P&KG have just uploaded a new Kustom Blog here which they hope you will find interesting and informative.  They will be updating this on a regular basis with interesting You Tube clips, events, happenings and advance information on forthcoming editions of the magazine so if you are interested in pinstriping etc you might want to check it out.

Costa are out to win more trade by doing research studies to prove that coffee lovers like their coffee better than their rivals Starbucks, Nero etc.  They claim 7 out of 10 coffee lovers prefer Costa coffee.  I’m not surprised.  I wouldn’t go in Starbucks if you paid me and my other half likes soya milk in her coffee, which Costa do at no extra charge.  But, and this is the real reason I’m writing this, why do all these places go on about great Italian coffee?  We have been going to Italy twice a year for several years now and we have yet to buy a decent cup of coffee anywhere in Italy and certainly nothing that compares with Costa coffee or the coffee we make ourselves at home.  Typically the coffees we’ve had in Italy have been expensive, small, often bitter and between cold and lukewarm.  Where did Italy get this reputation for good coffee?  Did they once deserve it and have gone downhill or what?  Anyone with the answer, please enlighten us.

Fans of artists Peter Pracownik and Nicola-Clare Lydon might like to know that they have opened a new gallery in Tintagel called Another Green World.  It opens on Saturday 21st March.  If you are not familiar with their work then you’ll see lots of Peter Pracownik art here and some Nicola-Clare Lydon art here.  We wish them every success in their new endeavour.  We’re sure Another Green World will be a high point of anyone’s visit to Tintagel.

A few self-employed people I know got their pension statements recently and were shocked at how much the value of their pension fund had fallen in the last year.  Some of them who have been having a rough time in the current economic climate said things like,”I struggle almost every month to make the pension contribution and then all I end up with is less than I started with!”  Well, we all know that what goes up always comes down and hopefully (fingers toes and everything crossed) what goes down will come up.  But will it do it before all the companies are full of ninety year old employees who can’t afford to retire and all the teenagers and twenty-somethings are on the dole?  In the meantime, maybe we’d reduce the level of depression if all pension statements and bank statements were legally required to have a health warning on the envelope that ran something like this:

WARNING!  Do not open this envelope.  Opening this envelope can harm your mental equilibrium and may cause severe reactive depression.  If in doubt, consult your doctor.

But I doubt it would make the financial sector get their act together any quicker somehow …