Big Brother Is Watching You

I expected to face some scrutiny upon returning to the UK and gaining any form of employment. However, what I have come up against during this last week has taken the biscuit. It has surpassed everything I thought possible when I consider security checking processes. It has made me question just how much Big Brother does watch us, and how much Big Brother would like to watch us if legally they could.

Basically the main issue I am facing is the fact I lived abroad for the last 3 years. Here in the UK it seems that the system, and those in control of it, won’t be happy with anything they can’t fully qualify or quantify. If they feel they are unable to track me from my first day living abroad to my last, they aren’t happy. They immediately feel suspicious that they are dealing with a criminal or a terrorist.

Now I have provided all the information required of me, everything necessary to prove I am not a criminal or a terrorist. This information is exhaustive, never ending and ever changing. I have forwarded references from the UK and abroad, proof of addresses for the last 5 years, photographic ID, passport number, National Insurance Number, my foreign residency details, my overseas police check, gone through the process of completing a UK police check, provided certificates and verifying emails, even 3 years bank statements with explanations of deposits and declaration documentation.

Yet, regardless of all this I still haven’t received an all clear that they have enough proof to state that I am who I am and that I am not a criminal or a terrorist.

What more can I do? What else can I produce? Perhaps they may wish to polygraph me or send me to a detention centre and beat the living daylights out of me until they are satisfied I’m not a threat to the UK!!!

I am a UK national too; born and bred in the UK! I have lived, worked, been educated and paid my dues to the UK, but the moment I decided to relocate because of better opportunities, and then I decided to return, it was as though that this act alone automatically made me a criminal.

I am angry beyond belief that these checks are so intrusive and demand such confidential information (bank account details for one). I have jumped over their every hurdle and still may not be cleared for work in my chosen field, which is at the moment within the financial sector. I have expressed my concerns, but to no avail. I have just had to smile and face the fact that this background checking company hold my entire life at their fingertips. I also have no real guarantees that the information I have provided will be secure and confidential; that I won’t have some disgruntled employee selling on all my confidential details to the highest bidder

This makes me wonder what will happen if I do fail!? I state now, there is NO reason for me to fail. I have given them every piece of evidence as required to prove that I am not a threat, not a criminal and not a terrorist – two police checks surely are sufficient enough for this?! Ironically, if I wanted to work with children and young people, I am now officially cleared to do so. I am fully security checked and Okayed; minus the confidential intrusion and masses of information required for a job with money!!! The welfare of people is obviously not as important as other people’s money!!

So, how much more can Big Brother demand of me before I scream and tell them to get lost and keep their job?! I’m not sure. All I know is that if I do fail the security checking processes it poses a massive question as to the success and validity of their actual processes, and also I am left wondering what unjust repercussions that black mark will have for my continued career? I am left wonder if the worst does come to the worst, not only will I be left without my promised job, but how will I then reverse that wrongly received condemnation and prove I am innocent and not a criminal or a terrorist?

This background checking company basically have my life in their hands, and hold my future too. If they condemn me how can I say they were wrong, how can I then prove I am innocent? Where would my authority come from to challenge them when it is their purpose to prove people’s innocence??

For me it makes me sick to think that one company has that much power over any one person’s life. They are after all fallible and can either way make mistakes. It proves to me that Big Brother does call the shots and that the little people, the decent, honest and hard-working will always come off the worst against such unstoppable and rubber stamped force.

This is how the innocent are treated, God help the guilty!

I can only sit and wait and hope that all of this ends, and that by tomorrow I receive my much deserved security clearance.

If not, I have a whole new fight on my hands, which will lead me into uncharted territories.

Once The Money Has Gone, Does The Love Run Out?

Yesterday I was talking to an old friend of mine, who was retelling how bad things have been recently for her. She has been somewhat distraught of late. Her financial situation has altered dramatically, causing her confusion and uncertainty, but the worst blow and most unexpected was the fact that the people she thought were her closet friends, weren’t.

Let me explain; my friend has always had money. She came from money and went on to have a good job, with money, and she had a good life, and a social life that comes with having such money. Now though, things aren’t what they were for my friend. In fact, her financial circumstances have been severely reduced, and now all she can share with her friends is friendship. 

Which is fine for me as her oldest friend, always has been. My old friend may have been wealthy, but that was not something I considered a relevant factor in our friendship. I always saw her as a kind, considerate and loving individual, who would help anyone and never think of being repaid for it. She is and always was a true friend. 

But, with her cash flow now disappeared, these ‘true friends’ have also. The ‘true friends’ who shared in her wealthy lifestyle, the ‘true friends’ who my oldest friend never before had to doubt or question, not until now. Now she can only give of herself and not of her wallet, these ‘true friends’ have gone. Her friendship was not what they wanted. 

So, the money has gone, and with it, for my friend, it seems that the love of friendship has gone also.

I therefore am left asking; is love, genuine love, so undervalued between people? Is all that glitters gold?

I am left wondering; is money the only thing worth sharing with others?

Money is the most materialistic base we can measure one another upon, I mean there are many others aren’t there, but money is for most people THE most important factor to measure people upon. Especially when it comes to relationships.

What do we value most in our relationships – is it what we do for others or what they do for us? How do we set up the parameters within our relationships – is it selfish or selfless? How do we decide what we will accept, demand, want, desire and need between ourselves – our expectations and no one else’s?

We all know the story, glamorous and beautiful young women dating a shrivelled up old man. The woman does this for LOVE?? Or does she do it because she likes the old man’s personality?? No, its for her DESIRE of that man. Or, is it merely for materialistic reasons, because that old man has MONEY?!

We sell ourself for cash everyday in every way, so why would selling love or friendship or interest or whatever else be any different, it isn’t. So, it isn’t a surprise to know there are people in the world who view money or materialism as the most important factor in their life. Although it is quite sad. 

Whether we are men & women, children & parents, families & friends, money or materialism makes our worlds rotate, balance evenly and keep afloat.

More specifically, relationships are bonds set up with or based upon what we can give to one another; incentives to make people love us, to please and appease.

Parents want their children to get good grades, succeed at football or play the flute, get good jobs and marry well. They are then proud to love their kids.

Children want a new bike, computer, iPhone, that holiday in Florida, their friends over for tea, the latest designer shoes. Then they tell you they love you. 

 

Partners want a bigger car, a house on a new estate, a holiday in the sun, they need promotions and relocations to here there and everywhere. Then they profess to love one another.

Friends want to go out, prosper, buy things they don’t need, drink, socialise have fun, forget themselves in some exotic far flung location and be young and fabulous on a beach with people they will never see again. Then they say they are friends. 

Relationships are materialistic in one way or another. 

 

So I suppose my main point, the point I have diverged a little from, is just this; can there be such a thing as unconditional love in these times of the mass materialism of relationships?

Is love, the real, undying, profound and all consuming variety a lie told to us as children, fresh from some fairy-tale or another?

I hope not, well, in fact I know it is not. I know love, and feel sorry for those who actually prefer materialism in its stead.  

Because, when the money or the materialism of relationships has gone, what else is left?? Maybe it is that dying concept formerly known as love!!! Yes, it is and who knew!!!! Without love the world is an empty place to be.

But, after all I have written here I won’t despair because of the lack of love in the world, and between people, well, not quite yet. I will keep hoping we don’t all become so mercenary that we choose to seek materialism over love. I will keep hoping we don’t become so blind and heartless that we close ourselves to the prospect of real love in all its forms. I will keep hoping we never forget that love is rarer and more precious than any booming bank account, any far flung holiday, any round of drinks in a posh hotel, any new car, any good grades, any fantastic job and wardrobe of designer clothes.  

I’m Not Made Of Money!

I’m not made of money, but I think I ought to be!

Now I am a Landlord it seems money is all anyone wants from me.

As you may recall, from previous posts, I have placed my prior home upon the rental market. The reason for this is because rental is the only valid choice open to me. I am no longer residing in the UK, therefore it was either rent the house or take my chances with the uncertain sales market. I couldn’t leave the house empty and languishing waiting for a buyer, running the risk of weather damage and worse occurring in my absence.  

Yet, I am discovering that property rental is not for the impoverished and humble individual, such as I am!

I am not a wealthy property developer who owns many houses that turn over great profits, I have one property and that used to be my home. I make no profit from the rental process, in fact, I lose money. Between the initial costs to begin the rental process, the Rental Agency fees, the fact I remain financially responsible for the property and even pay a portion of the mortgage (still), means that I have to find money every month just to have the ‘privilege’ to rent my own house out!   

Only today I was informed that I have to fork out another £250 for an Electrical Inspection. Now this inspection was not supposed to be obligatory I.E enforced by any written law, yet, this little loop hole is worded in such a way, it might as well be a written law. Without this inspection and a certificate to prove to the Rental Agency all is well with my home electrics, I won’t be able to rent my house out (what a surprise), the Local Authority can fine me (which they would as they are money making sharks), and my Landlord Insurance will be null and void (any excuse for an Insurance Company not to pay out on a claim)!

So, all in all it is fantastic news – yet again there is more money going out and no money coming in!

All of these little inconsequential loop holes mount up to become one large dent in my bank account balance. It therefore seems that to be a landlord, I do have to be a wealthy Donald Trump type property tycoon, as these little loop holes all cost money! They maybe in place to keep Landlords on a leash, to ensure that we are all reputable, abiding by the rules and of course protecting our tenants, yet it is landlords like me who suffer most from these loop holes. We who are scrupulous, we who abide by the rules and laws, we who don’t have massive property portfolios which turn over vast profits, we who don’t know how to dodge the rules and laws to line our own pockets suffer from the endless silly loop holes, because we haven’t the money to keep forking out to cover their requirements.

I am pretty angry about it all. Just because I am a Landlord doesn’t mean I am either rich or unscrupulous! 

Now I am wondering what will happen if my home electrics are found to be ‘unsafe’. Of course, there will be more money at stake. Not to mention the re-plastering and re-decoration costs also part and parcel of having to replace the electrics!!

What makes this worse and made me spit blood, was the fact that they also require me to pay for installation of fire alarms (connected to the mains). This is to protect the tenant;

I asked: ‘What is wrong with the two fire alarms I already have in place’?

Reply: ‘Oh, they aren’t good enough because they are battery operated’.

I said: ‘Erm, they still do the same job as a mains fitted alarm, they were fitted by the Fire Department’!

The reason for having these electrical alarms fitted, is basically as the tenant can’t be trusted to replace the batteries in the alarms we currently have fitted. OMG! What is this exactly, a baby sitting venture? Did the tenant forget their brain in the last property they resided in? Why can’t they take the responsibility on board to replace two measly batteries? I mean if they aren’t capable of that, then please God don’t rent them my home!!

Not to mention the fact that now I have signed the rental agreement with the agency, I have actually lost all my rights to state who and who doesn’t rent my property out. As long as a potential tenant passes the agencies vetting procedures (which are no doubt sub- standard anyway), then basically anyone can rent my home! I find this bizarre. Considering I am, and always will be financially and legally responsible for the house with or without a tenant in-situ, and the shit hits my fan and no one else’s if anything goes wrong, I find this stipulation in a legally binding contract as the biggest insult!

So I am left wondering what next? Or more specifically, what next must I pay for?

There has been; a Gas Inspection (not cheap), Landlord Insurance (not cheap), Boiler/heating Insurance (not cheap), PAT testing (not cheap), an Energy Certificate (not cheap), Rental Agency fees (not cheap), an Electrical Inspection (not cheap), tax and mortgage documentation to complete and organisation of the necessary paperwork (a complete nightmare), sale of my furniture (messing about), house clearance (stressful), house repairs (hours of life I won’t get back), and let us not forget the fact I am obligated to pay Council Tax (et al) whenever there is no tenant in the property (during void periods).

Money makes the world go round, yes, I know and therein lies the moral of the story 🙂  

Rant over!  

     

The Never Neverland

People and their possessions puzzle me.

As long as they have the flash car, phone, television, kitchen and so on and so on, all is well in their world.

It’s a competition; who can spend the most, who can fill their lives with endless empty vessels.

Yet, look a little closer and everything isn’t quite as rosy as it appears to be. All they have, isn’t even theirs. It’s all paid for by the never never. The credit card, loan and finance option, the Neverland for all goods bought and sold. 

People demand the ‘necessities’, which used to be called luxuries. Consumerism is now the prerequisite to the picture perfect life. They believe the latest products make life worth living. People eagerly buy into the product and the myth ‘you need this, and this will make your life great’.  

For me it is all show and no substance. Can happiness be found in buying the latest gadget or redecorating for the eight time in a year? I doubt it.

How can any object be worth more than what is going on in life, in relationships in the world? 

Why spend money you don’t have on things you really don’t need? How many washing machines can a person really use in one house?! 

Now I appreciate the finer things in life, but not if it means I am lumbered with debts I struggle to pay every month, just so my neighbours are green with envy. 

Maybe then, if we all stopped buying, and considered for a moment why we are buying, perhaps we might decide we don’t need to take another trip to the checkout. We might discover we can actually be happy, and, happy with what we already have! 

One pause for thought might convince us that saving our money doesn’t mean our lives will come to an end.

If we thought before we bought maybe we’d see how buying a 3D TV won’t make us better people or somehow more interesting. We might also consider the conundrum of a society that throws away so much just because it’s deemed unfashionable or technologically redundant, and therefore consuming just for the sake of it makes no logical sense. We might realise that the never never is economically foolish, and a sure way to make us more depressed than not having a new car or latest iPhone. 

Ummmmm, money in the bank or credit on a small plastic card. I know which I’d prefer, and it’s not the latter. Give me cold hard cash any day; it’s not out of sight out of mind like a charge on a credit card. With cash you can see your money, understand the real value of it and know that once you’ve spent it, it won’t grow back on trees! 

Not My Cup Of Tea

It was a friend of a friends Birthday, and I got invited out for afternoon tea, odd you might think, afternoon tea in Madrid, it’s hardly a place renowned for such little quirks, and you’d be right.

Besides the slim slices of cake and tea offered in a mug, with not even a little teapot to keep it company, it wasn’t exactly The Savoy! Yet, it was a nice change, meeting people over tea and cake rather than beer and tapas.

I must admit, I love alcohol and food. Its practically in my blood; my family are thorough bred foodies and of course I have a strong Irish connection to boot (bad combination)! The only problem is both of these fine things, food and alcohol, don’t necessarily like me very much.

A few years ago I decided to scrap my old ways, in short, junk food was banned and so to was the vodka (et al). This, actually helped me. Physically, mentally and emotionally I felt relieved, it was like a breath of fresh air! I hadn’t realised how good it could be to be free of the shackles of, for want of a better expression, bad living.

Now, I’m no paragon of virtue, I still like to eat burgers and love a good cake and still enjoy a tipple, but since moving to Madrid I’ve noticed how easy it has been for me to slip back into my bad habits. Temptation is everywhere.

In the UK, I would choose not to go to bars, clubs and restaurants. I would meet friends in my home or theirs, we’d go walking, meet for coffee, go to the movies, shop, visit the beach, museums, National Trust properties and so on and so on. I seemed to have the opportunity to do more than merely meet people and friends in bars and restaurants to then eat and drink.

I had friends who were my party pals, they only wanted to get drunk and eat too much junk, consequently we soon parted ways as I didn’t want that lifestyle any more. I’d lived that lifestyle for too long, and frankly I was bored of wasting my money and time on a useless pursuit of what always was unhappiness the day after (hangover, arguments, tired, sick and so on).

Now, you may think, what a boring mare – no, actually I’m not. I enjoy diversity, I enjoy not having to do what other people expect I should do, because they are happy doing it. Yet, here in Madrid, everyone meets for beers and tapas, even a day of pottery making ends up in one of thousands of different bars open until the small hours.

WHY???!!!!!!

I am once again being forced to apply the breaks on this ‘lets have a drink and lets eat all the fat infused food we can find’ ethos, and I’m discovering just how difficult it is to keep up with friends.

Not all of my friends, as some of them get where I’m coming from, but there are those who don’t.

I have friends who just because they are happy to while away their weekends over bottles of booze and then the bathroom sink, they think I should want this too. If I don’t, then the invites to do things just suddenly don’t arrive any more. 

They think, I’m sure, that I’m miserable or purposefully avoiding their company. Well, I’m not, I just can’t physically or mentally do this drinking fest every weekend or weekday. 

If I accepted every offer to go out during the week:

A) I’d be flat broke

B) I’d have an inflated liver the size to envy any poor force fed goose

C) I’d be thoroughly miserable

D) I’d be the size of the Titanic before it sunk.        

What is it about these points that people find so hard to grasp and take seriously?!

Also, my life here isn’t necessarily like their lives.

I don’t work full time, I have a boyfriend I enjoy spending time with (which usually consists of mainly weekends as he works so much), and I also have a life which still exists in the UK too. In fact, I have one foot here in Madrid and one in the UK.  I suppose, in a way, I have more responsibilities than they do too.

No, I’m not taking about kids, but about bills, mortgages, a career I’m once again trying to revive, I’m learning Spanish (still) and they’re fluent already, plus I didn’t move to Madrid to extend my student years (as some of my friends seem to have done).

I suppose I’ve lost the thread here, or the initial thread in any case. I begun with afternoon tea. Well, the people I had afternoon tea with are these friends I’m taking about, and they are somewhat one dimensional in their offer of friendship.

The reason is I’m the outsider. They are 3 friends who know each other through teaching together, and I came to know them through one of the Madrid meet-ups.

Don’t get me wrong, they are lovely in many ways; they are very complimentary, kind and I have fun with them, but, I notice too that they only talk and don’t really listen. I don’t like that, it really is a sign that people aren’t really friends. I don’t enjoy being ignored, or cut short or spoken over as though I’m not important, and they were doing that quite a bit. Of course, they also were eager to depart as they had a drinking fest planned – which of course, I hadn’t been told about or invited to. So, I know, well now know, from our last meeting, that I am an outsider to them. I don’t fit into their type of friendship. I can dip in and out of it, but because I’m not a party animal, I’m not really their cup of tea (well, we all like coffee from time to time don’t we).

So, have I told them any of this – no, I didn’t see the point in really going over the ground with them. I know I can’t sacrifice my lifestyle choices to meet their own, and I know they wouldn’t stop going out or drinking the volume of beer that they do for me. So, it is what it is.

I suppose I feel a bit peeved. I mean I have lost one friend over this already. I couldn’t afford to do what she wanted to do every other weekend. Yet again though, our ideals of friendship clashed. She was looking for more friendship than I could give. I couldn’t be there for her and her alone – I have a life when I don’t see her and I have to maintain that! So, I don’t see her any more and that actually upsets me.         

I think too, I have sacrificed what I really wanted – not having to get drunk and eat junk and be out till the small hours, just to gain friends. How pathetic is that?! I’m too old for that crap! Either people like me for me, or they don’t. If they like the fact I can drink them under the table and stay up all night dancing, then what type of friendship is that? Hardly a firm foundation for me to rely upon.

For me, friends are people you can share everything with. I don’t want a one sided party fest, I’m not 20 any more, I want something connected, deeper and diverse. I won’t settle for superficial.

In saying all this on Saturday I return to the UK again, and this time it will be for two months (a very long time for me). I will then see which friends are left standing when I’m not in the picture for this length of time, and which forget I even existed.

I think the way I have been feeling of late the change of scene will do me well, as I am getting a little narky here (I think this post reflects that well enough), I seem to get ‘itchy feet’ after a few months in one place! God knows how I’ll cope when I don’t have another country to escape to, and am stuck in one on a permanent basis! I always thought I had some gypsy blood in me somewhere!

 

Anyway thanks for reading my rant!! I appreciate it as always.

Hasta luego!!!

Breaking Bad Becomes Child’s Play

Breaking Bad ‘Lego’ set 🙂

What do thinking of these ‘Bricking Bad’ toys?

These ‘toys’ have been modelled upon the Breaking Bad series. Yes, the Crystal Meth lab, and all the characters of the series included; in fact, every last detail has been faithfully recreated in miniature LEGO format!

Crazy fun ‘eh?!

‘Bricking Bad’ was being marketed to the ‘LEGO’ company, but strangely they refused to see the the funny side of it all.

LEGO therefore turned down the opportunity, of what would no doubt have been lucrative sales, deeming association with such a ‘rip-off’ product as akin to sleeping with the devil.

The tweeters were twittering with indignation over the inappropriate nature of it all too (no doubt what eventually swayed LEGO’s final decision). All the social networking tribes set to work to shun ‘Bricking Bad’, before it could filter through to corrupt the young people of today!

I think this is totally off the mark, I mean what six year old’s toy box would be complete without such a unique item? How to cook Meth, isn’t it what every parent hopes their child will learn, and then recreate in their teen years! Don’t ridicule, it could be a good option in such an economic climate!

For me, I see this as an adult/collectors item, obviously! It was never likely to be marketed as anything more than a novelty item for a model shop, rather than a toy shop.

Yet, to be serious, with all the uproar this product has received you’d think the young of today led sheltered lives, instead of being the informed and savvy socialistas they really are.

Good God, they learn about sex from the ages of five now, so, Crystal Meth is far from off limits for topics of convo, surely!!!

Anyway, I’d have bought a ‘Bricking Bad’ set, I can definitely see the cheeky side of it! Can you?

Are You Being Served?

In the UK, probably like any other country, monetary transactions in a commercial shopping environment is marred by blatant rudeness. I hear people moan how the sales people in the UK just aren’t quite what they used to be; efficient, pleasant,  polite and helpful. Well, lets be honest they don’t all offer the same level of customer service as that provided in the U.S for example!!!

Yet, is this always the case? Are the sales people really the problem or is there more besides to consider?

Now I understand 1st hand what it is to be a sales person, having worked in retail during my time in college and university. I understand disaffection, dissatisfaction, resentment amongst staff, terrible working hours and wages. Many sales people who serve you in shops, supermarkets and take your telephone calls everyday, are also no doubt college students. Students feeling just as I did; bored and sick of inane complaints over inconsequential things (bad attitude right? Well that’s every college students prerogative)!

Although in mentioning a bad attitude, rudeness for the sake of it is NEVER excused. I was never a surly, lazy or nasty, that is not my style. Yet, this old adage too that “the customer is always right” is completely WRONG!!!

There are those customers who are the thoroughly horrible, nasty, rude, ill mannered, intimidating and threatening type. I know as I have experienced these people. There is something about ‘shops’ in general that induce customers to act in a way completely alien to their normal behavioural types. In fact if such behaviour transpired on public streets, they’d often be arrested for it! I mean what sane person, a grown man for example, is willing to threaten a 18yr old girl?? Only in a shop where the older man is a customer, and 18 year old is a sales person (me).

What right has any customer to call a sales person stupid, a bitch or threaten them with violence??? Is it just because the customer is annoyed with the shop, the products, or annoyed with their own lives and inadequacies? After all the sales person doesn’t own the shop, has no control on the stock and tries their best to do what they can for a customer, even a rude and nasty customer!

I mean even murderers have human rights so why doesn’t a sales person too???

What crime have they really committed except for working for a terrible company that won’t protect their own staff’s safety, by advocating a no tolerance of customer abuse and violence against them. Is it their fault they have ineffective and un-supportive managers, who allow customers to rule the roost?

All of this abuse happens more often than you’d even think too. I KNOW AS I’VE seen it all happening. Appalling,  yes it is as stores think this is OK – that their staff should be OK with this lack of support from people responsible for them, and take such abuse with a smile.

This barrage of name calling and so on can occur on a daily basis, and the customer is never ‘pulled up’ on it. Yet, if the staff say one thing deemed inappropriate, they can face discipline or even the sack. Isn’t it only fair; if you can give abuse you should expect to receive it in return, customer or not?

So, next time you are in a shop and the sale person is a little unhappy, not cheerful, and doesn’t have a fake smile plastered over their face, is a little short tempered or perhaps ill-mannered; give a thought as to why. Consider this  before you jump to conclusions, for vexing your ideals of perfect customer service.

Perhaps just before they served you they had been victims of verbal abuse, threatened with violence, not supported by their management. Perhaps they have been made to feel like garbage just because they are sales people and not Doctors or Lawyers somewhere.

Sales people are only people too; they have feelings, rights, families and aren’t there to be abused.

Think about it!

Bank Of Mum And Dad

Image by: cowanglobal.com

To include a suggestion made by PK Read at champagnewhisky.com, on the direction of my blog; I thought I’d begin this post by providing you an insight into what set this idea whirling around my mind in the first place.

When I was in college, and then university, I looked about myself and saw those students with the flash cars and the latest mobile phones. I wondered how they afforded such luxuries, until I learnt their secret.

These students had at their disposal their parent’s bank accounts; to pay their rent, buy their food and pay their bills as well as credit card bills too. I literally was aghast.

You see I didn’t have that, nor did I expect that. My parents ethos was work, and learn the meaning of money; it was a ‘you can’t get anything for nothing’ type of attitude. So, I worked and studied. I also learnt more than the lessons I attended taught me; life isn’t served up just to my specific taste at a click of my eager fingers. I learnt that what I wanted I had to work for, and to take responsibility for myself and my life.

Yet, so many ‘kids’ out there never learn this. In essence, they never grow up, they are the Peter Pan’s of society. Well, as far as facing the real world doldrums of paying your own way goes, and not to mention taking responsibility for yourself.

Also, I noticed these ‘kids’ attitudes towards material goods. How to have something which was worked for, was not valued and was seen as insignificant. The reason for this, well they had what they wanted when they wanted it, and didn’t need to value anything. So me driving my ‘vintage’ VW wasn’t to their discerning and expensive tastes; at least I owned my own car, and paid my own way. Something I’m certain they would have died of shock doing!

So, having left college, university and then beginning to working full time, I soon met other ‘kids’. These people although they worked, they were young enough to be in college or university – and yet, they still had this reliance on their Mum and Dad.

WHY??

Well, they claimed it was just too expensive to detach themselves from the proverbial apron strings; rent. mortgages, utility bills, food and so on, breaks their meagre bank. Their parent’s help supplement these poor strapped for cash individuals; who, let me add, were on good wages for singletons, with no kids and no house to run!!!!

In fact this still goes on now. I hear people I know comment on how their siblings or even their own children can’t afford to move out, to claim their own independence. Well, I have a different take on the reason they are still bleeding their families dry, and it goes like this…………………

People, young people, can’t afford to move out of their parent’s house, ummmm, probably because they prefer to squander all their wages on a ‘champagne lifestyle’.

These young people opt , instead of fledging the nest, to book their next expensive holiday on some sun kissed island, where the only prices that will bother them are those of the cocktails they purchase!

They say, ‘rent and mortgages are too expensive for me’ (in a whiny voice). Well yes, they can be, but so to can brand new cars, fake tans, hair extensions, jewellery, acrylic nails, nights out in clubs, new clothes, cigarettes, drugs and plastic surgery (yes, this too is on the menu)!

So, maybe the £500 plus a month wasted on their own lavishness, could indeed be spent on moving away from Mum and Dad, and paying for those oh so tiresome domestic bills, before they reach 40!

Or maybe those diamond encrusted iPhone cases are something they can’t live without, or maybe they can, if they had to. If they were given a theoretical kick up the bottom by the parents in question!

Now, I’m not suggesting young people don’t spend their money, I for one know I have spent, or squandered,  a fair share of my own; but then I did move out in my 20’s! I know of people who are in their 30’s and still wasting their money on booze and Ibiza boat trips, and they have the cheek to moan about being strapped for cash!

When will they learn that money, some money, is better in the bank than in a beer bottle?

Money savvy counts. I feel now, more than ever, this is going amiss in the world. Everyone tends to forget about it or doesn’t value what they have. They are under the false illusion that money is another ‘never ending resource’ like coal or gas, and even if they run out of it, Mum and Dad will provide what they need.

Money it seems does in fact grow on trees now, well I never!!!

Money is no longer worked for, accrued  earned, gained. Money is given gratis, courtesy of the Mum and Dad’s across the world, to the children that cling ever longer to their coat tails.

These young people now get fed the milk and honey of a never ending stream of money.

When will the hand outs stop? How old must these ‘kids’ become??

I understand love, care, concern and support – but when does this just become a bad joke? How can anyone differentiate between this, and being used and abused by the very individuals they gave life to?

When is the line crossed?  When will enough, be enough?

When do parents reclaim their own lives and say, that is it, no more?

Is It Fair?????

What else meant to help the public can be eradicated by the UK coalition Government??

What more can the economic strife demand??

Council Tax Benefit might be a THING OF THE PAST very soon. Everyone will HAVE TO contribute something towards their own Council Tax, EVEN those on the lowest of incomes or on benefits. So, regardless of circumstances, ANYONE living in any housing within the UK will be paying something. The ONLY EXEMPTION to remain in place will be for the elderly (pensioners).

COUNCIL TAX (for those of you lucky enough not it know) is a:

Tax levied on households by local authorities; based on the estimated value of the property and the number of people living in it.

Is this lift on council tax benefit fair when some people clearly won’t be able to pay ANYTHING towards such a tax?

What will be the point in the Government ENFORCING such rules, if people can’t pay the tax?

What resources will be WASTED trying to ensure these people comply and do pay up?

Take a look at the link below from The Guardian newspaper for some more info.

UK Council Benefit Cuts

Is This A Joke?

WTF???!!!

Is this above Tom Ford advert sexy? Would it seduce you into purchasing the item being sold, which is if you haven’t figured it out a men’s cologne? Is the advert for real or maybe it is a joke? If it is a joke who is the one being laughed at?

I wonder has advertising finally scraped the bottle of the barrel, is this as low, literally, as it can go?

I don’t see the need to advertise anything in this vile and crude fashion. Can’t advertising sell anything unless overt sexual connotations are attached? If they can’t, then maybe what is being marketed isn’t worth buying!

I know this advert is aimed at men and no doubt made to shock, stand out and insight arousal; but I just don’t get it! I know people will no doubt say; ‘sex sells so how can you be shocked or upset by this image in today’s society?’ Well, why shouldn’t we be? Why should it be OK to advertise in this way? Why do I have to be ‘cool’ with seeing woman portrayed as nothing more than their breasts and vagina?!

Yes, we have seen these lady parts before, yes as women we all have these parts, but my God I don’t want to see these parts large as life everywhere and all the time? It doesn’t turn me on, it doesn’t appeal to me.

A woman’s perfume would never be marketed this way; IE, a man in such poses. So, what does that say about how a woman is perceived in marketing?

Objectification of women as sex objects, women made into an ‘it’ or is this a damn good marketing technique to appeal to men?????? You better decide, as I for one am at a loss with this.