Random Bloggy Goodness
A weekend shoot with the lovely Marlyn Lindsay saw us trying a Catwoman theme and then some secretarial lifestyle and tease shoots.
As always, Marlyn and I had a great laugh – I love working with her – and now I need to work on the edits; in the meantime, I’ve had a quick play with a couple of images so far: they’re in my Fetish portfolio page:
I’ve pointed out previously that the last place anyone living in London should want to be in August 2012 will be London whilst the London Olympics is on as it’ll be chaos.
This week, there’s been news about locations for missile batteries in the East End as well. Presumably there to protect the £24bn “investment” that it has grown to (up from the £2bn that Tony BLiar’s Government promised us it would cost when we bid for the Games).
Having decided to spend a whole shedload of our cash, LOCOG have also sought to “monetise” the Games as best they can – no doubt on advice from their Strategic Consulting Provider- and may have taken (or possibly, ignored…) advice from their official market research services provider to the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games as to which companies to approach to get an Official Doodah Provider to the London 2012 Olympic Games moniker:
“The Nielsen Company will assist us in the decision making process by testing our ideas in the market place. One of our challenges – and opportunities – is connecting with young people. Nielsen will help us do this and will, I’m sure, prove to be a huge asset to our marketing push.”
Said Lord Coe. In excellent marketing-speak.
Part of this connection with young people, presumably, is telling them they can’t upload photos onto Facebook or Twitter or whatever from the event if they’re lucky enough to have bought tickets for a quick slot to see a heat of an event before being told to bugger off for the next spectator to take their place:
“Sir Keith Mills, deputy chairman of organisers Locog, said said organisers wanted to make sure that media rights which have been paid for are protected.”
The same goes for the 70,000 (presumably young) people who will be acting as “Games Makers”.
And I suppose that this connection with young people will be to “inspire a generation” – how much did that cost? – perhaps by steering them towards some of the other companies who’ve chipped in (despite growing concern as to their products) to be Worldwide Partner (Coca-Cola), Official Lager Supplier (Heineken, with “exclusive pouring rights”), Official Restaurant of the London 2012 Olympic Games, Official Treat Provider (Cadbury/Trebor) and of course choose from any selection from drugs company and Official Laboratory Services Provider to London 2012 (GlaxoSmithKline). What could possibly go wrong?
Some smokes, some beers...
Still, it’s just business…
One of the good things about my two iPhones – three if you count the work one – has been the way the time gets updated whenever I turn them on in a new country I visit. Indeed, when I was in Vienna last week, I was saying just that to a colleague.
And then I got back to the UK and they wouldn’t change back to UK. They were both set to automatically adjust the time zone and the Apple Support pages were suggesting contacting my cellular comms. provider, 3, in case of issues. I tried lots of things, turning them off, going back to “Airplane Mode”, turning off WiFi, etc., before I stumbled across the fix:
From Settings, choose Location Services, then scroll down until you see System Services:
Then you may well see that Setting Time Zone is off, for some reason: in mine, I had turned it off to keep the battery life up, yet it still changed when I was in Vienna; just not changed back.
Today was Kawasaki Day at the Ace Cafe London. It was also the Virgin London Marathon and where I live the roads close at 8.00am. Despite GT taking part in the marathon – she managed a 4:00:44 finish time! – I headed off before the road closures to the Ace Cafe for Kawasaki Day, celebrating 40 years.
Of course, 11 and 23 mile markers en route were too good to pass unnoticed so I hoisted celebratory wheelies as I drove through!
Getting to the Ace at 8.00am I grabbed a cuppa and breakfast and then decided to have the ZRX dyno’d again now I’ve put some miles on it and the results were very impressive: 163.2bhp and 98ft/lb which even beat some poor bloke with a shiny ZZR1400 and Akra pipes!
Here are some photos too:
| Left calf muscle nipped up this time! | ||
| Owner: | captainblue | |
| Location: | -- | |
| Activity Type: | Running | |
| Event Type: | Fitness | |
| Distance: | 2.08 Mile | |
| Time: | 00:20:41 | |
| Elevation Gain: | 60 Feet | |
| First run after 7 weeks! | ||
| Owner: | captainblue | |
| Location: | -- | |
| Activity Type: | Running | |
| Event Type: | Fitness | |
| Distance: | 3.23 Mile | |
| Time: | 00:33:53 | |
| Elevation Gain: | 100 Feet | |
Just renewed my bike insurance with Motorcycle Direct and noting the recent speeding offence.
Protected no-claims, fully comprehensive with declared modifications and living in London. SD&P plus commuting. £158.72.
Result!
A stay at the delightful but expensive Luton Hoo last weekend gave me the opportunity for a quickie boudoir photoshoot in the suite I’d hired and then some lifestyle images in the grounds the following morning.
The ones I like best are in the Lingerie and Lifestyle portfolios.
So we had a new Budget with the Chancellor, Gideon, heralding things that won’t happen for another year in the hope that we will assume he means April 2012 when he refers to “next April” when in fact it’s April 2013.
But apart from that, the Government continue to bang on about everyone paying their fair share in taxes, unless you’re Simon Hughes MP, in which case it’s a “fare share“…
This latest statement by Simon Hughes MP is headlined “Budget makes sure the richest pay their fare share – Simon Hughes MP” but then goes on to fanfare that:
“…hundreds of thousands of South Londoners on low and middle incomes given a tax cut, paid for by raising the burden of tax on the wealthy.”
…
“Liberal Democrats have made sure that this government has done what Labour never did – make sure the richest pay their fair share … despite a cut in the top income tax rate to 45p next year the richest will pay five times the amount in taxes they do today.”
Oh I see! So that’s fair is it?
And where does this magical “five times the amount” come from? I haven’t seen that calculation shown anywhere, or is it just another case of “lies, damned lies and statistics”?
What’s wrong with a proportional tax system whereby everyone pays the same tax in percentage terms? Does a “rich” person use more of what the Government provides from taxes by way of health and welfare than a lower paid person? I’d wager not; probably the opposite with private healthcare being a likely perk. Education? Surely the “rich” are more likely to pay for Quentin and Letitia to go be educated privately too. Local services are paid through Council Tax which increases with property size so the better off are already paying more for local services that way.
If you are going to look at taxation based upon affordability, why not own up and call it that?
For the record, I’m not rich by any means and by a quirk of the tax system which appears bewilderingly complex and confusing, HMRC has already decided that I somehow paid less tax through PAYE then I should have last year – HMRC helpfully provided my tax code which calculated the “incorrect” deductions – and taking that and the tax rules into account, for 2012/2013 I will have a negative code, i.e. I will pay tax on more than I actually earn.
Which is “fair”, if you happen to be a Liberal Democrat politician, obviously. Or a Conservative. Tricky to tell them apart…
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Run on 10 April 2012 9:36 am
2.08 mi in 00:20:41 (09:58 min/mi)
HR 167 bpm - Burned 274 C Run on 7 April 2012 8:58 am 3.23 mi in 00:33:53 (10:30 min/mi) HR 168 bpm - Burned 430 C Run on 15 February 2012 6:33 pm 3.53 mi in 00:38:45 (10:58 min/mi) HR 172 bpm - Burned 542 C Run on 1 February 2012 7:00 pm 1.28 mi in 00:13:23 (10:30 min/mi) HR 158 bpm - Burned 164 C Run on 19 January 2012 6:23 pm 3.32 mi in 00:35:01 (10:33 min/mi) HR 163 bpm - Burned 431 C
