This week seems to have gone by very rapidly, which I suppose isn't a bad thing given that it's now the weekend, and I have Monday off too. It's mostly consisted of being fairly busy at work, and reading a new book on how to make money on the Stock Market.
The book is by Robbie Burns, not the famous Scottish bard but him also known as the Naked Trader. Seems to be full of common sense methods and tips so looking forward to putting some of it into action. Just opened a self select share trading ISA so when I make my millions they'll be tax free, now I just need my shares to go up, which hasn't particularly happened this week - mostly they've gone up, then down, then done nothing, then up, then down - no consistency but then again I think it's been a funny week on the markets. Just have to have some patience whilst also remembering not to hold on to something to the bitter end in the hope it'll go up; there is a time to cut your losses and try something else. A portfolio of say a dozen different shares seems like the best bet, a few will go down, but hopefully with the right research this will be counteracted by others going up. If I can just have the self discipline to stick to some basic rules and not buy and sell too often, then should be able to make some cash. Can't quite give up the day job yet though.
Also this week, our new lawn seems to be settling in well...it hasn't died yet anyway, probably a good thing we've had lots of rain recently; I might even mow it this weekend. All the vegetables are going well too - our first tomato has appeared which means we'll be inundated in a couple of weeks with those and courgettes.
Good to see the expenses debacle is still rambling along. Isn't everyone bored of this yet and can't we just get some new politicians? I see the police might launch some criminal investigations now - probably about time some of them were held accountable by law.
Also in the news today interesting that the supreme leader in Iran called Britain the source of all evil or somesuch thing. I expect everyone will be very upset about this, however maybe it's a taste of our own medicine after the whole Axis of Evil thing, which really was an outrageous way to label countries whilst your trying to bring them round to your way of thinking. It's not very nice being called evil and you can see why normal people like you or I living in other countries such as Iran might resent that slightly, and even get driven further down the path to extremism. What with North Korea still looking explosive and Iran getting feisty it all looks a bit dangerous. It's hard to tell what's really going on in Iran and who really won. The opposition are mounting big protests however we're not hearing much from people that supported Almandinajad. I worry that our media isn't giving a balanced picture sometimes. It would be a pretty big feat for an election to be rigged to give such a decisive victory.
Anyway, roll on the weekend.
Friday 19 June 2009
Monday 8 June 2009
European Election aftermath
I'd like to draw a parallel between some members of the Labour Party saying they still have a chance and Gordon Brown is okay, and the Iraqui information minister when Baghdad was being invaded by the allies, who was saying everything was under control and the allies were being repulsed with American tanks rolling up their main street almost behind him.
Glad the BNP didn't seem to particularly win any more votes that they did last time, however they have unfortunately benefited from the Labour collapse and won two seats in the European Parliament. And what's the story with UKIP, can't believe they've done so well - I can understand why people might vote for them but why have so many? Anyone else reminded of 1920's and 30's when certain extremist parties started to gain influence and momentum in the wake of a major recession and public discontentment?
UKIP want us to not be part of Europe, and to withdraw from the European Parliament, however isolationism isn't the way forward. It can be frustrating that the European Parliament now determines so many of our laws, however can the Labour Party or any of our own political parties really be trusted to do any better? If we divide ourselves from Europe we'll only end up being sidelined and sinking in the long term. Maybe Europe just needs a bit of a rethink as a whole as to how the EU works, to ensure things are a bit better balanced.
Glad the BNP didn't seem to particularly win any more votes that they did last time, however they have unfortunately benefited from the Labour collapse and won two seats in the European Parliament. And what's the story with UKIP, can't believe they've done so well - I can understand why people might vote for them but why have so many? Anyone else reminded of 1920's and 30's when certain extremist parties started to gain influence and momentum in the wake of a major recession and public discontentment?
UKIP want us to not be part of Europe, and to withdraw from the European Parliament, however isolationism isn't the way forward. It can be frustrating that the European Parliament now determines so many of our laws, however can the Labour Party or any of our own political parties really be trusted to do any better? If we divide ourselves from Europe we'll only end up being sidelined and sinking in the long term. Maybe Europe just needs a bit of a rethink as a whole as to how the EU works, to ensure things are a bit better balanced.
Saturday 6 June 2009
Political implosions
It's been a pretty extraordinary week on the political front. I don't know if there have ever been so many cabinet resignations in such as short period of time, followed by pretty distrastrous local elections for the ruling party, I almost feel sorry for Gordon Brown...almost.
I do feel sorry for Ian Gibson who I and many people regard as a very good politician who puts the interests of his constituents first, and has a very common sense and intelligent approach to matters. He appears to have had pretty harsh treatment compared to some other politicians who have got away with worse, but there again he was a bit of a labour rebel so maybe this was just the excuse they needed to make him step down as MP for Norwich North. Hopefully he might come back as an independent, at which point he'd have a very good chance of winning, however maybe he'll just call it a day now. I can't see why anyone would particularly want to be an MP at present.
Over the past 3 weeks I think we've really seen how the media control this country. I agree that the issue of MP's abusing their expenses had to come out and be dealt with; some of them are just blatantly crooks, but I don't agree with the fashion in which it's been done, which seems to have caused more harm than good and left our political system reeling. I'm not sure how anyone is supposed to carry on with the serious job of governing the country and dealing with the economic crisis when they're constantly being hounded by the media, who's main interest (and I'm primarily referring to the Telegraph here) seems to be to draw this out for as long as possible to sell more papers. They'd argue it takes a long time to do the research so they can't release everything at once, however they could have just waited until they'd finished delving through all the receipts etc.
It's symptom of modern society, 24 hours news channels, and the Internet that everything has to be rushed out in a pretty chaotic and damaging fashion, and stories that perhaps shouldn't have as much gravitas as they do come to the forefront.
So it looks like he Labour party is going to implode on itself, in much the same way as John Major's conservative party did at the end of the last Conservative reign. It is definitely time for a change, and if Gordon Brown goes which I would have said was unlikely a week ago but now am not so sure, the only sensible course of action would seem to be to call a general election, as the current ruling party seem to be proving themselves completely incompetent at present. Although it is interesting that many other countries seem to admire what Gordon Brown is doing to rescue the British economy so again maybe our judgement is being clouded by the current media hype.
But then again we have the problem of who to vote for. In Norwich apparently Labour went from having 22 seats to having 3 yesterday, so they'll definitely go. The Lib Dem policies seem pretty good but they just don't have the support, and I'm not sure their leadership is strong enough, which leaves the Conservatives who I'd probably be better off under but I can't help feeling it might be at the expense of other people. The Green Party have a lot of sway in Norwich but I don't think they're a serious contender for leading the country - would they really know what to do if they came to power?
Unfortunately alot of the minor parties such as the BNP and UKIP seem to be gaining influence, which is a symptom of how angry people are at the moment - again the media sometimes don't help here. 'Extremist' parties always benefit from instability in a country, along with bad economic and social climates. Things could get quite scary if they start to gain more power (look to history for warnings). Hopefully people are clever and wise enough to see how dangerous they could be in causing suspicion, division, violence etc.
So in short it could be a very interesting week next week, god knows what this will do to the value of my shares however so far the stock market seems to be ignoring the political mess.
And finally on a more serious note how on earth did we lose the 20-20 cricket to the Netherlands?
I do feel sorry for Ian Gibson who I and many people regard as a very good politician who puts the interests of his constituents first, and has a very common sense and intelligent approach to matters. He appears to have had pretty harsh treatment compared to some other politicians who have got away with worse, but there again he was a bit of a labour rebel so maybe this was just the excuse they needed to make him step down as MP for Norwich North. Hopefully he might come back as an independent, at which point he'd have a very good chance of winning, however maybe he'll just call it a day now. I can't see why anyone would particularly want to be an MP at present.
Over the past 3 weeks I think we've really seen how the media control this country. I agree that the issue of MP's abusing their expenses had to come out and be dealt with; some of them are just blatantly crooks, but I don't agree with the fashion in which it's been done, which seems to have caused more harm than good and left our political system reeling. I'm not sure how anyone is supposed to carry on with the serious job of governing the country and dealing with the economic crisis when they're constantly being hounded by the media, who's main interest (and I'm primarily referring to the Telegraph here) seems to be to draw this out for as long as possible to sell more papers. They'd argue it takes a long time to do the research so they can't release everything at once, however they could have just waited until they'd finished delving through all the receipts etc.
It's symptom of modern society, 24 hours news channels, and the Internet that everything has to be rushed out in a pretty chaotic and damaging fashion, and stories that perhaps shouldn't have as much gravitas as they do come to the forefront.
So it looks like he Labour party is going to implode on itself, in much the same way as John Major's conservative party did at the end of the last Conservative reign. It is definitely time for a change, and if Gordon Brown goes which I would have said was unlikely a week ago but now am not so sure, the only sensible course of action would seem to be to call a general election, as the current ruling party seem to be proving themselves completely incompetent at present. Although it is interesting that many other countries seem to admire what Gordon Brown is doing to rescue the British economy so again maybe our judgement is being clouded by the current media hype.
But then again we have the problem of who to vote for. In Norwich apparently Labour went from having 22 seats to having 3 yesterday, so they'll definitely go. The Lib Dem policies seem pretty good but they just don't have the support, and I'm not sure their leadership is strong enough, which leaves the Conservatives who I'd probably be better off under but I can't help feeling it might be at the expense of other people. The Green Party have a lot of sway in Norwich but I don't think they're a serious contender for leading the country - would they really know what to do if they came to power?
Unfortunately alot of the minor parties such as the BNP and UKIP seem to be gaining influence, which is a symptom of how angry people are at the moment - again the media sometimes don't help here. 'Extremist' parties always benefit from instability in a country, along with bad economic and social climates. Things could get quite scary if they start to gain more power (look to history for warnings). Hopefully people are clever and wise enough to see how dangerous they could be in causing suspicion, division, violence etc.
So in short it could be a very interesting week next week, god knows what this will do to the value of my shares however so far the stock market seems to be ignoring the political mess.
And finally on a more serious note how on earth did we lose the 20-20 cricket to the Netherlands?
Wednesday 3 June 2009
Half Marathon ahoy
Just got back from my first jog in a couple of months, 3.2 miles in about 28 minutes, so not a bad time for me. I am endeavouring to get fit in an effort to take part in the Norwich half Marathon which I think is in November - best check that as quite important as far as training schedules go.
I think 13 miles should be feasible by the time we get to November; however it depends whether or not I can keep up the training. I tend to do more cycling than jogging at the moment, but 'they' say that cross training is a good thing so that's probably okay.
I reckon if I can jog 3 times a week, stepping it up slightly as we get closer to the date, that should do it. We'll see how much pain my legs are in tomorrow morning though. Not thinking about going for the London Marathon as yet even though work are sponsoring it so I could probably get a place. 26 miles just seems far to far to run without severe motivation taking place. I believe the Marathon originated from the Persian invasion of Greece, and an Athenium runner making it all the way back to Athens, only to die of heat stroke when he got back. I'm hoping not to follow in his footsteps exactly, and don't require any invasion based motivation as yet.
I think 13 miles should be feasible by the time we get to November; however it depends whether or not I can keep up the training. I tend to do more cycling than jogging at the moment, but 'they' say that cross training is a good thing so that's probably okay.
I reckon if I can jog 3 times a week, stepping it up slightly as we get closer to the date, that should do it. We'll see how much pain my legs are in tomorrow morning though. Not thinking about going for the London Marathon as yet even though work are sponsoring it so I could probably get a place. 26 miles just seems far to far to run without severe motivation taking place. I believe the Marathon originated from the Persian invasion of Greece, and an Athenium runner making it all the way back to Athens, only to die of heat stroke when he got back. I'm hoping not to follow in his footsteps exactly, and don't require any invasion based motivation as yet.
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