Monday 30 March 2009

Happy birthday to my baby sister - 40 ahhh!!!

My 'tree hugger' sister

Connor supervising some guests

Nathan keeping an eye on the old man

My baby sister is 40yrs old (28th March) - and pregnant (third time) - at least she's married - before some of you throw your eyes up in horror!!

The party was very good - we had a posh dinner in a nice resturant. For the main 'event' she decided she wanted to plant some greenery, and for presents we donated via a web site http://www.practicalpresents.org/index.php where you can select from a number of items (like ducks, farming instruments or chicken tractors) to send to poor people in under developed countries.

Monday 23 March 2009

.. when Irish eyes are smiling ...

Had a great weekend with my daughter and her family in Northampton. However, I did make sure I saw the all important game against Wales. And what a game it was. On the edge of my seat right up to the last frightening kick!! Which I ( a 'plastic paddy' - [3rd generation Irish]) am glad to say fell short.

Friday 13 March 2009

Words women use - explained

9 WORDS WOMEN USE

(1) Fine: This is the word women use to end an argument when they are right and you need to shut up.

(2) Five Minutes: If she is getting dressed, this means a half an hour. Five minutes is only five minutes if you have just been given five more minutes to watch the game before helping around the house.

(3) Nothing: This is the calm before the storm. This means something, and you should be on your toes. Arguments that begin with nothing usually end in fine.

(4) Go Ahead: This is a dare, not permission.. Don't Do It!

(5) Loud Sigh: This is actually a word, but is a non-verbal statement often misunderstood by men. A loud sigh means she thinks you are an idiot and wonders why she is wasting her time standing here and arguing with you about nothing. (Refer back to # 3 for the meaning of nothing.)

(6) That's Okay: This is one of the most dangerous statements a women can make to a man. That's okay means she wants to think long and hard before deciding how and when you will pay for your mistake.

(7) Thanks: A woman is thanking you, do not question, or faint. Just say you're welcome. (I want to add in a clause here - This is true, unless she says 'Thanks a lot' - that is PURE sarcasm and she is not thanking you at all. DO NOT say 'you're welcome' .. that will bring on a 'whatever').

(8) Whatever: Is a woman's way of saying 'Stuff YOU'!

(9) Don't worry about it, I got it: Another dangerous statement, meaning this is something that a woman has told a man to do several times, but is now doing it herself. This will later result in a man asking 'What's wrong?' For the woman's response refer to # 3.

The Farnborough Society

Open Evening

Guest Speaker Keith Holland
Planning Services Rushmoor Borough Council

7.00pm

Tuesday, 7th April

Rushmoor Borough Council Offices
Committee Room 1

Discover your civic society

Monday 9 March 2009

Rugby Teachers - a free resource

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Thursday 5 March 2009

Wednesday 4 March 2009

How clever is your right foot?


One of thoses more interesting chain emails:


You have to try this please, it takes 2 seconds. It is from an orthopaedic surgeon.

This will boggle your mind and you will keep you trying over and over again to see if you can outsmart your foot, but, you can't. It's pre programmed in your brain!


1. Without anyone watching you (they will think you are) and while sitting at your desk in front of your computer, lift your right foot off the floor and make clockwise circles.


2. Now, while doing this, draw the number '6' in the air with your right hand. Your foot will change direction.


And there's nothing you can do about it! You and I both know how stupid it is, but before the day is done you are going to try it again, if you've not already done so.

My mate Daniel Hannan on Europe

When I was an undergraduate, I once discussed the future of Europe with a Right-wing Italian student. "Brussels will eventually be brought down by anti-German feeling in the rest of the EU," he said. I contradicted him sharply: "No: it'll eventually be brought down by anti-EU feeling in Germany."

People are rarely so indelicate as to draw attention to the fact, but the EU rests on the sufferance of the German taxpayer http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/daniel_hannan/blog/2009/02/26/will_the_euro_survive
No other country (other than Britain, obviously) does so badly out of Brussels. Germans have been the largest net contributors in every year since 1956, even though several other member states have higher incomes. In return, they get the poorest per capita representation in EU institutions.

Why do they put up with it? Well, at first the EU was a way to return to the comity of nations. Konrad Adenauer and his contemporaries believed that Germany would be allowed to become prosperous, powerful and, in time, united, only when her neighbours felt that she was, in a sense, their country, too. This calculation worked, and it has ruled German policy ever since. As Helmut Kohl put it in 1990. "German unification and European unification are two sides of the same coin".
But, as so often happens, the political class is clinging to a policy whose rationale has long since ceased to be relevant. Ordinary Germans can see this http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/daniel_hannan/blog/2007/08/23/brownmerkel_two_of_a_kind_?com_num=3D20&com_pg=3D2 .
Hence their court challenge to the European Constitution Lisbon Treaty, on grounds that it is not democratic enough to be compatible with German Basic Law. Hence the recent poll showing that four out of five Germans believe that the EU has "some of the characteristics of a dictatorship". (Perceptive bunch, the Jerries, no?) Hence, too, the first recognition by a mainstream party of how out of line it is with public opinion: the Bavarian CSU, worried about falling below the five per cent threshold at June's European elections, now says it wants a referendum on European integration. While it is plainly in no position to deliver such a referendum, being a regional party, its reading of its voters' mood is telling.

So, turning to the question of the day: will German taxpayers consent to bail out Central and Eastern Europe? Will they respond, as they always have in the past, to the unspoken appeal to historical responsibility? Will they shell out in order to avert the Hungarian Prime Minister's threat that five million unemployed Magyars will thunder Westward across the plains and line up outside dole offices in Dusseldorf?

Maybe. But I wouldn't bet on it. The old incantations-the assertion, above all, that Europe was an antidote to aggressive nationalism-have lost their power. The Euro-shamans still chant them, but there is less and less response. The magic is fading. The dream is dying.
Read Daniel's blog on
We don't need anti-racism lessons when we watch Shakespeare http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/daniel_hannan/blog/2009/02/27/we_dont_need_lectures_in_antiracism_when_we_watch_shakespeare
Harriet Harman wants a Bill of Attainder against Sir Fred Goodwin http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/daniel_hannan/blog/2009/03/01/harriet_harman_wants_a_bill_of_attainder_against_sir_fred_goodwin
What if we didn't pay MPs at all?
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/daniel_hannan/blog/2009/02/25/what_if_we_stopped_paying_mps_altogether