeks ago, so I've been invited over there this weekend to give them a fuss (the rabbits, not my brother!

I've got to get back into the swing of this blogging aagin !