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.

All Systems Go

After discovering a spacious compartment beneath the Prius' boot floor, we've managed to get everything we need into the car in preparation for our journey to St Andrews to set up the new caravan. We couldn't manage the bedding for the second bedroom but we aren't planning on any visitors this time. Otherwise we've got pretty much all bar the kitchen sink in there. I realise that the space in the compartment is where normal cars would have a spare wheel but the Prius designers deemed the weight of  a spare to be inefficient for economic fuel consumption and if we get a puncture we're left with the prospect of either hoping that the emergency tyre repair kit works (it didn't last time) or waiting for the AA. I wonder if anyone has done a study to find out how much fuel is wasted and how many greenhouse gas emissions are created by recovery vans on call to Prius drivers with punctures. I'm tempting fate now. You know what the next blog will be about already don't you? Good job it's summer (it is Scotland mind).

It's not going to be too relaxing for the first couple of days. After getting everything in place we've got a bloke coming on Thursday to fit a TV aerial and then there's someone laying some paving stones as a base for the cycle store and then we've got to go and find some bikes to fit in the store when it arrives and is erected. My eyes glazed over when I saw the twenty pages of instructions for assembly. I somehow think that my tool kit , which came in a Christmas cracker, might not be up to handling it. It's a good job that Sarah's partner Duncan is a bit of a whizz with the DIY and they have all sorts of man things in their house like saws and drills and screwdrivers. Marion's dad once bought me a saw for a present. I think he was trying to tell me something. It did look kind of manly hanging there on the garage wall but it started to sort of blend in with the brick colour of the wall as it became coated in a thick layer of rust. I never did get an opportunity to use it but it was comforting to know that it was there if I ever needed to cut some wood (as you do).

We can't wait to see the family in Scotland. I read on Facebook that our granddaughter managed to put on 7 oz in just one week. It's quite handy Facebook isn't it? Although I'm glad that I'm no longer in the jobs market as I read today that a company has set itself up specialising in advising employers on job candidates' social media backgrounds. It seems that they will trawl the Internet for any salacious photos, pictures of you drunk at the office party, tweets that you made on the spur of the moment, weird religious views, racist remarks, off colour jokes. You name it, it could well come back to haunt you. There's going to be no privacy and even if you think your own Facebook pages are squeaky clean, what about that ex girlfriend who tagged the photo you texted in your own Weiner moment?

I had just about my first contact from Instanta Ltd since I retired in November today. Obviously something important had cropped up (Craig Buckley was inviting me to join the new football score predictions league). I was browsing the Internet to find a photo of Craig to accompany this snippet of information and was puzzled when I found the photo above. That's not Craig, it's Gavin Ford

See!



Those photos just go to show that the world is full of coincidence or maybe Gav's doing a bit of moonlighting under the name Craig Buckley.I've joined the league with a suitably appropriate name and we'll see if I can recreate the stunning form that took me to the top of the league many moons ago.

And finally on the subject of football. I can't believe the fuss being made about young Balotelli's performance at LA Galaxy. It was a friendly. He did a bit of showboating. If it was a cup final maybe there's room for complaint but a friendly? A player trying to be a bit entertaining? Heaven forbid. They'll soon beat that out of him.


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