The Hodge Blog

Well, the magic of the FA Cup hit Saints yesterday as we drew Manchester United at home for the weekend of 3rd/4th January 2009. I was, of course, hoping to avoid having to beat them until the final, but I just suppose we will have to do it a bit earlier! I suppose seriously though that we can get on with “concentrating on our league form”!

Christmas, believe it or not is now only 24 days away as we enter December today. I still haven’t done tons of stuff that I need to get done before then like the Christmas Quiz, the shopping, pack up the house, the photos from India, (yes, still not done that) and organise a meeting of the UK Excel User Group in London in April. Oh, and I’ve got to get some normal Northern work done too! All that and I am off tomorrow for a medical. Maybe I can get some of that done tomorrow?

The 15% VAT rate comes in today. Judging by the high street figures from last week, which showed sales down week-on-week by 12%, we need to hope there is some pent up demand for sales today, although most stores, ourselves included, offered a discount equal to the rate cut for most of last week. Now they will have had to have seen our adverts for that via email, but I’m hoping it pushes us over our budgets this week with a fresh month starting today. After all, it does make a difference with the higher ticket stuff we sell, whereas something like £1.99 it makes no difference at all.

Christmas Puddings did get done yesterday. Boy it was hard work. Fruit soaked overnight in brandy and port (the recipe didn’t say port, but what the hell), then a ton of other ingredients mixed up vigorously. It got stiffer and stiffer until the stirring forced a blister on my hand. Jo had a stir and a wish and I had about 500! Stirs that is, not wishes. Then followed the trauma that we only had one pot big enough for 3 pint basins so the stove was on for 7 hours for 3.5 hours each and they need the same when finally cooked! That would be bad enough, but I had to keep topping the water up every 30 minutes too. That’s a lot of ups and downs and tons of kettle boiling. I reckon they must have cost more that if we’d bought them, but they should taste better? Watch this space…

On this day in history and last year…

Weather = It not cold enough, not for sales anyhow!

Mood meter = New month always positive at that.

Pretty quiet day yesterday, no home football, no houses to look at, almost boring! Did have to endure my worst chore though and go with Jo to buy some clothes for me. Honestly I hate it. She’s right in that I have no real smart trousers, shirts and jackets that fit since I lost the weight, but with Christmas coming up, we have a few events where that may be necessary.

I trudged around M&S like a kid forced to eat his greens! The only saving grace was that I already have some M&S trousers for work, so I didn’t need to constantly go to the changing rooms to try them on. It’s so frustrating for Jo, I understand that, particularly as I am such a willing shopper for gadgets and the like!

Saints managed, as I predicted (sort of) a goalless draw at Charlton and despite all the hype around our away form and Charlton’s tricky predicament currently, I was happy to come away with a point and cement our position less precariously outside the drop zone. What we have to do is start winning at home and make our away form a bonus!

On this day in history and last year…

Weather = Dank and dreary, that’s all you can say about it!

Mood meter = Another day of nothing!

Here are this week’s 10 things from the news of the week. My favourite is number 1. I always wondered why that was as a kid as with the old ring-type dials it seemed to take forever for a ‘9′ to return to the stop before you could dial another and dialling a 1 would get the job done quickly, ideal in an emergency! I have to say though, there’s some pretty other amazing ones this week.

1. The 999 emergency number was chosen over 111 because telegraph wires rubbing together in the wind transmitted the equivalent of a 111 call.
More details

2. In space, an item as small as a toolbag can be seen from Earth.
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3. There are only eight mycologists in the UK.
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4. US intelligence kept a file on Tony Blair’s personal life.
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5. Premium chocolate tasters don’t swallow the goods.
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6. Police use curry to combat alleged drugs possession.
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7. A dog’s mucus enhances its sense of smell.
More details (Daily Mail)

8. The speechwriting “tricolon technique” has been used by Julius Caesar and Barack Obama.
More details (Times)

9. A French cologne has a scent inspired by the smell of human sperm.
More details (Guardian)

10. Gordon Brown writes to X Factor contestants.
More details (Times)

Emma’s starting to realise that life has up’s and down’s and there will surely be much of each as life progresses. On Thursday she was dealt the blow of being turned down for two of her university choices in London and the World was ending. Yesterday she was accepted for an interview at Oxford and all was bright with life.

Now, I had no experiences with trying to get into university, but it is obvious and natural that she wanted to go where she feels safe, Oxford because of her roots and London because of her sister, but there is now so many other options for her that she shouldn’t worry. Let’s hope she get’s her Oxford choice, but even then she will need to get great results, so it’ll be ‘buckle down’ time.

Out with ‘thirsty’ and his sister and brother in law last night. I’m quite envious of them, they emigrated a few years ago to Spain and where ‘thirsty’s’ sister is quite a bit younger than her husband she still works with what is turning out to be a growing tourist area. She does airport transfers, cleans apartments at change of occupant, helps out generally and they are normally on the beach each day by 2pm just reading books. It was 22-24 degrees and sunny when they left on Wednesday, how great that sounds?

The house looks back on as yesterday the court issued an order allowing the lady vendor to go in front of their matrimonial judge to secure a change of ownership. In fact just after that was issued the man involved has emailed the agent accepting our offer. She still wants to go to court to ensure he cannot back off his decision, but I would say to all intents and purposes it’s nailed on and we should be able to proceed by Thursday with all our plans. Most of which are in place and ready to go, but had been stalled by the vendor’s prevarication. I’m sure it’ll be good news once we get it, but then the real work starts!

Saints are away to Charlton this week. They are right down in the mire with us and managerless after he was fired last week. We are doing well away from home, but it is tricky to rely upon that for our fortunes, so once again, I will be happy with a draw. It’s our home form we need to improve.

Going to get the ingredients for a Christmas Pudding today and for the first time I am making one, as it is stir-up Sunday this week. The traditional time that the family had their lucky stir of the Christmas Pudding. I’m going to follow this recipe. Sounds OK doesn’t it?

Weather = Not as cold as elsewhere in the country

Mood meter = It’s the weekend again…hooray!

The Indian siege goes on and the slightly shocking thing is the rumours emerging this morning that some of the terrorists may be Pakistanis of British origin. Not that it should surprise us, it would not be the first time, but if it is true, something needs to be done. I know you cannot take it out on the majority of others, just through the fact they fit a stereotype, but these things could almost start to turn the tables that we are a nation the harbours terrorism.

Enjoyed the day yesterday, although I did plenty of work during it and I was house bound because all the cars were in use! It gave me a chance to catch up with a little of my TV although we are still unable to catch up with the three weeks we were away in India over a month ago now. In fact the planner, which is now down to more than 50% free has hovered in that area for over three weeks now. it seems just when I get in the mood to really hit it, I fall asleep!

More gloom yesterday as B&Q and Screwfix owner Kingfisher announces a drop in profits and turnover. To arrest this and as some sucker to their stock market paymasters, they closed the nine Trade Depot stores. An ex-employee left us to join them so I suspect that will be him out of work?

May get some news on the house today as the case goes to high court to try and seize ownership to allow the sale. Why is nothing in my life ever simple? I am sure it will be great for us if it happens but as with these type of things, we have done so much work on our budgeting to fix this place and over the time become so wed to it, that it will be tragic if there is no movement in our contacts favour and it falls through, but I guess that is the nature of the beast. Certainly there needs to be some movement in my luck, but why would that be?

On this day in history and last year…

Weather = Now, not only is it not cold, I’m going to get wet this morning.

Mood meter = More stuff to get done at work which is getting tough, but at least the weekend is nearly here

More doom and gloom on the economic front yesterday as both MFI and Woolworths moving into administration. If both of those close you will be looking at 30,000 job losses!

Today is Thanksgiving in the US, so they will all be partaking of Turkey today I guess. As my paymasters are also off today I have decided to sneak one of my last two days off today, although already I seem to have fired off and answered more emails than I do in a normal day. I am taking next Tuesday off too, as I have to have a medical for some new life insurance and that’ll be my Holiday done for this year. (Except the Company shutdown between Christmas and New Year).

House vendor is looking to return to the high court on Friday for an emergency 15 minute hearing in front of the judge with the hope that she will be given ‘control of the deeds’ to the house we want to buy. Not sure now and my head is in a spin over it but she seems very convinced and says if she was not sure she would not be spending the £3,000 on the court! Wow, that’s serious money, but considering it is the high court London, a judge and her solicitor from Mishcon De Reya in person, I don’t doubt it! All I would say to her estranged husband is, give up, she ain’t messing! Here’s hoping…

On this day in history and last year…

Weather = Back to ‘normal’ damn it!

Mood meter = Well, although I’m sneaking a little work in, it was just nice not to be out of the house at 6:45am!

The BBC box continues it’s World journey en-route to Los Angeles, California. I was obviously hoping, after it’s first leg to China, which was fairly interesting, passing loads of countries, whether it would use Suez, etc.

I hoped this second leg would be as interesting. What I forgot however, as it is an ocean I have never crossed in all my travels, that crossing the Pacific was hardly going to be that interesting. That is reflected in the map above! How riveting…

Here is the link to the box home page.

Over the months I have spoken with a ton of people who are raving about the new Apple iPhone 3G. It shows all this screen dancing and web pages loading and magnifying instantly. All of which was quite obviously impossible.

Now many know I am a Windows Mobile fan having had units with that operating system for over 4 years now. I’m not saying that’s fast, it probably equally sluggish, if not slower, but the feats on the TV adverts fro iPhone, with it’s jingly little background music was obviously not real but a simulation.

Well now they have been found out and the ads pulled…told you all so.

An Apple iPhone advert has been banned by the advertising standards watchdog for exaggerating the phone’s speed.

The advert boasted the new 3G model was “really fast” and showed it loading internet pages in under a second.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) upheld complaints by 17 people who said the TV advert had misled them as to its speed.

Apple UK said it was comparing the 3G model with its 2G predecessor and its claims were “relative not absolute”.

The advert repeatedly stated that the phone was “really fast” and showed news pages and the Google maps service taking just fractions of a second to appear.

Text on the screen said: “Network performance will vary by location.”

After upholding the viewers’ complaints, the ASA said the advert must not appear again in the same form.

It said the advert was likely to lead viewers to believe that the device actually operated at or near to the speeds shown in the advert.

The watchdog concluded: “Because we understood that it did not, we concluded that the ad was likely to mislead.”

Apple said its claims were “relative rather than absolute in nature” - implying the 3G iPhone was “really fast” in comparison to the previous generation - and therefore the advert was not misleading.

The company also said the average consumer would realise the phone’s performance would vary - a point they said was made clear by the text stating “network performance will vary by location”.

More twists and turns in the house buying saga. For a while the lady ‘vendor’ has accepted our offer, but her estranged husband has not. For a second time yesterday the agent received an email from him refusing to accept the offer. Now, I’ve no idea of the legal situation, but she claims she can go to the court to get the objection overturned and there is certainly some evidence from certain sources that it is indeed possible, although it would take a will of her to do so. That ‘will’ will be tested today as we need to know whether to move on or not.

Saints only managed a draw last night although I was not getting carried away after Saturday’s great result. Plymouth are seventh in the table and we are near the bottom. When that is the case, a point is a point and it certainly gave us a gain over most below us. Again, the team played well but seemed to get frustrated in the second half when their great play didn’t result in anything and they became sloppy. What I do love about football is the humour from the terraces, at least when it’s good humoured. For a couple of weeks I had heard fans singing what I though was, “Bradley Wright-Phillips, he plays for the Saints!”. Listening more carefully last night it is actually, “Bradley Wright-Phillips he robs from the skates!”. A reference to his dropped charges after being accused of stealing money and mobile phones from women’s handbags in a night club in Portsmouth. (Certain Saints’ fans refer to Portsmouth supporters as skates). Funny.

On this day in history and last year…

Weather = It’s just freezing, but it never lasts

Mood meter = Working like hell but it appears we get little further forward.

<rant>

So, our long awaited rescue plan has arrived yesterday with the Pre Budget report (PBR). Now, I’m not generally outspoken on political matters but, who do they think they are kidding?

Firstly, Lover Boy and Beanie tried to itch out of figures by saying borrowing would increase by 1% of GDP by 2010 or some such politically adapted minute figure. What they didn’t say is that it would double the budget deficit making the largest borrowing in the UK’s long history and leave us behind even Italy in the World table of indebted nations.. Now what do they intend to do with that?

1. Reduce VAT by 2.5% to 15% from Monday. So that knackers my sales until Monday then and wait. I have already taken the steps to lower our prices as we show both inc and ex VAT, but what do B&Q and other retail stores do with a product at 99p. That should be 96.8p. Now watch them change nothing! They will not price away from their ‘£x,xxx.x9′ price point so the price will likely not change. Why should they do other than take a lead from the Government, with them in the next breath after reducing VAT saying they would apply higher fuel, alcohol and tobacco duties from Monday to offset the reduction?
2. Give lumps of money to pensioners and people on low earnings or benefit. Now don’t get me wrong, all those are deserving, but they are never going to be the spending powerhouse that this economy needs to pull it out of recession (neither I add are high earners who probably took us here in the first place). The £4 odd he brought forward to January for pensioners will not buy an additional lettuce!

Taxes on all people earning over £20,000, (middle England) will be significantly increased further down the line and people on £100,000 and more will be still more worse off, all these people are the people who given money could spend it. And how long do the cuts in VAT last? Just over one year. How long do the tax rises last? Forever!

So, you may ask, when will all this gamble be corrected and judged as to whether it was successful? By 2015! Well my belly laugh is bigger than those in the House yesterday. Labour will not be in power by then so they will be able to criticise whoever follows for their mismanagement of the economy, great trick. About as bungled and transparent as one by Tommy Cooper and almost as funny!

Let’s paraphrase Beanie from a few years back. “Financial prudence in the watchword, we will never be able to spend our way out of a recession”. Well, with my money Beanie, it looks like you will have a jolly good try. You should be as embarrassed as you looked in the House yesterday as George Osborne tore apart the folly of this plan. Beanie, a cross between Dick Turpin and the Cincinnati Kid!

</rant>

Now, back to subjects normal.

For a change yesterday and for the first time in a while, sales came into plan. I’m not sure what drove it, but frankly I don’t care. I suspect it may have been our “one swallow” but every little helps. (ah, I’ve used a Tesco slogan, hope they don’t sue!). certainly the PBR didn’t help as many wait until Monday for their 2% off!

Saints are at home tonight to Plymouth (Home of the Pilgrim Fathers). They are doing pretty well although until last season I would have given them no chance against us. They are of course managed by our old and short lived manager, Paul Sturrock, so they will likely dance off with all the points and then patronisingly tell us how well we played and what a good footballing side we are! I hope that’s not the case and we can continue our form from Saturday’s great result.

Saints also announced their finances yesterday and it made very grim reading and certainly returning chairman, Rupert Lowe couldn’t contain himself in laying bare just what had happened in the club in the 2 years he was away in his Chairman’s Statement.

On this day in history and last year…

Weather = It’s a little colder, but needs to be more

Mood meter = It was a good sales day yesterday for the first time for some time. Not sure it will be today though with everyone waiting for the VAT reduction.