The new smoking ban in England came into effect on Sunday 1st July 2007 and now it is illegal to smoke in public buildings and workplaces.

Now a lot of businesses, pubs and restaurants worried about loosing trade have been building semi-enclosed outside areas complete with electric or gas heaters where smokers can go in order to combat this.

Considering how our Government is urging us all to cut down on energy usage and reduce carbon omissions haven’t they just added to the problem?

By kicking the poor old smoker outside we now have many thousands more heaters trying to keep the smoking areas warm creating unnecessary green house gases.

I bet they never thought about that when they introduced it.

I saw this on the BBC news headlines:

“Prisoners released early to ease overcrowding in jails will get up to £172 compensation for loss of bed and board, the government said.”

How ridiculous is that? Not only are they being let off early they are being compensated for it as well.

Last weekend a few of my friends and I went to France for a couple of days on our motorbikes. It took weeks to plan and organise and on Friday morning we set off from Aylesbury to Folkestone to catch the Euro tunnel all looking forward to the break.

Well for one of us it wasn’t so much fun. Scoob broke down on the M20 only about 15 miles away from the Euro Tunnel with a puncture. Fortunately for him he had taken out breakdown cover so he called them out, explained “I’m on a motorbike with a puncture” and the recovery people said they would be with him within an hour.

The rest of us carried on to the Euro Tunnel and were going to wait for him there and whilst in the terminal tracked down a motorbike shop nearby that had a new tyre that could fit it for him and get him on his way.

So back to poor old Scoob stuck on the motorway, he called the breakdown people out at 12.20 and they duly arrived within the hour. Unfortunately for him although he told them I’m on a motorbike with a puncture they sent out a van unequipped to deal with him and said they would have to order another lorry that could transport his motorbike to the local motorbike shop to get his tyre changed. 6 and half hours later at 18.50 they returned. By this time the motorbike shop was closed so he gave up and got them to take him home eventually arriving just after 10pm.

To me that seems totally unacceptable. To be left stranded by the side of a busy motorway for 6 and half hours without food and drink is bad enough but he also lost the money he paid for his Euro Tunnel ticket and hotel room.

Okay they got to him within an hour but they did that knowingly that when they arrived they wouldn’t be able to do anything.

Why would a breakdown company do that? For an extra fee for 2 trips? To honour their commitment to arrive within an hour? Who knows?

I can’t believe that £400,000 has been spent on a logo for the 2012 London Olympics. It only took a year to make as well!

How ridiculous is that? All I can say is the people in charge of ordering a logo for £400,000 should be fired. Talk about being mugged.

Now the debate is about whether it is any good. What do you think about the new logo. Good value for money?

We recently went to Cyprus for a week in the hope of getting some sun and to chill out for a week. The hotel was fantastic (Riu Cypria Maris), an all inclusive deal with great food and plenty of drinks and I’d gladly recommend it to anyone.

The same cannot be said about First Choice Airways who we flew with. We booked with Thomas Cook and when the flight details came through I remember thinking that I’d seen some adverts somewhere about First Choice and their claim of more room for passengers in their planes so I was quite pleased.

Well things change fast. On arrival at Luton airport 2 hours before take-off it took us 1 hour and 40 minutes to check in. We then had 20 minutes to get through security and then to the gate. This was really cutting it fine.

Anyway, onto the plane and yes I would concede their seats are bigger (wider) than most charter airlines but what they fail to mention is there is little leg room for anyone other than a midget and the seats are like sitting on concrete. The flight was about 4 and half hours and after around 15 minutes I had to get some pain killers from my girlfriend. It really was that uncomfortable.

Coming back from Cyprus the airport check-in wasn’t so much of a problem. They had 5 desks open rather than the 2 at Luton and surprisingly they didn’t seem too bothered about security there. I was surprised as an EU member country there was none of the put your liquids in clear bags and the guy checking boarding passes just waived everyone through.

The flight home was as uncomfortable as before (no surprise there) and to top it all when we eventually got to Luton at about 1.30 in the morning my bag wasn’t there. It took us until about 3.00 am to find someone to report my bag missing too.

Fortunately they found it the next day but all in all First Choice I would say you would be my Last Choice.