A Message From Syria
I just received this message.
Greetings,
I will like to formally introduce myself, I am Mrs. Asma al-Assad, First Lady of Syria which is the wife of Syria President Bashar al Assad.
I have a Profitable business transaction for you which involves transfer of funds,Please if interested do contact me via email for more details on this transaction but if this does not suit your business ethics, kindly delete this e-mail as I will gladly appreciate.
I await your swift response, to my email.
Regards
Mrs. Asma al-Assad
It is the sort of message for which the delete button was invented.
I checked the message source and it came from Indonesia.
Fifty Shades of Grey
There is an article in The Times on Saturday, where they ask several men to read this publishing sensation or so-called mommy-porn.
Out of curiosity, I read the book a couple of months ago and I think broadly, I have come to similar conclusions to the writers in yesterday’s paper.
The book is rather stereotypical in many ways, as no man could be as perfect in as many ways as is Christian Grey, and Ana fits a lot of male fantasies. Ana seems to have been created round the table in the local pub, by EL James asking all the men present, what they would like in a woman, what she should wear and how she would behave.
But I do think, that in some ways some long-standing and strong relationships do evolve a little like the one in the book. It’s not to say that I ever hit my late wife, or any other woman for that matter, but C sometimes wanted sex on terms her mother would have disapproved of and would dress to get it. She is probably not the only woman to have gone to the toilet, just before the sweet course, in a two-Michelin star restaurant and on return handed her companion, her knickers screwed up in a tight ball. She got the dessert for which she was looking.
One point about the book is that Christian is a pilot. I used to be and didn’t find those scenes too credible. I wonder if EL James has ever flown in a smaller aircraft, upside the pilot. C always found flying as one of those experiences, where you had to do as you were told, even if she didn’t at other times. Especially, as when I had a partial engine-failure in a single-engined aircraft. She didn’t panic at all, did what I said and never worried about flying with me again after the incident.
So! Did the book turn me on? And did I enjoy it? Not really! But it might have been fun to read with a lady. I would have certainly bought it for C, if she hadn’t bought it for herself.
Amazing 2D
Well! That’s what it says!
Amazing 2D
Anyway with my eyes, I don’t think 3D would work. It’s just an expensive gimmick.
Is The Shard Value?
The Shard is charging £24.95 to go to the top. The Emirates Cable-Car is different and it costs just £3.20 to actually get somewhere. The London Eye is very coy about tickets and I think it costs £15, with the ability to pay extra for fast-track. You get fast-track for nothing on the cable-car if you use your Oyster card.
It strikes me that the choice is a no-brainer. Go on the cable-car, if cost is important to you.
One important point, is that all three projects have been realised by the MACE Group.
Was The Torch A Day Late?
Yesterday was July the Fourth or Darrell’s Day in Suffolk, when the Dutch tried to invade in 1667.
So surely the torch should have visited Felixstowe yesterday, rather than today.
French Target Foreign Property Owners
I’m so glad that C and I sold our house in Antibes in the South of France some fifteen years ago. I think I’d be paying a very large sum of French taxes now, if Francois Hollande gets his plans to tax foreign property owners implemented. It’s all here on the BBC.
Another Tax on the Poor
I’ve just been interrupted by an advert on ITV4, where I’m watching the cycling for something called the People’s Postcode Lottery.
Reading about it, it would appear it only promotes itself in Scotland, Wales and the North of England.
I don’t like lotteries, as they are only a tax on the poor and stupid.
Certainly, if you don’t watch ITV or buy tabloid newspapers, it would appear you don’t hear about it.
Melianie Reid Gets Angry
I always read Melanie Reid in The Times every Saturday.
She is in a wheelchair after a riding accident and today, she vents her spleen on the crows, rooks and jackdaws, who are decimating the song birds in her garden. The RSPB seem to find all excuses about what is happening to songbirds, never believing that other feathered friends are responsible. Melanie with the evidence of her eyes has disproved this and will probably get the wrath of those that believe all birds are innocent. I shall check the on-line version of the story for comments.
The Anonymous Widower 