Tuesday – blue bird day, 55F. Must be a blue bird day, Wendy’s skiing.
Wot no Tweenies. Why is it so quiet? Why is it so tidy? Why is it 08:00 and not 06:00?
Oh that’s it Jaspers and the kids have gone home. Missing him already. And his parents too.
Lazy start to the day to allow the snow to soften up. No car, so it’s back to the bus. It really is a great service.
Get a few easy runs in and then stop for coffee at the Mid Mountain lodge. Snow is getting very slushy.
Up McKonkeys and the snow at the top is so much better. A few more runs and then we stop for lunch at the Snow Hut, my favourite watering hole. Resist the temptation to break the 2nd Commandment, so no beer.
Then we take the long Home Run back down.
Wendy’s skiing seems to have really improved. I think she’s been having secret lessons. Parallel turns are coming together nicely. Impressed.
Home for afternoon tea and Carol picks up cot, baby gates, toys, baby seat and bedding she has kindly lent us. Really helped for baby Jasper – thanks to Hal and Carol.
Well I can understand why kids aren’t allowed smartphones in school. Kurt and Fiona used to just sit there engrossed in their iPhone, not a peep out of them. Mind you after Tweenies playing Angry Birds must seem like the equivalent of Quantum Physics.
Thought for the day:
Now here’s a thought to bear in mind, from a prominent leader of the religion of peace:
“Radical Islam is a creation of people who do not believe in Islam. We don’t have radical Islam, we don’t have moderates, we don’t have extremists. Islam is one religion following the Koran and the Sunna”.
Wednesday – grey and some snow.
We’re getting plenty of birds now on our bird feeder. Each morning we get a Northern Flicker Woodpecker. Much more stimulating than the 
Tweenies.
Wendy’s volunteering at the hospital this afternoon.
Real lazy start to the day to allow the snow to soften up and hopefully take advantage of some new snow.
It’s still a tad icy from yesterdays melting, but at least it’s snowing and as a result there’s hardly anybody skiing. Have a few runs and then a coffee to give the snow chance to come down and improve the skiing. Sadly there’s only about an inch so it’s still like a skating rink on some of the 
runs. A couple more runs and I chicken out and call it a day. Silver Queen, normally a double blue, has the distinction of being a 40 degree gradient ice rink – what joy. Need to stop halfway down to sharpen my edges.
Software Normal All F..ked Up – SNAFU Of The Day
Starbucks – try to register my Star Rewards from packets of coffee. Doesn’t work, goes round in every decreasing circles. Why am I green card when I log in? I thought I was Gold card. In fact iPhone app says I’m gold. Why does it have to be so complicated? Time to ring them.
“Ah there’s a problem with logging stars on the web site”, she says. Of course “they’re working 
n it!” She logs them for me. It appears that I’m a green card in the UK but Gold in the US. Something about needing a US address. Despite the fact that my app is in $. So much for being a Worldwide Company. She says “yes it’s confusing isn’t it”. It seems to me you need to have an advance degree in stupidity to comprehend it all. Ask her if Starbucks values and goals are “We have always believed Starbucks can – and should — have a positive impact on the communities we serve. One person, one cup and one neighborhood at a time.”, perhaps they could start paying some tax in the UK. It’s lost on her.
Thursday – snowy and cold day.
Ski in the morning. It’s snowing thank Chione, after yesterday we really need it.
By lunch time I’m cream crackered but am volunteering at the NAC. With a 10 year old in a mono-ski. It’s just pouring down with snow but this youngster just keeps going for it down First Time. We have to chase after him. He has amazing balance and can ski down on his mono-ski in a bucket seat with no poles. Now wonder they call this the National ABILITY Centre. We get 9” of much needed snow.
SNAFU of the Day
Tried to get an online pension estimate. Yes, I know it’s hard to believe that I get my state pension next year! The government site supposedly has one User ID and Password for ALL their services. Tried my Tax Id and Password. Not recognised. Tried my County Court access. Failed. Am I surprised. Try to set up a new one. Wants my National Insurance Number, Post code and Telephone to allocate me a Government site User ID. Doesn’t work. Told to contact the Help desk- now theirs an oxymoron if ever there was one. Speak to the usual un-empowered, jobs worth. Give them same info. They can’t answer why others don’t work but say they’ll clear my access so that I can try again. Still doesn’t work.
Ask the obvious question “Why do I need another unique ID when I already have one? It’s
called a National Insurance number”. If I want to complain I’ll have to write in. A sure fired way to stop complaints. Even if you bother to complain you just know it’s a complete waste of time.
Another example of the complete lack of thought or common sense. I bet an IT guy was involved in the need for yet another number. For Chione’s sake let’s think about the poor customer who pays your wages. He’s already got enough log ons, ID and passwords to fill 10 A4 notepads. Don’t they realise I can’t even remember what I had for breakfast. Where’s the retribution against such rank stupidity?
Unbelievable. Well no, I suppose sadly it’s just typical.
Members of Newbury’s Muslim community have been left upset and angry by West Berkshire Council’s decision to allow a new supermarket to sell alcohol next door to Newbury Mosque, Pound Street. In January, the council’s licensing sub-committee granted the new Southern Co-operative store, due to open in the summer, a licence to serve alcohol. A small petition with just 58 signatures objected to the move.
While the Bangladesh Welfare Centre had no problems with the store being built, it ludicrously claimed that the sale of alcohol next to a place of worship would increase crime, antisocial behaviour and racial hatred. Of course no evidence was submitted and it is pretty clear that supermarkets are hardly crime hotspots for antisocial behaviour and racial hatred.
If anything trying to impose islamic laws on local non islamic communities is doing more to contribute to racial hatred than anything that could result from a Coop having a drinks section.
The council said “It was not as if it was a licence for a pub where people could sit and drink next to the mosque, that would be different.”
Why would a pub be different? This is England and not yet under the barbaric control of sharia law. If the 58 signatures don’t like it then there’s an alternative – go live in a muslim country.
Friday – blue bird day.
The consequences of this Supreme Court ruling cannot be overstated. Never mind the strictures of Parliament or Strasbourg, the court is saying that time-honoured common law has long suggested the existence of a public right to access information about actions performed in its name. The authorities may seek to limit our knowledge of what they do and why they do it — but in doing so they emphatically do not have the law on their side. Thus what appeared to be a triumph for the forces of opacity turned out actually to be a victory for transparency.
