Take That to my blog!

A bit of a light hearted entry today.

I used to be a secret Take That fan basically because I was too old to be a real Take That fan and it was not trendy then to be taken seriously. I don't know if it's trendy now and don't care but the good news is;
SINGLE NUMBER TWO IS NUMBER ONE!

Could it be magic? Ahhh I love the puns and I could let them roll of my tongue for hours if I had the energy but alas I have an MRI tomorrow and a six hour drive just to have the thing done. Again I know that I can have the MRI done at a more local Palace of the NHS but I prefer to travel on the government roads to nowhere.

Let it Shine! AHA Well done Take That and well done on your come back you clever boys.

Angelina another Mia Farrow?

According to reports, Angelina Jolie is about to adopt yet another child. This time it is a 3-4 year old Vietnamese boy she has already located.

So my topic and gripe is not only celebrity adoptions but people who think it is right to take children from their own countries and cultures and drop them in the middle of their (normally wealthy) families. Asian/ Afro -Carribean children will look different(obviously!) if adopted by white families and feel different no matter how many times they are told they are part of that family.

There are children in our countries desperate for homes. They also come in all shapes and sizes! (Please excuse me there but if you want to be trendy you can). There are so many needy kids who are crying out for love and it grates on me when I see these celebs swanning around and saying "It's OK".

IT IS NOT OK.

While I am certain the children are given love and every need is catered for which would not happen in their own country; why can't the people who have money, plough finances into the angencies that support children in their own countries? Surely this would be better?
Madonna's recent aquisition for instance is a good example here and I use my words wisely because that is how I see it. Little David's father still went to see him at the orphanage at every opportunity but now has no chance. He may think of his son being educated at a nice school etc but he must have loved his son to had made that journey to see him regularly. I hear Madonna supports agencies in David's home country and good for her.......I guess it is more Angelina Jolie who gets me more angry as she seem to think children are like a box of chocolates; she can have a child from every nationality!

Killer Weather

I have many friends Stateside and so when I turned on the TV half an hour ago to this 20 minutes ago to this news it stunned and terrified me. I knew of one friend who was completely snowed in and most of that area had been declared a 'state of emergency'.

But tragically the weather has taken even more of a turn in the US states of Alabama, Missouri and Georgia where At least 11 people have been killed after a series of tornadoes hit overnight.
President Bush has offered federal help to the affected areas.

Five people died when a school building was torn open by the twister in the southern Alabama town of Enterprise. The state's Emergency Management Agency said earlier that 17 people had died in Enterprise. But it later lowered the state death toll to seven, blaming initial miscommunication among officials.

At least three people died during storms in Georgia - two in Americus, when the Sumter Regional Hospital was hit by an apparent tornado.

Another tornado killed a girl in a mobile home in the Missouri town of Caulfield, officials said.
Alabama Governor Bob Riley, who sent 100 National Guard troops to Enterprise, said rescue workers has been moving debris to search for survivors at the school.

Television news footage showed helicopters landing near the wreckage.
The shredded building was surrounded by broken trees and overturned cars.
Emergency officials told local television that at least one teacher was among those killed at the school.

CNN quoted an eyewitness as saying he carried the bodies of two young girls out of the building.
Thursday's storms came just a month after a tornado killed about 20 people in central Florida.

My thoughts and prayers go out to all Americans who are having to face this devastating force of nature. Weather plays terrible tricks on us and there is absolutely nothing we can do.

Dirty petrol?

There's a probe into contaminated petrol (gasoline) brought from the Morrison and Tesco Supermarket petrol stations after complaints that it has caused damage to sensors in some car fuel systems. The effect is to cut power to prevent damage to the engine this in turn puts the car into 'Limp home' mode which my little car has and I know too well as I have had a damaged sensor which caused my car to go into limp home mode! Effective yes, Frustrating too and costly to repair if not insured or under warranty.

When I say some cars, it rather strangely is the more select cars ie Mercedes, Saab etc and the more elite cars within the middle of the range car sector?
Now there could be some truth in this story but so far tests have revealed NO irregularities.

Motorists in the south-east of England have been warned Today to be wary of engine problems after filling up their tanks. Those who's cars have been affected have been told by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, to keep their petrol receipts who also said: "Our advice is that motorists should keep all fuel receipts and note the mileage for each purchase.”
The SMMT advised drivers whose cars appeared to be affected to contact their car dealer or their car manufacturer’s customer service department for technical advice, and the Trading Standards Office for legal advice.

At least Tescos and Morrisons have held up their hands and said their have been some complaints (about 100). No other Supermarkets as of yet have said there is a problem with their fuel so it could be a small issue contained to a small amount of petrol stations? Lets hope so.

I have a diesel engine and we go to Sainsburys (thankfully) but as a total coincidence, we have had to have our sensor monitor replaced on a recall because my car went into limp home mode constantly from NEW. That had nothing to do with what we put into it.

I am concerned however that some people will catch on to this as a money making scheme and pretend that their issues with their cars are caused by 'contaminated petrol' and look for a quick buck?

The question is; are the extra additives which are put in be the supermarket own stations causing the problem? The fuel is much the same as what is supplied to other companies but this is a story that has legs.

Vitamins bad for your health?

Or a biased study?...........




A yahoo report today;http://uk.news.yahoo.com/28022007/140/vitamin-pills-increase-risk-death.html states that rather than helping increase your life expectancy, taking Vitamins A and E increases your risk of death! I've put a comment at the end of this article.


Millions use antioxidants Beta carotene and Vitamins A and E across the globe and it
has previously been alleged they helped protect against heart disease and cancer.

Scientists in Denmark, now say that antioxidants "significantly increase mortality". BUT critics said the finding was based largely on studies of people who were already chronically ill before they were treated with supplements!

The study related only to synthetic supplements and not to fruits and vegetables, which are natural and contain less concentrated levels of antioxidants.

Researchers did not pinpoint any biochemical mechanism that may be behind the increased death risk. But it may be that "by eliminating free radicals from our organism, we interfere with some essential defensive mechanisms," the study concluded.

The report stated that those taking Beta carotene and Vitamins A and E had a 5% higher death risk than those not using them.

It also found no evidence that Vitamin C increases longevity. Although Selenium tended to reduce mortality, more research is needed on that topic.

Speaking as someone who takes vitamins (not A or E but C), I'm always interested in these sorts of articles but this one has been taken out of context and reported correctly but incorectly, if you see what I mean? The results are absolute and truthful however this report needs to be added to many others before a declaration is made about the vitamins concerned.

1-66, so what is the question?

A) The speed my first ever car would travel in approximately 3o minutes? (Not 10 seconds like most modern cars!)..... ....Ah and there is my first car.

B) The numbers of the houses in my street?

C) The odds you could get on Helen Mirren walking away with the OSCAR for best actress for playing Queen Elizabeth II ........... No, that is Helen Mirren playing Betty I, I said Queen Elizabeth II! ....That's better.

The answer is A............No, it is actually A and C to be honest with you but A is only correct if you are going downhill. Yes one bookmaker is giving the staggering odds of 1-66 whereas others are being more cautious with 1-14. Dame Judy Dench has decided not to even turn up to this year's event and instead is staying at home while recovering from a knee op. Don't blame her to be honest. I feel rather sorry for Kate Winslet though, if only it was any other year then maybe she may have been more lucky? maybe there should be a catagory in the oscars for those who have multiple nominations and never seem to be the cats that get the cream? Penelope Cruz and Meryl Streep are also in the same catagory but lets be fair, Meryl has lots of awards, as does Judy and Penelope is a stunning woman and can afford to wait a while longer for an oscar and personally I don't like her as an actress anyway. There are better acresses in the supporting role for instance Jennifer Hudson who I've liked since American Idol days (Does it show I'm a big Idol fan?)

I am not going to be blogging with the results as the come up as I really cannot be bothered to stay up till the early hours, but if the bothersome mouse makes an appearance in my house then I may be up and about. We shall see.

Good luck to KATE and JENNIFER.

http://www.oscars.org/

Deadly trip

Yesterday evening 84 year old Margaret Masson from Glasgow died and eight others were seriously injured when several carriages were left on their sides after the Virgin London to Glasgow service derailed at Grayrigg, near Kendal in Cumbria UK.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_pictures/6392181.stm

The link is for the story in pictures which were taken this morning at the remote site which could only be reached by a single track road. Obviously that made things much harder for the rescue services who struggled to get to the passengers - But DID!

The focus at the moment is on the points but as of yet there is no definative reason as to why the Pendolino type of train derailed. It was travelling at 95mph and is capable of travelling at 125mph and is one of those 'tilting' trains which makes journeys more comfortable normally and in fact Virgin who run this service have an excellent safety record.

My thoughts go out to those affected by this however, a heart-rendering concern which happened over on the other side of the world was the funeral for the twenty-three unidentified people who lost their lives in the Indian train fire caused by a bomb last Sunday. The reasons were quite simply because the bodies were beginning to decompose and if families come forward and can prove identification via DNA at a later date, the bodies can be exhumed and re-buried. Both Islamic and Hindu religious verses were recited during the sombre ceremony in the village of Mehrana in Haryana.

68 people died in total last Sunday. I wish them well as they leave this life and head onto the next.