Down the Bog

I love Formula One racing although to be honest I don’t know why. I think the last thing it should have is the “racing” word associated with it. When I watch a race I’m eager to see action that involves the leaders of the race swapping positions and having that “now just who is going to win this?” feeling to it. But I know that it’s the nature of the beast and that it’s just never going to happen. F1 is typically dominated by one or two teams per season and any real racing that takes place is normally at the back of the racing pack where the teams are much more evenly matched and not at the front.

But isn’t it strange? Formula One is massively successful across the world (except for the USA - go figure!) and I have to ask myself why for all of the above reasons. In fact I could talk a lot more about the politics, the secretive prize money, the obscure rules that seem to change on a whim and the poor value that it would appear to serve up to the viewing public. Yes, the fans for whom without their cash and attention there wouldn’t be such a sport.

When you think about it fans of so many of the big sports get such poor value. Ticket prices are exceptionally high and there’s never any guarantee that a good couple of hours of entertainment will be served up. It’s not like going to a show or a movie where you can reasonably know what to expect. To go back to Formula One for a minute consider the story of the United Stated Grand Prix of 2005. Read about it here

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005_United_States_Grand_Prix

This was a complete shambles and absolutely no consideration was given to the fans that had not only paid money for tickets but probably also had considerable other costs to consider too. Formula One really deserved to have a total boycott from all the punters after that one. What about the NHL strike of 2004/5?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004-05_NHL_lockout

Did the two parties there ever consider the supporters? Did they wonder if a whole loss of a season could result in the fans never coming back? They didn’t have to. The very people who sport rely on to give the players massive earnings have to put up with all kinds of s**t being dropped on them because they keep coming back for more and more and more. It would have been great for the NHL to start the next season and have no one turn up but it wasn’t going to happen was it.

So that’s why I still love Formual One racing. It’s captured me and I keep going back to watch it for some obsure reason that I just don’t understand. I’m hooked and I shouldn’t be.

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I’m not sure I’ve ever been a good window shopper. I could never see the point in going to a local shopping mall without at least having one item that I needed to buy. Then it might have been fun to browse the stores to see what else I’d like to add to my wish list but I always needed a solid reason to hit the shops to start with. Now however it’s possible to window shop from the comfort of my easy chair by browsing all of the online stores and it means that I no longer need a reason to start the desiring process.

It’s not all about wishful thinking though because as I’ve discussed in one or two earlier posts real savings, quality and value can be found online and I think it pays to consider what’s available there before always trailing down to the stores.

A rather stimulating site to visit is http://www.abtelectronics.com/. It’s absolutely all things electronic and from looking around it’s certainly got my credit card itching to get out of my wallet to make a purchase or two. From a home air purifier to games for the Playstations 3 and everything in between a visit to the site could well lead to a full virtual shopping basket and some exciting deliveries a few days later.

I always enjoy shopping at places where a comprehensive guide is available to help a shopper in choosing a suitable product. For example I was reading one of their guides on Plasma TV’s ( a secret desire of mine) and it came as quite a surprise to me to read that altitude can effect the performance of a Plasma Television. Wow. Who’d have thought it? More interesting was to see their recommendation of actually visiting a TV store if the shopper lived above 6,000 feet to see how such appliances perform. It’s refreshing to see a business concerned about customer satisfaction even if it means possibly losing a sale to a rival in the process. Oh and by the way I’m not going to try explaining the effect of Plasma TV’s and altitude. You’ll need to read up on that yourself! 

Anyway I’m considering one or two purchases myself right now and it means that having now had www.abtelectronics.com  brought to my attention it’s been safely bookmarked.

This is a sponsored post.

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I mentioned a few days ago about one of our six gerbils dying. I’m afraid that since then two more have died. I don’t think it’s any more than coincidence as they are all getting old. I’ve buried them all next to each other even though I’m not that sentimental about such things. I dunno though maybe I am. I’m quite sad about it. Gerbils huh? They only live for two or three years. Such cheerful little creatures but such short little lives. 

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I think I’m a bit of a slob. My inclination is always to eat the bad stuff before I get to the good food. Actually I guess that’s not strictly true because when I get up in the morning I have a glass of tomato juice followed by porridge or bran flakes. If I’ve still got room then I’ll choose wholemeal toast. That’s not too bad is it? So to be strictly honest I’m fairly healthy first thing in the morning because I eat something that’s good for me and I enjoy it.

Where it all falls down for me is lunchtime where if I could I’d choose fast food everytime. Isn’t that ridiculous? It gets to midday and I’m thinking Wendy’s, McDonalds, Harveys and then I think no to such temptations. Most days of course the temptation is resisted but thank goodness we don’t have endless money because if we’d won the lottery or something then we’d be out to lunch everyday. And rubbish lunch at that. It’s not just the eating out it’s also the fast food temptation aswell. They must put something into it that makes us addicted. They must do.

Perhaps not everyone is addicted though. We lost the battle today and lunched at Wendy’s. I had a yummy burger with bacon but opted for a small Chili instead of fries. Lets be honest though, it wasn’t exactly a healthy alternative more just a fancy for something that must have been as bad as having fries. However across the tables I watched as a young woman tucked into a salad. Salad??!! What’s that all about? I honestly like salad but I’d never go to a fast food restaurant and order a salad. Fast food is about eating badly and regretting it after. How’s that gonna happen after eating a healthy salad? No, salad is to be ordered as a side dish in a proper restaurant or at home where it belongs with porridge and wholemeal toast.

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My Mum and brother are visiting us this week and it’s been a busy time although very nice too. I’m way behind on my blogging and might well be for a few days yet although I’ll see how it all goes.

In the meantime I’ve just time to say that we went to Tim Horton’s today and I had my first Triple Chocolate Doughnut. It was very yummy and with lots of chocolate. Don’t let anyone tell you that there’s too much chocolate. How could there ever be too much chocolate? 

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Yesterday I had a little rant and today I’d like to continue the trend and mention the cost of going to the Dentist and that is it’s absolutely cost prohibitive to go to one!

We live on quite a modest income and unfortunately our jobs do not have any kind of benefit package attatched to them which really is a must have here in Canada. Over here prescription costs have the potential to go off the scale and along with dentistry these are two good reasons to have a health insurance policy. If you’re lucky enough to have a good job that has a health benefit as part of the package that’s great. I also assume that those on welfare get some kind of assistance but for the rest of us on just modest incomes a visit to the dentist has become a “only if I’m in considerable pain that’s unrelenting will I go” situation.

The frustration for me is that for the first forty plus years of my life I’ve always been a regular visitor to the dentist because in England the NHS covered dentistry. Of course gradually over the years that provision was chipped away at and although everyone has the right to visit an NHS dentist it’s practically impossible to find one. A lot of former NHS dentists that have our best interests at heart have taken themselves out of the system in that they will only now take private patients. They would say that’s because the government has made things so tough for them financially and for whatever other reasons but the fact remains that you never see a dentist in an old car. It’s normally at least a BMW. 

Ah, I sound bitter I know and to be honest I don’t know all the ins and outs but I do know one thing and that is over here in Canada and over in the UK many people are making do without a dentist because they just cannot afford it. It’s not because it’s a lack of budgeting it’s because the costs are so incredibly high. We’ve looked at taking out insurance for this and for the cost of the premiums the cover is so limited. That’s because going to the dentist is so expensive and presumably not the greatest earner for insurance companies.

So we put aside some money each month in an attempt to get us all to the dentist. No ones gone yet but we are about to make an appointment for my seventeen year old daughter to go because a check up for her is long overdue and I feel like I’m failing her so go she must. The thing that really bothers me about all of this is that dentists claim that they can diagnose all kinds of potential problems with an oral inspection. Not just dental but things like cancer or even heart problems. But there’s a whole group of people that simply can’t be helped in this way because they can’t afford it. They are priced out of fundemental healthcare and it sucks.

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Okay, I want to write a couple of comments about my observations of Canadian drivers. Firstly I know that things may well have got worse back in England but I think that drivers here lack good manners. I can’t remember how many times I’ve given right of way to another vehicle and the driver has made no attempt to lift a hand of acknowledgement. In England I got used to the fact that even if a driver forced me into giving way they would raise a somewhat cheeky hand to thank me. Of course that would be annoying and I’d utter to myself “you didn’t give me any choice” but over here? No, no one seems to show any appreciation for a bit of good manners or indeed wants to display any.

Second rant. I hate crossing at traffic lights here because even though I may have the “walk” sign cars turning into the road that I’m crossing still have a green light to go. They are supposed to yield to pedestrians but as I experienced this morning (and not for the first time) not everyone wants to yield to a pedestrian even though the “walk” sign is there for all to see. Of course this is a crazy system and again in England it would never happen. If there’s a pedestrian crossing provision at traffic lights that means when the “walk” sign comes on that all the traffic has stopped and it’s possible to walk without playing dodge the oncoming vehicle.

And finally a problem that exists in both countries (and probably around the whole world) are idiotic morons who park right outside the Walmart entrance (it could just as well be Tescos) and just wait there for someone to go in and do a little shopping. Sometimes the driver may pop in themselves and leave a passenger in the car but however it’s done it’s to avoid walking a ridiculously short distance from a proper parking space and cause great inconvenience for other drivers and pedestrians alike. As I mentioned in an earlier post about people using elevators instead of stairs and contributing towards obesity this thing of not wanting to walk from a proper parking space must also be a contributing factor.

There you go. Rant over.

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I happened to be watching Lethal Weapon 2 the other weekend. I can’t say that I was an avid fan of the movies because I don’t recall having seen numbers, one, three and was there a four? Anyway I happened to be watching number two and there was a scene there where Mel Gibson was canoodling away with Patsy Kensit in his mobile home by the beach when the bad guys sent two helicopters and men with machine guns to “take him down”. Naturally enough they weren’t at all successful and he was able to wreak justice and havoc all around.

Now, I didn’t have a problem with that because it was a movie, right? We don’t expect realism in movies, we just want to be entertained. Yet I find that there are moments in films when things just don’t feel right depending on the context. After Mel Gibson had dispatched the helicopters single handed he drove the girl back to her apartment and they smootched on the driveway for a few minutes before saying goodnight. I mean for goodness sake was there no adrenelin flowing? No shock? No reports to be filled in? He’s a cop after all! Was that at all realistic? No it wasn’t but it was a movie. And yet…and yet it was an occasion that just didn’t seem right. I’m not sure that even in a Bond movie that would have happened.

Ah well, I’m taking it all too seriously but what I’m talking about are those moments in a TV show, a movie even a song where you come to a part that just doesn’t feel or fit right. Do you experience that same feeling?

It’s like the song from the movie Armageddon “I don’t want to miss a thing”. A very decent song except whenever I hear it and it gets to the middle part of the song there’s a line that goes “I wanna be here with you, right here with you”. Now, I’m sorry but the “right here with you” doesn’t work for me because he’s already said that in the first line. Why repeat it? It’s a cop out because it needs a different line there.

Another one I’ve just thought of. Robbie Williams and “Angels”. I hate the bit where he sings “A lot of love and affection” I don’t know why but it’s a bad line. I imagine the writer thinking that fits in well but it doesn’t. It’s a cheap line for otherwise a very good song.

Yes, yes I know that I’m being very picky here. But I can’t help it. It’s just one of those occasions when I hear or see something and it doesn’t feel right. Just tell me I’m not the only one. 

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I’m feeling a bit fed up today. My work hours have been changed for this week only and I don’t like it all that much. It’s funny how I allow such things to occupy my mind but I’m afraid they do and I suppose it means that I’m a creature of habit and that I don’t like too much change.

The trouble is I don’t want it to be that way. I pretend to myself that I can duck and dive and roll with the punches but I know without having to look that deep down that I’m simply not built in such a way. This is why I’ve struggled for so long here in Canada. It’s not that it’s such a bad place it’s just that it’s really highlighted to me just how much I hate change and if there was one thing that was guaranteed it was that moving to Canada would involve hugh change.

I remember going on a training course back in England a few years ago and a key point always being made there was that people need to be open to change. That’s the only way of moving forward and seeing the improvements that can be made. So although it’s early May and far too late for new year resolutions this is going to be my spring resolution.

“To see that change is a good thing and an opening for new challenges and oppertunities”.

So, what do you think? Is it a good attitude to have? I like to think so and I’m going to change my ways and view life like this from now on. I see only one problem: I hate change!

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In an earlier blog I wrote about the concerns of eating so much processed food and whether we are really aware of just what we are taking into our bodies. My thoughts had been prompted by a television show that I’d watched and I can remember how I felt inspired to really do something about adjusting our diet. But I have to report that we’ve done absolutely zippo about it. Nothing whatsoever. That’s not to say that we are eating that badly it’s just that we aren’t trying hard enough to remove the highly salted, processed food that still makes up part of our food intake.

Have you seen those really cheap packets of noodles available in the supermarkets? Here in Canada they can be bought for 25 cents and they are simply noodles with a small sachet of salted flavouring to add after they’ve sat in boiled water for a few minutes. That little packet of noodles comfortably exceeds the recommended daily allowance of salt for an adult. Why oh why oh why do we eat such rubbish?

Still, we are conscious of trying to get our five portions of fruit and veg a day and we make a good effort in trying to buy food that is trans fat free. The Health Canada website makes clear how bad trans fat is and how important it is to try and eradicate from our diet.

http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/fn-an/nutrition/gras-trans-fats/index_e.html

As I say we do make an effort to do this and will reject a product for another if we can find one that is trans fat free and also do without if we can’t find an alternative. Where control is harder is when we eat out and by that I mean fast food. It has to be the worst evil of all taking into account the high salt level and presumably trans fats. Interestingly KFC recently started advertising that their menu is trans fat free. At least that was the impression that I was given until the KFC website was pointed out to me.

http://www.kfc.ca/home/en/index.html

If you look at it carefully you’ll note that it says “trans fat free menu selections” with a small asterix next to it covering the fact that even as part of the trans fat free menu some items still have trans fat. Eh? How does that work then? Seemingly if it is 0.1g then it’s pretty much trans fat free but not quite trans fat free. My head hurts! Ah well at least they’re trying and hopefully some other fast food chains will follow. McDonalds - Are you listening? Otherwise we’ll have to give up the fast food. I’m serious you know. 

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