Hello stranger

Hi there
It's been a while - I just thought I'd put some things down for those who are nosey...

I have a great new job (oh no not again - I hear you say).

Seriously this is challenging and fun.

It's also nice since I can work from home. Since moving back to Britain I'm trying to do my bit for the environment. In the previous job had a huge drive to work. Now it's a few steps downstairs :-)

Life is pretty quiet - which is good!

TTFN

Dana and Paul
A piture of us from a little while ago - I like it :-)

Pictures from the Woolmer Green Village Day

Today was the celebration of the 60th Anniversary of the end of the war. The date was chosen since it falls half way between Victory in Europe (VE) Day and Victory in Japan (VJ) Day.
As part of our village celebrations there was a fly past from a Spitfire (I think they said is was a MK-XI - but I'm sure people will correct me).
Unfortunately not too close, but I did take these pics. Enjoy and thanks to those people who fought for our freedom in the two world wars...

Pictures from the Woolmer Green Village Day

Woolmer Green Village Day - July 10th 2005

Woolmer Green Village Day - July 10th 2005 

Woolmer Green Village Day - July 10th 2005 

On a lighter note....

Well after all my depressing posts let's have some positives.....

I've had a great Christmas, quiet and with my fave people (my wife and the dog)!

My wonderful wifey got me a Sirius satellite radio: IT IS AWESOME - go buy one NOW!

Also got one of those Braun self cleaning razors - which is way cool.

All the best for 2005!

Law and orders' Jerry Orbach

It was very sad and distressing to read of JO's death from prostrate cancer. what a great actor, I'm sure most people just feel like Lenny Briscoe (his Law and Ordercharacter) WAS Jerry Orbach.

One positive thing to come out of this might be to encourage guys to get checked out for prostrate problems early. From what I can remember I think it's one of the leading killers of men (not sure but I think I read somewhere that more men die from prostrate cancer than women die from breast cancer).

GET YOURSELF CHECKED OUT IF YOU'RE OVER 40!

The tragedy of the Indian Ocean

I urge all people to donate money to the unfortunate people suffering the aftermath of the Tsunami in the Indian Ocean. There is no way to describe the way I feel for all those people. Let's hope that all the countries and organisations dealing with aid will work together for these people.

I'm not a religious person, but I pray for these poor people.

Hmmmm Bush

So with the election over it's time to be totally amazed at the result.

According to CNN the major thing affecting voters for Bush was morals. Hmm so the sleaziness of Bush's first term wasn't enough. I can't believe the US population is so gullible. Anyhoo frankly I can't believe that Bush and Kerry were the best the parties could offer. Just think how many smart people there are in the US and then look at the two that were offered for the presidency.

Bush pleaded for unity in his acceptance. I'd be interested in how much unity was spawned by his (very similar offer after the 2000 election).

Finally on the whole election thing. I still maintain that people like Bush cos he seems like a nice bloke who they'd invite to a barbee. But I can't believe that US people really believe he is best for them when negotiating with other countries or when asking for other countries support for troops for Iraq.

...

More hotels...

So one of my goals from the big four "o" day was to try and keep in shape.

I'm not chubby, but worry about my weight. So I did some little things a few years ago and they helped. I gave up drinking soft drinks (a.k.a. sodas/pops) especially here in the US. The "free refils" concept is great until you realise it's probably adding load of sugar to your diet!

Secondly when I stay at hotels (which I do quite a lot) I always use the stairs instead of the lift (elevators). This is sometimes challenge since sometime the stairs do not exit into the hotel, since they are only intended as a fire escape. The number of times I've found myself going through a door on the ground floor and finding myself round the back end of the hotel near the kitchen and rubbish. Quite often the stairs do not have air conditioning which in the South of the US in summer can be a real pain... Even more disconncerting it the time honoured question "Is the fire door alarmed?", leading to the question "Will I set off the fire alarms?" On the way up it' sometimes a challenge too since you never know whether the doors onto each floor will be one way or two way.

So many issues and all I'm trying to do is get a little exercise. The situation was exemplified by this week's stay in the Boston area. This time the stairs dumped you round the back end of the hotel. So the only way to work it was to go the floor above the lobby and take the lift down one floor! Luckily I was quite high up in the building so I did get some exercise.

Have a nice day!

Hotels schmotels!

So I spend lots of time staying in of various types...

This weekend we used some of my hotel points to visit a swanky hotel in Charlotte (we used to live in Charlotte, and I missed a couple of the restaurants so we thought we'd catch up over the labor Day weekend).

So my point here is what is the deal with expensive hotels. A normal price hotel provides drink machines on each floor and sometimes free breakfasts. You go to expensive hotels and there are people loitering around the lobby waiting to "help" you. You go to your room (which is pretty much the same as a "normal" hotel room and find there is no drinks machine. You call room service and pay a high price for the drink plus a room service delivery charge. Next most hotels now offer free high speed internet, but in the expensive hotel it's an additional $10.

So what is Paul's point here?

Well basically I feel that you're getting stiffed on the price of the room, surely you could get a break on some of the incidentals rather than getting screwed at every turn by the hotel.

BTW the trip to Charlotte may well feature in a blog soon...

Whining about wine!

So I've lived here in the US for about 8 years now. I just visited our local Food Lion. They have a wide selection of wines, but here comes my rant. Why do we need 400 different Chardonnays? Ok I'm cool with a few from each state, some French, Australian etc. In contrast I found about 5 Chiantis and only a couple of other Italian wines, even fewer German ones.

Being from Britain I was bewildered by the choice at US supermarkets when I moved here. Millions of choices of milk and orange juice. Just seems wierd that there would be so many Chardonnays. Maybe it's a subtle way of putting France out of business? Who can tell.

I guess if I want a good selection of wine I need a wine retailer rather than a supermarket. And don't get me started on not being able to buy Chimay in North Carolina :-)

Rant ends.......