Alexandra wins X-Factor 2008 with Hallelujah

Twenty year old Alexandra Burke has won X-factor 2008. In a moving performance of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah, the studio audience, television audience and judge's were left in no doubt that Alexandra had the X factor. Alexandra, from North London, was one of 182,000 people who applied to be on the X factor 2008. A clearly shocked and emotional Alexandra told host Dermot O'Leary 'this is for everyone'. Simon Cowell said 'congratulations Alexandra, you deserve it' and praised Cheryl Cole for her role as mentor.

Twelve finalists made it into the live televised finals which began on October 11th 2008. Diana Vickers was eliminated last week, leaving Eoghan Quigg, boyband JLS and Alexandra Burke to battle for the title of winner 2008. Eight million votes were cast by television viewers.

Sixteen year old Eoghan Quigg, from Derry, sang 'I Wish It Could Be Christmas', 'Flying Without Wings' and 'We're All In This Together (from High School Musical) before being eliminated with the fewest votes. That left Alexandra and JLS to vie for the top spot. To prove their worth, both acts sang a version of Leonard Cohen's 1984 track 'Hallelujah'. The prize of X-factor is a £1 million recording contract.

Copies of Alexandra's 'Hallelujah' will be available for download tonight and will be in shops on Wednesday. The X-factor winner is typically a strong contender for the coveted Christmas No1. The 2008 final also featured performances from Westlife, Boyzone and Beyonce. Applications are now open for the 2009 series of X-factor on itv.com/xfactor.

(pik from BBC)

Buy Nothing Day

Today is Buy Nothing Day. Sounds odd? Well it's pretty simple really, just try to not buy anything today. According to organisers today is a 'day where you challenge yourself to switch off from shopping and tune into life; the rules are simple, for 24 hours you will detox from consumerism and live without shopping. Anyone can take part provided they spend a day without spending!'

I quite like this concept of getting away from consumerism just for a day. The Celtic Tiger has made us into these possesion hungry spending maniacs. But now with the downturn (I dislike that R word) will we actually spend any less? It sounds easy in theory but can it be done? I suppose with a bit of advance planning it could be done. But I've already failed having purchased two bus trips, a half pint of milk, a newspaper and a bagel today. And it's only 2pm!

The concept of Buy Nothing Day appears to be cemented into the American psyche as the day after Thanksgiving (always a Friday). Presumably we use the nearest Saturday instead to capture it's full effect. Having just caught a snippet of the 2pm news, it would appear that the people sitting on the M1 just outside Newry in two hour tailbacks are not too excited about Buy Nothing Day.

Our economy needs us to spend every day right?!?! Check out the website at http://www.buynothingday.co.uk/

Christmas parties and bonuses- Bah Humbug

No not another rant about the anti Christmas sentiment of cancelling Christmas parties. The opposite in fact....

Nasty companies are cancelling Christmas parties. And employees are unhappy about it. Well I think there's only one way to look at that- at least you have a Christmas party (not) to attend! That's right, at least you have a job. Plenty of people don't this Christmas. And whilst I don't want to over-exaggerate job losses, they are happening to lots of people. So really is a Christmas party that important in the scale of the bigger problems of today? So you don't get a chance to embarrass yourself in front of workmates, kiss someone you shouldn't or be thrown out for disorderliness. Sounds like a good plan really.

Some people are getting bonuses this Christmas who really don't deserve to get them (in my opinion). Top of the list are bankers. Why are high level executives in the major banks getting bonuses this Christmas for work that they a) didn't do or b) did badly. How can we condone giving bonuses to people who stood by policies which loaned out huge sums of money to people who could not afford it? Bonuses aside, many are getting huge salaries anyway, and those should probably be cut too. Is a bonus meant to be paid when a job is well done? Or just done? Executives at our country's main banks have presided over a year where ill-advised mortgages have come back to roost, share prices have floored and people are loosing their homes. Are there no repercussions for encouraging bad practice? Surely there has to be.

I'm not sure what the answer is, but many people should not be getting their bonuses this Christmas.