Hey big spenders!

A report on www.smh.com.au this morning has revealed what British taxpayers fork out yearly for the Royal family. Are you ready? Wait for it….

A whopping 41.5 million pounds, roughly $85 million Australian. Apparently this is an increase of 1.5 million pounds on the previous year.

According to SMH: “Public money is used to pay the costs of travel and running homes used by the royal family, including the Queen’s Buckingham Palace residence. The accounts don’t include the cost of security provided by the police and army. Figures showed travel costs rose to 6.5 million pounds from 6.2 million pounds.”

So pick me up and dust me off, is it just me or is that a joke! We’re all banging on about the GFC and here’s the Royal family costing Britain $85mil a year!

So a little bit closer to home, seen as I don’t live in the UK, we often hear the media telling us what our hard earned dollars are being used for by Aussie politicians, but really at the end of the day what can WE do about it? Short of getting ourselves elected to parliament, I’m afraid not much at all.

Do you ever wonder what your tax dollars are being used for? Do you get frustrated? Or do you even care?!

What’s holding you back?

I’m sure there’s millions of us everyday that think of something they’d love to develop or create, but just never seem to do it.

I’ve come up with a cracker of business idea, if I do say so myself. What is it? Nope sorry, top secret if I told you I’d have to kill you!

So I’ve got this great idea but am I going to do anything about it?! I’d love to say yes, but I cannot guarantee that in 3 months time I would have got any further than where I am right now; sitting here with a great idea that’s still just that, a great idea.

So what is it that stops us from pursuing our ‘dreams’ or taking the plunge and doing something we’ve always wanted to do?

I can think of a few things.

One: life just gets in the way. We’ve all got busy lives, working, families, working, did I mention working?! And when you finish work at the end of the day/week the last thing you want to do is go home and do more work.

Two: Fear. Fear of the unknown, fear of failing. My great idea would cost a little bit to set-up but if it came off the rewards could be huge. So why don’t I do it? There are no guarantees in life in anything really and that slight possibility that it could go horribly wrong is often just enough to stop people from taking the next step.

Three: Being uneducated. Really when looking at the big picture of my idea I actually know very little if anything about the industry and where I’d actually begin. This lack of information can be a real put off if you don’t even know where to start.

What am I going to do I hear you ask? Well.

One: if everyone with a great idea used the excuse of life’s too busy & never developed their idea then no one would develop anything! So I’m going to suck it up and get over it!

Two: Fear of failing can be a great motivator. If I’m going to take the plunge then I’m going to do it whole-heartedly to make sure that I don’t fail.

Three: Google is your friend! If you can’t find something on Google then you’re not looking hard enough!

So have you got an idea you’ve been sitting on? Go on give it a go, you never know, you might just surprise yourself!

Well, I’m off to Google things until my hearts content. Check back to see if I can make my dream become a reality!

The Ex-files

I was recently reading an aricle on Cleo titled: “Why Brad Pitt’s mum prefers Jen”. Probably a load of crap but it got my attention anway. Ex partners are funny things. If you get along people think you’re strange, if you don’t get along people think you are being petty. So basically you’re in a no win situation right?

Maybe it’s my split personality but I often waver between the 2 and constantly change my opinion on the subject.

This is what the article had to say:

“It’s an age old question that plagues even the best of us — what happens if you win Mr Right’s heart but not his mum’s? In the latest instalment of the Aniston vs Jolie debate, a source has revealed that Brad Pitt’s mum still prefers his ex wife Jennifer Aniston. Now! magazine has reported that Brad’s mother, Jane Pitt, still thinks of Jen as her ideal “daughter-in-law”. (Ouch!)

“Jane’s seen, first hand, how difficult Angelina is,” a source revealed. “She never comes to visit the family in Missouri and is always prickly on the rare occasions they have got together.” “Jennifer was the total opposite – charming, friendly and the perfect daughter-in-law. She always made time to be an active part of the family, whereas Angie just turns her nose up.”

And if you think this is awkward, it gets worse. An insider of the Pitt family has told the magazine that Jen “remains an active part of the family” and continues to contact Jane Pitt “at least a couple of times a week”, never missing a birthday or a special occasion. We’re beginning to understand why Ange has been sending Jennifer Aniston angry texts to “back off”…

So after reading this I can see both sides, but of course if you’re on one of the sides experiencing the situation you’re opinion would be different. I have indeed been in Angelina’s situation, not to the same extent according the above reports! But when someone has spent a long time with someone I guess it’s only natural for them to stay in touch with the family. But on the other hand how does that make the new person feel, while they’re still getting to know their other half’s family this other person is still hanging around.

I’ve heard nice stories of how people are great friends with their ex’s and are their new partner is friends with them too and I’ve also heard horror stories about ex’s who cause nothing but trouble!

My opinion, that’s what we’re all here for right! If you’re lucky enough to have the nice situation and not the horror story one then there’s nothing wrong with being friendly, but if you have to, stand your ground!

The moral of this story? I think I just really wanted an excuse to post a picture of Brad Pitt on here!!