Introduction

Start with a confession we, the lady wife and myself, went to the Movies last night and saw Julie and Julia. I enjoyed it immensely, especially the performance of Ms. Streep who could make me believe in anything. So the sad thing is that it was Julie's Blog that inspired me to try again with this writing business. I plan to reflect the idiosyncrasies of life in both the United States and United Kingdom.

There will also be rants, things that make my blood boil and hopefully there will be a few laughs along the way. I will try to avoid cliche but will probably fail. when I do I hope the readership, if any, will point that out to me. So, here we go.

Sunday 9th August '09

Tonight's Network TV offered the finest possible example of the direction in which British Television is headed, by which I mean that US TV has already dumbed down to the point of no return. ABC offered us the return of "Millionaire" on which our merry band of contestants are offered not three but four lifelines! In spite of this apparently foolproof method of ensuring success, the first contestant needed a lifeline for the second question! Regis managed to make sure the format prevented the asking of questions as in the first ten minutes on air he managed only .....two questions! The last few minutes were given over to a popular singer being asked a single question for the charity of her choice. She too had more lifelines than a mountaineer and was informed that she had already secured $25,000 I guess because she managed to find the Studio. She wanted to phone a friend prior to being asked the question and it was explained to her that this was in relation to the question, she told us all that she knew this and was only joking. Yeah, Right!. The question was asked and ....yep, she phoned a friend who knew the answer!

This journey down the intellect was followed by the debut of a show of such incredible stupidity that it actually hurt my brain. Suffice it to say that it involves building a wall around a number of houses and cutting off the good folk who live there from the rest of idiotsville. The purpose is to vote off families until the most stupid remain and then give them $250,000 for their trouble. Thus a pleasant neighbourhood will be torn apart, never to return to normality. It is to be hoped that in addition to cutting off A/C and Electricity, they have also taken the precaution of removing all Firearms from the houses! Different network, same target of lowest common denominator!

The Golf was fun today, we got to see Tiger hit balls with various Clubs, When others were lining up shots or otherwise planning their next shot we were treated to Tiger :- Leaning on his Bag, taking off his Glove, Frowning, wiping his brow, walking, thankfully they avoided him visiting the trees for a call of nature. Meanwhile Nick Faldo (remember him golf fans? the guy who never signed autographs or spoke to anyone now reborn as the Peoples Friend) used his every opportunity to remind us of his career. Other better players never seem to feel the need to harp on about their past but good old Nick wants everyone to remember.

So my Sunday ends with me mad at stupidity sold as professionalism. Thank God it's nearly Monday and another hot day in the desert!