The Antique Blogger | Matures With Age

Are posters like this really necessary?

I know they are trying to reach out to certain people who need this sort of information, but for the rest of the population who are in control of their sexual health, these adverts are awful. I literally cringe whenever I see one, call me squeamish but it's true; I just don't want to think about genital warts treatment!

I wonder if there have been any complaints, Ofcom are usually quite good at getting rid of horrible or bad-taste adverts, but this is in the public interest so I don't know what they'd do about it.

I hope the poster does serve its purpose though. If STIs are so rife as these organisations like to say they are, people, particularly young people, need to be aware and take care of themselves. I know I wouldn't want to end up dealing with what they're talking about in that poster!

Photo: mugley (Flickr)

Skinny jeans are the bane of my life! They always look so good on models and the celebs in magazines but they never look good on!

They either make you look like you have thunder thighs or that you are short and stubby! Even though I know this every time I still WANT them!

Sometimes heels improve the way they look and a nice flattering top always work well too. I did however manage to buy a nice pair of G STAR jeans which actually fit very well.

I even bought them before trying - so was taking a huge risk, especially with my track record of jeans!

I got these ones:

They are from Asos and were £87 instead of £137 which I thought was a bargain! I have teamed them with a mega pair of heels and a nice top to go out with at the weekend, but I am sure when I see the pictures from the night I’ll regret getting them! Oh well!

Picture: asos.com

My latest bug-bear: short term loans.

These blasted adverts are always on the TV telling people if they're struggling to make ends meet, then they can get a same day loan or a pay day loan from Pay Day Lender, Quick Quid and Wonga.com to help them out.

But it's hardly helping them out! Most of them have a minimum of 2000+% APR! I saw one that was over 4000% this week! What a huge rip off that is!

I'm always getting these credit card and loan offers through the post that offer 0% APR - a figure I can much more easily get to grips with. It just feels like the people that are likely to take out these loans are the ones who really cannot afford to pay them back.

And then they must get absolutely huge charges and an interest on top! I hope I never need one.

Photo: tstadler (Flickr)

I read an article this morning on Yahoo entitled 'Why I can’t wait for the Royal Wedding to be over', and I might say that writer Richard Evans' views almost mirror my own.

While I'm very happy for the couple and will most likely sit and watch the wedding at home tomorrow morning, the build up and media chit chat about every tiny aspect of the thing is as annoying as those awful TV adverts telling you to compare electricity prices online.

But what's most annoying is the way so many companies are exploiting it for their own gain. It's great that the wedding will bring tourism and money into the country, but it's all getting a bit ridiculous.

You can now pay £10 for a 'limited edition' royal wedding Oyster card, you can eat a Papa John's Royal Wedding pizza - with toppings made into a picture of the couple - and more ridiculously, you can buy royal wedding poop scoops and toilet rolls!

I will most certainly be glad to wave goodbye to all this media frenzy!

Photo: Magnus D (Flickr)

I was reading through the finance section of the paper recently, and found an interesting piece on the turbulent few years of stockbroking company whose struggles led to a £1.4 million 'black hole'.

Imagine, a £1.4 million 'black hole'! Where did ALL that money go? Most of us get annoyed if we lose any small amount of money, get a £60 parking fine or have to pay a bank charge, but £1.4 million? It's unimaginable!

The company, Rowan Dartington were fined £511,000 by the Financial Services Authority for the mess-up, and some have pointed to record keeping problems plaguing the company, and the succession of managing directors coming and going from the company as leading to the huge losses.

Whatever led to it should be strongly investigated and regulated, even to a large stockbroking company that's a huge amount of money to have lost, and shouldn't be taken lightly.

Picture: hitthatswitch (Flickr)