Britain at its best!!!!!!...hummmm? and a lovely Hollywood Moment

Well the staff of central trains are full of the Christmas spirit!...... Not!!!!! Just heard that 230£ for one days work is not enough for most of the Rail staff on duty for Christmas Eve, they are striking for more money> Can you believe that? As a bloody hard working nurse on ITU I would love to get 230 quid for my twelve hour shift on Sunday!! What are they doing? clipping a few tickets? This happened last year and the striking rail staff held their managers ( and more importantly the poor passengers) to ransom, and won!. Poor Nige is travelling from Sheffield to Blackpool on Christmas Eve, and his whole plans have been kiboshed!. Coupled with this extreme selfishness of the rail staff, misery from fog bound airports and packed roads, will upset and ruin Christmas for so many people this year. Britain better get its finger out, or else we will be the laughing stock of all Olympic citys, when the world focuses its gaze on London and its transport in 2012.

On a happier note it's the final of Strictly Come dancing tomorrow! Will it be Mark Ramprakash and the lovely Karen Hardy (she has become an articulate and very watchable personality in her own right) or underdog Matt Dawson and Lilia Kopilova. Who knows...how the British public will vote but watching the Argentine tango last Saturday the winner should be Mark. It makes a change watching people doing something that requires great skill on tv

Took the dogs out at four, and noticed that Mrs Dunnington ( she of the big swept up hair and bad tempered labrador) was standing next to the village hall. She was listening to a few of the choir members practicing. The men were singing "Over the rainbow" of all things, and for a few magical minutes we both listened in the dark and the cold. All very Hollywood! it was lovely.

Just read Nige's blog, I like his comments and writing ! my blog resembles a teenage diary in comparason<>Here is a summary of dog life at the cottage

The dogs are now functioning more fully as members of the six-mammal team that occupies their cottage. I usually prefer Male dogs to bitches, but here I actually prefer Meg, the female Welsh terrier, to the male (Finlay), although she is still animated with adolescent, mischievous behaviour. Scots terrier Maddie, in contrast, astutely observes everything and, like a career diplomatic, seems to calculate with precision both when to hide and when to emerge in order to obtain a quiet advantage over her more hedonistic peers.