The secret is to keep the upper lip and waist curled at precisely the right angles. Hold for 20 minutes.

OK, you have done all that, now lay on the floor, adopt the position, keep the upper lip and waist curled at precisely the right angles and think of rabbits.
Hold this position for at least 20 minutes.

Oh, do stop moaning it’s easy with practice, believe me!

Hmm... This looks like fun. Why didn't they give me one of these before?

Boris (the no bullshit bulldog) is now the proud owner of a private ski slope. As those who know him will tell you, Boris is not the least surprised by this luxury. He has been trained for years to expect his life to be comfortable, entertaining and with great cuisine. So what could be more normal for a Boris living in his new Bulgarian kindom in winter than a little ski slope for entertainment – and even transportation towards the play snow and another delicious meal.
Yes, Boris has got it sussed! He knows only luxury and happiness and an awful lot about cheese. But that is a story for another day…

This snow is just right, any deeper and I would need my snorkel!

Maybe it wasn't French but that foie gras was not bad at all!

First Papandreou agrees to the new Euro deal and markets go into a mild euphoria – the Euro gaining value and stocks blooming. This must have made a few bucks for insiders with forewarning of the size of the Euro bailout deal.

Then the always sharp Greeks announce that there will be a referendum before accepting a bailout, markets return to their psychotic depressive state once again and money is made on the way back down.
And now you can bet a few of GeorgePapandreou’s Greek cousins and cronies have made another nice little packet as markets recover slightly on the news that he has decided that he will not hold a referendum after all.

Are these people are putting life as most of us know it under threat purely for personal gain? How come the rest of us would be jailed for similar scheming while these guys and their cronies get to drink champagne in Cannes at the G20 summit?

Bulgarian prime minister, Boyko Borisov said yesterday: “It is about time to start talking about the countries, including Bulgaria, which have introduced and suffered through austerity measures. The constant talk about countries with huge deficits which didn’t prepare their banking systems, and kept handing out high salaries and pensions, spending more than they can afford, is already having a negative effect even on the states with strict fiscal discipline,” the Bulgarian Prime Minister stressed.

He told international journalists that government salaries and retirement pensions in Bulgaria have been frozen for the past three years, and that Bulgaria has managed to keep its budget deficit and public debt among the lowest in the EU, and advised the other EU states with fiscal problems to freeze their salaries and pensions for three years as well.

Bulgaria aims to cut budget deficit in 2012
24 October, 2011
Bulgaria aims to bring down its budget deficit to 1.35 percent of gross domestic product next year to protect its economy from the impact of the European debt crisis, Finance Minister Simeon Djankov said on Monday.
The Balkan country is the European Union’s poorest member but its public finances are in much better shape than those of most EU states, and it has been largely insulated from the sovereign debt crisis that threatens to engulf the euro zone.
“The 2012 budget demonstrates the government’s resolve to carry out fiscal consolidation and achieve a balanced position in 2014,” read the budget draft published by the finance ministry.

Bulgaria will end this year with a fiscal shortfall of about 2% of GDP – less than an initially targeted 2.5%, Djankov said last week.

Stan and his very special weed lead to an adventure that many will wish could happen in reality. A definite fun read for anyone who has ever had the munchies. For those who haven’t, Stan’s adventures, warping reality and the minds of those who are desperately trying to maintain the status quo, will still be a lot of fun. Scenes in the book are illustrated by Frans Bartels. An ideal Christmas present Get your signed copies of this first edition from Amazon.co.uk.

A generation is about to learn that they can’t have everything right now and never mind the cost, financial or otherwise.

But what about the middle aged and elderly, who from childhood learned that everything has a price of some kind, and that the only way to achieve your desire was to invest some effort, either by working and saving for it or investing your time, intellect or heart into a more imaginative means of attaining a goal – be it a new car or even a better World.

They at least had foreknowledge of the way things really work. Perhaps they are more to blame for blinding themselves to the reality they’d been taught from generation to generation – There’s no free lunch!

Yet young and old alike, they turn in anger on ‘The Market’, ‘the city slickers’, ‘the marketing people and most of all ‘the bankers’. But aren’t these the people who gave them their very heart’s desire right now, no worries, pay later? Were they all so anti market while taking out the loans? It’s as daft as, in the aftermath of a police raid, all the punters in a brothel blaming the prostitutes for being sexy.

It seems that the only truly innocent party in all this is ‘The Market’. It is, after all, the market that has brought this mass fantasy and its ringmasters to their knees, not the politicians, archbishops, popes nor even the greens – and not one of them deserves any capitalisation.

No it’s the market that has brought us all back to reality with a thud that was quickly followed by a lot of pontification from ‘our moral leaders’. But where were they while the orgy was going on?

And another thing:

History has proven that, eventually, it will be the market that brings us to our future, no matter what that may be…

The price of oil goes down – bad news!

And the pundits of the media always come up with a credible sounding explanation.

Did I miss something?

Now, I shall resist entering the debate on misspent taxes. I am, after all, a foreign visitor to this country and in comparison to the charges in Western Europe the local taxes seem very fair to say the least. I am also taking the international economic crisis into account – just about every council and government in the World is trying to cut expenses. So, all that said, it is not very realistic to expect a major road improvement program in the near future.

Fortunately I have come up with a brilliant and cunning plan that I would like to present to local mayors. The idea came to me when I saw a road crew re-painting the white line down the centre of a local road. There were a couple of guys with containers of paint and line painting machine. As I watched them working I realized that the hazard of potholes at night could be easily remedied at very little extra cost to the council. All they need is an extra bucket of paint and a decent sized brush. Then the guy who smokes cigarettes while the other two are painting – or one of the other workers, if he is too high up the council ladder- could simply paint a nice white circle around each pothole. Hey presto! We would all be easily able to see the potholes in the dark and swerve around them, just as we regularly do by day. The reduction of damage to cars and accidents would surely be worth the extra pot of paint – and it would give local mayors more breathing space to find a budget for actually repairing the holes in the future!

Yes, my friends, this is pure genius! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!