Saturday, Apr. 18, 2009 - 20:48

Good evening, birls and goys. Ooh, that sounds vaguely Jewish, doesn't it. It isn't meant to be, however, because.. um.. I'm not Jewish. I did wake up dewy when I fell asleep drunk in a field once, but never Jewish.

Apprentice this week had a bit of a shame of a result as far as I am concerned. Who would have thought that I might've liked a ginger woman from Walsall, considering I've had a penchant for redheads in the past, and live in the West Midlands :-)

Nah, Paula was nice, even if she can't tell the difference between two omnipotent toiletry-themed wood types (call yourself a woman) or do simple maths that the average (well, 'the average' as far as the Labour government thinks when it set all the SATS levels) thirteen year old schoolchild could do.

Really it was moreso that - despite being a good motivator and a creative and likeable team manager - she wasn't a bigheaded self-important sabotaging disloyal cockmuncher like Ben in the boardroom.

Tisk tisk.. it got me thinking about whether Sir Alan Sugar Pie Honey Bunch actually wanted to find an apprentice who he could work with and take under his wing, or whether he's been forced to 'punish the person probably most responsible for the failure of a so called task each week', as is the hackneyed reality TV format. I was sad to see her go.

JR, that lass who I got a bit soft for in the latter half of 2008, has left where I work 'cause she's got a new job. I'm happy about this because since the fall-out following arguments around Christmas and my birthday, it's just been awkward. I'm glad that no 'bad' has happened to her (she's levaing for a job elsewhere which pays better and she likes more) as I don't dislike her, I'm just happy that reminders of 'you used to be close to her but now it is a bit sour' are now not occurring in my head on a daily basis.

Liverpool goalkeeper Charles Itanje has been suspended by the club for a fortnight while they investigate him being a bit childish and nudging someone at the Hillsborough memorial service. I agree he's been stupid, but the sheer weight of condemnation surprised me - it seems that Hillsborough has been bestowed with such a status that anything other than complete agreement with the Scouse viewpoint is seen as taboo. I've heard people saying he should be sacked, and that he's had death threats. This in a sport where players frequently try to break each other's legs and/or end colleagues careers, and that's just seen as competitiveness - not a lack of respect for other people.

Considering that in an average year in the UK:- about two hundred and fifty people choke to death, three thousand die as a result of suicide or self-harm, four thousand of head injuries, eight to ten thousand people die from infectious disease, a similar number in road accidents, over a hundred and fifty thousand people die of cancer, and over two hundred thousand die of diseases of the respiratory and circulatory systems,

I just think perspective is important. On average a hundred people die in a year in the UK from:-
falling onto/out of bed
Drowning in rivers or lakes
Hypothermia
Methadone overdoses
a broken ankle or shinbone
'malaise or fatigue'

More people choke on their own vomit and die every year than died at Hillsborough. But what do we hear about - just the ninety six? It can't be because we live in a civilised country and such unnecessary deaths shouldn't occur - a similar number of women die in childbirth every year to died at Hillsborough.

Let me mention the Premier League football. Middlesboro' played quite well and should perhaps have won against Fulham at The Riverside, but drew 0-0 in the end - it could have been worse. We'll have to hope we can get a couple (or six) points against Man United and Arsenal in the next two games (let's hope for suspensions/injuries and distractions!) Stoke beat Blackburn 1-0, Sunderland beat Hull 1-0, and Pompey beat Bolton 1-0.. hence it's still tight down at the bottom - with various teams still under threat. Villa drew 1-1 with West Ham in a fairly meaningless match.

Elsewhere in the league system saw promotions in the top three Coca-Cola Leagues for Wolves, Leicester, and Brentford. Charlton were relegated from The Championship, and Hereford go down a division as well. I'm chuffed that Wolves have gone up - there was a tangible lift to the city last time they went up, it seems to make peeps happy localwise.

Popped out to town this lunchtime to get bread rolls, cake, and a card for my sister-in-law. On the way there I saw a tall lass with long blonde hair, but it wasn't till I got a bit closer that I realised it was a local tranny(v/s?). He/she looked a lot better than they did three or four years ago when I last remember seein' them, seemed to be dressed less frumpily (pink t-shirt, leather jacket and jeans, as opposed to a slightly middle-aged style dress).

I did idly start thinking about tranvestisism n'that, in wondering what makes one want to change gender - apart from the obvious thing that is feeling you're in the wrong body. There's the whole associated confusion thing in that you hear about middle-aged men dressing in their wives clothes, but less often have the converse spoken about.

Then there's the sexuality thing - though I fully acknowledge that TV/TS isn't necessarily linked to sexual preference and/or behaviour. I was just thinking that it's hard enough to find someone to love and spend your life with, without having the challenge of limiting that to only people who find trannies attractive :-)

Chelsea reached the FA Cup final this evening, by virtue of a 2-1 victory over Arsenal. The other semi is between Manchester United and Everton tomorrow afternoon.

I'm currently reading John O'Farrell's autobiographical book about growing up a Labour supporter. I'm enjoying it more than I anticipated, but there are still problems in my mind w.r.t. not finding strong reasoning for socialism as a political stance. I mean, I just don't see why the rich should pay the poor, just because of the fact one has more money than the other. It's especially odd that socialism is taken seriously, when the 'goal', communism, has been shown to be against human nature, economically unsound, and prone to the influence of cruel dictatorship.

LISTENING TO:- some more of the CDs I got from the US recently. Of note and pleasant were albums by Indigo Girls, Aimee Mann, Shelby Lynne and Goo Goo Dolls. Also enjoyed Vetiver last night whilst pissing about on my xbox.