Dreamy

Sometimes Columbus surprises me. Every now and again the surprises are pleasant ones. One such time was last Tuesday when I did my laundry. Generally speaking laundry day is not a day of surprises, and when it is, they're not as rule pleasant surprises. However last week was different. Last week I went Dirty Dungarees. Dirty Dungarees is either a laundrette with a dive bar inside, or it's a dive bar with a laundrette inside. Either way it's a marvellous invention. What else is there for me to do whilst my clothes are in the washing machine? Not a whole hell of a lot. At Dirty Dungarees I got to have a few beers, play a few games of pool and generally enjoy laundry time. It is the first time that I'v ever been pleased my new house doesn't have a washing machine. Fantastic.

You'd think that maybe the people who get to go to the G8 summit in Russia are smart people. You'd think that maybe when the eight most powerful countries in the world get together around a table that they'd have something worthwhile to say. You'd think it, and you'd be wrong. This article is the definitive proof that the world needs me to be Prime Minister. If the current leaders aren't stupid they certainly think that we are, here are a few select quotes from the New York Times article:
Oil-importing countries, including the United States, would like to see producing nations increase supplies on world markets, easing prices...
...Aleksei L. Kudrin, Russia's finance minister, said he pushed Moscow's approach to global energy policy, which calls for consuming countries to diversify supply away from the Middle East, in part by leaning more heavily on Russia's reserves...
The solution for a world parched for oil, he [the United States treasury secretary] said, would come in market mechanisms to open oil producing regions to investment and more transparent energy deals, and improving ties between producing and consuming countries.

So what did we learn? Oil importing countries want cheaper oil, well they would wouldn't they. It's a bit like saying beer drinkers would like cheaper beer, hardly a revelation. Then the Russian finance minister says we should buy his oil not someone else's, well he would say that wouldn't he. And finally the solution for a world parched of oil — a limited commodity that will one day run out — is not to develop other energy forms, no the solution is more transparent energy deals. If I'm running out of money in my account, printing balance slips 20 times a day (thus increasing my account's transparency) might help a little, however putting more money in the account is generally the preferred long term solution.

I went to see a film yesterday. To be precise, I saw the new Woody Allen movie Match Point and I'm not really sure what I thought about it. Nobody was likable (not strictly speaking a problem), nobody was believable (ditto), the dialogue sounded wrong (more of a problem), Scarlett Johansson was pretty (much less of a problem), there wer far too many arias (a growing problem after the umpteenth one), London was almost as pretty as Scarlett (less of a problem), but I thought the end was kind of well done so I left the cinema feeling pretty good about the film. Ho hum, only a year and a bit till I get to remind myself daily that London doesn't always look pretty.

As much as I respect anybody who shoots a lawyer in the face, I kind of wish the shootee and shooter were reversed.

Oh and just so you know, apparently I have a dreamy accent. At least according to the girl working at the sandwich stall in the North Market I do.