Moving

Well, I’m now sorted and booked to move on the 12th Sept. The removal company is going to cost me £300, which strikes me as pretty good – but then, I’ve never used a removals company before. So – what are other people’s feelings about it? Is it a reasonable amount, or am I being ripped off?

UPDATED : I should point out that this isn’t a long-distance move – although it is the full contents of a two-bedroom house.

Brought by the letter “V”

The BBC has a piece that (I suspect) Green Fairy will be frothing about later. It’s explaining how Sesame Street is being used to promote “American values” to other countries – God help us.

One revelation that I didn’t know is that the US Army actually part sponsors the makers of Sesame Street, Childrens Television Workshop – who needs conspiracy theories when reality contains gems like that?

Abduction

There seems to be a theme developing in the media at the moment – and again it’s based around The Paedophile Menace. (with apologies to George Lucas) Today’s Grauniad is reporting that David Milner has been in court charged with “abducting” the 14 year old Stacey Champ. (The BBC’s reportage of the court appearance is here.) Following on from all the gubbins about Shevaun Pennington and the ex-marine Toby Studebaker who has also recently appeared in court on the same charge.

To my knowledge, in neither of these cases were the girls actually abducted – to all appearances they were both willing partners to that extent, and neither have seemed to be exactly traumatised by the entire chain of events. The Pennington girl took her passport with her to meet Studebaker – hardly the act of someone who’s been abducted. She knew she was planning to travel – so how is it “abduction”? In the Guardian’s article about the discovery/capture of Milner and Champ, a witness says

“They looked quite shocked. As soon as he got taken out of the car she became very upset and was crying. He wasn’t upset or angry, he seemed resigned to being caught,” he added.”

The same article reports that

Stacey was “giggling” and seemed “quite lovestruck”, she said.

– again, hardly the actions of someone who’s been abducted and is supposedly in danger.

Maybe it’s just me, but I find the charge of “abduction” in relation to either of these cases to be a difficult one to swallow. Yes, perhaps the girls have both been stupid – if that were a crimnal offence, 80% of the UK population would be in jail – but they’ve not been kidnapped and forced to do anything. (Proviso – it hasn’t been reported that they were forced to travel) But at the moment it seems that “abduction” is the only offence they can try and prove – and I wonder what will happen if the cases get kicked out of court. For one thing it’s going to be exceptionally difficult to find a jury of twelve people who haven’t heard about these stories…

Fiscally Unsound

I wish I could say that the story about a quarter of people with a credit-card or loan have no real idea of the amount they owe shocked me, or even surprised me, but it doesn’t. There’s a combination of things on this one – and one is “what was the question that was asked to get this answer?“. For example, I probably wouldn’t know the exact amount I still had left to repay – but I’d know it started off at (for example) £5,000 and was steadily coming down.

The figure I do find scary is that one in five people (20%) have to borrow money to cover their general household bills. I know that some of the blame for this kind of debt-laden society can eb laid at the door of credit-cards and loan companies who always push credit/debt as a lifestyle choice, and some can be laid at the door of an education system that still teaches absolutely nothing about APRs, interest rates, or how to manage finances. But there’s also an awfully large amount of the blame that can be laid directly at the door of the borrowers themselves – the people who don’t understand what they’re paying, who really don’t even have a comprehension that all this credit has to be paid back, and who can’t even balance their incomings against their outgoings.

I’m no angel on this score – I’ve been deeply in debt myself, but am now out of it. I’ve got one outstanding debt of just over £1000, but other than that, I’m currently debt-free, and actually in credit at the bank. (Oh no, I lie – I’m in the overdraft at the moment, because of the shedload I had to shell out on Friday for a months rent plus a month’s rent as deposit on the new house) I don’t have any intentions of going back into the debt cycle – it’s too much hassle, for one thing – although at some point next year I’m also going to be shoving myself into the joys of heavy debt via a mortgage. But the basic idea is to keep myself in credit now, if I can possibly manage it. I don’t want to be part of the majority, one of the people who think it’s an easy life to be in debt all the time.

Armageddon Outta Here

According to both the Grauniad (here) and the BBC (here) are reporting a story of a potential asteroid impact on Earth in 2014. The odds are still listed as 1 in 909,000 – it’s lucky that it’s only 909,000 because as everyone knows, one in a million chances happen nine times out of ten.

A Question

Is it just me who wonders what it would sound like to kick a bagpipe player right in the plums while he’s busy (pardon the phrase) strangling his instrument? I find myself thinking about this every time I go past the scunner in central Manchester.

Club Reps

I seem to recall saying this a while back, so it’s hardly a shock to see that TV is being blamed for a lot of the yobs going off to Faliraki on holidays. The TV Comapny has responded by saying

“Club Reps is a documentary series and as such its content has been wholly factual.

The programme-makers filmed what they saw, and the programmes that were broadcast were simply a reflection of what was already commonplace in the resort.”

So of course they’re not responsible for advertising the place as a destination for those who want to go off and get pissed, fight, fuck, and think that makes a great holiday.