Today the Olympic flame is due to be lit at the temple of Hera near Olympia. We in Britain are supposed to be very excited by this event, if you take any notice of the media. However maybe people would not be quiet so excited if they knew the origins of this 'tradition'.
In ancient Greece they held 'torch races', which were similar to our egg and spoons races today. The winner was the one who came in first with his flames still alight. It is also true that messengers were sent out to call Greece's best athletes to a 'games' every so often, the precise frequency has never really been established. However the torch racers and the messengers were never combined to form a torch bearer as we understand it today. This little gem is much more modern and was the brainwave of a chap with a dodgy haircut and toothbrush mustache, and I'm not talking Charlie Chaplin. Yep the modern torch relay was all Hitler's idea to spice up the 1936 Olympics. He arranged for a team of Germany's finest to run with a lighted torch from Athens to Berlin to raise a bit of enthusiasm. It seems people were not that keen on competing, can't think why.
After a quick tour of Greece, where it risks being stolen or worse by those protesting about the state of their country's wealth, or lack of it, it crosses to Britain, where it risks been put out by a sudden downpour. And so will begin a seventy, yes seventy day trek to London. Excuse me but the One Show managed Edinburgh to London in a week, so why is this going to take so long? Well it seemed we are having the same problems as Hitler, and Greece. There are a lot of angry Brits who do not see why all this money can be spent on an event lasting one month when they are losing their jobs through a double dip recession. Then there are the people who hate it for a wide range of other reasons, some to such an extent they are leaving the country while the event is on. There are others who fear the possibility of terrorist attack and then there are those who know it is going to rain every single day. In short there is not a lot of enthusiasm among the natives of this country and so in order to try and rectify this the Olympic committee are going to make sure as many people as possible feel 'included'. How are they going to do this? By disrupting the lives of as many as they possibly can with a relay that will visit every major town and city. Yep making us late for work, a date, a funeral is really going to get us onside.
And so we come to The Apprentice and the sale of modern art.
I did not like this task and found this episode a little bit boring to be honest. To cut a long story short, after managing to insult their artist and ignore and insult their corporate buyers Sterling won by just over a hundred pound. Phoenix found themselves back in the boardroom. Their mistake was trying to sell twelve foot tall canvasses at exorbitant prices to middle class suburbanites with very little wall space.Team Leader Tom brought Jade and Laura back into the boardroom but after it was revealed who sold the least it was Laura who was given her marching orders.
I finally got my lie in this morning, well sort of. I slept right through till, seven thirty. Ah well, it means more time to do stuff and one of the things I have to do this week is renew my blue badge for parking. The letter arrived on Saturday and I was more than a bit alarmed to discover that it warned of an 8 -10 week wait, brilliant as I received the renewal pack exactly eight weeks before my old badge runs out AND on a bank holiday so I couldn't do anything about it until Tuesday, when I was at work. I filled the form in yesterday, it was quite straight forward in the end. As I get higher rate DLA for mobility there was a great deal of the form I was able to ignore. However I still have to get a 'passport style photo' and a photocopy of my passport to add to the pack before sending it off. I'll get this done this afternoon but can't help thinking that they have made things unnecessarily complicated. I know that blue badges are abused left, right and center but looking at the form and all the stuff you have to include with your application it's easier to get a new passport.
I have developed a cough and a slight tightness in my chest, I'm not surprised, colleagues at work have been coughing, spluttering and sneezing all week. I'm OK at the moment but if things get worse over the next few hours I'm off to the GP tomorrow. I need to be well for my RHC on the 23rd so must catch any potential problems early.
Well time to prepare lunch, I'm finally doing that curry recipe I was given. Then it's off to find a photo botth that doesn't make me look like the walking dead. Wish me luck.
In ancient Greece they held 'torch races', which were similar to our egg and spoons races today. The winner was the one who came in first with his flames still alight. It is also true that messengers were sent out to call Greece's best athletes to a 'games' every so often, the precise frequency has never really been established. However the torch racers and the messengers were never combined to form a torch bearer as we understand it today. This little gem is much more modern and was the brainwave of a chap with a dodgy haircut and toothbrush mustache, and I'm not talking Charlie Chaplin. Yep the modern torch relay was all Hitler's idea to spice up the 1936 Olympics. He arranged for a team of Germany's finest to run with a lighted torch from Athens to Berlin to raise a bit of enthusiasm. It seems people were not that keen on competing, can't think why.
After a quick tour of Greece, where it risks being stolen or worse by those protesting about the state of their country's wealth, or lack of it, it crosses to Britain, where it risks been put out by a sudden downpour. And so will begin a seventy, yes seventy day trek to London. Excuse me but the One Show managed Edinburgh to London in a week, so why is this going to take so long? Well it seemed we are having the same problems as Hitler, and Greece. There are a lot of angry Brits who do not see why all this money can be spent on an event lasting one month when they are losing their jobs through a double dip recession. Then there are the people who hate it for a wide range of other reasons, some to such an extent they are leaving the country while the event is on. There are others who fear the possibility of terrorist attack and then there are those who know it is going to rain every single day. In short there is not a lot of enthusiasm among the natives of this country and so in order to try and rectify this the Olympic committee are going to make sure as many people as possible feel 'included'. How are they going to do this? By disrupting the lives of as many as they possibly can with a relay that will visit every major town and city. Yep making us late for work, a date, a funeral is really going to get us onside.
And so we come to The Apprentice and the sale of modern art.
I did not like this task and found this episode a little bit boring to be honest. To cut a long story short, after managing to insult their artist and ignore and insult their corporate buyers Sterling won by just over a hundred pound. Phoenix found themselves back in the boardroom. Their mistake was trying to sell twelve foot tall canvasses at exorbitant prices to middle class suburbanites with very little wall space.Team Leader Tom brought Jade and Laura back into the boardroom but after it was revealed who sold the least it was Laura who was given her marching orders.
I finally got my lie in this morning, well sort of. I slept right through till, seven thirty. Ah well, it means more time to do stuff and one of the things I have to do this week is renew my blue badge for parking. The letter arrived on Saturday and I was more than a bit alarmed to discover that it warned of an 8 -10 week wait, brilliant as I received the renewal pack exactly eight weeks before my old badge runs out AND on a bank holiday so I couldn't do anything about it until Tuesday, when I was at work. I filled the form in yesterday, it was quite straight forward in the end. As I get higher rate DLA for mobility there was a great deal of the form I was able to ignore. However I still have to get a 'passport style photo' and a photocopy of my passport to add to the pack before sending it off. I'll get this done this afternoon but can't help thinking that they have made things unnecessarily complicated. I know that blue badges are abused left, right and center but looking at the form and all the stuff you have to include with your application it's easier to get a new passport.
I have developed a cough and a slight tightness in my chest, I'm not surprised, colleagues at work have been coughing, spluttering and sneezing all week. I'm OK at the moment but if things get worse over the next few hours I'm off to the GP tomorrow. I need to be well for my RHC on the 23rd so must catch any potential problems early.
Well time to prepare lunch, I'm finally doing that curry recipe I was given. Then it's off to find a photo botth that doesn't make me look like the walking dead. Wish me luck.
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