Blackberried

Blackberried

Battered, bruised and incapable of texting, I have finally abandoned my four year old mobile phone. Well it abandoned me. It fell out of my pocket in a taxi in a foreign capital and it's lost irretrievably.

It was relief to learn that I could transfer the  same number I have had for a decade. The other good news was that I was due for an upgrade from Vodafone. Not unreasonably because I have been generously finance them for years. My beautiful shiny Blackberry is entirely free - apart from some extra monthly rental.

It's arrived at the right time.  MPs will be allowed to use them in the Chamber of the House of Commons soon. The fiction is that MPs concentrate attentively on every word that's said. It's never been true.Hours of backbench speeches are turgid and vacuous. But often it's unavoidable to suffer hours of tedium in order to get a speaking slot. That sinful waste of time can be in future usefully employed answering e-mails and surfing the net.

Blackberries liberated MPs and productively expand our workloads. Bless 'em

Soroptomistic

Candles were lit in Newport tonight to celebrate the international day world peace.

The splendid Soroptomist International of Newport selected the unusual venue of the re-furbished Green Houses in Belle Vue Park.

This band of dynamic professional and business women are committed to peace and bringing girls and women together to transform their lives.  Uniquely tonight's celebration kicked off with a thunderous, rhythmic concert of African drumming. Representatives of many nations lit their candles for peace.

The Soroptomists have ambitious goals in eliminating poverty, discriminations and promoting female equality. There is evidence of progress in  a generally sad world. Tonight was a significant inspiration and declaration  of hope for all who took part.

Twin hope
The success of the Georgian Rugby team in the world cup has not  gone un-noticed at Rodney Parade.

The city has been twinned with the second Georgian city Kutaisai for nearly twenty years. The bonds between the two cities are strong. Many Georgian groups have visited and studied here in Newport. Someone suggested this week that a Georgian player or two could add fresh strength to the Dragons.

Most of them play in France. But it's quite an idea.

Comments

[Paul Flynn]

You have me out of my depths on 'slamming quotas' Putting magic mushrooms into the same category of banned drugs as heroin was insane. But it gave instant gratification to the three main parties. Thanks for you comment.

My Blackberry is still behaving immaculately, cooing and purring agreeably.

[Steven_L]

Sales is no less agressive than politics, pot, kettle, black spring to mind.

I did think you were good on the magic mushrooms a couple of years back mind you, what a fiasco. I lost all confidence in the system watching that very farce unfold from within the public sector.

No-one is persecuting me, but if I don't slam my monthly quota of accounts they soon will be.

[Paul Flynn]

You seems to be sadly agressive. Why the need to'slam' people? Are you being persecuted by 'slammers.'?

What bad experience have you had? I found Vodafone people very helpful. There is a few quid extra on the rental but the phone was free.

[Steven_L]

Have you been slammed with photobundles yet? I doubt it, all MP's accounts are held on a seperate VIP database. I doubt VIP's get slammed. Of course if I ran the show VIP's would get slammed with all sorts of useless bundles, 'Video10' for £4.50 would be the one I would like to slam you with most of all

"Unfortunately we can only discount your video messages by 5p each, so instead of 10 costing you £5 they will cost you £4.50 every month from now on."

"OK"

I'd love to slam an MP with photobundles. It would give me more satisfaction than slamming a phones4u salesmen or traffic cop does.