Lisbon Treaty dead?

"The EU is wondering what to do about Ireland's 'no' vote on the Treaty of Lisbon," said the newsreader this morning. How about 'Live with it'?
Ireland was the only country fortunate enough to have been allowed to have a referendum on it, and it's interesting that they returned a no vote, which leads me to wonder how many other countries would have done the same had they been given the opportunity. But of course, as commentators have openly said, the EU will keep chipping away at it until they get the result they want. The French and Dutch voted against the Constitution so it was brought back thinly disguised as the Lisbon Treaty. European Commission President, Jose Manuel Barroso has 'urged other EU states into ratifying the treaty after the surprise 'No' vote was confirmed.'
What a wonderful example of democracy the EU is.

Fuel? No panic.

"Don't panic," said our Gordon, "plenty of fuel for everyone, only one in ten garages will be affected, no need to worry, it'll be all-right, folks."
What a stupid thing to say. Anyone with half a brain would immediately realise that anything he says means the opposite. Hence the scenes of chaos at my local Sainsbury this afternoon with queues of cars waiting to grab any fuel going and queues of shoppers trying to get out of the car park as a result.

Children and Health and Safety

News of the mother who allowed her nine year old son to travel on the New York subway alone comes right on the heels of this little item which missed the headlines.
These teachers! Can't trust them to do anything right...Right?

Football - again!!!!

People who know me quite well may harbour a suspicion that I am not a football fan.
They would be right. Not that I go on about it, of course, although my definition of football as a gang of twenty two idiots chasing a bag of wind round a field has certainly stood the test of time and is well remembered by various members of my family. So I have to stand up and be counted. For me that definition sums it up perfectly, plus the issue of all the millions of pounds, euros etc which said idiots are rewarded with and the stupid habit they have of jumping all over each other whenever one of them kicks it into the net.
If you have read this far, you will no doubt be getting my drift. So you probably won't be too suprised that I am considerably less than impressed by the way the TV schedules have been messed up by the latest dose. Instead of banishing the football to an obscure satellite channel, (Who wants to watch it anyway?) the men in suits are depriving me of my usual fixes of Emmerdale and Corrie!
What is wrong with these people???
(As you can see, withdrawal symptoms have well and truly kicked in.)

Return of the Wanderer

Well, I'm back chez Jennyta. The house is still standing and I have been duly missed. The vegetable plants are growing fast and furious and I have even managed to watch three hours of Primeval on ITV3 this afternoon.
Now, however, the recording of Formula 1 is deafening my eardrums and numbing my mind. What joy! Did I really race up the M5, M54 etc for this???

Man with a red flag

As I am in Bristol visiting Dad again, we set off this morning to do a spot of shopping at Yate, the reason being that I wanted to re-visit a shoe shop I remembered there. The main problem was not that I couldn't find what I wanted, but the journey there. After leaving the ring road, the rest of the route was sabotaged by ridiculous and ever-changing speed limits.
OK, so my little Toyota Yaris does not easily lend itself to burning rubber, even if I was inclined so to do, (the Probe was, and that's another story!) but tootling along at 30mph on a wide country road with no immediate habitation...and then 40....followed swiftly by a sharp return to 30 and passing a side road with a 20mph limit, was not my idea of a pleasant drive. It left me wondering, cynically, which city in this benighted country of ours will be the first to re-introduce an obligation for every car to be preceded by a man with a red flag, to warn other road users of the imminent danger.
(Paying £1.24 a litre for petrol did not add to my delight either. That too is another story!)

Dinghy rescue

On BBC TV's morning programme 'Breakfast' yesterday, a teenage girl was interviewed. I only ever watch morning television with half an eye but I soon realised that this girl's story was interesting, if only in its stupidity. You can see the account of her experience here, but basically, seventeen year old Sammy and her friend, sixteen year old Tom were on holiday in Weston Super Mare (or Weston Mare, as she kept calling it in the interview) when they decided to go on a little sea trip. Not being the owners of a boat of any description, they spotted a couple of £4.99 children's inflatable dinghies in a nearby shop and bought those as an alternative. At no point did it occur to either of them that floating off in these might possibly not be the wisest thing to do. The article mentions that they used the dinghies' paddles, but on television, it looked as if Tom was using metal household shovels. (Yes, metal - think about it, Tom!)
Inevitably, they floated off away from Weston and eventually managed to come ashore at Brean. Even then they were apparently unfazed by their experience.
"Did you not ring for help as you had your mobile with you?" inquired the presenter.
"Nah, we just thought we could walk back. It was suppose to take about forty minutes, we were told."
Eventually, the realisation dawned on them that they were actually lost and at this point, they did indeed phone for help. Realisation must have taken quite a while though, as the seach for them lasted seven and a half hours.
"It's good to see a happy ending to an incident that could have been turned out a lot more serious. We would never recommend that people set sail in inflatable dinghies," was the coast guard's comment. I think I might have been inclined to put it a lot more forcefully than that.
And did I mention that Sammy had been carrying her mobile during this adventure? She had it with her during the interview too. I know this because the message tone went off at least three times and instead of switching it off, she was caught on camera surreptitiously texting back, mid-interview! Oh well, it's nice to know she appreciates the seriousness of it all.