...And Tiscali Said, "Let There Be Light", and There Was Light.

Well Helloooooo.....!!!!

I am delighted to announce that the good people of Tiscali broadband have finally accepted that after a £30 'installation fee', and a £15 line rental charge, it is appropriate that maybe they should stick to their end of the deal, and actually provide my flat mates and I with broadband.

Over the past few weeks, there have been many moments when I craved for this time. This moment where I could share some of my thought with you, and hopefully hear some of yours.

Not blogging for a while has left me with some unwanted free time, which walks hand in hand with really dull activities. On Thursday, I spent 12 mins taking off a pair of washing up gloves. I have come to learn that we as humans are above all else thinkers. We need to be mentally stimulated. So whether you're ruling the world or doing the washing up, great care goes into each detail, and the thought processes of whether you're doing it right or wrong, efficiently or not, are similar, whatever the activity.

I thought it would be a really fun game if we played a bit of catch up, so here are just a couple of things I would have blogged about had my flat, as great as it is, not been stuck in the mid 80s.

1) I have a new radio alarm clock. (It's amazing- it's got an ipod dock and everything...), and on I think it was Wednesday (it's hard to tell what day it is now sometimes...) I woke up to this guy Alex Salmond, who I think is First Minister or something...?? Anyway, he was complaining that the UK Government hadn't given him the £1 billion he'd asked for, which I thought was rather ironic considering the fact that all the SNP have done in the last year is reduce taxes, and Alex has more money than any First Minister of Scotland has had before to spend on whatever he wants.

I think he's just picking fights...

2) Unemployment. The absolute horror of our nation.

What more can a nation be denied of than the hearts and dreams of its own people?

I was also woken up by my radio alarm clock to women's hour on Radio 4 this morning. Apparently the unemployment statistics show a sharp rise in the women in unemployment. It is still not known whether women, who tend to be more flexible, part time workers, will suffer more in the long run than men. One of the healthier trends, not just in our country but globally, has been the rise of women in the work place. To see that progress slip away in these times of difficulty will be very hard.

3) Fred Goodwin.

He resigned.

Excellent news.

I met him once. Wanker.

(Not such great news- he has an estimated pension of around £540 000.)

We are all taking the weight of the economic circumstances, but as usual, the rich are left with choice and opportunity, and pay a disproportionately low price for the loss.

4) I passed a charity shop on my way to uni yesterday. I thought there was a Santa costume in the window. As the windrow parallel to me drew nearer I got more and more excited. But then when the moment came and I passed it, I realised it wasn't. It was just a red coat with a white furry scarf wrapped around it. What a disappointment.

That story had no point what so ever.

5) Nobody knows anything about the church. It was the first organisation to build schools, hospitals, and raise awareness (never mind try to combat) global poverty and disease. People make fun of it an awful lot, and are completely ignorant to the work that it does, despite the fact that it built the foundation for most of the fundamental freedoms we enjoy in society today.

Hurricane Katrina? Christian Aid was there before the US Government (who cares- they were poor black people, right?)

Make Poverty History? It was a Christian Aid campaign, which was quickly adopted by the media and celebrity, and as a result the church and anything to do with Bible- bashing Jesus lovers was firmly aside.

I will certainly blog more about this is the weeks ahead, as it's one of the issues that's rather close to my heart.

Anyway people, I'm off. A quick club session before the presidential debates awaits.

Thanks for your patience. I look forward to hearing from you all again and getting back into reading your blogs (apart from of course Professional's, because he doesn't have one... *haha...!*)