It’s Monday lunch time and I feel totally drained, I think my late night on Saturday has finally taught up with me, although I did have lay on Sunday I was busy when eventually managed to drag myself from the pit.

Still it the price you pay when you go out and enjoy self.

Spain won Euro 2008, by beating Germany in the final. They were the better the team throughout the tournament and it would have a travesty if the Germans had won. (For some reason I nearly wrote West Germany)

Well, here we are again Monday morning the start of a brand new week of toil and hard work. Today is also the last day of June, it seems like only yesterday that I blogging that it was the beginning of June.

It looks a beautiful day the sun is out and it’s already warming up, the weather for the rest looks, well blank at the moment according to the BBC. It looks we will have no weather for the rest of the week. However, the Met Office says it will dry and bright for the rest of the week, amazing considering Wimbledon is still on.

It may have been a lazy start to the day, but the last couple of hours have seen a hive of activity, we have blitzed the flat and all its looking good, just a quick clean of the bathroom and we will be in lazy mode once again with out feet up and reading the newspaper.

But I do need to iron a few shirts for next week, but that shouldn’t take me very long and Rosemary will do the supervising to ensure that they are perfect and will pass an inspection.  

The Veterans Day went off okay yesterday; well attended for the first parade I would expect it to get better as time goes along. But I don’t think it was well advertised I hadn’t seen any posters around it was only because I heard it once on the radio that I actually know it was taking place.

But despite that it was a good day and a good location for it, it was held on the pier and there was plenty of room for displays. Hopefully if grow in future years and will have more veterans attending and more displays.  

To sa, I have been lazy today would be an understatement, I got up at the usual time, went right back to bed and have only surfaced again about 30 minutes have spent so long in bed for ages.

We had a great time at our friends birthday party last we didn’t in until the wee small hours of the morning hence the lazy day. I have a few jobs to do around the house then I will be able to post a couple of pictures of yesterday’s Veterans Day, which also went well.

I have just been woken up by cat that as decided that it’s her breakfast time. I could have done with another hour in bed, but it wasn’t to be. So am tapping away on the key board and sipping a cup of coffee.

Today will be a busy day will be attending the Veterans Day celebrations and birthday party tonight. So if the cat wakes me up early tomorrow she may find herself turned it a fur hat.

The office is looking like a morgue at the moment, everyone has buggered off (I might be little deaf but I would have heard the fire alarm). I don’t know where everyone as gone but there are only 6 of us on the floor at the moment out of about the usual 50.

Lunch time seems to have arrived very quickly, mainly because I have been very busy this morning. Only a few hours more and I will be on my way home for chicken and chips and a bottle of Budweiser am already looking forward to it.

Top tip of the day, don’t knock over a cup of water over the desk, it ruins all your paper work, is a pain in the arse to clear up and doesn’t do your computer equipment a lot of good.

Luckily only the mouse mat suffered a bit of water on the keyboard but that was easily cleared up, on the whole my computer survived however, my paper is ruined my note book is beyond saving.  

Have just had to remove a few software programs that were conflicting with each other, yesterday I had to install Yahoo search engine and tool bar because I had signed up Flickr, I didn’t particularly want it on it just did on it’s own accord. For some reason I also allowed Google to install it’s tool bar on my internet page (I know how stupid of me) and then my problems really started, as with most company computers with have windows XP installed, now Yahoo wanted it page to be the default and Google wanted it home page to the default. But I wanted my company’s internet page to be the default.

I won eventually but only have deleting Yahoo and Google toolbars. I know many people don’t like windows but it works ok for me, if I do need a better search engine then I can go Google if I so wish, but I do wish they wouldn’t conflict.

I have had Google installed before and I had problems with it then, it would come up with an error box and shut down all my WebPages but I removed and everything was ok after that.

Once again we have reached Friday and the last day of the working week, only a few hours of work and we will be able to relax for a well deserved weekend. Rosemary and I have a 60^th birthday party tomorrow and it veterans weekend, so plenty to do this weekend.

The weather is bound to pretty crappy as its Glastonbury this weekend and it it’s always raining for Glastonbury. Apparently tickets are still available so perhaps people are fed up with the weather, however someone told me it was a protest against one of the headline acts, but am not that up on music nowadays. But I did notice that Neil Diamond and Shakin Stevens are playing there I can remember them, by the way are the Beatles still together, lol?

It’s very nearly that time of day once again, only another 10 minutes or so and I will have to negotiate the Dartford Crossing and a 6 mile section of the M25. According to the traffic news the traffic is flowing well so I shouldn’t have too many problems. I just hope it stays clear.

James Nesbitt has been voted man Doctor Who fans would most like to take over from David Tennant. Out of 3,500 Doctor Who viewers surveyed on behalf of the Doctor Who Exhibition at Earls Court, 714 fans want to see the Cold Feet star as the next incarnation of the Time Lord. Second favourite was Shaun Of The Dead star Simon Pegg with 18 per cent of the vote.

The poll - conducted via www.eco.co.uk, the official website of West London's Earls Court Exhibition Centre where an exhibition of Doctor Who memorabilia is currently on display - also asked fans to vote for their favourite Doctor Who, and Doctor Who enemy.

Current Time Lord David Tennant proved the nation's favourite with 62 per cent of the vote but Tom Baker - best known for his eccentricity during the 1960s series - remains a classic Who icon, coming in at second place with 19 per cent.

The Daleks were of course the most popular enemy, with a whopping 44 per cent and they are due to reappear in Saturday night's new episode of the BBC series.

The Doctor Who exhibition features many of the actual props and costumes worn by the stars of the show David Tennant, Billie Piper and Catherine Tate, along with plus creatures from the hit sci-fi show.

Lunch time and once again I remembered to bring my lunch with me, so I don’t have the pay the exorbitant prices they charge down stairs. Their food is very good, sandwiches freshly made to order and even a 3 course meal if you so wish, but it’s very pricey. Maybe if I was on the same money as the CEO, I could afford to eat there.

It been a busy morning once again and I have spent a lot of time on the phone or writing emails, now I have to wait for the replies. I have until the close of play tomorrow to final my work and submit my price to the client. I have plenty of time and only a few things outstanding, so I’ll be okay.

News article on the BBC website:

   http://www.blog.co.uk/admin/b2edit.php?blog=518059&force_sdata=&use_old_editor=0&force_sdata=1 

A fruit and veg wholesaler faces throwing away an entire consignment of Chilean kiwis because inspectors said they were too small. Tim Down, from Bristol, said he could not even give away the fruit, each of which is about the size of a small hen's egg and weighs about 60g.  

"They are perfectly fit to eat. These regulations come at a time when rising food prices are highlighted and we're being forced to throw away perfectly good food. "There is nothing wrong with its palatability, it's purely because it is slightly less than the prescribed minimum size." He said he was not even permitted by law to give away the 31 10-kilo boxes of kiwis to a school or hostel and faced a fine of several thousand pounds if he did.  

Barry Stedman, head of the RPA, said the consignment had failed to meet the minimum standards for saleable produce, in contravention of EU grading rules. "The inspector's decision is consistent with RPA's commitment to protect consumers, who must feel confident that the produce they are buying is of the right quality," he said. "RPA's role is to work with traders to provide advice and assistance to ensure that this happens and to help traders carry out their business within the law."  

Mr Down has been given a number of options, including sending the fruit back to the importer, or having them processed into juice.  

Does it really matter what size the fruit is, as long as the customer knows what he is getting and quality is good. The worst part his he can’t even give them away what madness is that. Do these people live on the same planet as the rest of us? Its just bloody stupidity things like this make my blood boil.  

 I am amazed at the amount of money spent by large corporate companies on attending internal corporate lectures and study days. Today for instance all the directors, commercial people and leaders are attending a symposium in Solihull, which is good 2 – 3 hours drive from here.

Some left this morning but the majority left last night and spent the night in a large luxurious hotel in the area. Now I have nothing against these symposiums in fact they are very important in getting the companies business plan and future strategy across to its employees. However, does it need to spend a fortune on hotel accommodation, transport and no doubt excellent food and wine when we have perfectly adequate facilities here at our HQ?

On another point it is doubtful that any message of importance will decimated down the chain of command, because communication in this company is very poor. In fact for a company that is so successful it is probably the worst I have ever come across. Don’t get me wrong I enjoy working for them and the work is brilliant but sometimes I despair at our organisational ability.

I feel absolutely knackered this morning, I don’t know why, I had a good nights sleep woke up once around midnight but dropped off again straight away. Perhaps it was the excitement of yesterday and reading all those good books.

But perhaps I need a proper holiday, two weeks in the sun somewhere sounds great, but unfortunately, my summer holiday isn’t until mid August so I still have quite a few weeks to wait yet.

I have just copied this from the BBC website:

A cat survived 18 hours clinging to high voltage power lines in a Wiltshire village. Engineers from Southern Electric, helped by fire fighters and RSPCA officers, finally managed to rescue Freddy who was spotted 25ft (7m) up.

A passer-by had raised the alarm after Freddy was seen close to a live wire.

His owner Emma Evans, 33, said: "It's not unusual for Freddy to wander off for the night so I hadn't been too concerned about him."

When rescuers finally brought him down, the cat ran home with a note from the RSPCA attached to his collar. It read: "Your cat's had an adventure. Can you please contact us to let us know he got home safely?" Ms Evans then contacted the RSPCA to let staff know he was safe and well.

A new meaning of a 4x4 off roader,  police are investigating a crash in which a £30,000 SUV ended up parked on top of two other cars, one of them a Porsche sports car worth up to £45,000.

It happened in the car park of the Co-Op supermarket on Belfast's Lisburn Road. The vehicle, an automatic Lexus, drove over the Porsche and a Toyota Celica, which were parked directly in front. The Porsche Boxster was damaged on its wing and bonnet, while the Toyota Celica was crushed.

One person, believed to be the Porsche driver, was taken to hospital.

His injuries are not believed to be life-threatening. The BBC spoke to the driver of the Toyota, but he said he was "not in the mood to give interviews".

I wonder why! Taken from the BBC website.

Sixty years ago the "modern computer" was born in a lab in Manchester.

The Small Scale Experimental Machine, or "Baby", was the first to contain memory which could store a program.

The room-sized computer's ability to carry out different tasks - without having to be rebuilt - has led some to describe it as the "first modern PC". Using just 128 bytes of memory, it successfully ran its first set of instructions - to determine the highest factor of a number - on 21 June 1948. "We were extremely excited," Geoff Tootill, one of the builders of Baby told BBC News.

Compare that to what we have now!

This weekend will mark National Veterans Day, with various activities going on around the country over the weekend. Which will celebrate the contribution of HM Forces veterans have made in both world wars and in modern times?

The biggest event will be held in Blackpool. But I will be attending the one in Southend and even have my veterans badge now. The 3 day event in Southend kicks off on Friday afternoon with the Mayor opening the celebration with an afternoon of music and memories.

At the moment I am reading up on lightning protection of buildings an interesting and riveting of subject. I fully believe it will be on the best seller list by the end of the month and should be nominated for a Pulitzer prise.  

Am struggling to contain my excitement, it’s really going to be a thrilling day. Once I have completed that book I have another top seller to review Part ‘L’ of the Building Regulations (Conservation of Fuel & Power).

Anybody fancy exchanging jobs!

While driving home last night I was interested to hear an article on the news reported to have come from the RAC. The report stated that in Essex,  since petrol prices have risen that they have noticed less cars on the road and drivers are driving slower to conserve fuel and reduce costs.

I have always driven slowly to reduce petrol consumption, however, I don’t think I have noticed many other drivers driving practically slowly and I definitely haven’t seen a reduction in the number of vehicles on the road. Although I haven’t counted them, but the traffic jam still seem as long to me.

Britain's busiest airport, Heathrow, is "jam-packed" and needs a third runway to remain competitive globally, the head of its operator, BAA, will say.  Well they would say that wouldn’t they?

But does Heathrow need an extra runway, and will Stansted require a new runway as well?

With the rising cost of fuel and inflation on the way up, I think people will be more careful with what little money they have. I believe that a large number of people will not be able to able to afford holidays abroad and will have to holiday in this country. If fuel keeps rising at the rate it is, how long before these cheap airlines go out of business they can’t keep absorbing the fuel costs and eventually these will have to be passed to the customer. Will these customers want to fly so often then, I doubt it vey much?

So do these airports require extra runways? The simple answer is no they don’t, if fact the rise in the fuel prices may be the best help the environment can get.

After the law lords ruled that a man convicted of murder did not receive a fair trail, because evidence was given by anonymous witnesses a potential avalanche of appeal are expected. This must be most damaging event for decades to the criminal justice system.

Intimidation of witnesses in cases of gang and gun crime has always been a factor in bringing offenders to trail, witnesses need protection and anonymity in these high profile cases, we can’t expect people to stand in the witness box and give evidence against hardened criminals when they are putting their families and themselves in danger of persecution and threats of murder.

There of course must be checks and balances and trails must be fair, that is what makes our criminal system the best in the world. But we can’t afford to let murderer's, gang member and drug dealers go free because we don’t have a system in place to protect witnesses.

The Government should act immediately to rectify this situation before we have these people back on the streets. Where would be the justice in that?

The Labour party is contemplating having Sir Alan Sugar as their next mayoral candidate, speaking to Vanessa Feltz on the BBC London Radio show, he said it would be a massive challenge but is his wife had told him ‘That they could do worse.’

He told her the first he knew about it was when he was contacted by a national newspaper which said sources within the Labour Party were putting his name forward.

The shopping is finished; it will be delivered between 7 and 9 on Thursday evening. A little more expensive than envisaged but still better than going to the supermarket.

Its lunch time and today I did remember to bring in my sandwich and fruit in, am not paying those bloody prices again. I think I will also do the weekly shopping (good ole Tesco, I do like this online grocery shopping). I normally get it delivered on a Thursday night, I used to think it was lazy now I say its helping the environment by not driving to the supermarket (well that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it).

I do find it’s a little cheaper as well, because you don’t drop the little extras into the trolley, even though you do have pay £4.50 delivery charge.