Decisions, decisions

"MoD rejected three deals to buy Black Hawk helicopters"



"16 dead in Afghan helicopter crash"



The above came from the Guardian.

Strange how the government are more concerned about bailing greedy bankers out than making sure that those brave soldiers are getting the right equipment.



According to the BBC out of 500 available helicopters only 30 were deployed in Helmand province. The governments answer to that was that some helicopters are deployed else where, but some may not be ready for deployment!

Even the new scrappage scheme introduced to breath a little life into car dealerships! How much money is going to that?



When I was self-employed and loosing a money during the recession, I didn't go crawling to the government to give me money to help me survive financially!?



Does Labour know what's important?

Binge Drinking

"Ow you f***ing w**ker come back, you t*at"

I just heard that outside my window.

Nothing to do with me I couldn't even see the source of the noise.
I live very close to one of those streets the police have to go and wait for some drunken idiot to come out of one of many clubs, smash someone's face in with a bottle (for a laugh) and then attempt to piss on the very van the police sit in.

This attractive street gets closed off to traffic every Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday night, and the local council has just denied plans for it to be closed every night of the week, just because its probably the most high risk spot in this city at those times.

According to the government binge drinking is costing the country £20 billion a year, and have you

ever been to the A&E on a Saturday night? where 40% of admissions are alcohol related!

Its not just the screaming rows I hear, oh no, I'm sure anyone who lives near a street in a city centre like this knows what I hear.
I sometimes hear such loud bangs I wonder if my car will still be there, or in one piece!

Officially, binge drinking is any drinking session which

involves the consumption of at least eight units of alcohol, if you are a man, or six, if you are a woman.

Its almost like people live from weekend to weekend, and I'm sure I've seen an increase in this (as they call it) anti-social behaviour, maybe the fact that we're in a very tight economic climate makes people want to drink and forget all the problems with debt and their 'shitty' job.

Someone very close to me got so drunk last week he jumped into a fountain, cut his wrist, then had to go to the hospital to get a hepatitis jab!

There are an estimated 1.2 million incidents of alcohol-related violence, and 85,000 incidents of drink-driving a year. To be honest, that's allot less that I thought it would be.

Have fun next Saturday!

Interesting email!

I love these kind of emails!

I just had this in my inbox, I never normally read these but look!

"Offer Extended...Dear Mr. Dean Cummings,Last week we sent you a special offer for the Digital Film & Negative Scanner that gave you a £40 saving on the website price, as well as an SD Card worth £16.95, absolutely free! The response has been so huge we're extending the offer date a little longer.  That gives you a second chance to snap up this great offer for just £49.95* so don't miss out!!"

Its the bit "The response has been so huge we're extending the offer date a little longer." HA! If the response had been so unexpectedly huge, then like most you would not only run out of stock, but wouldn't bother sending me an email.


You know the sad thing about these email? Its that people do fall for them, people wouldn't bother sending these mails if they didn't work. And let's be honest! Its not even a good offer!

Well that was a rather tasty late night rant, so goodnight all and don't dream of Anthony Hopkins chasing you down the road with a fork! Nytol!:o)
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Very Tired

I'm having one of those clumsy mornings..



Get them quite often, I will wake up at 6.45 and then wake up again every half-hour.. when I wake up when I'm supposed to get up, Its like my brain is still waiting for the bus to the real world.



What is even worse.. Sometimes, later in the day, I realise that the first thing I remember is being in work! I somehow missed out on getting up, dressed and leaving via a walk across a dual carriageway! How the hell can I forget that?!





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Addicted to followers!?

I'm typing this, lying face up in bed, wide awake.
What does one feel the need to tweet about when In such a situation?

Well now I attempt to mention it, I have realised that spending too much juice on current physical position is not good for remembering what on earth I was about to blog about... Ohhh yes.

Followers.
Yes this blog is as much about twitter as it is about the school playground, following those who appear cool in order to look cool, and get others to follow you!

Almost every day I see a tweet, or advertisement instructing you to click on a link and all will be wonderful as your followers will rise and you will be popular! "Increase your followers!" "How to maximise your Twitter audience". I want to put aside the hordes of marketing twitters and social network money grabbers as that's another blog, it is very easy to find yourself pressured into being popular on twitter just as in real life.

I started on Twitter with a bitter accent stating: I don't care if I don't have many followers, I just feel comfortable talking to myself, its refreshing"
In reality (what little there is left) I was slightly jealous of my partner having more followers than me!

I've slowly come to up with a good excuse, I want an audience! I want to see if I can interest people, and get them to follow me.

And like many others I went on a mission to get new followers, a simple little balancing act. It has worked to a point where I'm comfortable with how many followers I have, even if I probably talk to about 5 percent.

Now instead of watching a friends timeline with interest I glance at it missing the gorilla in the mist.

It is easy to get addicted, and you may find yourself spending all your time unfollowing and following so much, that you hardly ever tweet! And thus not using twitter as it can be enjoyed.

Be careful you dont get too addicted to gaining followers! and/or enjoy yourself!

By the way at the time of writing this blog I had 2824 followers, and my partner had 3594, not that its a competition!!! ;o)

The Seals

It was raining! the kind of rain that didn't just make you wet, but also made you feel like you had just jumped off a small Narrowboat which had lost its way and ended up in the middle of the pacific ocean.

Hilarious really, the fact we didn't expect this to happen!  The whole journey from our start in the car park on beach road, to where the Seals were, and back, was about seven and half miles, if it hadn't rained we would have been perfectly fine and dandy!

As we... sorry let me stop a second and tell you who and what I'm talking about!

This is the 22nd December 2007, our journey to see the seals in Norfolk! It did seem like a really good idea, we would park, walk for a good few miles across the beach, see the seals, in their protected environment in this seal sanctuary, and then walk back!

(this is Esther! all kitted out and prepared for the walk!)

Our friend Ali, is friends with a chap who worked for the National Trust, he invited her, and us to see the Seals.

The journey there was pretty uneventful, our guide caught up with us, and started giving us information on the area and the seals!

Some of the Photos attached will show some of the seals, but what it wont show is the feeling one gets when you see such a sight, Its always difficult to communicate that feeling.

The place was gently coated with a sprinkle of white and black dots, which at closer inspection turned out to be terribly beautiful creatures.

It was about breeding season for the Seals, which meant that the mother seals were very protective over the cubs. This didn't hinder our visit at all, but enhanced our look on this secret world! here were creatures that have never needed us, and because of us, are almost endangered! 

This little chap was 

on his own (without his mother) 

and completely asleep, 

until I took the first

 picture, and they he woke up and

 started shouting at me asking me

 for food!

We were even very lucky to see, at the far end of this field of bathing seals, two fighting for a particularly nice patch of sand to lie on!

Eventually we decided to come back, as we could see that it was gonna start to rain! and it really did rain!

It took us twice as long to get back to the car in the hideous rain. We hadn't paid attention to the  weather update that predicted a storm! over the Norfolk area. NICE!

Although at some points we literally thought that we would never get back, and be walking forever, we did! but it was worth every single difficult to tread step on the horrible evil shingles!

The Habour Seal

Blakeney National Nature Reserve

I LOVE TEA

Tea! I never used to like tea, well until I tried it!

We British have loved tea since it hopped jollily off the boat onto our isles in 1660 and since then we have been completely addicted. Tetley, Yorkshire tea, Clipper, the amazing apes with PG tips and sooo many more!

We even had scientists to research how to make the perfect cup! what is wrong with us?

and why is it that more people have their tea with milk than without!?

first the original Tea leaves, didn't really kick off as much as the blessed tea bag! yes we have a bag, which contains tea! think of the amazing technology that goes into that! incredible!

Do you remember the triangle tea bag that helps the tea to flow around the tea bag helping the tea to infuse more easily! amazing!

What about the cups, in the workplace! everyone has their own cup, and whatever you do don't use their cup! and especially when that person is a tea drinker and you go and irresponsibly dump some coffee in! how bloody rude, "that's... my mug, its my favorite red one, i got it in Spain.... see it says 'Spain' on the side.

I wonder how tea will change, and how a "good brew" will look in say 100 years?

and will America get hit by a tea frenzy marketing campaign and hollywood stars will be spotted with t-shirts saying "I drink Yorkshire tea"

Before I leave this post, I would just like to implore you to just pop off and make a brew, mine is milk no sugar.... thanks! x

Tetley's Ethical Tea Partnership

Clipper's story so far

Yorkshire tea's trees for life