Frack Off !!

As home counties campaigners launch a series of protests against shale gas fracking, I come to realise that big companies are only after one thing - Money! and that they are willing to get their grubby, corporate mits on it at the expense of every thing and everyone else.Why is our government even considering such an action? 

1) There is a hosepipe ban due to a now country wide drought - yet fracking involves pouring millions of litres into a hole in the ground so as they can access the gas

2) There is coal in them there hills. Coal could be a cheaper option for us, with British coal itself being the cheapest thing available when the government of the time put that entire industry out of business. Why not just re-open publicly owned coal mines.

3) Pouring water down the 'ole will render the future 1000 years worth of coal down there to be inaccessible for future generations. Our coal reserves  may turn out to be a valuable future source of fuel once all the oil and gas has run out.

4) The gas we have had for years was wasted firing electricity generating power stations. If we had had it just for cooking and heating there would still be tonnes of the stuff left, available for us to use. We know full well that any gas extracted by fracking will be promptly squandered by the private companies who will sell it back to us for domestic use at an over-inflated cost.

I haven't even gone into all the malarkey regarding damage to the environment, destruction of our beautiful landscapes or the potential for earth tremors associated with the plundering of this naturally occurring substance.

All I wish to add to the protest is a simple FRACK OFF !!

Blogger New layout is Poor Poor Poor!

Well, congratulations Google. You update your blogger.com format and it has left me wishing to pull out all together. Oh, don't get me confused with an idiot who can't cope with change, like the dads and aunties on facebook who can't cope with time-line. I am not a technophobe.


Today you offered me to [Down] (up) grade to the new format, and, with all the trust of a 4 year old holding the hand of his mother, I plunged straight in and said 'yes please!'. If only I could go back... but you can't go back. Once you've taken the plunge into the seemingly peerless blue waters, it's too late. You realise that the tides are black and they endlessly wash against you as you swim the wrong way through the mire that is laughingly called 'the completely new, streamlined blogging experience' ... PAH!


But get this, not only is it impossible for me to actually browse potential blogs to newly follow, I have just been reading a blog I had the address of and find I can't even interact with it. The blog belongs to a Writers Circle and I tried to comment on an article several times but Blogger, in all it's new-shiny-crapness has said 'NO!'


I am going to stop writing now as I have just thought, it might not even let me post this - my rantings may be lost for ever, the moment gone etc.

An evening with "Rita" (a recipe for joy)

This Blog comes to you in a far more sanguine tone than is perhaps usual but I feel you will become aware of why this is as you discover the contents of my - well, my tummy, which relates to this blog and comes with a strong invitation to join me on this happy vibe.

This blog is all about how to make a Margaritas – Nwls [North-West London Suburbanite] Style! I’m hoping this recipe will set you in the road to appreciating the delightful Margaritas.

I am fairly up in my years and am ashamed to say that I have never had one before but I do feel that coming across this little tipple with a mature palette has probably allowed me to appreciate it all the more!

The cocktail was ‘apparently’ named after an American socialite from Dallas, called Margarita (interesting name for an American?!), or, after an ‘Actress’ (sounds like ‘lady of the night' or ‘exotic dancer’ to me) called Rita. Whilst all these tales strike a somewhat dubious tone, I can see why several people have laid claim to inventing this refreshing cocktail.

So far, drinking Margaritas has not made me take all my clothes of in public, so you should be reasonably safe.

So; how to achieve the perfect (nwls) Margaritas:

Firstly, go to the ‘Costa Tropical’ in Andalusia, Spain, preferably during the summer months (although I am sure this recipe works whatever the season).

Second, go to a Mercadona (supermarket) and buy as many limes as you can lay your hands on.

Third get a bottle of Cointreau (bit pricey, but it does make the drink). There are cheaper Triple sec’s, but this is the Nwls version so…..

Fourth, get a bottle of white (silver) Tequila, the cheaper the better. The harsh, cheap taste makes a good contrast. Quality Tequila (gold or silver) should be savoured and sipped, not thrown in with other drinks - Let’s be grown-up about this - lets have some class!, even if it does all go out the window half-way through Margaritas number 2.

Next get yourself a fairly large, stemed glass (like a wine glass) – believe me, the stem makes it all the nicer! Preferably made of plastic (particularly if this is your first evening with the lovely Rita).

I use a second, small glass, as a measure – it’s all about the measure. This is, of course, a tried and tested method which came from at least a week of trials and taste testing.

Chop off the top of the lime (and save) and the squeeze the rest of the lime into the big glass. Then pour this into the little glass and make a note of how much it measures (draw a line on it with a crayon if you’re really pissed). Then pour it back into the big glass.

Then add lots of crushed ice to the big glass (I didn’t go with the ‘use a shaker’ idea, it just meant more washing up, plus it’s bloody hot in Andalusia so the ice melts and that waters it down a bit which is probably a good thing).

Then take the little glass and pour a measure, the same as the lime, of Cointreau, then transfer that to the big glass.

Next take the little glass and pour 2 measures of the crappy Tequila and add that to the big glass. Give it a little stir, add the cut off bit of lime you started with, and Sit Down!

Drink the Margaritas. Do this reasonably slowly as its damn strong and if you get carried away you may well take all your clothes off and start dancing with the old lady next door!

Enjoy! 

Lloyds Bank Ripped me off!*

This weeks disgruntlement has been bought to me by Lloyds Bank. I have been banking with Lloyds since I was 17 years old, although more and more I find myself unhappy about the service they provide.

The latest squeeze on my limited finances is that Lloyds now charge £5 (per month), chargeable after a day, if I use more than £10 of my agreed overdraft.

Ok, I went to the bank, they decided to agree that I can have an overdraft of up to £600 and they will charge me a percentage rate for the amount of time I am in the red. However, on top of this they have now brought in this "charge". I argued that if this was rated as part of APR it would be at such high percent that it would not be allowed under banking law. But, as it is being called "a charge" it doesn't fall inside this protective legislation.

If I were to go £10 overdrawn, and left it like this for a year, I would owe Lloyds Bank £60! but despite my protestations, the woman at the end of the line was nonchalant.

Since then I had not been overdrawn; Until last week when an annual direct debit for the AA (the Automobile Association for all those reading in the U.S.) came out. I thought I had changed all my dd's over to a different account with, in my opinion, a better, fairer, bank, but this one must have slipped through the net.

As I only discovered the issue the day after the amount was automatically removed from my account, it was too late by then - £5! FIVE POUNDS!

This is an outrage as far as I am concerned. Under the old system I would have seen the withdrawal, gone in the next day to replenish my bank account and the total cost would have been nearer to 0.36p. Lloyds Bank are not stupid, they must know that there are potentially thousands of people out there who will have annual direct debits coming out before they realise. This £5 charge seems [to me] to be a bit of a rip off charge.

So what can I do? Nothing really. Pay the charge and use a different account from now on. But out of pure rage, immediately after I got off of the phone to yet another nonchalant customer services clerk, I called up a t-shirt printers and had my "opinion" on the whole affair emblazoned across the front and back.

The asterisk is the only indicator of the little line of small print (which I know all banks are very fond of) stating, at the very bottom, "*opinion of wearer".

One might say  " I've got the t-shirt on this one! "

___

What's there to moan about?

Well, I could start with the one where you give up all your spare time to volunteer; taking a charity out of a cycle of loss into one of profit (with the aim to spend that profit on charitable projects) and no one seems to give a toss! I would have thought having a young(ish), vivacious (ok, ok, reasonably lively then), character, who invigorates your organisation, should be something that is held in high esteem. But it seems that far from that, my many works of wonder have instead been met with banal indifference.

So where to go from here? Well I guess it's time to move on. Time to find a charity/group/organisation that will appreciate me for the amazing, go-getting, no-nonsense person I am. Ok, Perhaps that is expecting too much. But it's not that I want to be held aloft, surrounded by chanting supporters. It's just when the "proverbial" hits the fan, one would hope that at least one's "so called" supporters might raise their heads and nod in a modicum show of support. Otherwise we end up with the situation we have now, where "evil prevails when good men say nothing".

You're right. Perhaps I am asking for too much. Maybe I'll just start my own group, and surround myself with supporters...........

Oh dear - perhaps I am starting to sound too much like Qaḏḏāfī (and his ilk) . I don't want to be a dictator surrounded by "yes-men"; Just an appreciated leader of the like-minded!

as the euphoria turns to fear

i must be out of my tiny little mind!

there is a charity called st. lukes hospice which care for people with incurable illness'. a really worthy cause, they sent out feelers recently to get support and to encourage people to scale down the walls of a local hospital and get sponsorship.

i have been working for a community radio station and their event organiser was hoping i would mention it on the radio for them. now, i know i hadn't been drinking at the time, but still, i was filled with a delirium usually associated with chronic fatigue or drug taking. sober as a judge i was and yet within a day i had volunteered myself to go over the wall.

i created a just giving page, got the relevant application forms, wrote and article on it with the strap-line "during the many years [i] worked at [said] hospital, i was often tempted to jump off of the roof - and now i finally get the chance!".  yea, bloody hilarious!

3 days later and now it's "what on earth was i thinking!?!"  i'm not even that keen on heights. i certainly have never dangled my weedy body from the end of a 100ft rope before.

now i've got to get together £250 in sponsorship and a further £20 to enter.

i think in future i should ensure i have been drinking - hopefully then i will be too incoherent to make such a rash decision.

god bless america

returning from the new years day parade (london 2011) it got me thinking.

the americans really know how to do a parade.

they're probably all geared up for it back home, with the regular sports/games/events where these marching bands and cheerleaders can keep their skills up to speed. the're probably obliged to join as part of the school curriculum, with inter-school competitions etc.

i got talking to a group from holland in the salisbury afterwards and asked if they had stuff like that over there. they said no, the same as us really. they said you might get a child to march/cheer-lead up to the age of around 10, but after that don't bother to even ask them. i was saying that you'd never get our teenagers to put on that uniform in baby-blue or other pastel colour, with tassels, and feathers on their heads, marching to numbers by the beetles.

having said all that, the parade would not have been worth going to without the american marching bands. i'm sad to have to report on the miserable looking british groups with their half-hearted attempts at a costume and a bit tinsel stuck on their heads. with badly choreographed dancing to the sound of a blown speaker pumping out some too-loud sounds, having been all a couple of london boroughs could seem to manage. but they weren't all that bad, some where alright, some were even quite good, but they paled into insignificance when followed by a 200 strong marching, cheering extravaganza, flown in from a number of states in the USA. one group had even got stuck in the airport for 3 days on the way over. bless.

all in all a good parade - the let down was that westminster council did not ensure the safety of the participants. there was a reasonably big hole right on the route of the parade, where the marchers were passing. one cheer-leader appeared to twist her ankle because of it. bad form for westminster i felt. a bit of sand down it in the morning would have probably made the event accident free.