Speakers Corner - London

Lies from UK government re increasing education funding

2007-12-18T13:44:00.000Z

I have been studying with the OU for four years and recently completed my studies. I am thankful for the chances I had, but it seems our esteemed government is determined to ensure that funding for university should be cut.

I got the below letter some days ago, and thought it should be shown to anyone who cares to read how our government is lying and is determined not to ensure we have a more educated population, but the opposite.

As it also says below, there are things that can be done to show the government one is unhappy with the proposals. I did number 1, tried number 2, to only be told that because my local MP is a minister, he can't sign Early Day Motions. That smacks of stupidity and it also shows how little he cares that the people he represents actually are well educated.

What concerns me is that, if they are suggesting cuts now, and we haven't even started with hard economic times yet, then things are really going to get a lot worse. This government has shown itself to not be one for increasing university education, but the opposite. They now ensure that students leave university with a larger debt than ever. It is a case of 'I am alright Jack' for them, they got their degrees when they were free, and now it is time to pull up the drawbridge and stop anyone else joining.

Please read the letter below and if you value a higher education for all, then please sign the petition and do lobby the local MP, even if you get the same crappy response I got.

Message from the Vice-Chancellor on funding cuts announced by Government

I am writing to give students an update on the funding cuts announced by Government that will see The Open University receive less money to fund our operation.

What has happened?

The Government has announced that, as of the next academic year, it will no longer be funding students in England and Open University students in Northern Ireland taking any Higher Education qualification that is equivalent to, or lower than, one they already hold. These students are being referred to as ELQ (Equivalent or Lower Qualification) students. This decision will have major funding implications for The Open University as ELQ students represent a substantial percentage of our student numbers.

There are some exemptions to the new draft policy including initial training for teachers, nurses, social workers and all foundation degrees. But we are convinced that across the sector the higher fees that institutions may have to charge will deter many graduates from university-level professional development. In our opinion discouraging institutions and students in this way runs counter to the Government’s priority to re-skill the nation’s workforce – a priority that we entirely support and currently excel in delivering.

How does this affect The Open University?

We stand to lose a significant part of our teaching grant. This decision will be phased in over three years to help institutions adjust to the reduced income. The details of the exemptions and the implementation are subject to a consultation with universities which will end on 7 December 2007. With only a short time left before the consultation closes I am writing to ask you to support our campaign.

I want to reassure you all that we are working to minimize the effect of the policy change on the University and its students. We are trying to get the policy reversed and we need your assistance to help convince the Government to change its mind. We believe we have a strong case but need your support to help take this argument to Government.

How can you help?

There are two quick and easy things that you can do to help support The Open University campaign:

1. Sign the Downing Street Petition - The Open University Students Association has tabled a petition on the 10 Downing Street website. Adding your name to this petition helps draw our issue directly to the attention of the Prime Minister: petitions.pm.gov.uk/ELQFunding/

2. Write to your local MP asking them to sign Early Day Motion 317 on The Open University. Mr Mark Lancaster MP and Dr Phyllis Starkey MP, the two MPs who represent the OU’s base in Milton Keynes, have tabled a cross-party motion in Parliament that MPs can add their names to. Using the website www.theyworkforyou.com you can write to your local MP asking them to support this motion opposing the funding cuts.

Blew it

2007-12-14T20:26:00.000Z

It is the day of the result for my OU course. Sadly the result isn’t what I hoped for and I feel I worked so hard for. If I am truthful I am feeling extremely gutted and disappointed by the result.

For me I had hoped to get a second class honours, and I ended up with a third class honours. Okay this is my second degree and as I am told I should be proud to have achieved what I have given I was doing it part-time and I had a lot of other pressures one wouldn’t have expected to have in the course of a 4 year part-time degree, but there is still that overriding feeling of having not achieved the minimum I set for myself.

I know others feel pleased and happy for me, but it like that feeling I suppose when you work so hard for something, you feel there is a minimum payback for all the effort and through the course know your work is good enough for a second class, and you fall at the final hurdle. It leaves you feeling bruised and battered.

One had also hoped to put this on one’s CV in the future, but I know how the businesses would see it, a third class to them, even when done part-time and as a second degree is not worth anything, just like they see anything below 2.1 as nothing.

It just leaves a bad taste for me, all the hard work and not as much to show for it as one had hoped.

It also makes me wonder if I should pursue an MSc in my first degree or not, would I make it against this background of the past four years. I know I still have to save up first for the course, but am I academically strong enough to ensure I get a good mark.

Arggh, just feel shot down for it. If anyone has been in the similar position, please tell me, how you approached it from this point in.

Not the Christmas present I was hoping for.

It is that time of year

2007-10-16T12:33:00.000Z

When I have my exam.

My OU exam for DD303 and it is on the 18th. I am nervous, it is the last exam I will sit for the degree.

Of course I want to get the best grade I can, I already know that I will achieve no higher than 2.2 even if I get a 1st in DD303, sadly too many problems have plagued me on the course, namely being a sleep problem which is getting worse and worse to the point where memory is nearly non-existant.

I have been revising hard like any person does and tonight is the last of the revision, want to relax the brain the night before the exam. Even doing mindmaps hasn't helped a great deal.

I guess it is all or nothing now, and I will either get my 2.2 or a 3rd class hons. Whichever I get, it will have been hard work, and certainly proved to myself I can still study some 10+ years since I left university the first time.

I know for sure now that I will go on and do a masters in my first degree subject, just need to find the money. Masters don't come cheap - £5/6K for a 2 year part-time course, shame there isn't much assistance in funding for those who are disabled, you would think there would be more help.

Anyway, 18th here I come, morning exam, which suits me better and then I can relax and chill and breathe out from all the work done.

4 years of hard work culminating in this.

For all those who are to sit the exam, good luck, and hope you all do as well as you want/need to do.

Prime Minister Brown again showing contempt for the English

2007-07-04T12:13:00.000Z

Here are two quotes from PM Brown

“We will do nothing to put the union at risk” - Gordon Brown

“We, gathered as the Scottish Constitutional Convention, do hereby acknowledge the sovereign right of the Scottish people to determine the form of Government best suited to their needs, and do hereby declare and pledge that in all our actions and deliberations their interests shall be paramount”. - Signed by Gordon Brown

As you can see they don’t go hand in hand, they clearly contradict each other.

To top it off, the following happened yesterday at Prime Ministers Question Time.

PM - “We will do nothing to put at risk the Union.”

Mr.Cameron - said: “Neither you nor I has the right to vote on hospitals, schools or housing in your constituency (Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath) or in other parts of Scotland.

“Yet you are able to vote on hospitals, on schools and housing in my constituency (Witney).

“We have two classes of MP already.

“The only effective way to solve this problem is to give MPs in English constituencies the decisive say on issues that only affect England.”

The Lib Dems leader - Sir Menzies Campbell told the Commons that “once devolution is properly established in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales” voting by the MPs from the nations was “an issue which simply cannot be dismissed.”

So clearly the Lib Dems and Labour, don’t simply get it. I wonder why. Mr.Brown clearly doesn’t get it that we already have two classes of MP and that this situation is going to get worse and worse with him at the helm.

I do hope all those in English constituencies will ask their local MP why it is they have done nada, absolutely nada to correct this, and are happy for England to be broken into regions as Mr.Brown wants.

This sums me up so well

2007-06-29T18:56:00.000Z

Apologies go to MB from London who wrote the following on clive james article on the bbc website, for taking this, but I feel it really does sum up so well what a wonderful way to live life. I think it deserves to be shown more, and you can only wish people had a more visionary view like this!

I read an article recently that stated those people who are happy and joyful all the time are self-deluded - they see themselves as more attractive and powerful then they really are, see themselves having mroe effect on the world then they really do. Those of us who are cynical, miserable and depressed are that way because we see the world as it really is - we don't belive the happy politicians lies, we don't trust anything or anyone until they've actually done what they said they were going to do, we see exactly how little influence we have the world around us, and no matter how clever the advert is, it's not going to persuade to upgrade our phone/car/internet connection until we've read that indepth consumer report. We're not cynical, depressed misery-guts, we're clear-sighted, perceptive visionarys. So there.
MB, London

I am a visionary, lovely tag, maybe psychologists will use that instead of you are depressed, you are a visionary.

What we are in for with Gordon Brown

2007-06-29T18:44:00.000Z

As those who read my blog regularly, you will know I have taken to being for the campaign for an English Parliament and how my hatred of this current government who do their level best to ensure that they are not listening to the people who elected them.

There is a wonderful website Campaign for an English Parliament which is doing this campaigning and pushing very hard to get someone out there to listen, especially the media, which is doing its level best to ensure they give it the minimal coverage possible, whereas when the Scots wanted their own parliament they were covering it extensively.
Anyway, on to the main point of this entry.

Gordon Brown must drop his claim to being Prime Minister of the UK as he signed the declaration of the “Scottish Claim of Right”, which says he will put the interests of Scotland before all other considerations.
As any intelligent person will know, these two don’t go together.

So the question is begged, did Gordon conveniently forget this oath he signed, or is England and the rest of the UK in for even more of the Scottish bias that exists in this government.

Embarrassing Brits abroad

2007-06-10T14:36:00.000Z

This week it was reported in a number of places about a nude stag who was jailed in Slovakia and then got the British consular officials to get him freed therefore circumventing the local laws.

Stupid Brit Abroad

Other comments on this.

The man, if you can call him that – Stephen Mallone, managed to decide it was a good idea to parade himself naked in a fountain in the centre of Bratislava, all supposedly in the spirit of a stag night. Really????

What wasn’t told in our papers, but was in the Slovak and Czech papers was that the person in question was masturbating in the fountain, and it has been suggested they might have broken monuments, etc in the town. That is criminal damage, and the laws that govern Slovakia mean that you spend time in jail.

If that was done here in the UK, they would be locked up for indecent exposure and if they did break monuments as had been suggested, then it is criminal damage.

Why is it that when Brits go abroad they think it is perfectly acceptable to do what they please regardless of the local laws. Even despite the fact they flouted local laws, they are breaking laws that apply to the same things here in the UK.

The fact it appeared in Slovak and Czech newspapers and on their TV as well show just how stupid this moron is. The Slovaks should have told the British consular to stick it where the sun doesn’t shine. This moron is the type of person who gives the Brits a bad name abroad, and I am tired of locals abroad assuming I will do the same because I am English, not acceptable. And plus why should I have to pay for moron like this to break local laws and have the British taxpayer get them home and free them.

They should have made an example of this twat, if we had Slovaks here doing that, they would have rightly locked up and the press here would have made some snide comments about Eastern Europeans rampaging our cities.

The aforementioned Stephen Mallone, had a £20K wedding planned and was going to miss it. I think if he had missed it, it would have served simple justice and given anyone else who might be thinking to do the same thing when abroad notice that it is unacceptable to be such a prick when abroad. He should have his passport taken away from him.

The sad thing is he was let off and why when he should have stayed in jail.

Just wish there was a way to stop these chavs behaving like this. We really need a reality check when our Foreign Office is saving people like this.

For those who understand Slovak, here is the story in Slovak

Caused quite a stir

Caused quite a discussion as you can see when you click on here

Slovak Discussion of this

Phonak Savia problems

2007-05-14T12:58:00.000Z

For those of you who have read this blog for a while will know I have Phonak Savia hearing aids, and had them since last year, but what you might not know is that they have been out of action since 16th Jan this year, and even though I got them back on Saturday, they are still out of action, as one is broken and they both aren't set as should be, so still without the aids.

The company in question who have been screwing up a lot is DiscountedHearingAids, this company have for the past 4 months felt it is appropriate to do nada, seriously, it tooks the best part of two months before I got the address of where to send the aids for repair. Phonak of course, but without a name and address, how could I send them.

I will go into more detail on another entry, as time is short, and that entry will be a long litany of mistakes and errors, which make it seem like a keystone cop movie.

The thing I wanted to highlight was, the audiologist at Discounted hearing told me the reason my aids might have been jumping programs was according to Phonak because I might live near power lines and magnetic fields. I was surprised, very. Being me I didn't believe it, so I rang up Phonak direct, guess what, it is true.

If you have a program setting on, and it is on by default according to Phonak technicans, for the phone, it will jump programs when a magnetic field is passed over the aids. This is so it changes to the right program for a telephone.

You know what, in my case, I know that wasn't the issue. But doesn't someone see this as real problem, given the amount of magnetic fields that exist in everyday life, from shops, public transport, etc. Surely that is a fatal flaw in the design of the hearing aid. Surely Phonak aren't that stupid to do that, but it seems they are.

As for my hearing aids, I am seriously doubting if I will ever get use of them again. They are in my hands, broken elbow on one and I am not using aids I can't hear with. It has gotten so bad, that I have been forced to contact Consumer Direct, who are backing my situation. Great to hear, I only wish Access to Work would do the same. They have basically washed their hands of the situation and say it is down to my employer to resolve. They are happy to spend thousands of UK taxpayer money, and then sit there and do nothing as the company they chose, not me, refuses to provide a service as is set out in the 1979 Sales of Goods Act.

I am so in need of break, and thankfully I am getting one. Thanks to the generousity of Z, we are heading to Cyprus for a week, so if you know places to visit there, please say, all ideas welcomed.

Hopefully I will come back less stressed, and ready to hear again, though I doubt it, since I have spent 4 months chasing these muppets.

Harrow Council helping you be green, Yeah right!

2007-05-07T19:14:00.000Z

I give you a tale which I am beginning to see as typical, not just for Harrow Council, but most councils and government agencies in this country, and despite the rhetoric, they certainly can't back it up.

A person I know told me this

Last October I applied for Solar Panels to heat my water, I had a visit from a person who measured up to see if we were suitable & seek permission from the Planning department. I got a letter dated 20th December to say someone will carry out a survey on 3rd January to submit drawing to the Planning department for approval.

This approval was given on 19th February according to the Harrow.gov web site.

I telephoned the Sustainable Energy Project Team on 13th April because I have not heard anything and left a message to telephone me. I telephone again today & spoke to a girl/lady who tells me they have just got the list of people whose planning approval has come through and will be sending me a letter and application form for me to fill in by the end of the week. I am to fill this in & send it back with a cheque which when they get it; they will then order the parts. It takes two weeks for the parts to come in. It will then take another two weeks to fit me in their delivery/installation program.

All in all from October 2006 to possible fitting of panels in June/July will take 9 months!!

So much for things happening fast!!? Think of the money I could have saved if they had got their act together!

So as you can see, Harrow certainly don’t make an effort to sort things out fast, and then to make it worse, they have the audacity to say that people need to do more, and when the person above tried, this is what they got.

So much for being green Harrow, and Harrow is supposed to be a leading council in being green, I think if that is the case, we are screwed.

OU DD303

2007-04-06T10:25:00.000Z

This course is my final course on my BSc Psychology, so with any luck I will be walking away in November of this year with another degree to my name, to add to the BSc Software Engineering I have back from 1995.

When you look at the two degrees, they really don't have anything in common, and are from wildly different areas of life.

I still think that in the future I might use my BSc Psychology in practice, but I think for the time being that will be on the back burner.

This course DD303 is a cognitive psychology course, lots of stats, lots of SPSS, which don't really interest me that much and so far I am finding the course like treading through treacle, bloody difficult.

By the end of the year I will be taking a break before embarking on more studies.

I found out that to go any further with Psychology one needs an MSc, which means more money and lo and behold not something I have much of to be honest. I also found out that the MSc for Psychology is more expensive than for Computers. So in my desire to upgrade my taught skills to a higher level, I will embark when I get the money and that could be a way off at the moment on doing an MSc in Computers. All to help me further ones career and skills.

So if anyone finds a spare £5K lying around, I would happily take receipt of for you and put it to good use ;o))

Flamenco Dance Lesson

2007-04-06T10:19:00.000Z

Tonight I am going to a flamenco dance lesson.

This is going to ensure hilarity, especially for Z, as she has never seen me dance. I have done very well to keep my lack of dance skills hidden for a long time, but after prodding and finding that Z would like to really do something like flamenco or salsa, I found a place that is offering a free lesson tonight, so we are off on Good Friday to have a nice time out. Well I am hoping that is the case, I know with my two left feet and knobbly knees, I am unlikely to win any prizes for dancing.

I am hoping the place holding the dance lesson will be able to take my rendition of what I am being taught, without kicking me out, or laughing so hard.

I am not sure what Z is expecting from me, I have warned Z that I am not classed as a dancer in any manner or form, and that to expect so would be to lead to disappointment.

I guess by tomorrow we will know whether I can show my face in public again or have to hang my head in shame because of my two left feet.

Online Focus group

2007-04-06T10:11:00.000Z

Last Sunday I for the first time did an online focus group. It was an odd experience to say the least. I got paid of course, which is always a good thing, but it was certainly very different to anything I had done before and you certainly get very different views on a single subject, which surprised me, though with me doing a psychology degree, I shouldn't be that surprised.

It started late for those who arrived late, there is always one or two, or three in this case....

We were asked about a supermarket and their marketing and how believable, etc we found it. Oddly enough most of us were very cynical in what we were reading to start with, by the end though; most had changed their position and were believing more. Though whether that translates to more sales for this particular supermarket who knows.

I will do it again, it wasn't too bad, and for the reward I got, worth it. An hour or so of my time and an hour I possibly wouldn't have been productive doing anything else, so why not.

If you get offered the chance and can do these things, do it, even if you only do it once, it is worth it

Changing Mobile Number

2007-04-06T10:04:00.000Z

I in the past week changed my mobile phone, which for me is very unusual, especially as I had the previous one for about 18 months and the one before that for about 4 years until it broke. I moved over 3, which despite the problems my other half has had with them offered a £15 a month for life deal as long as I don't change the price plan, easily done for me. Thus saving me money on the PAYG I had with vodafone.

Well 3 did what they always do, not follow the sell they have on their website, I got no memory card as they claimed I would, though after complaining, they credited the account with the money so I could buy one, too right in my mind.

What I didn't do that was clever was to notify those who needed to know that I changed my number in a good manner. I managed to send a text saying my number had changed, but didn't say who I was, ensue masses of texts asking who the hell I was. I have no idea why I didn't put my name until afterwards, but I didn't, must have been half asleep, but when people realised it was me, plenty of laughs, etc as to how I managed to screw up what is a simple operation.

So if you do change your mobile phone and number, don't do what I did, be a clever person and add your name to a text.

Happy Birthday to me

2007-02-24T11:47:00.000Z

Well, another year has rolled by, I am now 34.

It doesn't really seem to have much effect anymore, the number I mean. I certainly don't feel any different and I should stop expecting to feel so too.

Got really nice gifts from Z, very surprised and I have to say Z is determined to make me look very smart and well dressed, so 3 new shirts from Paul Smith and D&G, plus 2 new ties to go with that, a lovely Paul Smith belt and a nice top as well. Very lucky me, I think Z got me a lot, but not going to complain, going to wear all this stuff. At least Z makes an effort to upgrade my wardrobe more than I can ever do, something I am seriously crap at doing. So very glad Z can do it for me.

This year is going to be an interesting year for me.

I will finish my OU degree in Psychology by October. Though I wish to carry on and get a MSc, I will have to leave it for a while, as I don't have 5K needed to undertake it.

I will be spending 3 weeks in Malaysia seeing family in November. Also be lucky enough to have another holiday at some point before then.

I know a lot will happen this year, it still doesn't feel like I am 34, mid 30s, never thought I would be saying that, seems very strange, very strange. I am awaiting the pouch to go with the middle age spread, worked hard to stop it, but it is like Canute trying to stop the tide, not going to happen....

Anyone else out there whose birthday is today, I wish you the best for the coming year.

Desire for an English Parliament

2007-02-05T20:39:00.000Z

I have of recent been standing more and more for this and getting more vocal as you might have seen from the posts I have been posting.

In this country – England, there is an increasing call for an English Parliament to correct the wrongs created by the devolution that has occurred at the hands of this Labour government which for some reason wants to destroy what England is and it stands for.

I have said before and many others are increasingly seeing it the same, we English are tired of funding the Scots having it all. Why should they benefit so much from the Barnett Formula

Which gives them so much more than we English get, and for no good reason. And to top it off, their MPs in the UK parliament can have a say on the education and health system of the English, but no English MP can do the same for the Scottish, and even the local MP for the Scottish constituency can’t have a say on those matters.

It comes under the West Lothian question

Got to say it is great that Wikipedia has answers for this, so if you are unsure about it, this describes it in very basic terms.

Current situation

The question is twofold:

How can it be right that MPs elected to Westminster from Scottish constituencies have no ability to affect the issues of their constituents which have been devolved to the Scottish Parliament and

If power over Scottish affairs is devolved to a Scottish Parliament, how can it be right that MPs representing Scottish constituencies in the UK Parliament will have the power to vote on issues affecting England (including those that don't affect Scotland), but English MPs will not have the power to vote on Scottish issues

It creates the following.

Borrowed from the CEP website

If the Commission will set up a Commission to investigate the way in which a member state is discriminating against its citizens on the basis of their nationality: namely the UK Government denying, for example, the English equal rights with the Scots and the Welsh in that the English suffering from bone cancer are denied the drug Velcade whereas the Scots receive it free; the English suffering from Alzheimer’s are refused the drugs Aricept, Reminyl and Exelon whereas the Scots are prescribed them free; the English have to pay University tuition fees but the Scots do not; the English who are elderly must pay for residential care yet the Scots do not; and the English pay for NHS prescriptions whereas from April the Welsh will not.

English Rights

There was even a petition to the Number 10 e-petition site, and the response was typical of this government

English Parliament epetition reply

Then there is an Early Day Motion, EDM670 - English Parliament , which I then asked my local MP to support given that the increasing number of people want an English Parliament.

Here was his response

Dear Mr.X

Early Day Motion 670

Thank you for your recent email.

I do not support the above EDM at all - all MPs are elected as UK MPs, not from separate countries or regions, and to represent their constituency interest in the UK Parliament. I sat on the Greater London Act committee, a matter of arguably no concern to non-London MPs, but on the logic of the EDM, all MPs not sitting for London seats should have been excluded from voting on the important principle of who governs our capital city

I do not accept that the UK Parliament should be balkanised in this way

Thank you for contacting on this issue

Yours Sincerely

Tony McNulty MP

As someone else said to me, balkanised!!
If he doesn't want balkanisation, then why balkanise the funding??! What a weak response. Plus what concern of it was to those outside of London, how London should be run. It explains why London has been continually screwed by this government, and why London is continually bled dry. And they deny that London has 3 of the poorest boroughs in the UK

So where do we stand now. No closer to what we deserve, which is to be treated as an equal partner in this union, as well as the same basic rights given to the other countries in this union of UK. Also bear in mind, England is the only country in the EU that doesn’t have its own parliament, and that is 50 million people without fair representation.

Information re the state of NHS Audiology departments

2007-02-05T20:25:00.000Z

Today I had an appointment at my audiology department with regards to my hearing aids and it was a follow up appointment to see how I was getting on with them – I am not, they are awful. Oticon Spirit III really don’t work well with me, they just don’t. Too much black and white, no middle ground, which is where my ears operate best.

What I learnt has really angered me and shows this government to be nothing but a pack of liars and have actually made audiology departments worse since they came to power and we are still waiting to have a national standard of what to expect from audiology departments.

Before I go any further, I should say that this is not directed at the staff in the audiology departments, this is directed at the politicians who think they know better than those on the ground in the NHS, as well as those in the finance departments of the NHS who are happy to ensure those using NHS audiology departments don’t get a service they are deserved of.

In the past, audiology departments had to fit people with hearing aids and fitted them with aids that best suited the person, and if they didn’t have one that did the job, they would then be allowed to take the person private to ensure they got aids that were of use to them to allow them to live a decent life.

Now, the following occurs. The manufacturers produce a list of what aids they are offering and the NHS audiology departments are then told to pick one out of maybe 5 options, and they will get a batch of those, and those only. So the audiology department has to chose what they think will serve the majority of their patients. Now anyone who has ever worn a hearing aid will tell you, what is good for one, doesn’t mean it is good for others. I am a case in example, what suits me won’t suit my brother or other members of my family and they even have a very similar hearing loss to mine, as well as the peaks, etc on the charts, to make it look like they are the same.

So for the likes of me and maybe others in my position with profound hearing loss, the departments have maybe one option of a hearing aid to offer and if that doesn’t work, then tough, go private is the response. The audiology departments’ hands are tied by this stupid rule of the finance departments as well as the politics of this inane government which loves micro managing everything in this country, as they can’t bear to accept others might do a better job than them.

There should be a rule in this country that the politicians should have to use the same services as the rest of us and then would experience what we experience. And as you will see from postings following this, they really have no idea what the general populous want and desire for them to do. To say they are a bunch of self serving jackasses feathering their own nests, is polite, I dare like to say what I really think

Can anything be done, sadly not, unless we vote this current bunch out and replace them, and as much as I hate to say it, the NHS was in a better state under the last Tory government than it is now. Right now it is about to collapse and Labour are happy to sit there watching it die.

Well done Indianapolis Colts

2007-02-05T20:18:00.000Z

Yesterday was the day of the Super Bowl, and the Indianapolis Colts and Chicago Bears were playing.

I stayed up like more and more people are doing in the UK to watch the game live. I am sure my neighbours really appreciated me having my TV up loud at 3am in the morning as I watched the game.

The game was quite good, and despite the numerous turnovers, partly due to the nervousness of the players and the continued rain that they were playing in, it was a good game to watch. I knew the Colts were favourites, but the way the Bears got going was a surprise, I didn't expect them to make such a jump out. But as before the Colts pulled their way back, and finally nailed the Bears and put them down.

Just glad I had the day off, otherwise I am not sure I would have survived the day at work on just over 2 hours sleep.

Plus the announcement that there is to be a game at Wembley is great news for all the fans here in the UK, one can hope that there isn't a screw up with the stadium, otherwise a major embarrassment for us. I have already signed up the list that is requesting tickets, just hoping I get some.

Roll on 28th October 2007, and hopefully my Cowboys will do better next season.

Happy New Year

2007-01-01T17:39:00.000Z

Happy New Year to all and I wish you the best for 2007.

I haven't made any New Years resolutions, I find that I would probably not make them. I prefer the idea of trying to change myself and make myself a better person without making it a New Years resolutions.

This year,

I desire to visit the gym more often, to try and keep the pouch I have as minimal as possible.
I desire to ensure I keep a good work life balance, and try to ensure I leave work at work
I desire to give my best for my last year of my OU Psychology course
I desire to be more together emotionally and mentally. Find a way to cope with anxiety better.
I desire to be better at returning emails and keeping in touch with those I know, especially those I have known for a long time.
I desire to be better with money and know more of where my little bit of money goes! Alvin Hall - help!
I desire to get a proper nights sleep, for the first time in a long time.
I desire to have a proper diet, hoping I can find a good balance of sweet, nice food, with the healthy food.

Will I do the above, I guess Jan 2008 I can make such a judgement. For those who have made resolutions, good luck in keeping them. A new year allows people to try new ideas and new processes, so keep going and all the best

Enjoy 2007

Hope you all enjoyed Christmas

2006-12-26T16:07:00.000Z

I had a wonderful Christmas, I was very fortunate to have such a great Christmas.

I had most of my family with me and Z this Christmas, celebrating Christmas. I went to church for the first time in many many years, to celebrate in the European style. That was a very different experience and wasn't as bad as I imagined and with my parents there as well, being reminded that my father used to be in the choir when he was younger, I had totally forgotten until I heard him singing, puts me to shame quite easily.

The food for the Slovak Christmas was a sauerkraut soup, and then fish in batter with potatoes, onions, which Z did so very well and made us all very full. The most fun part of the proceedings on Christmas Eve was to watch everyone open their presents. My parents liked their mini gift, thankfully my mother has a good sense of humour. Watching Z open her presents I got her was really great, especially she had a few surprises, things she never expected to get, which just made it all the better. I got very lucky, some very nice clothes and by named brands too - Paul Smith, which is some really nice stuff. It is an advantage to have Z working in Selfridges......

On Christmas Day, I managed with Z to make a lovely English Christmas dinner for everyone, and for once I didn't manage to make a mess of the cooking, so thankfully everyone had nice tasting food, an organic chicken which was very nice. I was surprised how well I managed to get it done, so very happy to make it a couple of days which all those who were there enjoyed.

This Christmas has been a very lovely time and it was so nice to celebrate it with my family and with Z. Maybe in the future I will be lucky enough to have all of my family around at the same time, but who knows. And if you are reading it, the rest of my family, maybe another time, when there is less physical distance between us.

For the rest of the festive season, everyone enjoy. I have shopping to do tomorrow, and see if there is any bargains to grab, not just any old rubbish, stuff we need for the house. So not too much to spend, thankfully. I think my credit card is very sore from this Christmas period, but all worthwhile.

Merry Christmas to all

2006-12-24T08:12:00.000Z

Well I have finished work for the year and don't have to go back until the 2nd Jan 2007 so that is a relief, time to relax and enjoy a little break.

For the first time ever I am hosting a Christmas get together, and not just one but two. Z encouraged me to host a Christmas get together for my family, well as much of my family as I can as sadly part of my family is thousands of miles away, so part of it won't be with us which is a shame, as I know it would have been lovely to have all of them together tonight and tomorrow.

We are going to have two Christmas celebrations, greedy I know. Going to celebrate it the Slovak way today on Christmas Eve, having Slovak food and doing things the traditional Slovak way, opening presents on Christmas Eve, going to the church during the day on Christmas Eve. Going to be a different way to do things, sadly I can't bring the snow Z is used to at this time of year, but otherwise we are trying to recreate Christmas as much as possible for her the way she has celebrated in the past.

Then on Christmas Day we are going to have the English style food, with a chicken not a turkey, crackers, etc.

So my family will get both celebrations, and I will get to experience what it is like hosting such celebrations. Given my cooking isn't the greatest I am hoping my mother will be on hand a little bit to ensure we at least have something edible for the Christmas Day. I know Z will have no problem ensuring her food is perfect.

To everyone out there, have a wonderful Christmas however you celebrate it, enjoy the company of those close to you, and may 2007 be a wonderful year for all of you.

Enjoy

Petition for English Parliament

2006-12-07T12:02:00.000Z

For those who have read my blog of recent, you will know I am supporting the campaign for an English Parliament, to give us English a say in our own country, not to let it be run by those who are elected north of the border, who can't have a say in their own countries affairs, but are happy to ruin our England. Examples like Gordon Brown, John Reid, and many other Scottish MPs who remit for their own people is less than it is for us English

Petition for English Parliament

And as the government launched e-Petition and Tony Blair has admitted that the English want their own parliament and government, but is unwilling to give it to us. Nice touch in democracy Tony. Why don't you force through an English Parliament before Gordon comes along and ensure you have a legacy for the English, because we want our own parliament, we want to have control of what is ours. How about it?

For those who believe that England should have its own parliament, sign up, you never know it might actually happen. Worth dreaming

Britain's borders not sufficiently manned

2006-12-02T16:04:00.000Z

This was on the news yesterday, and though I shouldn’t be surprised it does surprise me, because not that Britain is so easy to enter, with little work to get in, but also that elsewhere in Europe that it is that simple to get most nations passports, which then are used to allow people who shouldn’t be allowed freedom to travel, the ease to get around without question.

As you can see from the link Britain fails fake passport test it is also suggesting that what we thought were high numbers of Poles coming to the UK, might actually not be the case, it is suggesting that it is more illegal immigrants who posed as Poles.

So as most people already know, we have a serious migration problem in Europe, the borders are all too easy for people to get through and travel around with little to deter them.

Many also make their way to the UK, simply because of the so-called riches in this country. There are still many who think that London’s streets are paved with gold, and that lures them to our city.

I think we as a country should be advertising how things are really in this country, a third rate health system, a third rate transport system in London, housing which you need to earn at least 100K a year to get on the property ladder, employers wanting you to work 50 hours a week, despite what your contract might say, many employers not even paying minimum wage and even if they do, if you can survive in London on that, you will need a miracle.

Europe really needs to sort out its borders and fast, with Bulgaria and Romania joining in 2007, and more expected before 2010, we are going to be overwhelmed by all these illegal immigrants, who do whatever they can do to get passports which are either stolen or fake, and clearly passports that are stolen, should show up on the system immediately across Europe, to ensure that stolen passports can’t be used no matter what. It is a disgrace and really all the countries of Europe are responsible, not just the UK.

An Update: After watching the programme and seeing how easy it was for the reporter to get passports and the quality of some of the passports, it is worrying, very worrying. Europes borders are basically open and easily abused, and despite the claims of the member states that they work with each other, it clearly doesn't happen and as the UK is seen as a soft touch, we end up getting a lot of these people passing through our borders

1st July 2007, an important date for England

2006-12-02T15:59:00.000Z

For many people in England, this will be a day for cheer, for many it will be a day of sadness and frustration. No it isn’t Tony Blair leaving government, though wouldn’t that be lovely!!

It is the day the smoking ban comes into force in England, and about bloody time as well. It will mean that many can go out at night to places of entertainment – pubs, bars, comedy clubs, etc and not come home stinking of smoke, having a mouth that feels horrid, and their eyes hurting from all the smoke that they had to put up with in the place they were in.

Smoking to be banned in July

England smoke ban to start 1 July

And it isn’t a half way house of places that serve food, it is enclosed spaces, and there is rumblings that Mayor Ken wants to take an even tougher stance for London. On this I will applaud the man. I hope it is pushed so far away, so people can enjoy an air that is a little cleaner. I would have said clean air, but we live in London, and that is going to be a pipe dream.

If he could clean up the Underground, then he really would be on a winner, but as I said pipe dream.

I now can look forward to going out without my clothes stinking to high heaven of smoke, like when I visited the comedy store recently. A suit smelling of smoke isn’t a nice smell, and as I live in a smoke free home, it does really make you feel sick, second hand smoke smell.

Here is to the 1st July 2007 and no more of England being the poor man of the UK

Tonsillectomy update

2006-11-21T16:41:00.000Z

Well, nearly a week after the operation and I have to say things didn’t quite go as I expected.

In the past couple of days I have had to change the meds, as the co-codamol wasn’t doing the trick in helping to relieve the pain enough so that I could eat and they say the way to recover is to eat, wonderful!!!

So with a change in meds after having to suffer extreme pain especially in my ears for the past few days, one has had a little more success in eating, not much more, just a little more, and I can only hope it gets easier as the week goes on. And I am supposed to be back at work for the 1st December.

My poor Z has taken to the spare room, as my snoring is worse now than it was before, but fingers crossed that is to do with all the rubbish in the back of my throat, plus she is finding the smell quite off putting from my mouth. They really don’t tell you about that, they don’t warn you that you might be able to stop a rhino at 500 yards with your mouth after the operation.

They also don’t warn you that you are going to be sleepy a lot of time, regardless of how much you might think you are sleeping, in my case I am clearly not sleeping. I look like a panda with my eyes, big black rings under them.

One other thing I have found, it is a drastic way to lose weight. I have lost 6kg in just under a week, not a recommended way to lose weight mind, but it is amazing how much weight you can lose by not being able to eat. I just hope I am able to maintain it, though Z did say, she reckoned once I got my taste buds back and my desire for food, it will go on as quickly as it went off. Hopefully I can prove that wrong, be nice not to weight 85kg again, and being less than 80kg is a good feeling even with all the pain in my ears and mouth.

Well hopefully I have turned the corner and the slight increase in food intake will be enough to recover, as they say ‘I have to eat to recover’

Tonsillectomy is done

2006-11-16T16:32:00.000Z

Well yesterday I had my tonsils removed, all my anxiety all my concerns over and done within 10 minutes. They apparently use a laser these days to remove one’s tonsils.

Yesterday morning at 7.30am I was allowed to go to the ward where I would be staying overnight to recover. During admission as they call it, I had to put on anti-embolism stockings which was a surprise for me, never had to do that before, and Z took great pleasure in taking a picture or two just to show how ridiculous I looked with them on. I know they are to save my health, but it is a new one on me.

By 10.30 am I was allowed to go to have my operation, and the last thing I remember is seeing them put in anaesthetic and at 12pm seeing the clock and thinking my where am I, it took me about another 30 minutes or so to really work out what was happening.

I had a very swollen neck, it is down a bit now, which is a relief. My throat looks an absolute mess, which of course will clear up in the coming weeks, and poor Z will have to suffer my dog breath for a little while. Thankfully they have given me meds, one being a mouthwash which is great news for me.

As Z was seeing her parents off yesterday I didn’t get to wake up and see her there, but she came along later once her parents had gone through security at Stansted, so it was a joy to see her, and have some time with her before visiting hours were over.

It wasn’t an eventful night, other than I felt cold but was sweating a lot, having trouble swallowing and felt like something was stuck at the roof of my mouth, all apparently perfectly normal. I was the only one who didn’t sleep a wink last night, I have now gone about 36 hours without sleep, apparently one side effect of the anaesthetic. Though I am tired now, and will be hitting the bed, maybe just a few hours will help a lot.

Signed off work for two weeks now, so I am sure that won’t go down well with work, but there isn’t much I can do, it was given to me in very clear language – no work for two weeks, got to stay home and not go outside for a week, which is going to be difficult for me, as I certainly don’t like feeling a caged animal. But it is rest and recuperation as they say, so following doctor’s orders and doing what they say.

Will have to go back in 8 weeks for an appointment just to make sure things are better, fingers crossed they will be. So very hoping that is the case.

I am glad I got the operation done, maybe now I will sleep better, and feel more refreshed, I certainly did this morning despite no sleep, though that I know has to be the effects of the anaesthetic.

Hopefully it will also mean that Z gets fewer disturbances at night and isn’t suffering my snoring, one can hope for sure.

Roll on the relaxation and recuperation!!!

A Sunday well spent

2006-10-23T12:37:00.000Z

Yesterday I and Z made the best of weekend with us both off and without other commitments.

So we made the most of it, we went to the London dungeon and to the Tate modern and they are fairly close to each other as well. We wanted to do the slides at the Tate modern, which meant having to get up early and queue from around 10am; the queue when we got there was already 30 minutes long. Thankfully we did get tickets for the slides in the afternoon, as we felt we would be finished with the London dungeon by then.

So off we trekked to London dungeon, waiting for an hour outside, as it was already packed at that point. Sadly it started raining and me being me said we wouldn’t need umbrellas, and Z’s words came back to haunt, so we got suitably wet of course.

Once we were inside, we dried off fairly fast, and proceeded to enjoy the London dungeon. It costs £17 per person, was that good value, honestly, no. A little cheaper would have made it better value. You have about 1hr 30 minutes at most in there.

I got picked as a volunteer for the torture section, for some reason the lady running that part, thought I was hiding behind my girlfriend so got me up, had me in the chair, whilst demonstrating the torture items….

First the tongue remover, which I didn’t think would be that, thought something far worse. Apparently usually it was used red hot to pull the tongue out.

Next up was a hook, the lady asked me to stand up, and touch my toes, at which point she showed the manoeuvre used to hold the person up, the hook up the back passage and explained that was one way to make the prisoner talk, lovely!!! Got laughter when she got me to bend over, can’t imagine why.

The last item was the worst and aimed at us men solely. Lets just say you would lose you little friend down there. A john Bobbitt job with a blunt cutter, so they would need to do 3 or 4 times to remove it. I think at that point, no man alive would want to be alive, though they probably wouldn’t have been for much longer.

Thankfully none of the items was used in anger, but it makes you shudder at what was done then, in the 17th century

It wasn’t a bad place to visit, but a word of warning, those with children, don’t take them unless you are sure you little child can handle it. At least one member of the group we were going around with, as you go in groups, had a little girl and she basically spent the whole time crying. It is going to be a scary place for a small child, so why bring them, you will make them upset and frighten the poor child.

Afterwards we made our way back to the Tate Modern to do the slides (Carsten Höller), this time it was chucking it down with rain. Got completely wet, my smart idea of not needing an umbrella looked less and less smart as the day went on.

Carsten Holler at the Tate Modern

The slides didn’t look like they would be fast, but they were. You had to wear a special cap, with protective padding in it, though many were losing their caps on the way down.

It is a bumpy ride, and when they say it is physical, you better believe it. You do feel it, really feel, for a little while after.

Video of the slides

Here is a very good video showing what it can be like, and it really is a lot of fun.

If you can handle having to queue for a while just to get tickets and come back later to use the tickets, then do it. It is worth it and if you like slides, and ones that have a bit of speed and bump, go for it, you will thank yourself for it.

Madame Tussauds

2006-10-20T21:30:00.000Z

Went today. Day off after the exam to relax and enjoy myself with Z and we went there.

It has changed a lot since I last went there, mind that was back in the early 1990s.....

Prices have as well. £50 for the two of us, that is a lot of money. Essentially 2 hours or so of time there for that, not what I would call good value for money.

The Planetarium has also gone, which is a shame, I personally liked it. They still have the dome with shows, but an 8 minute movie made by the makers of chicken run, etc, showing about celebrities. A tad corny, but hey ho.

Me and Z had a laugh though, some of the waxworks not looking as you would expect. Z picture with many waxworks, me with just one or two that I wanted.

We still had a good time out, so that is what mattered most, but £50 for two people is a bit steep.

Blog Britain

2006-10-20T21:25:00.000Z

So how many of you did the blog Britain project?

For a project I think it has worthy aims.

Will the results match the aims, not so sure. I know they wanted mundane, run of the mill entries, but if anyone in the future reads them, they might think we Brits were a bit daft.

See the entries here - One Day in History

It is finally over

2006-10-20T21:21:00.000Z

Done it, the exam for D317 has been done, and the relief is enormous.

Did I do well? Who knows. I am hoping I have done enough for a pass, but one can't be sure

I guess I have the option of a resit in April.

I do have to say being asked if my hearing aids were receivers and someone could feed me information was a surprise and it did knock my stride a bit, especially when asked in the middle of the exam. Never happened before and that certainly didn't help me to keep going in the frame of thought I was in.

Roll on December when I find out the score.

The countdown is on

2006-10-14T14:58:00.000Z

Just 4 days left until the OU D317 exam and I am really worried. All the effort I am putting into the revision, just doesn't seem to be paying off.

I can't for the life of me, remember much of any substance, and it is frustrating me so much. It is like someone has blanked my entire memory and nothing is sticking to it. I guess part of the that is the complete lack of sleep I have had since my tonsil problem. Which on a side note, I am hoping the operation on the 15th November will go ahead, and maybe, a big maybe I can get a proper nights sleep for the first in what seems like an eternity. I will probably sleep for the two weeks after recovering knowing my luck!!!!

If anyone knows of a way to download the entire course books into my head so that I can recall it all for the 19th, then please leave a note, I will be more than willing to take a chance!!

I am so going to need months to recover before starting all over again in Feb 2007

Local Council - Harrow

2006-10-07T19:43:00.000Z

Who do you turn to when you have local residents whom don’t seem to understand the idea of a recycle bin and dump any old crap into it?

Who do you turn to when you see rodents coming from that same crap which has been left by the council refuse men, because they are told not to take it, as it would contaminate the recycle lot?

You would think the council, wouldn’t you?

Well, sadly not.

I tried that little thought and got both the refuse department saying that they would investigate within 2 weeks and send someone round to the residents who seem to not understand the concept of recycling. I also told environmental health as well about the rodents that had turned up because of the problem with the rubbish and they also informed me that within 2 weeks they would send someone round.

Funnily enough, nothing has happened, the rubbish is still pilling up, nothing has been actioned at all, and this is from a council that supposedly takes these issues seriously – Harrow

So if you live in the borough of Harrow, don’t expect your council to do anything for all the council tax money it takes off you. It seems that with the change in colour of the council from Red to Blue – Labour to Conservatives, we have on our hands a bunch of people more incompetent than the last bunch. Something I thought highly impossible, but happening way too much.

Do I hope anything will get done, fat chance!! Do I think complaining to the local councillors will fix it – again fat chance.

As long as it doesn’t happen on their doorstep, they are not bothered. Harrow has a big issue of litter and local policy regarding refuse is making it all the worse. If you want to see Harrow at it worse, visit the main centre in the evening and see the amount of litter on the street. Tell me that isn’t encouraging the rodents out……

OU D317

2006-10-07T19:37:00.000Z

Well the last TMA came back, and I got a score of 72. Whilst that might sound fantastic, it is a little lower than I had hoped for, though it won’t affect my overall score too much, as my TMAs have been in the 70s and 80s all year long.

Now is the exam on the 19th, and I am dreading it. I have always hated exams, they are not something to enjoy, and I find them the most difficult part of any course, especially when you have four books to remember, and need to remember a massive amount of names and dates as well, otherwise they won’t credit you with knowing the course. This is of course frustrating for me, especially with the memory like a fish.

Try as I might, I am getting no further in managing to keep the information in my head. If there was a way to allow me to access it easily and recall it easily as well, I would be fine, more than fine, because I can take the information, work with it easy enough, just recall when I don’t have the books to hand…

Oh well, roll on the 19th and I will be so glad to have a break, before doing it all again in 2007 for what is hopefully the last year of my BSc Psychology degree with the OU, and will earn a well earned break for a little bit, before deciding what to do next.

Anyone who is about to sit the exam for D317, all the best for the 19th.

Local councillors’ weblog.

2006-10-07T19:31:00.000Z

I found in the past week a weblog done by the local councillors where I live.

greenhillvoice

At first I thought good, they are trying to be up to date, have easy access and allow people to have their say.

Well, lo and behold that I think is the opposite of what is happening, it is more just for them to make announcements and if people want to comment, well they can take a run and jump.

I made comments particularly to do with the state of the bins in our streets, which to cut a long story short, there are some residents in our street who simply aren’t recycling as they should and the council is then refusing to collect their bins. The council in their wisdom, expect these people to call up and ask why the rubbish hasn’t been collected. Yep, like that is going to happen, not with this lot, which is why we now have an environmental health issue, with rodents running around, all because of refuse which isn’t collected and never will be, because these residents simply aren’t bothered and happy to litter.

Surprisingly the comment never made it to the site, and I can’t imagine why. Something tells me that if anyone makes a comment it never makes it to their blog, which does kind of go against the idea of a blog which allows people to make comments.

Whilst I am on the subject of local councillors in my borough. I had reason to send an email to them to complain with regards to an advert in the local magazine.

Subject: re Harrow Greener Scheme in Harrow Magazine

Hi there,

I live in your local ward and like so many in the whole of Harrow get the Harrow magazine. I am wondering if you would be able to assist me. In the latest Harrow magazine, there is an advert for the greener scheme and on page 11 it says that we can have installed in our residential property solar hot water systems and mini wind turbine for a total cost of £500.

With that being such a good idea, I rang the number on the ad – 0800 838 650 and got my pack. In the pack, the information is very different. It says that it is £500 for each type of technology. So that means it is £1000, not the £500 stated. This means that the advert is wrong and is misleading many many residents. I am in no position to consider £1000 and I think many will be in the same position, especially after reading it was £500 for all the technology. It is also not clear whether it is £400 per tech from the low carbon buildings programme, or just £400 overall. This is simply very poorly written and without clarity.

Clearly this is misleading and basically the advert is a lie, which is quite bad for Harrow council to be putting out.

I hope you will be able to resolve this situation and inform me that the advert was correct and that what was received by the energy saving trust is wrong.

I look forward to hearing from you soon

I thought I made good points and was fair and honest about the situation. The response I got back was a little bit of a let down.

We’ve followed up and it was indeed a slightly misleading advertisement. We have updated the wording before publishing it elsewhere and also made sure that people calling up apologise for the lack of clarity in the advertisement.

You may be pleased to know that we have had a very high take-up rate from people calling the number despite the misleading advertisement.

Thanks again for pointing it out.

How they consider a little misleading being double the price quoted and being £500 for each type as opposed to all techs as in the advert I am not sure. Something tells me that our lovely local council which was Labour, who screwed up royally, have been followed by a bunch of people, who are going to screw even more. I wonder why people get turned off by politicians whatever their party background

OU D317

2006-09-17T12:45:00.000Z

To my utter surprise the other day I got my TMA 05 back and with a score which has left me very pleased, almost perfect please except I was 3 marks away from a 1st class essay to go with the one I got for my TMA 04.

I am tickled pink, seriously. I know I find essays hard to do, even though Z says I should do more writing as she feels it seems to come naturally to me. Heck no, but amazing what perceptions come across. Z felt this essay was my best, shame she wasn't marking it.

After all my worries I secured a very high score, just missing a 1st class essay score.

Can I do the same for the last one, which I am in the process of writing as I type this - Word is open with it part written, waiting for more to be typed in. I know I have to finish it today despite it not needing to be in until the 27th September, it is just I need as much time as possible for the exam, which is on the 19th October and I hate exams, I really hate exams.

No matter how hard I prepare, I always stuff them up, call it stupidity, call it nerves, call it what you will, it is partly why I struggled as an academic when I was younger and still do to this day. Exams are a bug bear for me. I know if I can get 55% above for the exam I will get a 2.2 for this module, which is okay, though I would prefer a 2.1, but that would require 70% for the exam, and I don't think in my living memory I have ever been that fortunate no matter the subject matter.

Oh well back to the TMA 06 and here is to hoping I get another good score, at least it will give me some confidence I can do this study lark, after 10+ years of not having done it.

Depeche Mode best of album

2006-09-04T06:49:00.000Z

This is the new release to come in November

For some this album won't be worth it, but I imagine anyone who likes a complete collection will get this. I for one will possibly get this, though by suggesting it is a Volume 1, suggests there is more to come.

http://bestof.depechemode.com/

D317 TMA04

2006-08-28T08:57:00.000Z

Not long got this assignment back, and this assignment I struggled with more than any of the others I have done so far on this course. Though with TMA05 to be done by the end of the day today and sent, I fear this one is going to be even harder, it feels it.

The reason why I mention this assignment as opposed to any others so far is that, I scored such a high score, I got the equivalent of a 1st class essay. Now I am not the greatest academic and have always struggled, even though I got a degree at 2nd class honours previously and this being my second degree I am doing.

I was just stunned, even Z knew I had major concerns about the TMA04 and what I handed in, but to my utter surprise and disbelief I was awarded such a high mark. I am not complaining and won’t I am just so happy to be awarded such a mark, it is something I seem to have bordered on this year, but never made the breakthrough and now I have, it is such a good feeling, and I only wish I had more time to savour it.
I know with the upcoming exams in the space of 6 weeks I am going to struggle in the exams, I always have, it isn’t a forte of mine at all, and always brought my overall marks down. I am just hoping this year I can make it different and maybe get the equivalent of a 2:1 for this module, as it would be such a reward for the efforts, but who knows.

Anyway I have to finish my TMA05 and hope that I still get high scores again.

Alton Towers Day Out

2006-08-22T20:28:00.000Z

Yesterday me and Z went off to Alton Towers. I took a day off work whilst she was lucky enough to have it as a scheduled day off.

It was an early start as we had an 8.25am train to catch from Kings Cross. We were a little concerned about the weather, the reports had suggest heavy rain for the day and as we were travelling up towards Derby to get our connecting coach, we went through the heavy rain and we felt we were going to have a soaking wet day.

Thankfully when we arrived at Derby the rain appeared to stop and the skies weren’t quite so dark. As usual with any trip we were delayed, not this time by an unreliable service, but by a few stragglers who managed to get stuck in the loo, and thus we had to go back for them losing the best part of 30 minutes plus. To anyone who goes on these trips, please for your own sake, ensure that when you are doing these trips not to inconvenience others. These people should be left where they were, it does state clearly what to do, and if you spend time farting around doing who knows what, whilst everyone else boards the coach, then you deserve to be left behind.

When we arrived at Alton Towers, the rain was spitting, and so we were conscious of getting around as fast as possible to enjoy in case of the heavens opening. What I wasn’t aware of and thankfully we spotted it, there is the option to drop all bags at the guest services centre for £3 a day and you can access it as many times as you wish to avoid the risk of losing the bag whilst on the ride, as you can’t carry bags on the rides for the obvious reasons. A very useful service and one I don’t recall being there before. Another useful service which we didn’t know about until too late though is a priority service available where you don’t have to queue for 45 minutes plus, etc, you go to almost the head of the queue and the option only costs £7. They call it short cut, but still. I was surprised more people didn’t use the option, maybe like us they didn’t know about it.

Z wanted to do all the thrill rides, white knuckle in other words. Me, I was more than happy to do so, I tend to like those rides. We walked our way to X-sector and Z spots the first ride she wants to do, Oblivion. Well we queued up and it only took about 25 minutes or so which is pretty quick and I am guessing the lousy weather put people off. Z wasn’t ready for the ride, not at all. By the end of the ride and it is only about 30 seconds or so, she was as white as a sheet. She was so pale and the pictures that are taken, she looked like she had seen a ghost.

I will give Z her dues, later on she was determined to go back again and again and again, in total 4 times we rode that ride and each time she got more and more used to it and more and more into it. I can safely say it was the ride she enjoyed the most.

We did do other rides there including submission, which felt quite tame after Oblivion and then Enterprise which was even tamer. You can guess that we felt in comparison those rides would be. We then went to try Rita ‘Queen of Speed’. This is a monster ride, it basically shoots you forward at a rate of knots from a standing start and you are propelled around the ride so quickly with turns and twists. We waited 45 minutes for that ride and would do so again, sadly there wasn’t to be time in the end. The main reason being that, for the 45 minutes we were able to get 3 rides on the Oblivion because the queues for that were so short, I have no idea why though.

We also went and did Air, Nemesis as well. Air is a ride everyone should try and it does especially because of the way you go around the ride like you are in the air with no bum on a seat, it is a very different and enjoyable experience. Z decided that the picture she wanted was the one from Air where we are both screaming for joy with the ride, so we now have that adorning our living room. Nemesis is an older ride, but still very good.

I did notice a number of rides from when I last went have now gone, including the Thunderlooper and the Black Hole is boarded up, obviously with the intention of replacing it with something else. I have to also admit I haven’t been in probably over 10 years now, so I couldn’t expect anything less.

If you are interested in going yourself and want a deal then have a look, this page is the place to go.

Alton Towers All-Inclusive Day Out

I would recommend to anyone who can afford the £38 each to do it, and if possible pay the extra £7 to go through the quick channel at the queue for each ride. It would probably mean you get to do maybe 15-20 goes on the rides instead of the 9 we managed and we went when it wasn’t that busy, so I leave it to your imagination as to how packed it can be.

Z has in her head the Oblivion ride, I can remember each and every time we went on and how I was screaming with joy and enjoying it so much and the look on her face at the end of each one, each time having more of her natural colour than before. Z made a point to me that on each ride I was always shouting/screaming with joy and that in each picture I really look like I was enjoying myself. To me you can’t go on these white knuckle rides and not pumped the adrenaline, so stoke it up and add to the joy. It makes it a much better day.

How did we get here? - Creationism

2006-08-15T19:53:00.000Z

A story in today’s Guardian has me concerned, really concerned.

How did we get here?

This is supposedly how today’s up and coming graduates feel.

12% of students preferred creationism – which is where god created us within the past 10,000 years. 19% favouring the theory of intelligent design – being that features of living things are due to a supernatural being such as god, and only 56% believed that Darwin is correct.

This isn’t good, how can anyone suggest this is good.

Increasingly creationism is being taught alongside evolution in schools, and the thing that is wrong this is particularly at academies run by Christian Vardy Foundation.

20% of students are being taught creationism at school

This is worse in other countries, notably America, which I have to guess is where the influence for this country has come from, an influence which I personally think shouldn’t be happening

Here is another blog which I agree with, this whole situation with creationism is scary shit.

Disbelief.html

Next we are going to have them saying that the world is flat.

I am sure there can be many other links provided, and I know the Bill Hicks point of view, which I am beginning to subscribe to simply because how can you dispute the evidence in our hands, all the bones, all the data, for someone to say it is God f**king with our heads. Please come on.

Continuing problems of the CMS system for the Jobcentre Plus

2006-08-15T18:37:00.000Z

As I have reported a number of times over the past year, the CMS (Customer Management System) for Jobcentre Plus is still suffering problems.

Government fears run benefits

I have always felt this system doesn’t take account of the needs of those who it is supposed to serve, i.e. those wanting and needing to sign on.

It now claims that 94% of calls are dealt with in the day, but that still leaves in excess of 1,000 calls a day missed. That is too much, way too much. One of my main gripes with this system is that by being phone based, it is penalising the deaf.

Citizens Advice Help

As noted by the Citizens Advice, it is a real problem for those unable to use the phone

This is the government view

But none of them answer the question, what happens to those who for whatever reason are simply not able to use the phone. No mention is made of Typetalk, no mention is made for those who struggle to hear on the phone. So basically the idea is to exclude many from the rights that they are entitled to.

I think someone’s head should roll for this, this system hasn’t been thought out and was done with one purpose in mind to remove over 11,000 jobs.

The minister who some of the blame can be laid at Jim Murphy, who is the minister for employment and welfare reform. Although he says they have change the approach since March when the CMS was branded a catastrophic failure, one would guess nothing is any better now than it was then.

Most Expensive city in the world

2006-08-15T18:34:00.000Z

A recent report has highlighted what probably many of us living in London already know. We are living in the most expensive city in the world. The report in the Evening Standard, listed London as number one in the world for living costs including rent.

The order was

London
New York
Oslo
Tokyo
Zurich
Copenhagen
Geneva
Dublin
Chicago
Los Angeles

Back in 2003, London was 3rd, so as you can see things are getting no better at all.

The point made is that everyday living costs are higher in London than anywhere else in the world, even without adding rent, we are only behind Oslo. Of course it is obvious we don’t have the wages to match our living costs.

The figures are based on wages, cost of public services, travel and various other goods and services. Any wonder London tops the lists, given our so so expensive travel – tube, buses, and trains. An example given was that a single second class ticket for a typical 120 mile journey will cost £47.80 in London, the nearest is New York at £27.50, the best part of nearly half the cost. Back in 2003, we were still top by only by £7 instead of the whopping £20+ now.

If you consider the level of personal debt in the UK, you can see the correlation. It hit the trillion pound mark earlier this year when including mortgages, so if you work that out, it was a case that for every man, woman and child in the UK owes over £11K+.

That is an astonishing figure, and with London being the most expensive city, you can certainly expect that figure to rise.

All of this must also put the tourist off coming to London, as it was noted in the survey, other than Tokyo, which beat London by £5, we are the most expensive city to visit. Not exactly a selling point is it.

If anyone else has any figures to show about this, please show them, be happy to add them to the entry and maybe there is a way to combat this, not just for the tourists, but especially for the locals whom just don’t have the wages people assume they do.

Uptight drivers and their bad parking

2006-08-05T13:27:00.000Z

What ever happened to white van man?
He became white van council man

This is a bugbear for me and I am sure for many many others. So this has come to the point of show and shame now, because this has gotten too much for me, and I am sick of tired of drivers who don’t understand the highway code.

For the last few weeks, I have had for the want of a better word an idiot driver who blocks my drive outside my house, so that I can’t get a vehicle on or off.

Unfortunately I never catch the offending idiot. This idiot doesn’t know the Highway code. Point 217 of the Highway code is “DO NOT PARK in front of an entrance to a property”. As you will see in the pictures, this person clearly doesn’t know what the entrance to a property is, and doesn’t know what a property is either.

Now in my attempts to find out what can be done to ensure this offender doesn’t block my drive in the future, I found out a few things.

Firstly, most councils now have so called out of hours contact lines for those who wish to have people blocking their drives ticketed. My local council does, and so do many councils now it seems. For me that is a bonus.

I wrote to my friendly local council

I am trying to find out the situation with regards to your enforcement of single yellow lines and the blocking people drives. This particular street suffers from a lot of people blocking drives, very poor parking and frankly due to the increase in the number of dwellings due to the changes made by the council, insufficient spaces to park.

In the last few weeks, I have had repeatedly my own drive blocked by others, in particular one person, whom I have never managed to catch at it, but blocks my own drive. I can give you the registration number if that helps. I am assuming that the single yellow line only operates at certain hours, as this person is blocking the drive between around 7pm to around 8am.

Now the highway code clear states

“DO NOT PARK in front of an entrance to a property” - Highway Code point 217

But how can I get yourselves to enforce it, so that my drive is free and not blocked.

My friendly council responded

The council can issue Penalty Charge Notices to vehicles that block drives. In order to do this, you need to call us on 020 8424 1275 between treatment - 5pm or 020 8863 5611 out of these hours.

The Parking Attendant will knock at the property and check that the vehicle is not someone in the property and request for someone to sign a document stating the PA has checked the vehicle does not belong to a friend or family member.

This made me think this is useful and why isn’t this advertised a lot more.

It also got me thinking that as the person blocking my drive is driving a Camden white van, they must be able to ensure that something can be done. Well, this took a little more than I thought. I contact their general enquires and I got an expected response of my area isn’t in their area, so can’t do nothing. Not satisfied with that, I then decided to ring up their parking enforcement department, to be told by the lady on the end of the phone that they can’t help and thus end of the matter, despite it being one of their workers.

Not satisfied with that, I go searching on Camden Council and find a complaints department, now I think I might get somewhere. After speaking to the very apologetic lady on the end of the phone, who promised me to get someone to call me and resolve the matter, I was feeling I was making some headway. Lo and behold, I get a phone call some hours later asking me to explain the situation, and give my side of the story. I also pointed out to the gentleman who called me that I do have photographical evidence, which you can also see below. He was more than interested to see this evidence and this has now been sent to the council staff, whom will deal with this in the way they see fit.

Will this mean that, I will no longer have the idiot driver blocking my drive, possibly, and very hopefully. I may also end up with one irate neighbour, but given he didn’t have any respect for me in the first place, I doubt it is going to make any difference anyway.

And because this annoying neighbour, I have to presume some neighbour because it is parked in this street all night, is flouting the law and causing me an inconvenience, I am more than happy to post the pictures below, so that if any of you suffer this person blocking your drive, call Camden council on their complaints number which can be easily found on their website or if you really want email me and I will send it to you. And then hopefully this person will realise that despite his less than stellar reading of the highway code, someone will ensure he doesn’t get away scott free.

First Example of bad parking

Second Example of bad parking

Third Example of bad parking

Number plate so you can ensure this driver doesn't block your drive

Another shot of the number plate so you can ensure this driver doesn't block your drive

I also know for future reference that if someone is repeatedly blocking my drive, for which I had to pay a premium for when I bought my house, I can ensure they end up with a parking ticket, which doesn’t make me feel in anyway bad at all, and why should I, I am entitled to use my drive and I follow the highway code, so why can’t others.

Housing in London – gone mad

2006-08-03T17:57:00.000Z

With the news today of a 0.25% increase in the interest rates from the Bank of England, there was a timely, though horrible report released about the state of the housing market in London.

It is now claimed that with the average London salary being supposedly £25,000 the average London house price is now about 10 times the average salary. So of course that means that most people can’t afford to buy in London and there is a dearth of first time buyers. Well it doesn’t take a Sherlock to realise that.

What is interesting from the report though is that apparently parents of first time buyers are now shelling out on average £28,000 to help their offspring buy a place in London. Otherwise the person buying the place needs to earn £80,000 a year to afford it.

Okay, this isn’t good news, but we have known about this for a while, though the figure that parents are giving/lending their offspring surprised me, given that I am sure there are many parents for whom that amount of money is a great deal. I personally was very lucky to buy my house over 5 years ago, with a massive 25% deposit, and sufficient salary to do so. Though now even on the same salary, there is not a chance I could afford to do so, even back then I was stretched as far as one could go.

There are worrying thoughts here.

1) That the house price is so far in excess of the ‘normal’ person, that no one can move because the gaps between different types of housing make it impossible. If I wanted to upgrade to a 4 bed house, I couldn’t if I tried.
2) The continuing call for building more places in London. We don’t have the space, we don’t have the infrastructure, and we don’t have the resources. How many more people are we going to squeeze into a space that doesn’t exist, how much of London’s green space do we need to lose before enough is enough! Look at the current situation with the water crisis, how does putting even more people in London fix that, the problem with the electricity blackouts because of too much demand. It is simple to know that London simply doesn’t have the infrastructure to cope with the amount of people here now, why add more. Too few schools, too few hospitals, the list is endless, London is suffering badly, and these calls for more and more properties just adds to it getting worse. An example in case is where they squeeze more and more into a street and wonder why there is a parking problem. Funny how the council didn’t think about that, but was happy to have the opportunity for more council tax.
3) Fix the issue at hand, which are the extortionate house prices which are far in excess of anything realistic. This is an issue that underpins it all, it isn’t helped by the fact that the inflation target is based against an inflation that doesn’t include the mortgage payments, if it did, and then it would make it clearer as to the problems involved. These prices are fuelled by banks, etc lending money when they shouldn’t be. Lending someone 5+ times their salary and also relying on their parents, or having friends club together just so they can get a place, says that the market is in trouble and extremely unhealthy. Inflation in this country is much higher than people realise, and the ‘official’ figure is tainted and fixed, as it removes so many things it should include when calculating inflation.

Housing in London has gone beyond the sensible; it has gone beyond anything anyone possibly imagined. I know in the late 80s it wasn’t this bad, it was difficult before the crash, but it never reached this level. And even then they were calling for more houses, it doesn’t help matters. We need a more regulated market, one which thanks to Thatcher we don’t have, and now any Tom, Dick and Harry can get a mortgage because the banks aren’t sufficiently ensuring that people can actually afford it. Why do you think that they went from 3 times salary to affordability? Yep, that same affordability means that each and every increase in interest rates means that people get themselves into more and more problems. The buy now, never pay attitude. I know of enough people who have interest only mortgages, with no vehicle to pay the capital off, I guess hoping it will never happen.

As a side point, there is increasing unemployment, increasing debt, which after today is going to get worse not better, and I for one hope I won’t be hit with the downturn, but we are overdue for it, and sadly a lot of people have been spending money to get out of it, and so many are living on credit. The last figure I saw was something like £10K per person, and with 60 million of us in the country, there are so people seriously in debt, and the banks give them more to hang themselves with, wonderful. The banks win either way, they never lose. But if someone is enough of a mug to put themselves so indebt, then to be honest, they don’t deserve my sympathy.

The house market in London is so overdue for a crash, and when it does come, and it is hard to imagine it not, because of the economics surrounding it, it will make the late 80s crash look like a piss in the wind, it really will.

I don’t wish a crash, but we have forced ourselves into it. London is sitting on a time bomb which will go off, and no manner of building more houses will fix it. Building further into the sky won’t help either; it will just bring back the eyesores of the 60s and the associated problems that came with them. London is already at bursting point, it is like trying to push the extra bit of rubbish in the bin because you can’t be bothered to empty it, it won’t go.

Anyone has a better idea please say, I would really like to hear it, because in my opinion, London is up s**t creek without a paddle

Phonak Savias, frustrating to use.

2006-07-30T17:00:00.000Z

I have had these aids now for a good few weeks, even had them adjusted yet again, and I have to say, if there is anyone out there who is using them, please leave me a message as to how you find them.

I am personally finding them difficult to use, though they are supposed to be perfect for my hearing loss.

These things, cut out when I don’t want them to, they drop the volume way too much for my liking, have ruined my appreciation of music, heck listening to my music now, whomever I listen to, be it Green Day, Depeche Mode, or anyone, it totally destroys the sound that I get, and it is made so much worse if any other noises come in when the music is on.

I do wonder if it is me, as I grew up with analog aids, and then aids with adjustable settings but still analog. These digitals are so very different from the NHS ones, supposedly better equipped to deal with the normal day to day of life, but I do well wonder that, because it don’t feel that way. Talking on a phone now is a chore, rather than a joy.

Maybe the specialist setting them up, isn’t doing it right, though he says he is doing what he can within the program, and I know Phonaks should be fine because I had them for so long until I was forced to switch over some years back.

So if there is anyone out there using them, please let me know how you got on with them, did they improve your life, do you find hearing to be easier, less work, etc than before, or did you have to admit defeat and change to something else. Me as an ex-power junkie (termed not set by me, but the audiologists I have had over the years) is finding these aids hard work, more than it should be.

Save our Seats campaign - Metropolitan Line new S Stock

2006-07-17T16:16:00.000Z

For those who in live in London and especially those who use the Metropolitan line regularly, this will be of great interest to you.

Metronet are going to introduce new rolling stock as of 2009 called S stock on the Met line. These trains will remove up to 30% of the seats that exist on the current stock.

That is quite a high figure, and they claim it is all down to meeting new disability legislation. This doesn’t make sense at all, that is to be honest an over reaction, a serious over reaction. You might expect to lose maybe 15% at most, but what they are proposing is just mind numbingly stupid.

To top it off, they are also proposing to have a single carriage instead of 8 separate ones. This stock will also be narrower, which for anyone who travels a large part of the Met line will tell you, that can’t be a good thing.

This hasn’t been thought out at all well, and I am pleased that papers like Harrow Observer, Pinner Observer, Harrow Leader, etc are trying to get something done. At least someone is thinking with their heads.

More information on the campaign

Even more information as to what is happening

Pictures of the new S Stock
Can anyone honestly tell me these don’t look narrower and have fewer seats?

There is also to be a petition at Harrow on the Hill station later this week to drum up more support. For those who travel through this station and don’t want up to be in a situation where you are even more packed in like cattle in a truck, then sign up.

I already have done so, and spread the word, you will be glad to have the option for a seat in the future. These plans ensure it being nigh on impossible to ever get a seat.

Time for an English Parliament?

2006-07-13T19:56:00.000Z

I think the time for an English Parliament is overdue, would fix the inconsistencies that exist in the current system, plus restore true democracy to the UK, and also give all areas the autonomy they seek and deserve.

At the weekend in the Observer there was an article - Voters back English-only parliament

Which showed how things have changed dramatically since devolution and how the people of England are calling for their own parliament. A lot of this has come to a head recently with the so called West Lothian Question being raised again.

This is how would it be possible that a devolved parliament in Scotland affect the state of the union and what are the consequences of it. Due to Gordon Brown trying to sell his Britishness and trying to overcome the issue which is affecting a lot of the voters he wants to appeal to, which is how is it that a Scottish MP would be allowed to be Prime Minister, but would be able to vote on issues that don’t affect his constituents like health, education, etc and thus as is being suggested by many, and I can’t really disagree, ensure that the English get a raw deal.

A website for those who wish to read more and see more of the injustice that the English are suffering at the hands of the Scottish MPs, and not just the English, but the Welsh too. Right now a Scottish MP can dictate Education, Health and on Wednesday Tony Blair paved the way for a new generation of Nuclear power stations but only in England. Gee thanks Mr.Blair, appreciate that one a great deal. That wasn't a sham now was it?!?!?!

The website is called Campaign for an English Parliament

Latest News on the campaign

When will this government realise that the English are actually growing ever restless and until we have the same level of rights as the Scottish, Northern Irish and the Welsh, it will get worse and worse. The level of spending in this country is highest in Scotland despite the fact that for the whole of the UK, London has 3 of the poorest boroughs, yep, London, something which people seem to happily ignore.

This will not change, and I along with many others feel that the sooner we have our own English Parliament, the more content we will become, plus the option to dictate our own policy and not have interfering Scottish MPs whom can’t dictate Health, Education, etc in their own country ensure that we in England are worse off.

Mr. Blair, get real, finish the job with devolution, do it correctly and fairly and you might actually leave a legacy worth leaving, right now, that isn’t going to happen.

One year on from the London bombing, has anything changed?

2006-07-06T21:07:00.000Z

The simple answer to that is yes, but is it for the better, I have to say sadly not.
There is more fear than before, more accusations, more finger pointing, and more removal of civil liberties that were hard won in the first place.

Is the tube safer, no I wouldn’t say so, is it being used less, not a chance, it is being used even more than before, the trains are more packed than I can ever remember, and I have been travelling on them daily for around 15 years, whether that is a case of higher usage or more delays, who knows, but people don’t seem to be walking around fretting that we might suffer another 7/7.

As cynical as I can be, I think most people will agree, we have had this government take advantage of the situation to further a police state, which we are sadly walking further and further into.

I also feel a lot for the Muslims who have been branded by many as a problem, when it was a bunch of fundamentalist who undertook the bombing, not anything else, and the worst part was they were right under our noses and this government still believes that ID cards would fix the situation, I still would like to know how that is possible.

Tomorrow many people will be observing silence for those who lost their lives, and I know of many work places that will be doing so. I am not actually sure if ours will do so, I can hope so, it would be appropriate to at least maintain silence for that period as requested, heck it would be for me the only time there was peace and quiet…….

London is a resilient city, it has for a long time dealt with issues like this and come through them all, and simply because it has to, it is whether people like it or not, the engine that drives this country, and without it, this country would be very different.

For those who are in London, remember how one year ago the landscape in London changed in a way we could never expect

Now the owner of a pair of Phonak Savias

2006-07-06T20:53:00.000Z

Last Monday I took ownership of a pair of Phonak Savias, long overdue but finally happy to have them. They are an improvement on what I had previously, but still need some serious tweaking mind, and thankfully I have an appointment for that.

Here is what I have and what they look like

I didn’t specify a colour, because I expected beige, though I ended up with this, not that I am complaining, as this was the colour I had wanted at first and then thought better of, given that despite them looking good as Z has said, it just adds to the fact they stand out even more now, especially as I have gold ear moulds, so you can imagine the combination. If someone doesn’t realise I have hearing aids by now, then they will never see it, as it couldn’t be more in their face if I tried. No hiding for me anymore, as much as I would like.

The aids are more powerful than I had previously and at the moment it is set to change programs automatically as is needed, and that is actually making it a lot harder for me to concentrate and focus on my work and normal life, as it changes when it wants, and thus I don’t get consistency when it comes to sound, as it is changing so much, and not in a good way.

I also got a Smartlink System too

The idea of this is fantastic, and is supposed to allow up to 30m away for me to hear someone, an idea Z loved as she could tell me to get some shopping at one end of the shop whilst she is elsewhere. It doesn’t at the moment seem to work, whether that is the aid or the smartlink I am not sure. I did all I should as the manual said, but no joy, so right now it is a glorified remote control, which isn’t good.

So I am looking forward to when they come for the fine tuning, as it will be requiring a lot of work, but I think these have potential to be something decent, lets hope they last longer than my usual ones, and by that I mean less than a couple of years, whereas the life of the aids are supposed to 7-10 years, never had that happen ever.

Access to Work cuts

2006-07-06T20:44:00.000Z

Those who have read this blog recently will know that I have been lucky enough to have gotten funding for the equipment I needed to help me with my work.

Though it took about a year to get from start to end, for many reasons like expecting my workplace which I had just when I made the application, to make a contribution! And my response was one of shock and then to laugh at them for wanting to make my position more precarious than it could have been, especially as that is what Access to Work is meant to be for, to provide a level a playing field for those who are disabled.

Well, I saw the following through a link I got in email, and it doesn’t exactly make good reading

Work and Pensions, Access to Work

I don’t see this as anything other than bad, I have to say, an opportunity for this government to make cuts in funding. What it is saying is that the government is going to make it harder for disabled people to be employed by governmental departments, and I don’t believe any of the rubbish that they say they are equal opportunities employer – fat chance. They will do their level best to ensure that they don’t have to pay out more than needed for a person, and this just ensures it will be even more difficult for disabled to work in governmental departments. Not that I think many people would want to work for an employer who doesn’t pay much above minimum wage which is what so many people in the JobCentres get.

I am surprised the DRC doesn’t see this as a problem.

Garden, well a Jungle

2006-07-03T07:13:00.000Z

This weekend just gone, me and Z decided that we would attempt to make our garden, well jungle as it looked like a little nicer, a little more sparse, and generally something we can be proud of, instead of something to think, oh my what an eyesore.

Well on Saturday I started on part of it, spent a couple of hours, using the newly bought hedge trimmer, and like a boy with a power toy, enjoyed taking it out on the hedges at the front, they wouldn’t have seen that coming….

So far so good, I filled our brown organic waste bin completely, thankfully it is emptied every week at the moment, and our front garden looked a little better, not quite so much of a jungle, but something that more resembles a garden, though the bloody weeds wouldn’t come out, they are stuck so fast. Pulling and pulling on these things made no difference, despite my best strength, so they got a major dose of weed killer, which I had used previously on them, but obviously not enough. Thinking I might get something called DeeWeed which apparently is the best one around, though the one I have is pretty good for most weeds, just not these resistant little things.

On Sunday me and Z together started work on the back garden, in the hope we might actually find the garden amongst the jungle that existed out there. After 2 hours of going at it, we managed to tidy up one side of the garden. Just one side, that is how bad the garden had got. Z really enjoyed going at parts of the garden with the hedge trimmer, and there was me hoping it would be just a boys toy, she loves the power tool as well.

It looks quite bare now on one side, but more like a garden should be, the other side will have to wait. In removing the jungle on the one side, we managed to fill about 10 black sacks worth of jungle waste. Shows I haven’t done for an eternity, really bad. I will be glad when the council empty the brown bin, and then we will just fill it up all over again, this might go on all summer I think.

As it was so hot yesterday I worked without a top, and yep, I got sunburnt, very red on my back, but despite that I think it was worth it. The garden looks better and there is a real sense of achievement from all that hard work.

Hopefully we can get it to a state where we just need to go at it once a month and then it will be no more 10 sacks of garden waste every time we try and sort it out.

I have never been much a DIY or garden person, but I am having to learn bloody fast, and what better way to learn that to attack a jungle made of my own doing….

Holiday fast approaching

2006-05-30T18:17:00.000Z

My summer break, well early summer break this year, is about to happen, as of Saturday morning at 5.30am I will be away for two weeks off to.... Eastern Europe, not the usual sunny climate of a beach and sand, but the cities of the former communist countries and new joiners to the EU.

Checked the weather forecast for the places we are going to - Poprad, Krakow, Budapest, Bratislava, Vienna and Prague, and it looks like they are going to be cooler than we are experiencing here in London, which isn't good news, I am so hoping that is going to change, otherwise I might be caught short with mainly summer clothing in my luggage, which I have still yet to pack.

Though there is a good reason for that, simply struggling to get through my OU D317 TMA03 project. This is causing me a nightmare, and the hand in date is the 7th June, but given I will be in Budapest by then, I have to finish it Friday night to send on Saturday morning, boy this is difficult, I am going to be so glad of a break, I really need it. Between my work and my OU, I seem to be losing any time to oneself lately and even getting time with Z is getting more difficult, not exactly good for our relationship I have to say, though I think going to Paris helped.....

Probably be my last entry for a couple of weeks until I get back. Hopefully you will all enjoy good weather here in the UK, and so will I whilst away.

I am now a Reiki master

2006-05-28T08:35:00.000Z

Yesterday I completed the course to become a Reiki master. I wasn't sure how it would work out, but yesterday's session was better than the first. I had the attunement yesterday as well. When I had attunements at previous levels I never experienced anything before, except maybe a little warmth when the teacher did my attunement. Well yesterday was a much more moving experience. When the teacher did my attunement, I had at the beginning the most odd experience, I was seeing a wealth of colours coming from my third eye, and I am not usually one who believes in that stuff, but for whatever reason it was flowing so much, and I was actually feeling so warm and it was so unexpected. It only ended when he pulls my hands up to the level of my third eye, and then it just stopped very suddenly.

I can't explain what happened and why, but supposedly the third eye is something to do with clairvoyants being able to see things. I know full well that isn’t something I am, but I wouldn’t mind my third eye being opened again, quite an intense but enjoyable experience.

I also learnt on the course yesterday, ways to cure depression, clinical depression, but not maniac, as that is something else. I am not sure if it would work, but if there was someone who was depressed I would consider trying it, as it is quite NLP in its approach, and we hear these days that NLP is very useful and very applicable. Something else I wish I had tried, but never sat down to try, though I was given a brief outline when I was on an ILM course a few years ago.

Other things I learnt include how to remove negative energy through vortex healing, which is using the CR symbol and pulling out the negative energy via the vortex. It works for some people, as was seen by the results in the group.

Is this Reiki going to mean a career change, most likely not, but will it be something I consider using in my life, for sure I will do, how much depends on me, and my general mood and the time I have to myself, though I should be able to carve out 5/10 minutes a day at least for self-healing which would be better than nothing.
Maybe when I finish my OU degree, I will consider doing Reiki as a sideline to my normal job, something to help others.

I am surprised at myself though how I have changed during the past year, how I seem to be more willing to believe in the more spiritual things, which aren’t able to proven by science, other than being able to see the response of the person partaking. I still don’t believe in God, and may never ever do, but I do know much more that there are things we just don’t understand and thus can’t dismiss them.

Passion for all things computers

2006-05-27T06:14:00.000Z

This week, I was given a stark dose of reality, though I think I knew for some time, I just no longer have the passion for computers like I did. This came about because at work, there is a voluntary group set up and this group will be there to swap ideas on new technologies, new languages, new ideas, etc just to do with computers.

As the meeting went on more and more, I realised that I just don’t have the passion for computers as I did when I was younger, I heard each and everyone of the others in the group chatting, and the way they were talking, it is like they leave work and continue to spend even more time looking at computers, reading the languages, finding new gadgets, see what new technologies are coming, and it really dawned on me, my god, I don’t do that anymore. When I get home I don’t really see my computer I have anymore, except for email, this blog and maybe some sites. I for one don’t have time with my studies, and two I have no real interest and desire like I had.
I don’t want to come home and spend 4/5 hours in front of a computer when I get home, I want to relax, or do other things, and I think despite the fact I am a software developer and do enjoy the challenges and the work to some extent, it has become more of a job than a passion.

At some point in this group, I will have to make my contribution, but I really don’t have anything to contribute, which isn’t good of course, but do I even want to, that I can’t say I am sure.

I can’t say why I don’t have the passion I used to have, I can’t point to why. Does this disadvantage me in my chosen field, probably, should it though, no, but it will. Maybe this is the norm, maybe people go through this, but I am not so sure anymore, I think the fact might be, I either have less interest in it, or I simply am trying to find a new path, and that might be why I am doing my OU degree in psychology, why I am going to become a Reiki master by the end of today. Or maybe it is just a more rounding of a person.

If anyone has experienced this, or knows why this might be happening and can give their thoughts, be more than happy to hear them.

Who steals recycling boxes and why?

2006-05-22T06:59:00.000Z

Seriously who does, and why on earth do it.

This weekend this happened to me. Where I live in london, our council has fairly recently allowed people to recycle plastic bottles, and thus gave people the option to have another green recycling box, if they felt they would have too much to recycle in just one box, so that is what I did. Me and Z get through a lot of paper, cans, plastic bottles, etc, so we got one, well after 3 months of having 2 boxes, we now only have one because someone on Friday night decided to trepass onto my property and steal a green recycling box, that was full of material to be recycled.

I still don't get it, is there some black market in boxes or something, why steal something like that, it has no value surely and what a number of cans, plastic bottles going to get them money or something!!!

One thing I know for sure, if I ever had the misfortune to meet the person and they decided to come onto the property again to steal something else, I am sure I wouldn't have a problem in ensuring their light fingers became no fingers.

Hopefully the council will give us another box, otherwise our stuff is going to be overflowing again, and it just means the rubbish ends up going everywhere.

If anyone knows of why someone might want to steal green boxes of recycling rubbish, please tell me, I am interested to know.

Trip to Paris, Part 2

2006-05-19T20:53:00.000Z

By the time we awoke on the Saturday, we were ready to take more of Paris in, but first we needed to eat, and deciding to do what the locals do, we went to the local bakers, etc and got ourselves a lovely French breakfast, and some lovely lunch for our trip to the Louvre. It was like going on a picnic, rucksacks packed full with our food so we could sit and eat when we wanted and nice food as well. Would recommend that anyone who stays uses the same shops as the locals, gives you a better idea of what they experience themselves.

We did have a funny situation with the hotel, we were in the room getting ready to go out to the Louvre, and the maid knocks on the door, and enters, and we tell her to give us two minutes, and she agrees, so we heard, well when we got back, they hadn’t even bothered to clean the room, which was really nice when getting back late to find nothing done.

Back to the Louvre, once we figured how you are supposed to enter it, take a lesson in reading signs would help me…. This museum has so much in it, I was amazed by the sheer amount it contains, and it really does have so much, covering so many different periods of history. Of course, a lot of people’s focus is the Mona Lisa for the obvious reasons, and where it says clearly no camera taking any pictures in some areas, the amount of people who ignore that, and take pictures when they shouldn’t was surprising. I am guessing a lot of the reason they say no pictures to be taken apart from the obvious fact they want to sell copies of the paintings is that I think flash can affect the painting. So they have to have a cover all, because so many people seem incapable of taking pictures without using a flash, some people are serious stupid, most cameras today come with the ability to turn the flash off, but that isn’t enough. Watching people get told off and stopped from taking pictures especially at the Mona Lisa area was funny.

I certainly didn’t know the history of the Louvre and seeing the original foundations of the building certainly gives it a different perspective. We spent ages at the Louvre, we really did, we avoided the rain that came, and thankfully were able to go on with the rest of our sightseeing. We made our way to the down the champ de elysees, where all the cyclist end up on the last stage of the Tour De France. Seeing how far away the Arc de Triomphe makes you realise just how far they have to go when cycling down that road, and they have all the big names on that road, the Cartier, Louis vuitton, etc. We spent at least an hour or more just walking all the way from one end to the other, quite a walk, but you see so much of the so called higher end of Paris with the boutiques. When you walk from one end of the road to the other, you pass quite a few buildings along the way, the grand palace, and other buildings. Z decided to stand in the middle of the road for some of the shots, a little crazy maybe, but she got some seriously good shots, so I guess it was worth it.

But the time walking all the way up the champ de elysees to the arc, I was very hungry and wanting to eat, but not repeat what happened the night before, so we tried to find a better restaurant and knowing where we were, expected to pay a lot of money. The place we found Chez Clement, was cheaper than Balzar, and the food was much better, and the service was as well. A very vibrate restaurant, which we liked a lot. The food was really nice, we both picked the same for the main meal, a mix of seafood and potato, very nicely done. I would recommend this place, and for two people £45, I think isn’t too bad especially given where it was located.
We both stuffed our faces especially with desert, so much so when we left we felt bloated and decided in our wisdom to walk from the Arc to the Trocedero so we could have a look at the place which we saw the night prior from the Eiffel, allowing us to look up at the Eiffel from distance and get nice shots as well if we could do so.

As you walk into the centre area of the Trocedero it has the Eiffel right in the middle of it, and it is just an amazing view, one which you can see why so many people take pictures. Of course we had our picture taken with the Eiffel in the background, a very nice shot was taken, along with others. There isn’t a lot to do at the Trocedero, so we just admired the view, and seeing the Eiffel illuminated again.

We just decided to stroll back to the hotel after that, taking it easy, only a 20 minute walk or so and take in Paris, seeing boats down the Seine. All in all, it was a wonderful day and we really did enjoy ourselves.

By the time we got to Sunday, we knew what we intended to do, as we were leaving that day, and also we wanted to get a nice breakfast, but because according to the guidebooks Paris shuts down on a Sunday, so we weren’t even sure we could get anything to eat, but lucky where we were some of the shops were open which was really nice, another reason to stay where the locals are nearby, as they want their food as well.

So again armed with plenty of food, we went about having a good breakfast, packing up despite we didn’t have to leave until early evening, though that didn’t quite work out as we expected. We just took it easy on the Sunday, wrote the postcards we wanted to send before we left, got the stamps the day before and wanted to make sure people got the postcards, once we had sorted everything we made our way to Gard du Nord, and so good we did, because when we got there we found out there were problems getting back to London, because of fire near the tracks in Bromley, well I found out it was Bromley the following days when reading the news sites.

No one in Paris seemed to know what was going on, they were confused as anything and were suggesting we would have to stay overnight at the station, my response wasn’t polite to say the least. Thankfully through other passengers being there, and calling the UK, we had a better idea of what was going on, but still no clear information from Eurostar. Eventually we got told to get any train we can get on, because they didn’t know if there would be any more coming to Paris and from Ashford we could make it back to London. That is true, but the journey took 4 hours in the end instead of 2hr 30 minutes, which is what I hoped for.

Despite all the problems at the end, which are too long to get into, we really did enjoy Paris, yes it has its downsides namely the fact the Parisians really do love to smoke so much, not just cigarettes, but cigars as well, and you best hope you are okay with breathing that in, because everywhere is the same, amazingly. And the crap on the street as well.

On the upside, the locals are friendlier than stereotype suggests, their metro is cheaper and more efficient than ours, okay it can smell in some places really badly, in a way that assaults your senses, but hey ho, the tube isn’t exactly perfect either, far from it. I imagine my senses would get use to it in the end.
Paris seems to be a slower pace than London, though I think 99% of places have a slower pace than London, so that might not really say a lot……

I have very happy memories of Paris and desire to go back, and that is what counts, the place gave me a lovely and relaxing weekend away and that is very important to have that time out, so one can relax, get away and just enjoy what else exists outside of our usual bubble of life.

Trip to Paris, Part 1

2006-05-19T16:33:00.000Z

Firstly I have to say how much I really enjoyed being in Paris, it was only 2 and a bit days, it is a wonderful city to visit and one me and Z will be going back to again.

But winding back to the trip and how it all started.

We had a very early start, we were needing to catch the first tube of the day from the local tube station, and when the tube was playing up, we feared the worst, and thankfully we got to Waterloo in time, only to find a massive queue because there was a problem with the passport reader!

But once we were able to get on the Eurostar, things seemed so much smoother and running so much better, we were both relieved that it looked like things would be good, the weather was getting sunnier and though we were both tired, very tired, we were glad to be getting away on our first trip abroad together, where we weren’t visiting one or other’s family.

It is a very smooth ride, was very surprised just how smooth, you expect I suppose it to be a more bumpy especially with all we are used to in this country, but it was a joy not to be thrown around the carriage and we could relax, take it easy.

After a few hours, we disembarked in Paris, not sure where to go, in my wisdom I hadn’t double checked the location of the hotel and the nearest metro station. Given that we had to get city passports and a metro pass for 3 days, it meant finding an information desk, and with me worrying if I was going to struggle to explain what we were needing, it was a joy when the man in the booth spoke English, though very softly spoken, but there was none of the stereotypical arrogance we are led to believe that Parisians refuse to speak English, and we found this throughout the whole time there, they were very friendly, and helpful, especially the older generation, whereas those of our own age seemed less so, what does that say?

Anyway, armed with our metro passes for 3 days which only cost £11 each, which is bloody cheap, anyone would know in comparison to the Tube. We also had the directions for the hotel, which was very useful, and though we found a quicker way to get to the nearest Metro when there, it was good to have the starting point. We were staying at hotel Auteuil near to the station Ranelagh, which is about 20 minutes walk from the Eiffel Tower so we were very happy with that, and it is also in an area that would be called a suburb in this country, plenty of residential in the area, so not in the very centre of bustling city, but not far out either.

Well once we were checked into the hotel, we got to the room and went about sorting things out, lo and behold I couldn’t figure out the lights, when I press light switches they usually turn on the lights, but in this hotel, it had a different system, it had a master switch by the door which allowed you to turn all lights off or on with a single flick of the switch, not something I have used before. After that embarrassment, we were just taking in the sights from the window when someone knocked on the door and then entered immediately without even waiting, which I personally think is rude, not what you expect, and we had it happen twice, once for the minibar and the other being the cleaner. I learnt very quickly to stick the do not disturb tag on the door, to stop them!

Given it was now gone lunchtime we decided to go for a walk and take in the local area, and see what existed. It was a very nice area, plenty of local shops, and places to get food for breakfast, lunch, etc. The hotel wanted 16 Euros each for a breakfast, we managed to spend that in two days for lunch and breakfast for that. Spending 64 Euros for two breakfasts seems excessive in my mind, especially when the locals go to the local shops and get their food, so we did the same, getting some lovely food, very nice indeed.

We made our way to the Eiffel Tower area and just took it in, as we wanted to just get an idea of the area, and that is when found out some of the less pleasant sides of Paris, one being the streets being covered in animal crap, be it dog, bird, etc, it was everywhere, not what we expected, maybe they deal with things differently, but they really had a lot on their streets.

The Eiffel Tower is an amazing structure, you do look at awe at it, and you just imagine what it will be like up there, as well as the views, and it is better than you can imagine.

Given Z was feeling very tired, we went back to the hotel so that she could have a little shut eye prior to going out to the Brasserie Balzar, which was recommended in a number of places.

When we went to the Brassiere Balzar, I have to say I wasn’t that impressed and the food itself wasn’t that great. We both didn’t find the food that good, service was pretty good, and they didn’t rely on us to speak French, they were happy to converse in English, of course making it all the better. Me, being me, order a sausage with chitterlings, and I didn’t know what chitterlings was, big mistake. The sausage made me want to retch, it was awful, seriously awful, and it was just me. Z tried it as well, and she felt sick too. Her own food was some salmon which was okay, but nothing special. It was a disappointment to be honest, I was expecting so much more, but the Balzar wasn’t all that had been promised, but I suppose that is what happens. We were only in there for such a short period of time, not much more than 30 minutes, I don’t think I have ever been so quick in a restaurant, probably never will again.

After that less than great exposure to French food, we decided to go to the Notre Dame, and see the amazing building, especially as it was still light and we were close by.

This building, if you have never seen it, is beautifully done, it is a wonderful building, for those who love architecture, and it is no surprise why it stands out, all great carvings on the building, all the statuettes on the buildings wall and roof, making it an imposing building. As it was getting darker, the building just grows with the dusk, fitting more and more in, the style of it, fighting a darker landscape, especially against a flash of a camera taking a picture.

The last thing we decided to do that night was to head to the Eiffel Tower and go up at night, we had been advised it was the best time to go, partly because it is supposed to be quieter, and the views more stunning.

It only cost us 11 Euros each, which I think is quite cheap to go all the way to the top floor of the tower, very good in my opinion. As for quieter, it would have been except for the rabble of German 15/16 year olds who seemed to be a little tipsy and didn’t seem to be with their teacher, and were determined to make as much noise as possible. Made me feel tempted to see if there was a way to throw them over the side without anyone noticing. This is the same bunch of Germans who were determined to deface the Tower with graffiti, maybe they were trying to take over again, 60+ years later, who knows.

There were lots of foreigners there of course, English, Slovak, Americans, Japanese, Germans, etc. I don’t think there were many French people, but that doesn’t surprise me.

The views were great, I have done the Empire State Building and though I believe that to be taller, the views that come from that building, aren’t not as impressive as the Eiffel, I feel in the main because of the surrounding architecture in Paris is more impressive than in New York, just an opinion. At night, the Eiffel is just so different, it has flashing lights on it at certain points and a beacon of light going out for the most part.

Whichever end we were, the views that accompanied the direction were great, one side you had the Trocadero, another was the mini statue of liberty they have there, etc, etc. For me the last section was the one I felt a little light legged, I tend to suffer from vertigo so probably not the best idea to go up to the top. But it was in the lift to the final top section I felt my legs give a little, otherwise it was ok, never happened before, I think it might just be the way the lift moves, or possibly you have more a view of outside when going up. Even so, I was transfixed on all I could see, just wanting to take it all in, like a child who has been shown the outside for the first time in life, it was just fantastic.

Of course we took plenty of pictures, all in all for 2 and bit days, Z has over 200 pictures, quite a lot. I am so glad we went up in the evening, and would recommend going at night, I can see why so many do, especially as it goes from early evening to night, when it goes from like a dusk to pitch black, changing all that you perceive when you are up there.

After staying up there for quite a while and feeling a little cold as the wind was beginning to be biting we decide to make our way back to the hotel to rest up and sleep and take it easy for the rest of the weekend.

Action man is 40

2006-05-18T07:49:00.000Z

Seems an age doesn’t it, but this year Action Man is 40, I like probably many men who are above a certain age can remember playing with Action Man. My older brother had an action man before me, he had one not long after they were released, me, well when they came out with the upgrade called Eagle Eyes, that was the one I was given. Looking back now, it seems funny that something so simple could produce play time compared to what kids today supposedly need to keep their attention.

My Action man had the fuzzy hair, eagle eyes which could find anything and flexible hands as well. This was added to the whole range of extras it came with, tanks, parachutes, bikes, jeeps, mini tanks, these things, especially the tanks and armoured personnel vehicles were very tough, you could throw those at the wall and not see anything break, though I am sure I recall my mother being less than pleased when the paintwork was chipped for the 100th time as Action Man and his tank crashed hard into the wall.

BBC Story

Action Man's History

For those of you who are close enough to London and want to see Action Man again in many different guises, Hasbro recruited 40 artists to customize 40 original action man figures. It is at the Blink Gallery from the 16th to the 27th May.

More Information

For those who want to see more information re who the artists are and a more Action Man style site.

As for my Action Man, I have no idea where he is, I am figuring he ended up with my godson, along with all the extras he had, most of a carload actually. He was in pretty good shape when I finished with him, given him being close to indestructible, can’t imagine the worth today, probably nothing without the original box, which I think got so torn to pieces in the efforts to open it on a Christmas day back in the late 1970s.

Lack of sleep and snoring

2006-05-11T07:39:00.000Z

For the past 6+ months which is the time since my dear Z moved in, she has been saying I have been snoring and thus it affects her. My guess is that I have been snoring for a lot longer than that, and it is that until Z drops off at night my snoring affects her...

Well after seeing a specialist on Tuesday, he has recommended and put me on the waiting list to have my tonsils removed. Apparently it involves an overnight stay in hospital, which doesn't impress me at all, given how much I hate having to stay in, done in on previous operations for my cholesteatoma and I hated it. Then to top it off, I have to be off work for at least 2 weeks recovering from the operation, and basically become a prisoner in my own home, as I am not meant to go out, avoid smoking places (which is most of London), avoid dirty, dusty places (no tube travel then), avoid people who have colds, etc (most offices), and generally avoid the public.

Fantastic, really, honestly, I am so looking forward to it. I can't imagine what my boss is going to say, 33 years I am and my tonsils are to be removed, obviously needed, but even so, I have no idea how I can turn around to the boss, and go, I need to have an operation, I need to take two weeks off to recover as well, hope you don't mind.

I did ask for the operation to be pushed beyond October, as I have my OU exam in October and I am also under a pile of work at work, and thus timing would be bad, thankfully it deemed a routine operation, not urgent, probably because I don't have lots of crap coming out of my tonsils at this moment, but since I got glandular fever back was I 21, it has regularly been oozing rubbish at the back of my throat, so I guess it time to remove them.

Z has turned around and said I am not from this world, the amount of injuries, broken bones, problems with my health, she has suggested makes me not normal. In the past 7 years, I have quite a few operations for my wrist, my ears, now my tonsils, maybe this is just karma for something, who knows what mind.

All I know is that, when the operation is done, Z should sleep a little better, and so should I. I might actually wake in the morning feeling refreshed, which would be a major turn around, though I have a feeling it isn't so simple.

Half way to becoming a Reiki Master

2006-05-09T06:59:00.000Z

On Saturday just gone, I completed the first part of the course Reiki level 3 to become a Reiki master.

I know it is only the starting point of Reiki in reality, but the idea that I could become a Reiki master is one that I quite like. Learning all that I need to learn to help others feel better.

I also learnt that I need not to be so hard on myself when doing Reiki, not to feel so frustrated after the event if I don't manage to heal as much as I want to, don't manage to get the level of success I was attaining to get.

I know that when I pass this course, it will simply be the first step in many steps to come.

It fills me with happiness and also fear, which is probably wrong, but I have a desire to ensure I do things right, and there is an underlying fear I might screw it up, which goes against the ideal of Reiki that we can only do good, but I feel I don't trust myself enough to ensure I get it right.

At least I know that there is only one level above mine which is taught, and that is for teaching purposes mainly, so I will be attaining the level of which is deemed to be a good level.

I do look forward to the attunement on the 27th, which is when the next course day is, and hopefully it will be a moment of relaxation and calm for me......

Blessed with bad luck the last few days

2006-05-07T14:18:00.000Z

The last few days I have had what feels like the worse luck and today topped it off.

Back on Thursday, the headphones for my iRiver, my Sennheiser ones that I had bought specially broke, and I only had them for 6 months, much less than I ever expect them to last. So bloody annoyed, thankfully though Advanced MP3 Players who I brought the headphones from at the same time as the iRiver, were very good and I have sent them to be replaced, which is great service. Okay they cost £24, but I still expect them to last longer.

Then I ordered some new inkjet cartridges for my Epson c84 photo printer from Amazon, as the ink was about to run out. I put the new cartridge in, and the printer decides to give up on me. It no longer prints black, which is rather important. I contacted Epson, who to be fair to them gave me steps to try, so I could attempt to shift the problem, sadly not, so with OU assignments to get done, I now have printer, and this is after spending £90 on new inkjet cartridges, which means they are wasted, as you can't buy that printer anymore, and if I want the same printer, be a recon one, Espon will charge me £76. I am just better off buying a new one.

And lastly today, I went to the local shopping centre, and one of their escalators wasn't working which meant having to walk up the escalator, which normally wouldn't be a problem, but not with my luck. For some reason I slipped and being a normal person stuck out my hands to catch me and ripped up the skin on my left palm making more than pissed. What was worse was the attitude of the security person, rather than actually do anything, just shrugged his shoulders and said not my responsibility. Didn't even bother to get the manager when asked, I had to find the manager, and even prior to that didn't even think to say a word about me needing first aid.
Some people need not to be working and without trying to be rude, but it will sound it, so sod it. How can a fat person who struggles to walk, and not even be interested in doing his job be a security guard, surely the essence of being such a person means being able to run after people if they shoplift, or to actually bother to attend to someone who has an injury, rather than just shrug their shoulders.
Thankfully the manager had their head screwed on, and his first point of call was to get me first aid and then deal with the rest later. It was amazing how suddenly it went from being no security people around, to 4/5 of them watching what was going on.
Given my job, this isn't what I needed, needing to use my hands all the time, I prefer to be able to do that with no problems. I know I won't be able to do weights until it fully heals, not wanting to risk ripping the skin up again.

Like I say, this hasn't been the luckiest few days for me.

Trip to Paris

2006-05-03T22:16:00.000Z

In a week and a half I am going to see Paris for the first time. It is a place I want to see, and plus it is also a present for Z. She had such a desire to go there, and my first chance to get her there, as I had wanted to take her last July when the Tour de France was on, so she could see Lance Armstrong in the race, but as with many things, the timing was wrong, so we couldn’t go.

This time we are going away though for a long weekend. I just booked the Brasserie Balzar which is in the book “Paris To The Moon”. So if anyone has been there, please let me know if it is as good as they say.

I have the guide book already, a rough guide to Paris, a French phrasebook, which given my lack of languages shall be a difficult thing to use. I can see them getting quite upset with my pronunciation

The Eurostar is booked, the hotel is booked, looks really nice in the pictures, hoping it works out to be just as nice. I know Z will have a list in her head of what she will like to do, and I think for the most part, as it is her gift, we will be doing pretty much everything she wants to do, which is only right.

I know I need to get a Paris City Passport which apparently gives you money off tourist attractions

I imagine that most of what she will want to do, I will want to do anyway, so there is no problem.

Just need to figure a way now how to disguise my English accent and ensure I don’t sound American either, otherwise there could be some very stern looks, and a lot of upset from the locals, which is the last thing I need.

The last thing I am hoping for is lovely weather, it will be so nice to get away and have good weather, the like of which we seem destined this year not to get in London, overcast, dreary, wet

Be Smarter at work, slack off

2006-05-03T22:13:00.000Z

This was passed to me by a friend at work, and I have to say I so agree with it all.

Overworked, or over stressed, then read this. I especially like this line:

"The physiological effects of tiredness are well-known. You can turn a smart person into an idiot just by overworking him,"

Be Smarter, slack off

This is the perfect article for those who want to show any manager they have who they feel is overworking them. Perfect response….

Access to work

2006-05-01T13:51:00.000Z

I write this from a position of frustration, annoyance, etc.

Since last June I have been fighting with Access to Work to actually get the process completed and get what I am (1) entitled to under the scheme, and (2) get the equipment to help me out with my work.

I have a feeling with Access to Work, their main aim is to ensure that you don’t get the help to which they are charged with ensuring you should have. In my case it was trying to get them to give me hearing aids and a Phonak Smartlink system. I need hearing aids because after years of trying to get something I can hear properly with, I have failed to get the NHS to actually bother to give me hearing aids which I can truly hear with, not what their audiologist think I can hear with – that is a totally different entry in this blog to be done in the future.

It has taken me, so much work to get them to finally relent and agree to pay for the aids and the smartlink system. That took chasing up the NHS audiologist to write a letter to them and explain in very simple language that after years of trying to get me hearing aids that work, he couldn’t do it, he had to admit defeat that they couldn’t help me. That took 2/3 years of doing, 2/3 years of heartache trying to convince him that I couldn’t do it. It only changed when he saw an email I had written Access to Work that I was struggling a great deal at work, for him to accept what I had been saying for so long.

There was a sting in the tail though. Access to Work agreed to pay for the aids and the Smartlink system, but I would have to pay 30% of the cost of the aids, because they can be used in a social environment. I certainly wasn’t expecting that, and coming up with over £700 for aids which in my mind should really have been given to me via the NHS in the first place.

So I have been left with no choice, but to agree to pay out the money, thankfully I have people close that can help me out and I should now with luck get the new aids. I have a company who is going to come and fit them.

I have no idea what Phonak Savia will be like, but I understand that they will finally allow me to hear properly for the first time in what seems like an eternity for me. The only reason I had to change aids is because the ones that suited me were no longer made.

As of the 9th May, supposedly I shall have the new Phonak Savia’s fitted, and with the Phonak Smartlink system I will be able to much better communicate at work, not feel like I am missing out in meetings, reviews, etc, which has left me floundering a lot there.

The aids look like so

Phonak Savia

I did think of getting a colour other than beige, but with already having gold ear moulds, which seem to have made me a party trick in audiology departments and for people in the street, I think I don't wish to stick out anymore than I already do....

To me it just seems the whole governmental system is designed to do all it can to stop those who are entitled to help to get it, and then when they do admit that you are entitled to help, they try and pass the buck between departments, so none of them have to pay, trying to ensure that another department pays for the equipment/work, etc when it all comes out of the same overall budget anyway, so what gives.

Local Elections

2006-05-01T13:40:00.000Z

This week on the 4th May, there is the local elections for many parts of the UK, especially in London. Now, as I like to make my comments on politics, I think I will put my two pence worth of attitude.

For those in London, if you wish to know what the make up of your local council is, go to the following.

London local elections 2006

In my local council, I know there is a good chance to remove the local incumbents Labour and stop the rot, well lets rephrase that, lets change the colour of the rot!!!!

In our local area, they have been absolutely a waste a time, major increases in costs, big reduction in services and it never getting better. I have been in this area since I was born and it really has gotten a lot lot worse, especially since 1998 when they took control.

For those of you who feel you have no power, fair enough I can understand that, but this is your one chance to punish those whom have not done as what you felt is right and necessary for the area you are in.

The one thing I would say, is ensure that you do it on the basis of local issues and local behaviour of councillors, not the problems of the national party. That is the main problem with a lot of people, they do tend to want to use the local elections to punish the national parties, but it matters not a jolt to those parties, as those in the national party aren’t affected by the result, they don’t lose their seats.

All I can say is remember on the 4th May, vote, make your say, it is a simple, quick process and you may not feel it has much effect, but without you exercising your feelings and vote, you have no right to complain.

Reiki level 3

2006-05-01T13:27:00.000Z

I am due to start my Reiki level 3 this coming weekend and whilst originally it was meant to be done over the weekends 22nd and 29th April, it was moved due to the college where I am doing the course managing to quite spectacularly screw up. This course has been booked now for over 10 months, and it was only at the last minute they went “Oh, we are shut for Easter over those weeks, we can’t have the course run”. So now I am due to start this weekend and also have the second part run on the last weekend of May. I am lucky that I am free both those weekends, otherwise I would have been more annoyed about it.

I am looking forward to doing my Reiki, it has been a while since I did, and whilst it is meant to be something that is used regularly, I have been wary of doing so for some months, mainly because when I have been doing it, I have found myself becoming drained, which is the exact opposite of what is meant to happen. I do recall previously when I was doing level 1 and 2, the tutor made clear we shouldn’t be feeling drained, if we do, it is because we are using our own energy, which is clearly not good. So hopefully on level 3, I will find a way to better tap into the Reiki energy and not my own, because that has been putting me off doing it, and I do wish to do it, especially as I have seen the results it can give people, it helped me a lot when I had my operation on my right wrist, to get through the sheer agony I was going through at the time.

With any luck, this will be even more interesting than the previous two courses, and I shall learn more about what it is all about and how best to use it

V&A Modernism

2006-04-17T12:18:00.000Z

I went to this yesterday, with Z. We decided that we would go out on Easter Sunday.

It costs £9 per person, and for the cost, we both thought it was well worth it. It certainly gave me new information I didn’t know. I wasn’t aware that the some of the origins of modernism came from the Russians after their revolution in 1917. I had thought it had primarily come through the Germans and other countries in the central/Western European area, though not the UK, which did surprise me.

V&A Modernism Exhibition

The stuff on show was really interesting, they had an engine from WO Bentley, who went on to create Bentley cars. They showed the first all fitted kitchen done in Germany, and it is so like what many aspire to today. I hadn’t realised that a lot of it came from the ideas of constructivists who felt that there was no need to have individual items, that the area the person was in, would be their space. Modernists were very much into standardising everything, dreaming of a new utopia. Most of it came after the first world war, up until the second world war.

For anyone living in London who enjoys history, and seeing items that to a large extent are still with us today, and how this all started, it is well worth a visit. For those who like aerodynamic cars, and like the look of fancy cars, go along as well. They have on display a Tatra T87 saloon car. A Czechoslovakian car, which had a teardrop type styling and is very impressive in the way it looks.

Tatra T87

Worthwhile going, a very enjoyable show, and for those who are disabled, they can get in for free, if you show your disability card.

Hostel – The Movie

2006-04-17T12:04:00.000Z

I watched this the other night, and I have got to say what a complete and utter waste of my time. The movie was devoid of a plot, and with Tarantino lending his name to it, I thought it might be much better than it was.

The basic premise for the movie was that 3 lads are in Amsterdam and they want to get laid, they meet a bloke who suggests going to a place where they will get laid with extreme ease. This place is Slovakia. And from there it just descends from bad to worse and even worse.

It wasn’t even filmed in Slovakia, which is funny, given it was filmed in the Czech Republic, and as Slovakia is next door, and possibly cheaper to do the shots in, you would have thought they would get that right….

I have heard the Slovaks are extremely pissed at this movie, as it shows them in a light of being people who murder foreigners, only want to have sex with foreigners so that they can be killed, and are happy to have people disappear within the country.

Well, I can understand their point, but we English are always seen as the villain of the piece, so there we go, we English are always seen as the fools, never the heroes in movies anymore.

But all of this digresses from the point of the movie, well it doesn’t have a point, not something I would ever recommend someone to watch, and all the reviews saying plenty of blood and gore, well that is true, would have been nice if they pointed out it had no bloody plot. Maybe I am turning into one of those grumpy old men on the BBC2 show, where I expect something of the movie.

Ah well, not a movie to recommend and best to save your money and spend it on something much much better.

Depeche Mode @ Wembley 2nd April 2006

2006-04-03T07:11:00.000Z

Well I have to say, this was really good.

At first I was concerned, the support band in my view were useless, didn't think much of The Bravery to be honest, and the sound system sounded awful when they were playing, no idea why, but it did. Thankfully it did get better, but Wembley in their eyes obviously think that those further back than midway aren't interested in hearing so much as those upfront.

Depeche Mode put on a fantastic show, Dave as ever, the showman at the front of the band, and opening with the first two tracks of Playing the Angel album, was great start. The stage looked great, very good idea with the screens behind showing what was going on the stage, as well as playing clips of other things too.

Martin got to do more singing than normal, and sung some great songs, it seems they are agreeing to have more time with them sharing roles much more now. He came on wearing black wings attached to his back, and feathered hat, quite a look.....

Depeche Mode opened the Arena basically, as they are the first band since the refurbishment, and they did such a great job. I actually felt quite young for once, Z felt even younger, the majority of the fans were as old as Depeche Mode themselves. Suprisingly it wasn't sold out, which I didn't expect.

They played a lot of the classics - Personal Jesus, Enjoy the Silence, Just Can't get enough, the full setlist is here

SetList from the night

Very glad I went, Z got to see them for the first time, she prefered the older stuff to the newer stuff, I think for her everything after Violater isn't her taste, which is fine, me, I just enjoyed the whole show, and the whole visuals was so well done.

Here are pictures from the tour, but not Wembley but pretty much similar to what I saw last night

Overall, a really good night, so anyone going tonight can expect to really enjoy themselves, and any Mode fans who are going will enjoy the setlist.

Ice Age 2- The Meltdown

2006-04-02T08:29:00.000Z

In the simplest description, this is a must see movie for all those who enjoy comedy and enjoy animation.

We saw this last night, and were laughing so much, it is much more a comedy than the first one, this one has so much more going for it, and I am so glad we saw it.

You get to see more of the squirrel as well, and you can't not watch it without just laughing at the way the little animal goes for the acorn and tries all manner of things to get it.

I enjoy animation most times, they although generally aimed at children so they say, there is enough in there to keep most adults more than happy.

I would strongly recommend seeing it, and I know it gave me and Z a good night out, with plenty of laughs to be had.

Depeche Mode are in London this weekend

2006-04-01T11:44:00.000Z

One of my favourite bands is in town

This weekend Depeche Mode are in town playing at Wembley Arena, I was lucky enough to get tickets when they went on sale last year, and they will be opening to a rebuilt and refurbished Wembley Arena, so I am hopeful that they are going to put on a great show which won’t be ruined by the arena, as it has been in the past. The arena had to remove banks of speakers in the past due to complaints by locals, which always amazed me given that the arena has been there for as long as I can remember and I am in my 30s, so what did they expect, and literally next door to the Stadium, well will be when it is finished…..

I am looking forward to the concert, it should be a really good one, 25 years now Depeche Mode have been going and this last album has some good tracks, and each listen is always something different coming to the fore. They are also a fantastic concert band, they really do a great job of playing live and giving a great performance, so one to look forward to. I just wish the tube didn’t have engineering works on at the same time making travel more awkward, well organized that was…

Anyone that is going, I hope you will enjoy it as much as I expect to

Budget response by me

2006-04-01T11:40:00.000Z

I am not political in any sense, well not attached to a party that is for sure

This budget has actually left me worse off, fantastic, those who suffer are single people who earn what might be termed as a reasonable amount, well in London it is far from reasonable, but that is another issue.

Budget impact breakdown

Has The Budget Made You Richer? – Not in my case!!!

From this I would like to know how it is that the “middle class” is yet again burdening the pain of increased tax, whilst those who are just a little better off, whether by their own means or not, are not shouldering an equal amount of pain. This budget had nothing in it to ensure that things can get better, the health service was left to flounder, which under recent headlines is going to continue in ever increasing fashion and which for people like myself is scary reading. The NHS should be there as preventative medicine, ensuring that people don’t fall ill where possible, or if they do, ensure it is caught early on, so that people suffer less and thus by suffering less you actually make the NHS cheaper to run, a novel idea I must admit, but one that has plenty of validity.

This article here shows more about the NHS and the problems - Regaining values of the NHS

But back to the budget, this budget was one of so many missed opportunities, nothing on health, nothing on transport, more on education, just ideals, nothing concrete, and why does it cost so much more to educate in the public sector than it does in the private sector which pays it staff considerably more than the public sector? Conundrum, I believe that will never be solved.

Drivers in London, why so many traffic jams.

2006-04-01T11:38:00.000Z

I think I finally figured out why there are so many traffic jams for drivers especially on the main days of the working week. It is because there are so many moronic drivers out there. Now don’t get me wrong, I am not anti car, I am just anti-morons!!

To give a simple example – To and from my workplace which I travel each and every working day of the week, I take the tube to west London, and then a bus for the final part of the journey, this bus only has to travel about a distance which in walking takes about 20 minutes or so, so give or take a mile or so.

But the smart drivers of London ensure that a journey that should take at most maybe 5 minutes or there about, takes 2 or 3 times as long simply because they don’t understand the highway code, and thus cause major traffic jams and wonder why they get nowhere, because so many others behave as they do.

In this country a box at a junction means you can’t enter unless you can exit that box, quite simple thing to know and quite simple to remember as well. Well so you would think, uh uh, not so it seems, there are so many drivers who drive through west London, towards the hanger lane, whom drive across the junction and yet seem unable to see the box junction clearly marked beneath them and then wonder why there is no flowing of traffic at all, because all their fellow drivers behave in the same fashion meaning that when the lights go from red to green those with the green light, can’t move because of moronic drivers.

I am stunned at just how few people understand even the basics of highway law, but then I am also one of those people who wouldn’t drive whilst talking on a mobile phone which is illegal and carries the penalty of a fine in this country, but most people seem happy to take the risk of the fine, which clearly means the fine isn’t high enough. So maybe the fine should be more intune with the dangers that come with driving whilst talking on a mobile phone in your hands. It is very easy to not be paying attention to the road and kill someone when you are driving along with a mobile phone in your hand and be having a conversation with someone. So if the fine was more intune with the fact it was dangerous driving and grounds of driving without due care and attention, maybe more people would not use their phones whilst driving.

As I say I am not anti-car, just anti-morons, and the sooner some of them are removed from the gene pool the better this world will get.

Water Shortage

2006-03-12T20:17:00.000Z

As anyone who will tell you who has been living in London the past week, we have been seeing headlines of water shortage, hosepipe and sprinkler ban to come into effect, as well as compulsory water metering

Homes forced to get water meters

Q&A: Compulsory water meters

Now this really gets my back up a great great deal. I am not too concerned with the idea of hosepipe ban and a sprinkler ban; I think personally most can get by without having to use a hosepipe or sprinkler. What upsets me the most is the idea that a water company is allowed to force people to have water meters. This is absurd, seriously absurd.

When the privatisation of water was done back in the 80s under Thatcher, it was done with the intention that they would bring the water supply up to scratch, ensure that there was reduced number of leaks and proper investment. What a surprise, none of that happened, shucks, I should have seen that one coming. Here we are a public need, i.e. water, and it was sold to private investors, whom were asked, stress the word asked to bring the aging system up to scratch. Well the best part of 20 years later, and no progress has been made, in fact, in many areas, things are actually worse than when the privatisation occurred.

So for a company to ask for compulsory water metering is a laugh, and the fact they were granted it as well, shows just how bad things are. For instance Thames Water loses about 33% of its water each and every day through it leaking water system. 33%, that is absurd amount of water, and they want us to take better care with water. Fine I can understand the consumer taking more care, but to suggest that the consumer is the real source of the problem misses the bigger picture. If lets say on the conservative side that Thames Water pumps 1 billion litres of water through the system each day, which I understand is about right, then you are losing 333 million litres of water each day through leaks. You would think the business model for that would say that is a serious problem, a very serious problem. Nope, that one goes over their heads.

If you want to fix the problem of water shortage, here are some of the solutions.

1) Fix the bloody leaks, the figures are higher now than when privatisation took place, so until they fix the water leaks to below 10% then they aren’t allowed to raise prices, demand compulsory water metering or anything, simple, easy to do and enforce, and in the south east a big big issue, with low levels of rainfall in the past couple of years.

2) Take a leaf out the New York water board books. When they in the past had a problem with needing to build a new reservoir, because of high demand. They were forced to look at other solutions. Guess what they did, they ensured that all the toilets in the houses for that area were low flush loos. And guess what happened, my oh my, shock of horror, they found they didn’t need the reservoir, because there wasn’t enough need for it, as the water they saved from installing low flush loos meant enough water to go around. What has been the water companies response to a similar situation here, oh put in a toilet hippo, as if that will do anything. If they ensure that the toilets are low flush then that firstly helps a lot, and secondly if they were to use recycled water, say from washing machine or washing dishes, then it is well used water. Heck many countries in Europe do the same thing, can’t see that being a problem, so why are we so reluctant in this country.

3) Stop the government from forcing more people into London and South East, and stop the idea of building so many homes in the Thames Gateway when it simply can’t cope already, and the homes that are to be built are on low lying flood plains. Umm, did I miss a geography lesson there, if you build on the flood plains, you are inviting trouble, simple as. The government should not being building so many properties in London, shouldn’t be building high rise blocks, also shouldn’t be squeezing more and more people onto an ever smaller piece of land. Where I am in London, there is a proposal to build a 19 storey high block of apartments/flats, whatever you want to call them, and there is no need for them, homes are constantly being split into ever smaller and smaller dwellings which means that more and more people using fewer and fewer resources. And what a surprise, this government is intent of killing the golden goose called London.

4) Educate people on how to use water properly, stop them running taps whilst brushing their teeth, encourage showers, help people to setup water recycling in the their homes, encourage people to wash their clothes on full loads, to reuse the water they have, boil less water in a kettle, etc. I mean this is simple ideas, which when enacted should do something

When these ideas have been exhausted, then consider doing something like a water meter, but I can bet money, that you won’t need to, because these ideas above will save a lot of water, and suddenly we will find we have excess instead of not enough.
It is like the brains of the government were stolen, nope that is being too kind, they never had any in the first place, and people like the environment minister simply can’t see the bigger picture.

Please bang together the heads of the government, the water companies with a wall called common sense, when that is done, come back to me, I will be more than happy to oblige.

Travelling bug

2006-03-12T20:11:00.000Z

No I haven’t caught a bug whilst travelling, rather that I seem to have a bug for travelling. Like many people these days, I do like the idea of going to experience an area in small doses and take in what is special about that area.

This year I have already been to Slovakia, I am also intending a lot of travel in the coming months, much more than I have done in a while, and it struck me as to wonder why I seem to have a wunderlust, and why it has been stoked up so much in recent times.

My family is certainly a family that has historically been spread wide and far, and always tended to marry people from other nations, my own parents are English and American, and their own parents, at least one was a foreigner to these shores, even close members of my immediate family are currently abroad as well. So I do think that has had some bearing on the situation. I also with thought realised that being with Z has meant it has come back to the fore as well. With Z being Slovakian, and also having a lust for travelling, heck she wanted to be a stewardess too, travel has become high on our list for the coming future.

This year, we already did Slovakia, we will also be off to Paris come May, going to be going to Slovakia again in June, plus Krakow in Poland, Budapest in Hungary, Bratislava in Slovakia, Vienna in Austria, Prague in Czech Republic, Belfast in Northern Ireland, and we did also consider other places depending on finances of course.

If by chance anyone reading this has been the above places and can recommend places to see or eat, etc in the above, please leave a message, other people’s recommendations are appreciated and help a lot.

Next year – 2007 will be a big one, we already have it in the planning stages, and intend to visit Malaysia for 3 weeks, and might well visit other neighbouring places as well whilst there. Thankfully with family out there, it helps all the while, and it should be good to see members of the family for the first time in a while.

It is funny mind, that living in London, you would think I would do so much of what is on my own doorstep, but despite living here all my life, and being someone who on the one hand sells London as a place to visit and see, I also find it lacking in many ways too, but there is so much of this city I have yet to experience and I really need to do so, especially as it is on my doorstep. Maybe I need to take a tourist view of London and then I will find more of the place to discover. London is bursting with so much in it, it seems daft to let it all just go to waste, though with the current problems of the tube and that the next 3-5 years will be ruined by constant engineering works which always seem to overrun, one has to temper the desire to go around the city with the practicalities of living in the ‘burbs

Good behaviour for teens

2006-03-12T19:52:00.000Z

Paying Teenagers for good behaviour

I read this headline on the BBC website the other day and I sat there in disbelief. The MP called Gordon Brown, the so called leader in waiting of the Labour party is actually suggesting to reward teenagers for good behaviour.

What the f**k!!!, rewarding teenagers for behaviour that you would expect out of them. Well thank you Gordon for wanting to give these kids my hard earned cash into their hands to spend as they wish, when they should be behaving anyway.

If you were to say that you were going to ensure that there were more activities for them to do, places to go, places to hang out instead of the street corner, then maybe I would be more willing to accept it.

These kids these days are bribed so much. This announcement goes along with the fact they pay children above the age of 16 to stay in education. They are paid £50 a week to encourage them to study more, whereas the incentive should be to show them what they can achieve with a better education instead of bribing them, what makes this bribing all for nought is when you decide to charge them for university, and will make many of those you just spent £50 a week bribing to keep them off the unemployment figures will then either work, or sit doing nothing.

This scheme doesn’t do anything to encourage teenagers to be well behaved, especially if nothing is there to back it up. I can see this be another hair brained scheme thought of by someone who really doesn’t understand a single thing about teenagers, and actually ensuring that they are listened and respected, which is what most teenagers want.

What also might be a good idea is to ensure the parents teach their children how to behave. If you look through all the hot air around this, it is focusing mainly on the chavs of this world, whom many would say are nothing but a waste of space. I won’t get into my personal view, although the idea of chav hunting instead of fox hunting doesn’t seem such a bad idea……..

London suffers again

2006-02-24T12:34:00.000Z

The other day there was a report that the RMT want a deal so that they don't strike over the period that the Olympic games are on.

They want more money for the period the games are on, they want an increase in the amount of money their drivers will earn per hour just for when the games are on.

Are these people serious, what the fuck are they smoking at the RMT

Their members are paid to turn up to work no matter what the situation, I along with so many other people in London won't get a special Olympic bonus, so what gives, it is basically trying to blackmail London Underground to screw them out of more money.

Surely this has to be illegal, this is the union stating quite clearly that if they don't get a special bonus their staff won't work

As you can see from the link, I am not the only one who thinks this is a farce...

RMT Union wants Olympic strike deal

33

2006-02-24T12:27:00.000Z

What is it?

It is a number for sure, but today it signifies more, it is the age I am now, another year has gone by another notch on the body has been added and I am now 33, never to be 32 again.

A lot has happened this past year that has gone by since I became 33. This time last year I was unemployed, I was without a partner, I was just beginning my second year of my OU and struggling. I didn’t even feel inclined to go out and celebrate my birthday because I felt there was little or nothing to celebrate.

Now, a year later, I have been working for nearly 9 months now in a job that holds a lot of promise for the future especially in extending my career. I am living with my partner now for the past 6 months and looking ever forward to more time together as we will go away this year to Paris (my anniversary/valentines present to her), trip around Eastern Europe for two weeks, visit a friend in Belfast as well. Also I am now in my third of four years on my OU course, finding it hard work, but when was level 3 of a degree ever going to be easy!!!

I have a lot more to look forward to, out tonight with Z and a dear friend of mine and his partner as well, a nice evening to look forward to, something which I certainly didn’t expect and certainly couldn’t have foreseen to happen previously.

There are those who aren’t around to celebrate which is a shame, it would be nice to have them around and join in the evening of what will be laughter, fun, etc.

Things are much more settled, more planned than for a long time, a lot of that comes down to Z, and the hope she gives me. I still have my moments where things get too difficult, but Z has really become a great rock in my life, and I try everyday to make sure she knows it.

Smoking ban at last!!!

2006-02-24T12:25:00.000Z

Late to report it, I know….

At last the government has seen common sense and is to ban smoking in public places. It was great to know that MPs that don’t reside in England ensured that we English aren’t the poor cousins of the rest of the UK.

I do have a few concerns mind, firstly when are we going to stop MPs who are not from England have a say in matters that are specific to the English, the likes of John Reid, Gordon Brown, etc dictating that we couldn’t have a smoking ban in England, but their own constituents were to have a smoking ban in public. This is a serious anomaly with the UK government which has come about because of the screw up with devolution; the sooner it is fixed the better.

I do wonder why we have to wait until summer 2007 for the smoking ban to come into effect, why so long, how hard is it to ensure it starts this summer, I mean it isn’t like new equipment has to be bought, new training to undertake, and it is just enforcing a law which doesn’t take a lot to do. A golden missed opportunity here.

Lastly, I am very concerned as to how they will enforce this rule, I say this because for almost the last 20 years on the tube, there has been a no smoking policy, but I daily see it broken, I see people who think it is perfectly fine to smoke and get away with it, because no one can do anything about, these people even stand next to a no smoking sign as well, as almost an extra defiance to the rules. A lot of these people probably don’t recall Kings Cross fire, and what was deemed to have started it. What I think causes confusion for a lot of people is that smoking on the old British rail stations isn’t banned, or if it is, it is broken even more than on the tube.

I just hope this means that next summer I can go to a bar and not come home smelling of smoke, mean I can be out for longer without suffering the stinging in my eyes of the smoke and the feeling of needing to retch at the sheer haze of smoke that occupies some bars and pubs, and allow me to eat my food without having someone light up whilst I am eating like last weekend when I took Z out for her birthday celebration.

Devolution for England

2006-02-24T12:02:00.000Z

In all of the devolution debates that have gone on, the Scottish, the Welsh, the Northern Irish have all been given their own local government which is perfectly fine, but in doing so what has happened is that those MPs who represent those areas are having a say in English matters, but English MPs can’t have a say in the other areas matters, a point in example is that all MPs have a say in the reforms of the English education system, but can the English MPs have a say in the Scottish education reform, can they hell. This devolution has been a one way process, where by the non-English MPs haven’t lost any of their power and can actually screw us English over and thus make our lives worse than their own constituents.

A further point with this, when London got its own local government in the Mayor we were told that we were to have much more power than we currently have. Why did that change, the simple answer would be, because Ken Livingstone won, the Labour Party didn’t want him to have power that they felt he would be able to use against them, so basically Londoners lost out because of this government wanting to remain in power and reward those north of the borders, west of the borders with more power and leave us English floundering against rules which others countries in the union don’t have to tell with, well thank you so very much Mr.Blair.

This is Mr.Blair’s take

Why English MPs are a lesser class of MP

Someone who is basically looking after his party’s fortunes rather than looking after this country.

Adventure in Slovakia

2006-02-05T13:17:00.000Z

For the past week, I have been having an adventure in Slovakia with my partner. I had made a decision some months back to agree to go and see her home town in Slovakia and also meet her family. It turned out to be quite a trip.

You know how you have thoughts that something might go wrong, well me and Z both talked about it before I left that something might go wrong and that instead of me arriving 3 hours before she does, I would arrive either at the same time or after her, well lo and behold I arrived 2 hours after she did, and not for the reasons we thought either. We both thought I would be delayed in Stansted for some reason like snow at the airport her or in Poprad. In the end it was down to a problem with the plane, which meant instead of landing at Poprad-Tatry, I was in Kosice which is a good 2 hours coach ride away, not exactly the star to the trip I had in mind.

I had to wake up at 4am on the Saturday, to ensure I was able to check in on time, especially as the tube decided it would be a good idea to have engineering works, thus extending the travel time, thankfully I got to Stansted in time, and we actually took off on time as well, which surprised me.

With the flight leaving at 9am, I thought yep, I will be there at 12.30 as expected, oh no, not this time. At 12pm, they told us on the flight that there was a problem at Poprad-Tatry airport, which I later found out was false, it was a problem with a compressor on the plane, which meant we weren’t able to land at Poprad-Tatry, but would be flying on to Kosice. I am guessing they don’t have the maintenance crews at Poprad, so that is why we flew on.

This left me obviously with concerns, cause I don’t speak any Slovak, except for the bare basics, to say hello and please, thank you, not much use when trying to find out what has to be done and where to go. So in my own style I asked the stewardess to explain the situation, just about got the gist that there was a problem at Poprad, but we would fly on to Kosice and then there would be a transfer, yikes, a transfer and they don’t generally speak English, so feeling a tad stuffed. I hadn’t a need to worry, my partners family had phoned the airline to say that I was on it and that they would need to make it very clear as to what needs to be done, because I am profoundly deaf, and don’t understand Slovak.

What was funny, was when the plane was to begin the descent, one of the stewardesses asked me to take out my hearing aids. She said I need to take them off, pointing to my ears, and I have gold ear moulds, I said I need them, she was you need to take them off, I was like, I have to wear them I can’t hear otherwise, it was only then it dawned on me, she thought they were headphones for a stereo, and explaining that they were hearing aids, she was so apologetic. Poor girl, she was so embarrassed, had no idea that they could be hearing aids. I never thought that would happen.

Well we land at Kosice and when they open the door, bearing in mind this is a single building airport, very small airport, looks like an ex-military base with the military planes there, they ask for me, which was really nice, that was when I found out they knew the situation.

Once I got through passport control which took all of what 2 seconds, as it is so small, and the baggage carousel was right next to it as well as the exit for the airport, basically an enlarged shed. I had to figure out what to do, where to go, how long to wait, etc. Trying to converse with some of the staff was a waste of time, they enjoyed laughing at me trying to work out the situation, they didn’t really speak English and I didn’t Slovak, not a good thing, thankfully I found the right person, and they ensured I got the coach which took nearly 3 hours to turn up.

The coach journey gave me a view of Slovakia I never expected to experience whilst there. All the way through the countryside, through villages, towns, etc and then eventually 5 hours later or so than expected I arrived at Poprad-Tatry, hoping that Z would be there, no such luck, I was feeling so tired and dejected, I had been up for 12 hours plus travelling, not feeling too great. Thankfully Z and her parents turned up about 5/10 minutes later so it wasn’t too bad, but I was just dead on my feet from that, and I was thinking mmm, please tell me the rest of the week will be a little more relaxing.

That first night I had proper Slovak food – sauerkraut, with soup, not bad, it was quite nice, a little salty, but Slovak food tends to be saltier than I am certainly used to. I also met her sister and family as well that night. Trying to understand what they were saying was difficult, because I don’t understand the language and Z had to do a lot of translation between me and her family, though we did try hard all of us to find a way to get some of it across.

Poprad is a nice place, a slower pace of life than London, and more snow than I can ever remember seeing in all of my life in London. The last time I think I saw that much snow was when I was 6 or 7 years old, that is over 25 years ago, so you can imagine how I saw it. It was cold as well, and typically I didn’t prepare well enough for the cold and the snow, just my luck.

The first day we were there, we did a lot of walking around, with Z showing me parts of the town, I managed to land on my behind at least 2/3 times, of course wearing the wrong shoes for the environment, thankfully though I had a good coat to keep me warm, even with it losing the feathers at a rate of knots, by the end of the week, I look like a chicken…. Being Slovakia they had a local ice rink and it was very good luck that the Sunday was the day it was partly open to the locals for a couple of hours. I explained to Z that I couldn’t really ice skate, not that she believed me, because I said I wasn’t really any good at badminton and she feels I am. It was only after landing on my butt for umpteenth time that she believed me. I certainly stood out, that is for sure, the locals know how to ice skate, Z could, and I was the foreigner who was all over the shop, getting knocked, pushed about by the locals, and I was like a mobile chicane, holding everyone up. By the end of 2 hours I was shattered, tired and a little sore from falling all over the place, as well as trying to figure out how to keep balance. I most definitely need more practice, not that there is that much chance in London with our weather.
As Z said at least I tried and by the end I didn’t fall quite as often as at the beginning and I was getting somewhere, but nowhere near as good as Z.

The second day we decided to go to a place called Aquacity - Aquacity
We did the Vital package, 3 hours of relaxing, with steam rooms, saunas, snow cave - Aquacity Vital World

It was really nice to go, it cost 500sk each, which is about £10, might not sound a lot, but for the locals that is when the average wage is about 7000sk a month. Most of the people who were there, were from abroad – Poles, Russians, Czechs, Ukraine, etc. Sadly they lack decent manners, that is for sure. I am not one for saying bad about other nations, but they had no manners at all, lording it up and thinking they ran the place.

If you ever do find yourself in Poprad, you must go to Aquacity, I came out after the 3 hours feeling so light, and fresh, it was so fantastic, a much recommended place to visit. I couldn’t handle the snow cave, way too cold, but some could.

We also later in the week went to the High Tatras, with the intention of sledging; it was something that Z had done before when younger. We went to a place called Strbske Pleso. There were a lot of tourists there, many for snowboarding and many for skiing as well. It seems the runs that used to be useable for the sledging are no longer available as they are now ski runs instead, which was a big shame, as we had both hoped to have a good time up there sledging. It seems the area has given itself over to the ski and snowboard people and thus making money out of them for it. Fantastic views and you have to be careful of those who go very fast on their skis and boards.

There is also a lovely lake up there, and we thought we would go and have a look at it, a really breathtaking view, but the lake was covered in snow, and deep snow too as we found as we crossed it. Neither of us expected it to be so deep and no matter how we tried to find the right part to cross, it was more a trek than a simple crossing. We were only up there a couple of hours, as we did all we could do. The train to take us up there was so modern and clean, not like the horrible things that we find on London underground.

We also went out another night to a proper Slovak restaurant, and the food was fantastic, I really enjoyed it. The restaurant we went to had pictures of ice hockey stars, and there was an Ottawa senators game shirts, which I hadn’t expected to see. Ice hockey is big in Slovakia, very big, with plenty of snow and ice that shouldn’t be a surprise, but it was.

Another thing I found to be a surprise was the fact that there a quite a few tescos in Slovakia, hypermarket tescos, generally more expensive than the local supermarkets, but I go away from London and there is Tesco, and they have roller blading staff in there as well, such a neat idea, who knows why we don’t have in London, so much easier to get things. Probably fail here as people don’t know how to use roller blades that well here compared to them it seems.

What was a really nice thing was there was none of the big fast food chains in Poprad, I know they exist in other cities in Slovakia, but not in Poprad, they said no to them being there, and it is so nice not to see McDonalds, Burger King, KFC, etc in Poprad, so I got the chance to experience more of the real Slovakia, without the intrusion of the big fast food chains.

The locals are also quite friendly, none of the usual stuff you suffer in London, although though if you are crossing the road, you best find a way to not get killed, they don’t seem to understand pedestrian crossings and the traffic lights go green whilst you are part of the way across, they give you maybe 5 seconds at most to cross the road, and that isn’t even feasible for the likes of me and I am reasonably fit.

I got to enjoy the local food quite a few times, with Z’s parents and sister giving me food and plenty of it, they serve big portions, boy I felt bloated a number of times as well. I managed to lose weight though, which I always end up doing when travelling, no idea why, other than my stomach feels funny for days before it settles and then it isn’t too bad, but the food is really nice. I am hoping that Z is able to bring home some of recipes, some we can have some of the food here, as it was really nice.

My time there felt not long enough, it was cold enough, and I did a lot of walking, remembering to walk on ice patches carefully, and not something common here. I found her family to be very nice and despite the language barrier, we all tried to find some commonality that allowed us to try and communicate.

I am looking forward to the chance to see Poprad in the summer, as it is even nicer apparently and the views I saw were amazing, the mountains dwarfing the town, whilst it doesn’t seem anything special to them, for me it is an amazing landscape, one which sadly suffered a catastrophe the other year where they lost the majority of the pinewood forest that covered a large part of the mountain. It looks quite naked now, with so much of it gone - High Tatras catastrophe

It isn’t expensive to go to at the moment, though with Poprad growing very fast and more tourists turning up, I imagine sooner rather than later it will be a place that gets more and more expensive to visit. So go now rather than later, although it did help me a lot by having a local guide me around, helping with translations as well.

Poprad-Tatry

Downfall

2006-01-08T14:53:00.000Z

I was brought this for Christmas. I had expressed an interest in the movie, and had heard such rave reviews for it. Now I have to totally agree with all the reviews, it is an amazing movie, very moving, very dramatic.

Downfall

I am fortunate enough to have the 2 DVD copy, and I haven’t had the chance to watch the extra disc yet, though I am really looking forward to it.

This movie really tackles the last days of Hitler so well, the increasing rages he suffered, the way it looks into his soul, how he thinks of the German people, how he considers them. Bruno Ganz who plays Hitler, does an outstanding job, he is very convincing, really captures the mood, the essence of Hitler.

Z got this for me as a Christmas present and I am so happy she did, it is a movie I will treasure. I have an interest in WW2, I like the history, how it all came together, and the way the Germans were treated, how they feared the Russians, and the plots Hitler saw that didn’t exist, how by the end he was just a shell. A real worthwhile movie, I can see me being asked to lend it to people I know, because it is such a great movie. If you haven’t seen it, then ensure you see it, if you enjoy war movies.

A Plug for a site worth visiting

2006-01-04T18:34:00.000Z

You may see in the sidebar a number of buttons and I want to bring your attention to one of them which I think is worth viewing.

Deaf Blogs

Deaf Blog Background

This is a list of sites that are done by deaf people who are a wide ranged of individuals, as any group of people are. These sites are their outlook on the world, their take on what happens in their lives, their input. Being deaf myself, leaves me with sometimes feeling others don't hear what I say, ignore my words, for various reasons. If you go through my blog, you will see references to situations I have myself had because of being deaf.

The majority of information on the internet about deaf people, and deaf situations is by large organizations. This gives those in the world of being deaf a say, a way to be grouped together to allow us to have a louder voice, get our opinions across and maybe spread more information to others and ourselves.

I say congrats to those who worked so hard to set it up, I know they have put a huge amount of effort into it, and should be applauded rightly for that effort. So well done to you all.

Learning a foreign language

2006-01-04T18:21:00.000Z

As my girlfriend is Slovak and I am off to visit the country for the first time in my life in just under 3 weeks, I agreed to try and learn the language.

A friend of mine, very good friend, ensured I have help, by getting a Eurotalk learn Slovak cd. Thank you to him, much appreciated.

Now I am trying to get through the disc, oh my god. Firstly being deaf doesn’t help matters when trying to learn a language, it seriously adds to the complications, it really really does.

Secondly, I wish I knew Slovak is an aggressive language, a bit like German, though not quite so aggressive as that.

I am truth to be told, struggling to learn it. I have managed to learn 6 words – Yes, No, Good Morning, Ball, Bowl, Mouse. 3 of which as you can aren’t really going to help me when I am there. Feels like an Eddie Izzard sketch coming on, only I am not in France.

If I can master – Yes, No, Good Morning, Thank You, Please, and some other good manners properly, then I will be bloody grateful. Of course, one is worrying that one might just say something that comes out wrong, because of the way they pronounce words, and offend my girlfriend’s parents. Which would be a seriously bad thing to do especially in Jan/Feb, Slovakia is known for being a tad bloody cold. One doesn’t want to spend the nights on the streets for bad mouthing someone.

It has made me think, why don’t we as a nation, and we are very bad at this in this country, teach language earlier. On the continent, they know many languages, you hear the Dutch know 4 languages, and they smoke marijuana so what is our excuse in this country. I didn’t learn French until I was 9, then I suffered it for 6 years, and I can’t recall a word of it. Yet when I had the chance to learn German, I took it, and did well until a French teacher tried to teach me it, and that was it gone then. I am not sure what agreement we have with the French, but when do we get to be force fed this, against languages that are used much more in business like Spanish, German, etc

Make it second nature to be bilingual and then people learn the skills to speak other languages. My girlfriend can talk 4 languages at least, which impresses me no end, especially given I know English only, not much use when you enjoy travelling. You can’t shout at people hoping they understand you……

Pixmania complaint update

2006-01-04T18:10:00.000Z

The latest in this saga is that after a long long time, we finally have a camera that works. Now admittedly it isn’t the same camera we started out with, but it works and it is brand spanking new as well.

The gist of the situation is that after many emails back and to, we finally got offered a voucher to purchase a new camera with Pixmania. My initial reaction was, mmm, not sure about this, can I trust them, can we be sure the camera will be as good as the one we have, will it arrive as they said.

Well, it arrived as they said it would, which was the first surprise. The camera doesn’t quite have as good a zoom as the previous one, but the camera more than does the job, plus it being new, we will have at least something that seems to be working, and so far the use of the camera suggests that it does. Trying to get the old one repaired I think would have been an eternal nightmare.

Now the only issue is to get the difference in the cost between the voucher and what we had to pay, which was less than £15, but this is a point of principle here and so we will keep going and get it refunded. £15 is £15 and it is only right they pay for the whole replacement, not just part of it, as they agreed to cover the whole cost, and the p&p would also be paid, an email stating that we have, so we will hold them to it.

What this shows is, that with constant pressure and persistence, you can get it resolved, can, it might take a lot of damn energy to do so, and annoyance, but you have to keep at it. So those who have suffered, don’t stop, keep going, bring them to task for it, make them aware, do all you can to get it done.

After all of this, if and when we get the difference in cost refunded, we will be happy, annoyed we had to go through this, but glad to put it behind us and get on with other things than chasing up a company that still hasn’t succeeded in getting their processes sorted out, making sure customers are happy, and giving customers an easy to get hold of someone who will do the job and make it their job to get matters resolved, instead of having to bring in other parties to ensure something is done.

Happy New Year

2006-01-01T14:31:00.000Z

Happy New Year to all those who read this blog. I hope you all had a lovely time out celebrating the start of 2006, and the year has started well for you all.

I know of one family who are celebrating a new arrival for the New Year, so congrats to them on their little one.

I also know of another family who will start the New Year with the loss of one of their members, and my heart goes out to them as well.

My plans for the new year changed at the last minute, in part because of the strike on the underground, though it never materialised, with only 31 stations not open, so big strike that was, and to top it off, Bob Crow thought it best to be in Egypt on holiday instead of trying to resolve this strike situation. A situation which I might add they have caused themselves. Plus there is another one on the 8th January, oh joy…

In the end, we went to a friend of Z’s for the night, until about 2.30am, having a laugh and a good time. I seriously need to learn Slovak and Czech, because there was so much not in a language I understood. I can at least learn Slovak now, as one of the presents I got for Xmas was a learn basic Slovak, so I need to get cracking, especially with a trip to Slovakia at the end of the month looming fast.

2006 has started well for me, I have a good job, a lovely partner, at least two trips for holidays already in plan or being taken, with more to come. Slovakia I will see twice – Jan and June, will also head around part of Eastern Europe when the world cup is on, so hopefully it will be less packed. I knew there was a good reason not to enjoy football ;o)

So enjoy 2006, celebrate it with style and fun, and may it bring you all a great time, with plenty of love, happiness and great memories.

Merry Christmas Everyone

2005-12-25T10:26:00.000Z

Today is Christmas day, and so Merry Christmas to all those that read this.

Hope you all got what you wanted, those that didn't or got the wrong presents, hope the person who bought the present kept the receipt so you can take it back and exchange it.
I wonder how many people will be changing their gifts in the coming week, I know I will have to be doing so as I managed to get some gifts for Z which weren't right, so back to the store to change them, just hoping the store will let me do so, given some stores are more particular than others.

But wherever you are, hope you are enjoying this festive day

Please please bring in a smoking ban

2005-12-20T19:56:00.000Z

I am probably one of many many people in England who are disgusted with our government for not bringing in a smoking ban.

I personally find it a chore when going out, to try and find a bar where there isn't smoking going on, and the reason I look for a non smoking bar is simple, I hate smelling of fags when I get home, the smell makes me feel sick personally, and why should my health be screwed up just because someone else wants to destroy their lungs. I don't allow anyone to smoke in my home, so why am I not entitled to have a smoke free night out.

A case in example, the weekend gone, was the company xmas party, very nice place, good food, the thing that let it down, was the stench of smoke from cigs, it was foul, really foul, and I feel so sorry for those who worked in this restaurant, cause it was awful.

Right now, I am suffering a serious throat problem because of the sheer amount of smoke, it was that thick. I was fine prior to the evening, but now, not and I have the misfortune of suffering each and every time, and why should my health be at risk for someone to light up. If you want to light up, go outside. Okay in this weather that might be unpleasant, and you might not realise when to stop breathing out because it is so cold.

Why is it that in the wisdom of government, they are discussing partial ban in England, but Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are to bring in complete bans, but England not. When did England become the poor man of the UK, it happened when the current government came to power, with so many of them from outside England, the likes of John Reid for example, his constitutes are fine, as they have a smoking ban coming in, as well as the military which he is in charge of, but not the general public.

Passive smoking 'blindness risk'

And here is more evidence - Smoke plans 'unworkable' say MPs

Why is it the government doesn't listen to those who elected it, as well as those elected, a commons health committee says not workable, but this government wants to be stupid.

Please TB, go away and do something else less important instead, you aren't deserved of being our leader

A new underclass in the UK?

2005-12-20T19:46:00.000Z

Sadly the answer to the above question is yes, what is debated is whether it is new or not, but a new report out by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. This report suggests that there are fewer people poor in the uk than ever before.

UK poor fall to lowest since 1987

I sincerely hope that is true, but what the report shows is that the disabled in all forms of disability are the new underclass. The foundation was surprised by this, and it affected all disabled people regardless of how well educated they are. When I first read this, I was surprised as well, but then looking back on my recent experience I have had dealing with governmental bodies, looking for a job, just trying to live life as such, and I can recall numerous examples of such a situation.

For example the DWP (Department of Work and Pensions), the attitude of the staff in many of the jobcentre plus places is awful, quite simply awful. They have no understanding of deafness, they constantly have the disabled toilets out of action, so any poor wheelchair bound person isn’t able to go to the toilet, if they need to. They have also in their amazing wisdom decided now that if you suffer the misfortune of becoming unemployed, you have to call up a line to get assigned a reference and then they will decide to then consider your case. Mmm, did someone forget to tell them that deaf people find using a phone very difficult, especially when someone has a strong accent, and guess where a lot of the call centres are, that is right in locations where peoples accent are very thick and heavy, meaning that likes of myself struggle to understand a damn word being said.

I also have suffered the situation with the NHS lack of funding, getting a hearing aid is very difficult to do with cutbacks, and it is made all the worse, by the fact that a lot of staff aren’t able to give hearing aids that are of use, which brings me to a sideline point, just what the hell are the RNID doing with this -

Millions urged to check hearing

Have they not been reading about all the cutbacks in the NHS, especially in audiology departments? While I applaud their efforts to raise awareness of people not hearing properly, I think maybe they should be sure that the NHS actually has sufficient funding to cope. What are they going to do with the adverts – Add a disclaimer at the end that says, “We aren’t responsible for the fact that your local NHS audiologist isn’t going to be available every day, you can only go 2 half days a week – Good luck”

To top it all off, there are a lot of employers out there that don’t want disabled people working for them. I know this to my own, when I was looking for work previously. In my case, wearing gold ear moulds possibly didn’t help matters, but it shouldn’t and doesn’t make a difference to my abilities, but try telling that to employers. I have had the misfortune in the past where the interview has been brought to an abrupt end, just for what seems to be no reason, and when you get feedback, you know full well there is no good reason, other than they clocked my hearing aids and all of the sudden I am not good enough, despite minutes earlier I was good enough. You can tell it in the manner of questioning, as well as their body language.

I am not optimistic that things are going to change anytime soon. All of the discrimination boards are being merged into a single one, which I am sure is going to be for cutbacks, and it isn’t as if the discrimination acts are tough enough as it is, especially as this government is exempt from its own laws, mmm, to me that doesn’t inspire confidence if they aren’t tied to it as well.
Plus as it is rising not falling, it can only get worse, not better. The inequalities in the UK for the disabled are getting worse and with the government push on the IB (Incapacity Benefit), you can see it get even worse. One has to think that things are going along the lines of putting disabled people into institutions which happened even after WW2, so one has to think the likes of this government are doing their level best to ensure that disabled people are without a voice.

Here comes Christmas

2005-12-06T22:32:00.000Z

How do I know it is coming, well here is a little clue, the date for one, but more real pointers include the mass of Christmas songs in the shops, on the radio, etc.

So now we are hearing the likes of Slade, Wizzard, Paul McCartney, Cliff Richard, Jona Lewie, Pogues, just to mention a few. If anyone knows UK music and can name the tracks attributed to the above, be interesting to know.

I know poor Z has to suffer these and much more at Selfridges at the moment and I am sure by the end of it she will cringe more and more when Slade and others come up again. Just thankful I haven’t seen anyone do a Noddy yet and scream it’s Christmas, but it is early days.

I had a brain bypass at the weekend and decided to go shopping, and on Oxford street as well, I know I must have been nuts, but I was looking for a present for Z, which I failed spectacularly to find, such a bummer too. But I swear, the place was more packed than normal and just seeing places like Selfridges jammed packed, and seeing people hand over credit cards so easily, makes me think that there is going to be a serious financial hangover come New Year.

This year is going to be a low key Christmas for me, certainly different plans than I had originally expected, Z is going to be here for one, which is going to be great for me, as it was so unexpected, but the main reason she is, is because she is working Boxing day, which is a shame for her. Plus family situation also means it just won’t be a big deal made of it, I think we will be grateful to be around and have some time together.

Pixmania update

2005-11-30T19:25:00.000Z

More Pixmania stuff

Seen more places of complaints against this company, I am struck by how hard it is to find a good word about them.

The following will make happy reading for many who have suffered Pixmania, I did a little jig around the room when I read this

Breach of UK law

All I can say is about bloody time Trading Standards.

Another person’s sites I found, this one comes straight to the point, and I am so glad to see this site and I hope this site gets high enough up the listing so that when someone searches for Pixmania they find it at number one in the list.

Buyer Beware

Realm of Dobermann

Even more examples of the screwed up attitude of Pixmania, and not just in the UK

This will run and run for the company and I do hope there is a big public flogging of them, the least they deserve for doing all they have done. Maybe it is about time BBC Watchdog had them on to explain themselves, but knowing Pixmania they would just refuse to comment.

In my situation, they have finally relented after being badgered by IMRG, so thank you to them, and they have taken the camera back to actually fix it this time, well so they say, it went yesterday, and now we have to hope they actually bother to sort it out. The number of times things have gone wrong, and how often their words are empty promises, means I am on hold, in the hope that maybe after 3 months it might finally be resolved, though no thanks to them themselves, but due to the pressure of myself and IMRG.

Sadly the item is still in transit according to the UPS website, which isn’t good news to say the least, especially as UPS left it to the last minute to pick it up, 5 minutes to 5pm, mmmm, urgent wasn’t it!!

Now all we can do is sit and wait and hope they actually get it and then do as they said they were going to do, which is fix the bloody camera, which is want we asked for 3 months ago.

Playing Badminton

2005-11-21T07:44:00.000Z

Yesterday for the first time in I am guessing 3 years, I played a game of badminton, today, all I can say is ouch.

Me and Z decided as we both like badminton and though we both hadn't played in some time it would be a good thing to do together and also a chance for the pair of us to get fit and healthy, well healthier and fitter, we aren't too bad, despite the fact I seem to be carring an extra load these days around my gut area.

1 hour of badminton, it wasn't too bad for me, I managed to do quite well, sweating a great deal mind, but still doing a good game, poor Z was run around the court quite a lot, and I am so glad we didn't play for points, poor love might have been a little pissed with me if we had. I was honest in saying I wasn't very good and hadn't played in a long time, but it came back to me reasonably quickly. One thing I will say about Z, she can hit the shuttlecock very hard and if she can get some direction on it more often, I know I will be staring the shuttlecock in the face more often.

Z is very sore today, she aches all over, poor love. She is really feeling it, hopefully it won't put her off doing it again, as we both really enjoyed it, as we should do. I think we both probably needed to stretch a little more than we did, but still a great hour of running around and making ourselves absolutely knackered.

It was on the way back from the game, I felt it in my legs and Z felt it once we got back to the house, so well worth it though.

Wrist held up reasonably well, a little tender and sore today, but they said to hold off for a few months before playing the game, but hopefully now it will get used to the wrist action you have to use in badminton, better do, cause my game depends on a flick of the wrist.

Long overdue we both agreed and hopefully we can sort our schedules out again soon and get another game, this time maybe I will keep score, though I have to be careful.

Maybe me and Z can find other sports we both like and do more, exercising with another really makes a difference and a lot easier to do it as well.

DIY

2005-11-07T21:32:00.000Z

This weekend, I decided to finally get done the IKEA Billy bookcases that have been staring at me since I got them in August, but I had to wait until I thought my wrist would be up to the job, plus it took me a while to take out all of the stuff in the study. I had more than I realised, which I think is always the way when you just collect stuff and never actually sit down and really go through it.

I got them up finally, took a bit of work, not the bookcases themselves, they really were quite easy to do, but following the instructions and trying to do exactly what it said, mmm, that was a bit harder. The width of my doors in the house are narrower than the bookcases so when it said I had to turn them over I couldn't do it properly and I couldn't lay them flat, as there isn't enough space in my study to do that, as the door is narrow, the study itself is quite narrow as well, so after a lot of huffing and puffing, I managed to work a system out by bringing them upright and then on their sides again, eventually managing to get the bookcases built.

Then came the worrying part, they need to be screwed into the wall, or lets say attached to the wall with the anti-wobble device, which is just a bracket screwed into the bookcase and the wall. The walls in my house, are blown all over, so was fearful I would end up with a bunch of holes like I had previously, trying to find a spot where there wasn't a blown bit of plaster. The gods must have been smiling on me, cause I got lucky twice, and now the bookcases are attached to the walls with the device and saves a bit of wobble as long as no one tries to be spiderman I am okay.

They look good in the study, it looks tidier and more compact as well, the only downside is that my skirting boards are quite high as the house is quite old, over 100 years old, and the skirting boards are much higher than newer houses, so it means the bookcases are not flushed against the wall as they would be because the lip on the bookcases isn't high enough, but otherwise a great product and quick and simple to put together and I am dead pleased with them as well, so at least I don't have to worry about my other half feeling like I am making the study a mess.

Customer is king, yeah right!!!!!

2005-11-07T19:37:00.000Z

Over the last few weeks I have had to suffer what can only be seen as a complete and utter annoyance, shock and dismay at what some companies call customer service.

The first of them is the top of the list at pathetic non existent customer service, the old annoyance – Pixmania, this company know how to take the piss, really badly. This company said that they would repair a camera that was under warranty, a 2 year warranty that they clearly state on their website and all their literature requires the original invoice, which we have. They in their amazing wisdom, held onto the camera for 7 weeks, now pushing the warranty close to expiry and they did nothing with the camera and just sent it back with a French letter explaining the situation, after a lot of work and translation, don’t they know when it is delivered back to London I am high unlikely to speak French, they said that I shouldn’t used rechargeable batteries…. You what, I asked for it to be fixed because the camera is taking a handful of pictures before it says it needs new batteries. We made that clear when handing it in and even now they are managing to try and deflect the attention away from a piss poor customer service, and blame the manufacturers, when it has nothing to do with them, and all to do with Pixmania, who have after 8 weeks finally responded to a pushing from the IMRG, and their response will leave you laughing

Dear x,
I'm sorry to hear that Canon have failed to repair your product. Please accept our apologies on their behalf for the terrible inconvenience.

I have been told that you are sending your camera directly to Canon.
This is by no means normal procedure since Pixmania are providing the second year of the warranty, not Canon, and Pixmania deal with Canon France, not Canon UK. However, it will be quicker and easier to do it this way. They should issue you with an estimate for repairs.
As soon as you have it, please scan it and email it me, or fax it to me.

Please accept our apologies for the delay and for the incurred inconvenience.

Best regards,

Mr Yann STEVENS
After Sales & Returns - UK & Scandinavia

This person hasn’t even bothered to try and ensure that they are making sure that they know about the situation involved. Not once did we say that Canon was the issue, the issue is with Pixmania not bothering to fix the camera, and not bothering to ensure that their staff communicate with each other if nothing else, and can this Mr.Stevens even be bothered to give a direct phone number, not a chance.

So Pixmania, you haven’t a clue with your customers, and I will never ever use your sorry store and website ever again, all I want is the camera working properly, so either fix it, refund the money or replace the camera with a new one, which ever way I don’t care, but this isn’t to carry on, and why do you constantly refuse to communicate with your customers, unless they bring in the IMRG, trading standards, et al.

This sadly isn’t the only company that feels it is should be closing its ears to it customers, another one is a company called BangCd. This company has a very poor customer service. A cd was ordered from them, that was to be released on the 25th October, and still two weeks on, nothing, I have had to send a number of emails, and all I got from them was, we are awaiting to get the cd, yet they have had the money for the disc now for a few weeks, and they are also refusing to respond to emails sent as to what the status is of the cd and when I will actually receive the cd, all of which ensures I will never recommend the company to anyone and will also ensure my money never goes to them again.

This list goes on, MFI is another one. This company I ordered from had a delivery date set and lo and behold the delivery day comes and goes and no delivery is made. Their excuse, the system screwed up, so now I have to wait another 6 weeks before the delivery might turn up, and I stress the word might. So this company will have had my money for 3 months before I get the order I paid for back in September, expecting a delivery 2 weeks ago, and the most they could say was sorry, well not good enough, these things are not acceptable, and how is it you can take the money but can’t produce the goods, mmmm, shoddy accounting, shoddy systems, and no compensation, no nothing for time taken off work for awaiting a delivery, no nothing. Again another company whom should treat its customers better.

Another big name, Tesco, this company has been of late really causing me aggravation. Just to cite one example, I unfortunately have a very poor quality Tesco locally to where I live, all the talk of them being something good, I seriously disagree with. I use biological washing liquid to clean my clothes and use Bold 2 in 1 woodland variety. Well my local Tesco stopped stocking it, so wondering where it was, I asked staff as to the situation, only to be told it wasn’t made anymore, having access to the internet and thinking that is odd, contacted Proctor and Gamble direct via the Bold 2 in 1 website and found that Tesco had decided to tell a few fibs, great news. As far as Proctor and Gamble knew they were still sending the stuff to Tesco and so couldn’t explain why the local one couldn’t and weren’t stocking it. Sadly Proctor and Gamble don’t sell directly, but if they did I would be purchasing it so, instead of relying on an increasing useless local Tesco store.

Lastly, though I wouldn’t say sadly after all the hassle this company has caused me in the last few months – Abbey. Ever since they have been taken over by Santander, things have been going wrong, very wrong. Like everyone who lives in the UK, one has to pay council tax, and so I have now filled in a couple of direct debit forms which the council have got correct, as I doubled check the information they have, and yet Abbey in their wisdom have repeatedly not set the dd up. Why, I don’t know, all they keep saying it is the council’s fault, and of course the council say it the bank’s fault. Given I have sent a couple of direct debit forms, you have got to say the blame has to rest at the door of the bank now, because how many times do I need to send in a form for them to get it right. This is the same bank whom when I wanted to open a savings account, demanded to know how much money I was earning despite the fact it has nothing to do with opening a savings account, and they do have my wages going in there anyway, so joined up thinking. I told them flat no, and they weren’t happy, though they claim it is to do with the new laws, that is false, as the new laws don’t ask to know how much money one earns, they don’t need that for security checks. Again another case of Santander bringing in rules that are not needed and being over zealous.

When I was young, I was brought up with the notion that the customer is king, and if the customer wants something then you give the customer that if you can supply it. These days, most companies it seems can’t be bothered, and don’t care if you disappear or don’t get what you want.

Now I can’t finish an entry like this without giving the names of companies who actually provide a brilliant customer service and who I would recommend any time to get goods from. One is a company called CD Wow , these people are very quick to respond to queries, and they also ensure that when they say it will be delivered in a set period it turns up, very good.

Another is a company called Advanced MP3 Players , I got my iRiver from them, and they were nothing but 100% professional, these people are the bee’s knees as far as I am concerned. They matched their site in terms of delivery being when they said it would, they have provided very good after sales customer service, a company always worth a visit if buying gadgets.

Two internet related companies which have given nothing but great service are Eclipse Internet , my ISP, always quick to respond and fix anything that goes wrong and the other is Giganews , a newsgroups provider. They have ensured every time my queries are answered within 24 hours, that is serious service and why I have stayed with them now for over 5 years, always been happy with their service.

The last is a company called CD-RMedia , the place I always get my blank DVDs from, quick service, if not in stock they can 9 times out of 10 tell you when it will be in stock and they are a good price too.

So it can be done, those are just five that show it can be done, there are more of course, but why is it that companies of the like of Pixmania, manage not to be shut down I don’t know.

Depeche Mode - Playing the Angel

2005-10-26T18:28:00.000Z

I have finally got this album after much messing around from CD-WOW, a week late, thanks a lot for that folks, when you say you are going to send items on the day of release, try and stick to it. Up until now you have always been perfect, this left me very annoyed.

Thankfully I have it.

Here are reviews from elsewhere first before I say my two bits

A la Mode again

Depeche Mode - Playing the Angel

I have found this album to be better and better the more I listen to it. I must say I am not a fan of the imagework for the album, but that isn't that important, though I would have liked something better to the eye, but whatever suits the lads.

The best song personally is Precious, it was right to be released as the single, the first two tracks also for me go well - A Pain That I'm used to, John the Revelator. Damaged People was an interesting track to say the least, Lilian was a very good track as well.

Didn't think much of Macro, Suffer Well.

There really isn't a lot to say, I think this is an album that takes time to get into, I have until April to really get into it, as that is when the concert is, as the newly refurbished Wembley Arena, which I hope they have put decent soundproofing, after all the locals have been complaining about the noise of the music in recent years, well you do choose to live next door to the place.

All I would say on the album, if you know someone with a copy listen to it, if you do like the electro stuff, the likes of Goldfrapp, etc, and see how you get with the album, I think it is good, but not their best one. That still remains for me to be Violator.

Complete smoking ban not to happen

2005-10-26T17:30:00.000Z

Government farce with a smoking ban

This government has managed in its typical fashion to screw up what should have been possibly the easiest piece of legislation to develop and pass.

You ask the public, if they want a ban on smoking in public, and the large majority will say yes, so it isn’t hard to create legislation that makes that happen, surely. Well in this government, that is the case, it was too hard for them.

They tried to find compromises because of certain ministers whom happen to come from outside of England, and those ministers country’s are going to ban smoking, but because of said minister – John Reid being one of them, England and lets be clear about this, England is not going to have a smoking ban, instead it is going to try and bring in a mish mash of legislation that will mean absolutely nothing, and is going to be impossible to enforce.

I am really angry about this, because again this government has completely managed to throw away a good opportunity to do something with zeal and with a clear head, and give the people what they want. Why is it possible for Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland to have proper bans, but due to a certain number of ministers not acting with the people in mind, we are to suffer further.

I hate going out and coming home smelling of an ashtray, because there are so few bars/pubs/restaurants in London that are smoke free, and what beats me is why it is that London can’t be like New York, Dublin, and San Francisco. Why it is that we are so far behind the rest of the civilised world, a city that is supposed to be a leading light, is being let down so badly by this government yet again. This government is showing how old and tired it is, and is badly in need of being changed and stopping the country being short changed so much.

For me, I am hoping that the Mayor will ignore this legislation and push for a complete ban in London, and get all those people who want to go out, but refuse to put up with the smoke, and being able to enjoy what London does have to offer. It should be a city where non-smoking is the default position, not the second option

Offical line from the government

Last exam done

2005-10-25T20:46:00.000Z

What a relief, it has finally been done and out of the way.

Got my OU ED209 exam finished and boy am I glad to have that over and done with. I pray I have done well enough to get the 40% to pass, because this course has left me more than sore mental, and it left me so bored by the end, I felt like throwing it all in.

Despite that, I have signed up for next year part, which is D317, for the last time it is running, and I am doing so that I can try and finish by the end of 2007. Got to save up first to afford the final year course, which is going to be at least £900/1000, so that won't be easy, but first things first and then I can see what happens.

Just be on tender hooks come December as to how well I did in the exams, was never the best at exams, but I just hope I did okay

Pixmania - Steer well clear

2005-10-24T14:09:00.000Z

This company - Pixmania, is not one you want to have any dealings with, if you want your sanity, and if you don't want your pocket to be a little lighter. My own experiences and many many others are showing this French company have no idea of customer service, they also seem to be a little unaware of an act called the Sales Goods Act we have here in this country, as they repeatedly flout it.

In my case, Z, took a digital camera she had brought in to be fixed as it was within the time allowed, they told her to wait up to 4 weeks for it to come back and it would be sent to her. Well we are in week 6, still nothing. The list of screw ups, gets larger and larger. They took our address down incorrectly, so instead of the house number being written down as 30, which it is, they wrote 20, should have seen this as the first of many many problems.

Repeated phone calls to their customer service line which is a national rate number, has given us no more information than we had 6 weeks ago. They leave you hanging on the phone when you call them, and with a national rate number, that means a £1 for about 10 minutes, not cheap, especially when you are chasing their mistakes, and their total lack of communication. We have asked repeatedly for updates and all they can do is say, well we will send an email to them in France, well that ain't enough, do more. How about you give me the name of the idiot in France so I can rip them for a complete lack of customer service and for the fact, that withholding a good that is mine, is actually not acceptable.

For anyone else who has had to suffer Pixmania and would like to find a way to complain, I have some ideas, though, not sure how effective, but if all do it then maybe something will happen, like them losing license in this country. I have the email address for the trading standards in Fulham and Hammersmith, and if you wish it, leave a message as a comment, with the email address and I am more than happy to post it to you with the persons name, so that the more people complain the better. It is also known on many other websites how poor Pixmania are.

They have managed to successfully have negative comments about them removed from some sites, by threatening them, well, surely the best thing would be to actually fix the problem, rather than deny a problem exists. It is only a problem to Pixmania if it weren't true, but the hundreds of negative comments I have seen and which I add my name to the list of, shows how pathetic this company is. If anyone knows the name of the customer service manager, I would appreciate it, I have tried through all various search engines to find it, no joy. I got one name whom I am intending to write one hell of a nasty letter to - Ulrich Jerome, Managing Director (France and N.Europe), to actually kick this person up the backside in the hope that they actually might bother to do something, though I am guessing not. And if anyone from Pixmania reads this, they should also read some of the following to realise it isn't just one person, it is multiples, like

Pixmania - Buyer BEWARE

Pixmania - More Problems

Pixmania - Even more problems

How they are rated by so many consumers

Pixmania have made it clear by my experience and many many others they don't care about customers. Well I think it is about time, they realised they should do, because sites like this one, and many many others, don't say something is wrong, unless they are hard done by, and Pixmania don't know the meaning of customer service.

If anyone has any names of the MD, CEO, customer service manager of this pathetic company that I can write a letter of complaint to, so that I can try and get the camera back, hopefully actually bloody repaired which is why it went in, in the first place, I would so much appreciate it, cause that is over £200 of my money they have which I can't seem to get back because they are refusing to say what is happening to the camera, and even where it is.

So again incase it wasn't clear through reading this, buyer BEWARE of this company whom are all around Europe, they aren't worth the time, effort and money, find someone who will actually do what they say, and for example deliver in 24 hours like they say they would, unlike this lot, 2 weeks later.

Nothing they say seems to be a truth and so again BEWARE of them

London Underground - Overruning engineering works

2005-10-24T12:40:00.000Z

I know these works have to be carried out, and it is with some relief that after years and years of not being done, it is now being done. But it comes with a caveat, the private companies doing them should be heavily fined if they overrun.

It is incredulous in this day that they are unable to keep to timetable, and are allowed to impact on the morning rush hour, like this morning where there were no Piccadilly trains until 7.30am, why because of engineering works.

I think the proposal of where the company is fined £100,000 for every 5 minutes overrun, will sharpen their minds and their attitudes to actually getting the work done as they should. Plus it also means that the Tube has more money to help compensate those who are severely affected by the delays, or if all runs well, there is a better service for the commuter.

In recent weeks the private companies who won the PPP contracts, have shown a complete and utter contempt for the fact they are supposed to be ensuring a service is run, not just doing what they please, when and if they can be bothered.

Black Knight

2005-10-17T20:39:00.000Z

I suppose this had to be seen to be true. Last week Z wanted to clean the windows on the house, okay I thought fair enough, no problem, what wasn't fully understood was that Z was intending to clean the ones at the top which even with a ladder are a serious stretch even with a pole and a mop. I have quite a high house, so that doesn't help matters.

Z decided that it would be a good idea to try and balance on the ladder and try to reach, sadly Z isn't quite tall enough to do it, so I ended up trying to despite a dodgy wrist and trying to reivse for the exams as well, as I feared Z would end up in A+E with a cracked skull, and me probably being given a ticking off from my mother let alone Z's mother.

Z has a tendancy to be quite fearless in situations like this stretching out to clean a window, Z even decided to climb on the outhouse to clean one of the back windows and this is with the outhouse roof not being in the best state, and not 100% dry either.

Don't get me wrong I am very appreciated of all of Z's effort, very much so, the windows look better, though being a man, not sure I notice these things like Z does. What I was more concerned about, was the thought of taking Z to A+E sitting there for hours on end, due to crap NHS, explaining away to people why I even let Z be so fearless in something that seems to be of little importance. Granted it means a lot to Z, and I understand that, but it just reminds me of the black knight in Monty Python, still trying to take on the knights despite having no arms and legs, and shouting come here, I will bite you. Z has a level of fearlessness like that, nothing will stop Z at all, no heights, no it is difficult to reach, or I might crack my skull on the concrete below, who cares. Seriously, it was me that was panicking more than Z was. Z was like, it is no big deal.

I am the one who is supposed to take care of Z, ensure all is well, ensure that injuries, damage, etc is minimal whilst Z is in London, and all Z can do is put Z in positions which could easily lead to such injuries.

I feel like nominating Z as my own black knight, and let Z take on any intruders, etc, they wouldn't last two seconds with Z I am sure of it. Me I would probably still be asleep not hearing any of the commotion......

iRiver h340

2005-10-17T20:35:00.000Z

I have just got this player. I was a little unsure before buying it whether it would be the right player to get, especially with all the others in the market, what in the swung it for me was that it is meant to be the loudest one on the market and for someone who is deaf, that is a big big selling point. Which I should point out is very difficult to do now that EU has decided to ensure that players can’t be over a certain level of noise, well that is okay for those who can hear normally, but for someone like me, that stuffs me up.

I have only had the player a couple of days, so far, I haven’t upgraded the firmware, as it will mean the volume will be even less, and I am not aware of any hack I can do that will allow me to have the volume I have right now. On the player it goes from 0 to 40, well I am pushing 30/35 on most tracks. Z has listened to it as well, and found if it went above 20 it was too loud, a perfect case of my ears really being screwed, and whilst there might be an argument that I should have it low to protect my ears, a point that would be okay, if I could hear the damn thing on 20 in the first place.

For me this player is much better than the others on the market, what I found out just prior to getting it, is that it can play video and has been able to do so since May when the last version of the firmware was brought out, just I haven’t added that yet, might do, we will see. It is really nice for me, as I like the styling, it isn’t too bulky, it is just right, plenty of features, and as I am not a fan of Apple, it isn’t the iPod, so a big bonus for me.

This is the spec
iRiver h340

Another bonus is that it has a radio, which isn’t that common with a lot of players, though I know the creative player has one as well.

I am happy with it though and though I wish it was a little louder, I am told that others can hear it when I have it the volume I do, yet I don’t hear it too much, but I know if I had other players I would probably be even worse off.

If I was to recommend a player it would be the iriver h340, that is of course personal, and for me I am not keen to follow the herd, this stands me out as different and the fact it is packed with so many features in comparison to other players make me very happy of course.

one exam down, one to go

2005-10-12T07:20:00.000Z

One down one to go, finally got one of my OU exams out of the way. DSE212, so glad to have gotten it done. Didn't do too well I feel, mainly because after 15 minutes my operated wrist, my writing hand decided to give me extreme pain, and there was nothing I could do, but carry on, so for 2 hours more I soldiered on, and by 2 hours 15 minutes into the exam I could take no more and had to stop. Not bad I suppose given it was a three hour exam, and I am just hoping what I wrote made sense, otherwise, a wasted 2+ hours.

Right now I am saying I would just be happy with a pass, but I know me, if I got just a pass I would be very unhappy. So I am hoping I got at least 50%, though I think if I get between 50-70%, I would have done relatively well, given I hate exams at the best of times.

Have to wait until some time in December, but in the meantime, it is back to the books for the second of my exams on the 21st, for ED209 a subject which I and many others have come to detest over this year, as a right royal pain in the butt.