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African kids get footballing powers pissed off

The kids below get 60p a day from World Vision sponsorship.  World Vision used that statistic in an advert - pluse the ten minutes it takes them to make a 'football' from sewn together maize bags to make an advert.  The advert was banned.  OK, so pointing out the World Cup match ball took three years to develop and the England team are sponsored for £49 million didn't help.  The ad was banned for being 'unfair to football'.

Paul McGann talks about it in Actor Paul McGann defends banned football charity ad

Watch the advert by clicking on this link, here, or on the image.

My mother, absent since I was 7

My mother did a walk-out when I was seven.

I have seen her twice since - once when I was 8 and again at 9.

Two weeks from now, after almost 22 years I will see her again.

The happiness thief

My mate's girlfriend's mother is a Happiness Thief. Her reason for being is simply to stop other people being happy. She is one of those people who can only be happy by being miserable. To her, a good day is complaining about people who ae being friendly (they are nosey); people who try to help (they are so false); her daughters having their own life (they are so self-centered).

The biggest stealing of happiness is done through her daughter (my mate's g/f). Mother cannot stand to see daughter happy, so she is doing all she can to be an obstacle. She is starting fights, rows and so on. Any time daughter plans something with b/f, mother reminds her of 'plans'. She is over-bearing and over dominating. She has stolen her daughter's happiness, as her own mother did to her once.

Now, my mate is becoming a happiness thief. He is so down over the way daughter, happiness-thief-in-training is treating him, he's bringing everyone else down. My happiness, my wife's happiness, our friends' happiness - all disappearing into a black hole, originating with mate's gf's mother.

There is only one solution - PLEASE DUMP HER!!!

Random Images

One day, I left a random photo on our camera.  Then I left another. Then my wife joined in.  So, if you want to see other images like the one below, go to my new Random Images Photoblog and be confused.

Buying a hose

Friday evening, text from wife: "Pick up a hose on your way to get me".

No problems there, B&Q's not out of the way.  They have plenty of choice.  Do I want it on a reel or not - I'll go for the reel.  15m or 30m?  I take 30, so the front garden can benefit too.  Twenty quid, it's already on the reel, off I go to get the Mrs.

We get home, flowers are parched so we decide to give them a drink.  An hour later, we have the hose working....
It was just wrapped around the reel with no connections for water into reel and onto the end of the hose.  We have five connections, unlabelled and three are yellow-and-white and look alike.

Of course, the instructions are soooooo clear, not.  Yes, they look clear, but whoever drew the pretty diagrams obviously never tried to assemble the thing!

Am I being harsh?  Am I a philistine who does not appreciate art?

Ross Poldark

A few weeks ago I was given the loan of Ross Poldark, a novel set in 1780s Cornwall. The work colleague who lent it to me went on the basis that we share the same taste in Grisham, so I would probably enjoy the Poldark books.

It was superb. Although written forty years ago, the style hasn't dated and the book remains a page-turner. There's no big mystery or adventure - just a well-told story of people's lives.

The story starts when Captain Ross Poldark returns home from the American War of Independence to find two great losses: his father has just died; and, having assumed Ross to be killed in the war, Elizabeth his beloved is to marry his cousin.

The family home is deteriorating, the useless servants having all but left it to rot. Finances are a disaster and apart from cousin Verity, Ross is alone. His story - his thoughts, his feelings, are well conveyed. Although not a biography, it is as convincing as any you will read.

Ross rescues the child Demelza from her father's drunken beatings and hires her as a kitchen-maid. Not without mistakes, Ross treats those who live on what is now his land with kindness and a sense of justice - not without incurring the anger of his own class.

The child grows up to become Lady Poldark. Novel II (Demelza) awaits.