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as is becoming the norm, certain parts of london are being flooded with foreign money, and foreign residents. this is certainly the case where i live. a few years ago, a house in my road was purchased by a russian oligarch and his wife. ever since then, the building has been is a state of repair/renewal/demolition/rebuild with skips parked outside permenantly, scaffolding, tarpaulin and workers rushing around like ants at a furious pace. and now, it has all come off, everything has been removed and a new interpretation of the building has been revealed. and this week, an envelope with a note was put through our letterbox from olga, introducing herself, her husband (an international businessman who spends most of his time abroad conducting large business deals - her words, not mine), and her little boris 9 i think its a son as opposed to anything else). nothing too dramatic here, in fact all very cliche, until .... also inside the envelope was a questionnaire asking us to provide loads and loads of information about ourselves including: number of people in residency is the property owner or rented since when what do we do where are we from and a series of yes/no questions and finally about hals an a4 page space for any other useful information.
so i asked my wife to check with other neighbours whether it was just us who had received the letter, or everyone and whether other streets had also. she asked practically everyone in the area, and most people said that they had received one, but that nobody planned to provide her with any information at all. it's always been a quiet residential neighbourhood, where most people just get on with their lives, without knowing who lives next door. and thats how most people like things to be, and want things to stay that way too.
now i know that some people will say that she is just trying to be neighbourly and wants to integrate, whereas others will say she is a nosy cow and should keep her head down and be quieter that her workers were, and start keeping the area cleaner than her workers did. hopefully, no more empty energy drinks, paper cups, mcdonald's wrappers and sandwich boxes will be left around, as has been the case for some time now. be interesting to know who her husband is. defo not abro.
so today is my birthday, the double4, and i'm just glad to have made it this far. since arriving here with pretty much nothing but 3 suitcases (all our businesses, houses, cars and assets were confiscated by the State), i believe we have settled well and have had good, but hard working lives. i will be forever grateful to this country for accepting us in, but am sad to see how many people have such bad things to say about refugees in general. not all refugees are terrorists, but some are genuine refugees.
peace to all, love to all, and a little more tolerance from some.
bo, not joe, cherrryll, andy or cashley, but coal. as in miners. as in arthur scargill, margaret thatcher. that coal.
anyways,.....
it seems that britain no longer needs it. or no longer uses it. yesterday was the first coal-free day in britain since industrial revolution. now that's impressive to me, as coal is a dirty fossil fuel that pollutes and kills. so whats replaced coal? well, according to gridwatch.co.uk, around half of british energy on friday came from natural gas, with about a quarter coming from nuclear plants. wind, biomass, and imported energy were also used. which is good, n'est pas? even i have moved from a v8 powered vehicle to an electric one, and although someone somewhere has to make that electricity, its still much cheaper to run, and much more environmentally friendly. ok, so the initial cost is a bit higher, but i keep my cars for years, pile on the miles, and pound them to pieces so when i am done with them, so is anyone else, so this is a good thing, progress, and must me applauded.
i was reading fans reactions to arsenal and their arse problems. and one fan was talking about being entertained. she (yes, a FEMALE for FFS) said:
The reason I support Arsenal is Arsene Wenger - a man who understands that football is about entertainment and occasionally it is about art and beauty. It is not all about winning. I go to football to be entertained, maybe even moved. If I was only interested in the result I would stay at home and check the results online. I know many older fans like me who feel the same. I would like Wenger to stay forever but I feel, sadly, that he'll get fed up with all of this noise and take his genius and love of football elsewhere and English football will be so much the poorer.
this by Liz Heade who lives in Cambridge.
ok, now i ain't no arse fan, and i aint no wimmin either, but what a load of blllllokkkks.
the same old story of playing beautifully, entertaining, but not winning, or playing ugly and winning.
now obviously, you do want to play beautiful and entertaining football and win at the same time, but how many premiership clubs do that against one another? you could maybe achieve this against sunderland, hull or borough, and strangely some could say that leicester did achieve that last season, but you cannot achieve this week in week out against other top sides in the premiership. maybe if you're celtic, who have all 4 trophies wrapped up in pre-season, and are 27 points clear after two games, but isn't football about the minnows, the lincolns of this world? the qpr's coming from two goals down at half time against a team a whole division above them? surely, the unknowns of football is what it's all about? not the boring monotony of winning 1-0 every game?
arsenal have a huge decision to make, and have to decide what kind of a club they want to be. there are now maybe 6 or 7 clubs that could win a championship ( not necessarily THIS one), and a similar number whose board almost demand it. some clubs are more realistic, looking for europe, and some just want to survive relegation.
so, do you want to play beautiful and entertaining football but not necessarily win, or play ugly and win. surely it's a mixture of both?
ok, not really sure who or what to blame, but yesterday, my wife was trying to return home, and was met by road closures around where we live. no physical peoples on guard, just tape across the street with a sign on the side saying:
road closed risk of tree failure
we live in a leafy area of kensington, where there have been trees for probably millions of years, and storms for just as long. we definitely have had weather in the past, and i have definitely seen trees coming down as a result of said weather, but the area around where we live has not been closed (as far as i am aware. the normans might have closed it to oxen at one time or another) the idea of protecting ones residents is admirable by the council, but it does leave the little issue of what the residents do when they cannot drive to their paid parking spaces, and then enter their houses. as i said, nobody was on site, and there were other residents mulling around looking for answers. a smart and enterprising local resident went to the town hall, found the relevant department and person who came out and promptly removed the tape and the sign. job done. but i like the idea of referring to falling trees as a failure.
Scientists are appealing for more people to donate their brains for research after they die. They say they are lacking the brains of people with disorders such as depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.
so given that watching qpr can really do your nut in, shouldn't there be some sort of committee set up within the walls of loftus road to help?
(you could change the qpr name to 91 other professional teams. arsenal supporters probably top that list at the moment)
for years, i have been thinking of owning a flying car. who didn't fly their matchbox cars around in the sky? i certainly did. in the 1950's, the future predicted that everyone would have them parked on the driveway, but technology, price and legislation proved too difficult to get the projects of the ground. (see what i did there???) and there were the odd (literally) attempts here and there. and now this. not cheap. and only 90 available, so we're heading in the right direction. i would need to turn kensington high street into a runway every now and again for it to be of any use to me, but still, the idea of a flying car does appeal to me. just not a delorean. could never do 88mph anywhere in uk.
it's all over for the brummie group after nearly 50 years. for me, as someone who likes my music heavier and louder, there are three groups that can be credited with 'inventing' heavy metal: led zeppelin deep purple and black sabbath. you can argue all you want about hendrix, cream and the who, but i believe what i believe. legends that will remain at the top regardless of live performances. rumours that there will be more studio albums too, which is nice, plus solo efforts. but i believe that all the years of abuse have taken their toll on ozzy, and he now has other outlets for his fans and new ones too. always the joker, and he comes across as a genuinely nice guy. would have loved to see them live, but i will have to use youtube and other live recordings to relive those glory days and wonderful music.
as someone who loves both his music and food, i must ask him for his bat recipe, although health & safety might object to serving of live creatures.
Westminster City Council will become the first UK authority to penalise diesel drivers with more expensive parking prices.
The Greater London borough will charge diesel cars 4p per minute more, which equates to £2.40 an hour and is 50% higher than the cost of parking a petrol-engined car, to park within its boundaries in a pilot scheme that starts on 3 April.
The change is designed to deter diesel drivers from entering the Westminster area in a bid to reduce diesel-related pollution. The council said the area of Marylebone suffers some of the highest pollution levels in London, so it is enforcing a ‘polluter pays’ principle to fight the problem.
ok, this affects me directly. i drive a diesel, and i enter and park in westminster quite frequently. i need a big car that can safely and comfortably transport more than 3 kids, as well as be used as a work vehicle, so a ford focus will not suffice. and the difference between a petrol and a diesel version is 14mpg as per the manufacturer itself. so it was a no brainer that i bought a diesel version, and now i'm perceived as the bad guy killing all sorts of living things just by driving the diesel car. it simply doesn't make sense to drive a big petrol engined car - i has a 4.4 litre petrol version years ago, and never saw more than 20mpg. so what am i supposed to do now? the extra money per se is not a major issue, but being perceived as some kind of monster for owning and driving a diesel just narks me.
no, not a potential new signing, but a former muslim preacher in nigeria who has died aged 93. in 2008, he had 86 wives, and a reported 130 at the time of his death.
you have to wonder whether if he had fewer wives, he would have lived longer, given the common myth that one wife can nag a man to death, what would 130 do? and it is reported that some of those wives were pregnant at the time of his death. doesn't report how many 'some' are, but even one at 93 would be some going.
is it possible that he died 'on the job'? they say that having sex whilst you are old can affect the heart and be stressful, but being a spritely 42 years old, i'm not sure that i am affected by this idea.
170 kids in 2008, and a reported 203 at the time of death, seems a pretty good innings. would love to know what he puts in his tea .....
sad news that golden kaye has died. rene artois was part of my childhood not long after arriving. heard he was related to stella.....
at school, with precious english, we were told to watch as much telly as possible to learn english. well, 'allo 'allo did not help, and i used to say: good moaning for years before i understood my mistake.
More than $11m (£8.8m) is missing from The Gambia's state coffers following the departure of long-time leader Yahya Jammeh, an adviser to President Adama Barrow has said.
Luxury cars and other items were seen being loaded on to a Chadian cargo plane on the night Mr Jammeh left the country.
Mr Jammeh flew into exile on Saturday, ending his 22 years in power.
He had refused to accept election results but finally left after mediation by regional leaders and the threat of military intervention.
bit thin on evidence, don't you think? dictator flees country after election loss reported that mollions are missing seen arriving at airport in a rolls royce !!! loaded up several exotic cars loads of gucci bags loads of wives and children
all a bit circumstantial, don't you think?
me thinks me will send an email to him telling him i am a nigerian prince, and have a great investment idea, see if he responds ..........
Blue Monday, the monday in the New Year when the realisation of what has just happened starts to sink in. and it did .....
so two daughters both had their phones stolen yesterday. not necessarily a conspiracy, as they were different circumstances, but same result regardless; cost. one had the phone removed some time while traveling on two buses. that realisation that the rucksack has been opened by someone's else's hands. phone stolen. luckily, her purse was wrapped under her scarf, plus they probably didn't have enough time to have a full rummage. second robbery was face-to-face, when she came out of school. older girls from another school, out of uniform, took phones from her and two of her friends. they were cornered, threats and words were said, and phones were taken, but i fully expect nobody to care enough to do anything about it. part of what happens every day in today's modern caring, sharing society.
and i watched deadpool. but that now seems irrelevant how strange it actually was.
no work today, so taking the opportunity to have a proper clean in the kitchen. love the smell of bleach first thing in the morning..... and listening to pink floyd dark side of the moon on repeat.
have any celebrities been reported as having died yet in 2017? has keef richards checked in as alive yet? what about brucie forsythe? any one else that should be on the list?
be a dear and go round and check on them will you?
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