First we had one of the most spectacular movies of all time, Titanic, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet. Now in time for the 100th anniversary of the sinking, Titanic is to become a 4 part mini-series written by Julian Fellowes, the creator of Downton Abbey.
Read the full story here:
The Sinking of the Titanic is Now Set to Become a Mini Series.
Well first Debbie calls me this afternoon to tell me that the television picture is all pix-elated.
I gave her some ideas for things to check, the Cable box, make sure the correct AV input was selected etc, but she still couldn’t get it working.
I came home from work, and it’s definitely the television, since the picture is all distorted even when you play a DVD.
“Just great” we thought, no money to buy a new television, certainly not the one that we would like, so we are hoping to “borrow” one from a friend, or get a second hand one.
The picture did come back on for several minutes earlier, and we got our hopes up, but then it went again and hasn’t been right since.
At least the sound is working, but it’s not the same watching your favourite shows with a picture that is so messed up you can’t see anything.
So we have been sitting for the past several hours, listening to the television, while working online on our laptops.
That is up to 45 minutes ago – when the internet decided to crash on us. Oh double joy 
I rebooted the router, but it’s still showing no connection.
I then called our ISP, who had already put up a recorded message to say that they had outages in our area, so I guess we will have to just wait.
Well so much for writing articles tonight… We went up to bed early – no television and no internet – it’s like living in the dark ages…
Actually since we found out at the weekend that the central heating isn’t working either – it was cold. Yes definitely like living in the dark ages! At least the electricity didn’t go off.
Last night Debbie and I went up to Elstree Studios north of London to see the Big Brother eviction.
I’m not such a big fan, but Debbie loves the show, and it turned out to be quite an interesting night. But where to begin…
I guess the story begins 2 weeks ago, when Debbie’s daughter asked if we wanted to go to the eviction, as they had managed to get tickets.
Well we agreed, seeing as it would be something different, and two weeks ago off we set on a Friday evening, 4 of us in a Mini, to drive the 100 miles from where we live to the studios.
Well to cut a long story short (if that is ever possible for me), we got stuck in heavy traffic, made it there in time, but the tickets only allow you entry if there is room, and by the time we arrived they were full to capacity. So, we ended up going to McDonald’s to grab a bite to eat, and then drove home.
Since we could not get in, the studios allowed us to get tickets that would guarantee us entry for last night’s eviction, provided we got there by 6:20pm. And so we decided that we needed to leave earlier than before, not taking into consideration the fact that this weekend is August Bank Holiday weekend in the UK, the equivalent of Labor Day weekend in the USA, when the whole country are on the move for a long weekend away.
Well, we set off at 4pm, in Debbie’s daughter’s boyfriends new toy, a BMW, which was a nice comfy ride, hit the motorway, and it wasn’t too long of course before we hit the traffic. First it was road works on the M3, which delayed us about 30 minutes, and then a 20 mile queue on the M25, which delayed us close to an hour. By the time we got to the studios it was almost 7pm. We joined the queue of people waiting to get in, and were relieved to find that we were not too late this time, however we were already close to the back of the queue.
Despite the fact that it’s close to the end of August, and supposed to be nice and warm, it was chilly and there was a cold wind blowing. Add to that the dark clouds that came over and dumped heavy showers of rain on us for a good 20 minutes, and we were all cold and wet. Debbie’s daughter did have a small umbrella, but it wasn’t enough for four of us, and not for that amount of rain either.
After about an hour and a half we got into the studios, and unfortunately the best spots to stand were already jammed, but we found a good place to stand close to the stage and below the platform and stairs where the house mates come out when they are evicted.
There were a number of cameras there, to get shots from different directions, and lots of people had banners to hold up, so we knew that chances are we wouldn’t appear on television, and watching the show this morning confirmed that. Oh well… It might have been a claim to fame, but not the best in the world…
On a number of occasions the host of the show, Davina McCall came out and gave announcements for the show, and also interacted with the audience, and everyone was going crazy and having a good time.
Whether it was a combination of not having eaten or drunk anything for a few hours, the excitement, getting cold or what, Debbie started to come over faint, and the two of us headed out of the enclosure, more or less frog-marched through security, to the building where the studio is, so that the paramedics could make sure she was ok. She got to sit down, and they gave her some water to drink, and as she was starting to feel better, in popped Davina, as we were right by the studio door. She asked Debbie if she was feeling ok, then held her hand, and miraculously Debbie started to feel better, as the excitement came over her.
We went back to the guest enclosure, and it was then only 5 minutes until it was time for the eviction to be announced. The two contestants who had been nominated were Siavash, an Iranian with long hippy hair who had somewhat stirred things up on the show, and Marcus (nicknamed the “Dark Horse”), who had sideburns that made him look like Mungo Jerry (remember them – In The Summertime?) and a long ponytail. Marcus also probably has the filthiest mouth of any contestant ever on the show, with hardly a sentence coming out without an “F” or “S” word. It wouldn’t work on television in the USA, there would be more bleeps than on the Osbournes. But I have to admit he was a pretty funny contestant.
Well eviction time, and we were standing right under the gangway where the evictee would come out. And… the evictee was… Marcus… If you would like to see a video clip of the eviction CLICK HERE. We were standing to the left of the staircase when the video starts, but it’s not possible to see us of course. Oh well…
No sooner had Marcus come out, shaken a few hands, posed for pictures, than he was off to the studio, and everyone began to leave. We stopped at McDonald’s to grab a bit to eat as we were all cold and starving, and then began the 100 mile trip home. Being after 11pm by this time the traffic was pretty light, and we got home soon after 1am.
Of course with me suffering from what I call “Old Folks Disease”, I still woke up at 7am. It’s not fair, really not fair at all. I have always wanted to be able to sleep in, not been able to for years, and now I can, since I am jobless, I wake between 6-7 most mornings. But this is another story, and I have many more to tell – if you will keep coming back.
I came across an article on Open Salon today by Steve Klingaman entitled Status Symbol for 2009: A Secure Job.
Having commented on this at length, I thought that my comments, together with the topic would make a good blog posting. The economy is in such a mess, so many companies are struggling to stay afloat, and if like me you have a full time job, no doubt you have worries and concerns over what may happen in 2009.
Personally, I think 2009 is going to be a tough year for many people – too many people, and definitely having a secure job is a new status symbol.
But defining secure? I don’t think you can.
My job got eliminated 5 years ago. I was working for a musical instrument manufacturer in Indiana, got called into the boss’s office in the middle of a Friday morning, “Sorry to say your job has been eliminated”… I thought I was secure, being the most acquainted person with the main accounting system. But no – bang went my job along with 27 others, all either people who had been with the company the longest or those who were earning more. I learned a hard lesson that day. Now I never feel safe.
Right now the company I work for, which is a multi-billion dollar corporation, has made a lot of cut backs. No pay rises, no perks of any description, no employer 401k matching, and some management had apparently taken pay cuts. They haven’t said whether our usual annual bonus will be eliminated or not, but I’m not banking on anything. Of course any action that they take to avoid cutting jobs is good, but there is always the worry that the economy will not recover in time to save us all.
Now this company I work for manufactures household appliances. You know, toasters, microwaves, blenders, fans etc. With sales being hit this year, the company has been forced by the big stores (Walmart, target etc) to cut their margins, and if you have been to any large store in the USA in the last few months you have to have seen the amount of consumer goods that are being dumped out at crazy prices.
It’s not just appliances. Take a look in any store and see all the televisions, computers etc that are being offered at amazing discounts. They just want sales, to keep their inventory turning over.
My fear is that in keeping sales up by dropping prices, many people have now purchased new items, which will last for years. having bought a new television, toaster, fridge etc for a low low price, how many years is it going to be before these people need a replacement?
In 6 months therefore, are many companies who cut their margins to the lowest levels possible in order to maintain sales levels, going to see sales dry up as their customer base has already acquired the items that they need, often ahead of time because of the cut in prices?
Either the marketing plans that these companies have is based on some solid long term plan unknown to me, or before the end of the year we will see major problems in both the retail stores and the manufacturers that supply them.
I hope this doesn’t happen, but it really does scare me.
My fall back plan ideally would be to work for myself and to eek out a living on the internet, between blogging and earning income from affiliate programs, but obtaining the knowledge to do that is not easy. I have been trying for more than 10 years (on and off) and still haven’t acquired the necessary skills. Maybe 2009 is the year when I have to quit procrastinating and start seriously looking at finding alternative forms of income, just for my own security.
So what are your plans for 2009? Are you actively looking to supplement your income, already self-employed and living off the Internet, or are you just keeping your fingers crossed that nothing bad happens with your employment status this year?