Well...I made it there and back!

To be honest, I wasn't really anticipating any problems for my Stockholm trip - the only real concern I had was whether I would ever see my luggage again after trustingly handing it over to the airport staff at Heathrow Terminal 5. As it turned out, the only irritation was the two hour delay on the outbound flight to Arlanda Airport, caused by too much air traffic - Sweden was proving to be a very popular destination! Apart from obtaining the autograph of Tennis legend Bjorn Borg at the Arlanda Luggage Reclaim, the rest of the trip down was without incident, and I was at my hotel at approximately 10:30pm Stockholm time.

I was based in a place called Gamla Stan, an island roughly at the centre of Stockholm. Forming the 'Old Town' of the city, it truly was a lovely place with cobbled roads and medieval looking streets. It also had some great pubs. One I frequented regularly was called 'Stampen’, which had live music every night. Even though it billed itself as a Jazz Pub, a lot of the music played was of the R & B styli played by the likes of Eric Clapton. All of it was good stuff though. The barmaid was also very attractive - she was part of the unusually high proportion of stunning blonde girls that the Swedes have in an endless supply. There seemed to be at least one of them in every cafe or restaurant I was in. At times it seemed unreal!

I didn't spend the whole time eating and drinking though. Getting around was made very easy by something called a Stockholm Card. This was a pass that could be picked up from the Tourist Office for about £40.00, that allowed you free public transport and admission for Museums and events over a period of forty eight hours after the card was first activated. I used it on the tubes and the trams, and I used it to go to a Midsummer’s Festival in a place called Skansen, which is where the picture above was taken. In my travels I quickly recovered the cost of the pass.

The only minor gripe I had was the living costs - with beer and food prices being a little above the level here in London, I found my money went fast - a round of drinks would not get much change from SEK200, or just under twenty pounds. It was the same storey for coffees and meals.

Despite the above whinge - I thoroughly enjoyed my time there. I would love to go again...though I will have to quite a bit of saving first!

If you want to pick up a DVD, CD, or even the odd bit of foodstuff, this place is really hard to beat in terms of venue, especially if you're from my part of SW London:

I find myself making the short drive from New Malden to Kingston-Upon-Thames most Saturday afternoons, and after a whistle stop tour of the stores (I am not a huge fan of shopping), I usually treat myself to a cup of coffee.

Being very much a creature of habit, I tend to stick to the same coffee shop, and for ages frequented a well known coffee vendor in the Bentals Centre. Over time, I got used to the taste and strength of the coffee, but after they employed a barista with a particularly disgusting and repellent manner, decided that it was time for a change.

Switching my custom to a cafe in the Eden Walk Parade turned out to be a good move - the Eastern European ladies that work there are a very pleasant contrast to the Neanderthal twat in the other place, though the coffee turned out to be a bit of a revelation. It's not that it tasted particularly unpleasant, but I found it to be incredibly strong - I was only half way through my Latte when I needed to get a cup of water to help me to finish it! It was only when I enquired at the counter afterwards that I found out that they use two shots of espresso in all of the coffee drinks, but, luckily for me, you can specify for only one to be used.

I am sure there's a moral in there somewhere.

You know it is truly the summer season when this returns:

 BB9 

The mother of all reality shows, Big Brother has been back on our screens for nearly a week. Although in its ninth incarnation, the premise of the show is pretty much the same - a group of contestants compete to stay in the Big brother house for as long as possible. Each week, they battle against the whims of their fellow house mates and the general public to survive being voted off, and the last person left in gets a cash prize of about £50,000.

From what I have heard so far, the prognosis for this series is not good - if the papers and radio talk shows are to be believed, some of the competitors are reputed to be the most obnoxious and irritating to date. The mix this year includes a man with a severe visual disability. Whilst the shows producers will undoubtedly claim that they are raising public awareness of this condition, my uneasy feeling is that his disablement is being exploited for entertainment value.

The above situation highlights why the Big Brother brand is in decline. To survive a reality show this tough you have to be a pretty extreme personality - the contestants picked tend to be a rag bag of misfits and egomaniacs, who when pushed together for twenty four hours will produce some video footage that can be usefully cobbled together into an hours show. This approach has had its successes. In Big Brother 1, the moment when 'Nasty' Nick was exposed as a liar and a cheat by his fellow house mates was riveting telly. The tension and hostility in the house that resulted in the infamous 'fight night' in Big Brother 5 was equally compelling viewing. The problem now is that that the contestants on the show are just too savvy about how the show works, and their over riding ambition is just to be seen on telly to get fame. When you get a collection of such individuals in a room, the end result tends to be more vacuous than entertaining.

If anyone can think of a good reason to tune into Big Brother 9 just let me know...

The count down has begun! In a few weeks time I will be heading north to this place for a few days holiday:

As breaks go, my trip to Stockholm is one that I am particularly looking forward to. I have always been curious about this part of the world, as a land that can boast the genesis of ABBA, Europe (the eighties pop group) and Ikea promises to be completely ecclectic. My knowledge of the place is not extensive though - apart from being able to name it as Swedens capital, that it is comprised of a number of islands, the only other things I can tell you about Stockholm is that it's population is just under 800,000 people, and that loads of blonde women live there. For me it is a place of mystery.

My main concern is the living costs. I remember someone at work saying that Stockholm was on a par with London in terms of things such as the price of eating out, but other rumours suggest that it is close to the £6.00 pounds a pint mark that is apparently typical in Scandanavia. I guess the truth will soon be revealed. Another thing I am trying to find out is what sort of things you can do in Stockholm - if anyone out there knows of interesting places in the town worth seeing, or beer festival type events worth going to, just drop me a line!

What with the after shock of the credit crunch, you would be forgiven for thinking that the challenges facing the Sales and Marketing industry have never been greater, but it looks as if a car dealership in the state of Missouri, USA has found a sure fire way to beat those high street recessionary blues.

This enterprising motor retailer offers the prospect of the following deal - buy any car from them and you qualify for a free gift of a hand gun or a $250 dollar petrol card. The handgun, a Kel-Tec .38 pistol, comes very highly recommended by the car vendor as it apparently fits very well into a pocket, and it has proved to be by far the most popular option, quadrupling the number of cars and trucks sold by the firm. You'll have to be quick though as this tantalising offer only lasts until the end of the month.

 Pocket sized? 

The success of this campaign poses some interesting questions for those marketing and sales folk - could this winning formula be applied to other products. Would the slogan 'Buy a burger, get a switch blade free' attract more people into our fast food emporiums? Could the tempting offer 'Tired of Chavs? Clean up more than just your kitchen with this free base ball bat' boost the sales of detergents? From the evidence above the approach does seem to hold some appeal.

It would be a shame if this form of campaign became popular - it wouldn't say that much about social values. I guess it's just a question of watching this advertising space...

A momentous event has occurred on May the 14th 2008 if you believe in these things:

The Ministry of Defence (MOD) has released no less than 160 formerly classified files detailing their investigations of UFO's (Unidentified Flying Objects) and the monitoring of extra-terrestrial activity. These are considered by some to be the UK equivalent of the 'X-Files', whose entry into the public domain has been long awaited by British UFO enthusiasts across the land.

The files contents sound pretty eclectic - there is an account of a person who claimed to have had 'relations' with an extra terrestrial from the tender age of seven, a happy state of affairs that dramatically ended when the unfortunate alien was killed by members of another intergalactic race. There is also the tale of the person who was astounded by the sight of a flying object with flashing coloured lights that was heading very rapidly towards...Heathrow Airport! Quelle suprise!

Since much of the evidence is of this high calibre, the information contained in the MOD data proves absolutely didly squat about the existence of alien life forms.

 Take me to your leader

Another thing that seems a bit of a croc is the alien visitation and abduction claims. These have an underlying assumption that a race of beings, capable of time and interstellar travel, will naturally choose the local hillbilly wino as a first point of contact on reaching Earth. Yeah right. An absolutely brilliant publicity stratagem.

Personally, I would love it if there was proof of something else being out there. It is certainly a statistical possibility, and I have always been a bit of a sci-fi fan since childhood, but judging by the evidence produced so far, the only hope I have of encountering aliens is by watching 'Star Wars'.

These little fellas have been the bane of my life during the summer months over the last few years:

They may be microscopic and look innocuous, but the weeping sore eyes, the runny nose, the general fatigue and the flu like symptoms they induce in me make pollen spores my all time public enemy number one. I developed Hay Fever at school as a teenager, where it conveniently kicked in whilst I was studying for my A levels. Since then, the start of summer has been marked by that familiar prickling sensation behind my eyes, and the never ending quest for snot free tissues.

Over the years I have been given quite a bit of advice about how to treat my pollen allergy. Taking Vitamin C apparently assists the bodies’ natural defences against the symptoms by boosting the immune system, but you do have to be careful when choosing your Vitamin C supplement, as some can cause diarrhoea - the last thing you want is another part of your body running uncontrollably! Another way, which sounds like much more fun, is to eat honey that is produced in your local area. According to the logic, locally produced honey contains small amounts of pollen spores from the grass strains in your area, which when consumed, allows your body to build up resistance to the pollen, effectively inoculating you against the harmful affects. As a pragmatist, I have found the most effective way to deal with my pollen phobia is the most unpolitically correct one - just do the drugs. I am not talking about heroine or crack cocaine here - just a tablet and a few squirts of nasal spray. They are relatively cheap, and for me they work quickly.

Admittedly, this year hasn't been too bad so far. Up to a week ago the arctic weather has meant the pollen count has been kept in check. The recent sunshine and higher temperatures have put paid to this, and that slight stinging around my eyes, and the beginning of an itching sensation in my nose suggest that an urgent trip to the chemist is in order...