Floating around in a bubble

It's a good job bubbles float otherwise I may have been in danger of drowning this week.

I don't read the newspapers, partly because the general concensus amongst my peers is so varied that I'm almost scared to choose one for fear of being sneered at, but mainly because most of the news in the world just doesn't interest me. Rightly or wrongly I have no interest at all in politics, because there's nothing I can do about how the country is run, for all our moaning about the state of the country what do I know about running a country? Nothing. And I'm not egotistical enough to want to have all that power. And I'm way too lazy to want that kind of responsibility - let's see - Prime Minister - Pros, get to make decisions about what everyone has to do in the country, get to walk around importantly and be all "Look at me I'm the man" Cons - no time on the daily agenda for watching TV.

And let's be honest, TV is way higher on my list of priorities than most things!

But not the News! Because let's face it, how much of the news is genuine? If I start watching the news or reading papers then I'll start getting all hung up on what to believe, they say "You can't believe what you read in the paper" So why bother reading it at all??

The only paper I ever bother reading is the Crosby Herald, my local paper, full of stories about what's going on down my street, in my village, what new cafe just opened and when the next line dancing class starts. It's real genuine news stories about real people in my area. Sometimes there's a bit of scandal and sometimes there's a feel good story about some celebrity coming to open a childrens centre. But no one has to make up any stories in order to keep their job. No one has to create scandals.

If I want to learn anything further afield I watch programmes like Mock the Week or Charlies Brookers Newswipe, so I can learn what's going on in the world without all the bullshit!

I generally only know what's going on because other people read papers and talk about it. I didn't give a crap about John terry having an affair with Wayne Bridge's bird, of the scandal, they were meant to be friends... thousands, in fact probably millions of couples break up all over the world because one of them has had an affiar...sometimes even with a best mate...does it get splashed across the news of the world? No it doesn't. Who really cares about people having affairs? John Terry should be front page news for his footballing successes or failures - what he does in his personal life should be kept private, and he certainly shouldn't be penalised professionally for it. Now I'm not a JT fan at all, I hate Chelsea but same goes for anyone else - I don't care who Jordan married, my mate got married last year but to my knowledge that didn't make the news either.

The reports on the John Terry affiar were all about what people were saying and very little about the affair itself. Coz when people aren't prepared to talk about something the press just turn that into the news story instead...I mean for Gods sake - is this really what the general public are interested in?

I heard a story recently that there was going to be some big Steven Gerrard scandal emerging, then it was reported he'd got his wife's sister pregnant, and then we heard actually his wife doesn't even have a sister and it was all a hoax...SERIOUSLY have you vultures got nothing better to do than subject the worlds population to pointless irrelevant stories??

But the fact is, all this pointless news has ruined my ability to learn any genuine newsworthy facts. For example I was probably the only person in the country who didn't know who Raoul Moat was. My boss looks at me in dispair on a daily basis when I say "Who?" or "Oh why what's happened?"

So yeah, as a result of wandering around in my own little news free bubble I had no idea that the street next to mine was flooded on Tuesday, and off I went driving to Tescos only to get stuck in a police controlled tail back of traffic.

But it doesn't inspire me to start paying attention to the news...as far as I can see the only news pages that tell any truth are the TV guides.

El Nino

I don't know why there's so much debate of the 'will he stay or will he go' variety surrounding Fernando Torres.

The argument for him leaving appears to be:
• Liverpool aren't in the champions league so he won't stay at a club where he can't achieve his ambition of a champions league medal.

The way I see it, and I'm just a girl and should maybe stick to topics I'm more familiar with such as knitting and kittens, but didn't we kind of put all our eggs in one basket? We expected to win the league last season based on our previous season with Torres scoring for fun. But then he spent most of last season injured or recovering from operations. And when he did play it was a desperate measure and he got brought on before he was fit enough and guess what happened... Oh yeah he got injured again.

We have placed so much expectation on Torres working miracles for us that when he was on the bench we criticised Rafa for not playing him, but when he comes on unfit and is set back again we moan at Rafa for playing him too soon. Rafa couldn't do right for doing wrong where Torres was concerned.

When he's fit Torres has such an impact on the way the rest of the team plays. They look more confident and they play better. But if we are going to improve on last seasons dreadful performance we have to stop relying on one man to do it... Especially if that one man appears to be made of glass.

Here's why I have never thought Torres was leaving Liverpool this season... If Torres is fit all season any team he plays for is capable of winning whatever league they compete in... He wants a champions league medal but getting one by sitting on the bench injured at Man City won't be much of an achievement...

Torres strikes me as a player with a love if the game and a passion and loyalty to his team. Joining a team that has ruthlessly bought their success by a massive cash injection won't give him the same pride as winning with a team that have the history and passion of Liverpool.

And it seems to me that if Torres had been fit all season we would probably have finished in the top 4 and if nothing else he'll at least want to put that right this season.

We need to stop relying on one player... We need more players that can effect the game on the pitch and score like it's a hobby! We can't just hope Torres is fit and then feel sorry for ourselves when he's injured and we start losing.

But we also need to stop worrying about whether he'll stay or go. No player is bigger than the team. If Torres leaves we'll replace him with someone else capable of scoring goals.

But there's just as much chance he'll stay and spend half the season injured again.

So why would he bother leaving? Im sure he'd rather be fit and earn his medals with us than win them from the treatment room somewhere else.

How to look good on paper.

So I am at the grand old age where I'm thinking about the fact that I would like to get on the property ladder. But wait. I can't. Because through my own naivety or possibly, stupidity I took out a few loans and creditcards back in the day when I earned a low wage but lived in the most expensive city in England. Now I live in one of the most deprived cities in England and earn good money...but due to the debt incurred by the former I'm blacklisted.

When I moved back to Liverpool 5 years ago I was unemployed for 6 months. I was withdrawing cash from my credit card to put into the bank to cover the monthly loan and credit card payments. It was a big old mess and in the end, when my debt repayments were 82% of my monthly income, I signed up with a debt management company to help me out. Of course back then I was only taking home £600 a month. 4 years later after progressing well in my career I'm much better off. But I was warned at the start of the program that it would go on my credit report and I wouldn't be able to get any future credit.

So out of interest I applied to look at my credit report with Experian. And get this...I had a credit score of 842 - FAIR! apparently only 38% of the population have a higher than fair score. That doesn't sound so bad!
And I checked my report and there's nothing on there that even refers to my old debts. It shows a quite reliable person who pays her mobile phone contract and her monthly bank fee on time.

So where's my badcredit gone? Coz trust me - I'm still paying it off!

And what does that mean? If I applied for a mortgage would I not be laughed at as I'd imagined I would?

Well anyway. I'm a long way off saving money for a deposit and such like as yet and when I do I dare say I will have finally repaid all my debts.

But still I'm feeling much happier about my credit rating/score safe in the knowledge that I'm not on the mythical blacklist afterall!!