Andy Ramblings

This is by far the best ever Christmas song, a nice big fight, drunkness and a great ending, but no knowing of what is happens next.

I'll get back to blogging soon, just have been very busy and lots of things on my mind, and being rather unwell for most of November.

So says the headline. This is Alcohol Concern's attempt to try and stop the problem with underage drinking.

Parents who give alcohol to children aged under 15 should be prosecuted, a charity has said.

The call comes in an Alcohol Concern report on the government's Alcohol Harm Reduction Strategy.

The study highlights figures that suggest a large increase in the amount of alcohol drunk by 11 to 13-year-olds.

Alcohol Concern also wants a 16% rise in alcohol taxes, a ban on brewers selling to retailers at a loss, and a crackdown on under-age alcohol sales.

'Stronger message'

The charity would include meal times at home in the ban on giving alcohol to young people.

Frank Soodeen, a campaigns officer for Alcohol Concern, said: "We are facing a new social reality where children seem to be adopting older behaviour at a younger age.

Source

What get's me is this? Why this obsession with sending people to jail for silly things, considering that drinking a glass of wine (or two) diluted with water for young children,

The problem with drink in the UK is that it's acceptable to get drunk, it's acceptable that you black out, it's acceptable that you throw your guts up, it's also quite acceptable to have a massive hangover the next day.
Personally, when I was growing up, you were shunned if you did any of the above, you were giggled at the next day, it was sort of a dis-honour so to speak to loose control of yourself.

So, that's the route of the problem, it's a cultural problem, it's an educational problem and where should you have the best education? yes, At home!

So they say, so when you see a tramp with his placard saying something like, need money for food, you kinda know that this isn't totally true, as you get a good wiff of the boozer 100m before you get close to them, so when one is honest, you, you know, feel more tempted to help, even if you know in your heart of hearts that this isn't going to help them. You also know that well, at least he is honest. So, would you give for an honest tramp? Vino?

Not being a fan of Tagging and have normally ignored many, but as it's Christmas The New Year and as it was Davide Simonetti's  Birthday, I thought well  Ok, this once, I'll do it. They will be brief as I'm not at home, am in Brussels and may have a few beers as I type....

"What are the seven best things you did this past year?"

Well, 7 of the best things? Not too hard then.. Here goes.

1: Finally getting of the steroids that I've been on for the past 29 years,  They were beginning to cause, well, not beginning, they had been for a few years, causing a lot of havoc with everything else but what they were been taken for. Good riddance to them!

2: Very recently, seeing England loose the Ashes so spectacularly that it but a full stop on all this cricket stuff  and that the English team of 2005 didn't actually win because they played well, but that they had had a pact with the weather.

3: Seeing Bush loose power in such a democratic way! Now too see him go back to his old job of Village idiot, hopefully he will bring along his pet dog with him.

4: Building up new commercial websites, and well, this is still ongoing, but hopefully to make something more with it.

[After a pause of a few days Internet techie problem, parties and evenings out]

5:Seeing Bush get a serious bashing in the US Mid-terms, Not that I think that much is going to change, at least it' gotten rid of that smog look of his face, oh and a certain Rummy has gone. Hoping to see him ride into the sunset with his poodle and a huge boot out the backside.

6: Seeing Blair the Magnificent start his slow, ( wish it was faster) decline, and seeing him dig his political grave live on TV. I don't think many people believe a word he says any more. Just wish the guy would not keep trying to save himself, but his party.

7: Well, it has been a long year, many events have happened, many people have gone, so good riddance, some, well you would have liked them to have stayed a little longer, but you know in yourself, that time moves on, and we are all left with the good memories of those. For me, as this is about me, I'm glad to have to have made it to the end of this year in one piece. Ok, I have plenty of spare parts, but that's different.

So now to tag a few other people to see what they have to say about their 2006 seven best moments, So, in no particular order.
Keith, Zoe at MBIAT,Karelian Blonde, Guyana Gyal, Anna at That's the way life is, and anyone who would like to share

So reader(s) as 2006 comes to a close, how was it for you? I hope that you like the new theme, it's still being worked on, but I'm sure you will agree with me, that it is a lot faster.
Happy New year, Bonne année, ? ????? ?????, Feliz Año Nuevo, Gelukkig Nieuw Jaar, Nuovo anno felice Lyckligt nytt år and for everyone have a great Hogmanay!! Drink lots and be safe.( I can't vouch for the correctness of the translations)

As quite a few of you may know, the education system in the UK isn't the best in the world. You can basically get through all the way till your 16 and get your GCSC, and not have the ability to Read, Write or do your Arithmetic (yep that's the 3 R's!). This is becoming rather worrisome for the people responsible for educating the country. What do they do instead, they go and do some research on where the problem could show it's self up. Yep, they found that it can show it's self up in the karaoke bars!

So, if you're one of those souls who goes to the Karaoke bars and can't read the prompts, it could be that you can't read?!

The lyrics of the 10 most popular karaoke songs have been assessed and rated by government literacy experts.

Those tackling Robbie Williams' Angels needed the reading skills required to pass five good GCSEs (Level 2).

Experts from the Get On literacy campaign said 17.8 million adults would not be able to follow the song.

Ok, Angels (Lyrics here) is a hard song to get right, I don't mean in the lyrics area, but in getting it to sound right. Most folk who do tend to 'try' and sing it tend to have had a few pints to many? Or did these experts test the folks make sure they didn't have a drop to drink or a splif to smoke?
Some other notable songs that suffer the same fate are:

• Gloria Gaynor: I will survive
• Queen: Don't Stop Me Now
• The Commitments: Mustang Sally
• Grease: Summer nights
• Elvis Presley: Suspicious Minds
• Abba: Dancing Queen (not only is that hard, but like Angels, hard to get right!)

So, as the report says, get yer readin' up ta scratch before ya embarrass yerself on the Karaoke!
I'm not saying that you would ever, ever find me on a Karaoke Stage, Drunk or Sober! This was just a comment on that BBC news report...

More info on English GSCS here.

Well this game it's a bit old, as it was out at the last elections in the US. But considering we are now heading for the mid-term, It's still very relivant. He's still a bleeding fool and still needs help with everything.