Thursday 23 April 2009

The Apprentice-Tell Me Last Night's Result And You're Fired




Orange Wednesday last night meant that we had to record "The Apprentice" so we have to spend today like that famous episode of "The Likely Lads" when Terry and Bob spent the whole day trying to avoid the England score before watching the match on "Match of the Day". So I don't want any emails, text messages or comments on the blog telling me what happened. And if anyone here starts dropping hints, you know what the result will be "You're Fired!"



Last night's film was "State of Play" which has a very strong cast including Russell Crowe, Helen Mirren and Ben Afflek.It's a well directed and very powerful drama with several outstanding tense scenes. It's amazing to think that this was written by Paul Abbott, the creator of "Shameless" which shows what a talented writer Abbott is. Apart from Russell Crowe's Frank Gallagher dress sense, there was absolutely nothing that would indicate that they were from the same pen.



Did you read about that Charla and Brad Muller? Charla, a devout Christian gal from Charlotte North Carolina was reading her bible (Galatians 5.22.23 "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,meekness, temperance: against such there is no law) and decided there and then to give her husband an unforgettable 40th birthday present.The present? Sex every day for a year. (Not much of a present if you are one of those Shia Muslim blokes in Afghanistan who already have that on statute). Now I know that I can be a bit of a cynic but two things spring to mind. Firstly how did those verses trigger her weird birthday present? And more importantly , as she is now promoting her book "365 Nights A Memoir Of Intimacy" did she not just think "How could I write a book that's guaranteed total worldwide publicity?" Brad is 41 now. I could be extremely crude and make something up about what he got for his birthday this year but the truth is often better. This year's gift - Golf Clubs.



I've just come back from Marc Vérité's new bistro having presented him with his new SV38 Sous Vide digital water bath as a thank you for his work and effort in helping us to get the equipment just right. Marc says that we must emphasise how useful this method of cooking is for portion control and for bringing efficiency to the kitchen. The literature is almost on the press so it will soon be all systems go.



No luck on the day out with the metal detector yesterday. I spent three hours wandering around fields that I have searched a hundred times before as I had no time to research somewhere new. I dug up about six items all of which turned out to be scrap. One of them was so deep it took half an hour to dig the hole due to the number of rocks under the turf. After all that digging I lifted out a rock the size of a small paving stone and underneath it was a large lead disc. It must be a very old large lead disc but not a very exciting large lead disc. I must find time to find somewhere new.



Yesterday's budget marks an end to New Labour and a return to the very very bad old days of old labour. The country is broke and Darling's forecasts of revival are ludicrous. The only way out is for everyone to pay more tax but no. What does Darling do? He puts the highest tax band up to 50%. This way he can be seen to be making the rich pay for the mess that he has created. It's all their fault so let's make them pay for it. This is clearly an attempt at vote winning. The high rate will merely put high earners off UK (don't labour remember the "Brain Drain" of earlier times they were in power and the huge number of tax exiles they created). The new 50%rate will raise a paltry couple of billion. Meanwhile all of us normal tax payers will pay no more and watch the country slide into oblivion.We really are in a mess. Don't underestimate it. Had Darling done something drastic, we would have all felt the pain but he'll leave that for the new government in another twelve months when things are even worse.



I've just about recovered from Tuesday night on the Kop. What a performance from this bloke and what a night it was. Probably the best I can remember since the Newcastle 4-3s in the 90's. The result was a bit of a disaster but I'd rather watch this sort of football anytime and a point against Arsenal is always a good result. Anyway there's still a chance. United have some tough games left.

I'll leave you with the present that Brad bought Charla for her next birthday.












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