Monday, 20 February 2012
Lynne Truss wouldn't be surprised
I've just seen a shop advertising that they buy "Gold Mobiles, Laptops".
Saturday, 18 February 2012
This and that
On popping out to buy a phone top-up voucher for younger son this morning I noticed in the confectionary near the till that Cadbury "Olympic mascots" were 2 for £1. Except that the goods on offer were actually Aero lambs, Cadbury mini eggs and Maltesers. When I commented on this to the lad on the till he asked "What's an Olympic mascot? Is it a lion or something?" Seems I'm not the only one with a lack of interest in the Olympics, although I have heard of the mascots - I just can't remember their names as it's all so twee.
In other news, older son has had his car wrapped. At first we thought he'd had a respray and were horrified as that surely would have knocked at least 3 grand off its value. There was nothing wrong with it before, he just fancied a different colour. So now it's white instead of silver, white being the new black as it were. This is now being seen as "a good thing" in this household, as it's protecting the original paintwork and can be "unwrapped" at any time to return to the silver. Just think, if I'd written this paragraph twenty years ago you wouldn't even know what I was talking about.
In other news, older son has had his car wrapped. At first we thought he'd had a respray and were horrified as that surely would have knocked at least 3 grand off its value. There was nothing wrong with it before, he just fancied a different colour. So now it's white instead of silver, white being the new black as it were. This is now being seen as "a good thing" in this household, as it's protecting the original paintwork and can be "unwrapped" at any time to return to the silver. Just think, if I'd written this paragraph twenty years ago you wouldn't even know what I was talking about.
Monday, 6 February 2012
I be liking local
When I went out at lunchtime today the sun was shining, the birds were singing, it was quite warm - I thought this feels like Spring. Are we living in the same country as all these folks with snow?
We did have snow on Saturday. It lasted about half an hour, was all of about a millimetre thick and then it turned to sleety stuff for about ten minutes. It was quite cold but then it warmed up. I don't know what the rest of the country is getting so worked up about.
Daughter got quite worked up this evening. Older son brought home a bike that friends of his had bought for their son from Toys****Us. It cost £250 and they had to put it together themselves. Which of course they couldn't do. So it was brought round for Daughter (that's right, the wannabe professional mountain biker) to fix it so it worked. Which she did, in as far as you can make crap work, but she then pointed out that they could have bought a far superior bike, from a named brand, for £30 less from the bike shop where she works, and it would have been delivered fully assembled and with a free service in a month's time. When will people learn that mass retailing is bad, and that local traders are good?
We have a new initiative in Brizzle today - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-16852326 - should be interesting. There's probably enough outside the box thinkers around here to make it work. Let's see.
We did have snow on Saturday. It lasted about half an hour, was all of about a millimetre thick and then it turned to sleety stuff for about ten minutes. It was quite cold but then it warmed up. I don't know what the rest of the country is getting so worked up about.
Daughter got quite worked up this evening. Older son brought home a bike that friends of his had bought for their son from Toys****Us. It cost £250 and they had to put it together themselves. Which of course they couldn't do. So it was brought round for Daughter (that's right, the wannabe professional mountain biker) to fix it so it worked. Which she did, in as far as you can make crap work, but she then pointed out that they could have bought a far superior bike, from a named brand, for £30 less from the bike shop where she works, and it would have been delivered fully assembled and with a free service in a month's time. When will people learn that mass retailing is bad, and that local traders are good?
We have a new initiative in Brizzle today - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-16852326 - should be interesting. There's probably enough outside the box thinkers around here to make it work. Let's see.
Sunday, 5 February 2012
Where have I gone wrong?
Sorry about the lack of posting for the last month. It's been January, and as an exam invigilator, that has meant lots of work up at school doing - well very little actually, as when you're invigilating an exam there is bugger all to do. You're not allowed to read or do the crossword or sudoko or anything really because you're supposed to be ensuring that all is going well with the exam. This is usually not a problem, unless you have a three-hour sixth form languages exam, which is exceptionally hard going.
Anyhow I've been busily doing that, along with an occasional stint in the finance office ('cos I'm good at figures and Excel and things like that).
Oh and we've also had an interview for a job (that's not the royal 'we', that's me and the OH) which, despite not even being interviewed first time around (didn't score enough points on their scale), actually got the job after all. It's a one person for a year, or in our case two people over two years, position. It actually means we can offer support for a far longer period, and also the time we spend will be much more effective. (It's all very well training someone to do something, but then you have to wait for them to go out and do it, and then come back, before you can move onto the next stage.)
Plus MiL was carted off to hospital because she was trying to starve herself, and we've had to go down and take her to appointments for cataract operations (in which they supposedly saw no need for her to have anything other than a local anaesthetic, despite the fact that she was bound to have started questioning what was going on halfway through) and is rapidly losing much touch with reality.
Anyway, I just thought I'd post tonight having seen younger son's homelearning. (Not called homeWORK these days - probably because of the lack of work involved)
He had to compile a document for his "dream house". So having chosen a Ferrari, an Alien Ware Aurora (don't know what that is), a Jackson Leather Corner Sofa, a PS3, and Xbox 360, a house in Carmel (as in California).... I said to him are you choosing a "real house" next, in which case you'll be choosing a sofa from DFS .......... he said, that's where his "dream"sofa was coming from, 'cos that's the only place he knows where you can get a sofa. I could weep.
Anyhow I've been busily doing that, along with an occasional stint in the finance office ('cos I'm good at figures and Excel and things like that).
Oh and we've also had an interview for a job (that's not the royal 'we', that's me and the OH) which, despite not even being interviewed first time around (didn't score enough points on their scale), actually got the job after all. It's a one person for a year, or in our case two people over two years, position. It actually means we can offer support for a far longer period, and also the time we spend will be much more effective. (It's all very well training someone to do something, but then you have to wait for them to go out and do it, and then come back, before you can move onto the next stage.)
Plus MiL was carted off to hospital because she was trying to starve herself, and we've had to go down and take her to appointments for cataract operations (in which they supposedly saw no need for her to have anything other than a local anaesthetic, despite the fact that she was bound to have started questioning what was going on halfway through) and is rapidly losing much touch with reality.
Anyway, I just thought I'd post tonight having seen younger son's homelearning. (Not called homeWORK these days - probably because of the lack of work involved)
He had to compile a document for his "dream house". So having chosen a Ferrari, an Alien Ware Aurora (don't know what that is), a Jackson Leather Corner Sofa, a PS3, and Xbox 360, a house in Carmel (as in California).... I said to him are you choosing a "real house" next, in which case you'll be choosing a sofa from DFS .......... he said, that's where his "dream"sofa was coming from, 'cos that's the only place he knows where you can get a sofa. I could weep.
Saturday, 28 January 2012
Thursday, 12 January 2012
Headless body found in grounds of Bristol hospital
Quote from BBC Bristol website today:
"A headless body has been found in the grounds of a psychiatric hospital in the Brislington area of Bristol......It is thought the body, and the head found nearby, are those of a man and they had been there for six months.
An Avon and Somerset Police spokesman said the death did not appear to be suspicious ........"
Really? Not even the teensy weensiest bit?
"A headless body has been found in the grounds of a psychiatric hospital in the Brislington area of Bristol......It is thought the body, and the head found nearby, are those of a man and they had been there for six months.
An Avon and Somerset Police spokesman said the death did not appear to be suspicious ........"
Really? Not even the teensy weensiest bit?
Friday, 6 January 2012
Jamie, our fishman, came yesterday. He'd been ringing up before Christmas on the offchance but I didn't have room in the freezer so I never got back to him. But he rang again yesterday, so I was pleased to tell him to call.
He's got a new van (which in all honesty looks identical to the last one, but I didn't like to tell him that). And somehow, between changing vans, he's left his zipzap machine in the old one so couldn't take debit cards. Have I got a cheque book? Fortunately the answer is yes, so I head out to new van complete with cheque book and card (er, no I don't need card, apparently).
Problem. Inside he has a big freezebox made of 2" thick polystyrene. He goes to open door but ... ah! freezebox has inexorably shifted an inch or two to the right, so he can't open freezebox door. After about 5 minutes he manages, using full boot strength, etc, to shift the freezebox enough that he can carry on trading.
I'm trying to support a local independent trader but... oh well you only have to look at his website to see what he's up against. I can't find it at the moment, but one of the offerings when he first started up on his own was the "Cock'o'van" - I kid you not.
In other news, the arrogant bastard has opened up another shop in the area - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-16423230 .
This is the story of Stuart Montgomery, an arrogant shit who thinks he can just open his Costa Coffee branches anywhere he likes. He already has branches in Portishead and Henleaze and then he opened one, without planning permission for a change of use, on Whiteladies Road in a premises which used to be a newsagent (and I have indeed shopped there myself in the past). Another local coffee shop has already reported reduced takings since Costa opened.
After that he decided to open another branch on the Gloucester Road (notable for being possibly the last real high street in the country). Despite a petition of 3,000 signatures, and a refusal of planning permission (not least based on the 18 coffee shops in the vicinity), he decided to open up here anyway.
And now he's opened another one in Westbury-on-Trym. He seems determined to walk rough-shod over everyone else for his own gain. Bristol City Council say they are investigating, but as they are the most useless council in the country I don't hold out much hope.
He's got a new van (which in all honesty looks identical to the last one, but I didn't like to tell him that). And somehow, between changing vans, he's left his zipzap machine in the old one so couldn't take debit cards. Have I got a cheque book? Fortunately the answer is yes, so I head out to new van complete with cheque book and card (er, no I don't need card, apparently).
Problem. Inside he has a big freezebox made of 2" thick polystyrene. He goes to open door but ... ah! freezebox has inexorably shifted an inch or two to the right, so he can't open freezebox door. After about 5 minutes he manages, using full boot strength, etc, to shift the freezebox enough that he can carry on trading.
I'm trying to support a local independent trader but... oh well you only have to look at his website to see what he's up against. I can't find it at the moment, but one of the offerings when he first started up on his own was the "Cock'o'van" - I kid you not.
In other news, the arrogant bastard has opened up another shop in the area - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-16423230 .
This is the story of Stuart Montgomery, an arrogant shit who thinks he can just open his Costa Coffee branches anywhere he likes. He already has branches in Portishead and Henleaze and then he opened one, without planning permission for a change of use, on Whiteladies Road in a premises which used to be a newsagent (and I have indeed shopped there myself in the past). Another local coffee shop has already reported reduced takings since Costa opened.
After that he decided to open another branch on the Gloucester Road (notable for being possibly the last real high street in the country). Despite a petition of 3,000 signatures, and a refusal of planning permission (not least based on the 18 coffee shops in the vicinity), he decided to open up here anyway.
And now he's opened another one in Westbury-on-Trym. He seems determined to walk rough-shod over everyone else for his own gain. Bristol City Council say they are investigating, but as they are the most useless council in the country I don't hold out much hope.
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