As I tuned into Dancing On Ice for the first time this year and see Ashley Banjo has shoe horned himself into the judging panel I can’t help asking myself… Has the world reached maximum Ashley Banjo yet? It may be time for an intervention from the UN. I like the guy but seriously it’s getting to the point where he’ll turn up to the opening of an envelope. The last time I checked he wasn’t known for his ice skating skills. What next? Graham Bell running a street dance troupe?

On the topic of being at the end of the first month I have hit a milestone. Managed to stick to my resolution of no smoking or drinking for the month. I bet the fag/alcohol companies are wringing their hands looking forward to February. Not from me though as I plan to stay off the booze until April at the earliest. I’ll probably stick with no smoking for longer though as its about time I focused more on health and less on what I really enjoy… Gawd damn it I do love a fag though!

One month into 2021 and still no end in sight. It does look like all the kerfuffle about vaccine import/export has dissipated after the EU realised they were acting like a two year old in temper tantrum mode. Of course there were the usual coordinated concilliary tweets about how everyone reached agreement (comically with exactly the same wording barr name changes). Life goes on and the rain keeps on falling.

The family zoom quiz last night was great. We had so much fun. There was a talent round. I managed to avoid singing by performing some magic tricks I picked up on the interweb. There was a lot of singing from the rest (sure they all have great singing voices) and a fabulous dance from Denise and Ed (albeit without the music being audible which cost them some points)… All round it was great fun.

I’ll head to the allotment this morning to see what needs doing. I’m expecting to get my seed propogater next week so I can start growing the plugs for planting out in early spring. Just call me Barbara from the good life.

Who would have thought a bunch of individuals on an Internet group could take on the hedge funds at their own game and win. There’s a movie in this one. Unlike the big short I suspect the outcome here will be less simple for the system to control.

The concept is beautiful. Select a company that’s been highly shorted by a big hedge fund (that’s where they borrow shares they don’t own, sell them in the hope the price will fall soon and they will make a profit, then wait for the price to drop to buy back at an agreed time (where they HAVE to buy the stock and give it back to the original owner)…. Well the group of individuals agreed to focus on GME an American bricks and morter game selling shop that was not doing so well on the stock market and was heavily shorted. They managed to push the price up by a huge multiple, hence forcing the hedge funds to buy back stock at the inflated price and lose billions.

I’ve never agreed with shorting. It’s a vulture tactic that greedy trader use to effectively make a quick buck. Hopefully what has happened this week with GME will put an end to the practice.

As always there will be losers on both sides of this particular battle but hopefully overall some good will come from it.

As you all know I’m a remainer. Totally anti-brexit and a European at heart. I absolutely see myself setting in Europe somewhere for my retirement. I have a European passport and oppose all anti-european sentiment. But (there’s always a but) all this rhetoric coming from the EU recently about vaccine shipments and triggering extreme article 16 measures to stop the UK from getting vaccine is casting a very poor light on the bloc.

The British government did nothing wrong here. They haven’t told a supplier to stop sending product to the EU. All they did was sign contracts and ordered vaccine for their population as any government would do. The EU on the other hand blocked progress with bureaucracy and lengthy approval processes resulting in them being one of the last Western blocs to approve vaccine. Now they are trying to cover that up by creating this war that makes it look like it is another government actors issue. That’s bad juju.

I suspect even without brexit the UK would have gone it alone with signing contracts for vaccine as its always acted in parallel to EU institutions. The fact that other bloc members decided not to is a matter of discussion for themselves.

One of the interesting parts of sitting in an office at the end of the garden (with floor to ceiling glass) is witnessing the array of garden wildlife that passes by unnoticed from the main house. For the last month the squirrels have been super busy gathering as many acorns as they can locate and hiding them in various spots around the garden. Just watched on digging into the ground, hiding the nut, covering in and then placing leaves over the hole. Genius.

This is absolutely hands down my favourite show at the moment. The dates are so much fun. There’s a fair share of freaks and normal folks dating and the comments from the comedians are hilarious. Think goggle box meets first dates. Thank you NowTV.

Awww poor didums was late to the party and they’re not happy that there’s only ready salted crisps left. Demanding that they be given the best of the best before all the rest.

Bottom line. If you sign your contracts last you’re at the back of the queue. Don’t blame everyone else for your own inaction. If it looks like a glacier it probably moves at the speed of a glacier…. Step aside and let the nimble ones through please.

You know when you know something is inevitable. Waking up every day checking the updates section of a website. Waiting for one of your friends to send the ‘Have you seen..?’ WhatsApp message. Trawling emails searching for the dreaded ‘We are sorry to announce’ message. Well yesterday was that day. Finally Snowbombing has been cancelled. I knew it was coming, I could feel it, but I resisted in the vane hope that it would somehow miraculously slip through the net. Someone would forget to press send on the cancellation email and it would simply have to go ahead, but alas not. 2021 is shaping up to be as big a shitshow as 2020…..will we ever see normality restored?

I purchased tickets for Reading Festival last week. At this rate it could be the only festival that actually goes ahead and if that is the case the tickets will be as popular as Harry Styles at a girl guides convention.

If everything is cancelled but lockdown erases I’m setting up a Carlsberg Danish quarter in the back garden for the entire summer. The neighbours will hate me for it but my sanity will survive.