If They Keep Talking About A Double Dip They'll Get One

Being retired now I shouldn't really be worrying about the threat of a double dip recession (although having all the sale proceeds of the business invested does certainly keep one focused on the financial news). However being retired also means that I have a lot more time to listen to the radio and my station of choice is Radio 4. Over the past few weeks my ears have been bashed every time I switch on with Robert Peston or some other financial commentator forecasting doom and gloom, downturns and collapses and if I had still been in business I would certainly be questioning the wisdom of buying that super new machine that would make us more efficient but would cost a hundred grand. So if I didn't buy the hundred grand machine because of Robert and his buddies (and all the writers in The Times and The Guardian and Krish and Jon Snow on Twitter and Chanel 4 news), the hundred grand machine makers would have less business and so too would the people who supply them, right down to the woman who delivers the workers' bacon butties on a Friday. Does nobody appreciate that this talk is self perpetuating and what is needed is more emphasis on the upbeat financial news (Dyson announced incredible sales this week)? Let's have some balance. I'm not suggesting distorting the news but if the population is constantly fed a diet of misery nobody will feel confident. Forgive me if I've said this before but I am getting a bit fed up of listening - perhaps I should switch to Radio2 and the Sun.

I've been off Facebook for a few days. My account was blocked due to "suspicious activity". There was no explanation of what said suspicious activity was but I could reinstate my account by simply answering my security question. Problem was I have no recollection of setting a security question and am sure that I would never have chosen the one that was set (who was my first grade teacher ?). Having exhausted every teacher I could ever remember, I used up all the attempts allowed and the only way to get the account back was to send a photo of my passport - yes this was genuine and not some sort of elaborate fraud. Problem now is that once you have set a security question you can never change it and Facebook won't give you a clue what the answer is so if any "suspicious activity" recurs I'll be blocked again. Note:- Since writing this, Facebook have allowed me to change my security question - all very clandestine, they obviously take their security very seriously.

I see that the Premier League has started again and for once I haven't seen a single goal. I've read the newspaper reports but I don't think I missed much. I felt sorry for the friend who is using my ticket at Anfield this season. The club sent out new season ticket cards but I was away in St Andrews and didn't receive mine so Brian went with my old one unaware of the change. I was sitting in a restaurant in St Andrews at 3 15pm when I got a call from the ticket office asking if it was OK for them to give him the new card. Poor bloke missed the first twenty minutes. The man who has Paul's ticket fared better. He simply told the turnstile operator that he hadn't got the new one and they let him in. Today's news of Man United being listed on the Singapore Stock Exchange just about sums up the way the game has gone. It's no longer the people's game.

I've got a few metal detecting trips planned in the next two weeks. There was an interesting programme on the radio last week about the finding of the Thetford Hoard in the 1970's. The finder didn't follow any of the correct procedures and was even detecting without permission. However, the find spot was built over within a few months of the find being made so without him this major find would have been lost to the nation. The gold rings above are just a small part of the hoard. If I found any one of these I would be turning cartwheels.