Vitamin B

Remember you need your daily recommended dose and you don't even need to go down to Boots (chemist for all non UK'ers). Simply go to the BlipFuture site and pledge, all in the comfort of your armchair and slippers.
And Vitamin Blip is 100% organic, sugar-free, vegan approved.....

I simply can't remember if in the English language we use the expression "Vitamin C" (Connections) as the Germans use "Vitamin B" (Beziehungen= connections). Used all the time here for the "it's not what you know but who you know" term. Germany is surprisingly quite high up the Transparency International bribery & corruption list (12th). Now I think one needs to look a bit closer at the tables when you read that North Korea is at the very bottom (least corruption) of the list.

 I suspect Germany would look a lot better if Bavaria was taken out of the numbers - it's always treated as a sport here and part of the culture! Well that's the folklore, I don't think it's any-more prevalent here than the rest of Western Europe but there was a time in the 70s & 80s where "connections" were very commonplace. Certainly the company I first worked for had had substantial tax breaks thanks to the previous owners connections to the Bavarian government and an international company I later worked for was constantly being visited by the authorities for big backhanders to it's "customers" in years gone by.

I don't for a second approve of the practice but sometimes the will is weak - today my January 1st "Save Blip" posting received the Bavarian underground movements award for "Blip of the Decade". The jury citing the Bavarian beer theme as of outstanding importance. I had to accept it  and tried hard to ignore the fact that the jury of one, is the son of a Bavarian hop farmer.

Munich will be the setting place soon for the next sporting organisation corruption scandal (IAAF). The Germans are fed up with all the FIFA's, IOC's, IAAF's of this world and have in recent times rejected holding any more events in referendums held in Munich (Winter Olympics) and Hamburg (Summer Olympics). I heard today that even the people in a town here in Bavaria are getting a referendum to fight the councils wish to hold the national Garden Year.

If there is one group you can trust, it's the Blip users. So loosen your wallets ..............

Oh - the Blip: Finally it's getting cold and we can at long last feed the horses the last two bales of 2014 haylage. With "only" three horses we have the problem of using it fast enough in warm weather where a risk of re-fermenting exists. Horses love it but one needs to be a bit careful as it can contain things one doesn't really want in horse feed (eg sugar) . A good dose of Vitamin B and even C wouldn't hurt - Sauerkraut for horses.