I spend my mornings at work looking at what’s been going on in the world, or more specifically in the territories where we sell our developments. We post news daily on the company website about growth and prosperity in all our operational areas.

Unfortunately Bulgaria is one of them.

I do not mean to imply that there is no growth and prosperity in Bulgaria, only that the journalists seem to be of a particularly negative bent of mind. Where Dubai news sources run sickly sweet with praise of everything the Sheikh’s gaze falls upon, Bulgarian journalists will even report the Second Coming with an angle on the cost involved.

This has lead a colleague to call it ‘Dullgaria’

Examples of journalistic brilliance include snippets like

The Director of Bulgaria’s Customs Agency Asen Asenov, who has filed his resignation earlier on Wednesday, said Wednesday he had not taken the step under pressure….

What a way to lead an article, this guy is condemned already!

EC Speaker: EU Report on Bulgaria Will Not Be Delayed

Because they were expecting it to be!

and

“Bulgaria is not a country that needs support, Bulgaria is our partner”: This is the common impression of the talks Minister Petkov had in the U.S. Department of State

What? Bulgaria doesn’t need support?

And there is one guy who reports on traffic who loves the word ‘carnage’ so everyday it’s “carnage this” or “carnage that”. Fortunately for him, Bulgarian drivers being what they are there’s always some sort of carnage to talk about. Maybe he thinks it’s a car-related word, as in car-nage.

..born in Africa

No, I’m just moving office back to where I first began in the company a year and some ago, in the boiler room. So called because by some freak of nature it’s Amazon hot.

The “financial services arm” of our group will start with nary a bang this coming Tuesday, we have big hopes for it, fingers crossed it’ll go well. Or at the very least it won’t be a total balls-up!

I’ll have a long rest this weekend because I don’t know when next I’ll be able to.

Ok, the sweepstakes have been drawn in our office for tonight’s match.

My name came last out of the hat (well, a glass actually) so I didn’t have much choice at guessing a score; all the realistic ones were taken by the rest of the office so I plumped for 3:0 United after 90 mins.
However, due to some technical finaglings by our Finance Director (who lost out badly last time) coming last for the first part of the sweepstake meant I had first dibs at choosing the goalscorer, so I went for Ronaldo.

So, Ronaldo 3:0 it is.

“Well I looked my demons in the eye
Laid bare my chest said do your best destroy me
See I’ve been to hell and back so many times
I must admit you kinda bore me”

-Ray LaMontagne

A great sci-fi/fantasy book like no other; the SFX describes it as “An extremely unusual, familiar, yet at the same time extraordinarily original novel”

It’s the second I’ve read by the author Steph Swainson, the first was called ‘The Year of Our War’.

Of note is that the female author has gone with a male central character. And what a character. Addicted to drugs, an outcast, a rebel and a rogue, a thief and an Immortal. But fragile and immensely likeable.

Which made me think that perhaps this was a deliberate ploy to get to her mainly-male audience? I’m not even sure if there is a gender imbalance between readers of this genre.

Here’s an excerpt

“I never believed love existed. I wanted to smash it all into shards and cut myself with the sharpest.”

The European Space Agency will be recruiting citizens of the EU as astronauts from the 18th of this month. Apparently they need a lot more men (and women) for present and future projects. Which reminds me of the movie Starship Troopers where people were needed to fight giant bug-aliens.

“Fluent English required, Russian an asset”.

So I’ve ticked that box. But that’s the good news. The bad news for me is-

“Applicants … should exhibit personality traits such as high motivation, flexibility, team competence, empathy with others and emotional stability…”

“…should have demonstrated outstanding abilities in research, applications or the educational field, preferably including operational skills…”

“…characteristics expected of all applicants include a good memory and reasoning ability, concentration, aptitude for spatial orientation, and manual dexterity…”

I guess I could fake the “motivation” and “empathy” bits…

Surely these humanitarian agencies could have been more careful dropping food on towns? Jaysus!

Ok, Rock Radio 106.1 launches on Monday. It’s a Bank Holiday, so I’ll be heading down to the launch party with Bad Company playing live (for free) and other groups like Gun, Salford Jets, and… others.

The songs they’ve been playing have already been brilliant (except for occasional flashes of Bryan Adams) and the station has already replaced Classic Fm on my work commute.

Thanks to Ioannis and his impatient twiddling with his knob. His radio knob.