The Guardian is full of crap!

Yeesh! I just got back from reading The Guardian (specifically, the `Comment is Free` section). I gotta say: I never saw so much crud  – with the exception of the Daily Mail, which I`ll be getting round to in due course -  in a newspaper that tries to pass itself off as being `serious` (whatever that means!)

Some of you out there may have heard about the Swiss couple who were subjected to a pretty bad slagging off in The Maldives (under the auspices of it being a reaffirmation of their wedding vows). As the ceremony was being conducted in the local language, the couple in question did not know what was being said. Rather than burden you with the details, have a look at this:

Not very nice things to say at what should have been a solemn occasion. Over at The Guardian, some chump called William Sutcliffe has written an article which more or less justifies the actions of the malevolent Maldivians.

I decided to bung in my opinions as I just could not comprehend how an idiot like Sutcliffe could come up with such shit; – there is no way the couple deserved that kind of abuse. It seems that Sutcliffe must have been to India as he has written a novel about the `gap year experience` in said country; anyone who has been there cannot help but come away with a sense of simmering resentment at having been subjected to multiple rip-offs and abuse (like the Swiss couple), while at the same time trying not to throw up or shit yourself if you fart. I`m going to get round to documenting my `time out` in India, and how fucking grateful I was to get on that plane and leave the shithole behind (apart from the bacteria that lingered in my bowels for a few weeks after my return).

In the meantime, I can see that Sutcliffe`s book is going very cheaply on Amazon, so I`m going to read it. Why on earth he should be so sympathetic towards a bunch of disrespectful little shits? I guess they`ll all be crying for help once – or if – their islands go sub-surface.  One thing`s for sure: no way I`m going to The Maldives (even if I could afford it!)

Where`s Blood In The Sand?

It`s been a while since I wrote anything here (the best part of 18 months now), and I decided to clear out the blog and start over. I suppose I wasn`t that focused as Gordon Brown – no doubt a muppet of the first order – seemed to be irrelevant. Things are different now: we`ve got David Cameron and his chums running things (and what a disaster that could be).

One thing I have enjoyed reading was an ex-soldier`s blog at http://bloodinthesand.blogspot.com.  Although it has been taken down, I am going to keep the link to it active in the hope that the writer may return to blogging; as much of the content focused on his trying to come to terms with living back in civvy street (with PTSD) I know that it may be near-impossible for him to relive his experiences while staying well enough to function. I can only hope that he decides to continue at some point in the future as I found his writing very interesting and candid. Dealing with mental health services, the police and other people were documented in a no-holds-barred approach. I wish him (and all the other servicemen and women coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan) all the best. (For the record: I don`t support the wars, but I support the troops; I`ll be writing more stuff about related topics later on.)

OK, that`s me done for now. As I lack overpriced shit like Adobe Photoshop, I`m configuring GIMP for any image processing. It`s free software (so I`m going to encourage its use), and at just over 19MB, it`s refreshingly bloat-free.