Lloyds TSB Bank... A rant.

I pay you £17 a month for a platinum account, you raise the interest rate on my credit card, you raise the minimum monthly payment amount, you are bailed out buy the tax payer for god knows how much, and now I get an additional get honour of a monthly £5 Overdraft Useage Charge.

I know it's not going to you're branch staff, i've just read they're being told not to expect a pay rise this year.

So Thanks....you money grabbing p****s!

Home Alone - Whoo Hoo!!

My wife's gone out for the day so it's just me and the cats, which conveniently gives me control of the remote control on a day where there is an abundance of live sport on tv! Having a bit of a pyjama day and don't plan on doing much except sitting on the sofa and watching sport, I may move for food!

I actually went to the football last night, Leicester City V Bristol City. I've supported Leicester for over 30 years, both my parents were season ticket holders and I was so young when I first went that I can't actually remember who the opponents were. You can go onto pretty much any football message board and find threads where people discuss their first game, I have no idea what mine was but it was sometime in the early to mid 70's. I had a season ticket until 5 or 6 years ago, but we moved to a new purpose built ground and with the a decline in the teams performance, it just seemed to be missing something that used to be there for me. Along with my best friend losing interest, I just gave it up. It was hard at first knowing they were playing and I wasn't there but I moved on. My Mum still subscribes to Sky Sport, she still loves football and understands all the rules, even the offside rule. My Dad passed away 11 years ago but the love of the game and the memories of going with him are very special to me.

I only go to three or maybe four games a season these days, usually when there is some kind of offer on, a ticket for a standard home game starts around £27-30, which when you filter in parking or train fare a bite to eat and a drink, it's nearing £50, with no real guarantee of being entertained. I was debating going last night all week as it was £20 for a ticket and a pie and a pint. It was just the Friday night kick off putting me off. Leicester Tigers are playing Rugby at home today and as the grounds are about 1/2 mile away from each other, it would be a nightmare if they both played on the same day.

I went last night as a freind at work has season tickets but her husband, who drives for a living, was stuck on the M40 which had been closed following a accident. It wasn't the greatest game but we won with a injury time goal so the majority of people there went home happy and it was a good way to start the weekend.

Reading Matter.

I've found i've got a real thing for Scandanavian crime fiction. I think it started with the Stieg Larsson Millenium trilogy, which I actually loved. I've moved from Sweden to Norway and am now pretty much reading Jo Nesbo's entire collection back to back. I originally picked up a copy of The Snowman as I was in Waterstones one day and they had his book on offer near the checkout with a "The next Steig Larsson" sticker on the front cover. I must admit that was what first drew me to the book. Anyway I bought it and read it in a matter of days.

I've read, The Redbreast, The Devil Star, The Leopard, i'm currently reading The Redeemer and have already got Nemesis lined up when that is finished. On the back of his recent success his publishers seem to have re-published his entire back catalogue. One annoying thing is the have plastered the "Next Stieg Larsson" thing across the cover of them all. I know they are aiming to sell books and it worked with me think they are actually doing Jo Nesbo a disservice. He's a very good writer in his own right.

Sport and London 2012

I like sport, I'm sat here just watching Arsenal fight back from a goal down against Barcelona, the Olympics are coming to London next year and along with about 2 million other UK/EU residents have registered for tickets, which applications open for next month. I know its the biggest show on earth and this will be the only chance in my lifetime to see it in the UK and I'm usually glued to the TV coverage (when I'm allowed control of the remote) when it comes around every four years but I'm just not sure I want to go. There's a number of reasons and its probably a combination of all those below.....

1. I like Olympic sport but I'm really a big football (or Soccer if you must!) fan. I view Olympics football as a bit second rate. 2012 is also the year of the European Championships so Europe's top players won't be at the Olympics. The Olympics is not the pinnacle for Football or Tennis as it is for a large number of other sports. I'm not sure I'm that interested in the other sports which leads into....

2. Ticket Prices - The cheapest seats start at £20, for the heats/preliminary matches etc. They are the cheap seats though the higher priced tickets are just out of mine and I suppose a lot of ordinary Briton's price range (up to £725 for the major athletics finals). I've no doubt the higher priced tickets will be sold for the finals etc, but mainly to overseas visitors on packages or corporate entertainment.

3. Ticket Allocation - My plan would be for me and my wife to go down for an entire day, Athletics session in the morning (2 x £20), and then two sessions of Boxing/Basketball/Hockey/Swimming/Diving etc in the afternoon and evening (4 x £20). I'm  budgeting £120-£160 for tickets. Problem is the application for tickets starts on 1st March and closes mid April. You have to give them a VISA card where they take payment sometime in May/June. You actually get notified of what tickets you have been allocated at the end of June. Any over subscribed tickets are allocated on a lottery basis. We don't live in London, it's not so much the expense of getting there, a free London travel card is included with all tickets for the day concerned. Its just the hassle. I only want to go for one day and do as much as possible but I'd primarily be going for the athletics. They've not released and details of how many tickets there are in each price range. Nightmare scenario would be to get allocated tickets for the afternoon/evening events and miss out on the Athletics. I'm not sure I'd want to go. The £120-160 was money we had earmarked towards a week away in Scotland later this year, we're not sure about committing that much money on what could be a  lottery. Every message board you look on people are saying the tickets are too expensive, I have a feeling that demand for the cheap tickets may well exceed supply especially in the Athletics. I only want to apply for three sessions as there are no refunds and there's the possibility of having to pay for all tickets you apply for and ending up with tickets you don't really want and are unable to get rid of.

4. My wife isn't too keen. I spoke to her on the phone the other day and asked of she wanted to go to the Olympics, she was really keen....then she saw the schedule and ticket prices.....she had second thoughts.

5. The economy, I think my job is pretty secure, I've been with my present company for 13 years, and we've just had a good year, the second half of last years bonus, which we receive in a couple of months, would be paying for the tickets. Inflation is rising and they say interest rates will have to eventually as well. Our fixed rate deal ended a couple of years ago and we reverted onto a lower standard variable rate but that's not going to last for ever.

So here we go..

I've actually no idea if anyone is going to read this or not, either way it's not really important. I think its going to be good for me.

A bit about me, I live with my wife and our menagerie of pets, more about them later, in the East Midlands, in case anyone does ever read this and is not familiar with the UK geography its a area roughly around 100 miles or so north of London. Probably the most famous city you'd recognise is Nottingham, Robin Hood and all that.

Today is Valentines day and more importantly well for me anyway is that it is 5 years since me and my wife had our first proper date. How romantic you may think....hmmmm..... we went to the Football/Soccer..In all fairness it was her idea. My now father in law and her had season tickets and she persuaded him to give his up so we could go. So what are we up to on this night, well she's at a slimming class and i'm here half watching some Richard Gere film where his love interest has a terminal illness..

For years I was single and hated Valentines for being single, my wife didn't want to make a big deal of it, she hates the commercialisation of the whole thing, so no meal out, no special dinner, no flowers, no chocolates, no cuddly toys.....Nothing.... I'm in a relationship with a woman who hates Valentines Day!