The Olympic Torch going through London today is hilarious! I am so glad people are protesting and have the right to protest! On the live news footage of its journey people keep getting arrested and pulled out of the way and there is banners and attempted torch snatches and crowds shouting. Its brilliant! I love a good protest.

Just saw the prime minister greet it in the protected and closed off Downing Street and you could still hear crowds shouting "shame on you" 

If I had better health I would be there to protest too. The olympic association made a decision which was controversial and now have to live with that decision. I cant even feel sympathy for the people running with the flame, they choose to accept that role!

Tags: olympics, protest, uk, world
Current Mood: amused

• Hallo! its raining so much here, will it ever end!?



• Last Thursday the Spice Girls announced their reunion and world tour and they all have aged gracefully and look like they are in their 30's! (I am sorry I don't believe Geri is 34! There is no way she is under 40! See also on this topic BB Ziggy, there is no way he is 26!). They all go together and all look normal, except Victoria who looks like a total freak!
  
  
  
  its like total freak (and not in a good way) and then normal looking women! you can read the full story here



• The problem with the current trend of reunions is that its great to see them back and then you realise they were so tedious and boring and wish they would go away again! Maybe they should make it international law that all reunions can release one single and/or album and do some concerts but have to disappear after 6 months lol. I love the Spice Girls at the time, but they seem so out of place now!



• I think I am too cynical for big event style concerts. I just thought the Concert for Diana was just pretty awful and next weekend is Live Earth. Surely more of the earths resources will be used for it, then not having it on, eg all the stars are flying in their private planes for the events around the world. With like 3 people to a private plane! I hope they offset all their carbon with buying forests which may or may not possibly die. The only good thing about Live Earth is Madonna!



• This is such a musical themed post! weird. Tomorrow the dog is having a specialist behaviourist come and visit. He has a penchant for chasing and barking at runners. The dog not the specialist. It seems to be a good career to be in, she is getting £150 and it 'may take more than one session'. He better be cured! Maybe we need a hypnotist! I must write about the old lady when walking the dog, that she needed an ambulance when she fell, it shall follow!
  

Tags: celebrities, environmental, music, pets, seamus the dog, world
Current Mood: cynical

I should be sleeping, but what have you learnt in the past week, that you didn't know before?

I would do a poll, but you cant type that many characters in the open text box, so leave it as a comment!

One thing I learnt is that the Former Russian acting Prime Minister Yegor Gaidar got involved in this huge spy tale of poison and secrecy and his surname is totally 'Gaidar' and is not spelt or pronounced gaydar! news story. its the little things in news that amuse me. I find the whole Russian Poison tale so interesting because we all thought that sort of thing was over! I didn't think it was over but perhaps I choose to not think about it! I wonder though if there is American spies currently spying on "friendly" countries such as the UK. omg we are all probably being monitored by every other country in the world as we speak!

I like to think of this post as paranoia before bedtime :)

Tags: news, poll, world
Current Mood: contemplative

I have not updated my journal for 5 weeks, I am so bad!
All the major issues in one post!

Socialist Worker
I really like Hugo Chavez at the moment. A true Socialist leader who does try to help the poor. No leader is perfect but he is giving cheap Venezuelan oil to help the poorest people in New York, London and some other city that I cant remember! It shows we have no Socialist party in the UK really anymore and I love anyone who openly and publicly slags off George Bush.

The Pope
I dislike the man immensely and hate the fact he has an open platform to spread hate and conservative right wing views however all the furore over this speech was taken out of context. I cant be arsed to read the whole lecture he gave, but I hope that he gave some more examples of pro Muslim literature and writings. I am very scared though of the fact that you cannot criticise or say anything bad about Islam or Muslims. If I am allowed free speech then I am allowed to criticise without fear of death. A comment taken out of context is then used to cause rioting and violence and death threats. However much the Pope apologises I dont think this is going to end well for the Catholic church or the Pope against extremist fanatics.

The Stress of Living
When it was my birthday last May my parents brought me a gift voucher for a friend of the families Salon. She has opened a tiny one which is really really popular and is more about health and relaxation rather than beauty and does things like proper massages, acupuncture etc. I went for reflexology with the family friend and I have had it many times in the past but was very nervous and anxious about it, in this place and in a tiny room. I have only ever had it at home before that. It was really really relaxing and I have never been so relaxed! It made me realise that I don't do enough. I need to do nothing and relax more! Its a very great feeling that I have coped, an ecstatic feeling.

The Lesbian
Some friends of my parents have daughters who are the same age as me and my brother and apparetly they have a shocking secret. Actually they don't really and my mum just mentioned at the weekend just casually that their oldest daughter who is the same age as me has in my mothers exact words 'going through a lesbian phase and moved in with a lady'. Strangely my parents are not homophobic at all, although they don't know about me. I feel really proud for their daughter and wanna find out her email address now to send her a email! 'congratulations you are a lesbian!' lol

The Girlfriend
After my last post 5 weeks ago (here) where I was upset that my brother and his girlfriend had split up. I had no reason to get upset, they like split up and then were seeing each other again. They are like so volatile and keep getting back together and then splitting and then getting back together. But I am glad that its not like really over and she is in floods of tears etc. They have rows and then they are fine! Relationships are so complex and after a fight they don't want to get back together as a 'relationship' because its 'too soon' yet spend all their time together and if they are 'separate' surely they can see other people, yet there is probably no way that would happen. Anyway she said she would keep in touch with me whatever happened!

The Darkness
I can't believe it gets dark so early in the evening now! It feels so autumny and winter now! Its nearly the end of September now! I want Summer back!

Tags: beliefs, family, gay, politics, world
Current Mood: contemplative

Now Italy is thinking about pulling over of the Iraq war and moving all its troops out (story here) and many other European countries have already done the same thing. In Spain the people were so annoyed about it they voted in a new government on the premise they would leave Iraq after the Madrid bombs. I wonder will there be anyone left with the UK supporting America! Several countries have very low popularity for the war now and support for their own governments. I just think its a shame we kept out current government and not ditched it on this one major issue like other places. But then I think we have no real opposition or alternative choices really. Blair is awful on the Iraq issue and did lie, but the rest of his policies and polities was not so bad (at the time, I think he is really really dated now as a leader).

But I am really undecided on the issue of pulling out (think of hilarious rhythm method jokes here). I am against the whole war and how we went into it. But we have now really messed up and destroyed Afghanistan and Iraq. Leaving is the easy choice, but trying to get the country back and an infrastructure going is far more of a challenge. If we cause all that, should we correct that? But on the other hand I think Iraq is about to collapse into a civil war or maybe it even already has, should we lose more people because of it? I think its best to look at how many troops are dying per day. So I don't know if we should leave or not, but I do applaud Italy and Spain and France and all the other countries who either never wanted to support America on this or are not separating ourselves! I bet you though, that we are the last country still supporting America on this issue when the whole world has decided to remove themselves from the coalition and I don't think that is a heroic thing for us in anyway, I think its a moronic thing!

Tags: iraq, italy, politics, world
Current Mood: apathetic
Current Music: Basement Jaxx - Broken Dreams (Los Amigos Invisibles Mix)

After my post yesterday asking about American gas price signs (here) and what the fractions mean and you all kindly told me!

Rich took a photo of a UK petrol station sign for me today....



The UK prices are pence (100pence in a £1) per litre of petrol.
Rich also worked this out right here...

In case anyone's interested.

Using the example of $3.429 / gallon of unleaded as in the picture.

Here in the UK for unleaded it's currently £0.949 / litre or £3.597 / gallon.

Using the current exchange rate from xe.com of £1 = $1.80151

It works out that we pay equivalent to $6.48 / gallon of unleaded.

And to think people in America are complaining!

So we do pay double the American prices for fuel! However its important to point out that every country in the world has high prices for Petrol / Gas at the moment and the UK highly taxes Petrol so that you are supposed to not use it as much and use public transport! (This doesn't really work, as not everyone in the country has a good service and the London transport is so expensive really!). The UK has the highest rate of tax on Petrol in Europe which is currently around 49p per litre

Tags: american culture, environmental, uk, world
Current Mood: apathetic
Current Music: Madonna - Holiday ( Live In Detroit )

hi darlings,

I need help from an American not sexually or for my mental health! just yet

On the BBC News tonight they talked about the prices of Petrol / Gas and everyone in America is going insane over the price! (which looking globally is one of the cheapest prices for fuel in the world and is virtually untaxed! American gas is still half the price of most countries! but anyway that is not the point). They showed an American gas station (?) I don't know what you call them, garage (?) and it had a price sign outside it. But I cant work out what it means. It showed the different fuels and was like 398 9/10 - what the fuck does it mean? My family are all arguing about it? The first number I guess is the price per gallon in cents or dollars? But what is the fraction? On the sign they showed on camera all the different fuels were 9/10!

The sooner more cars move away from oil based fuel the better, its so unstable at the moment! If I had a car I want it to run on some sort of reliable alternative fuels! I would also want flowers to be painted on it! I want a eco green hippie fan! It would be like scooby doo!

Cheers if you can explain the American Gas system to me!

Tags: american culture, environmental, world
Current Mood: confused
Current Music: Gwen Stefani - Hollaback Girl [ZAX Word Up Radio Edit]

I am theming this post! It will all link together I tell you!

o the one with the fantastic quotes but possibly one of the worlds worst politicians Donald Rumsfield has been attacked for being crap. (news story). Bush has spoken out and supported him and given him his "full support". I have a rule of thumb and that is, in any government in the world if the leader gives someone their full support amid scandal of some form, they always have about max 6 months left in that job! Try it out in your own home, it always works! Support by the head is always the death nail in the coffin! The only exception to this rule (or maybe more of a personal theory of mine) is Ruth Kelly who is still in there after scandal and support from Blair! I guess 6 months after the event is not up yet so she is not a proven exception yet! I partially like in this story the fact that Bush described him as "energetic and steady" when talking about his leadership! (one of my fave ever news clips is when Donald is abroad in a military base doing a talk and a soldier/marine type person asks a really difficult question about why they have no right equipment there! brilliant! Its almost as good as the housewife arguing with Margaret Thatcher live on tv by phone in the 80's!

o apparently everyone hates America (in the UK) (news story). An American women who lives in the UK is complaining about the fact there is so much racism and anti-American feeling (that she has experienced) in the UK. She says she gets abuse and taunts when people hear her accent and is criticised for supporting Bush as president and the war. The lady did not support the war or Bush or vote for him. I cannot support hatred for anyone! You can't judge someone for an entire country! Even if someone voted for Bush and has totally different beliefs to you, you cannot hold that against them and persecute them! If you are against America and the war so much than more people should have voted against Tony Blair to get him removed from power. That is not as easy as it sounds because there was not that much choice really in the last general election, but if you feel strongly about it there should have been more protest votes. I think there is a lot of anti war feeling and anti American feeling. Whilst I cannot condone abuse to anyone (and if people keep being nasty to American's we will lose tourism from there! although after 9/11 we have not that many American tourists anyway) and I don't think you can scapegoat one American you meet, no mater if they agree with you or not! But I do think that America now has a huge image problem, with citizens getting abuse around the world and the political leaders cannot travel anyway without protests and marches against them and that is of their own doing! Their policies have made them unpopular but don't blame individual people for it! I like the BBC News 'have your say' sections and there is some good comments from both sides on that page.

o everyone hates Raymond - actually I hate Raymond I can't stand that show and I can't get into everybody hates Chris! I may have posted this bit to continue the theme of the post ;)

Tags: american culture, fucked up people, ignorance, politics, uk, world
Current Mood: contemplative

Christmas is starting to drive me insane! Hope you are ready for Christmas if you celebrate it?

Last night on the BBC News at 10' o clock there was an article about the US / Mexican border and immigration. But they had the most wonderful ever footage of rednecks talking about it! First of all they went in a helicopter patrolling the border and they found some immigrants running and the pilot was asked some questions and he said they were terrorists invading his country. wtf? The guy really needs to look up "terrorist" in the dictionary. I don't believe that the Mexicans are bombing or attacking or making a political point about an issue. Another police guy talked to was going on and on about how his grandma is hassled when she goes through airports and has her bag searched and yet the immigrants don't get searched or have their bags searched! That just seems like sour grapes!

They had these "unofficial" guys who are retired who patrol places at night and are all armed!

Mexican migrants do all the crappy low paid jobs that Americans don't want to do. I honestly don't believe that a huge wall is going to put up in an Israel type way. American needs some of those Mexican migrants and also needs the Mexican govt on their side as they have helped them with finding criminals and various people crossing the line in the past!

Someone else wrote this about the article on the news, from a newsgroup..

there was an item on the News tonight showing US attempts to stop migrants crossing the border from Mexico in to the U.S.A. .Matt Frei was in a Blackhawk helicopter and they were searching for "walkers" as they described them . ... The word "terrorist" got mentioned .I cant remember the exact words used but the pilot seemed to suggest that they were terrorists and Matt Frei questioned what he had said and the reply was " Well,they terrorise me " ....FFS .What a load of shit ...

from this newsgroup posting here

The actual news story it was about is here although does not have any video or any of the interviews with the white trash

Everyday I read something or see something else about America which just makes me sigh! I don't think its every going to change, and it has the worst international image anyway, except maybe apart from like North Korea. They have managed to piss off people in most countries all around the world. I considered this year boycotting anything American. Due to the environmental and international policies e.g, pollution, and support of Israel. I don't think I could give up American tv though! I mean most electronics etc is all made in Asian with American brand names, but I wonder could the future hold people boycotting? American needs the international trade, especially as the dollar is sinking! I honestly don't think the future is bright for the USA whoever is in power and that is going to affect any country who is associated with America too :(

The people who are not religious and / or right wing extremists, or part of a political lobby or can read are lovely, that I have known or met online! Yet people seem to be in a brain washed cloud, where when people leave the States, they suddenly have realisations, yet why cant people see it there? we are supposed to be giving the American way of democracy to Iraq? I don't think we will ever pull out!

Sorry this post is not very humorous or optimistic :(

Tags: american culture, politics, world
Current Music: Janet Jackson - The Pleasure Priniciple Long Vocal Remix [The Shep Pettibone Mix]

which sounds a depressing subject for a lj post but is actually not a depressing post! or not written when I am down! :)

Thanks to anyone and everyone who sent me a comment or anything about Rosie. We buried her this weekend. We were all arguing what to do with her, and my brother wanted to come home from university and see her, so she stayed in the garage in a box! I just say thank god its cold! oh its dark humour!

I think I am come to really realise this year that we could all die at any time or anyone we know or love. Each year there is natural disasters all around the world and accidents and they affect people. How do you know that in 2006 it could be in your area? On the 26th December 2004 was the Asian Tsunami causing death and so much destruction. This was a natural disaster. Possibly caused by global warming but we live on the Earth and we could be wiped away at any time. I think we take so much for granted when a whole country could be wiped away tomorrow by war or a volcano or an earthquake. Also this year we have had earthquakes in Pakistan and other areas of the world. Famine and still people who live in poverty that we could never understand and hurricanes which wiped out New Orleans! What could happen to London tomorrow?

Really we live such fragile lives. I remember when their was some massive forest fires in California about 2 or 3 years ago the BBC interviewed a guy who was standing outside his house now totally burnt out and destroyed. He said that nothing really mattered apart from the fact he has all his family safe and sound. I cling way too much to material belongings and possessions and think "how would I live if I ever lost that?" But really you can carry on and live without everything. You can rebuild your life. Everything material is replaceable!

I just think that every year there is disasters and they will happen! I just hope it does not happen to me or anyone I know, but who knows!

On Sunday near London a huge fire broke out at an oil storage plant. From my house in West London its about 20/ 25 miles away near a place called Hemel Hempsted. They call it an "oil depot" but really its petrol or gas stored, because its not straight oil just stored, its ready to go in vehicles and planes etc. At 6am one of the tanks exploded and there was 2 more blasts and the whole place went on fire. Strangely people in my area felt the blast and heard it! My family were all so asleep we did not hear or feel it! My neighbours were awake and did however. Later on in the day walking the dog in the park, I heard another secondary explosion and it was like rumbling thunder! The fire was huge and caused so much destruction and pollution! Only today (news story) has the fire totally been put out by hundreds of fire fighters and foam! There is pictures of the whole thing on that bbc link. I never saw any black smoke over my area though, but it was bad and was a huge storage place! Apparently its one of the worst fires ever in Europe!

I think this post has a morbid feel to it and a depressed feel and its not really, just a thinking post. Anything could happen and we are just lucky to be alive! Who is to say a nuclear power station somewhere doesn't blow up and kill us all!

If we escape these things then we are lucky! It could all change tomorrow :(

Tags: diasters, uk, world
Current Mood: thoughtful
Current Music: mighty dub kats - Magic Carpet Ride (Ultimix)