There was once a house where the tenant made a lot of mess in the kitchen, leaving food everywhere. This tenant was kicked out because of the mess and a new one arrived. The new tenant complained about all the mess, but didn’t make any effort to clear it up. In fact, the new tenant made things worse by cutting the maintenance budget. As a result, lots of cockroaches appeared all over the kitchen. The tenant complained that they hadn’t spent enough money on bug spray and that the old tenant had made the kitchen a mess.

It wasn’t the cockroaches’ fault the kitchen was a mess. The cockroaches were stupid and mean, though. What needed to be done was clear out the cockroaches with bug spray and traps, because it’s difficult to live in a house with bugs everywhere. And then for the tenant to do what needed to be done and clean up the damn house and spend some money on repairs.

In all seriousness, though, I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything in Britain quite as soul-numbingly unpleasant as last night’s carnage. The sooner this is over, the better. And maybe then we can build on a handful of the good things to come out of this – a better sense of community, a new awareness of solving these problems before they erupt in violence.

© Licensed to London News Pictures. 07/08/2011. London, UK. As looters and rioters smashed up shops, looted and fought with police in Camden Town, Philippa Morgan-Walker, 25 and her husband, Jonny Walker, 31, made tea for the police who were protecting their street. Some of the officers had been on duty for more than 30 hours. Photo credit : Joel Goodman/LNP

Tesco Compare is offering 500 Clubcard points to all Clubcard holders who buy a car or home insurance policy through www.tescocompare.com.

The comparison website searches and compares over 65 leading brands of car insurance and over 25 of home insurance to help customers choose the right deal.

It is the only comparison site to offer its customers loyalty points, giving them that little bit extra when buying a car or home policy through Tesco Compare.

Commercial Director, Vikki Macleod, said: “Our Clubcard offer is our way of saying thank you to Clubcard customers. In the current economic climate it has never been more important for customers to search for competitive car or home insurance quotes. With this offer there is now the chance to collect 500 points as a welcome bonus.”

How does it work?

The offer couldn’t be simpler. Customers visit the Tesco Compare website, enter their Clubcard number when getting a car or home insurance quote, and the 500 points will then be awarded after the policy is purchased.

Vikki Macleod added: “Our intention is for Tesco Compare to be the comparison site of choice for Tesco customers. We believe the offer is a great way for people to pick up a little something extra when shopping around for a car or home insurance deal.”

Alongside launching the offer, Tesco Compare is focused on helping customers to search for deals so they could save money. In addition to comparing by price, customers can also compare car and home insurance quotes by features and benefits according to what is most important to them.

Tesco Compare’s services don’t stop there: It can also introduce people to comparison services for products including Money, Utilities and Telecoms, and a wider range of insurance products.

Terms and Conditions of 500 Clubcard Points Offer for Car and Home Insurance.

The Clubcard must be in the policyholder’s name and the Clubcard number must be entered correctly when completing the details on tescocompare.com. Failure to do so will mean the points will not be allocated to the Clubcard holder’s statement. Tesco Compare will notify the policyholder via email when the Clubcard points have been awarded. Please be aware that from purchasing insurance to points being awarded could take up to eight weeks. If the policy is cancelled within two weeks of purchase then no Clubcard points will be awarded. Tesco Compare reserves the right to amend, vary or cancel these terms and conditions or to withdraw this promotion at any time.

Tesco Compare

• Tesco Compare is a comparison site, based in the UK. Since our launch in 2007, our business activities have extended to facilitate the introduction of a wide range of comparison services.
• Our own principal comparison services are for car and home insurance to which we compare over 65 and 25 providers respectively.
• Products compared by third party suppliers include: Money (credit cards, loans, mortgages, current accounts and savings accounts). Insurance (business, life, van, motorbike, travel and health). Utilities (broadband, mobile broadband, home phone, digital TV and gas & electricity). We also provide customers with links to pet and breakdown insurance providers.
• Our aim is to introduce customers to fair prices and deals from a range of leading brands.
• We believe that comparison sites should be about more than just the lowest price so our comprehensive comparison service helps you search and compare a wide range of products and providers by feature as well as price.

That’s apparently where Milka lives. Her dad caught a trout this morning, cooked it with a little salt and pepper, and it was absolutely delicious.

There’s not much to say about the journey. I had a first class seat on the train which was well worth the extra couple quid: I got a free gin and tonic, a lovely seat, free wifi and free cake and I would have got a free meal if I’d stayed on past Peterborough.

I got to Stansted Airport about nine o’clock and spent ten minutes wandering around and soaking in the airport vibe: foreign voices, dimly-lit late-night restaurants, bleary-eyed travellers.

I secured a great perch for the night on a bench to sleep, but I couldn’t sleep, so I went and got a burger from Burger King (six quid and twenty pence for a burger and fries!) and wasted some money on the amusements. When I got back my bench was taken – so were all the other long benches with sleepers. Germans were laying out sleeping bags and mats. I tried sleeping on the floor, but a payphone kept ringing, so I moved further down the building and got an hour or two laid out as best I could on a bench with inconvenient armrests. Eventually I could go through security to airside. I had breakfast at Wetherspoons (six quid!!!) and tried looking for some electronic duty-free crap to waste money on, but luckily they didn’t have any miniature Bluetooth keyboards.

It was weird, after having only met four Finnish people in my entire life, to find myself queuing for the plane with a hundred of them. The plane was apparently the 60^th 737-800 delivered to Ryanair, so it came in fancy blue Dreamliner livery, airliner nerds. I slept a little on the plane, and we arrived early at Tampere-Pirkkala Airport.

It was hot. The airport was charmingly tiny; immigration control was two police officers in booths, and then I was out and free in Finland. I went to the vessa (which I suspect is a Mr Doovde-style reading of “WC”) and then bumped into Milka almost by accident.

We drove to a local supermarket (first thing I see in Finland – a naked beer-bellied rollerskater) and got some supplies and beer. Finland is a country where you can’t buy spirits except in government-run Alko shops, but you can get beer in the supermarket- – they had 1l cans, amazingly. Beer apparently comes in four different types, called Beer I, III, IVa and IVb depending on alcohol content.

I slept on the way back to Ruovesi. Milka’s parents house is amazing; a former orphanage a short walk from the lakeside, with a fantastic den and pool (as in billiards) room and obviously a sauna.

We went down to the lakeside for a swim (well, I waded, because it was still pretty chilly despite the heat). Then we went to a bar on a boat, where people were tombstoning from a nearby tower. It was so perfect; people just chilling by the riverside. I had a lonkero – gin and grapefruit, and it was delicious. Then we visited Milka’s grandma Arja, who like all grandmothers laid on coffee and a light snack of rye bread, salami, cucumber, tomato, a bread called pulla, cake, and apple swiss roll. And ice cream. She was so kind!

After that, back home, and fishing by the sunset. I’ve never gone fishing before, but it turned out to be surprisingly easy to get the hang of. I caught some fish! but being a girl, I had to chuck them back because I felt bad. And then a quick sweat in the sauna, and bed.

Pretty damn surreal to wind up in WOMB at 4am, find a magazine rack near the entrance and see copies of Metropolis with my article in. It was exactly like that scene in Lost in Translation when Charlotte and Bob burst out of traffic to find a massive Suntory billboard with Bill Murray’s face on it. Sort of.

I grabbed one.

Merry Christmas everybody!

Down by the abbey (which we didn’t pay to go in after we realised that it would just be like a church and we had seen churches before) these pagan wire statue thingies were awesome in a totally wrong Cthulhuesque way:

Lunch on the cheap at a Thai restaurant, then them Bath bits you seen on TV and stuff:

Miles went to see his auntie who lives in the area for the last time before he goes to Japan (a prudent reminder that we are all of us going to be gone very soon) while the rest of us sat in the park reading Proust and the Financial Times went on the swings and spun round on the spinny thing and buyed some ice cream. Then Georgie treated us (although we had to pay for it) to the world famous(?) Sally Lunn’s Bun(n)s, which we ate in a pigeon-infested park with clotted cream and jam.

The buns were indeed delicious.

Also I discovered by accident that zooming in and setting a big aperture gives instant arty DOF effects.

To another park, where a young gentlemen who tried to sell us illegal pharmaceuticals was later seen helping a number of police officers with their enquiries, and then off to Bath’s train station, whereupon I caught a train to the Welsh capital of Cardiff and met my brother for the FIRST TIME IN MANY YEARS. Went back to his and Bridget’s small-but-nice house in Splott and slept.

Finished up our Korean language education, which has been educational and entertaining! We only just touched upon grammar, but it appears quite interesting, remarkably similar to Japanese.

On Wednesday Oscar, Tommi and I visited Lotte World, pretty much the main theme park actually in Seoul (Everland is bigger but outside the city) and it definitely has nothing to do with Disneyland, okay?

Blue-roofed fantasy castle? A monorail? I have no idea what you’re talking about

After the 70m, 60mph Gyro Drop, Oscar wasn’t quite the same. But I love these things.

Biggest indoor theme park in Asia, or something.

Oscar wasn’t feeling too great after the drop tower, so we went on some more sedate rides and tried some of the side attractions (I crashed a commercial airliner in Osaka and won a weird blue stuffed monkey by shooting it). It was pretty much standard theme park fare, although with peanut-butter-fried octopus on sale everywhere and a hot air balloon ride hanging from the cavernous ceiling, which was novel. Also the cute cartoon mascots have nothing to do with Disney, you understand.
Rode the indoor coaster, The French Revolution, which by 8pm had a very short queue (always a bonus). A good solid ride to begin with up to the stunningly tight indoor loop, but a bit extreme and painful towards the end, banging your skull between the headrests. We were going to try the outdoor water coaster, Atlantis Adventure, but a long queue and general tiredness put us off that.

Lotte World was full of couples, as evidenced by the graffiti scrawled everywhere on the walls by the queue areas with K.M.J <3 P.J.A and little heartfelt messages. It feels like couples are everywhere in Seoul, from teenagers to wrinkly husbands-and-wives, but particularly young adults. It’s my theory that with young people living in cramped apartments with their families, it’s more the norm for couples to escape the house for some time alone.

Yesterday, having had a final meal with everybody (again – we’re probably going to have another final meal on Sunday and Monday) six of us Leeds types went to the big, lovely, shiny gold 63 Building. Some concern at the price – even with the discount from 27,000 to 20,000 for a ticket to the aquarium and the observation deck – but eventually I plumped for it and we headed to the smallish aquarium.

These are fish that nibble dead skin off your fingers. A most curious experience.

In one of the tanks, this diver performed a rather incredible display of underwater gymnastics with fish and basking sharks swimming around her.

All in all, not quite as comprehensive as the one in Osaka, but then nothing is.

After that we headed up to the observation deck on the 60th floor, which also boasted a small but well-chosen art gallery with the likes of Mark Quinn, he of the frozen blood head.

After that, I caught a bus to the sauna where I met up with the other half of our group, Anya and Nabbie and Soo-jung. The sauna remains awesome. Slept reasonably well on hard marble floor (anything’s preferable to the heat and mosquitos buzzing around in my room at the apartment – you won’t believe how many bites I have on me now, but I count six on my right wrist alone).