It's the little things in life.

With everything that is going on in the world (and there is rather a lot) it is easy to forget the little things in life. Here are some of those simple pleasures that we often overlook.

New socks feel amazing, especially if you've been hiking, it's like a foot orgasm.

Towels are fantastically useful.

Pockets. I would be dead if I didn't have pockets. Giving me trousers without pockets would be a form of torture.

Fresh bedding. Enough said.

Putting on warm clothes straight from the radiator when it's cold.

Putting a video into a VCR.

Going to the toilet when you've been dying for a wee.

Reading books, actual books.

A cold glass of water on a hot day.

A warm drink on a cold day.

Potatoes are bloody brilliant.

A ball. Can't even begin to think about the amount of fun I've had with a ball.

Fish and chips by the seaside (possibly the greatest thing ever if you're British).

Feel free to add any that you think should be on the list. Now go on and be happy. Remember how the little things can cheer you up.

International Dance Day!

Go on, boogie on down. There are plenty of dances you can do, even if you can't really dance. Have fun.

Saturday night's TV.

The title of this post is too general if I'm honest. Its really just about The Voice and Doctor Who. I've generally been a fan of Doctor who, not a mad keen, die-hard fan, but a normal 'ooh Doctor Who is back on' kind of fan. This series is, if I'm honest, quite boring. It isn't really progressing anywhere, there aren't any good new monsters and it does not make any sense. I'm spending the entire episode trying to figure out what is going on, instead of just enjoying what is going on. 

My frustration at Doctor Who however is nothing compared to my anger at The Voice. Once you get over the 'ooh look, a rotating chair' novelty (which takes about 10 seconds) then the show becomes incredibly irritating. The hosts over-hype the show. The contestants are mediocre. The audience just applaud like monkeys watching poo being hurled at walls and the judges are very annoying. Jessie J is just there for eye candy. Will.i.am, or William as I will call him because it is his name and is easier to type, thinks he is god's gift to the music industry and is positively hilarious. Danny just isn't that good a musician in the first place and Tom Jones, who I used to like, seems to be turning into a creosoted big head. I watched the first episode of the current series and gave myself a headache through shouting at the television so much. With the X-factor and Britain's Got Talent and other shows like those, it is a wonder that this show has even been commissioned. I don't think we are exactly short of singers. Good singers, yes, but talent show standard singers, no. 

I'm not going to get angry about any of this because it is just television. Nobody is forcing me to watch so I can just switch it off. Which I will. 

Busy day, don't worry, be happy.

I quite enjoy doing this blog (I'd enjoy it more if people commented and things but ah, oh well) but I've been really rather busy today so I'm afraid you'll have to be content with this.

I think I'll do a few more posts on current events and politics etc, some about music and maybe continue some of the series I've been doing, like Yeehaw News Roundups, Things I Don't Understand and Adverts.

One thing I really want to do is to be more cheerful and more positive. There are plenty of bad things out there, and unless I'm warning you to help you, then you don't really need me to point them out. It is the little good things that often go unnoticed, because the news rarely reports them and people rarely talk about them.

Think about the good things, because most of the time you can't do a single thing to stop the bad things from happening anyway. You can make good things happen though. If we can't make each other happy, with all our technology and civilisation and knowledge and wealth and power then what is the point in having all that? We're all going to wind up dead and what use is money or power then? In the mean time be happy and be nice to each other.

When measuring a man's success, don't count money, count happiness.

Economycoaster.

We've already had a double dip recession and we have just about managed to avoid a triple dip recession, which is good news, but still sounds like a part of a roller coaster.

Today it was announced that GDP for the UK had gone up by 0.3% (that may possibly be the most boring sentence I ever write). GDP is basically how much money the country earns. A rise of 0.3% isn't really much, but it is at least a positive, so the government are claiming victory. I don't want to be really negative and doom-monger, but this 0.3% increase over the first part of this year only really cancels out the 0.3% decrease we had at the end of last year.

The really puzzling thing however, is that nobody, including the government, seems to know how this rise has come about. The Tories said they would increase GDP through manufacturing and building, but for the most part the figures for these industries are down. The industries which have been causing an increase in the GDP seem to be service industries, such as hotels and restaurants, which is in some way probably just down to an increase in demand due to an increasing and ageing population.

Overall any positive news seems to be an accident, but it is a happy accident nonetheless. Whatever happens, I don't think I'll ever be saying well done to George Osborne. Unless he resigns. Maybe.

A little help for the UK Government.

If you've been watching BBC news at all then you'll realise that there are some quite serious issues facing the nation. I'm no expert on these things, or anything really, but there do seem to be some common sense solutions to a lot of the problems. Here is a handy guide to get the ball rolling.

Nursing

Now the government decided to cut NHS budgets and services a while ago, which is obviously a bad idea. Now things are getting very serious indeed. Patients are not receiving the level of care that they need. Now this is not the fault of nurses. Nurses do a difficult job for long hours on pay that is far from what they deserve. The problem is that there aren't enough nurses. The government claim that nurses need more training in basic skills like simply dealing with getting patients cleaned and dressed and that this will solve the problem. Nurses aren't stupid, they know how to dress and wash people and look after them. Caring is a much more difficult thing to do than people realise. Nurses are caring for lots of people at the same time so they need more help. Now instead of training already qualified and caring nurses to do things they already know how to do, why not invest in the NHS and provide more nursing staff. Recent surveys show that staff at hospitals think they need more staff. Now if there were more nurses then there would be less people unemployed, so less people on unemployment benefit, people would recover more quickly in hospital and as a result of all of this the economy would be better off, but more importantly people would be healthier and happier.

Food

Over the past year the number of people requiring food banks has doubled. That means that twice as many people are going hungry. In 2013, in a developed country this should not be happening. This problem is more complicated than it seems at first glance. People are needing food banks because they can't afford food. The reason why they can't afford it is because they either can't get a job, or are too busy caring for somebody and they've had their benefits cut. The simple answer to this is to not cut benefits for people who need them and to generate jobs so people can afford food. If these jobs are created by the state then the money will be going back into the economy anyway because people will be spending their wages on essentials.

Cosmetic Surgery

It has become too comericalised, casual and risky to have cosmetic surgery. There are now too many products that could be harmful that people are now willingly injecting into their face. The government alone can not solve this problem, but they really do need to put regulations in place because I think we've all seen what can happen when cosmetic surgery goes wrong. The other aspect if this problem is our society. We need to take a long hard look at ourselves if we have got to the point where to feel accepted in society you have to look a certain way and to get to look that way you have to inject some unknown chemical into your face.

CO2 Emissions

After promising to be the greenest government ever it has been revealed that the UK's CO2 emissions have gone up. This would be surprising if you were naive enough to think the government would keep a promise. The really worrying thing about this however is that climate change seems to be quite far down in the government's list of priorities. Part of the reasons for increased levels of CO2 is our dependency on fossil fuels, which really must change as it is a crisis waiting to happen. Secondly there is no point reducing the deficit and trying (but in reality failing anyway) to create growing economy if we ruin the environment. When you consider how big a part tourism plays in the economy it would be criminal to ruin the environment.

Well there are just a few helpful hints for just a few of the problems. Nobody will ever listen to them but at least I'm trying. AT LEAST I'M TRYING!

Happy St George's Day!

It's St George's Day so I won't depress you with moaning, although that would be quite English. Now go and have a pint in a pub.

I'll moan and rant tomorrow probably.