Spice up your life!

(2026 edit - This is one of the oldest posts I found in the archive of this blog. It dates back to 2007 when I was a multifunctional night worker employed by a large American company, in Brighton, Sussex.)

Wow, a whole four nights at work have passed by so very slowly, two nights of boredom and two nights of semi-boredom! It's not been the busiest of weeks at work, which is good in one way, meaning we can relax a little, but in another way, it seems like each passing hour is 120 minutes long! 

While I've either been working or sleeping, the world has carried on revolving, and democracy in Burma has been defeated yet again. The military crackdown in Burma is a reminder that street demonstrations and protests do not necessarily lead to success for the people. The military leaders in Burma have seen that the popular uprisings for a more democratic way of life have been squashed, well, at least for the time being. Some say China was partly responsible; the crackdown was like something from a Chinese handbook on how to halt protests. 

About 4,000 monks have been rounded up in the past week as the military government has tried to stamp out pro-democracy protests, led mainly by these compassionate people. The monks are being held at a disused race course and a technical college. Sources from a government-sponsored militia said they would soon be moved away from Rangoon. The monks have been disrobed and shackled; it's believed they will be moved away from the public spotlight, where they will either be forced into hard labour or executed. 

These demonstrations and protests have been the most serious challenge to the military leadership for more than two decades. And what have we done? Well, the rest of the world has stood back and watched; occasionally our leaders have uttered words akin to 'Oh that's bad, you shouldn't do that', but that was about as far as it went. Oh, how easy it is to be complacent, how easy is it to do nothing? 

Today has been a relaxing day for me; however, not the same for another of my work colleagues, David, who had a bit of a 'Spice' Meltdown! Now, our David is a bit of a 'Spice Girls' fan to say the least. I mean, he once had to be dragged away by security one time when he refused to let go of Mel C! Anyhow, he got an email saying he was one of the lucky ones and was able to get tickets for the upcoming tour. He had internet problems and various other events seemed to transpire against him, but he's got some, he thinks. But, the world of the Spice doesn't stop turning there, oh no, after talking to David, I turned on my PC, checked my messages, I too got the Spice email, and now, I'm the proud owner of 4 Spice Girls tickets for one of their shows at the O2 arena in London in January! They are £80 a pop, and I don't even like the Spice Girls, well not that much anyway! Mind you, I'm kinda looking forward to going to the O2 Arena, which is inside what we used to call the Millennium Dome. I haven't been back there since the millennium, so it will be cool to see how much it's changed! So Spice Up Ya World! 

It was rather strange, in the media it was reported that the reunion concerts sold out in 38 seconds, but they went on sale at 9am, and I purchased mine just after 6pm! But hey, even if I don't go, I can always flog the tickets, apparently they are currently on sale on eBay for nearly £900 each! Now that's one hell of a profit! 

Have you ever seen that TV prog called Made on MTV and other channels? It's all about these normal American kids who want to do something else or become something else. There was this young lad, who was a little nerdy and wanted to become a B-boy and breakdancer, the main reason was so he could get confidence and pull girls. Another in the series featured a girl who wanted to become a bike racer, so they worked hard on her cycling, and the reason she wanted to get a guy. So far, all the Made's I've seen feature young high school students who want to do something different in order to become more popular, turning their backs on their true friends during the process. It seems so darn shallow to me. I mean, is this what young people, our future decision makers and possible leaders, are like? Completely selfish, shallow and want other people to make them popular? Is there hope for a world? Does every generation hate the one before and fear for the future of the next one? Ya never know, maybe they will make a Made, where someone wants to do something positive, for the benefit of others rather than themselves! Maybe it could happen, but I doubt it! 

So that so-called singer Britney Spears has been ordered by the courts to hand over her two young children to her former husband, Kevin Federline of K-Fed! He's been given custody of Sean Preston whose just two, and one-year-old Jayden James, until further notice. Thank goodness for that; at least now Britney can completely self-destruct without the children being harmed or put in mortal danger. I mean, if they were still living with her, she might start singing to them, which is dangerous enough, and that's surely reason to take the poor little buggers away! Or, am I being too harsh? I suppose, being charitable, this at least gives her the space she needs to get the help she deserves.

Image by Arthur Halucha from Pixabay

52 two years ago, the Hollywood film star James Dean was killed in a road accident in California, USA. The 24-year-old actor was behind the wheel of his German-made Porsche Spider sports car when it was involved in a head-on collision with another car 30 miles east of Paso Robles on 30 September 1955. Dean, who was dead on arrival at the hospital, had suffered a broken neck along with other injuries, had only just filmed a road safety commercial in which he urged drivers to slow down and not drive too fast! The young star only finished working on his third and what would be destined to become his last film, Giant, the day before the accident. Can you believe James Dean only made three films, East of Eden, Rebel Without A Cause and Giant? The latter two, not having been released at the time, yet within a year of his death, nearly four million people had joined his fan club, and his studio was receiving around 4,000 letters every day. Even now, his posters, photos and the very image of rebellious youth continue to make in excess of £100 million every year. 

Of course, like any cult hero, there have been conspiracy theories and rumours, one of which began shortly after his death that he was not actually killed in the car crash but was hideously deformed and is still alive in a Californian hospital. If that is the case, it has to be the best-kept secret this world has ever known! 

Another story was from Alec Guinness, who is said to have had dinner with James earlier that week on Alec's first visit to Hollywood.  and warned him directly, "Please do not get into that car at all, by 10 o'clock next Thursday, you'll be dead, if you get into that car".  It is a tale that the actor even repeated on Parkinson!

The car itself, which had the horrible name of 'Little Bastard', has also had some 'way-out' tales about it that have gained light over the years, not least that two parts salvaged from the wreck were used in other cars that then went on to crash. Years later, a garage it was in burnt down. Other tales include a mechanic's leg being crushed as the car was being transported to another exhibition display, which promptly collapsed after it was set up. According to gossip, there was another story going around after a bloke broke his arm whilst trying to steal the steering wheel. I have no idea what the truth is; all I can remember is that the car went missing en route from Miami to Los Angeles in 1960, and nobody knows where it is to this day!