Was walking back from the shops along Warwick Road this morning and was greeted by the sight of lots of motorcycle based policemen blocking the road off. Various things went through my mind:
– Terrorism? (stupid)
– Event at the exhibition centre? (perhaps)
– Other? (likely)
In actual fact it was a demonstration against the “Congestion Charge” being expanded into Kensington & Chelsea. I know a lot of people have stupid stickers in their car and house windows protesting against it, so I was expecting a huge mass of people. Not so! There was, in fact, maybe a hundred people (25% were in pushchairs) and a greater number of police officers.
I judge the effect of this demonstration to be virtually nil – except in really annoying and inconveniencing the residents and motorists of the area, the very people who these people are supposedly demonstrating for!
Awful, poor quality camera phone pic here.

So, the latest incantation of this dreary format has started again. Last year I didn’t watch “Big Brother”, but instead spent the odd free evening watching otters and badgers with Bill Oddie on the BBC. Yes, BB4 was universally hated.
I have had every intention of not bothering watching again this year, however an accidental exposure (well, there was nothing else to watch) to the opening night has got me hooked I fear.
How have they managed to do this? The key ingredients that the viewing public wishes to see are essentially sex and masses of bitching and backstabbing. To this end they have filled the place with a bunch of nuts, fruit loops and psychopaths; thrown in several gay men (renowned to be promiscuous), a militant lesbian (I dislike her intensely already), a bisexual porn obsessed lady from the north and a post-op transsexual; then added in a religious fanatic.
Excellent – a recipe for sniping all around: BB5 shall have my limited viewing attention. Fuck – another summer wasted.

Apologies for the distinct lack of activity – this last week seems to have been rather busy for some reason.
My main focus of rant today is the current plethora of bullshit science in adverts for all sorted of facial concoctions, lotions and potions. These use words such as dematifying and redensifying and contain essence of cherries and other such “exotics”. The added clincher for these sorts of ads is the pseudo-scientific trial which found 55% of the 19 women who used the product found some sort of improvement in a self-evaluated questionnaire.
I feel that this is the modern day equivalent of snake oil; charging astronomic prices for little more than grease and perfume in a bottle. Surely there should be a law against this sort of thing, but maybe we shouldn’t bother protecting the stupid with far too much money at their disposal; maybe I should even get in on the act: Lomas’ patent skinjuvenating cream. Has a certain ring about it don’t you think?