Valley of Paradise

Monday: And so begins another week in the valley of paradise.

There was a lakeside picnic scheduled for Saturday lunchtime. It was a goodbye party for friend Dave and his family. They fly to Canada forever this coming weekend. But the event had to be moved to friend Dave's house due to the fact that the weather was simply not going to let it happen. Sad, but we still had a great time. He's had a new kitchen built. It's most wonderful. But he'll be on the other side of the world and will never enjoy it. The house is sold. The tickets are bought.

We had a small catastrophe yesterday (Sunday). We lost Thomas the Tank Engine and Gordon the Big Engine some time during our weekly shopping. Something you have to remember as a parent is that children tend to leave things on shelves in shops, even things that they love very much and cost a fortune to replace. Gordon the Big Engine is only small but costs £15. We didn't realise the engines were missing until early evening, and by then the shops were shut, thanks to the "Keep Sunday Special" Nazis. So I rang round the shops this morning to see if anyone had handed them in. I know it sounds silly, but my little boy was heartbroken. Luckily, Homebase have them, so I'll be driving round there tonight with the boy to go and get them.

So I would like to take this opportunity to thank Homebase and recommend that everyone go there to buy stuff.

It's only day 4 and I'm bored with the Olympics.

Tuesday:

Homebase were true to their word and we recovered Thomas and Gordon last night. The boy was overjoyed. I've told him to be more careful in future. I'm doubting it will make any difference, but who knows.

Do you remember a couple of days ago I mentioned that there had been an announcement that the government were considering allowing home buyers to defer stamp duty. I said that deferring the tax would not solve the problem of a stagnant housing market, they have to axe it completely (temporarily or otherwise) to get things moving. Well, it seems that the government refused to rule out any change in stamp duty, one way or the other. The result; they've frozen the housing market completely as people wait to hear what the hell is going to happen. So, on this issue the government didn't even manage to be ineffectual. Just when you thought they couldn't get any more inept.



Wednesday:

Dear Prince Charles

Remind me again, what was your degree? Was it Biology, climatology, Meteorology? No wait, I remember, it was a shitty third in Art History from Edinburgh wasn't it? And they designed the course specifically for you if I remember correctly, because you weren't bloody smart enough to compete with students on conventional courses!

Well here's a wild idea; why not piss off back to uni and get yourself a proper degree in some relevant subject, and then come back and start spouting bollocks about environmental disasters due to GM crops!

And another thing; why not renounce your claim to the throne and stand for election if you want to get involved in politics.

Yours sincerely etc.

In case you don't know what that was about, click here.