Could we fall much lower?

Take a look at this, received from T.K. today. Makes you think!
Can you imagine working for a company that has a little more than

600
employees and has the following employee statistics .
29
have been accused of spouse abuse
7
have been arrested for fraud
9
have been accused of writing bad cheques
17
have directly or indirectly bankrupted at least 2 businesses
3
have done time for assault
71
cannot get a credit card due to bad credit
14
have been arrested on drug-related charges
8
have been arrested for shoplifting
21
are currently defendants in lawsuits
84
have been arrested for drink driving in the last year
Which organisation is this ?
It's the 635 members of the House of Commons, the same group that creates
hundreds of new laws each year designed to keep the rest of us in line.
What a bunch we have running our country - it says it all.
And
just to top all that they probably have the best 'corporate' pension scheme
in the country!!
Where's our Mr Cromwell we need a Revolution....

Gordon and Susan

Poor Susan Boyle has been suffering the after-effects of her time as a contestant on 'Britain's got Talent', so much so that she has had to check in to the Priory for some rest and recuperation. It seems obvious now that she had no idea of the pressure she would be under when she began this but then, how many of us would? However, I was surprised, to say the least at the report by the BBC that Gordon Brown took time out to enquire about her well-being and be interviewed on the subject by GMTV. This is the man who seemed to have disappeared from the face of the earth during the last week or so when other political leaders were bending over backwards to reassure us voters that they were doing their best to address the problems of MPs and their expenses.
It's nice to know that Brown is so confident that 'it will all be all-right, chaps' that he has time to concern himself with performers on a TV talent show. There's a man who has really got his priorities sorted.

Healthy eating - not!

I'm back home after a couple of days down in Bristol visiting Dad. When I am there, I do a fair bit of dusting, hoovering, washing, ironing and shopping as well as cleaning up the kitchen, of course, as you would expect.
Then I come home and start dusting, hoovering, washing, ironing and shopping..... but before I do all that, I have to hack my way through the layers of grease, fat and other unidentifiable detritus that has bloomed in the kitchen since my departure.
"What on earth have you been feeding yourself?" I ask as I scrub patches of grease off the kitchen floor.
Keith assumes his innocent and mildly offended look.
"Nothing much. Today I had a couple of chicken and mushroom pies and some beefburgers."
"SOME beefburgers?"
"Well, they were only small ones.
I dismantle the hob ready for more cleaning.

Who's got talent?

I'm going to do my grumpy (young) woman bit again now. I watched 'Britain's got Talent' twice in the week and again last night, so I haven't been a regular viewer, but Keith likes it as he thinks of it as a variety show. It's probably how he gets in touch with his youth; no syrup of figs or Milk of Magnesia for him!
Of the acts featured in the finals last night, I was not particularly impressed with Diversity, although they did come across as very pleasant and obviously prepared to give it their all and I thought Stavros and Flatley were, quite frankly, pretty mediocre. In fact, I couldn't believe how enthusiastic the judges were about them.
I really wanted Hollie to be in the final three, especially after the way she got right back up there last night after her stage fright. But mostly, I wanted Susan Boyle to win. She appears to have suffered from bad press during the past week or so, but I learned this morning that she has learning difficulties, which could explain why she might find the sudden outburst of media attention and public scrutiny rather difficult to cope with.
So all in all, I was disappointed with the outcome and the show is never going to come anywhere near 'Strictly...' in the popularity stakes for me, but good luck to the winners and I hope great things will happen for Susan in spite of everything.

Now, can we have 'Primeval' back, please?

It tastes horrible

Dad is having a bit of a problem with a tooth at the moment and as he can't get an appointment at the dentist's until the end of next week, I suggested that he rinse his mouth with diluted TCP in case of infection.
"Well, I have done that a couple of times but it tastes so horrible," he complained.
I reminded him of the times in my very early years when I was regularly dosed with syrup of figs and - worse - Milk of Magnesia, all because I was one of those unfortunate beings who are not 'regular'. (I won't elaborate on this in case you are of a delicate disposition. Suffice it to say, I spent half my early childhood being strongly encouraged to be 'regular'.)
"So, I'm afraid I have no sympathy," I said, grimly.
He laughed.

Self-service? No thanks!

I noticed the other week in Sainsbury's that some self-service tills have made a sneaky appearance, which didn't bother me too much as I had no intention of using them.
"Are those...?"
"They're self-service tills," the assistant rudely interupted me in a bored way which made it sound as if she had been asked the question ten million times before, which possibly she had, but there was no need to be so rude.
The next week I noticed that the 'Baskets only' tills had been axed to make way for them, which I was rather annoyed about as they are very useful if you have only popped in for a few items (extra cake for Keith, for instance) and don't want to be stuck in a lengthy queue behind someone who has bought the whole shop and then some and wants to pay for it with their life-collection of pennies.
So with rather bad grace, I took my basket to an ordinary till and prepared to wait, only to be accosted by a 'customer service assistant' who did her utmost to persuade me to give the new till a try.
"No thanks," I said politely. Her persistence indicated that she wanted a reason for my refusal, so eventually I gave it to her.
"When I come shopping," I said, "I like some degree of service. I already have to go round the store and pick the items I want and then lug them all out to the car, but I don't think it's too much to ask for someone to actually scan the shopping for me and take the money. Oh and it's quite nice when they offer to pack it for me, which happens less and less these days."
She smiled and backed away and went to help the queue building up at the self-service tills which seemed to be having teething problems.

Ghosts?

He's full of surprises, that dog of ours. On our walk today, he barked and tried to lunge at two very well behaved boxers for no apparent reason except that they were there and then, five minutes later, walked past a huge black dog, barking furiously at him as if he didn't exist. But the really puzzling moment came a few minutes later when we were back on the road. He stopped dead, stared intently across the road and began growling. Paddy never growls. If he sees a cat or a squirrel, he whines but never growls at them or even barks. However, this time, try as I might, I could see absolutely no sign of an animal or even person anywhere in sight. You see what I'm saying here? We were alone, completely and utterly alone.
But Paddy kept on growling, rooted to the spot until I began to haul him off down the road. Reluctantly, very reluctantly, he allowed himself to be moved but all the way down the hill, he kept stopping to look behind him as if there was someone or something following us.
In the end, even I began to get twitchy.
It had to be a ghost - but a person or an animal?
Welcome to the Welsh Twilight Zone...... Be afraid, be very afraid.