Saturday will soon be upon us and if you are like me I’m sure you will be glued to the television, if you are not fortunate enough to be at Aintree itself, to see what is described as the world’s greatest steeplechase, in many people’s eyes, the greatest horse race. Of course the “National” is always surrounded by controversy, particularly when a horse falls injured and has to be put down. Jockeys sometimes don’t come off much better and there have been some nasty falls, but of course they have a choice of competing or not!

I really had no idea about the history of the race and I took the time to go onto the official race site www.aintree.co.uk to find something of the history of the race. According to the site the race began in 1839 and was won by a horse called Lottery, in that race, a famous name now, a gentleman called Captain Becher parted company with his horse and the jump, “Becher’s Brook” was named after him.

One of the most famous winners to many is the iconic “Red Rum” who won the race on three occasions, of course the horse is no longer with us and this year all eyes will be on the Cheltenham Gold Cup Winner Synchronised, who heads a maximum field of 40 runners for Saturday’s race. The horse will be ridden by 16-time champion jockey Tony McCoy, and  is likely to go off as favourite as he bids to become the first horse in 78 years to capture steeplechasing’s two biggest races in the same season. Golden Miller is the only horse to have achieved the Gold Cup-Grand National double in the same season, that was in 1934. So I will look up the form before I place a few bets on the race, or more likely do what a lot of people do and stick a pin in the list! Roll on Saturday.

Just at the moment the country seems to be staggering from one crisis to another, only last week I was trawling around the fuel stations to try to buy some diesel, which eventually I did, but at a highly inflated price!  If that was not all, at home last week we had our first barbeque of the year in a temperature of 22 degrees in lovely sunshine, to be followed this week by two inches of snow, overnight temperatures of minus 1 degree and a complete loss of our electric power for four hours, deep joy!

All of this could send a sane man to drink, but I decided that it was time to see if I could find some free bingo to calm my nerves and have some fun. There is no shortage of bingo sites and for the followers of my postings, you will know that I like to go to the online casino to try my hand at the tables and have a hand or two of poker. However, online bingo is something that I like to do when I want to relax and have some friendly chat with some of the others at the bingo room and exchange a few experiences of the day. With the other players who are online in the chat rooms, the advantage is that they are from different parts of the country and so naturally the weather usually crops up in conversation, along with what is happening in their part of the world. At last the snow is gradually disappearing and so I will get online and find what is on offer at the online casinos.

The whole country will have soon have switched to digital television with the only remaining areas the North East of England, the eastern part of the Meridian region in Kent and East Sussex and Northern Ireland, that is if you can get a signal in any of the places! Where I live it is virtually impossible to get a constant signal and like my broadband I am at the bottom of the pile as we are “country bumpkins!” Some years ago I had to take up Sky as this was the only way to get a good picture, one that did not disappear at the drop of a hat, so I have had digital for some time now. Having Sky suited me in many ways as I love to watch my sport and have been indulging in a bit of the third test match from Sri Lanka today, where I can tell you that Kevin Pietersen made 151!

What I find surprising is the report that I have been reading that the analogue signal was turned off for five million households as the largest phase of switching the country’s sets to digital began. It seems hardly credible that up to a million television sets lost their BBC Two signal on Wednesday as part of the biggest shake up of Britain’s terrestrial viewing in a generation. The BBC Two analogue signal was turned off before other terrestrial channels including BBC One, ITV and Channel 4 are switched off in a fortnight. It may sound a bit hard hearted of me to say so but, I must assume that people have been watching television or they would not be tuning into BBC2 so where have they been for the last two years or so? If you watch television then you must have seen those adverts about digital switchover that all channels, BBC included, have played pretty much constantly for what seems like forever. You have to wonder if some people simply don’t listen to anything other than their favourite soap opera, and the advertisements have appeared there as well, oh dear.

It all depends upon which side of the fence that you were sitting, some people gained, it is thought that others lost, what is certain is that the hoped for lowering of fuel duty did not come and hard pressed motorists will see more money leaving their pockets. Of course I’m not in the least bit happy about this and I suspect that no one other than the Chancellor is, but it makes the decision to buy an Audi A3 diesel recently one of the best that I have made, particularly when it comes to cars, something that I have got wrong many times over!

I am not a smoker, although I have, like many, been down that route a long time ago, but speaking to a friend yesterday who is, I was shocked to see just how much a packet of twenty now costs. With the 37 pence proposed increase, his brand is going to cost just under £8 per packet, £56 per week if you smoke 20 per day, which most people do, even if they say it is less.  Well I suggested to him that perhaps he should find an online holiday in Europe, somewhere nice in the Med and bring himself a few cartons back, it could even  pay for his holiday in the sun, he began to smile at the thought!

Well at least today the sun is shining brightly, the thoughts of checking out the barbeque spring to mind, and the delightful smell of those steaks cooking with glass of wine in hand, are beginning to take away the nasty thoughts that I have to fill the A3 with some diesel at 144.9p per litre!

During my time in the R.A.F I did a number of tours to Cyprus and always looked forward to that posting when I got wind of it down the “grape vine”.  I was talking to my partner last week and inevitably the subject of holidays came up, it usually does! So this set me thinking and I decided to see what cheap holidays could be found online with nowhere particular in mind.

However, we have not taken holidays in Cyprus for some years now so I decided to see what was out there at some of my favourite online travel sites and I was not disappointed by what I found. Having been to Cyprus with my squadron, I know the Island pretty well and some of the places that I preferred not to holiday at. The beauty of Cyprus is of course its climate and warm seas for most of the year, in fact winter is not all that bad, not quite Canaries, but pleasant if you do not like the searing heat. Cyprus enjoys an intense Mediterranean climate of hot dry summers starting in mid-May and lasting until mid-September.

In the end I decided to see what I could find at the resort of Protarus which lies at the northern end of Cyprus and away from the usual hurly burly of some of the better known places. Protarus has four distinct regions and caters for all tastes. For example if you want lively entertainment, cosmopolitan cuisine and a breathtaking beach then central Protarus is for you. I prefer Cyprus in its true form and decided on either Kapparis or maybe Cape Greco which I knew, with its hidden coves, and amazing coastline, ideal if you want to get away from the more commercialised resorts of Cyprus. I have some more searching still to do regarding the accommodation but, I’m sure it looks like holidays in Cyprus are for us sometime this year.

We see them everywhere and although not so many seem to find their way to the hedges on our roads as much as they used to. Plastic shopping bags are still in daily use and thrown away at the end of the shopping trip to be buried underground and it is believed that it will take 500 years for it to decompose completely! So what can be done to resolve the problem of taking our shopping home? The EU Commission is to publish proposals in the spring designed to reduce the number of plastic bags used in Europe each year. Around 15,000 people took part in a consultation and most of them wanted a complete ban on the bag, but how then will we get our shopping home if this were to happen?

There are of course alternatives but are they any better than the present throw away bag, not according to some research that I have been reading over the last week. I use the stronger bags when I go shopping and always have a couple in the car, but apparently these have a bigger environmental impact than standard supermarket shopping bags, so we cannot win, or can we. During my trips to the US you generally only see paper bags at supermarkets although there has been a move toward plastic, but while these biodegrade in landfill, the UK Environment Agency study points out that they have a higher carbon footprint than standard plastic carrier bags.

What is certain is that we will have to address the problem at sometime because figures suggest that each year 800,000 tonnes of so-called single-use plastic bags are used in the European Union! The average EU citizen used 191 of them in 2010, and according to the Commission says, and only 6% were recycled. A massive four billion bags are thrown away each year. Do you have a solution?

A lot of people hold the firm belief that greenhouse gases are responsible for the earth’s temperature rising, whilst in the other camp they point out that the temperature of the earth has been rising and falling for thousands of years.  However, no matter whose corner you or I may stand in, governments in Europe are determined to try to limit the amount of greenhouse gas that is in the atmosphere.

The latest controversy to hit us from Europe is the ETS scheme which the EU intends to impose upon airlines. Now seven aviation companies have written to governments complaining about the inclusion of airlines in the EU’s scheme, which includes Airbus, British Airways and Virgin Atlantic, who strongly argue the move threatens jobs, reportedly 1000 at Airbus alone! Louis Gallois, the boss of the parent company of Airbus is reported last week to have said that China had suspended the purchase of planes made by European manufacturers because of the levy.  Both China and the US oppose the move.

With air travel now being like catching a bus used to be in past times, most of us get on and off to go about our business or to a holiday destination, already we suffer from a tax per passenger whenever we take a flight and going to the far East for example, this can amount to half the ticket price! If this goes through, grit your teeth for more rises in our holiday ticket price.

Bradford, which is located in the north of England, in Yorkshire, has a population of almost 300,000. The city is home to the National Media Museum, which receives the most number of visitors annually, outside of a London museum. The nightlife and vibrant culture makes Bradford an ideal city to live in and there is little wonder that, even in these difficult economic times, it is having millions of pounds poured in to improve its infrastructure. As a result, the demand for property to rent is on the rise.

Ensuring hassle-free tenancies on rental properties in Bradford

There is a good selection of houses available to rent in Bradford, including one-bedroom flats and terraced properties. Especially popular are properties on Little Horton Lane, Broadstone Lane, Washington Street, Dirkhill Road and Melrose Street, which are always in demand, thanks to the convenient location and well-maintained neighbourhood. Most properties are marketed by their landlords’ agents and viewing is strictly by appointment.

As with everywhere else in the UK, rents are based on a calendar month and usually a deposit or bond is agreed to between the landlord or the agent and tenant. This deposit is intended to cover the cost of possible damage, rent arrears and other tenant liabilities when the tenancy is terminated. Basement flats that offer bright and clean places to stay are a popular option in Bradford, being preferred by students who find them within their budgets.

As an alternative to Bradford, it might be worth looking for a house to rent in York, which is about an hours’ drive to the northeast; residential properties are available at comparable prices. Studio apartments are another option for people looking for houses to rent in Bradford. They are affordable and all amenities are normally included. For anyone looking for more a permanent home, there are one to six bedroom properties with gardens and other features, which are situated in nearby villages, many of which have shops and good public transport links.

If like me you thought that the prohibition era ended in the United States in 1933 after 17 years, during which time bootlegging, which was otherwise known as rum-running, became widespread and organised crime took control of the distribution of this alcohol, which was portrayed in numerous films and television shows such as “Elliot Ness” and featured gangsters such as Al Capone.  Some of the distilleries and breweries in Canada, Mexico and the West Indies flourished as their products were being smuggled into the USA. Notably Chicago became a haven for prohibition dodgers; during the time it became known as the “Roaring Twenties”.

Well I was reading that prohibition still does exist in a few States in America, notably Williamsburg Kentucky and here and elsewhere, the ban on alcohol never ended. Apparently when the ban ended the regulation on the sale of alcohol was handed over to the individual States and there were many local communities which voted to keep the restrictions in place, particularly in the Southern States, which is often referred to as the “Bible Belt” this has resulted in a patchwork quilt of both wet and dry counties within these Southern States. So if you are visiting the USA and travelling through the south, check before you stay the night if you fancy a nice glass of Californian wine, you may be just out of luck!

You may recall that a few weeks ago we visited some friends and their rather luxurious bathroom, complete with striking cabinets, furniture and classy accessories, caught the eye of my partner and you know what occurs when that happens! You are right in your thinking, upgrading our present rather tired looking bathroom just had to be improved to ensure domestic harmony to continue at home.

As you will be aware, I like using the internet to look for information and in the intervening weeks that have passed since I stated to upgrade the bathroom, I have sent most evenings looking at bathroom products online. When you start to look at bathrooms online you are overwhelmed by the number of sites that pop up, but choosing the right one is vital. In the end I settled on UK Bathrooms which not only had a fantastic choice of bathroom equipment, they were very competitive and they have a useful “chat” facility. I chose and fitted new ceramic tiles, and tidied the paintwork and lighting. The lighting was one of the easier areas as I fitted some illuminated mirror cabinets which have improved the lighting in a subtle way. The old shower has been removed and a sparkling new shower has been installed in Kudos quadrant enclosure with state of the art thermostatic control.  I happy to say that, at the moment at least, domestic harmony is excellent!