Sour grapes?

I wonder if this is just sour grapes, because of team GBs successes?
Why can't spectators be glad for the competitors who do well?  They have all worked hard.  And all deserve praise, fault finding when another team does well is just not British! But neither are the people complaining.

The Fawlty Towers of UK supermarkets

For those of you who are in the dark about Fawlty Towers, just watch this short YouTube video.
I'll give you a moment.
Tum-te-tum-te-tum-te-tum.
Watched it yet?
What you are watching others now?
Ok, I'll come back later.



Ah! you're back now.  Good, now you know what I mean by Fawlty Towers. 
Here in the UK we have several supermarket chains, and some are high end, for the people who have more money than sense, some are mainstream, and some are cheaper supermarkets. 
No...it's not one of the cheaper supermarkets that I am dubbing the supermarket equivalent of Fawlty Towers, but a mainstream one. Ah, you know the ones I mean?   Good.  I'll narrow it down a bit without naming it.  This one is based in Yorkshire, and does not have a milk distribution subsidiary.  Got it?  OK
You probably want to know why I think this chain is the supermarket equivalent of Fawlty Towers.

1. You approach a till, and sometimes have unpacked half your shopping onto the conveyor belt when the checkout person tells you, usually quite rudely, that the checkout is closed.  Bear in mind, there is no sign saying that, and today I had two identical items, would it have killed her?
2. You ask where to find something in the store and unless you are lucky enough to happen upon a supervisor, you tend to get the answer. "That's not my section"  Don't these people shop in their own supermarket.
3. You can wait at the kiosk to pay for something whilst the staff, fully aware you are there, will carry on their own conversation, then serve you, when they have finished.
4. When going around the shop you take your life in your hands, as shop assistants filling shelves push unitainers of goods down aisles without looking where they are going, and no apology if the almost run you over.
5. When outside  the supermarket you are in a similar situation as detailed in 4 above, only this time from the trolley collectors who blithely run their trolleys back to the places where they are kept without taking notice of shoppers, children or cars.
6. The store shuts at ...let's say 8pm for arguments sake.  You only need one item, you know exactly where it is in the shop.  Yet at 7.45pm you are turned away from the shop. "We close at 8" no argument will get you in to get the one item you want.
7. When I was in my early 20s, my boyfriend's brother applied for, and got the post of assistant manager.  This boy had left school with no qualifications, hadn't worked since leaving school, and could not spell his own middle name.  It's spelt Graham incidentally, not Greyum.  This must be a standard for their staff as most seem a little slow, and many of them surly as well. 

Like I said, I won't name the supermarket.  Why do I continue you to go there?  I can walk there, and they have a really good range of magazines.  I do only ever go for a few items and have never done an entire "shop" there, nor ever intend to.

Olympic question

Many people have said over the past couple of days....What an excellent team we would have if as much money was spent on other sports as there is on football.
I personally don't agree.
Because, although individual teams are good, the country's team doesn't get enough time to practise as a national team.  And I think this is the first time GB as opposed to the individual countries have taken part in an international football tournament.
The other thing is...England as a national team has not done too well despite them having money lavished on them.
We're British! We thrive when faced with challenges.  If things look like a forgone conclusion, as a nation, we have generally....in the recent past....made an absolute hash of things.
And as a throw away thought....if our competitors didn't have the challenge...would they get the support?  England football supporters have had bad press in the past....is that what the other sports want?  Can you imagine hooligans at Hickstead? rowers supported by rabble? ....(now make up your own)
As I have put before, this is my opinion, and might not be anyone else's.  I do tend to go off at tangents.
That aside, well done all the GB athletes, whether you have gained a medal or not. In the true spirit of our school sports education, it's not the winning, it's the taking part that matters.  Seriously, well done ALL of you.

People are all different

I've just met up with a friend.  She has a very forceful way of looking at things.  When she enters into a relationship she expects a relatively high level of commitment from the outset, and said it is OK when you a tell a person that you love them to follow it up with the question, "Do you love me?"
Although I have every respect for my friend, I don't agree with her in this.  Putting the other party on the spot can make them back off, sometimes completely.  Until I started my current job I had spent most of my school and working life in male dominated  environments, and although men do not mind being told they are loved, they will say that they love a person, voluntarily, in their own good time.  Pushing for an answer can have the opposite to the wanted answer.
Or...perhaps that is just me.  Perhaps being fairly reserved myself, have only mixed with reserved men.  In my experience, and it isn't wide, a man telling a woman that he loves her very early in the relationship usually means that he wants only one thing from her, and saying he loves her will help him get it.
I know it takes all sorts to make the world go around, but demanding commitment after a few dates is a bit pushy in my book.

Testing at the Olympics

Instead of embarrassing the competitors when they have won.  Especially when they have pulled off an unexpected win.  Why don't they just routinely test all participating athletes prior to their events?  I know it might work out slightly more expensive in the long run, but do they have to wait until someone is accused, tested, and found not to have drugs in their system, and decide to sue before they do it that way around?
Testing all athletes  would then not single out any particular one, and would ensure that nobody won whilst using banned substances.

On a lighter note...I heard this on the radio earlier.  On Magic radio, Dangerous pointed out to DLT that we, the GB, seemed to be quite good at the "sitting down sports", such as rowing, horse riding, and cycling.  Well, it made me laugh.

Crime doesn't pay...or does it?

I've heard on the radio news that the government are thinking of educating convicted criminals in basic English and Maths, up to GCSE standard, so that they will stand a better chance of employment on leaving prison. 
These are people who have been convicted of a crime, and have already gone through our education system, and presumably failed it for one reason or another.  Yet, the government thinks it would be a good idea to educate them...at the taxpayers expense.  I'm sorry but I see this as a reward.
If you want to take courses that result in an exam after leaving school, you have to pay.  Unless you have low income then you might get the course free.  So what I want to know is...why do the people who don't break the law have to pay if they want to take these courses, whilst law breakers are going to be offered them for free?
I know that basic literacy and numeracy courses are free, but they do not result in a qualification at the end of the course.
I think it can be declared official.  The government of this country has gone barking mad.  Or perhaps crime does pay.  What do you think?

Has he tried using a mirror?

Apparently Karl Lagerfield  has been "firing broadsides" been "being nasty" "saying not nice things" about Adele, and now he has decided to comment about Pippa, yes, Pippa Middleton, for those who one word isn't enough.  And in that line, I'm sorry....but I have no idea what Adele's other name is.
Anyway, to me, and probably many others Pippa is a beautiful young woman.
Then I decided to do an image search for Karl Lagerfield, and this was the first image.
Does the man have a mirror?  Why hide behind sunglasses? Perhaps he's a vampire, as he appears dressed in the same fashion on most of the images that came up, even in an illustration of him.
To me he looks like an extra on a budget vampire film.  And , yes, I know I'm no oil painting, but I don't go around saying that very pretty young women should only be seen from behind, or perhaps he just has a thing about bottoms?  If that is the case he should make it crystal clear, and not let the media twist what he has to say.
But when all is said and done it is true that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and everyone is entitled to their own opinions