Have you ever bought Milk from the shop and when you get home its turned sour!! It was disgusting!! Maybe it was the heat in the car or maybe it just didnt like my driving!! Gasping for a cup of tea!

Wow the weather is great right now..soon it will be far too hot for me. So I will be jetting off the Island for a colder climate! Whats your plan for the summer?  English born I love the climate here until June..then when the temperature soars so does my patience! So many tourists on the roads makes for road ragers and silly automotive mistakes! Anyway thats me for now!!

"A new window of opportunity has opened up" as Greek Cypriot leader Demetris Christofias and Turkish Cypriot leader Mehemt Ali Talat try to bring an end to the division through renewed peace talks, said Carl Bildt, whose country will take over the European Union presidency in the second half of 2009.

Speaking at a photo exhibition on Sweden's contribution to the UN Peacekeeping Mission in Cyprus (UNFICYP), Bildt noted that after the tearing down of the Berlin Wall, Cyprus remains the last divided country in Europe with its capital city Nicosia also partitioned by the UN-controlled buffer zone.

Sweden was among the first western countries that sent peacekeeping contingents to Cyprus in 1964, when the UNFICYP was established to prevent further fighting between the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities on the island.

The UNFICYP is one of the longest-running UN peacekeeping missions in the world.

"Peacekeeping can keep things stable, but it cannot create a peace," Bildt pointed out.

It is up to the leaders of the two communities to bring "true peace" with the help of the UN and the EU, he added.

The eastern Mediterranean island has been divided since 1974 when the Turkish military intervened and occupied north of the island following a coup by a group of Greek officers.

After more than three decades of division and repeated failures in reunification efforts, the talks between Christofias and Talat, two left-wing and pro-settlement community leaders, have been regarded as the unique chance to bring an end to the Cyprus problem.

A whopping 900 Barclays shareholders showed up to the AGM this morning.

Although for some of them, it was less about protecting their investment and more about filling their bellies.

In the queue to go through security, an elderly couple told me, "Sometimes they don't have refreshments here, which is awful.

But when they do, they are really nice."

And the foodies dominated the question and answer session too.

"I'd like to thank the chairman for the refreshments today" commented one at the end of his lengthy question.

What about holding the board to account - accounting procedure? Leveraged debt valuations? Any further write downs? That dismal share performance over the last year?

One elderly gentleman was trying to ask a question about share price (in an admittedly slightly verbose manner), only to be heckled with "hurry up its lunchtime!"

That got a laugh and no doubt more than a couple of board members silently felt the same way, but the fact is, this is indicative of an important point.City Minister, Lord Myners has talked a lot recently about investors taking their responsibility to scrutinise and hold company boards to account, seriously.

He went so far, in his speech to the National Association of Pension Funds, as to suggest they had been neglectful up until now, in that respect. (Which felt a little like shifting the blame for the banking crisis!) but perhaps he has a point.

If shareholders see the AGM as a chance to have a free cuppa and some cake and don't even bother to vote on the resolutions at the end of the meeting then how can they complain that those in charge have failed them?

More importantly, their apathy can end up effecting non-shareholder taxpayers too, who have to pick up the pieces and the bill when it's all too late!

A respectful request: Shareholders, earn your lunch!

Sixteen children have been killed in explosions in Pakistan over the weekend - 12 of them while playing with a football which contained a bomb.
The blasts were in the northwest region where violence has increased as Taliban fighters extend their reach.

The football explosion happened in a village in the mountains of Lower Dir. The children, five of them girls, found the ball as they were returning from school. Seven victims belonged to the same family.

Pakistan's Interior Ministry chief, Rehman Malik, blamed the Taliban saying: "The Taliban have exposed their real face by killing innocent children."

He said investigators would check whether the children were targeted because their families had refused to let the Taliban take them for training, including as suicide attackers.

The swine flu virus that has killed more than 80 people in Mexico may mutate into a "more dangerous" strain, the World Health Organisation has warned.
"It's quite possible for this virus to evolve... when viruses evolve, clearly they can become more dangerous to people," said Keiji Fukuda, of the global health watchdog.

Mr Fukuda also called for international vigilance as health experts wait to see whether the virus will turn into a worldwide pandemic.

Over 1,300 people are now thought to have contracted the virulent H1N1 swine influenza after it mutated into a form that spreads from human to human.

The Mayor of New York has confirmed that eight school children are suffering mild symptoms after becoming infected.

There have been at least 12 other confirmed cases in Texas, Ohio, California and Kansas.

The White House has declared a public health emergency but told the public "not to panic".

Sky US correspondent Greg Milam said: "It's important to realise that those affected have only had mild symptoms, and all have recovered or are recovering.

"But the authorities do believe that this outbreak will get worse.

Just a week or so ago I was grabbing my fleecy blanket and getting cosy in front of the televison. Now, the weather is changing and I can get ready for those hot summer nights that I craved for in the bleak and damp winter we just had.  

Time though for the summer dieting to begin, it won't be long before the bikini will need to be aired!

Does anyone know a good crash diet apart from cigarettes and lots of coffee?

Somali pirates skimmed across the Indian Ocean and muscled their way aboard a US food aid ship yesterday, it had all the hallmarks of a depressingly familiar scene: a hostage cargo ship, a vulnerable crew and a well-organised team of brigands with the firepower and knowhow to seize a ship and demand a fat ransom.
As the dramatic tussle on the high seas played out last night, it became clear this was a startlingly different confrontation to the regular string of hijackings and hostage-takings that have plagued the waters off the Horn of Africa in recent months.
The 20-member crew, all Americans, had been training for such a hijack and put that into action, foiling the pirates. Although apparently unarmed and facing four pirates with Kalashnikovs, a ship's officer said they had managed to overpower one and take him captive, and recapture the ship.
But the remaining three pirates took the ship's captain, Richard Phillips, with them as a hostage. The crew today are pinning their hopes of his rescue on the destroyer USS Bainbridge, which has arrived at the scene, and half a dozen other vessels speeding to the rescue.

Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is expected to claim major progress in his country's nuclear programme at a critical moment in US-Iranian relations.

The announcement, to mark Iran's nuclear technology day, will come as fresh attempts are made to restart talks over Iran's enrichment of uranium for the first time since Barack Obama took office.

Yesterday senior officials from the US, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China instructed the EU foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, to make contact with his counterpart in Tehran. The group also welcomed the Obama administration's decision to fully engage in the talks.

Ahmadinejad said his country would welcome talks with Obama if the US president proved "honest" in extending a hand to Iran. But dialogue will depend more on what the Iranian president announces today. "I will have good nuclear news for the honoured Iranian nation," Ahmadinejad said. Reports suggest he will claim Iran has perfected techniques for the manufacture of uranium fuel.

But David Albright, a former UN weapons inspector, said if that was all Ahmadinejad claimed, there would be relief in the US administration, which fears Iran could begin to use new centrifuges at its Natanz uranium enrichment plant, bringing it closer to bomb-making capabilities.

Its seeme to be that after a period in which spring sunshine breaks in the Canaries or even Florida became increasingly common, this year's Easter holiday season, which begins today, has taken on a decidedly retro flavour!

A combination of financial worries, a weak pound and a general, longer-term trend towards domestic breaks, will see millions eschew foreign destinations in favour of relaxation closer to home.

While many will still jet set across Europe and the US, around 10m cars are taking to the roads while the rail network will handle 1 million more passengers than this time last year. Bookings to classic British holiday destinations such as Blackpool, Windermere and Scarborough have doubled from 2008, according to rail operators, while many camping and caravan sites are already booked out. Bournemouth, meanwhile, has seen a sudden upsurge in inquiries about beach huts.