Paris

Off to strike Paris (no pun intended) at noon; back on Tuesday. It's All Saints Day after all, and the Frenchies take their holidays religiously serious. Sunday and Monday we'll spend at friends' in Neuilly-sur-Seine.

Boris vs Cameron

A political row has broken out today over the government's plan to limit future weekly housing benefits for people on welfare to £400 ($630). Now anyone in the rest of the world could hardly fathom that local governments would throw that kind of money at people who do not work, do not pay taxes and cannot afford living so extravagantly to begin with. Not surprisingly I support Boris Johnson in principle; but I also deem the repercussions of the government's plan as not severe enough to shelve it altogether. The fact remains: if you are living on government hand-outs, it is not unfairly harsh to expect such dwellers to see cheaper accommodations.

The government has decided that routine cases, where families receive up to £700 a week just to be able to live in London, is unsustainable in the current economic climate.

So far so good. Today the Mayor of London, who is involved in a bid for re-election in 2012, took up the issue and clearly embarked on a confrontational course with the prime minister. The row came as MPs debated planned changes to housing benefit, announced in last week's Spending Review, which it is estimated will affect about 17,000 people in London if introduced in full.

Tate Modern

Even though I got a ticket for £6.25 (half price) I still purchased a 12-months membership for £52.00. It's amazing what the museum offers, and I will make it a regular stop from now on. The Gauguin exhibition is just awesome. Probably we'll be here another hour, then hit the book/gift store before heading home.

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AOL / FACEBOOK Splinters

The common maternal ANGLOCHAT-ter spends each day on average 03:42 hours on Skype, 07:33 hours on AOL and 09:23 hours on Facebook & FarmVille, often simultaneous. Add the 09:21 hours for sleeping and boozing, and you come up to the balance of time spent each day for the offsprings or - imagine that! - with honest work: none at all, unless cutting the grass or spraying the fields with manure on the cyber farm allows to rock or shake the toddlers on their lap. Sometimes with deadly consequences, as seen with derelict AOL members: whether it's a New Jersey based Abortion Anne, a Long Island brandi-ed cow, a Vegas slut, a psychotic Alabama Carrie or a suburbian Chicago psychopath, a white supremacist tramp from Florida turned fugitive in NE-England, or a tattooed German heffer in Cornwall; they all have in common child abuse and neglect in order to entertain themselves online.

One particularly appalling case is that of former AOL member A. Tobias.

The 22 year old mother from Jacksonville, FL, plead guilty to second degree murder in the death of her 3 month old son Dylan Lee. She claimed that she was so angry and agitated because her child was crying while she was playing on Facebook's FarmVille on her computer.

According to Tobias, she shook her baby while angry, then smoked a cigarette to calm herself down before shaking him again. The baby hit his head on the computer while she was shaking him, causing severe trauma and other injuries.

Internet addiction is a very real crisis as we know from Anglo-ers, and games such as FarmVille are designed to be addictive in order to get players to spend real life money on them. Unfortunately, sad incidents come out of addictions quite frequently and it is people like Tobias, Brenda, Vickie, Carrie, Anne, Nicola, Kendra etc. who give Facebook games a bad reputation and negative stigma.

Alexandra Tobias will be sentenced after her confession next month, and at this point could be looking at 25 years to life in prison.

Hush now, gotta CONCENTRATE on harvesting those crops. Can't have a crying baby disrupt that.

AOL Splinters

A friend of mine passed through a low-income residential area of Nassau Co. in New York recently, and made out a pale behemoth among the crowd of dark-skinned juveniles, either chaotically running across lawns or Jay-walking through the crime-infested neighbourhood, stolen TV sets and audio equipment clutched firmly under their arms. With wailing sirens from approaching patrol cars in the distance, the white colossus stood stoically - presumably accustomed to the chaos, and posed for the stranger, brandi-shing the best smile she is capable of:

The modest 2 1/2 bedroom dwelling at the 1200 block of Jacob Drive in Seaford (NY 11783) is a far cry from what the address plaque of AOL member Brandish620 may suggest. The "12-17" refers to the size of the ass of the Colossus of Rogues, not the spanning outlays of her suburban shed. The most valuable artefact that the passing photographer could make out was a semi-torn Piñata, from which a Tasmanian Devil called Amanda has hetched in 2000. [The runt is in the picture, but obscured underneath the Rokoko outfit] The 1940s Cuban style robe on the blood clot font Queen of Sagginess only accentuates the humongous size of Nassau County's oldest landmark. Little surprise that, to complete the class act, Brenda wears flip-flops with the purple evening robe.
(Report filed by the NY correspondent of LCE)

Current Music (Spotify enhanced): LADY GAGA - (Show Me Your) Teeth

Mayor Success

Wheeling success of Mayor Johnson

The bicycle hire scheme, dubbed 'Boris Bikes' after London's Mayor, has proved a resounding success - on October 8 the millionth journey was made, just two months since its launch. Of the tens of thousands of bikes for hire only five have disappeared (in three cases the villains have been found and put to good community tasks).

More than 90,000 people, including me and Emily, are now signed up as members and the scheme is due to be opened up to casual users later this year. In the meantime, anyone who has a debit or credit card with a UK billing address can sign up.


People who sign up for 24-hour, seven-day or annual membership can choose to auto-renew, which means they can start a new hire period whenever they want, by simply inserting their cycle hire key into a docking point and taking a bike.

Of the 92,000 people who have signed up for membership, 42% have opted for daily access (£1 for 24 hours), four per cent for weekly access (£5) and 54% for annual membership (£45). At the moment there are nearly 200 docking stations throughout central London. I will be back on the bike as soon as warm weather hits or my cast comes off; whatever happens last...

... and off she went, sitting in the Eurostar to Gare du Nord, and texting like mad. LOL

Should be an entertaining afternoon today. It is well known that in professional football, I support the 49ers; always have (when they were lousy in the late 70s, and when they captured numerous Super Bowls in the 80s), and always will (even though they have been the most awful team for the past 6 years). BUT!! They are coming to see us today, cheerleaders included, and the Mayor and Staff will welcome them to City Hall shortly after 4. And when the pompoms are lowered, maybe this tall guy becomes visible standing next to the Mayor.

The 49ers play Denver on Sunday at Wembley Stadium (the game has been sold out for 5 months). Last weekend the lame broncos were thrashed by the Raiders; maybe a good omen for things to come...

Weekend Extension

After sleeping through much of Sunday (well, not me, but her), as we returned home from various gigs and clubs only after 7AM, we decided to recoup partly the lost hours. I took this afternoon off, and she re-booked her departure for tomorrow. Another dinner gained (as last night's bash in Camden did take place).

I got a ticket through the office for the spectacular Gauguin exhibition at the Tate Modern, half price. If the weather is nice (like today) I might even stroll directly from the office. Friday is another half-day, as I board the Eurostar bound for what has become the twin city for me; the City of Lights. Amazingly, it will be this year's 10th visit already to the city by the Seine, and it hasn't lost one iota of its seductive appeal on me.

Tonight we'll be at Trader Vic's; my home from home. LOL

London Weekend

The weekend starts today, precisely at 2:30PM when Mrs E arrives at St Pancras ("International", as it likes to be called) to be treated by Mr E to a flute of bubblies at Europe's longest champagne bar.

It promises to be great fun even with the arm in a sling: the Bloomsbury Festival returns after a three-year hiatus, with more than 100 events for art lovers, music fans, shop-aholics, literature buffs, etc. Taking place across the area, the programme includes a lantern-lit procession (tonight 6-8pm), dance snippets by The Place all around the festival site (Sat, Sun), music in the area's parks and gardens (Sat, Sun), a tour of the secret spaces in Charles Holden's Art Deco Senate House (Sat 10.30am), a South Asian festival (a MUST!) with a food market, henna hand painting, dance and music at SOAS, and a street party on Lamb's Conduit St with music, entertainment and food (Sun 4-9pm). There are also open days at local museums including the Dickens Museum, Foundling Museum and Cartoon Museum.

Two dinners, a brunch party on Sunday and nocturnal pleasures complement the exhilerating joys outdoors until Monday morning. It's good to live in London.

A Security 'Warning' From - chuckle - Moscow!

Of all places, a Moskovite felt the need to warn the Olympic Committee not to award the 2018 Soccer World Cup to England, "due to the high crime rate and the culture of public binge drinking there." This despite the fact that based on these two criteria Moscow would be ruled out for the next 300 years: deaths from excessive alcohol consumption - Moscovites drink vodka like Brits jug down cider - are 1,300 per cent more than in London, and the number of murders is six-fold that of London (2009 figures).

The leader of Russia's 2018 World Cup bid today had to apologise for making slurs against London after a personal intervention by Mayor Boris Johnson. Alexei Sorokin, chief executive of the Russian campaign team, was forced on the defensive after he said London was plagued with record levels of crime and youth binge-drinking. His humiliating U-turn came after aides of the London Mayor this morning contacted Sorokin's office to demand an explanation for the outburst.

Mayor Johnson immediately refuted the claims, writing on Twitter: "Can't believe Russian slurs over 2018 bid. Pls tell them crime is down & London's the most tolerant city in the world."

A spokesman for Sorokin said the comments reported in the Russian paper Sport Express were "mistranslated" and taken out of context. The spokesman said: "Mr Sorokin regrets if his statements have led to such an erroneous interpretation and understanding."

Sport Express initially reported Sorokin as saying: "We do not enter into squabbles, although we have much to say. It's no secret, for example, that in London they have the highest crime rate compared with other European cities [FALSE], and the highest level of alcohol consumption among young people [not per capita].”

Sorokin's comments could land him in trouble with FIFA, whose strict rules prohibit comments about rival bidders.

Guernsey Inbreeding

A good friend of mine has recently relocated to Singapore from California. Seen the best of two worlds, Wendy enjoys her new life to the fullest. Yesterday she published in her website the tax table of Singapore, which shows income of less than SGD320,000 p.a. (= USD 246,000; GBP156,000; SFR 236,000) at a tax rate of 17% tops (up to 40,000 the rate is 8.5%).

In response I wrote to her:

LOL... I have known the tax table for years, and wouldn't mind to object myself to such taxation again. Again, because I did enjoy the tax rate in Guernsey of 10 per cent on my income there.

However, to be fair, Singapore operates as an independent city state, while Guernsey is a parasital inbreeding entity within the UK. While Singapore contributes to the economies of neighbouring states, Guernsey is a basket case that costs British taxpayers £190 million a year to sustain.

The pride of locals: typical dwellings scattered around Guernsey

The cosmopolitan, modern flair of Singapore is in stark contrast to the barren, desolate, delapitated and barren rock called Guernsey. Considering the poverty and desolation that exists on Guernsey, the navel-gazing pride of the inbred islanders is grotesque and bizarre. I always called Guernsey the Alcatraz of Europe.

More 'bendies' replaced

One of the most annoying forms of mass transportation in London is the "Bendy-Bus."

The Mayor pledged to get rid of the monsters by the time of re-election. Route 149 is the fourth line to see the 'bendies' withdrawn, and the plan is to have all replaced with double-decker buses by November 2011.

The bendies are only popular with chavvy fare evaders, usually on lines serving the London ghettos. Once you board a bendy you are being thrown around while the bus is in motion, so poorly is the bus built (Made in Britain). To phase out the dangerous creatures will save the City nearly £2 million a year. These monstrous vehicles also have become a grave danger to roller-bladers (...), cyclists and pedestrians, either by snapping around the victims or hitting people with the swerving rear end in a fashion similar to a body check from ice-hockey cracks.

It is also estimated that moving from having bendy buses with open boarding to double-deck buses will save £550,000 a year from fare evasion on the busy route. The Mayor addressed the slum rodents that make it into the City: "The fare evaders who duck and dive their way around these hulking great monsters without fear of having to put their hand in their pocket are finding that on our replacement double-deck buses there is nowhere to hide."

Boris Johnson added: "These monoliths of the road were never appropriate for the narrow streets of London and I'm delighted we've now sent over 100 of them packing."

Good riddance, bravo BJ!

On the mend

The intense pain has gone, but with an arm in a cast and some numbness in my right leg I can't say things are back to normal yet. I will be back at work tomorrow, having the luxury of a project- and result-oriented employer which allows for choosing the work hours and total hours in the office.

That means I am not taking off for SA as planned tomorrow. BA showed flexibility in re-scheduling the flight now for December 21st free of charge; had they not done so I would have shown even greater flexibility in switching to South African Airways (something I will seriously consider in the future). I mean, this is my third trip to SA this year alone, and if BA had insisted to be anal retentive about re-booking I would have told several people that also fly routinely this long haul, to leave BA for good and cut up their Frequent Flier membership (on my card are 142,000 bonus miles, for example).

Typing is a bit cumbersome these days, using only the right hand (the left is good for nothing except to press the key to switch to upper case. Four more weeks of operating under diminished capability. The culprit of the Sunday crash has been charged by the Met police, just a prelude to what I intend to do: sue the hell out of the fucker.

Current Music (Spotify enhanced): Najoua Belyzel – L'âme Exilée

Blasted

I don't know what's worse: being condemned to stationary idledom, sweetened by my never failing new Kindle, or the pain whenever I make an effort to 'jump' - OK, it's more like a slide - out of bed. Alone I couldn't manage, but the helping hands actually add a degree of pleasure in this miserable position. For instance, months of training her how to cook pay off royally.

When I went out on Sunday I followed a familiar path that I have enjoyed in London for so long now. At 7 in the morning the Capital is still asleep, and barely traffic as I criss-cross the Royal Borough from The Churchill Arms south on Kensington Church St, turning left at the T-intersection into Hyde Park Gate, turning right into Palace Gate and proceeding south on Gloucester Rd. Often, like on Sunday, I meet up with 2 friends on Wetherby Gardens, and continue south to the Chelsea Embankment through little tranquil residential streets. We became aware of the commotion at 76 Gledhow Gardens, with several fire trucks, ambulance and police cars attending to a victim lying on the sidewalk. Only hours later, when I found myself in the same hospital as that victim, did we learn that the sister of the singer Mika has fallen from the 4th floor of her home, landing on the fence in front and impaled on 3 spikes.

My mishap ended relatively less dramatic. Going full speed on rollerblades we tried to cross the Battersea Bridge along the Embankment when a car driver attempted the totally illegal maneuvre to back onto our path to make a U-turn! Frank and Miriam managed to swerve around the car into the road. I was not so fortunate and hit the car at the rear fender and became airborne. I crashed against the wall that stood between me and a 30ft fall to the bed of River Thames. The impact broke my left arm, as well as bruised ribs and legs and a concussion. Bless my helmet... By 8:30 I was in the emergency room.

It looks like I will miss work for the whole week and - much more regrettable - I will not leave for South Africa on Sunday. The haggling with British Airways for a refund has begun...

Accident

Had a crash this morning, with broken arm, lacerations and bruises; oh, and certainly planning to sue the fucking idiot. Anyway, 3-4 days off work as a result, and in some need of a nurse. And that's been taken care of too.

Birmingham Conference & I / 3

A terrific Party Conference concluded today with a fitting speech from PM David Cameron. Free of unrealistic promises we have become so accustomed to from the past 13 years of Labour conferences, the PM outlined somberly the consequences of the need to undo catastrophic damage on the British economy and society during the premierships of a Brown & Blair.

The final day also saw William Hague speak about UK foreign policy, maintaining the global role of Great Britain and accentuating the distance between the elected British Government and the incoherently imposed Brussels regime. No more rights will be transferred from London to the EU, and past transfers could be become subject to reversals after referenda in the future. British sovereignty will be enshrined in UK Law and a referendum lock introduced.

It must send shockwaves throughout the EU that the people will decide on the future course of our EU policies, not boiler room hagglings in the corridors of Brussels. Imagine that: the people decide!

Defence Secretary Dr Liam Fox lambasted Labour for the inheritence it has bequeathed him at the MoD, virtually undermining British ability to defend herself, and for leaving behind a vast hole of £38 billion as a result of a spending spree that was unprecedented in the history of this country by the sheer size of wasted taxpayers'  funds, the miniscule value for money spent and the brazeness with which Labour governments have squandered public funds for Labour projects. Most importantly, Liam Fox reiterated that the Trident nuclear submarines will be replaced, the British nuclear deterrent to stay. This comes as a great relief and reassurance to this Blog.

Dealing with the greates challenges at hand in 50 years, the Party Conference has successfully provided for a realistic snapshot of the dire state of the country, put forward a strategy to roll back deficits and to focus on changes back to old values in society: no family on welfare should earn more than working families, housing allowances and child support cut or reduced, and has intruduced new incentives for creating and expanding small businesses. Prisoners ought to work 40 hours a week, illegal immigrants deported swiftly, legal immigration curtailed, parasital families forced to abandon high priced areas such as London by sharply reducing housing allowances, more and better teachers to change an education system that was completely mismanaged under Labour, and to force increased bank lending to small and medium business in Britain.

I walked away from this conference in awe over the substance of themes and policies put forward, and of the absence of the irrational exhuberance one could witness in the past 13 years at Labour conferences.

The Conference prepares the nation for the publishing of the stark figures of the prolonged Labour assault on Britain in the past 13 years: October 20th, when Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne will present the COMPREHENSIVE SPENDING REVIEW.

Birmingham Conference & I / 2

Boris Johnson brought down the house, and the delegates to their feet with a thundering broadside at unions trying to cripple London today with a wildcat Tube strike, holding working Londoners hostage. Alternate ridicule and sarcasm applied, the Mayor captured the audience with a speech peppered with wit and humour.

(Click "Read More" for transcript of speech "Keep the UK Motor Going")

Then came George Osborne, who ripped apart Labour's 13-year legacy of record debt, reckless spending of money borrowed from future generations, incompetence and indiscipline. We all know that Labour brought Britain to the brink, faced with a national downgrade - the first in Britain's history - and a daily(!) debt interest payment burden of £120 million on average; that's £1 Billion in interests every 9 days. That does not even reduce the overall debt yet. The financial effect of Labour on Britain is worse than WW2 had!

The Chancellor praised the courage and foresight of PM Cameron to depart from past government forming and to invite the LibDems to govern Britain in a coalition. Osborne's praise also included the leadership of the LibDems.



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Birmingham Conference & I

Conservative Party Conference 2010 -
Events planner for: La Chateau Euro
Sunday 3 October

18.00 ConservativeHome and the Canary Wharf Group
The ICC : Hall 1   -   Rally For Boris
Speakers : Boris Johnson, Mayor of London

Refreshments available
19.30 CER, BNE & Open Europe
The ICC : Hall 8A  -  Is The Channel Wider Than The Atlantic?

Speakers : Gideon Rachman, Chief Foreign Affairs Columnist - Financial Times (Chair); Carl Bildt, Swedish Foreign Minister; John Bruton, Former Irish Prime Minister; Vicky Ford MEP, Member, East of England - European Parliament; Daniel Hannan MEP, Member, South East Region - European Parliament
Refreshments available
19.30 Social Market Foundation 
Hyatt Regency : Soprano  -  Whose recovery is it anyway? Public vs private sector jobs

Speakers : Ian Mulheirn, Director - Social Market Foundation (Chair); Rt Hon Danny Alexander MP, Chief Secretary to the Treasury; Oliver Letwin MP, Minister of State, Cabinet Office; Brendan Barber, General Secretary - TUC
Refreshments available

21.30 European Commission Rep in the UK
The ICC : Hall 7  -  European Commission in the UK - Reception
Speakers : Jonathan Scheele, Head of Representation - European Commission Rep in the UK
Refreshments available

William Hague raps Labour record

In a rousing speech to the opening session of the Conservative Conference in Birmingham, the Foreign Secretary and First Secretary of State tore into the Blair/Brown administrations and their legacy of economic incompetence, Whitehall chaos, and nationwide demoralisation.


William Hague: "New Labour Is Dead" (Watch and read the speech):

Brummi

Off to Birmingham shortly, as part of a group of 16 delegates from London.

The highlight of the 4-day event is this evening at six: Boris Johnson speaks to us in Hall 1 at the ICC.

Books Re-Kindled

Hooray for Amazon!

Just before I left for Brussels I ordered my Kindle + nifty burgundy coloured protective cover. Just after my Saturday routine - lecturing and diagnosing some dimwits on AOL's Anglochat forum - I received the items by special delivery. At £198.00 it is 60% more expensive than in the US, but so worth it. Up to 3,500 books to download, and to be read anywhere, anytime; even on freshly polished and painted parkbenches. LOL

I am besides myself, digging my virtual heels into my latest gadget, which I will surely show off in the coming days in Brummi-Town. Why? Because I can!