It makes me so flipping angry.

I find I get more annoyed as the weeks and months pass and perhaps there might be some correlation between the angrier I get and the older I get, but I really do get annoyed at times and no doubt the blood pressure jumps upward as a result.

I often get reprimanded by Mrs F during the times I spend shouting loudly and waving my arms about wildly at some news or current affairs item on the television or something I read in the press. I vent my anger with shouts of lock them up, bring back the birch, who wrote this rubbish a two year old, bring back debtors prison or my current favourite; deport them to Chad, though why I should expect Chad to accept the waifs, drop outs and general dross of the society I do not know. My fury cover a wide spectrum it is not just to law breakers that I vent my anger, but also seemingly nondescript other groups or individuals who unwittingly fall foul of my sensibility.

Here are a couple of recent examples of the sort of thing that makes me angry.

A recent newspaper item claimed that a third of students canvassed for a national poll, and here I should explain that we are talking about university students in the age range 19 - 23, are unable to name the leader of the Labour Party whilst 34% of those canvassed could not name the leader of the Conservative Party and just under 50% did not know that Nick Clegg is the leader of the Liberal Democrats. The article then continues to put a journalistic twist on the story that the leaders of the three main parties and by default the political parties themselves are much of a sameness, or are so nondescript that can the students of today be blamed for not knowing some of these basic facts. However my interpretation of it is that there are university students studying for degrees or higher, and are by default within the top 25% academic group within their age range, should damn well feel ashamed for not knowing who the leader of the Labour Party [who is of course also the Prime Minister] is by name or in fact the names of the leaders of the other two main political parties in this country and it leaves me stunned.

Let us consider these are the students who in a couple of years from now will graduate and then be looking for the first step on the ladder for high level employment with high level incomes to match. Some will remain in academia for life and return later to teach a new generation. It makes me wonder sometimes who we are educating and is it all worth it. Perhaps many of these should now be weeded out of university and sent post haste to the job centre to find employment more suited to their level as it is clear to me at least that some of these student are wasting their time and tax payers money at university.

About two years ago, maybe a little longer, British Gas wrote too many of their domestic customers and informed them that the price of domestic gas was likely to rise over the coming years and offered to lock in customers who chose a fixed monthly payment over a fixed term [three years I think] regardless if the price of gas or in fact of British Gas prices rose. Those who chose to would only pay the agreed fixed monthly price regardless of any price increase over the agreed period. I had such a letter but after looking at the terms and conditions and taking into account how much I already paid as a monthly payment I decided not to take advantage of this offer and should prices rise then I would just have to weather the storm so to speak. Undoubtedly however there were those who no doubt like me also read the small print [perhaps many did not] weighed up the pros and cons and decided to take advantage of this offer and lock themselves into an inflationary prove fixed term contract in an attempt to offset any price rise to to either inflation or production costs.

A few weeks ago British Gas announced [against all the odds] that they were going to reduce prices for many domestic users by on average up to about 7%. Now for me and other customers who did not lock themselves into the fixed price agreement this was indeed both surprising and welcome news. However it was not long after the announcement on the morning news when the moaning and complaining started from those who had elected to take advantage of the fixed price contract and now saw themselves not benefiting from any potential price reduction. It seemed to me watching the news that every few minutes some more e mails, texts or phone calls to the television studio were read out from disgruntled customers wanting to know if they would get the reduction in price as well. I heard myself shouting at the television that had British Gas announced a 7% price increase would these same people be bombarding the news studio with e mail and phone calls wanting to ditch their fixed price contract and pay the extra increase..............of course not, so what made them think that they should be allowed to ditch the fixed price agreement and receive the price reduction. They had the choice like everyone did and they chose a course of action if as it transpires that was the wrong choice, though luck and stop moaning and take some responsibility for your own actions.

I know when Christmas is really over when I start to read stories about individuals who are in debt due to overspending during the festive period. A very recent example has been a young couple in their thirties [well they are young to me] with two children. These two sad specimens plus their children were produced on a morning television programme and, I assume, hoping for some sympathy from the viewing public re told the sad tale of how they are now £58,000 in debt, this being accompanied from time to time by one or other of the children crying. It seems that in October this couple received a letter from a bank offering them a fantastic credit card at fantastically extra low rate of interest should they wish to sign up. The couple did and received the new card and started to spend. A few days later they received another letter from another bank asking would they like to have a credit card with an interest rate so low it is a wonder why the bank required repaying at all, the couple agreed and continued spending, why not they informed the viewing public Christmas was coming and they had children.

Whilst out shopping with their new credits cards they were offered a store card from a well known high street department store [for the benefit of any new readers from Chad it was Marks and Spencer] and so took that with no doubt a special low rate of interest..............the story goes and on like this and the couple saw no harm in spending all this money, not their money of course this being credit to be repaid with interest. The point to this and what made me apoplectic with rage was that the couple saw none of this as their fault. Now they were £58,000 in debt they had come to the television studio to complain about the Government who they saw as the culprit; in essence they were now £58,000 in debt due to the fault of the Government.

The argument runs that the Government allows banks and other financial institutions to offer individuals these credit cards so by default it is the fault of the Government that they were £58,000 in debt and what was the Government going to do about it. It was it seems nothing whatsoever to do with them taking on these various cards, signing a contract and then going on a spending spree . When asked by the interviewer that did it not occur to either of them that they were only really using money in advance of repaying it with interest, it was not really their money they were only in essence borrowing it, the couple looked at each other rather blankly then looked at the interviewer and shrugged and repeated that it was not their fault, that they should not be held to account and the Prime Minister should be the one who accepts responsibility, the child continued to cry. I was about to throw something at the television when Mrs F entered the room and stopped me.

A local news item caught my attention. A motorist had been stopped by police for speeding, he was just prior to being stopped [and after being followed by a marked police car] driving at 58 mph in 40 mph speed limit and that at the time he was also using his hand held mobile phone, a note to our reader from Chad, it is against the law in Great Britain to drive whilst using a hand held device such as a phone. After being stopped and interviewed it transpires this motorist already has 6 penalty points on his driving licence showing that he had been stopped at least once before if not twice for other motoring offences. After being cautioned and then informed that he will be reported for offences relating to the Road Traffic Act this person then begins to complain about the strong armed actions of the police, how the police would better spend their time catching criminal and law breakers rather than waste their time harassing good and honest motorists like himself and that politicians should do something about this waste of police time and resource.

I would say to this individual that the police are catching criminals and law breakers, they caught you. You are a criminal and law breaker and deserve to receive a spell in prison just as much as a burglar for example. You were exceeding the prescribed speed limit, so you were breaking the law; you were also at the time driving whilst using your hand held telephone, again you were breaking the law. You already have 6 penalty points on your licence which shows you have also broken the law before, so you are in effect a habitual criminal. yes the police are doing their job; they are catching criminals like you.

The attitude of it is always the fault of someone else makes me so angry..........................

It's turned out nice again.

I know dear reader that this is as much as a surprise for you as it is for me to be adding another Blog entry, but the truth is there has been a miracle of almost biblical proportions because you see I have been cured from the dreaded and almost fatal SOB that had struck me down. I am fit and well again, at least as fit and well as anyone my age have the right to expect. I attribute this healing of my body mind and perhaps soul to maintaining a healthy regime, well that is my excuse at least.

Mrs F however has got flu. My god you should hear her continually moaning about how ill she is. She never stops moaning about the many and varied symptoms she claims to be suffering from, the sore throat, the aching limbs, the occasional bouts of shivering, on and on and on, I have told her to pull herself together and stop complaining it is only flu. I hate people who do nothing but grumble when they get some simple and relatively harmless ailment like flu. The humorous twist to this perhaps is that Mrs F is within an at risk group medically speaking and about four weeks ago or so she received two injections at the local surgery, one for flu and one for swine flu...............that works then.

So today is the Super Bowl and the New Orleans Saints will battle it out against the Indianapolis Colts for the title of Super Bowl XLIV Winners at the Sun Life Stadium in Florida. The game is due to start at 5pm Eastern Time [US] and will be shown live around the world. We here in the UK will get it starting at about 10.30pm and it will continue until about 4am. I will be watching it on the BBC having already taken the precaution of taking the day off work tomorrow. I have also prepared for the event in other ways; the fridge is stocked with Budweiser, I have a couple of packets of Doritos chips and a jar of Hot Salsa Dip and to get me through the forty minute half time show, this year a performance given by The Who, I have some Hot Dogs and Rolls, I think that should see me through it all okay.

I do not really have any fixation to either team but there is a requirement to support one or the other. The Colts are statistically the better team with a season score of 14:2 against the Saints 13:3 and as I write this the Colts are the more favoured team to win. I have seen the New Orleans Saints play live in London in 2008 when they played the San Diego Chargers and so for that reason and that alone I shall support the Saints.

Whilst still on the subject of the NFL the news is now out that at the fourth International Series Game to play at Wembley on Sunday 31st October this year will be between the San Francisco 49ers and the Denver Broncos, it will be classed as a home game for the 49ers. So dear reader you will you will understand how excited I am about this as you will recall that the Denver Broncos are my team. My ticket has already been purchased and confirmed and the hotel has also already been booked paid for and confirmed, so I shall get to see the Broncos play in person at last.

A couple of other snippets of news to catch up on. Mrs F and I decided late last year that our settees just about reached the end of their useful life. These two two seater settees had in fact given long and valuable service and had seen the wear and tear and rough and tumble of two children growing up and two dogs running around and jumping on and off them or that might be two dogs growing up and two children........................no perhaps not. Last November we then decided that we had enough spare resources to invest in new furniture and so the upshot was that we ordered at great expense two Lazy Boy settees, perhaps for the benefit of any new readers from Chad I should explain that these settees both recline and tilt from the upright to an almost horizontal position. The good news is that these eventually arrived three days ago and so I look forward to reclining in comfort tonight whilst watching the Super Bowl.

Mrs F and I visited Whitby the other day, there is I know a regular reader and good friend of the Blog who will now smile and nod knowingly whilst remembering that Whitby is twinned with Anchorage in Alaska. I have to share the good news that Whitby now has a Pie and Mash shop, aptly named 'Humble Pie and Mash'; on discovering this enterprise Mrs F and I could not resist taking our lunch there. I had Sausage and Black Pudding Pie with my mash peas and gravy and Mrs F had a Steak Pie. In line with all good Pie and Mash shops the meals are all at a fixed price and at the time of writing the price in Whitby is £4.99 with a mug of tea at an additional £1.00.

To close this edition of the Blog a couple of things that made me smile over the last day or so. Regular readers of the Blog will remember that during my spare time I am working on my family tree, see post for 29th August 2008 of the Blog. I have recently received a copy of a death certificate for a relative; sometimes it is worthwhile obtaining copies of these certificates to confirm some details of the individual in question. One of the mandatory items of information recorded on a British Death Certificate is the name of the person reporting the death, the name of the informant. On this certificate it amused me to see the name of the informant was Alice Dodgson Clay. I do not know who Mrs, Miss or even Ms Clay is but her name made me smile, I wonder how many other readers will make the connection and smile as well.

I have recently watched a quiz programme on the television. One of the contestants was a rather nice looking blond, in her early twenties I would imagine. The host of the programme asked the young lady why she had wanted to appear as a contestant. The young lady crossed her long legs thought for a moment and replied that as she had the outward appearance of what today is sometimes rudely described as a 'Blond Bimbo' and she was not like that at all, in fact the lady informed the audience that she was very intelligent and wanted to dispel the idea that sometimes she is automatically and wrongly placed into the 'Blond Bimbo' category and she wanted to prove to all her friends how clever and intelligent she really was. This was followed by a polite round of applause from the audience.

Question 1. Can you tell me in which continent Angola can be found. [a] Africa [b] South America [c] Asia].
Answer. I have never heard of Angola............errrrrrrrrr Asia I think.

Question 2. Can you tell me what the term Epilating refers to. [a] Hair Removal [b] Wrinkle Removal [c] Fat Removal.
Answer. Epilating...........errrrrrrrrr is that a real word ? errrrrrr I dont know.........oh hang on, epilating yes I know it is fat removal my friend was epilated last year and she lost loads of weight.

Oh well never mind, brave effort.

For those keen to follow the World Tour of the Gnome I have to report it has yet to arrive with me.

Postscript: Super Bowl Results: New Orleans Saints 31 Indianapolis Colts 17