Cleaning Up.

I learnt today that there is a Public Toilet Association.  Public toilets are gradualy disappearing across the UK, and a spokeman for the aforementioned association condemned councils who are don't have a legal obligation to provide public conveniences and therefore often take the brunt of spending cuts.

Fat Chance.

Fish and chips is a traditional meal in the UK, where the fish is dipped in a batter mix and immersed in very hot fat.  The outcome is one very tasty, healthy fish encased in crunchy, unhealthy batter.
My problem is that when I partake of this meal (like last night) I always eat the whole thing, batter and all, and subsequently feel bloated and generally ill as my stomach tries to break down the excessive fat that has been absorbed.  I know this will happen before I start eating, bit do nothing about it.  If I were a bit smarter, I would focus on the fleshy fish part and minimise my batter intake.
..but I'm not very smart, a bit like the greedy Labrador that eats anything.

Because of the above, I felt I should bike into the office this morning, so I did. 36.3 miles starting around 05:15 and no adverse reactions to last night's fish.  Hopefully I'll make it home.

Last Words

There's a sad story about a hiker whose body was found a couple of years after going missing whilst walking the Appalachian trail.  The hiker - a woman in her 60s had got lost and was found in a tent some way off the official walk. What makes it more poignant is that she kept a diary of what she was doing, and her last entry asked that when she was found to call her daughter and husband.
If we are learn anything about this, it's to always carry a notepad and paper.  If I'm ever in that awful situation, I would write loads to get it off my chest.  A bit like this blog really, except as I munch on a chelsea bun I have almost no chance of dying of starvation for the next few days at least.

Clash. Should I stay....

Meanwhile, the stay or leave debate (in the EU) continues at pace.  Every statement that either sides makes is immediately shouted down by the opposing side, thereby turning the whole discussion into a shouting match.
Fortunately (maybe) neither side can see into the future, so we are bombarded by predictions, carefully engineered to appeal to the inner worrier in all of us.  There's no doubt that the 'fear factor' aspect is the primary tool being deployed to persuade us either way, with house prices, extended recession, additional tax etc. being touted as reasons to stay/go (delete as appropriate).

Long Knives

If a business fails, who is to blame?  I'm sure there are numerous answers to that, but surely the buck stops at the CEO.  There might be financial mis-management, operational inefficiencies or poor sales, and (I guess) a combination of all three, so to hear that a business in a bit of a downturn has sacked the CFO is a bit odd.

Tit for Tat

Swallows and Amazons has a character called Titty, but not in the new BBC adaption, where Titty is now Tatty.  The family of the lady who inspired the author to create Titty are 'furious' according to the Guardian.  I doubt they would use that particular adjective, but it could have been worse, they could have called her Totty.

Toy Story

Toys are getting more violent according to some survey or other.  Sounds dangerous to me.  We have quite a few toys at home - for the grandchildren or course.  I occasionally get annoyed with them (the toys, that is) but they never retaliate, so does this disprove the violent theory?

Meanwhile, it's reported that 'consumer transactions' (things we buy, I guess) were paid by cash in less than 50% of the time, the first time this has happened.  We are getting into cashless transactions with our cards/phones, and using online banking.  I'm still surprised we have cheques, I don't think they are used at all in some European countries.  We have always lagged behind other comparable EU countries when it comes to electronic banking in its various forms, especially since the UK is the self styled 'financial capital of the world'.  Thereby proving the old proverb:  The easiest person to kid is yourself.

Name?

We like to pigeon hole people using all sorts of weird and wonderful criteria.  Some of us are 'Baby Boomers', and I read of 'Millenials' although I don't really know what that means, something to do with the year 2000 I expect.  Was it those conceived on that day?  ..or have lived through it in their formative years? 
Now we have Doomerangers - those children/adults who leave home, then come back, which is based on the Boomerangers.  and really, and quite creative I suppose.  Saves putting a long description in the news article.

The Tour of California (cycling, not your normal vacation) is going on at the moment, and the winner of the latest stage managed to celebrate early, and nearly lost the win as the second man kept going strong to the line.  I would feel very embarrassed for him if he lost out, but this time it was not to be.
Its odd how I can feel embarrassed for someone else, yet I know of others that never feel like that.
The wonders of biology.

Job Seekers

A reporter from The Guardian decided to try and get from Folkstone to London without a phone or money.  Wow, what a challenge, I think, trying hard not to skim read and get to the next article before I fall asleep.  But it's not as daft as it seems.  He based the idea on a reality show where 2 blokes travel a long way (was it round the world?) relying on the good people he met to help him.  As it turns out, they were successful, and so was he, but he had help from one of the aforementioned shows participants, and if I read between the lines correctly, it's not the good human nature that made them successful, it was the sheer blazon cheekiness of asking for things and eventually getting it.  What this tells you about human nature is debatable, but proves to me that if you are prepared to go out of your way to get something you will be successful, but only if you rely on an awful lot of people giving something up for you.  Just like most businesses really.

Its Not The Taking Part.

There's been a bit of exam cheating going on in various countries as pupils take advantage of technology to get that all important grade.  In my day (queue groan from younger readers) we would think about wrting some snippets of possibly useful informaiton on the wooden ruler we were allowed to take in, but trying to get the whole of Shakespeare's Twelth Night on it so I could write down a quote proved difficult.
In Iraq, they have got round this by taking down the internet during the exam.  Sounds a bit drastic, but probably easier than policing everyone.  In Japan they found some discreet cameras hidden in glasses, with answers relayed by anonymous experts to (I assume) some sort of other hidden device.  The lad taking in the VR headset probably didn' get way with it.
But, like all situations like this, the incidents that are exposed are probably only the tip of the iceberg - a bit like the doping in sport example.  Everyone (?) wasnts to win, and some go that extra bit further to make sure they do.  I'm not sure its fair to compare exams with sports, but the outcomes are invariably the same - success.
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Brush Strokes

I have a favourite toothbrush, and I wonder if that's normal.  I guess some folks don't have more than one, but I have more than once thoughtlessly tossed a new version into the supermarket trolley assuming that I would one day want it so I have about 4 now.  2 of these were in a buy one get one free which too good on offer to refuse of course.
It's quite a plain variety, with a semi-opaque handle and straight bristles.  It seems to make a good job of my teeth, although the only judge on that is how much food I taste after brushing.  My good wife informs me that electric brushes are the way to go and has a fairly small brightly coloured one that whizzes through the job in no time.  Mine is manually driven and I'm sure is not as bad as she (and the marketing people) make out.
It shows no sign of wearing out i.e. most of the bristles are upright so I'll not be changing it in the short to medium.

Polished Voting.

Face recognition is making headlines (geddit?) in Russia, with it being added to Russia's local Facebookski app and used very successfully. Successfully for what? is a good question, so expect some more annoying advertising appearing within your eye line soon.  Can't wait.

Meanwhile, there's been some analysis of the voting in the Eurovision Song Contest, and the rise of the Polish entry raises some eyebrows/questions when the public vote was added to the expert jury vote.  Basically, hey were near the bottom after the jury vote, near the top after the public vote.  So what happened there?  If I recall, the song was neither better or worse than all the others, and definitely not a stand out pop song, so my theory is that even though the large Polish populations in non-Poland countries voted, it must mean that locals didn't vote at all giving the Polish voters a disproportionate share of the public voting.  If I were living in another country I would take the opportunity to vote for my homeland, but why should I want to vote for other countries' dross songs?

Singing Detective.

Betting has been suspended on the chance of Tom Huddlston for James Bond.  I don't know if I'm nore surprised that bets are taken on this, or that the article appears on the BBC app's 'Top Stories'.  Both I suppose.

I'm still reeling from the shocking Eurovision result.  Jake and Joe only managing 24th place out of 26!!  It was the only catchy pop song amongst them all, so probably proves that politics really does come into voting decisions even on something as mundane as this show.  I'm sure President Putin must be devastated that Ukraine won, although it gives him something easy to knock, eben though it iwll not be for the poor tune and backing vocals.
It's a song contest for heavens sake!

High Wire.

The presidential library in the US have released photographs of President Bush taken in the hours just after the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Centre.  They show an emotional bloke coming to terms with the enormity of the situation and are an intriguing view on what was a tragic, traumatic moment in time.   It's also interesting that someone took the photographs at all - given the voyeuristic nature of them, but it's a good record to have.

Facebook is trying to roll out a facial recognition app that automatically tags people and posts their pictures on e.g. their own profile.  However, the EU regulator types are not happy with it, and I can understand why.  It seems that the Russians have a similar system on a facebookalike system, and a chap took some pictures of strangers, then used a facebookski app to find them - successfully I might add, thereby proving the technology was a success, and invading people's privacy at the same time.  As usual, the balancing act between desirable and undesirable affects is very difficult to get right.

Some things you have to keep to yourself.

So, I unblocked the sewer.  Not a pretty sight, but what did you expect?  It was at a property that my wife rent's out, and when I returned home, a lovely meal was waiting for me but not a word was spoken about 'the deed'.  It was the elephant in the room, the unspoken obvious fact that something was completed successfully but not a word should be uttered in case the awful truth came out.  So I have to keep it to myself and at least I have the self satisfied smugness that goes with a 'job well done'. 

Anyway, early 7 mile run this morning in the sunshine.  Well, partial sunshine anyway.  We have had a brief few days of lovely weather for May, but it's on the wane now so our 4 days away in the caravan will not be as stiflingly hot as it would have been this weekend so I'm not complaining too much.  Thank goodness we live in a temperate climate.

It's that bastion of talent on Saturday evening - the Eurovision Song Contest.  Actually, it's a bit more than Europe, including as it does Australia, Israel and Turkey.  I'm not sure myself what constitutes Europe nowadays - Turkey has always been a bit EuroAsian if I remember from school.  Anyway, it promises to be a night of fun and laughter as always, and I hope the UK entry - Jake and Joe (or similar) give us something to cheer about as we approach the EU referendum vote.

Draining Job

Busy lunchtime today.  Suffice to say I didn't get the sewer unblocked, and I'll be trying later.
Watch this space.

McCycle Cyclerace

The Giro starts today, so lunchtimes onwards each day will be spent with one eye on the progress of whoever I think should win.  I don't have any real preferences, just take a shine to someone who is probably just off the pace and with a bit of luck will get in front.  It's more that I'm anti-favourite, preferring the underdog, so no Nibali cheering for me.  Is it just me?

Sadly, Boaty McBoatface will not be named Boaty McBoatface.  It will become a rather bland sounding RRS Sir David Attenborough.  Bit of a McCopout if you ask me.

No News, is No News.

I don't often click on 'how to bake...' articles, but this one was asking me to make the perfect fig roll.  Well, how could I not click on this, and although I am fond of a fig roll, I didn't realise you could actually make them -at home that is, I do realise that Jacobs factory has cracked it.  Anyway, I'll be educating myself later on and maybe persauding my good wife that I can make fig rolls.  She's not a fan, so I will have endure a bit of criticism along the lines of '..so why do you only make things that only you like?'.

Meanwhile, as predicted, anticpated and foretold, the New Day newspaper will close it's doors tomorrow after a very short shelf life.  It purported to be a 'new sort of newspaper' offering 'new insights into the days news', when it was the usual pile of tosh found in magazines dressed up as 'news'.  Quite an expensive mistake, but at least it should prevent similar pile ups.

And it makes me wonder...

In the US, Cruz has cruised off into the sunset leaving the circus performer clear to take the win.  So we will have Hilary V. Donald show for a few months which will provide a few laughs.

Meanwhile, the theft of a sausage and cheese is not a crime if you're homeless and hungry according to an Italian court.  But how hungry?  ..and how long do you have be homeless before its OK?  We should have guidelines surely.

You should think carefully before you have a tattoo and wait a while before taking the plunge, that's the general advice from those with tattoos, and I guess the same from those that haven't.  Given that tattoo parlours are often open late at night when the pubs are kicking out makes me wonder if many do take that thinking time into account.

Political Upheaval.

There's still a great deal of noise over Jeremy Corbin's leadership of the Labour party.  For the occasional spectator of politics, its a bit difficult to get to the truth of the matter - well, it is politics so what should we expect?  The print media appear to be pushing takeover talk, whilst his supporters are talking them down, and pushing the 'dirty tricks' stories.  Whatever the truth, it's definitely interesting to the outsider.

Meanwhile, it's reported that the 'bank of Mum and Dad' supply 25% of mortgages, which just goes to show who can get credit nowadays.  Not sure how they worked it out, but no-one asked me to fill in a survey.