Derek, changes his mind like a big daft woman, yet again!! *rolls eyes*

When I was a travel agency manager he would have driven me loopy, changing his mind!!!
Yesterday I had got our motorhome holiday "almost" in-the-bag!! as I had got a final quote, and info on insurance, as well as other bits and pieces sorted, and I was ready, phone in one hand and credit card in the other....then I phoned Derek.......
It was clear to me from his voice that he was having a bad day, so I just said "do I go with this or what?" but to my horror he said no!!! and that he wanted to talk about it tonight!! Good grief!! Anyway the "talk" about it tonight, did not happen...I gave him his tea, and then he skulked upstairs for the rest of the evening, on his computer! By now I had quite given up, and Sirius was reminding me that it was nearly "spa treat" time, so I took his mind off it with a game of ball in the garden!! AT about 8.50pm me and Sirius came in and I got ready for the evening bubble session, when Derek suddenly appeared!
"I found this cottage on the Dogs Trust website, and its £200 cheaper than doing a motorhome!" he exclaimed!!
and then he told me he had sent me a link!! I went into it and the darn thing just gave me an error message, and by this time I had a sulky dog giving me evils as if to say "get in the spa now!! I want my treats!" at this point I gave up and I shouted upstairs to Derek that I would look tomorrow.
Now Derk and I have done a Welsh cottage before, years ago in November time. Although the place was very quaint, the only source of heat was a "real" fire. Now as I had not got a clue how to start a real fire, it took me about an hour to get it going properly and even then it kept going out, and belched thick, acrid smoke into the small living room...and it was freezing cold!! Well, as I don't want a repeat of this unpleasent expierence I am non to keen about doing a "cheepy" Welsh cottage again!! If we did, I would take a convector heater, and my portable dvd player!! and I wont be too happy about it ! Also we have done a fair too many cottage holidays, and I want to explore different avenues of holidaying with a dog, like the boating trip we did, so the motorhome seemed like a good solution. Derek's argument is the cost of diesel and the fact that the van only does about 25 miles to the gallon, max! But what does he expect? Its not a tiny runarround, car. Its a bloody great 4 ton van!!!!
As for tonight, I have been promised the said "talk" about it again, but like last night, it wont happen, after nearly 20 years together I know him too well!! and he will just come in, have his tea, and vanish into his office!!!
I think I have resigned myself to the cottage holiday!!
As for today, well I have a ton of house work to do, as well as searching out new tracks for my ipod, and cleaning the spa area!!
Ho Hum!!!!

Just yesterday, Derek admitted he had been looking at boating holidays in France, which suprized me some-what as he has not mentioned boating since our Norfolk boards trip. As it is, it was me who was planning a trip on the North Norfolk broads in a bigger boat...I hadn't even considered Europe!!....

Derek has never traveled in Europe before, so this came as something of a shock.....Normally he isent interested in anywhere unless it involves a considerable amount of stress, endurance or wild adventure, but obviously our global jaunts have ceased now we have Sirius to consider...Derek was only put him in kennels "over my dead body!" as I will never leave him....
Way back when I was 14, I got my first trip abroad by pure accident!! It a long story but basically mum and dad had a row about Mothers day and they didn't speek to each other for weeks after. Thier favorite restraunt was near Northwich and called the "RhienGold!" and as dad dropped me off at school one morning he told me he was going to take my mum there to make it up!! Anyway mum actually though he said "book for the Rhienland!!" and not book the Rhiengold, so before dad knew anything about it mum had booked the 3 of us on a week long coach holiday!!! I found it really exciting, and I enjoyed every second of it because Germany is so very beautiful...on a side note this trip triggered my smoking as dad bought 200 JPS (the same brand I smoke today!) and shortly after we got home I discovered his "stash" behind the fire canopy, and decided to try one in the bathroom...Needless to say it was love at first puff!! Anyway it had been a coach tour and we took in other European countires going out and coming home, and not all were as pretty as Germany, and one of them was France which I didn't rate much compared to Germany!! So yesterday, when he told me he had been checking boats in France, I just said "Germany is much nicer, and the food in gorgeous!"...to my shock he said he had checked that too, but both had proved to be far to expensive at around £2,000 per week!!! Crikey!! I could book us the Carribean for that, I thought!!
Now sometime soon we are to attend a Doggie fun day and we are able to camp, but Derek is very reluctant about camping for some reason. Which is a shame as I was going to suggest camping in the Isle of Mann, another place I visited with my parents as a child, and Derek has not been too!! I have been looking at dog friendly guest houses on the Isle of Mann but nothing is certain yet, and the choice is quite limited. Also I still quite like the idea of boating, but I only wish Derek was able to steer one, as the prospect of another week stuck at the helm is not as appealing as it was once!! Well there are plenty of places to go boating in Britain, it dosn't have to be the Norfolk Broads!! Another thing I have considered is a dog friendly static caravan or perhaps going back to his aunties caravan in Ireland!!...there are many options to consider, but one thing is certain, it wont be soon.....Unfortunatly...

This blog is going to be a very serious warning about the new craze sweeping the internet!!

I-Doser!!!!!!! NEVER LISTEN TO THIS!!!!!!!!

For those of you who have not head of this, iDoser is a neural stimulation system, using pulses of sound at different frequencies through left and right headphones, to mimic the effect of drugs. Its legal, its free, as its on both limewire and youtube but most of all it messes with the brainwaves and indeed the brain, something which we don't compleatly understand the workings of!! and its here and sweeping the internet like the virus it is!!
Several days ago I read this blog on the Telegraph website...but I dident take it seriously enough, until I investigated...and listened to it!!


http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tomchivers/100044998/the-digital-drug-terror-that-is-sweeping-the-nation-possibly/

you will have to copy/paste, if you want to read!

I had read all kinds of things about this "legal high" and I naturally thought "year, right!" and dismissed it until I reminded myself that at the moment I am indeed using Solfeggio 528 Hz sound for relaxation and peacefullness...Next I thought, Vicky, don't be a hypocrite and try it for yourself so I did....

This video is of someone doing I-doser, and its not pretty!!
PLEASE DO NOT WATCH IF YOUR EASILY FREAKED!!



Bravely I clicked a link to a youtube video!! *not the one above* But one which contained the real sounds of one of the idoser...Its not music! its just an alternating beep, but my God, the effect on me was immediate!!!
...and I was not even wearing headphones!! (I aint that brave)
Instantly these frequency's hit my ears I felt as if I was going to fit!!! and it got worse by the micro second...horrified, I tried to move my finger over the mouse pad to stop the video, but to my horror, my finger would not move, so I had to use a heck of a lot of will power to move my finger to the back button!...When I managed to stop it, I was shaking, sweaty and very dizzy and still feel a bit dizzy now, an hour or so later!!!
Anyway, having the expierence of listening to it, if albeit for only a few seconds I would concluded that this might be the most dangerous thing to hit the internet!! I am not trying to scare anyone here, but I think we should all be aware of this horror and how kids are activly using this to mess about with their brainwaves!! Brainwaves are not there to be messed about with, and I have a feeling, if they are messed about with the consequences could be permenant brain damage........I know that a lot of my friends have teenage kids and I want them to be aware of this happening!!

DO NOT LISTEN TO I-DOSER!!!!!!..........unless you WANT to be sectioned!!

....and did you have your ears on!! (CB slang for on-air!)

As some of you know, my dad was a lorry driver and as a kid I was totally obsessed with "going down the road" with him!! So much so it effected my education, and frequently got my mum into trouble with which ever school I was at, at the time! (I went to 4 different schools) But oh it was fun...I had, had a bit of sulky week though, when sometime in 1981 my dad refused point blank to take me with him anymore, as he was getting snide, micky taking remarks about me from other lorry drivers. They were mostly related to the fact I looked much older than I was and already had a huge chest. They used to joke "Oh your awright for tonight then!!"...to which my dad would reply, very red faced, "Actually that's my 14 year old daughter!!" so for a while I was grounded from Dad's truck trips, and I was not happy about it!!
It had been a dark October evening when dad got home in his oil stained overalls one eveing, at about 7pm.
He had brought something with him, heavy, weighed down in a scruffy carrier bag! He just grinned at me, and told me to wait as he set (whatever it was) up on the kitchen table!!
It was a large black and chrome C.B. RADIO!!!
Mum and I looked on in awe, and for a moment I was so excited I could have popped!!!
Dad explained he had bought it off a fellow lorry driver for £15 as the driver in question had got a newer model. Mum had briefly remarked that £15 was worth a weeks shopping to which dad replied, it was for me, to cheer me up a bit!! Cheer me up? I was delighted!! But my delight suddenly gave way to the fear that I would have to use the thing too, and the push down microphone really did scare me at first. However, after just a week of having my new C.B. in my bedroom I was going at it like an old Ham!!! My ariel was a "Cherry Halfbreed" and only about 3 foot tall, attached to an old busquit tin covered in tinfoil. It got me as near as my mates in the next street, which was not satisfactory for my 14 years old self and I began to research getting one of the best aireals available, a 18 foot D.I. Thunder pole!!! After a bit of creeping from me, my dad got me one and this massive pole graced the back of our house (much higher than the tv areal ) until we moved in 1984....The C.B my dad had got me was a CBMaster 20-80 AM, which was actually an 80 channel *illegal* radio, but I didn't care as I was having the time of my life with it, and now with my huge areal I could DX over to the States too!! (dx-ing is a term used by ham radio people to *bounce* their signal around the globe when weather conditions are right) I even had California once!!! and I also kept a small notebook of all the "copies" I had, had...my *Handle* was Cherry Brandy, which at the time was my mums favorite tipple!! Also it didn't take long to meet my first on-air boyfriend, a chap from Padgate calling himself Peanut (real name Paul Humphries) he was several years older than me and it only lasted a couple of months until I found out he was seeing another C.Ber and I finished with him. Then I met someone else on air who I had vaguley known from school...His handle was Fire-Dragon and his name was Ian Struthers and we were together for several years after this, but that eventually ended too!! C.B was fun though as I made a lot of friends, and in a way it was so much more personal that the internet, but only in some respects!! Eventually the govenment clamped down on C.B'S like my poor AM radio and dad got me an FM C.B but that didn't seem to be as much fun, maybe because it was legal!! Lots of C.Bers like myself were put off and by 1985 the British public had fallen out of love with the C.B radio and the airwaves went silent!!
It was such a shame....and I would love to C.B again!!

10-4 for a copy good buddy?

How sick is this?
A well known collumist for the Sun and the News of the world uses the horrific story of Raoul Moat and the sick facebook page "RIP Raoul Moat you Legend"...TO DEMONIZE SMOKERS!!!!!!!!!!!

I quote:

*****SHE stood there, fag in hand, blowing smoke, declaring how incredibly funny it was that Raoul Moat had managed to hide from the police for a whole week.*****

Carole Malone is taking about Siobhan O'Dowd who began the sick facebook page "RIP Raoul Maot you Legend"
What Miss Malone fails to adress is the fact that Siobhan O'Dowd is a very stupid, brainless chav, not worth commenting on in the first place!!!
Its thanks to collumists like her and the media in general that made that sick facebook page so popular in the first place!! Good grief, is there no common sense in the world?
Now normally I read the Telegraph because its interesting and focuses on world events much more than other papers and infact reading this paper became a habit while traveling as you are given it free on most long haul flights...but occasionally I will decend to the tabloids and when I do it always annoys me in some way or another. Such as the News of the world, today on its paper website has no less than 4 stories on Jordan (Katie Price) alone!!! I really don't give a F*** what this waste of human existance is doing in her love life or elsewere! She is just a freaking Barbie doll!!! Surely there is more news worthy stuff out there...and then I get around to Carole Malones page and nearly fell off my chair when I read the first sentance of her "story". What the hell was she thinking? I will tell you what she was thinking..."Ohh having a jolly good whine about a sick face book page will make me look good in the public eye, and while we are at it, I shall demonize smokers so that everyone believe its only smokers who have the intelligence level of Siobhan O'Dowd...I'm sorry but Carol Malone has just proved she has the same intelligence level as the sick mare who started the facebook page in the first place!!! I know I have moaned about the anti smoking brigade more than once, but this sinks to a new, more sinister level, and I find it more than a bit creepy. Its thanks to people in the media, like her, that law abiding smokers like myself face abuse from strangers in the street, because all smokers are obviously stupid, inconsiderate chavs who blow deadly smoke into everyones faces!! Carole Malone needs to wake up and live in the real world, a world where todays smokers (like myself) try their very best to not let their enjoyment of tobacco infringe on any non smokers beautifully clean air!!This collumist actually thinks its trendy to demonize smokers, when we are just human beings like the rest of mankind, but we happen to enjoy tobacco!! What happened to tolerence!!? I would say to Miss Malone, why not turn your talents (if she has any) to more comment worthy articals instead of just writing what you think the sheeple will enjoy? Why not write on the Burkah debate, or how the coalition govenment is going to claw back the massive debt that Labour left us with? Yes there is indeed much more to the world than some thick woman who starts a stupid facebook page!! I mean its not as if the page is still on line! It was taken off on a few days ago! so why is it comment worthy? Collumists like her need to buck up their ideas and do some research into subjects before they start using horror stories to yet again demonize smokers! The media made this page as popular as it was, and even I who use facebook most days, did not know of its existance untill it popped up on the national news!! So I did indeed look at the page in disbelife!!.....and its crackpot author just "happens" to smoke!! WOW!! that must be comment worthy, Miss Malone!! I have skipped your page often, but I will be totally ignoring it in future!
As a side note I have left a comment on her page, which is heavily moderated by the way.....let me guess...my comment wont be published!!

*makes pot of tea.......lights up!*

Yes, you read the title correctly...the planets are "singing" to us!

Yesterday I had my interest re-fired in the pineal gland, sometimes referred to the "third eye" because it contains the same properties that are found in the human eye and it is light sensitive! I say re-fired because I first heard of this on my travels in India, Nepal and Tibet as far back as 1995!...The pineal gland is a tiny (about the size of a pea) gland in the geometric center of your brain that is mostly active in childhood and adolescents and even used in puberty (my puberty was very early starting at 10, and traumatic) By adulthood it lies mostly dormant and calcified, unless awakened. During my travels I was amazingly privledged to be invited into temples and monestaries and crossing my legs and contemplating the sounds I was hearing, I felt my spirit greatly uplifted and quite renewed!! For this reason Derek frequently *lost* me when I was on a "monestary hunt" I didn't really know it at the time but these *pure* chanting sounds were directly effecting my pineal gland!!
So whats this blog all about?...I hear you asking!
The pineal gland can be awoken by listening to certain sounds such as the "love" frequency 528, and by meditating on these sounds and using our dormant pineal we can become more self aware as well as spiritually aware! Descertes reffered to the pineal as the "seat of the soul" and the eye of the soul! and why not?...afterall this gland is centered at our deepest, most primal part of our brains!! ...When I was about 5, I actually believed I was the only, if albeit small person, in the world who could "see" as only I could see through my eyes and not through the eyes of others! Wacky, I know, but I was a wacky child as well as an adult, although I dont believe this anymore. But could this thought have been prompted by my "then awake" pineal gland? Who knows! Now as someone who has been through and indeed suffered from depression, I would find it very beneficial to re- awaken my pineal through meditation, and this is where the planets come in...The planets realy do sing to us through electromagnetic frequencies just as the monks sung when I was uplifted in the monestaries!! I will begin with Jupiter, our largest sibling and protector!! I say protector as Jupiter acts as a giant cosmic Dyson cleaner, because of its massive gravity, which sucks up comets and meteors in huge numbers! Without Jupiter our planet would have been destroyed a millenia ago! Jupiter really is our baby-sitter and after the Sun this is the next celestial body we should be greatfull for our existance!! Now Jupiters song is indeed at the magic 528 frequency!!! God's frequency, some call it!! and I shall be researching into this for many years to come, as its a "knock yer socks off" awesome study!!
Below is the song of Jupiter!!
Try and listen to this with head phones while meditating!!



Next is Saturn, our other giant protector!!!



and Uranus!! which incidently is the same colour (pale green) as that which pertaines to the 528 frequency!!



Wouldn't it be wonderfull if we could all take some time out from this mad crazy world, to contemplate and mediate on the songs of our planets, and re- awaken our pineal gland to find spiritual peacefulness and the deep joy in our souls!!

Believe me.....that joy really does exist!!.... We, as the human race, have just forgoten how to re-discover it!! :)

A very big pet hate of mine!!

This week is the 25th anniversary of live aid and I hopped over to youtube to watch some live aid footage to remind me of the time many years ago that I watched this event in a Warrington town centre pub, with a very good friend of mine!! Jane and I were both 18 and mildly drunk on halfs of cider and black, but had an excellent day out!! (yes...at 18, I was a lightweight!!) I vividly remember Quo doing "Rocking all over the world" so I tapped this into youtube search for a bit of nostalgia!...and indeed did other searches for bands that took part. Now attached to my laptop is a small but rather powerful, ipod docking port which doubles as computer speakers for me. Several vid's almost blasted my speakers to bits and yet other ones I could hardly hear!! For a time I thought I was either going deaf or there was something up with the docking port! NO....its simply annoying youtube sound levels. and its make even worse wearing headphones. With all the techy stuff we have today, surely youtube could have a standard sound level adjustment??
The same thing happens on TV!!
Who on earth has not noticed that adverts are so much louder than the programmes?
Gold and Watch channels are the worst culprits of this, I think!
Now think about it for a second....we, as the human race have advanced to put man on the moon, fly 8 times the speed of sound, connect live, instantly with others around the world and launch probes to other worlds and yet we must suffer from overly loud adverts as apparently there is no technology in existance to adjust sound levels on tv and computers without actually, physically turning the volume up and down..?? Ok, perhaps I am just too lazy to use the volume controle, but you would think with all the advancement we have today, such a thing would exist!! or perhaps I am just getting old and grouchy (lol) and a wee bit deaf after all my time dancing next to 10 zillion megga watt speakers in Mr Smiths club for many years!! or listening to my Sony walkman casette at full volume!! No, its just annoying geeks who can't be bothered with such a thing as standard sound level adjustment software!! If anyone has ever heard that such a thing exists, please email me!! I would pay good money for it!!

Last night in my drunken negotiation's with mum we agreed to meet today for shopping and lunch at Morrisons!

I had warned her about the heat, and standing around in bus stops but she assured me she would be ok, and she was desperate for cat food so I eventually agreed...Earlier this morning I phoned her and tried to put her off as the forecast was set for 31 degrees. It was all to no avail, she said she was going anyway, with out without me! So, at 11:30 I sauntered down to the bus stop for the short trip to the shop and lunch. Mum had been waiting at my stop when I got off, and instantly began wailing about the heat. I felt like saying I told you so but didn't, I just let her moan on. We shopped and I picked up a large plastic table mat which I wanted for the table in my spa so I wont get rings on it. Mum liked them too and she bought two of them, they are wipe clean and very handy....I was just about to find out just how handy they are.... Then we had lunch of fish and chips of which I had a pensioners portion (smaller) as I was not really hungry and we parted company at the traffic lights outside Morrisons car park! Mum didn't want to come back to my house today as it was indeed too hot (shock) and she wanted to get back for the cats, so we went for our seperate bus's. Now the wonderful smoking ban forbids smokers from smoking in bus stops so I stopped in the shade of a tree about 100 yards from the stop and lit up, and enjoyed my ciggie! Ahead of me at the said bus stop were several older people, and it looked pretty crowded, but I finished my ciggie and went to join them as the bus was due. I managed to squeeze my ever widening backside onto the end of the red bench next to a very frail old lady and a man and a woman in their 50's. It was indeed absolutly stiflingly hot as I waited and looked up the road for my non existent bus. Quite suddenly the frail figure next to me began to slide forward and in horror I realised she was fainting!!! The couple in their 50's were her daughter and son in law and began to help her. Without thinking I gently but firmly got hold of her arm to steady her, and suggested to the couple that they should take her jumper off as her face was bright red and she was obviously boiling hot! The th'ree of us eased her out of her blue cardigan as my mind was buzzing with things I could do to help this poor lady!...suddenly I got it!! Out of my bag I got the plastic place mat and began to fan her vigorously with it.
"Oh that's wonderfull!!!" the man had exclaimed "Thank you so much!!"
The lady began to come round, with the wafts from my place mat, and the glazed "not with it" look gave way to a more focused gaze and a delighted smile form her! As We waited and I wafted, I spoke with her daughter and son in law. It turned out this lady was 88 and had suffered two bad heart attacks last year!!! ...why on earth would they bring their frail elderly mum out in 31 degrees heat? this really had really got me baffled!!! The elderly, like babies also, do not have the same heat regulations systems that we have as adults!
By the time the bus arrived (which was late) she had come too sufficiently to stand with aid from her daughter and we helped her on the bus. They could not stop thanking me, but it wasn't thanks I wanted, I was just helping, and I hoped they realised that taking out their mum in heatwave weather is not a good thing, in fact its down right dangerous!!!
I hope there was a lesson learned today...as I wont be around next time!

Just watching the local news and got the shock of my life when a piece came up featuring a pub I was landlady at back in 1992!!

Back then it was called "The Rifle Butt" but during these politically correct times it is now called the Hart of Duston!!!

The current landlady called Lorraine Wager was on the news telling it like it is about the smoking ban, and how its affected her trade! She looks like a lovely lady and I wish her all the best in her excellent business, and hope that this ban might be lifted!! Its just a shame that this pathetic smoking ban is closing tens of pubs by the day, and when Derek and I are out for a drive we often pass closed, boarded up and sometimes vandalised pubs, which is indeed a very sad sight. It saddens me too that this was my chosen trade in life!! (thank goodness I got out) and I trained heavy and very hard for it, sometimes working almost 70 hours a week!! While I was at the Rifle Butt, my wages budget did not allow for a cleaner 4 days a week so I was up at 7am every morning cleaning, regardless of what time the regulars would let me lock up, which was normally about 2am!! Its not an easy life and I dread to think what its like now!! I admire Lorraine for her candidness in speaking out and I applaude her, loudly!!
The Rifle Butt was the first large pub I had run on my own!!
I think I mentioned somewhere else in my blog that I was there with a chap called Peter McKenna and every morning he would leave me too it at 7am only to return about 1am!! He got sacked because he was never there and I had to carry the ship on my own so to speak!! After Peter went I went with another lady to manage two other pubs in Northampton, before going on my travels....but my time at the Rifle Butt was a miserable and lonely one!! When I moved in there was no carpet up stairs, and it was draughty and damp!! It was an absolute tip upstairs, and down stairs in the two bar's it was not faring much better. I can remember on my first day, thinking "What the heck have I let myself in for?" and my question to myself was indeed justified. The lounge side was almost reasonable at this time ('92) but the bar side was a right "hole"...I could say Peter and I, but I wont as he was never there so I will just refere to me as singular....I had been promised a full referbishment but this never happend. In fact it only happened when I was off traveling in Asia almost two years later. I am happy to say the pub looks superb now!! Although I have not walked through those door since I left!
Good luck Lorraine!!!!!!!!
Your a star!! Keep up the good work!! x

Below is singer/songwriter Joe Jackson speaking on the "Forest!" smokers rights website!!

Guest post by JOE JACKSON

Ten reasons why the smoking ban stinks:

(1) It disregards property rights. The air in a pub ‘belongs’ neither to smokers nor nonsmokers, and certainly not to politicians, but to the publican, and it is the publican who should decide the smoking policy on his or her own premises.

(2) It sets a terrible precedent by blurring the boundary between public and private. A law court is a ‘public place’ – a nightclub is not, and neither politicians nor doctors have the right to legislate what people do in it. If we concede to them that right, they will inevitably extend it to our cars (as they are now trying to do) and then to our homes (which has already happened in parts of the US).

(3) It removes freedom of choice – not only the smoker’s freedom to enjoy a legal habit, but everyone’s freedom to work out their own compromises and solutions.

(4) It is anti-democratic. The government’s own Office for National Statistics found 68% opposed to a total ban, but like every other smoking ban in the world, it was imposed regardless. The only opinions which have been heard are those of medical authorities and lobby groups, and directly or indirectly, the pharmaceutical companies which fund them.

(5) It is socially divisive and encourages intolerance. Government is blatantly stigmatising a particular group, who must change their behaviour or be excluded from ‘correct’ society (a recent NHS campaign used the slogan ‘If you smoke, you stink’). Well-intentioned or not, antismoking authorities have created tremendous animosity between friends, neighbours and family members. They have also encouraged people to think that government can, or should, intervene to stop other people doing whatever they personally don’t approve of.

(6) It is hypocritical, since tobacco remains legal and the Treasury makes around £10 billion per year from taxing it. And, incidentally, there is a smoker-friendly bar in the House of Commons.

(7) Despite ever more frantic and contrived efforts to ‘prove’ otherwise, it is bad for business. Pubs and clubs are dying, and although the ban may not be the only factor, few people in the trade would deny that it’s a significant one.

(8) It is technologically backward, since it is not difficult, with decent modern air filtration, to make smoke virtually unnoticeable, and certainly harmless.

(9) It does not stop people smoking. Even if we find it appropriate in the first place to ban smoking in pubs in order to pressure people into quitting, it doesn’t work. In many countries smoking rates have risen since bans have been imposed.

(10) Finally, and most importantly, the government claims to be setting aside all these considerations in order to tackle a deadly health threat: 
‘secondhand smoke’. But there is no actual proof that even one person has died from this phantom menace. After 40 years of studies, antismokers can still only produce computer projections based on dubious statistics, and ‘relative risk ratios’ which sound scary but mean nothing in the real world. That’s why we see, for instance, posters telling us that tobacco smoke contains various nasty-sounding chemicals, without mentioning that they are present only at infinitesimal, harmless levels.

If we accept that such feeble evidence justifies a smoking ban, we are setting the level of acceptable risk so low as to justify banning just about everything else, too: cooking (which produces carcinogens), candles, incense, open fires, perfume, etc. Thousands of products, from household cleaners to cosmetics, contain higher levels of toxic chemicals than tobacco – and are still harmless.

Ultimately, the problem here goes way beyond ‘to smoke or not to smoke’. There is a worrying general trend towards more and more intrusive legislation, justified by more and more dishonest and misleading junk science and fearmongering. (Typical of this are recent claims that the continuation of a long-term decline in heart attacks is ‘caused by’ smoking bans, and the invention of a new threat, ‘thirdhand smoke,’ on the basis of no scientific evidence whatsoever).

What’s needed is not just the repeal of the smoking ban and other petty, oppressive laws, but a return to healthy scepticism, fairness, and common sense.

www.joejackson.com

I applaude you sir!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
love Vix x

This morning I realised I was about to run out of ciggies and as the local shop is miles away I decided to get the bus into town and get some at Sainsbury's...what I haden't realised was that today the gods were against me shopping!!
I have a terrible phobia of escalators which was brought on by that dumb escalator information film from the early 70's, so I got the lift up to the second level of the Grosvenor center via the New Look shop. My eye was caught by a huge display of bikini separetes and eagerly I stalked over to have a butchers, lead on by a huge pink sign announcing "20% OFF!!" ....Great!! I was thinking as I began to shuffle through the hangers to find styles I liked. As I ususally find, sizing is my problem, and most of the sizes were a tiny 8 and 10. However I am a 16 top and 14 bottom!! Everything was jumbled up and I would find a top in my size that I liked only to be dismayed when I found the matching bottoms were a size 10!! Time was getting on and my bus was due in a few moment so I hurridly decided to buy un-matched separets!! Afterall they are only for the spa. If I want to show off on a beach (not that I would) I would wear my Ed Hardy swimsuit. Anyway I came to the counter with 3 tops and two bottoms. To start with I nearly fainted at the price!! £58!!!!!! (what had happened to the 20% off) I asked the sales assistant if that was right and she said yes, pointing out that the sale things were not the designer items I had chosen!! "Well they were on the same rack!" I had exclaimed. Well I decided to keep my items but I was not happy about being charged the full price when a sign above the rack clearly said 20% OFF!!! I may not shop there again, methinks!!!
Later while hanging about in line for the bus, I had began to wish I had got a taxi back as the pungent smell of old people wafted in my direction!! I love old people as they have fascinating life stories to tell, but this bunch of four realy were NOT fragrent!! To top this the bus was late arriving, and then he parked in the wrong bay!!
On getting home I inspected my purchases and to my horror of horrors I found one of my black bikini bottoms was not a size 14..... it was a f**king SIZE 8!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.......Unbeknown to me, I had gone on the size it said on the plastic hanger and not thought to check the size in the garment itself!!! Crikey I have not been a size 8 since I was 25!!!! and would certainly not even get one bum cheek in the bloomin' things today!! Well I can't even be bothered taking them back, and besides, I am a dab hand with a sewing machine, so I will cut the tops of the legs and make ties for them.
In other news:
On Sunday me, Derek and Mum took a drive to our local garden centre and I was delighted to find two tea candle lantern holders on 4 foot poles, and these were in the sale!! They make a wonderful addition to my spa zone and look really pretty when lit!! I suppose they will look better when the nights get darker. Also I have decided to collect the Royal Dulton limited edition "Henry and six wives" set as an investment! My first piece which I sniped at 5 seconds is "Anne Boleyn" for a bargain price of £133!! (worth about £200 at auction) and she arrived today! I am delighted and the piece is exquisite! Now I have 6 pieces to go!! However, I am a wee bit worried about the cost as a Catherine of Aragon piece from the same set just sold for £350 on ebay!!!
Lastly, last night while I was listening to my ipod in the spa, I got an annoying voice on one track saying "this is an illegal download" over and over again, and I can't see how the heck I picked it up as I don't use illegal downloads! *scratches head* So I spent the morning, today, trying to trace this rouge file and I think I have now deleted the right one....as for tonight, well the usually bubble session and port at supper time!! :)

Another list!!

Just the current songs on my iPod in no order what so ever!! Some fairly new, some golden oldies to remind me I am 43 this year!! Ugh!!!
Not all the tracks I have will be listed here....just the ones I love the most!! ;)

Armin van Bruuen - Burned with Desire (Chillout mix)

A guy called Gerrald - Voodoo Ray

David Guetta - Delirious!

j-Lib - The Red (Instrumental)

SoHo - Hippy chick

Benny Benassi - Starship!

Dont stop beliving - Journey

Freemasons - Uninvited!

KLF - Last train to Transcentral

Marylin Manson - Beautiful People

Bronski Beat - Hit that perfect beat!

DJ Tiesto feat Tegan and Sara - Feel it in my bones

Scouting for Girls - This aint a love song

Seleena Gomez - Comes naturally

Sisters of Mercy - Temple of Love

Bow wow wow - I want candy

Agnes - Release me

Space Cowboy - Falling Down

David Guetta - Love takes over

KoXo - Step by step

Cicaine - Hiding all the stars

DJ Rui Da Silva feat Tietso - Touch me

N-joi - Anthem

Moby - Disco Lies

Prascilla Reena - Dollhouse!

Ce Ce Penistone - We got a love thang!

Bellamy Brothers - Its the reason

49ers - Come on and touch me

Jeff Lynne - Sooner or later

Kelis - Fireworks (4th July!)

Freemasons - Love on my mind

The Beloved - Kind of love that takes me higher!

Fleetwood mac - Abatros!

Def Lapperd - Animal

Mika - Love Today


Just a small selection of old and new that I like...may post some more soon, but I change the track listing so often its difficult to keep up with myself!! But at the moment I have an odd liking for DJ Tietso!! and the Freemasons (not just because I am one!) as well as other DJ type dance music! Trying to re-live my mis-spent yooff!! hehehehehe............