Reading Richard Currans excellent column "The Inquisitor" in yesterdays Sunday Business Post (www.sbpost.ie) got me really annoyed for two different reasons.

Firstly, I promised myself that I would investigate the credibilty of the 34% increase in early December after reading in the Financial Times (www.FT.com) that at one stage during trading on the commodity markets the wholesale price for Natural was actually trading in minus for a few milliseconds such was the lack of demand. I'm sure that there was a man somewhere in Russia with a big pipe behing him full of gas with no where for it to go, which can be a cause a concern.But I simply forgot.

Secondly was that fact that here was a semi-state company making easy profits from its 34% increase while the Government and so called independent watchdogs sit quietly afraid of rocking the collective boat.

Richard Curran gives a brilliant analysis on why was Bord Gais were granted a 34%increase on October 1 2006 and will be forced to give back 10% reduction on Feburary 1 2007. The increase will give Bord Gais 123 days at the higher price reaping some €55 million in additional revenue. All this is going on while the British Wholesale price for gas is 40% less than last March and International gas prices have fallen 30% since November, all due to the very mild weather both here and across Europe. He goes onto say that even with the 10% being passed on Bord Gais will have a healthy and wealthy 21% increase in a market where prices are coming down. Sure Bord Gais will argue that they entered in ACQ's(Actual Contracted Quantities) with suppliers, but it is also Industry practice to put in place Hedges in order to minimise risk.

What Richard Curran did'nt approach was how the utility companies will attempt to "pass on" this 10% decrease to your bill.

Heres how they will do it,

Consider a household where the gas bill covers the period Jan to Feb 07. This is a period of 59 days and the bill will be issued in the first week of Mar 07. So how will the gas company know when you consumed the gas? the simple answer is that they do'nt, so what they'll do is to apportion what you used over this period over your average usage over, usually, the previous 3 months, which by the way will contain Christmas and the extra usage that normally comes with this time of the year. So should you be the luckly one to spend 3 weeks in Janurary away in the sun and return to a severe cold snap in Feburary it w'ont matter that a majority of your usage will be in Feburary, when it should be cheaper, will be charged at the inflated price for 31days out of the 59.

This is how they have done it in the past and its how they will do it this time. But for heavens sake they only check your meter 3 times a year anyway, using estimates for the other bills, this would work fine in times of stable prices but alas I feel those days are gone.

So not only do they get a nice big cake they will ensure that they have cream and a cherry on top as well.Even if this works out at an average of say €5 per household this is a nice additional €2.7m of free money, that you and I will pay.

Nice Cherry...

As a parent I organise and allow my children to attend birthday parties, which by the way appear to be weekly. I was astonished to read in yesterdays Observer(www.observer.co.uk) that some birthday parties in the UK are costing from £20,000 to £250,000.

The article quotes Caroline Hurley, director of Quintessentially Events who organised these events, "We also installed a giant gobstopper pond as well as circus games,a miniature bumper-car track and a carousel". Add to this a Willy Wonka and his troupe of oompa-loompas, the cost came to £20,000 for children and parents, who by the way were sipping champagne and eating canapes.

Ms Hurley goes onto say that spending £50,000 on childrens birthdays is not uncommon, and mentions that one parent actually spent £250,000 on one birthday so that a well known singer sings happy birthday to a 13-year-old girl.

Now, what people do with their money is up to them, but should ones child get invited to such a "event" what would you bring as a present?. I have a feeling that the Darth Vader Light Saber (£20) might look a little cheap laid next to the miniature Ferrari.

It also mentions that parents who do not agree with this or find the budget a stretch are still being sucked in putting on more lavish parties in a game of one-upmanship.There has been an upsurge in companies who specialise in exotic creatures doing 8 to 10 parties a weekend, providing amoung other things pythons for the children to play with. Now I am no snake expert but should one of these not get fed prior to being dispatched the consequences could prove messy.

One woman who had enough decided to go to France in order to avoid holding a birthday party for her child.Scary indeed.

All of a sudden the few bob that I have been putting away for my childrens education and future now looks inadequate.

The BBC is showing some of these findings over the next six weeks in a programme entitled The Madness of Modern Parenting starting to-morrow. Christ watching this will really cheer me up.

Oh Dear....

During my reading of yesterdays Sunday Newspapers(www.sbpost.ie) I came accross an interesting story regarding the introduction of a baggage handling charge by Aer Lingus. This charge will be either be €4 per bag if the happy traveller books his/her bag at the time of booking his/her flight, otherwise they will have to pay €8 per bag if they decide to book in their luggage when they arrive at the airport.That should make planning what to bring on holidays more fun.

Is it me or has Aer Lingus began to morph into Ryanair?

Further to the new charges Aer Lingus have guaranteed a minimum payment to check in staff of €1000 in the first year. Additionally for every €8 that you and I hand over per bag the happy check-in clerk will receive a 80c (or 10%) commission per bag. So when this happens to you, be gracious and happy in the knowledge that when the check-in clerk smiles and speaks to you pleasantly d'ont forget you are paying for that smile.

Ryanairs hostile take over bid for Aer Lingus was greeted by unions, workers, management and indeed the Government with as much enthusiasm as getting your teeth extracted without anaesthetic, citing the lack of competition in the market place as the main reason for opposing the takeover.It now needs to be asked what competition do we have now? at least with Ryanair you know there is a fair chance of the journey being terrible.

And what of the unions and the socialist/marxist philosophies? it seems to me that this is the style of marxism that Stalin enjoyed ie we are all equal but some are more equal than others.It would appear to me that the unions, and not the management of AerLingus, are running AerLingus, no wonder they opposed the takeover.

As I prepared to go to bed last night, I felt a little hunger pang and decided to make myself a snack before attempting to get some sleep in my daughters "Princess" bed ( the weather is'nt great at the moment so I am consigned to the front of the house,whilst she takes my place in my bed at the back of the house).

I went to the kitchen and looked around for something that would'nt be to heavy but would satisfy my hunger.After a few minutes of searching I spotted the trusted "Jacobs Cream Crackers" and knowing that there would be "Calvita Cheese" in the fridge, to me the perfect snack. I made 4 but like "Pringles" once you start you c'ant stop and decide to have another 4. Once I finished and swept up the crumbs I headed off to bed,hunger gone.

Well I saw every half hour up to and including 3.30am. I have heard that eating cheese late at night would disturb your sleep, but thought that this was an old wives tale, apparently its not.

I wonder if Jacobs and Calvita would put a warning on the wrapping similar to those warnings that are on cigerettes stating that "eating this product post 10pm will or could lead to Insomnia".Its similar to the movie "Gremlins" where feeding the little cuddly creatures would have terrible effects