Descent Into Darkness!

Back to Uni again next week, it's been a while (5 weeks actually). It's always nice to meet up with folk again and hear their tales about their time in school. Everyone has a tale to tell, and not all of them happy ones. Working on the sharp edge of education is a dangerous business, and it's not only the pupils who pose a risk. Of course the risks are not merely physical, but mental and probably most susceptible to damage of all... reputation. If you can keep your reputation, physical, and mental health intact, then surviving school may be a distinct possibility.

I see the French are unhappy over the price of fuel again, but unlike our British truckers who blocked a lane into London, the French are blockading ports, roads and towns. That's how you get things done. We British are far too reserved and law-abiding. If the British truckers had blocked all of the roads into the capital for a few days, things might have got moving. Petrol here right now is £1.13 per litre (that's over $2 for US citizens). I've heard projections of over £1.80 per litre by August. The government is considering scrapping their proposed 2p increase on fuel duty in the next budget and think that that could stem the growing tide of resentment. Well think again, petrol is already going up more than 2p each week at present. Unless they drastically slash fuel duty, things might get ugly. Trouble is, the government has borrowed to the hilt, they don't have the financial reserves to prop up any such action. They've got themselves into a right sorry scrape, that's for sure.

In my mind, the Labour government should be kicked out on their ears when it all falls apart, but our British reseve won't let us push for that to happen. Instead, we'll more than likely be satisifed to see Gordon Brown step down. I say we, I mean the majority of Brits, my personal stance is that he should never have held office, neither him nor his predecessor, the man who dragged us into 2 seriosuly pointless wars, which cannot be won. Throw in, selling us down the river to Europe and opening the floodgates to immigration, and you have the makings of possibly the most inept and cowardly leadership that's ever held office, anywhere.

Port Ticket Road Works!

I had to make a trip into Aberdeen today for reasons which involve being a parent. Anyhow, we were just heading back to the Denburn car-park, and we came down the steps which are just to the left between the first and second car in the photo. the Denburn car-park was right behind me when I took this photo. Anyway, we were confronted by 3 traffic wardens, just as we rounded the corner. I had my camera with me, so I took this photo of them disappearing up the road. I wonder how many cars they ticketed?

Not that there was any chance of me getting ticketed. I'm a decent law-abiding citizen. I even paid for two hours when it turned out one would have been enough. Ah well, better safe than sorry I suppose. Besides which, driving into Aberdeen today was horrendous, a combination of the salt off of the road and the sun directly in front all the way in, made the journey rather unpleasant. Plus, there are numerous road works in operation right now. There must be Third World roads better than the A96, I'll bet there are too!

I also tried my hand at Port Forwarding my router today. It claims to have been successful, but I see no noticeable improvement in my dismal download speeds. However I am getting the message "Your Internet connection is working like it should", which has replaced the previous "Your connection is awful, better forward a port" message. I'm sure things will improve though, otherwise it's back to the drawing board!