You can get what you wish for

Its that time of year when politicians send out their Christmas cards. If they are anything like leo in the west wing you wont know who half of the recipients  are. Earlier this week i saw david cameron and his family in the paper  having the picture taken for the cameron card.. Cameron was saying 

In my view he is treading a fine line. I think he will end up  using the family and then asking for privacy. People know me as a labour man so it is indeed right that i mention the blairs  because they were accused of doing what cameron is.

Of course we want to know about him and what makes him tick but isnt david cameron the one voters can elect and not his family. If he does want to have them in pictures let them choose. I know they are very young so dont use them until they have a choice!

you know is christmas time when...,.

reader dear reader i would like you to think about something. what is a nintendo users favourite carol.. ( answers at the end of  the post no prize on offer i am a skinflint)

Its December the nights are drawing in. I have also opened the first few doors on my seasonal calender as my local supermarket calls them. but what makes it christmas time for me is not the christmas music or the rush of people in the shops or the movies on the tv ( the best one for me is miracle on 34th street) but it is the day the christmas radio times comes out.

In my house it created a buzz  because you could check out what to watch and when i know you can do every week but something about christmas made it different

the answer to the question is wii 3 kings

the end of an era

 The British High Street could soon change for ever. Its not because there will  be no queues in shops on christmas eve its with the demise of Woolworths. I was told   when i went to sign on  a few weeks ago that they were looking for store managers and  that i should think of applying. The next thing that happens is that they go belly up so am i like a dementor at Azakaban who sucks the soul out of  seemingly a solid business who could offer me employment?

this marks the end of an era because its always been there. If you had to get something quickly you could almost always get it at woolies from pick and mix to screwdriver sets. so woolies is to many people what sir alex ferguson is to me(apart from being a managerial god) I say that as a proud  and passionate aberdeen fan  i know  the number one fan of this blog would completely agree- the proud manchester united fan that he is. he  always says there is only one club in manchester!

He has always been chewing his gum and shouting at referees for the lack of or too much injury time .

The end of era marks the dawn of a new one maybe without woolies if it does go. Maybe in this new world i get a job selling pick and mix and other items as there seem to be a gap in the market...

The American dream

When i took standard  grade modern studies i learned all about the punch bowl of America and it was called this because of the mixture of people who had gone to America to pursue their dream-the American dream

This segways nicely into the sound of music when the nuns sing about find your dream by  climbing every mountain and fording every stream. well you may not be able to do that for much longer not because  the americans have tightened up their border but  because the auto industry is in trouble in America. firms including Ford have gone to congress to ask for help. If they don't get any help before Jan 20 12.01pm they could be up the creek. i put the time because at noon Obama becomes president and he has promised to help them. 

If the car industry is effected then that would be massive for states like Michigan who rely heavily on the industry for employment for the local populous 

So when going to find their dream the immigrants will have to find new means because fords may not be around although to  " nissan" every dream doesnt go.

ways to keep fit

Health professionals have been encouraging people for years to start to take exercise and keep fit too cut the number of overweight people and to generally make people feel better about themselves and I agree as someone who goes to the gym regularly i feel great after i have been and am feeling the positive benefits of exercise.

The Credit Crunch is hitting the whole world at the moment as I know only too well. George Osbourne wrote in The Times on Saturday  that Gordon Brown could risk a run on the pound by spending his way out of the recession  i would argue this was just papering over the cracks of Tory Economic  policy- This is something that George Osborne should be good at as he is the heir to a wallpaper fortune. Because the Tories have repeatedly promised to match labour spending on health and education  and how would they do this....

So back to ways to keep fit. Mr Osbourne says there could be a run on the pound (is this like the great north run) I say instead of running on money I will stick to my treadmill thanks.

What might have been

Over the past few months since my brief encounter at being  a city slicker- and the lack of fun I have had since the summer  i often think what could have been. this time of year if i was working there  would be an office party abd i had a belter of a flat with a view of the O2 so i often think of the social side of the job which sounded so great.

I was in the pub today watching the Scotland  South Africa Rugby game  and saw scotland blow away their  golden chances to hit the big time. I just hope i havent missed mine.

transition and living in the shop

Earlier in the week Barack Obama met George W Bush at the White House which from Jan 20 2009 will be his home. I want to talk about this in my post today

The white house is a tied house- like 10 downing street. this means that when you stop being the occupant of the oval office you have to move. I have a lifetime of experience in living in tied housing as my father is a minister so the house comes with job so i have never lived in a home owned by me or a member of my family.

If my experience is anything to go by living in a place of work is hard if you are the one who works you cant switch off. in the days before mobile phones in my house there were six people  who could get a phone call at any time of the day- so there was a scramble when the phone went not knowing who it was for. Also being a minister means being around when other people are free to talk to you not the other way round so dad could get phone called lateish into the evening when people were home from work and were free to talk to him- when they are relaxing dad is still at work.

Apart from having to cope with the work side of living in a in "house of work" or that its not your own is that people can put things in thats is not to your taste- if you take them down you cant sell them because they arent yours

The hardest thing about living in a tied house is leaving it. this is because in a way unlike if you sell a house you have no control over who is coming in next because other people choose. Being in a tied house can also be deceptive i mean that people think the house is yours so if its big they think you are minted and my dad isnt despite living in a 7 bedroom victorian villa.

Transition out of such an enviroment is a very strange thing. In my case the thing thats different is the lack of phone calls(cue the violin music) if i was being lazy at home and going back to bed after breakfast i would only get an extra half an hour because the phone would always ring between 9 and 10. Where as now that i am on my own i just dont get up!  my point here is that the routine will change. For example George Bush wont have to always be switched on- although sometimes it appeared that he is never switched on anyway and think about his every quote.

In Britain when the Prime Minister loses an election they go through a very tough thing- the perks go immidiately Harold Wilson knew he lost not when he was told in the papers but he lost his police outriders half way on a journey. George has got 75 days to get used to the idea  he isnt President.

So living  in the shop may have its perks - ie out of bed at 8.55 am but it does have its downsides so Barak good luck!