Spume

The storm has returned, and rain is hammering against the house like spume from breaking waves.

Storms

Storms swept in across the country last night, and are forecast to continue until Monday or Tuesday. In some towns they are threatening to cancel the public events for New Year's Eve because of the risk of 50-80mph winds.
Certainly the banshee howling of the winds that battered us last night would call for caution. What always amazes the Gorse Fox, after a storm such as that, is looking out in the morning and seeing everything peaceful, unchanged, unfazed by the mayhem that preceeded. It is almost as if he had imagined it.

Bloke on a Rope

It seems that they decided not to keep Saddam Hussein hanging around too long.

No more Pink

Pretty in pink... Not!

Gorse Fox gave in. He hates the color pink. Always has. It reminds him of a childhood medicine that he disliked immensely. This meant that the pink-hued TV had to go. Much of today was therefore spent searching for a suitable replacement.

Eventually, GF (with advice and guidance from the Silver Vixen) selected a rather nice Samsung device. One of its features is the inclusion of a Digital TV Tuner... which despite our apalling TV signal here, seems to have picked up plenty of signals and renders them in an excellent picture. GF is rather pleased (despite the unexpected, unplanned, and unwanted expenditure).

Unplanned

Yesterday was disrupted by a phone call. All was not well with Auntie P after some Christmas upsets. The Silver Vixen would only have worried, so GF said he'd drive her up to Jimmy's place and they could visit Auntie P.
The effort was worthwhile, as Auntie P reponded to SV's presence and chirped up. By the time we had been there for a couple of hours, she was back to normal and we set off home.
The journey home was lengthened by 45 minutes by three exceptional loads being transported along our route that were causing vast tailbacks on the road south. GF caught the back of this by Oxford, and then finally got past them at Chandlers Ford, having pottered along between 30 and 40 in between.

Plunder by Numbers

Just in case you have not read the Daily Mail, there is an article today explaining how each household is contributing £900 every year to the pensions of our public sector workers.

In fact, the majority of workers fail to save anything at all for their old age and do not realise they are funding somebody else's with their taxes.

and continues:

Authoritative research from The Institute of Economic Affairs shows the cost of inflation-linked schemes for nearly six million state employees such as doctors, nurses, teachers and policemen has reached more than £22.3billion each year.

On average each one of the 25million households in the country must pay £900 to meet this bill and, according to the experts, this figure will pass the £1,000 mark and go on increasing.

This huge burden will have to be met by today's children when they start earning.

In the paper version of this article is this useful summary for you to cut out and keep:

5,840,000	Public sector workers in Britain
650,000	extra public sector workers since Labour came to power
£22Bn	annoual cost to taxpayer of paying for pensions of former public sector employees
£76Bn	Projected annual bill within 30 years
£100Bn	total wiped off private pensions schemes in last nine years by Gordon Brown's tax raids
100%	public sector workers on gold-plated final salary pension scheme
11%	private workers on gold-plated final salary pension schemes
60	the age when most public sector workers get their pension
68	the age when private sector workers born after April 1978 will get their state pension
£84.25	basic state pension per week

Considering the "grey vote" is probably one of the largest block votes in the electorate (given that most youngsters don't vote) Gorse Fox is amazed that (what we laughingly refer to as) the opposition is not making more of these sorts of issues, the burden of taxation, and the paltry state pension.

Technorati Tags: Tory, Tax, Pensions, Grey vote

La Vie en Rose

There appears to be a problem with GF's TV. After a few minutes, the picture takes on a pink hue... and looks as if one of the colours has failed.

Just what we needed, a potential expensive replacement

Blues and Twos

A super day with the Gorse Fox's sister and family. Lots of gossip (but GF isn't going to breathe a word), catching up, good food and good company.



The journey home was eventful only for the number of police and ambulance vehicles rushing about with their blue lights on... eventually we found the road closed near Northchapel and had to take a long diversion. This added a few minutes to the journey, but at least got home safely.

Waking 'em

Gorse Fox and the Silver Vixen are subjecting the Gorse Fox's sister and her family to their presence (and as it's Christmas, presents) today.

Thai'd up in Brighton

With a degree of apprehension, GF and the Silver Vixen headed to Brighton with Cousteau-cub. She is scheduled for night duty tonight, so we needed to get her back in time to rest, but we also wanted to eat. With the start of the "Sales", however, we had to wonder if there would be space for parking in Brighton, or indeed any way of getting into the town (railways are shutdown today).

Much to our surprise, the roads were clear, parking was easy, and the city centre quiet and relaxed.

Heading for Sukothai we settled down to eat. The menu was varied, and the dishes a little different from those we are used to eating in our more familiar Thai restuarants. The service was impeccable, and the food was beyond reproach. GF particualrly recommends the pork ribs (as a starter).

BBC NEWS The key to flatulent-free sprouts

According to the BBC Online, a farmer has revealed
The key to flatulent-free sprouts
The Gorse Fox asks "What's the point in that?"

New No. 10

Ah ha! The perfect residence for Gordon Brown. According to today's Times, the Transylvanian castle of Vlad the Impaler(*) is on sale for £40M.

Bran Castle, near the historic city of Brasov, in central Romania, is
one of the country’s most popular tourist destinations because of its
association with 15th-century Prince Vlad Tepes III, also known as the
Impaler for his favoured method of executing opponents.

(*) As opposed to his asthmatic son, Vlad the Inhaler.

Gordon's Tax Grab

According to the Office of National Statistics (and as reported in today's Daily Mail) we have each donated £120,000 towards Gordon Brown's tax grab in the past 10 years.

"What!" you might say.

Well, actually if it was on £120,000 then GF would be delighted. He suspects, however, that he has donated well over double that amount... through

• income tax
• national insurance
• council tax
• fuel duty
• Road vehicle license
• VAT on fuel
• VAT on each of the cubs' weddings
• Stamp duty on the purchase of Fox Towers
  
  
• VAT on GF's car
• VAT on SV's car
• VAT on electricity
• VAT on gas
• VAT on the phone bills
• VAT on restaurant meals
  
  
• Television tax (BBC license fee)
• Theft from GF's pension fund
• Tax on flights

Remember, all this goes to Gordon... and he is likely to be our next Prime Minister (and his Pension is guaranteed, and exempt from the ravages of his tax grab)



Technorati Tags: Tax

Oops

And so the Gorse Fox, Silver Vixen and Cousteau-cub loaded up our arms with bags of gifts, and boxes of crockery and cutlery that had been loaned to Sir & Mrs L for the day's festivities. They were feeling rough, and it was time to leave them to their Lemsip.

We trekked down the stairs, and out into the night. Carefully we watched for traffic, and crossed to the parked car. As we drew close their was an almighty crash, and sound of smashing glass. We turned in fear and concern, only to find that the bottom had fallen out of the box Cousteau-cub was carrying and the Silver Vixen's best Royal Worcester plates were shattered in pile in the middle of the road.

Oh dear.

Feast

Well Sir & Mrs Lancinglot did us proud. Despite both being full of cold and feeling poorly, they laid on a super Christmas lunch... Cooked to perfection.

We spent some time looking through the wedding photos and the DVDs that GF has spent the last few weekends putting together.

Don't Panic

The usual Christmas morning panic over whether the lunch will be a) perfect, b) on time, and c) enough, is not evident this year. Gorse Fox, the Silver Vixen and Cousteau-cub are guests of Sir Mrs Lancinglot.



(GF should clarify. Lunch is always perfect, usually on time, and always enough - assuming less than a full regiment turns up - as there's usually on five of us, that means that we can last on left-overs for about 8 months).

He's a soul, man!

Gorse Fox sees that James Brown, the soul singer, has died at the age of 73. returning to a train of thought from last Thursday:

...as they played "Burn baby
burn, disco inferno" it occurred that it would be the ideal upbeat song
to play at a crematorium as the curtains open and the coffin starts to
move.

It occurs to the Gorse Fox, that for the "Godfather of Soul", as they lower the coffin into the hole they could have a chorus of:

"Huh, get on down."

Technorati Tags: James Brown, Whimsy

Happy Christmas

The Gorse Fox and Silver Vixen wish everyone, whatever their faith, their creed, their political persuasion, their age, or their colour a very happy and Holy Christmas(*).


(PS. At this Holy time [only], this even extends to Arsenal supporters) 

Too big

Apparently:

While the new version of Blogger is no longer in beta, some users with certain types of blogs will not immediately be able to switch to it. We'll be adding support for these blogs as soon as possible, so everyone can join in the fun. But for now, if you have a very large blog (more than a couple thousand posts + comments), you'll need to hold off for a bit.

GF guesses that as his blog exceeds 2600 entries, he falls into this category!

Painless

Well, that was painless

Could not switch you to the new Blogger

Thanks for your interest in the new version of Blogger! Unfortunately, we cannot switch your Blogger account at this time, because one or more of your blogs cannot be moved. Please see our help article for more information.

So abnormal service continues!