News of the day

Here is today's headline:

Ashes: Siddle hat-trick shocks England at Gabba

Any idea what they are talking about? Does the byline help?

Peter Siddle took a hat-trick on his 26th birthday and a Test-best 6-54 as England's batting was dismantled on the opening day of the first Ashes Test.

How about the rest of the article?

England had reached 197-4 before Siddle had Alastair Cook caught at slip for 67, and then removed Matt Prior and Stuart Broad with his next two balls.

Ian Bell hit out, making a fine 76, but England were all out for a modest 260.

Shane Watson and Simon Katich safely negotiated six overs as Australia replied with 25-0 in Brisbane.

Australia, by contrast, went into the match on the back of three straight Test defeats - but the Gabba has long been a fortress and England made poor use of winning an important toss.

Captain Andrew Strauss lasted just three balls, Jonathan Trott (29) fell when threatening a major innings, and it was a similar case with Kevin Pietersen (43).

Cook, who put on 76 with Pietersen and 72 with Bell, played his part but it was his wicket that triggered the Siddle-inspired collapse that left Australia firmly on top.

I find cricket fascinating only because it so obtuse.  They could be writing about anything.  They could be writing in another language, it would be just as impenetrable.

Other headlines today:
  - Despite announcing record cuts to most services, the UK government announced it was giving £8 billion (about US $12 billion) to the railways, despite record levels of dissatisfaction, delays, overcrowding, and safety records.  Yesterday, Network Rail announced theThameslink project was going to be 2 years later than expected, but by 2018 they should be able to ease the overcrowding.
  - The government also announced it was spending £2 million to define a 'happiness index,' something the last government also looked into but abandoned as 'too flaky.'
  - London police were called to task yesterday for being 'too aggressive' in response to student protests.  Two weeks ago, London police were called to task for being 'too lenient' in response to student protests.
  - The weather report is calling for snow this weekend, the earliest snowfall in 17 years.  They expect freezing temperatures for a fortnight.  (That's two weeks.)
  - A comprehensive health report indicates doctors in the South-west are three times more likely to amputate diabetics' limbs than doctors in the South-east.  Nobody knows why.

And, of course, endless articles on the upcoming royal nuptials.  The only information I deemed relevant was that since April 29 -- which has already been declared a national holiday in England -- is between the 4-day Easter weekend and the 3-day Spring bank holiday weekend, I can take an 11-day holiday with only 3 days off work.  Unfortunately, I suspect a lot of other people are making similar plans...

Royal wedding bun throw in doubt

As I'm sure everyone in the world has heard, there's going to be a Royal Wedding.  However, in one of those stories you couldn't possibly make up, officials in Abingdon County (in Oxfordshire, about 60 miles west of London) are concerned because building works on the County Hall Museum may prevent its tradition of hurling cakes from the top of the building into the crowd below.

According to the BBC, It is thought the custom started in 1760 with the coronation of George III, and is a way to reward the public on special occasions.

Officials are hopeful, however, that once the wedding date is announced, they will be able to schedule the work so civic leaders can get on the roof on that day.

Only in England...

Funding

The funding finally seems to be in place, although it has been a ridiculous week.

Originally, we were just taking out a simple mortgage on the new property, but a chance conversation changed all that.  Unlike the States, interest on your primary home is not tax-deductible here.  However, we found out interest on a rental property is.  Since we're planning on renting out Jessica's flat, a back-of-the-envelope calculation showed that by shifting equity from the flat to the house could save us £15,000/year!

So we told the mortgage advisor (who probably should have told us about this in the first place) to rip up the first mortgage application and start over.  Last Saturday, we went to sign the final paperwork, and everything fell apart.

All I did was ask if the bank would waive the £699 fee.  The mortgage advisor called Monday to say they wouldn't waive the fee...and the interest rate was significantly higher than expected...and they wouldn't loan us as much as we we needed!  Jess and I were already quite annoyed with her, and this was the last straw.  She had taken nearly three weeks to get the new loan, she obviously hadn't talked to the bank, and she was now costing me money.  Two weeks ago I had to argue with her about basic math (she got confused between deposit and loan amount), and we'd both had to sit through endless hours of unrelated paperwork and 'options' (i.e. add-ons).  It was too much, and with a few choice words, I told her we'd go direct to the bank.

And we did.  In fact, I was at work until 8pm that night filling out a mortgage application over the phone. When I got home, however, I checked online and found a much better rate with another bank...but it was good for one week only, and the bank only worked through mortgage consultants!

So I had to call the advsior back and eat some crow.  It was already Tuesday, the application had to be in by the end of the week, she was off on Thursday, and we were out of town Friday!  We met on Wednesday to sign the paperwork, and she promised to come in on her day off to ensure there weren't any problems.  On Friday -- just as we got on the motorway -- she called to say she'd lost the paperwork.

Fortunately, we had time to stop at our hotel, and they had a fax machine so we were able to get it back on track.  The surveyor (appraisor, to you) will be coming tomorrow, so I presume it is all taken care of.  At least I hope so, because the rate has gone from 4.25% to 4.8%, which equates to over £1,000/year!