It must be love!

A mate of mine has just started two new blogs.

One is a general wordy one.

The other is a football one.

It's early days at the moment, so he's not getting personal yet & talking about his love life...so I thought I'd be the one to 'out' him as a Marge lover!

Sometimes there’s nothing wrong…

With blowing your own trumpet. And today is one of those days. Here’s a question for you. Do you know exactly where you were seven years ago?
I do.

I was lying at home in bed. Being sick, sweating hot & cold, shaking a little, & being sick until it hurt. Dashing to retch over the bath, throwing up nothing, as therewas no more to bring up, but my stomach still going through the painful motions.

I’d just got back from the first ever Supporters’ Team tour, which I’d organised. Back them I was obviously aware I was a heavy drinker, & deep down knew I was an alcoholic. In fact just over a year before I’d stayed on the wagon for just under two weeks, & gone to a few meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous. But I went back on the booze, ‘kidding’ myself I could control my drinking. The truth was AA was ready for me, but I wasn’t ready for AA.

For every alcoholic there comes a moment in your life when you can’t get any lower from where you are (though many do fall further into their own personal abyss) & you accept you need help. I was lucky. I knew what AA was, at least.

But I was still very, very frightened. I phoned up a fellow Hamlet fan Madge, & asked him if I could go with him to a meeting the next day. I actually shared my thoughts at that meeting, & was extremely nervous. Worried in case I said the wrong thing! How stupid is that?!

I don’t go to many meeting nowadays, I know where they are when I need them, & I’m in the minority of people who use the ‘rooms’, as we like to call meetings, that hasn’t got a sponsor, or done the AA twelve step programme. Why? Don’t know really. Truth be know I think I’d let myself down, by lacking the dedication to follow them through. And at times I’m quite fragile emotionally anyway, so I don’t really know, or want to know, what can of worms I might open up for myself.

I done ok, anyway.

In case you haven’t worked out yet, I’m giving myself a huge, personal pat on the back, at today marks SEVEN YEARS OF SOBRIETY for me! It’s not something I shout from the rooftops, but I can to so on here!

My life isn’t perfect, not by a long chalk. But it’s moving on, hopefully, where I can start to look ahead to three or four years time, where I will, hopefully, be debt free, & I can start thinking of nicer holidays & maybe even saving money for the first time in my life.

But the most important thing is….even if I feel like shit, or am sinking into the depths of depression, my life is still a MILLION times better than when I was drinking.

I didn’t really think how much this day means to me, until a customer walked into work today. He’s also in AA, & I told him quietly that I was seven years today! He was so pleased, congratulating me, and an emotional warmth came over me, through his genuine kindness, that I almost started crying with joy! I was welling up certainly. And had to pop out the back, away from the public areas, for a few moments to compose myself.

This was three hours ago now (I’m typing this in my lunch-break) & I’m desperately trying to hide a huge grin ever since. But don’t worry I’m inwardly smiling, & I’ve got that all over ‘Ready Brek’ glow!

Tomorrow is just another day…but the greatest thing about it is that it’s a day where I won’t pick up a drink!
One day at a time! Marvellous!

You can't knock a freebie

I was passing through Victoria today, and outside the station there was someone handing out promotional freebies of mini 150ml cans of Pepsi. Not bad eh? You can't knock something for nothing. Well not unless some total stranger punches you in the face.

But this wasn't ordinary Pepsi. Or Pepsi Max. No! This was PEPSI RAW.

Pepsi what? Allow me....

The blurb on the tin tells us that it is NATURAL BORN COLA. Apparently Pepsi Raw was born differently to other colas. You won't find anything but naturally sourced ingredients here except for the bubbles. What you will find is a naturally great cola taste.

We're then invited to tell them what we think @ twitter.compepsiraw

No chance! I've just about got my head round Facebook thank you very much. That's enough 'interacting' for me, or whatever it's called. I promise you there's no way I'm going to joing the 'Twittering classes'.

Besides it wouldn't take me that long to tell them what I think of their Pepsi Max anyway...

It's fucking disgusting!

Not disgusting enough that I didn't go back & forth a few times claiming nine small tinnies in total. When it's free it's drinkable-just! But there's no way I'll be paying for the shit when it's on sale in the shops!

A terrible tragedy

over in America when a little four year old girl died in an acident on a running treadmill. She was playing on it & somehow got her head caught up in it, & a cord that hung under the console somehow acted as a noose, & she later died in hospital.

It's impossible to imagine what it must be like for anyone to lose a young child. Think about how bad it must be, then multiply it a thousand times or more, is my guess. My heart goes out to the childs mother.

No mention of the dad from me? Ah....
This is where my sympathy ends. for the father is none other than the former boxer Mike Tyson. The obnoxious piece of shit who is a convicted rapist who has never ever shown any remorse. Whilst I wouldn't wish anyone's child to die-even his-I hope he is suffering inside. Really, really hurting. He really is a horrible bastard from where I'm sitting. Rape is just one step below kiddie fiddlers, as far as I'm concerned. I've more 'respect', if that's the right word, for 'ordinary murderers'.

A few years ago the then loopy 'lost the plot' England manager Glenn Hoddle famously suggested in an interview with 'The Times' that he held a "controversial belief that the disabled, and others, are being punished for sins in a former life." No I'm coming round to this idea, with the death of Tyson's young daughter. He's not so much being punished for a previous life, though if reincarnation does exist I'm sure he was just as much a total cunt in that one too, but getting his just deserts for the way he's behaving in his current one. Bad karma comes back to haunt him and all that.

As I've said it's terrible that such a premature & tragic death could befall such an innocent little girl. but if these unfathomable things must happen...it couldn't happen to a more 'deserving' father!

What a load of rubbish!

A couple of weeks or so ago I was given a leaflet.
The Sydenham and Forest Hill Youth Forum needs a makeover!
So the blurb said.

It went on: "The Forum is a youth organisation that works with young people within Sydenham, Forest Hill and Perry Vale. We're launching a new youth led participation project but our name (the sydenham and forest Hill Youth Forum) is long, and we know it. So we're asking you to come up with a cool logo that people your age will recognise as the place to get involved in anything youth-related. the chosen logo will win a brand new laptop, plus a professional design package."

So far so good, eh? Hmmm.....You can fell me going into 'old fogey mode' already can't you?
What they're actually doing is re-launching their youth project because their current one is clearly a total failure, or there'd be no need to 'launch' it. And as for the crap name, well YOU gave it the name in the first place!

Still, what's my problem? Just moaning for the sake of it, as per usual? Ask yourself where did I get the leaflet from? The local library perhaps? Or doctors surgery? Housing office? Answer? None of the above.

It was handed to me on a train. Well I'm 42, and look as if I've had a 'hard life' so you could easily guess another decade on my age, & it wouldn't surprise me. What I'm trying to say if I'm hardly within the catchment target group of this printed in thick card, in four colours (Ie: hardly cheap to produce) flier, so why was it dumped on me?

Because it wasn't just dumped on me! I was on a train heading for London Bridge, in the middle of the morning, after the rush hour had finished, and we were heading towards New Cross Gate,, with the train having started from Caterham, in the heart of suburban leafy Surrey. A polite middle aged woman was walking down the train, carriage by carriage, leaving a couple of leaflets on each set of seats!

Apart from the obvious about 'how fucking stupid!' as in who the bloody hell on this train is likely to be interested in this very youthful niche market, the person dishing them out is almost certainly ( now I don't know this, I guessing this based on my stereotypical compartmentaling) aone of the lefty, hoodie hugging, greenie save the planet brigade. Who, if I were to be dumping rubbish from my bag onto the floor of my carriage be tut-tutting away to themselves, but obviously, being a middle class tosser, not having the bollocks to speak up and have a moan.

This is where I let myself down, because I didn't really take in what this litter lout was dumping down the whole train, and only really got wound up by it when I got off at London Bridge & walked past the front two carriages littered with them. Now you could say that maybe passengers would pick them up as the train went back & forth up & down the line, but anyone who uses public transport will tell you this doesn't happen. As cleaners are always jumping on board at the terminus to clean them up, mainly as a result in the explosion of cheap, throwaway papersin the last few years. As if the minimum wage cleaners don't have enough shit to shovel they had a few hundred expensively produced crap to deal with.

It really makes me wonder what kind of idiots get jobs in the public sector like these sort of inter-acting forums with local youth? and you know what pisses me off most? I can guarantee you that the litter bug doing this vital youth consultation is paid a darn sight more than I am in my job!

It's enough to make you break the law...

Or it would have been, if we still deported convicts to Australia!

A Sydney magistrate handed down a four-year drving ban to a 19 year old man for speeding, & has threatened him with jail if he carries on driving. So far so good. But the threat he issued to the lad is shocking, if not tempting, were you not to take it as a serious comment:

He was told that he will 'meet big, ugly, hairy,strong men there who will pay attention to you and your anatomy' & 'shower with the gorillas in the midst' if he fails to obey the ban.

It might seem funny at first, but be serious for a moment. What the fuck are judges who hold peoples' futures in their hands doing coming out with shit like this? You can bet your bottom (Australian) dollar, as opposed to just beting your bottom if you're in jail, that he is one of those judges who think that 'women ask for it' if they get raped when pissed.

Are they connected?

I was over in north London yesterday. I went to the Emirates with a couple of colleagues from work to watch Arsenal take on Liverpool in the first leg of the FA Youth Cup Final.




Great value at a fiver, & a cracking game, 4-1 to the young Gooners. But I'm not posting to tell you that.

It was my 'half day', working til two, which happens every other Friday when it's my Saturday on. Rather than go home, then leave not long after, I walked around the Islington area for a while. Specifically visiting the local Islington Museum as I hadn't been there before.



I'm going to tell you about that either. Except to say it's worth a visit if you like local municipal museums, and that it's on the lower ground floor, below Finsbury Library.

It's the library that I do want to mention. now I'm a bit of a hoarder, when I'm in somewhere like a library outside my local area I always leave with a few free leaflets that I might find interesting. And this one was no different. Free local paper & some of historical walks around Islington, produced by the neighbourhood amenity group. Which are interesting in itself, but still not what I want to tell you about!

Nope, what I really want to share with you was two leaflets that were side by side to each other, in a somewhat unfortunate 'product placement' type way, that perhaps tells you more about the way my mind works...

The first was offering the services of London Friend.

The second was for the South Islington Stroke Club! Which wasn't the sort of 'stroke club' I'd associate with people who might need the services of the first leaflet!

What a fucking idiot I am!

And for once I mean it!

As I've mentioned, I'm off to Glasgow in three weeks, then the following weekend I will be in Brussels. I've had my flight booked for sweatyland for a few months, but Brussels is a recent thing. Wednesday was payday, so I booked my hostels for both trips, and my one in July to Helsinki & Riga. So far so good.

Then I wnet to book a Eurostar ticket at lunchtime yesterday. I can only afford thecheap book in advance £59 returns, so am restricted to certain trains. I'd had the first one, early Friday morning picked out, & a late one Sunday to come back. But when I went to book it the Sunday ones had gone up in price, and out of my budget.

So it was over to the Eurolines website to check the coach travel. not my chosen way, as it takes ten hours each way, but a neccesity, & as a little bonus I'll save about a fiver! Yes, you're right, that's no bonus at all really, I'm just trying to make myself feel a bit better.

Anyway, I've booked the coach, then printed off the e-ticket...Oh fuck it! I've only gone & booked the wrong date! I've gone & vought a coach ticket for the Glasgow dates going to Brussels! Shit, shit shit!

So I quickly phone up the number on the website, and am told it should be ok to change...then....because I've purchased a 'cheap deal' fun fare it's not possible to change it, & no refunds offered! Fuckity, fuck! The last thing I need, & can't afford, is to lose fifty quid! It's there right in front of my eyes, on the website, after I double check, when I've put the phone down.

The bloke from the call centre tells me to purchase another ticket, & send in a letter of explanation, with both bookings, to their Customer Relations Department & informed that "it shouldn't be a problem" to get a refund."

I won't be holding my breath waiting for one. It's my stupid mistake, which I simply shouldn't have done. Typical when I hve such a tight budget for my trips that I muck up like this. I'll cope, and if I get any money back that's a bonus.

It wouldn't surprise me if they issue a 'credit note' for another trip, which isn't what I want, as I prefer to go abroad by train, and taking the coach is only ever out of financial neccesity.

Nothing I can do about it, just got to get on with things eh?

When is a crisp not a crisp?

Well according to the makes of Pringles it's when it's a Pringle! Unfortunately for them the Court of Appeal disagreed. You might be wondering what the fuck they're bothering to go to court for? Of course they're bloody crisps! But this series of court cases wasn't about crisps, but tax evasion.
The Revenue people had said that they were potato snacks. Which is what crisps are made from. Why? Apparently most foods are exempt from VAT, but not 'potato snacks', as they're classed as 'savoury snacks'.
The Pringle merchants defence was that 'only' 42 per cent of the 'snacks' were potato, the rest made up of fat, flour, & assorted additives.

Well they look like crisps, taste like crisps....so that makes them crisps from where I'm sitting. Albeit fucking expensive ones. They are tasty, but pricy. The only time I buy them is when they're on a special offer, like 'buy one, get one free' type thing.
They are very 'moreish', in that they are curved, so you can put them over your tongue, and let them 'melt' as you crunch them.
It's all in the presentation, which is why they cost a few bob more than your average packs of Walkers. They're all the same shape & size. Almost a real life 'european banana' tale.You know the sort of anti-EU story that appears sporadically (& coming to you soon, with the European elections due) about all bananas needing to be a specific size & bend! (Thankfully not applied to cocks. Blow jobs would be much less fun if they were all the same shape & size!)

Pringles are now crisps, something we always knew. Poncy, overpriced crisps, but still tasty! Well the salt & vinegar ones are anyway. I do love salt & vinegar crisps. Which is a bit of pain as I'm off to Brussels in four weeks time. And one thing your 'Johnny Foreigners' don't like is salt & vinegar crisps. You can get all sorts of smelly cheesy one, with added garlic or parika. But traditional salt & vinegar? Nowhere! To think we bailed out the plucky little Belgians not once, but twice in the World Wars. And how do they repay us? Fucking disgusting paprika crisps!
Ungrateful bastards! No wonder we have to remind them sometimes that " If it wasn't for the Enlgish you'd be Krauts! "

Wednesday shopping!

Day off today! I don't work Wednesdays in my job, as I'm sure those of you who know me realise.

I indulged in one of little 'pikey' hobbies...all above board & legal, I hasten to add!

While I had a large bag of dirty clothes going round in the local laundrette I picked up my pre-ordered prescription from the chemist. Then had a nose in one of the local 'charidee' shops & picked up four more videos at ten bob each. A veritable bargain. Though once you see my choices you'll see why they're so cheap. Very 'hit & miss' I know, but when it's only fifty pence at stake it's a darn sight easier to give something a go & take a gamble, knowing it might be a complete & utter shite!

The Thin Red Line A Second World War film, that looks half decent, set in the Pacific. The actors in it, among others, include Sean Penn & George Clooney. One to save for a rainy day, as it last for two & three quarter hours.


Short Cuts is an unusual film, in that it's not an action one. It appears to be a, sort of, series of short films, interwoven into one, about 22 people in Los Angeles. the video was released on the arty-farty Artificial Eye label, which issues non-mainstream type films. Another lengthy one, lasting three hours!

Les Patterson Saves The World. He might well do...but I don't think he'll do much for the film industry! I'm not expecting this to be much cop at all, but it 'stars' both Sir Les Patterson & Dame Edna Everage. And I enjoy watching 'both' of them, so I thought I'd give this one a whirl.

Commando Leopard Described as 'action trash' in one review, so I dread to think how awful this one is. The only reason it caught my eye was because it had Lewis Collins in it. Not that he's a great actor, or anything. No, it's just that I watched every week as I grew up on 'The Professionals', & I did have a bit of a crush on his character Bodie in my early teens! ;-)

I heard of little white lies...

But this is bloody ridiculous!



So the (sub)Standard is under new ownership, but a leopard doesn't change it's spots!

Army "Camp"

I was out & about up town today, having watched the Youth Team in the morning. I wasn't going anywhere in particular, just wnadering about for a couple of hours. I ended up gravitating towards one of my favourite museums.

In one of the First World War galleries there was a projected slideshow of recruitment propaganda posters.

Is this one the gayest one ever or what!

Money, money, money....

Anyone got any spare?

It's payday on Wednesday, & it begins very tight budgeting for me. So tight I should have spent a lot less in the last month, but I've still got a few pennies left.

June & July sees me go on three trips, which is too many, my choice, but still a worry.

The Supporters' Team tour is at the end of July. We're going back to Helsinki to play the HJK fans again. An expensive city at the best of times, more so now with the economic recession, & the pound crashing against the Euro. I arrive there on a Thursday morning, & stay til the Sunday, when I am then getting the boat over to Estonia, then the early morning coach to Riga, in Latvia, where I fly home from on the Wednesday morning. I don't spend much money anyway, out of neccesity, so I'll cope. Finland is expensive, but I'll eat very cheaply, then treat myself in much cheaper Riga.

I also decided to go up to Glasgow for a long weekend, in June, as my good friend from Namur, Belgian Anorak, has his PSG Belgium supporters' team in the Queens Park FC supporters tournament at Lesser Hamden. Again I'm flying up, arriving Thursday, coming back on the Monday evening.
I'm also looking forward to that. There's a number of excellent free museums in glasgow, plus I'll try to get round some non-league grounds to photograph, if i can get into them. And it's 'normal' money, & chip shops are filling and cheap. not to mention the local delicacy! And on the Friday afternoon, when the Belgians arrive, we have a tour of the Scottish Football Museum arranged!

What threw a spanner in the works was another Supporters' Team trip! Usually we go away for a weekend early in the year, January or February. But the Gaffer announced that we wouldn't go on one, which I was disappointed about, as people would need money for the expensive trip to Finland. Which was fair enough. I went over to Belgium for a footballing weekend, staying with Belgian Anorak & his fiancee Rocky. Which I really enjoyed.

After I'd arranged to go to Glasgow though, flights already booked, the Gaffer announced we were going to Brussels in mid June-the weekend AFTER Glasgow luckily- for a tournament which he have got an invite for!

So I'm having to try to save every penny I have, to go to all three. Of course I could miss Brussels. But I haven't missed a Supporters' Tour yet, since we first went abroad in May 2002, a record I am personally very proud of, & one I don't want to break. I have to decide very soon how much time I stay in Brussels. I hope to go by early Eurostar on the Friday morning, the competition is on the Saturday, and get the last one back on the Sunday evening. I'm restricted to these times, by the cheap £59 return fare. The only alternative would be to get the Friday night coach there, & the Saturday night coach back. I don't really want to do that, as it only saves about a fiver, will be quite tiring two nights on the spin, but will obviously save me spending money.

I've fingers crossed I'll scrape/save enough shekels together for everything, & I know I'll enjoy my times away, even if I'm short of cash. I'm just scared I don't have the discipline/willpower to not spend any money over the next couple of months on anything else!

Hopefully I'll be ok...fingers crossed for me! ;-)

Anyone got a tissue?

How embarrassing! But don't worry nobody I knew noticed!

I was on my way home early evening yesterday, & I was going through London Bridge Station. The toilets were open on one of the quieter platforms, so I decided to pop in there and see if there was anything going on. Not my 'cottage' of choice, as the station can be busy at times, which makes people a bit nervous in the toilets (understandably) and there are police based on the station.

I stood at the urinal, I needed a slash anyway, glanced quickly to my right to ascertain that the others were not just having a pee, and sure enough, the other three people there were 'willy waving'. To cut a long story short the bloke next to me grabbed my cock and wanked me off. Now I hadn't played with myself for a couple of days so I shot all over the place! I wiped up with my fingers and rinsed my hands under the tap...after licking them, naturally! ;-)

So far so good. I walked down the ramp to towards the platforms for my train, and at the bottom of them, where there were a number of people milling about, waiting for their trains to pop up on the boards, I noticed a couple of funny looks & quick grins as I went past. I looked down....

And there on the front of my trouser leg was a big glob of my spunk! Whoops.... Must clean up more in future! serve me right for storing it up a couple of days! ;-)

I never thought I'd side with the Old Bill but...

There was a story of an ongoing court case in the papers this morning, & I had to stop myself from swearing out loud on the train!

You know...one of those "What the Fuck...!?!" moments.

Hasanali Khoja is a Muslim catering manager with the Metropolitan Police who was asked to cook sausages and bacon for his job, and is now claiming damages for religious discrimination.
He claims his bosses knew he was not supposed to handle pork, which is forbidden in Islam, when he began working for them in 2004. But the 60 year-old, from Edgware, in north London, said he was told to when transferred from Hendon to Heathrow Airport in February 2007.

The first thing that springs to mind is what on earth were the 'bend over backwards political correctness brigade' doing by emplying someone who couldn't cook an esential fuel for a 24/7 workplace, like a police station, namely an traditional full English breakfast?

But then, if this man was so religiously principled as he claims to be what on earth was he doing going for a job where he even worked with pork?

The sheer hypocracy from yet another religious nutter! For that is what he is! I desperately hope that common sense prevails & this stupid claim is thrown right out of court, just as the case brought by the christian bible bashing barmy woman was last year, who was a registrar with Islington Council, & refused to officiate at civil partnerships because she didn't believe in gay marriage. (Civil Partnerships NOT being marriage anyway, as the bigots in churches & mosques & other assorted temples of hate, refuse to allow them. So much for equality eh?)

If pork is such a sinful thing for Muslims to touch can you explain how many small businesses run by followers of Islam get round this when they sell their overpriced sausages & bacon, stacked up in the fridges of their over priced corner shops?

What a load of old bollocks!

Hand on heart

Tell me you wouldn't do the same if you were an Honourable Member of Parliament.
Claiming for this, receipts for that. More homes than the local council before Maggie allowed them all to be sold off.
Greedy. Out of touch with reality. Not fit to govern.
All fair points at first glance. But do you really think it's only the politicians in power who are raking it in? No chance! It's called human nature.
I have no idea what you work as, but if you could claim expenses on things that are actually unrelated to your work, but day to day living are you really saying you wouldn't? It's not the politicians that are greedy, even if they are-if that makes sense-but the system that's at fault.

Strange isn't it how the papers are concentrating on the Labour ones, anyone would think they had a (not so) hidden agenda of getting an Old Etonian crony into Number Ten. And why not? The right wing establishment media, led by the Evening (sub)Standard got Bumbling Boris elected as Mayor of London, so what's to stop them doing the same nationally with toffee nosed Cuntish Cameron?

The whole story has nothing to do whatsoever with the integrity of politicians, but everything to do with getting the tories back in power. That's a tory party with fuck all idea of how to govern, even less than nouveau Labour. Which isn't that surprising as they are the same in all but name.

Compared to the average man in the street MPs are paid a fortune, but in the 'real world' they are not paid that much for the task of 'running the country'. I'm not going to say I don't begrudge them a penny because I'd be lying through the gaps in my teeth. But if they can make money, & give work to family & friends in the process, they'de be mugs not to.

I'm not sticking up for them, just being realistic. Who the fuck is going to turn down money if they're being offered it? They may all be a bunch of cunts, but htey're not a bunch of stupid cunts!

It's been a while

since I've posted. Over two weeks in fact. It's not that I've had nothing to say. I've always got an opinion or two. Nope. It's the age old problem of not enough hours in a day. so while I've got an idea or two in my head by the time I get home from work & have finished bits & pieces looking at various messageboards, or sorting out my photoblogs, I'm then a bit too cream crackered to start tapping away at the old keyboard.

Which is a shame. For me. As I do enjoy blogging, and I've probably got too many blogs on the go. In no particular order....

The Supporters' Team one. Updated once in a while, over the season, not too often, but when I do it's very time consuming.

My general photo one. Ditto, & not updated as much as I should. This is where I 'dump' anything & everything that doesn't fit into other ones.

My football grounds photo one. The one I currently work on most. A labour of love really. I started it a year ago, & over a hundred grounds covered, with over twenty one thousand hits!

My cemeteries & memorials one. The one that I have least time for. But slowly & surely building up. The problem is each post has a lot of snaps included, as I cover a cemetery by publishing anything from fifty to a couple of hundred snaps.

My London sights (& further afield) one. I started this at the start of the year, the aim was to include one post a week, of a museum or some other visitor attraction,but this seems to be beyond me. The visits I can do, as I don't work Wednesdays, but the actual getting the posts done is where I fall behind.

So that's my excuse for not 'wordy blogging' much on here recently. not much of one I know.

And what do I go and do? Like a complete and utter muppet I go and start yet another photo blog!
But at least I've had the sense to make sure it's one where a photo or two speaks louder than words! Enjoy! ;-)

Die you swine!

The end of the world is nigh!

Swine Flu is going to kill us all!

Actually it's quite funny. Not the actual 'threat' of Swine Flu, but looking at the reaction of others when you sneeze on the train into work. And at the moment is sort of sneezy weather. I don't suffer from hay fever, least not that I know of. Though I think I may have some sort of mild version of it. On hot, summery hay fever type days I can sneeze a bit too much, and sometimes have sore eyes. But not too serious. Certainly not anything to bother about, it's just mildly irritating. So I just get on with things, rather than bother my quack about it.

With this Swine Flu I'll just get on with things as well. At the moment it may not be quite as serious as is being hyped up by the media. It's possible there could be a lull, with a mega outbreak in the autumn. Who knows? I'm happy to take my chances. That's not to play down it's potential seriousness, but the majority of those that may die will be the weaker anyway. The old, the young. Those with lower immune systems. In short people who are more susceptible to illness anyway.

I'm one of those who will shrug his shoulders, wonder what all the fuss is, & get on with things. If I catch it I'll just suffer at home, if I can't get into work, & struggle on through until I'm feeling better, only leaving the house for football!

I'm not scientist so I have no way of predicting where this Swine Flu will go. If it cripples half of London then fingers crossed it's not too painful when I catch it. One 'bonus' if I do get infected is that I'm recently diagnosed diabetic, so I have a card where all my prescriptions are free. Not to be sniffed at, so to speak, at over seven quid a pop!

So where has this Swine Flu come from? Mexico apparently. And from pigs. Which is why I'd call it Mexican Flu, rather than Swine Flu, because it's infecting the swine directly in London.

I don't know if you've noticed but a number of schools have been closed as a precaution, after some of their pupils have fallen ill. But no ordinary schools. No sir, no!

Alleyn's in Dulwich: £4,332 per term.

Dolphin School, Clapham: Between £4,290 to £8,070 a year.

South Hampstead High School: £3,700 per term.

Hang on....a flu bug that wipes out the toffee nosed privileged swine that 'buy' their education, giving them a huge unfair advantage in life, simply because they have more money than ordinary people. Put it like that & I'm happy for them to be dropping like flies. Not quite happening. Anyone sufferinf from it are simply quarantined & confined at home, if not in hospital. Which is funny in itself. As they've just got to sweat it out, & there's nothing that their private, queue jumping health schemes like BUPA can do to make them recover ant quicker than a 'common oik' AKA working class person living on a run down inner city council estate!

Swine Flu indeed! I suppose that sounds a bit more acceptable & comforting than Class War Death Flu, to give it its proper name. Manufactured in a dingy basement flat in a rundown Hackney backstreet! Now wouldn't that be marvellous!

We can all but dream eh? ;-)