Seriously, would you have let The Man with the Merde-Ass Touch anywhere near anybody else's money ever again?
I'm off out to the betting-shop - I reckon I can get good odds on the markets crashing before trading closes.
Author Archive.
Not Going Out?
We had such grand designs for the coming weekend...
With the improving bad back more-or-less under control due to the effects of Ibuprofen combined with Paracetamol, and the arse tolerable due to the aforementioned drugs and a wonder-cream prescribed by my G.P., we thought we'd risk a weekend away wildcamping in the Northern Lake District to bag four of the six Wainwrights that are still on my to-do list. We've not had a wildie this year, and we have a tent that still needs properly testing for review, so it was a reasonable opportunity, probably the best we would get.
We still weren't daunted when I came home from my Dad's birthday bash with a stonking cold which, as you'd expect for a bloke like me, has been upgraded to the status of Man Flu. Past experiences indicate that I could just about cope with a morning basal body temperature of 37.9C (oral).
But now we find that we'll have to contend with the aftermath of this:
It's not looking good. We won't make a final decision until the eleventh hour but I suspect that we'll be giving it a miss.
FWIW, the pic is a screen-shot of the excellent Rainy Days Android App running in the BlueStacks App Player on Windows XP. BlueStacks is a handy bit of kit for those of us who don't have large-screen Android devices. It's free during beta and there's a Mac version. What's not to like?
Skye 2012 – a final fling
After packing the car and saying our farewells to the cottage we headed south on a mission to find the fabled otters of Kylerhea. It was another fine day so we had a few photo-stops on the way:
Clouds over the Red Cuillin and Broadford Bay
The same view in a temperamental scrolly-thing
Looking down Kylerhea Glen
There were good views from the track between the car-park and the otter-hide:
Kyle Rhea meets Loch Alsh
The Far Side
Down at the hide there was much to see. For starters there was this elaborate seagull-perch:
Minor Light
There were seals and birds in abundance but the otters were nowhere to be seen:
After an hour or so we gave up on the otters and went back up the track to the car. We got more pics:
Speckled Wood
Berries
How wind-power used to be
Another Speckled Wood
Glenelg Bay
As above but wider
Down at the ferry slipway:
This one's for Mr. Sloman
Slipway
Intertidal
A tad nippy
Jellyfish
After the crossing we headed up the Old Military Road along Glen More towards Shiel Bridge, stopping at Bealach Ràtagain to admire the view around the head of Loch Duich:
The view from Bealach Ràtagain
The view of the view from Bealach Ràtagain
The rest of the journey was picture-worthy but we were pressed for time, needing to get to The Real Food Cafe for some sustin. We managed a couple of photo-stops:
The head of Loch Garry - a bit of Scotland that's shaped like Scotland
Anna at the Loch Garry viewpoint
You'll know where this is
After raiding The Real Food Cafe it was a non-stop drag to our overnight stop at the less-than-luxurious Dumbarton Travelodge, but we did appreciate the fine scenery around Loch Lomond.
The next day was a drudge day as expected... motorway > Penrith Little Chef > home.
It had been a great week, it's a shame there was so much time spent in the car.
Aeeeyo iyaaannn?
I'm no musician but I like to think that I know class when I hear it:
😕
FWIW, it sounds much better when all three vids are running together.
Three black flies in my Chardonnay…
No. 1
Regarding online services, I spent years (and a small fortune) during the previous century on BT dial-up before switching to phone, email and broadband internet via Diamond Cable during their first month of service in our area. In time they were consumed by NTL who upped the ante by providing us with their digital telly service. In due course NTL were taken over by Virgin Media, they substituted a succession of their own digiboxes culminating in the temperamental VBox.
Tempted by their latest ads for their TiVo service, I phoned Virgin a few days ago in order to change my service to their "Essential Collection" - a 500 gig HD TiVo Box with more channels than you could shake a stick at, a wireless Super Hub, up to 30 meg fibre-optic broadband and a landline with weekend perks. Of course, this new bundle includes their email service. It took ages for them to agree to the correct price as advertised on their own webpage, mainly because I'd be getting more for less. Eventually they relented (after I mentioned the ASA) and a deal was struck.
Before hanging up the phone I asked them to send me an email detailing our agreement and the change of terms of our contract. Yeah, you've guessed it, they wouldn't send me one. Allegedly, they don't have the capability to email me from the sales department.
No. 2
Ella and her mates were mucking about with their mobiles, playing "guess the access code" with each other's handsets. As you'd expect, after her friend had tried too many incorrect codes Ella's phone kicked into lockout-mode and is now bricked. Well, technically that's not true... it's my phone as I'm the mug with his name on the contract, but the phone is still fcuked.
After wasting much time talking to the bewildered support folk at T-Mobile we resorted to the internet to see if we could find a working hard-reset procedure but it was all to no avail. Yesterday I took the handset to the nearest T-Mobile shop and explained all, they said it would need sending back to base for a repair and that it would take up to 28 days. I proffered my own mobile details so that they could inform me as to when the thing was ready to be collected but they declined, saying that they would let me know the outcome by text... to the affected handset.
No. 3
In a bizarre turn of events, a local careers service has closed with staff facing an uncertain future.
Don't talk to me about irony.
😕
