Colonel Irrelevant

The latest proposals from the Beeb to slim down their work and create more opportunity for the Tories to give business openings to Rupert ‘i’m not rich enough yet’ Murdoch stinks.

The Beeb is unfocussed at times but is stuck between balancing public service and political policy of their masters. Hiring freezes continue, great programming still happens and yet the Beeb stops $ky from dominating the airwaves. The reason being that most digital TV supplies little variety in programming by channel so people can have favourites.

As for the newspapers, they are becoming an occassional purchase rather than a prime source of news and comment. The thing about news though is that you need to trust the source. I trust the Beeb. I trust the Guardian and the Independent. I don’t trust the Times so seldom visit their website.

Anyway, the Beeb needs to do things to serve us. If that means a school disco from 1982 or a Polytechnic Freshers Ball circa 1985 then fair enough. Asian network and world service meet needs that Pineapple Dance Studio doesn’t.

So David Cameron stick to issues that matter to people and leave the Beeb as something to be proud of rather than seeing public service tv as something to be shunted into a backwater as has happened in the USA.

So finally back after Christmas. Another year older and more confusion in Spain. Lots more comments on rent-a-banger but for some reason they won’t approve. I’ll have a look later

anyway I’ll write more tonight or tomorrow. All I can say for sure is leaving work after 7 and it raining for days on end are not the best bits of Spain.

Well my last post concerned the delights of being caught in pre-Christmas travel chaos. This is the sequel post covering the period 16 to now.

Finally I took the plunge and called BA about 12 noon. They changed the flights free of charge to the Saturday which led to much mirth and merriment in packing. We had moved from 5 days prep time to less than 45 hours!

We changed the kennel reservation, dashed Daughter to hosptial to collect a report, dashes to work to sort stuff out then home to cram stuff into bags.

Saturday mornig saw us at Barajas facing an hour delay to London. Kids did a great job on the queue and we got on the plane early. Decent flight, picked upthe rental car and crammed luggage and kids in.

Then we set off in the vague hope ofgetting to Derby for kick off. Much traffic ensued so we failed and resorted to fish and chips from the Binley Mega Chippy in Coventry.

Saturday saw me at the greyhound racing in Nottingham. The weather had caused a postponement so we sat in less than glamorous surroundings watching dogs run on a low definition TV (I think it had been installed around 1948).

Lots of family fun followed abs then down to Cov to see friends. As is traditional we went for a pint or several on the 23 December. What happened after was unusual. In the Red Lion we were assaulted by a pair of lame brained fools who took offence at nothing because they wanted a fight. Coke does bad things to people it seems especially those of little brain.

One glass punched out of a hand, small cuts, a nasty waste of beer and all I can say is avoid the Red Lion at Wolston.

Christmas eve saw a walk and a pub lunch. Service dodgy, food dodgy, weather cold. Christmas day saw a hotel, church, a drive, a detour and an accident on the M1.

Lunch with Bro and presents. Football boxing day was terrible then to in laws. After that down to Devizes for friends and the finest Wadworth 6X.

Back up North for panto and family. new year’s eve involved a curry followed by violent vomiting. New year’s day saw Avatar which was brilliant.

Then off to the Marriot Windsor which was great. Well located for Heathrow if not great for Windsor.

Travel chaos ensued after we arrived in England and after we arrived back. Good travel decisions all around!

The downer is that Mrs Colonel had her handbag knicked at the airport which is a Bad Thing.

Still we are back and having fun waiting or tests in a hospital.

Happy New Year everyone …

Back in September we booked flights from Madrid to the UK to see family and friends. We booked on BA because I hate the constant feeling of adding things onto a basic price that you get with the cheap and nasty airlines.

In November the dispute between the Management led by Silly Willie Walsh and Unite got nasty and a strike ballot was announced. The ballot happened and now I don’t know what will happen because no one is saying anything.

I’m not engaging with the rights and wrongs of the dispute. I don’t really care. I would like to take issue on a couple of points related to the dispute.

The first is about what happens next. No information is forthcoming just lots of propoganda from both sides. I couldn’t care less about the rights or wrongs of either side. I don’t want to hear about claim and counter claim. I want to know if my plane is flying, what changes they will let me make and if not what I can do. I’m not too worried because one way or another I can travel back. I have a car, I can drive. No worries. But I need to know soon. It’s your problem, Willie, so tell me
my options and then I can make a choice.

Second, I have real issues with the people who have had Christmas ‘ruined’ by the strike, the company or the cabin crew. At the moment nothing has happened. Your flight isn’t cancelled and it will still leave. When it is cancelled your plans will change but that doesn’t have to ruin your Christmas.

And in any case, the weather can cause all sorts of chaos at this time of year so even if there wasn’t a strike there is never a guarantee that fog or ice or snow wouldn’t stuff your plans.

All the vitriol is pointless. Sit back and see what happens because until then you can do nothing and the more change you make the more
problems you have.

After all no one has died as a result of the strike.

When you see someone wearing a rag on their head – and I mean a rag and not a headress, towel, turban, hat or anything else but just a rag, can you avoid using the term raghead!

I’ve been tweeting of late and started following a few interesting people.

Things that caught my eye included a nice article on fox hunting, a comment on a times article about vicars and sex and another post about a nasty independent candidate who has issues.

It’s and interesting world and Twitter makes it more accessible which has to be a good thing.

So we are sensing more troops to Afghanistan to support the effort there. 30000 extra from the US as well.

But what is the end game? What chance of establishing a stable political system to serve the people?

Not much in my opinion which is tragic.

What makes me sad is that the reason for invading Afghanistan was to get Bin Laden and they failed for whatever reason.

So now we want a democracy. Maybe we should have some truth about why we are there and the. We could decide if the price is worth paying.

Does anyone else struggle with the mass of social media opportunities? I’m not mad about it all but with a blog here, an untended blog for pictures, facebook, linkedin and Twitter I can’t really keep up.

And I can’t take the time to stuff them all together and some of the stuff shouldn’t collide anyway like linkedin and Twitter.

Mind you writing this I’m listening to Murray and Lovejoy’s sports express and a warning to avoid Andy Murray rapping is a sound use of social media

Several weeks and no posts is bad! What will you do without a dose of irrelevance? Personally I blame Twitter.

I’d been told that Cordoba was a city not to be missed. A rival to Seville and a true representation of non-tourist Spain. The AVE was good as ever and we arrived to a pleasant square. Modern hotel adds to the favourable impression.

We wander out for dinner on a mild evening. Polo shirt surfices as a Brit. The area becomes more
dodgy the further away from the station we get. Citrus trees try to gentrify the area but fail under the overwhelming burden of dirt, graffiti, seeming poverty and toughness. Bin scourers and junior arsonists are about and it feels edgy if not quite dangerous. The odd cannabis plant on a balcony adds a certain something to the picture.

Food is good although i’ve had another first with a bowl of melted cheese served as a pleasant if surprising tapa. Like a breadless pizza light on the toms.

If Cordoba improves in the daylight I will let you know. I expect it will.