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)
Sent using BlackBerry® from Orange

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?!





Sent using BlackBerry® from Orange

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

Empire

Please please correct me if I'm wrong...

I am no expert on oil, the middle east, the British empire, capitalism or "Native" American history but has something seriously gone wrong with the human race?

OK rewind a sec...

so the British empire decide to conquer a few places across our planet, suck the life out of the countries, take their manpower to other places like America...help to kill many Native Americans, help to populate America. and if we forward a little bit we see that not much has changed!

Is the only reason we are in Afghanistan and Iraq because that's where the life is... oil?

Is it just another Empire?

help me out here... please....

cLiCk

Wow I actually called in sick today!

OK I have a another twisted vertebrae to keep the other one company! 

Turns out I have a slight curvature of the spine, which means that when I try and keep my neck straight my vertebrae squeeze together and some try to get out of the way, when one does it twists to allow room, I used to have one twisted, and then a few weeks ago after it just got used to staying in!  it popped to the side, and then since I have had that corrected, another one has just popped out!

Lovely

there we go, I've got that off my mind!

BIG THANKS!!!!

Thanks to the MI5 and MI6 a huge disaster seems to have been avoided! 

The Police have been carrying out searches in Liverpool, Manchester and Clitheroe, Lancashire, following the terror raids on Wednesday, NO thanks to Mr Bob Quick who to be completely fair, made the right decision to leave this morning, thus causing the police to bring the raids forward to avoid any possible threat to the members of the operation, and any threat to any of the 60,975,000 people living in the UK! 

I make that figure in the full nine digits so hopefully we can get a perspective on what exactly I am getting across!

That no. 60,975,000 that is the population of the UK in the 2007 census, but it isn't just that, it is the number of people the security service protects. 

Its not just a number it is the UK.

When the 2007 terrorist attacks happened in London people were calling for an enquiry into how the security services didn't stop the bombings! 

This is outrageous! do the those same people congratulate the MI5 and MI6 for stopping recent attacks?

No

I haven't seen any organisations appear on the news feeds recently to say well done for not only avoiding a serious terrorist attack where many many people could have lost their lives.

So this is me telling anyone who reads this to say thank you.

MI5

GCHQ

Guardian News

London G20 Protests

I'm just about to get ready to leave and get some late breakfast on my day off, I watch the news, while scanning the news websites, as I do pretty much everyday, 

Most mornings I do this, it makes me feel a little more update with whats going on in the news. 

I have been terrified by most things, I wont lie, the new SAW ride in Thorpe park for example, bloody terrifying, and I haven't even been on it! but this is a little more serious, I was terrified at the images on the news regarding the protests at the G20 summit, on the first day "April fools day" as we all saw things got out of hand.

I'm struggling with a few things, and its not that the protesters were just and right in what they did, I'm just struggling with knowing who started the violence, and who's fault it is.

I believe that the vast majority of protesters were protesting peacefully, and that I believe is their right, but i did see a few sneaky clips on the ITV news update where the journo was questioning a few hooded and masked protesters who were stating that at the moment (in their own words) its too quiet and they were excited that somethings gonna Spark off.

That is where it started, some people went there not to protest, but to start trouble. But i don't blame them for the utter mess, I blame the MET.

The met were so unprepared and were in total chaos, and as my girlfriend told me, "had to go home and change into their riot gear" a nice quote considering that they looked completely out of their depth, and unable to handle the sheer mass of people protesting.

It is their job to keep the public safe from harm, and they didn't do their job.

But let me make this clear, I don't blame the individual officers, they did the best that could to protect themselves from the mass of people, but i blame the organisation, and the men higher up who organises the numbers of officers, the locations of predicted protests. 

It was a shame.

This is just a quick update to get my thoughts out. 

Off to get some lunch!

Almost multi-directional post!

This is a bit of an unprepared, unprotected post which will probably travel in one direction for a while, then all of a sudden change, and turn into a kettle.

By this point in the blog, I have already deleted extensive sentences revealing all sorts of details regarding my job and why I got lots of free products, but then again decided that if I was to tell you that, by the time I realise what a stupid thing I did, my bank would have called, asking me if the transaction for £500 in Kuwait was kosha.

I have been away in Nottingham for a week, and that week was the first time I had been away from my beautiful girlfriend since we have been together.

"It's only a week, what's wrong with you?" Yes, it is only a week, to be honest that is one of the things I said to my girlfriend, but inside I was sad, my girlfriend and I are not just together, but we are a team, a team that has worked together and fortified our skills at living and working together for a long time.

Well, we kept in touch as much as possible, and managed to see each other over the amazing technological "skype", so we survived, and it was OK.

We're really strong together, and I think that being apart had been not a fortification as some people say, but interesting. I think that we both learned that it is NOT something that you need to do to have a healthy relationship, just a down right bloody inconvenience.

So that is where the post went.

Sometimes I, like many, have a need to type, to get those fingers tapping on the keyboard. 

To be honest, I have written about something I care about, because she is my partner in crime. So there!

Love you... my biggest fan!

THE DENTIST

What is the best way to start telling a horror story?  

"The dusty untouched steps leading up to a creaky unstable door welcomed all, dead or alive"

No

So today I went to the dentist, luckily I know the dentist in question so I was able to get in quick, as I'm away with work next week, thought I better get this new and unusual pain sorted out before I'm in a strange unwelcoming place, only joking, going to Nottingham.

As I was at an advantage knowing the dentist, you would have thought that i would feel completely confident in their ability and not be scared as most people are... But I'm forgetting that most people are confident with the ability of the dentist, or they wouldn't be a dentist, for too long anyway. I am also forgetting the face that most drugs wouldn't stop me being scared of the dentist, i hate my teeth being played with by anyone!

Imagine for a moment that your watching a satirical TV sketch show, where characters are in a waiting room for the dentist, and while their waiting they hear the violence of the reputable drill, well my dentist is actually exactly like that!

The waiting room has the usual green hard waring carpet that actually extends to climbing up the front surface of the reception desk. Why I don't know, either there was some clever research done on what people find aesthetically pleasing about carpet creeping up to slowly engulf the receptionist just before she offers you a better Dental Plan, or the carpet fitter was having a laugh.

I have always wondered why anyone would let the people in the waiting area listen to what is actually going on in the dentist room, including the conversation about the patient having a friend who has made a sugar free cake! down to the grinding and absurdly terrifying drill! The door to one of the rooms, was actually open, and you could hear everything, including the dentist drilling in time to his favorite classical tracks, only about five of them, looping over and over again. At this point i feel for the staff, imagine everyday putting up with the same pieces of music, with the same cake conversations.

So my dentist is the most wonderful relaxing dentist I have ever been to! and thanks to her I survived!  turns out I has a hole in my tooth and after a very entertaining moment with my face turning into rubber after an injection of local anesthetic, it was all sorted!

I love the way that local anesthetic keeps on spreading after you have actually walked out of the dentist, an hour after the dentist my left ear went completely numb, I could have had any number of facial surgery all today, and not felt a thing!

One of the worse things is accidentally biting your tongue, and then later on feeling the pain!

OK I've vented!

At one point i actually heard a dentist say to his patient: "If you had to guess which tooth it was which one would you say"  Don't you know? your a dentist!

Twitter

OK so this is my second..... umm update.

And have discovered I like talking to myself, and will continue to do so.

So Twitter... I have only recently discovered twitter, thanks to (like many people) Steven Fry coming out of the Twitter closet on Friday night with Jonathan Ross.

So I hoped on...

Although I am now a fully fledged addict, that did not stop me noticing that strange effect Twitter has on celebrities.

Anyone who has heard of the phenomenon "Dr Footlights" might appreciate the addiction to performing. I am not going to go to deeply into my opinions on this, but lets just say that the buzz that some celebrities get from performing, leaves them completely drained.

When they get home the opportunity to sit at the computer and have thousands of people tell them how amazing they are will give them a little bit of that buzz. Its like having a constant audience ready and waiting for you to pop on line and say hello.

Just a few hours after registering on Twitter I realised that some celebrities were really becoming addicted to twitter, and to be fair to certain people I am not going to mention names, but I really do worry about their personal life, as the amount of time logged on to Twitter amazes me. I'm wondering if this person is aware that, I now know the name of their daughter, and the village where they live. If I have noticed this information without even trying, what if one of the 72,000 followers are.

The audience is there, ready and waiting, and it is an opportunity to connect to people, and.... no...not perform, but to feel appreciated.

I believe that Twitter will become more and more popular, and will very soon go rotten, and there will be people who will be able to take advantage of the accessibility, something will go wrong somewhere and many people may turn away from twitter.

Well good luck to Twitter and the Celebrities caught in the net...the spiders coming!

the first blog

I have pondered blogging many times, and have had the urge to spout off like a kettle with the on button stuck down with some blue-tack, not that I ever did that to see what would happen... nor did I get found out, then grounded for a good while until I paid for a new kettle!

I have always loved writing, although had problems thinking about what to write about.

Remembering standing staring at all the new shiny pens in WH Smiths on a Saturday when I should have been looking after my fathers stall, and wanting to write.

I would get a brand new book, and pen, and would sit there for ages thinking about what to write and then would give up and draw a picture of a spaceship of something.

Right sort yourself out Dean, this blog isnt about how you love writing, this blog is about what is going on now, and the thoughts you have day to day...

OK, so I've started, with a pretty good intro... and now I am going to eat!