Joined Up Thinking....NOT!

The "Westminster Muppet Show" have surpassed themselves this week by causing the public to panic buy fuel. The media keep bombarding us with imagines of massive ques at petrol station up and down county.

Do the Government live in the same reality as the rest of us? Somehow I very much doubt it. They should have called for calm as there is not treat of fuel tanker drivers going on strike in the foreseeable future. Instead they advised people to keep their tanks full and even suggested that hoarding fuel at home is a good idea! The result has been wide spread panic which in it self will cause fuel shortages. Worse still a woman in York has managed to blow herself up trying to pour petrol from one container to another in her kitchen while cooking on a gas stove. She received 40% burns and has been admitted to a specialist burns unit, while her family home lays in charred ruins.

The only possible reason I can think of for the Governments ridiculous behaviour is to raise even more revenue from the much punished British car owners. Apparently the public purse has benefited from an extra £32m in fuel duty over the last 48 hours, due to all the extra fuel sold at the pumps.

Regards



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Come Play With Me

I have for a number of years been the proud owner of an XBox 360 and I often play on-line games via the XBox Live! service. Regularly I am sent emails informing me of new game releases and on the bottom of the latest one I noticed that they've attached an imagine of my Avatar.

It is actually quite a good likeness of me.

If any of you fancy a game of Gears of War (1,2 or 3) one evening, please look me up. My user name is "TRANCE-ELBOW".

See you soon 8-)



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Have Kindle, Will Read

This last Christmas my Wife and I bought each other eBook readers. We went for the new Kindle 4, which has no keyboard or touch screen. Although very basic, it is excellent value for money at only £89, it works very well and I am very impressed with the whole ebook reading experience. The screen is quite simple, but very clear in good light and unlike most tablets, is easy to read in bright sunlight.

I wasn't sure what I should read first and was disappointed to find out that not all of Robert Rankin's books are available for Kindle. I am reading his books in order of publication dates so as not be out of sequence, but so far I am about 10 years behind. This means that the next two books in the series have yet to be Kindled. In the hope that this situation is resolved soon. I decided to try Terry Pratchett's Disc World Series, which is about 40 books long and all of them available in Kindle format. The first is "The Colour of Magic". It's ok, but I'm having trouble getting into it and I can't really explain why. As a consequence I have read two other books since buying that one, both of which I have since finished without completing "The Colour of Magic". These books are,

• PERVERTING THE COURSE OF JUSTICE: The Hilarious and Shocking Inside Story of British Policing - By Inspector Gadget

Inspector Gadget is the synonym of a serving Police Inspector in the British Police force. This book was written on the back of his quite famous Blog  , where he expresses his displeasure and exposes the lunatic why our Police Force is now run in the 21st century. A great read, but quite worrying at times. Read it, you WILL be shocked!

•    Stealth - By Gail Briggs

Stealth is Gail's first book and I was quite surprised just how good it is. I enjoyed the whole thing from cover to cover. If you like Fantasy/Supernatural stories, then Stealth is for you. I myself can't wait for her second book.


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You may be surprised to learn that I can actualy read!

When I started commuting to work by train, just over 20 years ago, I soon got bored with watching the world go past the window. I notice that other commuters were reading books, so I decided to give it a go.

I started off with Douglas Adams Hitch-hikers Guide to the Galaxy and was immediately hooked. I initially read the four books in the Trilogy, but then moved on to his other works from the Dirk Gently series. Again, I was enthralled with these two excellent works. Unfortunately, Douglas was far from a prolific writer and having read all his works to date, I needed to find someone else's books to read.


When I was at school I remember reading Tolkens The Hobbit, so I decided to give that a go and I'm glad I did. I thoroughly enjoyed being transported to another universe of Hobbits, Wizards, Goblins and the like. I followed this we the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. In comparison to The  Hobbit, I was very disappointed. Midway through the second book I could stand no more and threw in the towel. Nearly 18 years on I still haven't felt the need to pick it up again, not even after seeing the films. Perhaps one day I may try again. Only time will tell.


I was in Glasgow in 1994 and while browsing in a cheap book shop I happened across a book by Robert Rankin, which caught my eye. It was just what I was looking for and his writing style very much reminded of the late Douglas Adams. I have been a fan ever since and have been reading his books in order for a number of years. I am about halfway through his works currently.

You may be thinking to yourself that I haven't read a great deal considering I've been at it for 20 years. The fact is that I am dyslexic and read very slowly. Maybe in another 20 years I may have caught up to date with Robert Rankin's books 8-)

Regards



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