Barbie voices an opinion

I don't do political or social statements often but there's one current news subject that I have a very strong opinion on so I just can't not give it a mention.

RBS are still insisting that they will be giving their staff bonuses even though the general public seem to be against it and the government (who bolstered the company with £20billion of taxpayers money) are also against it.

I'm not one to usually agree with the government about much but in this case I really can't believe that performance related pay bonuses could or should still be paid if the company in question has done so badly it needed to be bailed out! I know many staff members from within RBS have stated that they need the bonuses to supplement their income and that its only 10/20/30% of their annual wage but I still have no sympathy (its not as if the average staff member of RBS is that badly paid). I have worked for companies that have had similar bonus systems and if they didn't have a good financial year we got no bonus. That's how these things are supposed to work people!

One of the most recent excuses I have read on the subject is that the bank needs to pay the bonuses in order to keep the best staff in their business. With unemployment figures rapidly rising I hardly think the staff will be jumping ship with ideas of getting another job very quickly. Maybe the government should insist that if bonuses are paid the bailout is immediately due to be paid back?

That my view anyway. I don't care who agrees or disagrees. I am currently an RBS customer but I'm rapidly considering moving bank, especially if this goes though. Maybe its only this kind quiet defiance that will wake them up... loosing a lot of customers?

Too old for your tastes?

Whilst travelling into work every day on the bus its normal to hear the strains of music seeping from various MP3 players. Normally the worst offenders seem to be those listening to dance music (probably because of the tone and pitch of the music (and possibly because I don't really complain when someone's listening to something I like!)) I noticed the other day however that one of the annoying bleepy tracks was coming from a guy who was a bit older which just seemed plain wrong. I don't know what I thought happened to dance music fans when they got older but the idea of a 40+ year old listening to it just seems a bit odd. This notion is music genre biased however as I regularly see ageing rock music fans and think nothing of it.

So...
The big question is... Is this

More acceptable than this?

Memories? Noooo

I'm not certain but I think I might have slept through some large chunks of my life so far.... I'm coming to this conclusion because I got sucked into a couple of groups on Facebook that were full of people I went to school with. Apparently. Admittedly there were quite a few who were older/younger than me but plenty of people from my year as well and you know I don't remember any of them! A couple of the names ring a tiny bell but nothing more, even the photos give me no clues. I know I skipped a lot of my high school life (mainly by just not turning up in the first place) but I didn't think it was that bad!

Oh well. Don't suppose I missed much :)

And I still don't act my age...

I'm one of these awful people unfortunately born in January...worse than that, the first week in January (I blame my parents!) anyway this usually means that people have little cash so nights out tend to be a fairly small affair. I arrived at work to find my office decorated with banners and balloons, and my desk littered with 30 shaped sparkles...
As it was my big 30 I managed to convince the 30club that karaoke was a good idea. It took a short look on the net to find a pub in Edinburgh that had a night, so we headed out. Among the gifts I got from workmates were "props" to help my night...

An inflatable guitar and sparkly microphone....

and Dave the balloon (this was tied to my wrist and seemed to have a mind of its own so needed a name as reasoning for it battering anyone standing near me)

As we were leaving straight from work we decided that food would be a good idea, so we stopped at a Wetherspoons for a curry (except Louise who had the very delicate chips and gravy) Two bottle of wine later we thought we should head to the right pub for the karaoke only to spot a large sign in the window advertising it not to start for another 2 hours. Most the group had already said they were only staying until about 8:30 so we diverted to a different pub to wait it out. By the time the Karaoke started only 3 of us were hardy enough to last but we carried on regardless. Surprisingly there was quite a crowd for the night including a group of builders from Birmingham who sneakily bought us a round of cocktails at the end of the night even though we said no! (they asked the barman to just repeat our last order)

It was a great night, lots of chatting to random folk who came over to wish me happy birthday and even a few compliments on my singing voice :)

I'm out with BMan and Gurn tonight so this may be a post continued....

Resolutions? ....Shmeh

I don't do New Year resolutions. I figure that you never stick to them and then just feel bad about it come the end of the year. I have decided to make a couple of changes though, the timing is just a coincidence...

1. Stop wearing clothes that are too big for me
Its a bad habit that comes with low self confidence - trying to hide myself behind big clothes in a useless effort to look smaller. It doesn't work, it just makes me look bigger (and therefore worse) so the spring clean is going to involve any clothes I own over my actual size (except the expensive ones that I will alter) going in a big bag to the charity shop.

2. Be better at doing my "chores"
B-Man puts up with my messy kitchen and piles of washing up, but I think he really shouldn't have to so I'm making a concerted effort to be tidier. I'm also a bit slow at getting stuff (it took me at least 4 months to order some hoover bags!) so I plan to try harder at that too!

Twisted Barbie becomes a sop

I usually have a pretty tough exterior that only the chosen few really get past, but today I'm worried that I'm... becoming...a soppy woman! I am making desserts for family meals over the festive period, which take some time and effort but are the best contribution I can make (if I say so myself I'm pretty good with sweet stuff) I had some extra time to wait for things to cool and chill etc so I lumped down in front of the TV. Finding nothing much on I turned on a modern adaptation of A Christmas Carol (I can be a sucker for classic adaptations) Being totally honest it was pretty good, even with a made for TV cast of ex-soap stars, and I actually found myself shedding a tear at the end. Oh dear! last year I cried at Peter Pan! Its a downhill slope I tell ya!

Free manners anyone?

I don't like to come across all proper and old-lady-like but I do have a liking for good manners. I was always taught the "basics" like please and thankyou, not talking with my mouth full, and keeping my mouth shut whilst eating. Don't get me wrong I'm no proper lady - in fact lots of people will say I'm a little rough around the edges :)

It does seem that these are a long forgotten trait though, even old ladies no longer say thankyou if you give up your seat or hold a door open. The prompt for this rant was my journey home today where a young family, mother and two kids of about 9ish got on my bus and sat in the seats directly behind me. The mother then handed out a packet of crisps and the kids munched in. Not unusual, but it was the actions from there...all three of them then proceeded to enjoy their crisps, carrying on their conversation during mouthfuls so it sounded like this...

smack munch nom (mouths open like a guppy gasping for air)
"whaasa?"
munch nom munch
"eh?"
nom munch
"whaasa?"
munch nom nom
"eh?"
munch & swallow
"whats that?
each sentence took about a minute because none of them could understand the other with their mouths full.

I know I can be a little sensitive about eating noises, so the whole thing may have been impacted by the female child leaning on the back of my chair whilst crunching but I was pleased when I got to my stop!
I'll give them some credit though as they made a big point of putting their empty packets in a bag...but thats for another days rant