Who says that Christmas isn't about money?

Those of us who may have any doubts that Christmas isn't rooted in making money & commercialism must not have seen any television commercials this evening-Christmas Eve.
What I saw were a number of commercials happily informing the public that some of the large chain store will begin their sales either tomorrow or on December 26th. These stores then add that items are on sale for half the pre Christmas price. They glibly announce for example, that a mountain bike that previously cost £200, is now reduced to less than half price, & then add that we can order on line "today".
Now isn't this just plain wrong??!! Imagine a parent who've paid out £200 odd for a bike which is now hidden awaiting presentation on Christmas Day, how must they feel? Why couldn't the store just charge the sale price before Christmas? I think we all know the answer to that one....Because the stores want to make as much money as possible.
It's one giant rip off.And the public fall for it every year.

Christmas....humbug!

Here we are again then....Commercial Christmas, Christmas 2013. Same every year, the big sell,people gorging themselves on all & everything edible. Advertisements flooding the  media, pouring forth their messages of greed & insincere goodwill i
nto our homes. Ugh!
Daily our televisions show us images of the ideal family group sitting together on Christmas Day, eating multiple courses of calorie laden food, then suitably courted, sitting together chatting, laughing & for all the world painting a family scene that wouldn't be out of place in the bloody Walton's or The little house on the sodding prairie.

The reality though is so very much different. In reality there is so much high unimpressed emotion on Christmas Day that it nearly always spills over into full blown arguments or actual fist fights. The end result often being that families fall out & don't speak to one another for God knows how long afterwards. Thus, the whole farce of Christmas Day becomes a combustible powder keg of high expressed emotion.
This is fuelled I believe by the media & advertising industry painting the portrait of how they feel Christmas should be.  Families then try to mimic this false representation with is doomed to failure.
So forget the white rammed down your throats, try to turn a blind eye & ear to the pleading of the advertisers telling you that you should spend money on this & that. Try & see that it's all utter hypocrisy & that in reality your family like 90% of everyone else's will fight on bloody Christmas Day.
Bah humbug! I don't like the bullshit that is Christmas.    

C'mon stop fuckin. about....

The other week on the news I heard that the UK has one of the highest rates in Europe of young people/school leavers with literacy & numeracy difficulties. This is very worrying & the nation &educational authorities are right to be concerned.
Today though, I heard of & signed a petition against the closure of public libraries in Birmingham. So hear now is the blatant hypocrisy of Cameron's Government & their policies of cuts in public expenditure!!
Close the libraries! Take away the public's access to free literature, increase the numbers of those who have literacy problems.
For God's sake Cameron, make up your mind, get your priorities right & be honest with the people of the UK.
After all Mr. Cameron, we're the one's paying for the 11% rise in your salary whilst everyone else is having to choose between food or being able to heat their homes this winter.And the nurses, as well as other public service workers have, in real terms had to take wage cuts for the last 4 years.
C'mon on stop fucking about, be straight with us, treat us like adults.

Birmingham's Sea Life Centre & the penguins-This really takes the biscuit!

Welcome to your new home penguins!!

Sure, their cute, hardly cuddly & they are in their real form utterly inedible.
However the Birmingham Sea-life Centre (& I've never been their & have no plans too).have squired 12 Gentoo Penguins from Melbourne. Some of the birds haven't hatched yet whist others are (God help the poor bastards) are en route to my fair city.

Very nice. However, the cost of the aforesaid penguins and the wonderful snow & ice environment (called 'An ice adventure ' by the idiots who waste our resources) is a cool (sorry for the pun people!)  £1.2 million.
so who foots the bill for this penguin extravaganza?? As usual its the ratepayers of the City of Birmingham.
"This is money well spent" I guess some of you will be saying-"its educational & fun".
No it aint. Because whilst spending £1.2 million on the penguins the City Council is closing libraries, swimming baths, making policeman & firefighters redundant, also reducing street cleansing. All this, as at the same time the majority of the city's roads resemble a lunar landscape.
While I'm in full flow now I might add that perhaps the money earmarked for the bloody penguins & their home from home should be diverted & be spent on Birmingham's Child & Family Social Services Dept which has been described as a national disgrace & "not fit for purpose".
But we live in a democracy & the ratepayers don't have any say do they?

Christmas...again....

I know, I know, but at the certain risk of being called a miserable old bastard I'm gonna have a rant about Christmas (again!)
I started ranting in the lounge a little while ago and was banished to our back kitchen by the daughter & Kate who got fed up of me.
 Its that time of year again when people go manic-& I don't only mean those poor souls who suffer from the Bi-Polar illness, I mean almost everyone you pass on the street.
The shopping avenues around Birmingham 14 are full of those bloody 'Chuggers', 'Big Issue' sellers, people waving buckets under your nose looking for donations to some 'worthy cause' or other (God Almighty, when I was younger, they had small tins not full size soddin' buckets!!),buskers who cant sing  in tune & play the same tune over & over again on an out of tune accordion, drunks, asking  " got any small change mate?" drivers from hell on those bloody mobile scooters who never give any indication where or when they might be going & ill mannered prats pushing you out of the way to achiever their ends. Jesus, I could go on..... (I hear you say:"Please God don't...")

Its got worse now because of the Christmas shite. Tell me...what is the point of this period of gluttony, of enforced joviality & mayhem? Everyone seems to be on the bloody make. I mean, today outside a local supermarket ATM machine there were no less that 3 people looking for money off those daft enough to draw money out of that particular ATM. There was a 'Big issue' salesperson, a guy swinging a big bucket for a homeless centre & a bloody 'Chugger'. Grrrr!!!!
Standing where they stood is nothing short of direct intimidation. I mean why not ask the customers at the ATM for their bloody cards & PIN numbers? Bastards.
I've hit on a plan though which I'll share with you: I go up to the shops early...O yes...between 8am-9am. The shops are empty, the streets almost deserted, the bastards who are after your money are still scratching themselves in their beds & its generally more pleasant.
This Christmas thing is nothing short of a bloody racket. God help Darren our postie-that poor buggers back will be broken in a couple of weeks what with all the shite that people send & expect him & his mates to deliver.
Christmas dinner?? You know I could make do with a good fry up & wouldn't mind spending the bloody Christmas Day malarkey on me own with a pint, a book, my music & my cat.
Speaking of whom, he's just come thru the back door with a soft meow as he rubbed himself against my ankle.
He doesn't give a flying feck about Christmas. Now Charlie's got the right idea....