I am touched

I have dragged myself one step nearer to the rest of the human race and bought an iPod touch. It's kept me awake most of the night. Firstly because it took over two hours to download the iTunes software via the hotel's "High Speed Internet". Secondly, it's magical innit?

It's got my music already and now it's grabbing my photos. Just wait till I get home and give it ALL of my photos and music.

DW
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Overheard ...

Standing in the queue at Starbucks in Manchester Airport, the lady in front of me asked if her Latte had any milk in it.

The young lady behind the counter was very kind and with a slight smile on her face said that it was made with milk!

Well done that young lady!!

DW
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The Phone Rang Twice

I live in a mobile world and most of my communication is done by email. The phone rings infrequently!

Today, though, I received a call at 05:53 and then another one from another person at 06:35. One call came from foreign lands and the other from the UK!

How about that?

DW
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Oil price Speculation, the Cat is out of the bag

I have written before about the relationship between speculation and oil prices over the last 12 months or so. We have read in the newspapers that speculation was not to blame for the rapid rise of oil prices to around $150 per barrel. Here is a quotation taken from The Times newspaper dated Tuesday, 28 October 2008, the speaker is Abdulla al Badri who is a senior executive at OPEC:

We just want to balance the market, he said. He blamed speculators for the spike in prices this year to a high of $147 a barrel on 11^th July. Hedge funds were using oil as an asset class, he said. The paper market was out of control will. Nobody was controlling it. We want to see a price that is driven by fundamentals not by speculators, he said.

Mister al Badri said he was not concerned about the risk that high oil prices could ultimately harm OPEC by undermining demand.

So now you know the truth … exactly what I have been saying all along.

DW

Happily Brassed off!

I spent the day in Liverpool for the first time in many years and I came home brassed off!

In a good way, of course.

What happened was that I spent an hour or so in the HMV shop in Liverpool where I found and bought the DVD of the fantastic film starring Pete Postlethwaite, Brassed off!

There are two main themes in this film:

• the closure of over 100 coal mines in the UK thanks to Thatcher and Major; and
• the fantastic brass band music played throughout

A good but simple story with some very fine acting and some excellent brass band music, courtesy of the Grimethorpe Colliery Band.

Brassed off and happy.

DW

Liverpool and M&S

In general I like the centre of Liverpool and have spent today walking around and shopping in it.

The black spot was the entrance to M&S: the word sepulchral came to mind. Sir Stuart Rose probably designed this one himself after seeing how badly he has managed the company's share price.

DW
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Christmas Cake for 2008

Every year since 1975, with only one exception, I have made a Christmas Cake. This year is not an exception and as proof of that here is the cake that I have just made:

Of course, the recipe I use is the Be-Ro Recipe: there is no finer Christmas cake.

As a matter of interest, what does Be-Ro or BeRo stand for?

Look at the picture above and you might just spot that there is a second cake on the right of the main cake. Every time I make a Christmas cake I make what I call a tester. The mixture that is left over having made the main cake goes into making a smaller cake for immediate consumption.

The main cake will be stored as it matures ready for Christmas Day. I will, of course, decorate it for the big day!

DW

Hitler: far too much coverage now

It is axiomatic that Adolf Hitler has had a major influence on the lives of all of us. However, I am becoming rather disturbed at the number of Hitler centric television programmes that continue to be aired these days.

I have noticed over the last week or two that as I flick through the various knowledge channels, that at any one time there is one and maybe two programmes on air that have Hitler as the central theme.

I wonder what the real demand is for these programmes; and I wonder what value they are adding these days.

As I type this they are discussing yet another book on Hitler and the Third Reich on Radio 4.

Time to leave this subject to historians I think.

DW

Edward Stourton, a right regular guy

Everyone following this Blog knows that I am keen to keep AmerEnglish from these shores. Everyone also knows that such a mission is akin to fighting a losing battle.

I took part in a mini squabble yesterday with Edward Stourton, BBC Radio Presenter. He talked in the Sunday programme yesterday about a regular London bus. I wrote and asked,

Dear Mr Stourton,

On your Sunday programme on Radio 4 today, you talked about a "regular London bus". I would be interested to learn what such a bus looks like and what it does.

Duncan Williamson

Halifax, West Yorkshire

Stourton responded with this,

Well they tend to be large and red and ferry people about (and threaten cyclists like me, but that's another matter)

Kind regards,

Edward Stourton

Of course that wasn’t the response that he should have given so I followed up with,

Thanks for the reply but you will appreciate that my main question was to wonder what made them regular ... as opposed to, let's say, irregular.

You might gather I am an anti AmerEnglish activist.

Duncan

I have had no response to that missive so I have assumed that I have either scored a micro victory or that I have been swatted away as an annoyance.

Why have I persisted with this matter? Well, Stourton has a 2:1 degree in ENGLISH from Cambridge University no less and since he is just about the same age as me, he has had consciously to learn to use the American usage of the word regular in his every day speech.

I will not stop this campaign.

DW

Mandelson Again

I predicted it but I didn't think it would be this quick.

Peter Mandelson has been back in UK politics for just three weeks and already there are headlines in the papers calling for answers to many questions.

Mandelson has changed his story over the Deripaska affair and whilst I am NOT accusing him of lying, that is an unfortunate turn of events.

Mandelson is not alone, of course, as Tory George Osborne, that sub standard Shadow Chancellor, has been feted by the self same Deripaska.

These politicians: when will we learn? When will they learn?

DW
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