Fuzzy Orange

If you’re one of those people who doesn’t like reading my rants – I’d skip this all together because this is a mahooosive rant.

Our current labour government, in my opinion, are the most useless bunch of arseholes we’ve ever had running this country

It’s -7c at the moment and there’s 6″ of snow outside my house. My car has got completely stuck and had to be pushed out 3 times this week (and I’m currently driving a 307 HDi which weighs a ton and is great in the snow – most people here with lighter petrol cars are completely stuck)

The main roads, if you can get to them, seem ok. But the villages are a virtual ice skating rink.
There hasn’t been a snow plough or gritter down here for 3+ weeks – and what are the government doing? Winging that we all need to go back to work, and kids need to start going back to school!
Well that’s fantastic, and how the hell are are we supposed to do that?
Also while I’m thinking about it where the hell does my council tax money actually get spent??? Or my road tax for that matter!!

Then there’s the beautiful work they did during the recession to help us all out by dropping VAT to 15% – WOOOO!

Unfortunately though what I predicted would happen is exactly what did happen.
When the VAT went down – shops didn’t want to relabel the retail price of everything – or change catalogs – so the retail price stayed the same. And the shop made 2.5% more profit

Now the VAT has gone back up – all the shops made a big “buy it before the increase” advertising hype – then whacked the prices up on everything a stupid amount.
A £2.05 bottle of conditioner in the supermarket went up to £2.30. Now my maths is rusty but even I know that’s over a 10% increase and the VAT only went up 2.5%… but most people just go “crikey isn’t this expensive now the VAT’s gone back up” and carry on regardless.
It was definatly worth me working all night new years eve to implement the VAT changes (again) – oh yes.

Still at least the NHS is awesome!!
My mum chipped a tooth badly 2 days before christmas and even though she is registered with an NHS dentist which she attends every 3 months – he was shut (on a friday.. probably polishing his porsche). So she rang the NHS emergency line and they couldn’t arrange anything for 2 days – and then that involved driving 40miles each way – in the end they told her to take some paracetamol!!

So… I just want to take this opportunity to say a big warm THANKS to the Labour government, the work they have done giving houses to the unemployed, splashing out so many benefits that it makes more sense to have 4 kids by the time your 17 than it does to go to college and get a career, heading blindly into wars in countries that not a single person here cares about.. it’s all just been wonderful. But if you wouldn’t mind now please piss off and give us a chance to have someone with half a brain cell run the country!

Thanks.

Project 52 – 1 – Cold Work, originally uploaded by Phil Barker (aka Fuzzy Orange).

Most of you that know me will know I have owned a Peugeot 106 (either my quiksilver or my current GTi) for nearly 9 years now! I also run the Peugeot 106 Owners Club.

Recently I’ve not been feeling the passion for it all that I used to (it’s tricky to stay in love with anything for 9 years!) so I’ve sold my car!

I’ve been working most of the winter in -6c stripping it down and putting it back to standard. All the modified parts have been sold and the car is being picked up on Monday night and driven away.

Mixed emotions about it all – I’m excited about having something different, but I’m definatly going to miss 106 ownership – such a fun mix of speed and handling I’ll probably not feel again

On a completely different topic though I started a Project 52 today on my flickr. I’m taking a photo every week during 2010 – aiming to try to make them all sort of sum up my feelings about each week.
This is my first photo – you can see the rest over on my flickr

I’ve been meaning to put a bit of an “end of year” post up for weeks now but time has flown by and I’ve had a cold/flu bug for ages now so I’ve not got round to it until now

2009 is officially over and a fresh start with 2010 is upon us

I want to start by listing a few things I’m thankful for from 2009 (bit american ‘thanksgiving’ style but meh)

Leah – having a girlfriend that lets me do what I want when I want and supports me in the things I want to achieve is amazing. Love you babe x
My Mum – she’s had a tough year for various reasons, but as always she’s been there whenever I’ve needed her. I couldn’t ask for a better mum!
My Job – I’ve had a superb year at work. I’ve launched a massive project (DespatchBay) which I am incredibly proud of, and i’ve finally made the leap from web developer to web development team manager. Those of you who know me know that I don’t usually stick at jobs for much more than a year – but I’ll soon be coming up on 2 years at my current company and I’m still loving it!
dSLR / Rick Nunn – My best mate Rick got a dSLR this year and it convinced me to go out and buy one and try a new hobby. As with most things time and a lack of motivation has meant I haven’t done as much with it as I wanted, but I love it as a relaxing hobby and I’ll be doing much much more in 2010 with photography

Now I don’t want to do a new years resolution because I never stick to it, but I do want to list a few things I aim to achieve in 2010.
I’m hoping to revisit this list monthly or bi-monthly and see how I’m getting on with it

Get Fit – I’m heading back to the gym 3 nights a week (workload permitting) and aim to lose 2 stone by next christmas. I also want to strengthen my knees up as recently my old Ice Skating/Hockey injuries to my knees have been causing me a lot of problems
New Car – I’ve owned Peugeot 106’s for 8 years now (and as most of you know I run the 106 Owners Club in the UK), but I feel it’s time to move on. I’m currently stripping my car back to standard for the new owner and eying up Clio 172 Cup’s. I’m excited about learning a new car and getting back into modifying.
New Blog – I bought phil-barker.com a few months back as I’m sort of trying to phase out my old “Fuzzy Orange” persona, but I put wordpress on it and started a skin and completely ran out of time. I’m aiming to get this skinned up in the next month and migrate the posts from here that I want to keep over to my new blog. So ermm watch this space
Scuba Dive – I’m not sure where I’m going on holiday this year but I really want to try scuba diving!
Nurburgring – I’m heading over to Germany in october with some good good mates this year to drive the nurburgring. Looking forward to that immensely!
Launch Another Project – There’s another project on at work which I’m hoping to get my hands on in the next few months. Me and Rick are very excited about its potential and I want to see that get launched this year!
Photography Projects – I want to do a few mini projects (people, self, cars, etc..) to try to push me into learning some new skills with my camera.
Be More Sociable – I want to spend a bit more time with my close family and friends this year, and a bit less time sat behind a keyboard
Save Money – I still rent my house at the moment but I have a 3 year plan to buy myself a nice detached house away from the things that annoy me (mostly other peoples screaming kids). So this year I’m starting to try to save some money for a deposit on a house.

I hope you all had a great christmas, and I hope you all have a fantastic 2010!