Random thoughts from Blighty

Filey - where to stay and eat

2011-10-27T02:10:00.000-07:00

This post is very much about some recommendations for anyone visiting or staying in the town of Filey.

Yet again we had a visit to Filey this week and it involved a single overnight stay in a Bed and breakfast.

To be honest I have never stayed in a B & B before and, although the photos of the one that we selected looked impressive, you are never quite sure what to expect. In any event our expectation were more that met. We stayed at the White Rose Guest House (http://www.whiterosefiley.co.uk) within 3 or 4 minutes walk of the town centre, the Prom etc and it was absolutely ideal. The accommodation was superb, the owners, Paul and Caroline were perfect hosts and our stay was very enjoyable.

You can find out more about the White Rose Guest House by using the link above, but in summary: Everything is brand new, so the rooms and stylish bathrooms are top notch; there is off-street parking (a rarity in Filey); the breakfast gets 10/10; you are greeted by the owners and you are also staying where the cast of the TV series “Sugar Town” stayed back at the beginning of this year during their extensive filming in Filey.

A couple of other recommendations, this time for eating out.

One of the big problems with the Filey area is where to go for a “special meal”. There are plenty of descent pubs and cafes, but all serve pretty standard food at economy prices. This is fine most of the time, but if you want something a bit different where do you go?

Our friends Andy and Carol recommended the OX Inn at Lebberston, 5 minutes down the road from Filey or Cayton. This is a real traditional country pub both outside and in, but the food is outstanding. Everything on the menu is traditional British cuisine and it is prepared to a very high standard and served in huge quantities. Do not be fooled by the simple menu titles, e.g. braised steak or boozy beef in Yorkshire pudding – the food is exceptional and the landlord and landlady, James and Jenny, are friendly and helpful. There website is http://www.oxinn.co.uk.

Going back to eating (and drinking) cheaply, the Buccaneer pub in the middle of Filey is a bit rough and ready, but you get good food, plenty of it and it and you are going where the locals go. I have been told that it can get a bit rowdy on Friday and Saturday nights, so they might be times to avoid.

Finally, I sometimes give a link to a totally unrelated subject and, since I felt like doing so now, here is a site all about orthopedic and other types of chair, it is http://www.orthopedicchair.net/more-chair.html and if you want to know about chairs it will be of interest – if not, it won’t!

Wekend away

2011-10-06T02:52:00.000-07:00

My posts on this blog have been sparse of late to say the least and the reason is not a lack of things to write about, but rather a lack of time in which to write them.

So, in order to compensate here is a post about a recent long weekend that we spent on the East coast of Yorkshire.

We stayed at the Loft in Filey, a small house with a couple of bedrooms and bathrooms and an open plan living area, dinner and kitchen. We stayed there back in May of this year and, as with May, fell lucky with the weather.

We arrived mid afternoon on Friday and lazed around the town after settling in. On Saturday we spent most of the day in Filey before going to the Falcon Inn on the Scarborough Road for dinner. This is not to be recommended and I will add a Tripadvisor review to explain why. In short if you like a restaurant where the staff are happy for dinners to use the “F” word continuously and take their shoes off and put their bare feet up on chairs in front of other people who are eating, then this is the place for you. If not avoid it like the plague.

Sunday we went to Whitby and, despite Friday, Saturday and Monday being warm and sunny, Sunday had overcast skies and rain. Even so we had a good day and spent a bit of money in an outdoor shop that we visit when we are in the area. We ate at Marie Antoinette’s, a café that has a lot of home made cakes. They are far from cheap, but the portions are large and the cakes are fantastic.

Interestingly we parked (as usual) in the big pay and display car park next to the Abbey ruins. The walk down to the town is fine, however it is uphill all the way back and most people find it a bit of a hike. I was surprised how easy it was compared with our previous visits and must put it down to losing 25 to 30 pounds over the last 3 or 4 months.

Speaking of parking, you can now park for free on many of the roads in Filey until the end of March 2012. I think that some of the car parks may also be free over the “out of season” period, but I will need to check.

Sometimes I add and interesting link and on this occasion the one that I am including is not all that fascinating. It is http://www.pool-heaters.net/more.html and it is a website about swimming pool heaters and other pool equipment. If you want to know about swimming pools, how they work and what you need to buy in order to run one it will make your day, if not then ignore it.

Hopefully my next posts will be a little bit more regular.

Tetley brewery, leeds

2011-06-17T13:14:00.000-07:00

No nuns this week and the fault with the boiler turned out to be a faulty sensor that was preventing the gas from reaching the burner. The cost of repair - £85 for just under one hour’s work. I can only dream of an hourly rate like that. In fact I would happily settle for half of it. That said, I have to be grateful, firstly that the engineer saw me inside 24 hours and secondly that it was not a faulty gas valve which would have added another £100 to £150 to the repair cost.

Yet again a poor weekend weather forecast has scuppered our plans for the next couple of days and the result is that we will probably stay local to our home. It had been our intention to head for the coast again, but grey skies and rain make the prospect less appealing.

Keeping up the negative momentum, Tetley brewery closed today after not far off two centuries of making Yorkshire ale. The protagonist is Carlsberg who bought them a few years ago and announced, to my recollection about 3 years ago, that they would close the site. This they have done whilst claiming falling beer sales and negative economics as the excuse.

As has been pointed out many times this is of course rubbish. The brewery is on the edge of Leeds city centre and the site, when cleared, will fetch a lot of money. It is yet another example of British culture being bought and destroyed by a foreign company in the name of profiteering. If Carlsberg had tried the same stunt in France or Spain the government would have stepped in and prevented it. It is the same story with the exploitation of our now foreign owned power and utility companies and of course the banks. As an example, electricity prices are less than 20% of the UK cost in Spain. Explain that one to me.

Finally, here is a link to a website that generously gave a link to one of my websites, hence I reciprocate the favour. The site is www.sophieconran.com and you can find out about all kinds of things from recipes to maintaining the best type of home from its many pages.

A strange week!

2011-06-09T14:43:00.000-07:00

I have seen two nuns this week.

One was a young lady with very pale skin dressed in grey with a rope like belt and sandals going into our local Morrisons supermarket. The other was a black lady in a rich blue outfit who gave me a big smile when I signalled to her to cross the road in front of me. At first I did not realise that she was a nun because of the brighter colour, but then the style of her clothes made me realise her vocation.

The reason I mention this is simply because I have not seen a nun or monk wondering around for several years and two in one day was highly unusual to say the least.

This follows on from having the Jehovah’s Witnesses at the door last week, so it has been a compressed period of being reminded that there are still some Christians left in the UK.

With my next door neighbour being a plumber, it was inconvenient to say the least that our 3 year old combi boiler decided to cease working this Tuesday morning, a week during which he is in Spain on holiday.

Even worse however was the fact that, having got home today and come around straight away, his trouble shooting detected the problem as being one that only a boiler engineer can resolve. He has arranged for such a person to come around tomorrow, however his comment was “it won’t be cheap”!

This continues a bad week. On Tuesday I lost my bank card, I also lost two bowling matches and now my sister tells me that she has no cold water in her home. This is made even more inexplicable by the fact that she does not have a water tank – which would explain, in the short term, the continuation of (non mains) hot water if the mains were somehow blocked.

On a positive note, between her home and mine we have both hot and cold running water.

Finally, we did some shopping at the aforementioned supermarket last night in order to spend £40 and get a voucher for 6p off per litre when we next fill up the car. The offer is on until this Sunday for anyone interested and it will save you a few pounds at the filling station.

Interested in a holiday in Barcelona, Spain? If so you can get some tips and ideas at this site http://www.barcelonaweekendbreak.net which covers the numerous hotspots and things worth taking a look at.

Cakes and lawn bowling

2011-05-27T12:37:00.000-07:00

Probably a final mention for Sterchis. We did in fact make a special visit to Filey on Thursday last week to buy cakes there for the final time.

Not surprisingly many people had placed orders and, although we were there by mid morning, only a limited number of cakes were left. We bought about a dozen that are now safe in the freezer. One can only hope that the actual baker, who I believe is the son of the owners, sets up his own business or makes those fantastic cakes for someone else. If he does and he wants a website, I will design it for him for free (plus some cakes) just for keeping the cakes going.

Staying with cakes, our local bowling club (of the crown green variety) is hosting a biggish competition this Sunday. All the catering is provided by the club members and this will mean that Jean and Beryl will be making some of their incredible cakes and selling them by the slice. Last year I got through six different slices during the day and took a further two home for the evening. This year I will attempt to exceed that achievement (provided that the same types of cakes are there and my greed passes by unnoticed).

Amazingly, several people have suggested that I actually compete in the competition in question, however my knowledge of the complete humiliation that would result if this were to be the case means that I will be a spectator. My next door neighbour will however be in the event and, having been a losing finalist in a similar competition last week, he and his playing partner will be amongst the favourites.

Moving away from cakes, but staying with the bowling (this time of the flat lawn green variety), we paid a few visits to Filey bowling club during our week at the East coast earlier this month. Many thanks to the numerous members there who were friendly and encouraging and who gave us a good grounding in the game and how it is played (Tim and the captain in particular). It would be hard to come across a nicer group of people and their club, in all respects, was a credit to them and their hardworking captain/green keeper. Hopefully we will be in a position to move to Filey at some point in the not too distant future and when we do we will definitely apply for membership. We will of course also have to join a crown green club and we also met a member of Hunmamby CGBC whilst on our coastal travels.

Finally, ever thought about visiting Dublin? It is a really great city with a fantastic and friendly atmosphere and you can find out all about it here http://www.dublinweekendbreak.net. This site includes everything from sightseeing recommendation through to information about travelling there and finding the best or most economical accommodation.

Sterchi’s

2011-05-17T02:43:00.000-07:00

I have mentioned a cake shop called Sterchi’s in Filey many times and I have also referred to the fact that, after over 90 years it will close this Saturday (21st May 2011). Here is an article in the Yorkshire Post relating the story - http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/at-a-glance/main-section/end_of_an_era_for_resort_as_cake_shop_doors_shut_1_3383333.

The only thing that I can add is to point out that, having been a customer of Sterchi’s for well over 40 years, the lady in the picture has never shown any sign of breaking a smile in the 20 or 30 years that she has been working there. She really is the most miserable and almost rude person that I have ever met and an acquaintance in Filey tells me that he lost interest buying cakes there as a result of her attitude. One hopes that she will be more amenable if she moves to the chocolate shop which is being relocated. My wife put her smile down to the fact that the shop was closing!

As for the cake shop’s business being on a down-wood trend, this clearly will have something to do with the new Tesco which will ultimately turn Filey into yet another charity shop town. However, Sterchis could easily have survived and prospered had a bit of very basic initiative and common sense been shown. Firstly no baker other than those offering specialist breads and pastries can compete with the supermarkets. For this reason Sterchi’s should have wound up this part of their trade several years ago and concentrated on their “specialist” cakes.

Secondly, the obvious move would have been to turn the shop into a cake shop come café. Everyone who goes there has made this comment, however customer feedback has clearly been ignored or somehow missed. All in all a mini tragedy. See below for how you should respond to customer feed back and changing times.

My father in law started a Spanish Deli in North London some 25 to 30 years ago - he is now retired having sold the business.

As a Spaniard his vision was to introduce a range of different pastas, cured meats and other local specialities to the area. This would, I assume, have combined a business with something that he wanted to do and found interesting.

The business did OK-ish, but never made a lot of money using that model. However, as he started opening earlier and earlier some of the customers asked him if he could make them a sausage or bacon sandwich to take away. He thought about this and bought a hot plate to cook fry-up type food for take-out only customers.

To cut a long story short, over the years his traditional deli turned into an “eat in” café that opened at 6.30 am and closed mid afternoon. His business turned from selling Deli foods over the counter to serving breakfasts and lunches and he retired having paid off his mortgage and having bought a great second home back in Spain – and with money in the bank.

My father in law is far from an easy man to get on with (believe me) and he is certainly not someone who responds to being told what to do. However he is a shrewd and insightful businessman who reacted to numerous circumstances (one being a nearby football team getting into the main leagues and gaining “hungry” fans for which he catered) and the other being responding to his customer needs and requests. If only Sterchi’s could have done the same.

All of the above is, of course, just my very superficial take on things and I know that leases and other events/circumstances will have played a part in the decision. However, what I can never understand is the fact that Sterchi’s cake shop always seems to have a queue whilst the chocolate shop is always empty!

The 21st will be a sad day.

Roseberry Topping and Filey

2011-05-11T02:41:00.000-07:00

We got back at the weekend from a 6 night stay in Filey. Despite our regular visits to the East coast of Yorkshire, this is the first time that I have actually had a holiday there since being a teenager in the late 1970’s.

With the luxury of not having to drive back to Leeds at the end of the day we had the chance to extend our activities and do a couple of walks and of course have evening meals in the area.

We stayed at a really great place called the Loft which I can certainly recommend. Their website is www.theloftfiley.co.uk and my, and many other 5 star reviews for it, can be found on trip advisor. In short it is a 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom little house. It is laden with flat screen TV’s, the internet and computer games and, best of all, it is actually in the central part of Filey town. It also has parking.

Staying there certainly reinforced my long held view that Filey would be a great place to live and the luxury of being able to take a walk along the beach or beach side promenade at any time is a big bonus.

It is also surprising how, in a small town, you can often get things otherwise unavailable in the big cities. I have mentioned before the brilliant cake shop of Sterchi’s (which regrettably will close on 21st of this month). But there is also a great Deli which makes its own bread that is simply incomparable with any that I have ever tasted before.

Talking last night to a friend who likes Bridlington, he mentioned that he had visited Filey a couple of weeks ago and that he thought that he had somehow missed the main part of the town. He described what he had seen (all correct), but then pointed out that he could not find the amusement arcades and rows of rock shops and consequently he assumed that he had not managed to hit the town centre – He did. Each to his or her own tastes I guess.

During our stay we did take a comparatively long trip out to Roseberry Topping to do a walk. When I was at middle school we spent a week in Saltburn and, during that week, climbing Roseberry Topping was one of our excursions. Since then I have wanted to return to see if it looked the same and to retrace childhood footsteps.

The answer was yes – it was as I recalled, but with the added task of walking up Roseberry Topping, then heading off to the Cook monument and then taking a circular route back, it was a lot tougher. The views and scenery were however spectacular, even though we had a hazy day weather wise. The walk was also made even better by the presence, at this time of year, of carpets of bluebells for which the base of Roseberry Topping is famous. I have included a photo which unfortunately does not quite capture the scope and spectacle of this natural wash of colour.

Malham Cove & Kettlewell

2011-04-24T04:31:00.000-07:00

We have had a few days out over the last couple of weekends (including this one). So, with not too much else to write about, I will give our walking activities a quick mention.

We went to Malham Cove last Sunday and did a walk that was supposed to be about 6 miles long, however because we had to backtrack on ourselves we managed to add another mile and a half to the distance. This seems a common issue with us, either because we go wrong, or decide to vary the route to avoid something – in this case climbing down a waterfall.

It was the first time that I have been to Malham and it is well worth the time and effort. The main feature of Malham is the cove itself, however there is also a waterfall in an amphitheatre-like open cavern that is quite atmospheric.

For me though, the best part of the day was a section of walk between Malham Tarn (a small lake) and the descent to the waterfall which had some breath taking scenery and was also (gratefully) downhill. (We were getting a bit tiered at this point and the complete walk took us around 4 ½ hours.)

We went to Malham on a Sunday and the area around the cove was, not surprisingly, very busy. Even so, once you reached the top and continued on the walk the crowds quickly disappeared and we saw very few people on our route. The day was also helped by the weather which was always warm and sunny, but aided by a cooling breeze. An ice cream van at the tarn was a very welcome sight.

Car parking at Malham was either £2 or £3 in a field, or a bit more in the National Trust car park and there was a lot of space.

Yesterday we went to Kettlewell, a small village in North Yorkshire that again is always busy on weekends. The drive (from Leeds to Kettlewell) should be very scenic, but the occasional lunatic on the narrow winding roads means that you have to be cautious the whole trip.

We got there around 11.30 am and the car park (£4/day) was almost full, so we were probably lucky to get parked up. Again we were there to do a shortish walk, but this time a very taxing one as the first mile from the village to a Scout’s hostel, called Hagdyke, is up a very steep incline. (To be precise multiple steep inclines.)

Ultimately our walk (with a lot of stops) saw us back in Kettlewell at around 2.30pm and we had lunch at the Bluebell Inn which, like the other two pubs in the town, was heaving.

The walk that we covered took us up past the Hagdyke hostel and then down into the valley adjacent to it from which we then followed a stream all the way down to Kettlewell. There is a proper path on this route although it is crumbling away at some points. I have to say that this is a stunning part of the walk and the whole area was covered with flowers like wild primulas and small pink orchid like blossoms - all lined the valley sides and at times the aroma was amazing.

There are a lot of walks in this area and many of them are fairly taxing as they frequently involve scaling hills and moors, but the scenery and views are often spectacular for those who make the effort.

The pics that I have included are, firstly of Malham and secondly of a house and stunning garden in Kettlewell.

Friends in Galicia

2011-04-20T13:04:00.000-07:00

Between my wife and myself we have been in contact with various friends who are residents of Galicia over the last few weeks and, without too much to write about, I thought that I would give them a quick mention.

We have some Galician friends (M & R) in Noia who are avid cruise fans and have an excellent photographic business in the town. They are also very cosmopolitan and international in their outlook and have a very worldly view of life. This does of course contrast with many other residents of the region who have a more “regionalist” take on things. Diversity is of course a staple of any democratic society.

M & R’s business is pretty cutting edge and the first digital photo album that I ever saw was in their high street store. Even going back several years ago they were already offering photographic prints on handbags, mouse mats etc. So, as a plug for them, their website is http://fotolaser.es.

The friends that we probably see the most when we are in Galicia are also residents of Noia, however in their case they are a mix of Galician and American and we have known them for several years. They moved to Noia from Florida a few years back and for that reason we share a lot of values and cultural references with them. (I will call them J and P.)

The Galician and American mix refers to the fact that J is American, but with a Galician father, and P is Galician, but spent most of his working life in the USA. P, despite being Spanish, also talks with an American accent and uses lots of USA colloquialisms that I usually only hear on US TV shows and they sound great in everyday conversation.

Aside from the fact that we go out for dinner and entertain each other from our respective Galician residences, we also bump into one another on a near daily basis, so they become our most social friends when we are in and around Noia.

Moving further a field another couple, Rose Marie and Vicente who run a tour guide company called Galicia Mystic Tours (http://www.toursofgalicia.net), are residents of Pontevedra and we always try to visit them when we are in the region.

They moved to Galicia from Canada and their tour business has received accolades from customers and travel experts for its unique way of presenting the region, its culture and special features like the Rias Baixas.

Both of them are incredibly enthusiastic about not just Galicia, but life generally, and we always feel like we have had an injection of positivity after we have been in their company.

Our other big friend in Galicia is of course fellow blogger Colin Davies and I had the great pleasure of Colin’s company on Monday of this week. As ever, Colin was in great form and we talked for some three and a half hours about everything from the British school system (if it can still be called that) to events in Galicia.

Because of economic circumstances, Maria and myself made the decision not to go to Galicia last year and, as a result, Monday was the first time that Colin and myself have been able to sit in the sun and enjoy a café con leche (although in Colin’s case without the leche) since late summer 2009.

It is amazing how the memories and even the mood and atmosphere of Galicia seem close enough to touch once you start talking about them and recalling past events and experiences. It made me realise that, despite circumstances, our choice not to go to Galicia last year was a bad one. We will not be deterred by economic ups and downs when making our holiday plans this year.

The end of Sterchis

2011-04-13T12:06:00.000-07:00

I visited the east coast again last Saturday and was staggered by how quiet it was. Filey in particular was no busier than it was back in March, yet this was the middle weekend of the School’s Easter holiday. If anyone needs proof of how severe this recession has become, there it is.

But things got worse, the incredible cake shop (and chocolatier) Sterchis is closing on 21 May this year.

Sterchis

This family owned business has been operating in Filey for around 100 years and I have been eating their totally unique cakes for all but the first five years of my life. Apparently the chocolate side of the business will continue, albeit from another location, but the cake shop will come to an end for ever.

I have never been in Sterchis when there has not been a queue, so it is still hard to understand why the shop will close. I believe that the lease is due for renewal and no doubt the disgraceful presence of a new Tescos in Filey has had a detrimental effect. Supermarkets should not be allowed to destroy the character of these historic towns and least of all the most sinister one of all.

As is nearly always the case we took a walk around Scarborough Mere and we were fortunate enough to be there when the “once famous” Scarborough water skiing club were out on the lake. We had a chat with one of the long standing members and, I was pleased to discover that my memory had not tricked me over time, when he told us that water skiing legend and multi world champion Mike Hazelwood did in fact ski there. Do a search for MH on wikipedia to find out how great this guy was back in the 1970’s and 1980’s - he was the Barry Sheen of water skiing when it was a TV sport. Take a look at this youtube vidoe (about 5 mins 50 secs in) to see him in action - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQFBCtEJyOw&feature=related.

If you are interested in waterskiing and fancy having a go, the Scarborough water skiing club will welcome you with open arms. They are open on Saturday and (I think) at some time on Mondays or Tuesdays (or both). The Mere has 3 lakes and the club operate out of the back one which is below and adjacent to the section of road used for the Oliver’s Mount motorcycle road race track. Incidentally the first road race of the season takes place there on either this weekend or next weekend.

As I have mentioned on many occasions, we only ever seem to have day trips to the east coast, but my sister often takes a short break there and she has just returned from a two day stay this evening.

She stayed at the Hallam Guest House (http://www.filey-hallamguesthouse.co.uk) which she and family were very impressed with. It does apparently have one room that allows pets!!! (not my cup of tea) which is why she stayed there, but everything from the rooms to the breakfast (with Trotters bacon, sausage and egg) was, in the words of my sister and mother, “fantastic”. I have included the website url above, so you can check it out if interested.

Well after taking up crown green bowling last year I played my first two team matches last week and this week. Last week I was a winner, but yesterday, despite a big comeback, I went down to a lady decades my senior – well done Doris.

Crown green bowling contrasts greatly with the flat green version (as seen on TV). Whilst in Filey we witnessed the local flat green club coming into action – or rather not! We watched them come out of their clubhouse in “whites” and blazers. This was followed by a number of short speeches and applause and by that time our interest has dimmed. Quite what the point of bowling on a flat green with no crown to read and no jack to follow is beyond me, but I guess I would have to try it out before I could make a fair observation.

Finally, here is a link to a site about London - http://www.londonweekendbreaks.net. If you want to know about the places to see (i.e. site seeing attractions) and where to stay, how to travel around etc, this might just help you out.

The mighty Seb back on TV

2011-03-17T08:32:00.000-07:00

A couple of days ago, coinciding with the launch of ticket sales for the 2012 Olympics, one of my heroes (not) Seb “Zeb” Coe was on morning TV.

Zeb was there to promote the ground breaking event and to take questions from the public about tickets sales. Interestingly, he did not take live calls, but rather relayed transcripts of the questions through the show’s presenters. I guess Zeb is now too high and mighty to speak to mere humans on something as primitive as a telephone.

The entertainment though was in Zeb’s brilliantly elusive answers to the most simple of questions. Here are some approximate examples of the question and answer game that he played.

Q1: We are a family with children. If we purchase the tickets as a group can you assure us that we will all be sat together?

Zeb’s answer: We will try our best!

Follow up question from the presenter: Well it is rather important that small children are seated with their parents. Can you guarantee that this will be the case.

Zeb’s answer: I can absolutely guarantee that will do everything that we can to make that happen (i.e. we will try our best).

Q2: I have heard that the tickets are for sessions and not days, is this true my Lord?

Zeb’s answer: (Along the lines of) the tickets are excellent value and I am sure that you will have a great day (sorry session) out.

Follow up question from the presenter: So are the tickets for a session or for the full day?

Zeb’s answer: There are lots of different sports and I am sure that everyone will have a great time (but I will not answer this question on pain of death).

The theme continued with Zeb absolutely determined not to answer any question, however simple or innocuous. Still it was great to see the multi Olympic champion and all round good guy back on TV again. To celebrate the fact I have attached a “unique” picture of Zeb. The unique element is that the great man is actually looking up and, as everyone surely knows, Zeb only ever looks down his nose at people.

For those seriously interested in the Olympics, I think that you only have a short window of opportunity in which to buy your tickets. The sale goes through to June and, barring an act of God, the only way that you can pay for them is with a Visa card. My guess is that Zeb might have quite a lot of Visa card points in the bank right now!

On to other things. Ill health has prevented me from posting earlier but, unfortunately for those who do not like me, I am only referring to a flu like bug.

My great excitement at the moment is the arrival today of a DVD set comprising the first three series of Benidorm. Ordinarily I dislike modern British attempts at comedy and I have refused to watch this particular show until 2 weeks ago when I somehow fell on the channel and got hooked. Quite why I enjoyed it I still cannot understand. It repels, shocks and amuses me all in one, but I guess that the shear political incorrectness is the deciding factor.

Finally, I always throw in a link or two and I was trying to find a Youtube clip of Seb’s interview this morning. Regrettably there was none, so here is one to a Human Resource company http://www.helpinghandhr.com which I am sure will be of interest to someone!!!

For those who do not know, HR is all about managing people and how they fit and work within an organisation. It covers training, grievance, strategy, management etc.

Pateley Bridge

2011-03-07T02:38:00.000-08:00

We went to Pateley Bridge yesterday.

Pateley Bridge is a small town in Yorkshire and, in the pre-industrial revolution days, it was one of many thriving and prosperous towns in the north of England that mixed agriculture, the clothing industry and small scale manufacturing.

Today much of the town remains unchanged and, although quite small, it gets its fair share of tourists – indicated by the presence of several cafes.

Pateley Bridge Museum

We have actually been to Pateley Bridge many times, but this time we visited its museum which is situated outside the main area (which is basically a single street) and at the top of a steep hill. There are signs for the museum, but they are small and easily missed. Things do not improve when you get close to the building and we found the museum more because we ended up parking adjacent to it than by following any directions.

Anyway, this museum is an absolute must see attraction. The entry fee is £2.00 per adult and the museum itself is on the top floor of a building that was once the town workhouse.

Once in the museum it takes the form of about a dozen small rooms, but each one is themed to a particular subject, trade or period, and the exhibits on display are set up as if they were still in use.

As an example, one room has little alcoves within it and each one has been created to represent a different trade/store. This means that you get to see a cobbler, a general store, a woodworking business etc, each with the tools and the “feel” of how it must once have been. The attention to detail is superb and the exhibits are nearly all from past local businesses. There are also many old photographs and some good descriptive (but not overly boring) information cards dotted on walls and by various exhibits.

To say that we were impressed by this museum is a massive understatement. I would go as far as to say that it is just about the best £4.00 (£2.00 each) that we have ever spent and, although we got round the museum in just over an hour, it was constant senses overload.

Other fascinating exhibits in the building were an amazing 3 wheeled penny farthing type bicycle with a complex gear, drive an brake mechanism, and an incredible music machine (in the first room) which will play if you put an old penny in it (you can buy the penny for 10p).

Towards the end of the museum (i.e. one of the last rooms), there is a mock up of a lower middle class parlour from some time in the late 19th century which gives a great insight into how the comparatively “well-to-do” lived in those times. This room was however the one room with a fault, namely the un-made-up face of the mannequin which, although I did not notice it at the time, stands out on the photo that I took.

I have included a couple of photos to give a general idea of what this small museum is about. Also, a family with two young children (who were there when we were) seemed to really enjoy it too.

Here is the museum website if you want to find out more - http://www.nidderdalemuseum.com/.

General Ramblings, Globe Theatre.....

2011-02-18T08:59:00.000-08:00

Another weekend approaches and more dull and miserable weather appears to be in the pipeline. At least the nights are getting lighter and today the sun is supposed to set at around 5.15pm.

Back in the days when my mother was still at work she used to finish at 5.00pm prompt and the journey home would take 20 minutes or less. She always paid great stall by the first day of the year during which she could complete the drive home without the need to put the car’s side lights on. As far as she was concerned that day ended the winter period and signalled the start of brighter times. Twenty years on that same journey would take a least 10 minutes longer, however I suspect that the University of Leeds (her then employer) still sees a mass exodus at exactly 5.00pm. They are either very efficient or very lazy, take your pick!

About a year ago we bought a new Ford Fiesta, which I would add has been a grave disappointment. Yesterday, after about 10 months of ownership, I took it back to the dealer with some warranty problems. (Just parts of the car falling off – only what you expect from a car with 7,000 miles on the clock.) The up side to this was that the dealer was “surprisingly” very good. They fixed the problems while I waited and when I mentioned (in passing) about some rattles in the dashboard they pretty much insisted that I book the car in for a full investigation and repair. Perhaps this is motivated by the desire to retain customers, but even so I was fairly impressed.

I gather that the Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has been in Leeds today to promote proportional representation. It is, according to him, a “fairer system”.

I have never failed to be shocked and infuriated at how politicians will lie and distort the truth for their own furtherment and political ambition and this is a classic case in point.

Taking a situation where you have a fictitious political hamlet with 10 wards, each appointing an MP based on a majority vote in that ward, here is how things currently are and here is how Clegg wants them to be.

If all ten wards had two parties and party A got 70% of the vote whilst party B got 30% of the vote, this is how things would pan out. (Remember that more than 2 out of every 3 people wanted party A in all 10 wards.)

As things stand party A would get 10 MP’s whilst party B would get none.

However, under Clegg the overall 30% vote for party B would see party A getting 7 MP’s and party B getting 3. Sounds fair!

OK, which wards should have the MP’s from party B imposed upon them. Remember, all 10 wards had a 2 to 1 vote in favour of party A, i.e. they all wanted party A to represent them - none of them wanted party B.

I am still waiting for someone to explain the fairness of this system, or should I say how it is fair to voters rather than to minority political parties. But then again all aspects of our political system (and its respective parties) are beyond explanation to me.

Some overseas friends visited London a few weeks back and took in many of its more famous sights. They mentioned to me prior to the visit that they wanted to see a performance at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, however I gather that they were here at the wrong time of year. Apparently it has an open roof and does not offer performances during the winter months – so be warned.

Fish and chips!

2011-02-15T12:37:00.000-08:00

About 18 months ago our regular fish and chip shop exchanged hands when the owner (George) sold it in order to relocate to Scarborough and go back into the world of IT. A great shame as he was a nice guy. We gave the new owners at try (once), but they were literally a walking disaster and the shop closed down before Christmas last year.

Fortunately we found another great F & C takeaway, but today we were shocked to see that that too had been sold and was under new (Asian) management. Last week the old, this week the new.

To make matters worse, we had to wait approximately 35 minutes as the idiot frying the fish fried them 4 or 5 at a time, despite having 8 or 9 people waiting (one potential customer even got bored and walked out). The end result was equally disappointing with soggy batter and a plate full of disappointment. It looks like we are back to square one again.

We went to a wedding reception on Saturday afternoon. The groom was a former boss of my wife and he and his “new” wife own an historic and very interesting house (a former inn) in Knaresborough. I am never a fan of “people gathering” situations, however this one was full of nice polite people, extremely well behaved children and a high degree of informality (other than the dress code). Behind the house (called the Royal Oak), and in a small courtyard, they have spent a considerable sum of money converting an old barn into two luxury holiday cottages. In this case “luxury” is more than apt and after a quick look around one of them I would probably be happy to live there permanently. Features include a Jacuzzi. For anyone interested I have found this page http://www.exploreknaresborough.co.uk/accommodation-in-knaresborough/the-stable-holiday-cottages/ about both the holiday cottages.

On a very different note, in my last post I showed a couple of photos that were not in fact photos at all, but rather screen-prints taken from the Google Earth.

For those who do not use Google-Earth, it is a free programme that allows you to select any location (using a search facility) and zoom down onto it using Google’s own satellite imagery (i.e. photos and not a pictorial map). It is all very impressive and it means that you can hone-in on just about anything anywhere.

A relatively recent addition to this program is the inclusion of lots of little camera icons on the roads and, if you click on one, you can have a 360 degree view of the area surrounding that camera position. All of this is done by having a Google camera car drive down just about every road that there is making continuous 360 degree photo records of everything in its path. This proves interesting and entertaining and you can take a look at a friend’s house (or your own), or check out directions, street scenes and the like. It does however open up a lot of concerns about security. Naturally google fade out features like car number plates and peoples faces, however, if you are a car thief it must be a very good way of quickly ascertaining who has the BMW’s and Merc’s in any particular area.

Trotters Farm shop and where to visit in Filey, North Yorkshire

2011-02-09T02:28:00.000-08:00

I have mentioned a farm shop near Scarborough and Filey a couple of times but, despite waxing over their incredible sausages, pork, sirloin steak and braising steak, I did not have a website to refer anyone to.

Anyway, that omission is about to be corrected as here is their website url with full address (below).

Trotters Pork Farm Shop
Trotters Farm Shop :: Gladvic Farm :: Main Road :: Potter Brompton :: Scarborough :: YO12 4PF

I believe that you can order online, although I would recommend anyone who lives within travelling distance to call in to the shop in person. If you are in North, East or even West Yorkshire, it is not a million miles away. (Photo right is of Trotters.)

Other than being a customer, I have no other connection with the business, but I really can recommend them based on the eating of many kilos of their various meats!

We visited Trotters for the first time in 2009 (I think) and, as things stand, we now buy not just our meat from them, but also that of my mother, sister and even one of our neighbours.

If you have not bought meat from a “proper” farm shop before, I can assure you that it tastes completely different to the tasteless stuff that you buy at supermarkets. The other surprising factor is that it seems to cost either the same amount per kilo, or sometimes slightly less.

In the case of Trotters farm shop, my recommendations would be their 28 day hung sirloin steak and braising steak along with their caramelised onion sausages which are unbeatable. Also the pork pies and bacon.

As another tip: If you call in at Trotters, there is a bakery and café about one mile further down the road (on the same side) which has some great cakes and both a pleasant internal café area and a beautiful outdoor garden. If you plan on visiting the coast for the day, stop there and have a couple of current teacakes and a pot of tea.

Since I have started planning a potential “coastal day out”, I will continue.

Don’t go to Scarborough. Instead head for Filey where the parking is free until the end of March. The town centre is small but really nice and there are a number of cafes plus some great shops and of course a beach. In his “train journey” TV series Michael Portillo was really impressed with Filey and described it as “genteel”. He also liked its train station.

Anyway once you get to Filey, aside from wondering around, here is where to go to do some quality shopping.

Start with Sterchis (on one of the town’s two main streets). Sterchis have two shops (almost next to each other). They are actually chocolatiers, but forget their chocolate shop and go to their cake shop (next door but one). They have the best cakes that you are ever likely to find. I have been eating them since I was very very small and that was a long time ago and they taste as good now as they did then.

The Pines café, run by a couple called Malcolm and Margaret, is on a side road just opposite Sterchis and has a friendly atmosphere and is very good value for lunch. (Although as of now it is closed for some refurbishment.)
(Right - Filey front from google earth.)

Two excellent lady’s fashion stores are on opposing corners (and sides) of an adjacent street (less than 50 yards from Sterchis) and they are run by a very nice couple. My wife buys “lots” from them! One of the shops is called “Coast” (The proprietors are Carol and Andy).

Between the two shops (above) is a great fruit and veg shop which, like Trotters, offers produce which is far superior to that found in supermarkets. Give it a try, you will not be disappointed. You can also buy jars of bilberries there (which are very hard to come by!).

Finally, two more recommendations. The first is a Deli that is around the corner from, and connected to, the second of the two lady’s fashion boutiques. It is run by a young couple and they have great breads, cakes, pastries and sandwiches. You can actually find this Deli with your nose because they have the best smelling pizza on the planet (although I have never tasted it).

Finally, go to Dixons, it is a multi roomed shop that sells everything. It is the kind of shop that existed before the days of supermarkets and it still beats them hands down – even on price. It is one of those shops where you always seem to spot something that you want.

Incidentally, one of my reasons for plugging all of the above is because every person that I have met who owns or works in them is friendly, helpful and makes the shopping experience a good one. It is no bad thing to give your business to nice people.

Just one other thing. If you like fish and chips there are some good F & S shops in Filey, but the best is in Cayton village a couple of miles away. It is close to the Star pub on the main road that runs through Cayton and they are the best that I have ever tasted. (Not cheap for a take-away, but well worth the money.)

Here is the Final “final”.
If you have any self respect, think of yourself as a human being and believe in doing the right thing, do not go into the new Tesco in Filey. It was approved by Scarborough council against the wishes of many people in Filey, but I am sure that collusion and backhanders did not play a role in this.

Mainly tennis

2011-01-27T13:38:00.000-08:00

One overseas’ friend of mine and his wife have just visited London and now another couple that I know are thinking about celebrating their respective birthdays there.

I am not quite sure that London would be at the top of my destinations to visit list. That said, it does have a lot to see and do during both the day and the evening and if you can put up with the dirtiness of the place, all well and good.

Tennis

So both Nadal and Federer are out of the Australian Open tennis championships, the first time in three years that neither of them will be in a grand Slam final.

Perhaps more notably, it is also the first time since July 2003 that Federer will not be the holder of at least one Slam. He has held 3 consecutive slams three times in his career and last year was the first time since 2003 that he only managed to capture one in any single season.

Is that the end of Federer? I doubt it. I am a long way short of being his biggest fan, but I suspect that he may manage to squeeze another one or possibly two Slams out of his career. However the task is getting harder.

He first started losing in slam finals to Nadal back in 2006 and he then lost the US Open to Del Potro in 2009. Now however his challenge seems to be one of reaching those same finals with his last four Grand Slam exits seeing two semi and two quarter final dismissals. Wimbledon still has to be his best opportunity, but with Nadal now a master of grass and Murray looking break his Grand Slam duck things can only get tougher.

I noticed that Ana Ivanovic was supporting Djokovic in the Federer match today. It is interesting that, by 19 years of age she was world number one, had made three Slam finals, winning one, and yet by 22 she was out of the top 20 rankings. Personally I never liked her. Her sportsmanship was in the same mould as Hingis and Henin and her bubble obviously burst pretty quickly.

The same, in terms of a ranking drop, is also true of Dinara Safina. In 2009 she was world number 1, but by January of this year (less than 2 years later) she had plummeted to number 75. However having accrued over $10 million in prize money I guess she will not be too concerned. Ivanovic incidentally has made a mere $8 million!

BDO darts World Championship & Gerry Rafferty

2011-01-10T04:01:00.000-08:00

So Martin Wolfie Adams retained his BDO world darts title giving him a total of three world championships to match his three Masters titles.

It was not however a vintage performance and his average, in the very very low 90’s, was 7 or 8 points down on his final performance of 2010. Importantly, there were no 9, 10 or 11 dart legs, again contrasting with last years final where he hit two 10 darters and a 170 check-out.

All told I enjoyed the event, but the overall standard was well down on last year and, worst still, well down on the PDC’s version of the World Championship which finished the previous weekend.

The big questions in darts now are:

Will Scott Waites defect to the PDC? As the GSoD champ he must have a good deal waiting for him if he does.

Will Martin Adams accept a GSoD invitation later this year and also, now that Phil Taylor is not the PDC champion, will he have a play off against his PDC equivalent?

Again, something he has previously refused to do. I hope he does. If he does not he is not being loyal to the BDO, but rather depriving darts fans of two events that they really want to see. He also runs the risk of marginalising himself and his achievements if he keeps refusing to play against the other code on the rare opportunities that avail themselves.

Gerry Rafferty

So Gerry Rafferty, famed for “Baker Street” has died at 63 years of age.

I could write pages about his brilliant albums like City to City, Night Owl and Snakes and Ladders, not to mention the other four that I am fortunate enough to own. He has long been my favourite solo artist and his voice and poetic lyrics mean that there will never be another sound anything like his.

I was also fortunate enough to see him in concert about 20 years ago at the Apollo in Manchester (England) where he was talkative, amusing and really seemed to enjoy performing – not what the reports and journalists seem to say about him.

My guess is that he disliked the music industry and everything that surrounded it, but did have time for his fans. He also seems to be highly thought of by all of the people with whom he has previously collaborated with, from Billy Connolly down, so he must have been a descent enough guy.

To hear how good he really was, go to Youtube and search for tracks like:
Night Owl, Get it Right Next Time, Already Gone, Syncopatin’ Sandy, Royal Mile, Home and Dry and Right Down The Line.

Darts & VAT

2011-01-05T05:50:00.000-08:00

Since I mentioned Darts in my last post I will start with it now.

Phil Taylor did not retain his PDC World title last week despite coming 2nd in the BBC Sports Personality of the Year. This must have been a big disappointment for him, but an even bigger one for the tournament organisers and sponsors as nearly all of the top names were despatched by the quarter final stage.

Runner up Gary Anderson and one of the other three semi finalists Mark Webber were both BDO players 3 years ago, so it was a good event for the BDO in a strange sort of way. I cannot say that I like the winner, Adrian Lewis - for a young man he is excessively overweight and he has a cocky approach when on the oche, however as world champion I guess that is now validated.

The other darts world championship is of course still underway. This is the original BDO version of the sport at the Lakeside and it features Martin “Wolfie” Adams seeking to defend his title.

So far there has been little to really excite. Wolfie and John “Boy” Walton had a fairly exciting second round encounter, but despite the competitiveness of the match the scoring and doubles percentages were only OK-ish. The BDO number 2 was knocked out last night after an abysmal performance and right now it looks like Martin Adams or the current Grand Slam of Darts Champion, Scott Waites, as red hot favourites for the title. O Shea, Hankey and Fitton all went out in round one!

What effect will the 2.5% VAT rise have in the UK? I listened to an idiot from the government explain that it should only add £300 to the average family bill over the course of a year – sure!!

However, he then went on the say that this extra cost could easily be averted by careful spending and that, with a minimal amount of retailing habit change, the average expenditure could remain unchanged.

So the big question is, if we all change our spending habits to counter the increase, thereby spending less, generating an equally reduced level of VAT, why bother increasing it in the first place – there will be no revenue benefit and the economy will slow down still further. What a moron!

However, as is often quoted in political editorials, “people get the government that they deserve”.

Great though that the leader of the Labour party has criticised the VAT increase, he is the very man who was proposing it as far back as 2008. How’s that for moral guidance.

World Cup, Darts, Lord Coe

2010-12-08T06:08:00.000-08:00

It is hard to believe that it is over a month and a half since my last post and so much has happened – or has it!

The shock (although only to the deluded) of England not getting selected to be a World Cup host was the big news last week. In fact it brought a tear to my eye to think of all the travelling to exotic places, expensive dinners and fancy parties that poor Seb Coe has endured in this failed bid. In his noble effort he went everywhere, ate everything (as long as it was expensive) and ran up one heck of a lot of air miles.

The man is a true martyr, he is prepared to undergo every hardship, eat only “a la carte”, stay in the best hotels and all at the British tax payer’s expense - and for what! “Football”.

He of course was an athlete, a middle distance runner, and yet he is still prepared to push himself into the limelight and save real football pundits and past players from having to suffer such a rigour.

The greatness and selflessness of Seb is of course such that, now a post mortem is in place, he will quietly disappear and generously allow others to take the blame. What a man, what an athlete, what an ego. He makes me proud to be a Yorkshire man.

As I look back over the years, and the many great sporting rivalries that we all witness, I have few regrets over who I supported.

In tennis I initially favour Bjorn Borg over Jimmy Connors, then later Connors over both McEnroe and Lendl. In snooker I was a Steve Davis fan rather than an Alex Higgins supporter and, God forgive me, I supported Lord Seb over the classy Steve Ovett. Perhaps, given hindsight, that last one was a mistake – and a big one.

Going back to tennis, I was unable to watch the Rafa v Federer final last weekend. I new Rafa was in poor (or at least very unmotivated) form and decided that the outcome was a foregone conclusion – albeit in the opposite way to usual.

It will be interesting to see what comments the fantastic Roger comes up with in the run up to the Australian Open. If Rafa, as I hope and believe, wins it, he will have achieved a consecutive Grand Slam, something that poor Roger has never achieved. Will Roger talk up the event and his forthcoming performances, or will he break with convention and show some humility for a change. I doubt it, but you never know.

Finally, and still with sport, what performances a couple of weeks ago by Steve Beaton and Scott Waites in the Grand Slam of Darts.

Beaton’s performance against Phil Taylor was astounding and the Power showed himself up in a bad light by blaming the crowd in the post match interview. His fans would expect better of him.

Waites’ performance was superb. Finalist last year and winner this with a total of £150K for one weeks work in each of two years. He was the best player in the event from match one and, other than at the start of the final, never looked like being beaten.

So what about Wolfie (Martin Adams)!
For goodness sake Wolfie play in the GSoD next year. You are “maybe” not quite as good as Taylor, but if the associations were unified you would be the unquestionable number two and, on your day, you would beat the Power – whatever his form. Darts fans deserve to see such a showdown and the GSoD (and darts generally) would benefit from having the BDO’s biggest and most popular character in the event.

Re: The GSoD coverage - It was also good that Barry Hearn kept a low profile this year. No negative comments were made about the BDO and Martin Adams was mentioned on at least two different occasions by the commentators. His name used to be taboo. Surely this is sending out a message for next year.

Weather and darts

2010-11-15T02:42:00.000-08:00

Today’s weather continues the theme of unpredictability with clear blue skies and a glorious day following a dull wet and miserable one.

I think that this year has seen more changeable weather than I can ever remember, but overall we have had many good days and anyone who complains about the British weather this year has got it wrong. The only negative has been not having a good run of nice days one after another.

We are now in November and that means the Grand Slam of Darts event, one of few covered by terrestrial TV. It is currently on ITV4 and will remain so for the next week. The event is unique as it sees player from both the BDO and the PDC (different organisations) competing together. This is the only time that this happens and it makes for a good spectacle. The only drawback to this is the continuing absence of Martin “Wolfie” Adams, the undisputed BDO No.1 and World Champion, who refuses to take part. As my favourite player, I have to say that the tournament loses out as a result and it prevents the possibility of a showdown between Adams and Phil “the Power” Taylor the PDC No.1 (for most of the last 20 years). Even so, the event is a big one in the world of darts and the round robin section that starts things off means that every player gets a least 3 matches.

So, gas prices are to go up by 7%. In reality this is of course 9.5% since the January VAT increase will add a further 2.5% onto this and every other bill in Britain. The question has to be, where the hell does all of this money go? We have a failing health system (example to come below), and an education system that places the priority on teachers making lessons “interesting” rather than educational!

On the health system, a friend of my Mother’s had a stroke last week. She was taken to one hospital, then transferred to another because they had no beds in the stroke ward and currently she is in a geriatric ward because that hospital has no beds available either. So where does all our money go? We pay more in indirect taxes that any other country in Europe, so what happens to all of this money – besides MP expenses.

Finally, a friend in South Africa complained to me that there is no sign of Christmas in the media and shops over there. It contrasts with the general attitude over here that Christmas starts too soon and is promoted for way too long. We have already been bombarded with adverts and promos for three weeks and we are still 6 weeks away.

A farm shop - Trotters

2010-10-26T07:46:00.000-07:00

Although this last weekend was a “stay close to home” one, the previous two weekends have seen us visit the eastern coast.

One of the highlights of doing this is the benefit of being able to call in at a farm shop on the Scarborough road just a few miles short of the roundabout where you either head left for Scarborough or right for Filey.

The shop is called Trotters and, over the last year or so, we have tried most of their produce ranging from eggs to award winning sausages. All are first class, however it is the various cuts of steak that really stand out for both price and unbelievable quality.

The history behind us going to Trotters dates back to seeing an episode of a TV show where two fat biker cooks (the male ones and not the “Two Fat Ladies”) went to a farm and tested 28 day matured sirloin against regular sirloin. Their reaction was emphatic and, as a result, we decided to pay the extra money and try some ourselves.

Needless to say our response was exactly the same as theirs and we have been buying it ever since. In fact it goes further than that as we now have to buy additional cuts for both my mother and sister on each visit.

Following on from the sirloin, on our last farm shop spree we also decided to try the Trotter’s braising steak. This is a tougher cut which needs to be braised or stewed for a good couple of hours, but the result was one which, in my opinion, even beat the sirloin!

Next up will be “rump” which I gather is supposed to have the best taste, but which can be slightly tough to chew. If it lives up to expectations I will try to remember to give it a mention.

The prices incidentally are less than £20/kilo for the sirloin steak and less than £6/kilo for the braising steak. This makes both more than 25% less than the “less matured” Waitrose equivalent.

During cooking the big noticeable difference between the 28 day matured steak (and the other stuff) is the fact that it does not shrink (at all) and it produces next to no fat and none of that unpleasant bubbly blood stuff that “none hung” beef always seems to contain.

Moving to other things and it has to be a big “thank you” to India for miss-staging the Common Wealth Games. Hopefully their many faux pas will still be fresh in international memories when Britain re-writes how to cock-up a major international event with the 2012 Olympics.

I know that if I were the British Prime Minister I would be contacting the Australian PM and requesting that Australia accept temporary British sovereignty so that we could use their facilities and keep the whole thing as far as possible away from the bureaucrats of the UK.

Regrettably that will never happen and by this time in two years we will be the laughing stock of the world. The even bigger tragedy is that the British politicians and press will describe it as a resounding success. Ultimately that shows the standards by which Britain now chooses to judge itself.

A few thoughts on recent events

2010-10-06T02:27:00.000-07:00

My activities have been almost as non existent as my blog writing of late, so I am struggling for something to write about.

I try to avoid politics, so the events of a Labour leadership election offer little real interest to me, particularly when the truly vile Milliband brothers are the best that the party can come up with. However, you are forced to conclude that this result demonstrates just how “out of touch” not only the leadership, but the whole of the Labour party must be if they believe that this man is genuinely electable.

On the other side, the two clowns leading the coalition are no better. I have long been irritated by how those in the high income bracket can claim benefits that were always intended for those with lower earnings, but the latest changes in child benefit are far from fair. It would now seem that if one parent works and just breaches the high tax threshold whilst the other stays at home, they will lose child benefit. However if in another family both parents work, avoid the threshold by a few thousand pound each, they will get the benefit. The result is that a family with a joint income (but only one person bringing it in) of around £45K would not get child support whilst another earning over £80K (with two earners would) would.

All of this does however beg the question – why should tax payers in general have to subsidise any parents! If you cannot afford to feed, cloth and bring up children then you should not have them. It is not the responsibility of society as a whole to pay for other peoples life choices, especially when it comes to how many children they want.

Moving from politics to economics, it would seem that most of the summer tourist attractions in Yorkshire have broken all know records this year. To an organisation they are all taking credit for their marketing and quality of service, yet all seem determined not to mention that this upturn is really due to the change in economic circumstances.

The real reason is of course the fact that so many people have chosen not to holiday abroad this year and, instead, have spent their vacation savings on more local attractions. It will be interesting, in a year or two when the downturn comes, to see if these same organisations attribute the negative turn of events to their poor marketing and levels of service. Somehow I doubt it.

Staying with the holiday theme, if you are based in the UK, but want a local overseas vacation why not try Ireland and specifically Dublin. This is a city with a wealth of things to see and you can get some holiday planning ideas from this http://www.dublinweekendbreak.net/sightseeing.html page. Dublin offers everything from a castle to the best nightlife in the British Isles and it mixes all of its tourist features with a friendly atmosphere and some great scenery.

If you choose to visit Ireland and do some travelling, you have many great little towns and a superb coast road that offer a good drive and some brilliant views. Ireland is easy to get to by ferry and, provided that the weather is fine, it is as good a place as any to take a break.

Vintage car show

2010-09-13T02:44:00.000-07:00

We spent part of yesterday at a vintage car rally/exhibition just outside of the town of Otley. It is the first rally of this type that I have ever been to and it was interesting to see.

For once the cost was more than fair (at £2.50 for an adult and free for under 14 year olds) and there was no charge for parking – for me the most irritating of all charges.

The vehicles were diverse and ranged from buses, wagons and cars to motorcycles and scooters. We started off with the wagons and vans, many of which were from the 1950’s to the 1970’s and this meant that they were familiar to me form my early childhood.

The big plus about nearly all of these wagons was the fact that they all had unique faces. The grills were all manor of shapes and sizes, as were the lights, the wings, arches (fenders) and other body styling components. Internally they had none of the trappings of modern motoring. The seats were small and basic and the cabins were on a similar scale. Even so they had character and it reminded me how we used to live in a world of individuals rather than a world of unvarying monotony. I know which one I preferred.

On the car side the variety was every bit as great. Most of the cars were “normal” family cars with Ford Anglias, Zephas and the like. But there were many MG’s Austin Healeys and other classic sports cars.

Super-cars were almost totally neglected. The only ones that I noticed were a multicoloured Ferrari and an absolutely stunning red Alfa Romeo Monte Carlo which looked amazing.
There were also a number of massive cars from the USA, the three best (in my opinion) of which were all Cadillac de Villes. Two were of the same era with one a two door and the other a four door and the third was what I assume to be the next generation model. All three of these cars were of bus like proportions and you could lay down on the length of the bonnet (hood) or go to sleep in the ample and luxuriously carpeted boot (trunk). I have attached a picture showing two of these cars.

I gave a mention to a sightseeing website about London a few posts ago, so this time I will perform a similar gesture for one about Dublin, the Irish capital city. The site is http://www.dublinweekendbreak.net and like the one about London it is full of ideas relating to places that you can visit. If you are in mainland Britain you can travel there by car by taking the ferry which I think goes from Liverpool to Dublin.

A day out

2010-08-26T03:13:00.000-07:00

Having mentioned that I have not visited the coast for 6 weeks we promptly set off for a trip there yesterday.

The weather forecast was good, but the actual weather slightly disappointing. Even so we had a reasonable day out.

The main drawbacks were the traffic going there and back. We can do this trip in 1 hour and 20 minutes without any real speeding provided that the traffic flows. The problem however was older drivers and families going to the coast for the day, but surprisingly no caravans. The outcome, just over 2 hours there and 2 ½ hours coming back.

The hold ups start when idiots, who do not know the highway code, decided to try and block cars filtering in from the outside lane at the end of the dual carriageway sections (of which there are two). All this does is bring traffic to a complete halt as well as breaking the law. Literally every car behind and in front of us was doing this for God knows what puerile reason. Needless to say we did not. The same people are then of course the first to race into the outside lane at the next dual lane section.

Filey was busy in terms of car park usage, but only moderately busy for this time of year on the beach and in the town – all rather confusing to me.

Today the weather is back to the rain that we have seen on most days for the last few weeks, even though a “bright day” was predicted.

Given the impending end of the school holidays, I think that any future visits to the coast can be postponed until that date when traffic should subside a little. I also prefer all tourist areas when they are devoid of other tourists – a contradiction in terms, but that is me.

As for something to look at, here is a website (http://www.healthandmobilitystore.com/mobility-scooter.html) covering mobility scooters – something that you see a lot of in Filey and that you need to avoid when some of the drivers try to plough you down.

London events and Filey

2010-08-23T03:01:00.000-07:00

Firstly, anyone considering visiting London and hoping to experience some kind of seasonal event can take a look here http://www.londonweekendbreaks.net/events.html for exhibitions, displays and productions that are happening over the next few months. Christmas and winter related events like ice rinks and fairs are listed along with numerous other events of interest.

It is now at least 6 weeks since I have been to my favourite coastal town of Filey and with no sunny days forecast over the next week it may soon be seven. This is heading for a record as we have consistently been there every fortnight or so for the last couple of years. Even over the winter period we still managed numerous and regular visits.

I have included a photo taken from Filey beach and looking back towards the town via the promenade which shows the smart buildings and the white facades of the famous Crescent up above. Back in the 19th century the Crescent had the second highest real estate prices in Britain with many wealthy bankers and businessmen from London choosing to have a summer retreat in gentile Filey.

Today Filey retains its gentile image with no nightclubs, only two very small gaming arcades (which are forced to close early) and no loutish behaviour. Property prices do noth though command quite the same heights.

Descent service for a change

2010-08-13T09:00:00.000-07:00

The title is actually very misleading. It should say, descent service, but at a price.

Very few people actually give any thought to the fact that the country that they were born in, probably still live in and pay tax and every other duty in, still does not recognise them unless they pay yet again.

I am of course referring to the passport. My wife renewed her Spanish passport a couple of years ago at the Consulate in Manchester. Even doing this outside of Spain still cost her less than £12.

I have just gone through the same process for my British passport (or is it now a Pakistani one), but it cost me well over £70 for the privilege.

Ultimately this renewal is a simple inputting process that will have taken an operator a matter of minutes to complete, but something that should be mine by right. However the British government insists on making a massive several hundred percent profit from this simple activity.

Indeed the passport form also promotes the fact that for another £7 the Post Office will check your form before it is sent off! Wow, I think that I may set up shop outside my local Post office and offer to do the same for a fiver.

So, what was the “descent service” comment about?

Well having posted the form on Monday the new passport arrived by recorded delivery today - a turn around of only 4 days.

It just shows that in this country we actually can do some things efficiently, but then again is it really efficient when it costs you an arm and a leg.

Want to visit London? If so a good way to see the place is by taking a tour by bus, boat or even helicopter. This link http://www.londonweekendbreaks.net/tours.html will take you to where you can find out more.

A history of looking after one’s own interests

2010-08-09T07:52:00.000-07:00

After my last outing about the legendary Sire Zeb Coe of Olympicdom I noticed today that the kind of “looking after one’s own self interests” that he appears to indulge in has of course been going on forever.

Way back in the late 19th century a competition was announced to design a new bridge over the river Thames in London. Ultimately this became Tower Bridge.

However, after numerous schemes and submissions, all of which were rejected, the city architect, who just happened to be one of the competition’s judges, managed to get his plans approved. You can find out more here - http://www.londonweekendbreaks.net/tower-bridge.html - I guess that corruption never ends.

I decided to add this photo of “Zeb” (in his honour) and here is what the photographer said to him in order to get the most “likeable face” of Zeb:

“OK Seb, I want you to look like a regular guy, don’t look arrogant, full of yourself or like you think that you are an Egyptian god.”
And Zeb said,
“Thank you my good man, this is my most humble pose. I am just a little bit worried that my chin is a bit low and diminutive.”

Anyway, that is the end of my riposte to Zeb’s TV interview of a couple of weeks ago. However, staying with TV, how much do BT spend on adverts?

I always have to turn their ads off because the two obnoxious main characters in them make me feel like vomiting. To make matters worse the morality of all of their ads is shameful.

The aforementioned individuals are one, an irresponsible idiot (who it would seem is the same in real life) and a woman who is no longer interested in her husband even though he appears smart, well educated and employed. She decides to marry this lout who is drunk, getting drunk or behaving as if he is drunk alo the time – whilst of course often being responsible for her son.

A real nice touch is promoting the leaning up against other people’s cars whilst you make your mobile (Cell) phone call. Highlighted by the alarm going off.

They also give hypocrisy top billing by having one ad that promotes their mobiles followed by another damming mobiles and telling us that we should use landlines.

However the question remains, how much do they spend on these infuriating ads?

Their rental, call rate and mobile charges are (as far as I can tell) the highest in the UK, yet they advertise in almost every single commercial break on every single channel.

European Athletics

2010-08-02T04:08:00.000-07:00

It was a good week for Britain in the European Athletics Championship being surpassed only by the Russians and the French (who did so on the final day).

Interesting though was the fact that we had less than a full compliment of athletes for many of the events and that two of our gold and a silver medallists had no funding a mere two years ago.

As ever, the powers that be along with former retired athletes, had many excuses for this, however the real explanation was evident as Seb or (as Bernard Manning used to call him) Zeb Coe gave an interview last night.

Zeb spends all of his time travelling the world, staying in the best hotels and eating the best food (as his expanded waistline testified). All of this of course done at the expense of the UK athletics body. Yet whenever questioned about anything to do with this organisation, Zeb replied that it was the responsibility of someone else to deal with that (I guess one of his minions).

It never fails to amaze me how, in this country, those who benefit from a system intended to help and aid those when finances are limited, are quick to take away that same advantage from the next generation – simply so that they can live well.

In truth, although I am a fellow Yorkshire man Like Zeb, I always found something about him questionable when he was an athlete. He was the ultimate spoilt brat. He seemed unable to give a modicum of credit to anyone else for his achievements and was quite literally nothing short of a cry baby when things did not go his way. I have no doubt that hell and condemnation will be bestowed on anyone in “his” organisation who dares to disagree with or question him. All pretty sad for someone who was given, and did not have by financial right, the opportunities that he now enjoys to the full.

Finally, I would like to know why other luminaries of that period seem left out of today’s organising bodies. Daily Thompson far surpassed Zeb’s achievements and what about Steve Ovett, Alan Wells and our other multi event gold medallists. Perhaps Sir Zeb has killed them off the same way that the new queen bee eats her sibling rivals.

Just one other thought. Eamon Holmes – what a slim healthy man with a great sense of humour. No one could ever accuse him of being self righteous or taking himself too seriously. I wonder what he ate today!

Pet Shop Boys

2010-07-14T08:41:00.000-07:00

Last night we saw the Pet Shop Boys in concert supported by Sophie Ellis-Bexter at the Winter Gardens in Blackpool.

Their tour appears to be very limited with only a few concerts in the UK and with some surprising venues. Blackpool was the only one within 3 or 4 hours drive time of our location, so that is why we went there.

I will get to the concert in a second, but first I have to point out how we, and everyone else who did not know this venue, were ripped off.

Our tickets had aisle, row and seat numbers on them. However, once we got there there was only standing in the venue. (No seats anywhere.)

For our part we would not have gone had we known this before hand and we most certainly would not have spent 7 straight hours walking around Blackpool in the lead up to the event. As a result our enjoyment of the concert was very much marred by the fact that, as we approached 12 straight hours on our feet (and being unable to walk around while watching), we were in some discomfort.

The other rip off is parking in Blackpool. We found an NCP car park that charged £5 for the day, however the municipal parks (with pay machines) were charging between £14 and £16 for the day. This is quite unbelievable and cynical beyond belief. There will no doubt be hoards of holiday makers who will be extorted by this during the main summer vacation. For my part I will not visit this tacky, dirty and extremely smelly town again unless a serious reason makes it necessary.

As far as the concert was concerned Sophie E-B surprised us by being a really good singer. I cannot say that I am a fan of her music, but she definitely could perform live.

The Pet Shop Boys, who I would never have considered seeing during their heyday, were very good and did in fact make all the other negatives of the day fade away. The visual spectacle of the show was almost unsurpassable and they performed all the big hits and a mix of newer stuff. Four dancers and numerous costume changes and variations in the stage “box sets” added to the entertainment. They played (and ran the backing track) for about 1 ¾ hours and did two encores - although some people had left when the second reprise commenced. (A very odd Dave Clark Five cover I think!)

The only things that I could fault were Neil Tennant in profile (he looked 6 months pregnant (maybe only 4 really)) and the fact that the two sister dancers only stayed in a one piece swimsuit for a single song. Highlights were Chris Lowe (from Blackpool!) dancing and everything else.

I think they have yet to play in Cardiff, Brighton and a couple of other UK cities. One may be London, but I cannot remember. In any event if you can get to see them – and even if you are not a big fan (as I am not) – they are worth the time and money.

To get some “gen” on what is happening in terms of special events in London you can try http://www.londonweekendbreak.net/london-events-2010.html and to find out who is in concert try the likes of Ticketmaster or one of the other online box office companies. We booked our tickets from Ticketmaster via the PSB's website link.

I forgot to add that our tickets were £33 per person. This seemed like good value, but perhaps the lack of any seating influenced the price.

Spain v Holland

2010-07-12T08:04:00.000-07:00

I am not a football fan, but I did watch the World Cup final, or at least most of it, last night.

With a Spanish wife I naturally supported Spain, however at the onset my thought was that either way we would have a European winner – all to the good.

I wonder how many other people had the same view, but then found themselves adamantly not just supporting Spain, but desperately wanting Holland to lose. The Dutch performance was the most violent, cynical and wholly offensive example of football at its worst that I have ever seen. It beats Uruguay back in the 1970’s.

To make it all the more astounding I read this morning that their coach, who must clearly have instructed his players to “cheat” in this way, was unhappy with the referee.

Even though the ref was a fellow Yorkshireman I would have to agree. Why the heck did he not red card at least two and very arguably three or four of the Dutch players.

I rarely watch football for reasons that this final demonstrated aptly. Unlike almost every other sport where cheating in all forms leads to disqualification (in some cases for life), football has different levels of penalty. It would seem that fouling in a way aimed at maiming or ending the career of a fellow player is deemed the least inappropriate of these.

In any event Spain were the victors, so I guess that some form of justice won out in the end, but the big loser was the so called “beautiful game” which was anything but that – thanks to Holland.

Now the football is over my friend in South Africa will be greatly relieved. The mania, non stop press and other hoopla will be coming to an end and it will be time to see if the event has actually benefited the country financially. Hopefully it has done.

If you want more on the football try reading this http://thehalfvolley.wordpress.com/2010/07/11/world-cup-post-mortem-part-3-the-final-spains-fear-hollands-fouls/

In the UK our hot spell has ended, or at least abated for a while. I do like hot sunny days, but in Britain 30 degrees Centigrade (as it was on Saturday whilst cloudy) comes with a massive degree of humidity. Few, including myself find this pleasant, so the break, plus the much need rain are welcome, but only for two or three days.

Wimbledon, Andrew Castle and Rafa Nadal

2010-07-05T08:59:00.000-07:00

As a big tennis and Rafa Nadal fan, Wimbledon was a very enjoyable experience for me this year – not least because Rafa Nadal was fit, health and able to participate and defend his title from two years earlier.

The event started with the longest match in history, saw an early exit for the “modest” Roger Federer and even had some British success in the junior men’s doubles.

Other highlights for me were the presence of Borg and Mac and (after an absence of two years from commentating for the BBC) a great interview with the legend Jimmy Connors.

Having said all of that my concerns and fears go out to BBC commentator Andrew castle who must be devastated by Federer’s early departure. During the entire championship he was unable to commentate for more than 3 games in any match without mentioning “Roger” – even though the guy was already knocked out. This was so obsessive that I suggested to my sister that we have a bet on the final – not the outcome, but the number of games into which the final had being played before Castle mentioned (the love of his life) Roger.

Unfortunately, Mr Castle decided to scupper any sense of excitement in the bet as my sister phone me a mere 13 seconds into the first game to point out that he was already harping on about the wonderful Roger.

Later, after Nadal’s expected victory, Greg Rusedski pointed out that at this rate Rafa could well overtake Roger’s Grand Slam record. At this point Castle disappeared and played no further part in the after-match discussions.

It is a shame that he cannot show the level of support and enthusiasm for his fellow Brit, Andy Murray, that he does for a Swiss of German and South African extraction – And no, Federer’s mother is not British as Castle would have everyone believe.

Anyway, to celebrate Nadal's great victory here is a photo of another tennis great - yes, the man himself - Andrew castle.

As for Nadal, his performance was only mediocre, and yet he was able to dismiss Soldering, Murray and Berdich with ease. I suspect that, if he stays healthy, he may do the consecutive Grand Slam by the Australian Open in 2011 and possibly the calendar Grand Slam at some point over the next two or three years.

Football and Pet Shop Boys

2010-06-27T11:08:00.000-07:00

I don’t think that it was any big surprise to see England go down to Germany in the first knockout stage of the World Cup. Ultimately, we have a reputation to keep intact and losing to the Germans in every international football competition is something that we have we have maintained since the Jurassic period.

Even so, there were some worrying moments when the 2-2 equaliser was incorrectly disallowed and we almost looked like forgetting about our footballing heritage. That said, we came good in the end and let in another couple of goals to keep our record intact and ensure that our (overpaid) players got the maximum financial remuneration from the minimum number of matches played. Now all we have to wait for is Rooney’s next boot of verbal abuse at disappointed England fans.

So where does that leave English sports fans!

Well we have the effervescent, charismatic and all-round good guy Andy Murray to support at Wimbledon. Andy has yet to express his satisfaction at England’s losing performance, however he did make his views on the matter very clear 4 years ago, so he will no doubt be celebrating tonight.

I have kept watching bits of the Glastonbury festival on TV over the last couple of days and, although I found the Scissor Sisters very disappointing, the Pet Shop Boys were excellent last night. The stage was impressive and Tenant was surprisingly good. I expected him to be glued to the spot – as in all the videos, but his legs do function and his voice was great. Using the voice and video footage of Dusty Springfield in “What have I done to deserve this” rather than another singer was classy too.

And that is just about that other than to add that -

As someone that I know is working as a Human Resources consultant, I thought that I would give their yet to be developed site a link, so here it is http://www.helpinghandhr.com.

More of my ramblings later.

Settle Railway Station

2010-06-25T07:49:00.001-07:00

I was emailed sometime ago about this http://www.frixo.com/ site which provides “up to date” traffic reports and information to help users avoid traffic jams and bottle necks. I think that you just input the area or destination that concerns you and then get traffic feedback!

I have yet to use it in a practical way (and maybe never will), but it may be of interest to some.

I realise that I did not post the photo of the Settle railway station in my last post as I said I had, so here it is.

Settle and Giggleswick School

2010-06-20T04:02:00.000-07:00

Over a week since my last post (again) and my excuse has to be the uninteresting life that I lead.

Last week I (we) did however go to Settle, famed for being the start or termination point of the Settle to Carlisle railway journey. The station was, as expected, something from a picture postcard and I have attached a photo as proof. The rest of the town was also very nice and it was easy to spend a couple of hours there.

Whilst at Settle we also took the very short walk down the road to Giggleswick, famed for its exclusive public (which really means private) school – and of course some of its former students!

Since this school has an unusual chapel, which they are supposed to make available to the public, we entered the main campus and went to the reception where we had been told that we would be provided with a key and possibly a guide (to the chapel).

Needless to say after 10 minutes of being ignored we gave up! I assume that our smart but casual “shirt and shorts” appearance made it evident that we were not intending to enrol prospective students, so we were off their radar. However we did decide to walk up to the chapel and take a look at its exterior at which point we realised that we were entering the sports’ campus of the school.

Having spent some time at Leeds Carnegie College, with a national reputation for its facilities and achievements, this school made Carnegie look like a second rate run-down sports centre. The facilities themselves are probably no better than may others, however their presentation, with not a blade of grass out of place, was something to behold.

As we walked back to Settle, passing the main state school, our appreciation of the gap between the “haves” and the “have nots” was never greater.

So, if you want to send your son or daughter to Giggleswick School you will need to think in terms of £6K plus per term for non borders and over £8 for a border. Interestingly the non border fee at most similar schools is around half of this figure, so I must assume that this particular school either discourages non borders, or sees itself as considerably superior to its competitors.

Former students include Richard Whitley of Calendar and Countdown fame and the super-powered Richard Barratt (AKA William Gaunt) from the “Champions” TV series of the early 1970’s amongst others.

Moving away from Settle and Giggleswick. I noticed during our trip an absence of ramps and disability access facilities. This is probably because listed buildings are not tied to the same regulations as those of a non historic value as the inclusion of ramps, lifts etc could detract or damage the building’s structure. Anyway, here is a link to some info about ramps for buildings, cars and the like - http://www.healthandmobilitystore.com/access-ramps.html and this one - http://www.healthandmobilitystore.com/in-vehicle-ramp.html is just for access to vehicles where the ramps are foldable, demountable and easy to carry around.

Galicia out this year!

2010-06-07T01:14:00.000-07:00

My posts have been very sparse of late and that is probably because it seems unlikely that I will be going to Galicia this year. If that is indeed the case, it will be only the second year in the last decade during which I will not have visited Galicia.

For 8 of the last 9 years I have spent around one month per year their, sometimes in a single break, but more usually spread across 3 separate trips. During the three years that Ryanair operated the Liverpool to Santiago de Compostela route we took a week in April or May, two weeks plus covering July/August and a further week in September/October.

Regrettably the Ryanair days, or at least those flying from northern destinations, are now gone and unlikely to return.

I base this upon the fact that, as a Holy year, 2010 has more visitors to Galicia (and specifically Santiago) than any regular year. Consequently, if any airline wanted to add a route to this destination, 2010 would have been the financially prudent year to do so.

Having said all of that we may yet manage to get there, however the cheap ferry to Calais followed by a two day drive down through France and then west across northern Spain is probably our only option. In truth, I think it very unlikely that we will end up taking this option.

I see that regular Galician blogger Colin Davies, who lives in Pontevedra, has just completed a Camino. I believe that he and several friends walked from Tui to Santiago Cathedral and did the trip in around a week. You can find out more at his blog http://colindavies.blogspot.com.

For information about all aspects of Galicia from how to get there to what to see and do when you arrive, see http://www.galiciaguide.com which should be a pretty comprehensive guide to the region.

Sorry, more politics

2010-05-17T09:53:00.000-07:00

Although I was interested in politics in my younger days, the total lack of morality, integrity and selflessness make modern day British politics sickening.

For anyone who doubted this, just look at what has just happened here in the UK. The Conservatives and the Liberals are sharing office and Cameron and Clegg are the best of buddies.

One week earlier Clegg called the Conservatives anti-Semitic and Cameron described Clegg as the biggest joke in politics. Now they are looking at divorcing their respective wives and having the Arch Bishop of Canterbury perform a Civil Wedding to make their unholy pack a legitimate one in the eyes of God.

So what else?

Well, delving into the past, the former “Lord God of all”, Tony Blair, could not bear to see his political piece on the side, the lovable Peter Mandelson, rejected by the voters and stripped of his Cabinet position. So he made him a Lord and then gave him a Cabinet Ministers posting - something only applicable to an elected Commons MP.

Indeed, if our constitution were a written one (which every crooked British parliamentarian prevents) Blair could have been taken to court for perverting the democracy and the incumbent political system. However that it not the case and even though various Tory leaders including the champion of justice, Mr Cameron, lampooned Blair’s move, look what the Conservatives have just done!

They had to be politically correct and that meant having a muslim cabinet minister. That presents one problem, namely that in this so-called democratic state the voters don’t want any muslim MP’s and consequently have not elected any.

So, falling back on a clever bit of past planning, Cameron takes a female muslim Baroness and gives her (unelected) a Cabinet position.

I will leave this for now, but I will be back with more of the history of how this individual got her post, what she has previously done, and how she has failed to be legitimately elected as a “proper” MP – despite being pay rolled by a member of another political party. I bet you cannot figure that one out.

Election!

2010-04-26T02:46:00.000-07:00

Despite my efforts to avoid every TV and radio news/political programme I am already sick of the election coverage. It seems that politicians are nothing more than professional liars. They are people with no morals, no values, no ideals, but with massive senses of self importance and gargantuan personal ambition.

Brown is a totally uncharismatic individual who, by his own admission, finds it hard to relate to people. He is arrogant, totally intolerant and closed to any ideas but his own and, as with them all, devoid of life experience.

Cameron! Words fail me. How such a man could be elected leader of any party just illustrates the desperation of the Conservative party. It is hard to believe that this is the same party that once had a leader like Margaret Thatcher.

Finally Clegg - In truth, despite his low profile, the most despicable of the three. This is man who wants to see all freedoms replaced by political correctness. I noted his comment last week that the conservatives were anti-semetic and rejecting of global warming simply because they had international affiliations with some other conservative parties in Europe (who do not have either of those views).

This is the kind of man who shouts “racist” at anyone who wants tighter immigration rules, or even suggest a review of what we currently have. The kind of man who accuses a family with two cars of been global polluters, whilst being driven in a chauffered limousine with three security cars surrounding it. The thought of these “quite literally” Liberals getting any share of power in this country will see an end not only to our economic future, but also our freedoms and our democracy. Nothing short of terrifying.

Even so, more and more, I really believe that the people of this country will deserve exactly what they get. They have been passive, unquestioning and accepting of so many policies, political extortions and the imposition of so called taxes and regulations – all of which have had one purpose – money for the Chancellor. In France, Spain and most other countries, petrol hikes see mass demonstration, strikes, highway blockades, but here nothing but a quiet discontent. What have British people come to!

Liberal nightmare

2010-04-19T08:20:00.001-07:00

I thought that I would mention that the DVLA have sent us another bit of correspondence.

This time it acknowledges that we have “sorn” our old car and we even got the cheque for the unused road tax to prove it. I await further letters from them as I suspect that one department deals with the refunds whilst another deals with fines.

No doubt the fact that they accept that the car is no longer ours (or anyones) will not stop them from trying to fine us for not re-taxing it. But then again they may surprise me and be efficient!

This morning on the radio in some half awake dream state I thought that I heard that the Liberals we coming out on top in election opinion polls.

Please let this be my inability to wake up in the morning.

Do people really want to see the pound crash still further, see fuel prices reach £1.50 per litre in a matter of weeks and see Britain officially devalued to a third world state.

These people are, even by the standards of the Labour and Conservative parties, pretend politicians. I spent an evening with a Liberal councillor about 10 years ago and she was an absolute idiot. All she could talk about was green issues and the fact that budgets and finances could not be balanced, so why even bother trying. She was quite literally politically brain dead.

Hopefully my morning madness was just that! If not, God held those of us in this country who still have our sanity.

Car buying problems

2010-04-13T01:42:00.000-07:00

Following on from a few weeks ago we did in fact buy a Ford Fiesta from Benfield Ford just before the termination of the scrappage deal offer. But guess what, the scrappage deal, or at least a Ford version of it, continues with similar offers to those that we took advantage of still available.

As for the car itself, I still have some reservations. But it is certainly a good looking small car both inside and out and it has an incredible amount of kit from blue tooth and voice activation controls, to internal ambient lighting, foot-well lighting and follow-me-home lights. In fact the theme of lights and lighting seem to have been high on the designer’s agenda!

Staying with the new Fiesta, I was told by another owner yesterday that Ford have in fact “pulled a fast one” on their buyers by misleading them into believing that the tyre kit fitted with the Fiesta was mandatory unless you paid extra for a proper spare wheel. It would appear that the spare was a free option, but that some clever salesmen “miss led” buyers into believing that it was not. See appropriate forums for more about this.

Fortunately I did get the tyre and a few other things thrown in for free and I also got the price down a bit further. But I guess that some people are uncomfortable negotiating (haggling) and perhaps got less for more.

Keeping with the car purchased theme, the car that we used in the scrappage deal was obviously written off and the DVLC were informed of this, sent the tax disk and the appropriate form for reimbursement of the unused road tax.

Yesterday, almost 3 weeks later, we got a tax renew form from the DVLC for the now none existent Focus about which they were officially informed.

This is British efficiency at its “cash grabbing” best where the attitude is, not only will we ignore that fact that we owe you money, we will try and get even more from you before we give you back what we owe you.

A few place in Yorkshire

2010-03-30T06:50:00.000-07:00

Last week was a week of exploring different parts of Yorkshire. We visited the likes of Filey, Whitby, Hornsea, Bridlington, Holmfirth, Skipton, Pately Bridge and numerous other locations.

The weather was OK, in that it was mainly bright and dry, but it was disappointing compared with the previous three weeks – although not of course this week with its non stop rain.

In Holmfirth we went (for the 2nd or 3rd time) to the famous “Sid’s café”, as featured on the almost forty year old (and still running) Last of the Summer Wine TV series. This is definitely the place to get the best cream scones and surprisingly at the best prices too. However, forget it if you visit on a sunny weekend as the place will have queues outside.

Also in Holmfirth is the gallery of artist Ashley Jackson. He is a very nice guy and has time for everyone. Next time that we are there will get one of his coffee table books with illustrations and stories about many of his paintings. They are all signed and each has a unique little drawing by the artist himself. Prices are £15 for one and £20 for another biographical version – pretty good value.

In Whitby it is evident that the town has been taken over “shop wise” by too distinct markets. One is the Goth come Dracula themed store and the other is the retailer catering for walkers and outdoor people. Even so, you can still get the best “real” smoked kippers in the country (featured on numerous TV shows) and sold from a tiny hut on route to the old harbour pier.

Also in Whitby we finally visited the Magpie fish and chip restaurant. According to Rick Stein (and some other notable TV chefs) this place has the best fish and chips in the country. I guess this just tells you what southerners know about fish and chips! They cost us just under £25 for cod and chips twice with a pot of tea for two and, whilst the restaurant and staff were pleasant, clean and efficient, the fish and chips were completely tasteless. I would even go as far as to say that they were the worst that I have ever tasted.

A couple of days later we were in Cayton Bay village (between Filey and Scarborough) and we had fish and chips there from the local shop. They are the best F & C that you are likely to get. Big fish, enough chips for two in a single portion, and the best taste around. As ever I cannot remember the name of the shop!

Scrappage deal

2010-03-02T08:46:00.001-08:00

Following on from my last post we have, with considerable doubts, decided to use the UK scrappage scheme for the purchase of a new car.

The main reason for my reluctance is simply the fact that the 10 year old car that we have is in perfect condition. I washed it yesterday and noted that both inside and out it looks like it could have just left the showroom.

To me this makes the whole scheme a mockery with a perfect car being destroyed simply because of a government policy. The problem however, is that the incentive to do so is so great that, even with our mind set, we were enticed into going along with it anyway. We knew that a new car would be on the agenda at some point in the near future, so why sell the old one for only a few hundred pounds when we can get £2000 for it through the scrappage deal?

As for the new car, all told we were able to get £4k of the list price and amazingly there was almost £2k difference between one (Ford) dealer and another. It certainly pays to shop around. Now all we have to do is wait 5 or 6 weeks for the car to arrive.

Also sticking with cars, our other vehicle is now flashing up a countdown (in days) to its next service. Very irritating as it has only been used twice in the last three and a half months and the oil replacement alone will cost over £100. It uses one of these new synthetic oils that degrade quickly and cost a fortune, but apparently are necessary. I am sure that it is all baloney, but I dare not take the risk of using regular (proper) oil.

I did not post last week. I know not why because, despite being on holiday for the week, the weather was awful and it rained or snowed every day. This week of course sees clear blue skies, glorious sunshine, and that is apparently set for the next few days.

UK car Scrappage scheme

2010-02-17T03:48:00.000-08:00

We have been hunting for a new car over the last week or so and, since we have a vehicle that qualifies for the scrappage deal, we have been stunned by the different dealer franchise “lies” about it.

Firstly, as with everything else, Briton had to be the first to offer a scrappage scheme, but just like everything else it was short sighted, badly thought out and intended to benefit companies and not car buyers.

The result of this is that any dealer who takes your old car in part exchange as part of the scheme gets £2000 back from the government. However, there is no requirement for that dealer to pass one penny on to the buyer. This is simply up to them.

The upshot is this is that Vauxhall (General Motors/Opel) will give you £2000 if you are exchanging an old Vauxhall for a new one, but only £1500 if your exchanger is not of their brand. They call this an extra £500 loyalty discount. The fact does however remain that they get £2000 back from the tax payer either way.

Possibly worse still are Mazda who are actually excluding some models from the scheme completely. This of course does not mean that they do not want your scrappage car. They certainly do and they will get the full £2K back, but you will not see a penny of it.

So who has stuck by the rules (as they were intended)?

Well Ford have, but then again they had 4 “new car” price increases last year, so I guess that they can afford to.

Fiat are actually doubling the scrappage offer on some models and giving up to £4000 back. Having not looked at their cars I cannot comment on how good or otherwise the offer is, but it appears to be sound.

Alfa Romeo are also giving the full £2K as far as I am aware and, as with Ford, this means that you take the regular on the road price and cut the £2K from that.

Just to what extent any of these companies will negotiate on price when a scrappage car is involved I have yet to find out, and that will be the true test of whether or not they are honouring the scheme.

The other thing that dealers are doing is adding their own scrappage rules, e.g. that you must have the car delivered within a set number of days or weeks after the scheme has terminated. The actual rule is 4 months, but a salesman at Ford told me a completely different tale.

So what has the government done to enforce the correct application of the scappage scheme in the UK? As ever, a big fat nothing.

Flash Gordon - Movie

2010-02-09T06:04:00.000-08:00

I watched the movie version of Flash Gordon on Sunday night. Made 30 years ago I, and most other people in the UK, thought that this was a great film. In the rest of the world however it died a cold death with bad reviews and poor box office performance. All very strange given the cult status that this film now enjoys all over the world.

Interesting also that the movie review site rottentomatoes.com, regarded as the review bible by many, gives the film a rating in the high eighties – a rare honour indeed.

The reason I mention this is because along with the Italian Job (1969 original), the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and Van Helsing it rates as 1. One of my favourite films, 2. A movie that was critically panned when it came out and 3. A movie that was perfectly set up for a sequel which, due to poor perceived box office performance, never came.

Box office performance is another interesting factor as it is amazing how often so called flops are actually massive success stories. The last Mummy film was paned by critics, described as having a poor monetary performance, yet it did over $400 million at the global box office. This meant that it was arguably the biggest film of 2008! To put this in context the critically acclaimed and box office success rated Pixar films often register at between $200 and $300 million – much less.

Ultimately all that this shows is that figures, opinions and the critical value of anything can be massaged and moulded in many different ways. It also illustrates that when it comes to movies all that really counts in “credibility” terms is how well the film did at the US box office.

tennis, darts, immigration

2010-02-01T08:04:00.001-08:00

A good weekend for sport if you like tennis and darts – which I do, although not necessarily when it is in this form.

The tennis, in the shape of 2010’s first grand slam event, saw the final between Scotland’s Andy Murray and Roger Federer.

My dislike of both players meant that we decided to head for the coast on Sunday morning (evening in Australia) even though the event was televised, but ultimately that proved to be a mistake. One, because the coast was in fact covered in snow and we had to turn back and two, because while listening to the radio commentary we both ended up wishing (hard to believe) that we were watching and supporting Murray. Federer did of course win, but in my opinion it was primarily because Murray played the wrong tactics – see what Pat Cash had to say about this for further information.

The darts was of the PDC brand with the despicable Barry Hearn and the criminal commentator Chris Mason (if I am correct he has 3 separate convictions for assault and grievous bodily harm but his reward is a commentator’s job on ITV4) and that pretty much sums up the PDC.

The good news was that the unbeatable Phil “the Power” Taylor was beaten in the semis with a match average that was actually pretty good, but he could not compete with Paul Nicholson’s deadly finishing and doubles check-out rate. As for the final, it is on hard drive and I have yet to watch it having gone to bed very early.

We finally had our “weekend car” out on both Saturday and Sunday – the first time in almost 3 months. The weather was bright, but very cold and although we got outdoors we avoided any walking in bitterly cold winds.

Finally, here is an email that I received today. The content and intentions are obvious (and correct), but as ever in the UK, sentiments like this only appear after “the dog has bolted” and in that respect it is pointless in this politically correct dictatorship.

ENGLAND I think this really sums it all up.

After hearing that many cities did not want to offend other cultures by putting up Xmas lights, so DIDN'T!

After learning that the British Red Cross shops were instructed not to display Christmas decorations lest they cause offence. (A move which cost them my support thereafter.)
After hearing that the Birmingham council changed its opinion and let a Muslim woman have her picture on her driver's licence with her face covered. You try it!

After hearing of a Primary School in Birmingham where a boy was told that for PE they could wear Football League shirts (Aston Villa, Birmingham, West Brom etc) but NOT an England shirt as it could offend others !

This prompted the editorial below written by a UK citizen
and published in a British newspaper.

IMMIGRANTS. NOT BRITONS MUST ADAPT.

Take It Or Leave It. I am tired of this nation worrying about whether we are offending some individual or their culture. Since the terrorist attacks on London, we have experienced a surge in patriotism by the majority of Brits.

However, the dust from the attacks has barely settled and the 'politically correct' crowd begin complaining about the possibility that our patriotism is offending others.

I am not against immigration, nor do I hold a grudge against anyone who is seeking a better life by coming to Britain. However, there are a few things that those who have recently come to our country, and apparently some born here, need to understand.

This idea of England being a multicultural centre for community has served only to dilute our sovereignty and our national identity. As Britons, we have our own culture, our own society, our own language and our own lifestyle. This culture has been developed over centuries of wars, struggles, trials and victories fought by the untold masses of men and women who lay down their lives and of the millions of men and women who have sought freedom.

We speak ENGLISH, not Spanish, Lebanese, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, or any other language. Therefore, if you wish to become part of our society, learn the language!

If God offends you, then I suggest you consider another part of the world as your new home, because God is part of our culture.. If St. George's cross offends you, then you should seriously consider a move to another part of this planet.

We are happy with our culture and have no desire to change, and we really don't care how you did things where you came from. This is OUR COUNTRY, OUR LAND, and OUR LIFESTYLE, and we will allow you every opportunity to enjoy all this.

But once you are done complaining, whining, and griping about Our Flag, Our Pledge, Our National Motto, or Our Way of Life, I encourage you take advantage of one other great British freedom, 'THE RIGHT TO LEAVE'.

We didn't force you to come here. If you don't like it GO HOME!!

You asked to be here.. So accept the country that accepted YOU. Pretty easy really, when you think about it..

If we all keep passing this to our friends (and enemies) it will also, sooner or later get back to the complainers, lets all try, please.

No matter how many times you receive it... please forward it to all you know.

Journey - Don't stop believing

2010-01-26T11:00:00.001-08:00

Journey, one of the greatest rock bands ever never managed to get any airplay in the UK and consequently did not manage to score a single hit. Now however, almost 30 years late, their most popular song, “don’t stop believing” from the “Escape” album, has been charting for 65 weeks!

“Don’t stop….” is the most played song on US radio – period, and it is therefore not before time that this classic MOR track finally makes the UK chart. No doubt most of the sales will be downloads and it makes you wonder how many downloads it sold prior to their inclusion in the singles chart.

Tomorrow the unpleasant Andy Murray faces Rafa Nadal in the Australian Open quarters. I hope that Nadal spanks him.

Now continuing to write this the above is now in the past and Murray did in fact win.

I see in a politically incorrect BBC news item that the French are now banning the wearing of berkas, head scarfs and any other religious items of clothing or jewellery that are associated with religious extremism. They are also going to automatically refuse entry into France of anyone wearing such garments or items.

Amazing that in France and other countries in Europe (most notably the Islamic country of Turkey) that such legislation is seen as appropriate and necessary, yet here in the UK the reverse is true. Last year a London Borough Council insisted that both men and women wear a full body suit when using municipal swimming baths. This has now been rescinded, but it just shows how out of step and despicable the British government, both local and national, are and how little (if any) respect they have for the indigenous people and culture of this country.

No title

2010-01-19T08:15:00.000-08:00

My favourite sport (to watch) has its first “grand slam” event starting this week in the form of the Australian Open. Last year the title was won by my favourite player Rafa Nadal, but perhaps even more notable was Roger Federer entering the Guinness Book of Records for crying continuously for around 17 minutes – just because he lost! What a baby and a bad sport into the bargain.

This year, with Nadal out of form, Federer is probably the favourite, but I just hope that my nightmare final of “Federer the cry baby” versus Murray the moody “English hating” Scot does not become a reality.

Interesting to see that within 24 hours of the Haiti disaster virtually every country in Western Europe “with the exception of Briton” had government aid arriving on their shores. No doubt as black Christians their plight did not warrant any serious effort from this country. But then again that is no surprise as our aid and welcome to immigrants is restricted to asian and Arabic muslims. Yet again I am ashamed to be British.

The snow has finally disappeared here, although more is promised starting tomorrow. However if temperatures can stay above freezing we may not have to suffer the road problems to the same degree that we did last week when black ice made them un-drivable and un-walkable. Right now the wind is picking up and today is markedly cooler than yesterday. Worrying.

On the positive side the days have just about started to become longer, but with overcast skies and little in the way of sun the benefits can hardly be appreciated.

Finally, we bought and watched the third in the Mummy film trilogy at the weekend. Despite terrible reviews it was not that bad. I would not rate it as been as entertaining as the first two, but even so it is well worth a watch (or purchase) if you like the action adventure genre.

BDO World Championship darts

2010-01-11T05:34:00.000-08:00

After a week of watching the BDO darts world championship I was pleased to see my favourite player, Martin “Woflie” Adams take the title for a second time. It was a consistent performance from the 53 years old who, I think, is the oldest world champion in any sport.

The loser was an un-seeded player who had hit a great vein of form, but for whom speaking “understandable” English seemed to be an even greater challenge than beating Wolfie. Having said that, to his credit, he recognised his own inability to string a sentence together and compensated for this by having a stock response to almost every question in the form of “du no”. As far as I can tell that is St. Helens “speak” for “I do not know”!

Jesting aside the player in question, Dave Chisnall, played exceptional darts and, on route to the final, beat the number one seed and the 2009 champion – in both cases coming back from a deficit. He will be a big favourite for the title and a place on Channel four’s Countdown TV show in the future.

The weather here still does not abate and the snow in North Leeds has taken a turn for the worse. My sister saw no less than 7 separate accidents in her “less than” 2 mile run to work today. To add to this there are plenty of idiots who are simply abandoning their cars at the roadside and creating an obstacle for everyone else. We are surrounded by them here. These people are, in many cases, the cause of these minor but expensive bumps and shunts.

For anyone interested in finding out more about the aforementioned darting event, here is a link to the official BDO website and Martin Adams own website from which you can find out more.

http://www.wolfie-darts.com/
http://www.bdodarts.com/

Snow

2010-01-05T02:45:00.000-08:00

After the heavy snow on Christmas Eve the intense cold has kept the residue, in the form of ice on the paths, ever present. However today there is an even greater “overnight” snowfall with a good 6 inches here in South Leeds.

I ventured out this morning in order to get my wife into the city center, however I got stuck on a hill on my return – even with 4 brand new tyres – and required (and gave) help to another motorist in order to get going again.

I think that I can say that this is the worst snow fall that I have seen in this immediate area since I moved here just over 20 years ago. To make matters worse the snow is still falling. Snow ploughs and gritter wagons are, as ever, absent in 3rd world Leeds.

Away from the bad weather, I noticed a problem with the programming of our robotic vacuum cleaner (an Irobot Roomba 530) yesterday.

It somehow managed to get within the four legs of a dining room chair, but with a wall behind one leg, a table leg behind another and another chair leg blocking a third leg it was unable to escape. Amazingly it happened twice. The first time I released it, but within 10 minutes it had returned to the same “stalemate” position and was repeating the same futile attempts to escape again and again. Clearly something in the programming does not allow for such a predicament, but it does seem strange that it could find its way in, but not out of this tight situation.

Sparrow hawk

Finally, a sparrow hawk killed and ate another bird in our garden on Friday. It made the kill just before the sun went down and, despite examining the feathers and remains, I cannot tell what kind of bird it got. I always hope that it will get one of our foul collared doves that plague and irritate me, but somehow they always manage to be absent when a predator arrives. Also seen flying above the house twice was a crane, something that you would never have seen 10 years ago.

2009-12-24T07:01:00.000-08:00

I spent the morning building two snowmen, the largest of which is about 6 foot 6 inches tall.

Unlike the boring regular snowmen mine are more people like with eyes, nose, hair, arms etc and all from flora and fauna in the garden. However it was not until I completed the task that I realized that the larger one must be my tribute to Michael Jackson, circa 1982-3, with his curly perm and smart dance moves.

The smaller snowman is of course the politically correct one from another part of the world, the idea being that it resembles an oriental person.

I noticed that in the “Texaco car of the Decades” competition the Chrysler Crossfire won the 2000 to 2010 decade and managed to accrue almost four times as many votes as, not only any other car in that decade, but any car in any of the 10 decades. I could not agree with the voters more!

With snow, and heavy snow at that, now covering nearly all of the UK it looks like a white Christmas is almost guaranteed. It will be the first in many years and, although I do not welcome it, I am sure that all of the kids will enjoy it to the full.

Finally, I have included a photo of the snowmen/persons.

Online shopping

2009-12-04T05:25:00.001-08:00

Despite my intentions to do otherwise, I have ended up ordering numerous Christmas presents online. On the assumption that most people are doing the same it makes you wonder what kind of impact this type of buying will have on traditional “walk in” stores.

A few years ago people would consider buying a book or a CD online, but with Amazon, Ebay and a multitude of other internet market places making buying online so easy there is almost nothing that you cannot buy. So far I have bought DVD’s an item for the kitchen and a complex toy.

I have also noticed on Ebay that you can but anything from a pen to a car online and, with ever improving protection in the form of purchaser insurance, this type of buying is actually becoming as secure as buying from the high street.

The other big factor is the pricing. With the kitchen item that I bought I was able to make a saving of almost exactly 50%. But even more remarkably I was able to buy the toy at less than one third of the regular retail price by using Amazon.

The other worrying issue is that so many high street stores are now going the way as the banks and offering the same products that they sell through their stores online, but with massive discounts.

The other great advantage of buying online is that you have access to a mass of information about the product that you want to buy.

Having recently bought an HD flat screen TV I was quickly able to find out everything that I wanted to know about the technology over the internet. When asking similar themed questions in stores it was obvious that the information that I was given was vague to say the least. And sometimes it was evident that the salesperson either did not know what they were talking about, or simply lied.

All of this steers people away from the high street and into the world of online shopping which, ultimately, is probably not a good thing.

If the high street disappears, then so does the competition that the online stores need to compete with and prices will inevitably start to rise.

Top Gear, Gordon Brown

2009-11-19T04:42:00.000-08:00

It was interesting to note that, after all of the Sun newspapers protestations about Gordon Brown’s miss spelling of a war heroes name, they also managed to miss spell it in their own “low life” tabloid.

Naturally their mistake was excusable and his was not. I wonder if they have ever heard of the word hypocrisy! Perhaps it is too long for the Sun and many of their readers.

It is also a reflection of our society and the writers and editor of the same newspaper that, given Gordon Browns complete incompetence at managing an economy and protecting the social and cultural welfare of our nation, that the best they can do is correct his spelling. Believe me, has made far far bigger mistakes that will haunt our country for years and possibly decades.

Someone told me yesterday that Jeremy Clarkson (senior Pratt) of the Top Gear TV show had a libellous article written about him that originated from the perennially smarmy Piers Morgan.

As someone who does not watch the (all bad) TV News and avoids newspapers like the plague, this “was news” to me. However the irritating Clarkson went up in my estimation when I was told that he resolved this situation by going around to Morgan’s house and planting one on him. Now that would make entertaining TV (if of course it is in fact true).

That however is it for now. I seem to have plenty of things to write about, however all seem to leave my limited consciousness the minute I login to this blog.

Gordon Brown

2009-11-11T08:06:00.001-08:00

It is hard to believe that it is 3 weeks since my last blog post. Since then a lot has happened, but the thing that I will focus on is Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s letter of bereavement to the mother of a war casualty in Afghanistan.

Frankly I hate Gordon Brown with - to quote the even more stomach churninly awful Tony Blair’s phrase – “a passion”.

Indeed I consider the use of our troops in Islamic countries a perversion of everything that I believe in and an interference with a religious, cultural and political way of life that we have no affinity with. We should not interfere with them and they should stay away (and out of) our country, politics and culture.

However, to my incredulous disbelief I have to defend Brown on this particular issue.

I was amazed to see that, despite a plethora of personal secretaries and numerous “tagger-on-ers”, that Brown had actually hand written a multi sentence letter of bereavement himself.

This is something that does not happen at this level in politics and, rather than focussing on red encircled spelling mistakes, it might be better to focus on the fact that he actually sat down and, without assistance, wrote the letter himself. If he has done this 100 times for our war losses this year alone it will have taken up many hours.

I doubt that Blair or Bush ever performed such an act and I suspect that “when I was of drafting age” during the time and human losses of the Falklands crisis, that Margaret Thatcher did not pen any condolence letters herself. And I say that as a fan of MT.

It is also sad that, in addition to passing (I suspect selling) the letter to the Murdock press, the mother also allowed the Sun newspaper to set up a recorder to record the inevitable apology call from the Prime Minister.

I cannot begin to understand her grief, but all that this does is humiliate our Prime Minister in they eyes of not just this country, but also the world. And of course, in so doing, it degrades Great Britain and everyone in it.

For my part I never have and never will read a tabloid newspaper. The word “news” clearly has a meaning in that context which I do not understand and I will educate myself on politics, current affairs and world events independently rather than listen to the politically tainted view of any particular editor. I suggest that everyone else does the same.

Last weekend

2009-10-21T06:17:00.000-07:00

This last weekend we tried to get to Pickering in North Yorkshire as they had a WWII day with people dressing up in uniforms and clothes from the 1940’s. The weekend event was well publicized on TV and, as a result, it proved impossible to park anywhere near the town. The closest park we could find was a field charging £5. We declined.

A further disappointment was that the road to Whitby was closed off for some reason so, being just 20 miles from Scarborough, we headed for that part of the coast. The weather was mediocre but at least we did something and used the day.

On Sunday we decided to walk around a reservoir that we had previously circumvented with mixed success.

Our first attempt saw us taking a well marked out “yellow” route that at one point disappeared and that at another directed us into a marshy bog. It took us about an hour longer than it should have as we back tracked and ultimately made up our own route.

This time around we followed another walker and took the “black” route which stayed on a well worn path and avoided all the swamps and bogs. Despite the weather it proved a good walk and the reservoir was visible for much of the route.

The weather for this weekend looks poor and the rain has not stopped since starting on Sunday, so we may be trapped in doors come the weekend. Hopefully not.

I could comment on the attempted demonising of the BNP this week by the government in, trying to prevent them from appearing on question time, releasing the BNP membership list, and getting former toffs from the armed forces to bad mouth them. However, in a democracy (which we still just about have) this kind of behaviour ultimately backfires on its perpetrators.

I remember many years ago hearing either Michael Foot or Tony Benn say that the beauty of a democracy was that “if you gave a platform to a lunatic or a radical, you simply let them show themselves for what they are”.

Interesting then that the Labour, Conservative and Liberal parties are so opposed to giving the BNP a public platform. Maybe they are not the devil incarnate after all and these political dinosaurs are scared that the general public will discover that fact.

Eden Camp, near Malton

2009-10-14T08:09:00.000-07:00

We went to the superb Eden Camp near Malton last Friday. This camp is actually a World War II museum and it is based and situated in what was once a prisoner of war camp for Italian and German soldiers.

The museum is made up of a number of (once occupied) huts and cabins that now house the displays, most of which are simulations of places and events from the war.

Some cabins tell the story of the prisoners, but most are dedicated to some aspect of the war ranging from U boats and the air raids to early warning systems.

Entry price was an amazingly low £5 per person (inc parking) and we also used the “canteen” or “mess hall” for lunch which ran out at around £6 per head for a proper hot meal and a drink. This was probably the best value day out that I have had in more than 20 years.

At the pay booth we were told that it would take about 4 hours to go around the camp, but 3 hours in we were only just over half way through.

There is a large play area for kids and a school party was there during our visit.

Eden Camp is a definite “must see” attraction for anyone who is “British”, French (there was a hut about the French resistance), Italian, German or North American and it is both fun and educational for children.

If you live within travelling distance of this museum and you are British, you are committing a moral and historical crime if you do not visit this great attraction. It will tell you (and your children) about how freedom was achieved through sacrifice and hardship and it will make you realise that what is happening in this country is not what the people gave up there lives in WW II believed they were fighting for. (i.e. MP’s obscene expense accounts, mass immigration, the destruction of our culture, political correctness and fighting wars in which our nation has no vested interest or moral responsibility.

See this link to the website for more info http://www.edencamp.co.uk/.

Hebden Bridge

2009-10-05T05:06:00.000-07:00

This weekend saw mixed weather, but we drove to Hebden Bridge in east Yorkshire on Sunday and had a wonder around the town before undertaking a couple of short walks.

The first took us up above Hebden to another old town with cobbled roads, a couple of pubs and a good café where we ate. The weather was bright and sunny at that point and the views down to the town were spectacular. We also encountered a flock of hens accompanied by a sole duck, all of whom seemed to take a liking to us and it took some effort to shake one of them off our trail! (photo of the friendliest hen right.)

We then took another longer walk along the river and then back along a less appealing route during which time it started to rain. The highlight of the walk, and for me the day, was seeing a bird that I later discovered is called a “dipper”.

This bird is about the size of a blackbird, but shaped more like a wren or a robin and it is black with a large bright white breast. The thing that made it so interesting was its habit. This bird lives along rivers and dives into the water, swims and paddles around (often staying under for 30 or 40 seconds) while hunting for fish and insects. It was amazing to see and more entertaining than a kingfisher or any other river based bird that I have seen. It mainly hunts in turbulent areas where there are rocks and fast moving water.

For anyone thinking of visiting Hebden Bridge be warned, even on a dull day and at about 12.00 noon, finding parking was a nightmare. The roads were heaving and we nearly gave up completely. We ultimately got a space in a little car park next to the train station which is located just outside the town. Street parking was a nightmare.

We finished the day getting a couple of large mugs of tea in a pub at a cost of £2.40 for the two. By pub standards this is pretty good.

Filey, Scarborough the Hispaniola boat

2009-09-29T05:51:00.000-07:00

Yet again we went to the north Yorkshire coast and specifically Filey at the weekend. We also made the effort to get up early, head off at just turned eight o clock and get parked up and in the town before 9.30am.

This will have been at least our 6th and possibly our 7th or even 8th visit this year, and we have (sadly) got into a routine that sees us have breakfast in the same café on each visit. So much so that the proprietor, Malcolm, remembers who we are, what we order and the places that we go to on our trips. Even so, this does make a nice start to the day and the early arrival ensures us a parking space before the town fills up.

It is also good to visit seaside towns outside of the main holiday season as the crowds disappear and the general feel of the place is much nicer.

As ever we had a good walk around Filey and then parked up in Scarborough and made our way down to the seafront. I have never been a fan of Scarborough and my views of the place remain unchanged. It seems to attract the lowest common denominator of holiday maker and the seafront is tacky and full of what were once called “penny arcades”, but now seem to house one armed bandits and computer games.

Moving up and into the main town centre things do not improve and there seemed to be a lot of foul mouthed louts wondering around in a state of semi-drunkenness. Not the kind of environment that I would like to see children become familiar with!

To the sides of the main town area there are some good spots with Peasholm Park and it “large scale battleship enactments” being one highlight. This is a great area for families and there is also the castle ruin – although getting to it is not that straightforward.

For me though the highlight of the day was getting some close up views and photos of the Hispaniola boat that once ferried kids (like me) to one of the islands in the Scarborough Mere.

The once packed Mere is now all but dead as far as tourism goes, but the Hispaniola now takes people out to sea on 15 minute rides and it has not changed one bit.

The 2 photos included will bring back memories to anyone who "sailed" on her at the Mere..

Finally, take a look at this website http://www.carofthedecades.com/ where you can vote for your favourite car in any decade from 1900 to the 2000's. All the cars that you can vote for are listed with photos and, if you have class, style and flair, you can put a vote in for the black Chrysler Crossfire owned by FP in the 2000 section. You need to register (free) first. I think that the site is sponsored by Texaco.

Chrysler Crossfire

2009-09-16T04:29:00.000-07:00

This post is really just to provide a couple of useful links for anyone in the UK who owns a Chrysler Crossfire, coupe or roadster, and who does not know about the “Crossfire” club.

There is an international forum which is free to join and which has thousands of members and probably tens of thousands of pages of tips and information about the cars and you can find this at http://www.crossfireforum.org.

This is a great site for anyone with, or considering buying, a Crossfire and it is free to sign up and join. I have spent a lot of time on this site and the information and feedback from members is excellent.

There is also a new website called http://www.ukcrossfires.co.uk which has been set up by a member of the UK section of the forum and which is intended to increase awareness of the activities of Crossfire owners specifically in the UK, i.e. meets etc. I think that the idea is primarily to promote meets and increase the awareness of the car in the UK, but I guess time will tell.

Personally I am not in to meets and showing cars, but for anyone who is, or who wants to find out more about the car and activities associated around it, check out these sites.

It is currently two weeks since I saw a Crossfire and that is despite driving in and out of Leeds city centre everyday and doing another couple of hundred miles at the weekend, so there cannot be many around. I have however seen several Aston Martins during the same period!

Filey Town Crier and Todmorden

2009-09-14T02:35:00.000-07:00

With some pretty good weather over the weekend we decided to make the most of things and went to the East Yorkshire coast on Saturday and a town called Todmorden (on the Yorkshire/Lancashire border) on Sunday.

Both days turned out well and both featured some elements of real (not imported) British heritage.

Whilst at the coast, in a town called Filey, we saw and heard the Filey town crier (who I believe is called David Bull), supported by his wife. Both were dressed in traditional attire as the photo shows.

He modern role is not just one of pomp and ceremony as he provides useful tourist information by “belting out” news of any worthy events happening that day or the next. On Saturday he informed all listeners of a band performance taking place on the afternoon of the following day.

On Sunday we went to a beautiful and friendly town called Todmorden. Our aim was to go on a 4 mile walk “to and from” a rock formation called the “Bride Stones”.

Needles to say we got lost and the “intended” shortish walk turned into a four and a half our trek which was more than we had bargained for. Numerous people, who we asked for assistance on route, all gave us good directions, but we still managed to find a much longer route than the one we had planned to take. Even so, a good day out.

On the heritage side, before we started the walk we called in at the town where we were informed that the town hall was open (in its entirety) for public viewing. Two extremely friendly and helpful gentlemen then guided us into the building and gave us all manner of interesting and insightful information about the history of the building and the town. It was a real bonus to the day and the building was well worth seeing. One of those showing the building was also a former Mayor and he had interesting stories of events, past and recent, relating to the building and his term of office. It was a great “British” experience.

To find out more about Todmorden see this site http://www.todmorden.org and take a look at http://www.sauna-kits.net if you are in the market for a home sauna!!!!

A walk

2009-09-02T14:25:00.000-07:00

We had a 4 mile walk around a reservoir and wildlife sanctuary on Monday and encountered many walkers/hikers, all of whom said hello and one of whom we talked with for 15 minutes or so.

The subject that interested me was the hikers attire which seemed to include weatherproof and breathable clothing made from a material that I think is called Gortex. This material apparently allows sweat to evaporate very quickly and therby allows you to feel cool and dry.

The walking shoes and boots were also of interest. So much so that we later bought a pair for my wife in nearby Otley.

None of this equipment is cheap, but given the number of people who seem to “invest” in it I have to believe that it does the job.

The final piece of “walker kit” that caught my attention was the sticks that they use. It would seem that they cost around £25 each and most walker use two together almost like a skier. I assume that they help stability and take the strain off ankles, knees and hips!

The other thing that I noticed was when, on getting back to the car park zone, there was a good sized picnic area with several tables and bench seating set-ups. We got an ice cream and a drink, but when we had finished the entire area was devoid of litter bins or any kind of refuse point.

Nothing annoys me more than the scum that throw litter around, but having said that, a picnic area that by definition encourages people to bring food (that will lead to waste) should have refuse bins. I was amazed firstly by that absence and secondly by the fact that no one had in fact left their mess behind.

The walk incidentally was very nice, easy to do, and took maybe an hour and a half with a good break included for chatting to other walkers.

Finally, petrol up again by another 2 pence per litre for government duty. How can this government get away with it. The French and Spanish would not stand for it. So what does that say of the pathetic British public who continue to let their own government precipitate on them.

Rugby, swimming and wonderful Britain

2009-08-20T06:44:00.000-07:00

My mother told me last night that 7 Australian rugby players are about to be deported from the UK because their visas have run out.

Strange that with jobs (as professional sportsmen) and speaking the indigenous language of the nation that they are not seen as suitable applicants for visa renewal, yet illegal immigrants are put up in hotels, paid state allowances and given translators and solicitors to fight their cases.

On, dare I say it, a positive note, I gather that I am now allowed to go to Croydon swimming pool as a non muslim.

Previously I was not allowed to swim there unless I covered up my entire body bar my hands and feet. This, to make sure that I did not offend a muslim.

If you live outside the UK and do not believe me, then look at this google news link: http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23733027-details/Swimming+pool%27s+dress+code+for+non-Muslims+is+scrapped/article.do, or do a google news search on “croydon swimming pool”.

Believe me, Britain really is a sick country.

Finally, only 2 more weeks of driving my wife to work in the morning with no traffic. It will all change when the schools go back. All we ever hear is how there are too many cars and congested city centres, strange then that when the schools are off there is nothing. No queues at traffic lights, no lunatic drivers (or a least far less) and a 30 minute trip becomes about 12 minutes. So what do you think causes traffic congestion?

Thinking about visiting London? This site http://www.londonweekendbreaks.net looks like it might be quite a good guide.

I intend to start using my blog power to give some links to deserving causes, so this is the first one. What the next will be I do not know.

Chrysler & Kim Cattrall

2009-08-12T14:29:00.001-07:00

I read that after all the very well publicised troubles with Chrysler (who are also Dodge and I think own Jeep too), sales are up and some plants are running 3 shifts and scheduling overtime.

It would be a tragedy for this company to go down as, aside from being an American icon, they have produced some of the most stylish and creatively designed cars of the last 10 years. Just look at the stunning 300C, the PT Cruiser and the superlative Crossfire, one of which we are fortunate enough to own. All 3 of these vehicles look like nothing else on the road and all have a badge steeped in automotive history.

Just saw the family history charting TV series “who do you think you are” which this week featured Kim Kattrall. It was unusual in that there was no obvious positive outcome to the search for a family member in that, whilst they discovered everything about the relative in question, he was a pig. Even so, her mother and aunts seams to have turned out well and the loss was clearly his.

That reminds me, isn’t it time there was a rerun of Mannequin from the days when Kim Cattrall really was hot!

Back in the UK

2009-08-10T05:17:00.000-07:00

Just got back from a 3 week dull and rainy vacation and I now discover that our 3 or 4 month old irobot roomba does not appear to be working.

The battery seems dead and, although the charge lights come on, it seems as if it is not accepting the charge.

Friends told us that the battery does not last long, but this is a considerably shorter lifespan than I had anticipated. I have put it on charge again and checked the “docking”, but I am not hopeful.

Weather here in the UK continues to be poor.

Whilst away in Spain, I noticed that Michael Jackson has an even greater album chart domination in the wake of his death over there. Last week he place at 1, 2, 4 and 6 in the chart with 3 compilations plus Thriller. For anyone thinking of looking at his back catalogue, forget Thriller and Bad and start with his first solo effort, Off the Wall. It remains his best album and was the one that really started things off for him.

On an aside, Stansted airport has employees wondering around and asking to see if passports are “chip and pin”. Apparently there is a fast-track passport control area for them, but no one with them seems to be aware of it.

Actually I thing that a certain religious group is very aware of them and the way in which they can manipulate security with them. But no doubt it was for that very reason that their introduction by the British government has been so fast-tracked.

Yorkshire coast

2009-07-13T06:15:00.000-07:00

For the second weekend in succession we visited the North Yorkshire coast, this time calling in at Filey, Cayton Bay, Bridlington and Flamborough Head.

The weather forecast was awful (provided by Paul Hudson locally), however we made the right choice in ignoring it as the sky was clear, the sun never disappeared and the temperatures were positively warm.

We did around 210 miles during the course of the day and stopped at a couple of cafes and a fantastic stained glass centre (in Cayton Bay) with idyllic gardens and fabulous home made cakes at very very reasonable prices.

The old town at Bridlington is certainly worth a look at and the main beach (away from the fun fare area) was also pretty good. I was also amazed on the route from Brid’ to Flamborough Head to see such a desirable and extensive housing estate - I just wish that I lived on it. The entire area was great and the scenery and local beauty spots were bang on.

Traffic and “people congestion” were comparatively light for the time of year, due in part no doubt to Hudson’s weather forecast. I can tell you that that guy is really popular on the Yorkshire coast as he detours vital tourists from visiting with his inaccurate forecasts. Still, it keeps things quiet for the rest of us.

A bee disaster

2009-07-09T15:23:00.000-07:00

Last week what my sister thought might be an infestation of wasps in her home’s flat roof turned out to be 4,000 bees in a hive.

Naturally bees, people and a house do not mix, so she contacted the bee keepers association of GB, the local council, in fact everyone she could think of to see what could be done.

Bees are of course having huge population losses at the moment from a mite for which there is no treatment, and this is a worldwide problem that has seen a catastrophic fall in the bee population.

So what was the response.

Kill them, get the pest control people in, we are not interested.

That came from the bee keepers association of Great Britain – the bastion of help for the insects.

We can come and exterminate them for you.

That was the council/government response – even though honey bees are protected.

Only the pest controller tried to see if they could be safely extracted, but without removing the roof he was left with no option but poison.

A sickening result and one that reflects on the hypocrites and lobbyists who, when it came to action, were not prepared to anything – even for money.

The only vaguely positive thing to come from this was the fact that, with thousands of dead bees scattered around the surrounding gardens, a small number appear to have survived and were actively trying to make a nest in a near by hollowed out tree trunk.

In my attempts to help I discovered that, in a similar situation in Texas, USA, there would be between 30 and 40 independent bee keepers who would come to your house to save and remove the bees.

As ever in the UK, actions never follow words and the bee keepers of this country should hang their heads in disgrace as they cry for the loss of bees in one breath and refuse to attempt to save a thriving (and mite immune) colony with the next breath.

I will endeavour to ensure that any honey that I buy is sourced from outside the UK.

Cumbria, Buster Mottram and other nonesense

2009-06-30T06:45:00.000-07:00

We had a long weekend and spent part of it in the beautiful English district of Cumbria where, interestingly, one of our neighbours is also going later this week.

One of our reasons for the trip was as an excuse to drive our "toy" and you can see both the scenery and the toy in the photo.

I was disappointed to see Andy Murray win his match last night. I do not like him on any level and, although I recognise his tennis ability, that is the only factor in his favour as far as I am concerned. Despite this, "English" memories are short and the Scots "intended to offend" comments of 3 years ago seems largely forgotten by most - naturally not by me.

I do not know about other parts of the UK, but here in Yorkshire the BBC weather forecast (on TV and online) has been consistently wrong on almost every single day for the past 3 weeks. This has seen hot (27 degree C) days with clear blue sky (as was the forecast today) turn out to be overcast and cool-ish (as "is" the actual weather today). I doubt that there is any other area of employment where that level of incompetence would be tolerated.

Back with the tennis, I spotted an article on former British No. 1 and world ranked No. 17 Buster Mottram yesterday. This led me to try and find out what he was upt o now. However what I came across were various slurs relating to him “apparently” being a member of the BNP. (As it turned out he was a member of UKIP!).

Following on from this revelation, numerous articles labelled him a racist. All very interesting since I also discovered that a long time friend and even business partner was the writer, actor and comedian (actually a very very rich guy) Kenny Lynch.

For anyone missing the point of this observation, Kenny is actually black.

MP's, Alarms and Wimbledon

2009-06-22T12:08:00.001-07:00

Astoundingly the furore over MP’s expenses is losing its impetus without any real change being made to the system.

Quite amazing! It is inconceivable that this could happen anywhere else in the western world and it firmly establishes British members of parliament as the most crooked and dishonest on the planet.

As I write this an alarm continues to sound, briefly stop, and then start again as some idiot’s car or house has been left with an open window or an animal inside. The pointlessness of this continues to baffle me. Everyone has a house and car alarm, yet no one uses them responsibly and consequently “everyone” ignores them completely when they go off.

We spent 2 or 3 hours in the north Yorkshire town of Howden on Sunday after having a drive around that part of the world. It was like stepping back in time as everyone we passed spoke to us and smiled. It would seem that there are still “some” civilised people living in England - they are just harder to encounter these days.

As Wimbledon starts today we will have just about the only UK terrestrial tennis coverage of the year. However, with Nadal and a host of others already out with injury the event offers little interest to me with the prospect of either, the bad tempered Federer or the “English hating Scott” Murray as the eventual winner.

If they do both make the final it will be a case of trying to decide who I want to lose the most. At this moment in time I would opt for Federer, however I am sure that the obnoxious Murray will do everything in his power to alienate me between now and the final.

The IPD and Iran

2009-06-16T06:28:00.000-07:00

Just when the government, economists and related experts inform us that we are on the brink of leaving the recession, the IPD announce that there will be a jobs “blood bath” in the government funded employment sector! I guess that that is one way of helping that kind undesirable scenario reach reality.

All this negativity, bad mouthing and doom anticipation does nothing for the economy, let alone the general mood of people and the nation, so why do these organisations persist in doing it? The answer has to be self justification and what “they feel” is their right to have a voice. Clearly the consequences of their vocal actions are something about which they have no concern.

It is interesting to look at what the BNP say about radical Islam in the UK and compare it with what the moderate Muslim Council of Great Britain also say. It would appear that they are reading from the same hymn sheet.

That may surprise some, but the MCGB have probably been the loudest voice in the UK when it comes to trying to quash the dangerous and threatening side of Islam. Regrettably the government of the day pay them the same scant regard as every other voice of reason.

Staying with an Islam related theme, I wonder if all of the protestations about miscounting and vote rigging in Iran are true, or if this is yet another example of the West trying to interfere with the domestic politics of an Islamic country whilst refusing to do anything about the illegal actions of the same in their own nations. But then again, this is hypocrisy which after all is the only policy which the British government excels in.

Finally, every now and then something happens which impresses me and such an event occurred to day. I periodically write articles for a web ezine and this morning I received a package from them containing a few “Goodies”. It was totally unexpected and, having been shipped from the States, a pleasant surprise. It also does the job of guaranteeing my continued support of their publications. A good deed and one that works for both sides. We could do with more of the same.

Only in British politics

2009-06-11T03:47:00.000-07:00

Last week a female member of the British government resigned when, as it turns out, a cabinet reshuffle would have seen her lose her ministerial position.

At the time she claimed that Gordon Brown only saw her as window dressing, but this week on a TV interview (milking it for all she can get) she has stated that the real reason was that he did not “have full confidence in her loyalty”.

Only from a British politician!

Does she not consider, as everyone else now must, that he was absolutely right. She had no loyalty at all and, in behaving in such a way has actually reinforced his position by throwing light on the fact that his judgement was, for once, absolutely correct – she was a disloyal backstabber.

Hats off to Lynda Bellingham who, from what I can tell, was the voice of reason yesterday in defending the right to British democracy and the right to the BNP having obtained significant voter support.

As for the little runt (lisa maxwell) who’s “biggest” claim to fame is being discovered by Jonathan King, she gave an apt demonstration of what true extremism, lack of tolerance and political correctness are. Thanks for that lisa, the more that lunatics like you rant and rave, the more support parties like Ukip, the BNP etc will get from balanced rational people who can read and make up their own minds.

Darts, friends! and money

2009-06-09T12:16:00.001-07:00

Making up for my lack of activity over the last couple of weeks here is a second post in as many days.

I have been trying to play darts and really impressed myself when, in throwing 9 darts at the treble 20, 4 of them actually went in. If I could hit that level of consistency I could just about play at club level. But then I would need to hit the doubles as well.

I still await Paul Hudson’s Saturday “down poor”. Four days have now elapsed and I may have to get the watering can out if it does not rain soon. No doubt he will forecast sun for the next weekend which should signal the rain clouds.

I have recently been surprised by two separate friends (or acquaintances) of mine who I know to be very financially secure, but both of whom seem to be prepared to do almost mindless things for the sake of making a few euros/pounds.

I can never quite understand this. Some may say that that is how they got their money, but I believe that it has more to do with some misplaced fear that they might just miss out on something, even if it is only £1.25.

In the case of one of these individuals, it was more than possible for me to take offence at a concession that was made by him at my expense for such a small gain. Indeed, I tested out (without his knowledge) a similar scenario against him, only for him to request that I withdraw from a certain course of action because it might impact on him! What a guy!

I guess money (however small the amount) always throws light on who is and who is not a true friend.

On the flip side of the coin, a very good friend of mine had some good news recently and insisted on paying for a dinner that he and his wife treated my wife and myself to. It just shows the difference between people and I am fortunate to count some highly generous, ethical, honest and honourable folk as my friends.

The Weekend

2009-06-08T04:53:00.001-07:00

I really thought that I had added a couple of posts since the A64 one, but apparently not!

The weekend saw a desperately bad forecast with none stop heavy rain, however it never materialised and we made our various travels to places in our Focus when we could have used the other car.

The weather forecaster was Paul Hudson who is rarely reliable, but as a fellow ELO fan I am compelled to forgive him. However he is on a warning.

Good things about the weekend were seeing my oldest friend (in terms of how long I have known him – not age) and being told by my mother that our favourite wine was on offer at 2 for £8. A saving of over 50%, so we bought 4 bottles. It is called Banrock Station (I think) and it is a refreshing white Australian, much like Nicole Kidman!

Petrol is up again and now only 0.1 penny below one pound Stirling per litre. Surely it is time for Gordon Brown to resign and for all the politicians to pay back the £91 m in second home subsidies that they should never have claimed for. That should bring the cost down again by a penny or so and why is diesel not going up too?

Finally, in this short post, will that "useless" USA president do something out the Stirling versus Dollar exchange rate. It was up to £1.00 = $1.65 last week which is bad news for me.

Why not forget trying to pacify terrorists and murderers and sort out your own economy. You are starting to look and sound like Blair and look what he did to Britain.

Bad driving on the A64

2009-05-26T13:44:00.000-07:00

I saw a party political broadcast by the BNP today and was both amazed and pleased that they were firstly able to give a message and secondly able to give it without censoring. No doubt PM Brown will soon change that as this big brother politically “incorrect” state removes more of our liberties.

We did a fair bit of driving over the weekend and the quality and insanity of many other road users has to be seen to be believed.

As a former motorcyclist I would normally defend (powered) bike riders, but the examples of complete insanity that I saw on the A64 between Scarborough and Saltburn on Sunday have stopped that. We saw literally hundreds of bikes and a grand total of 3 rode with a modicum of common sense. All the others drove at high speed down the middle of the road overtaking on blind bends, hill tops and everywhere else that you can think of.

So far the running 12 month total for deaths on that stretch of road is 78 and cyclist fatalities account for half with a substantial proportion of the other half being the collateral damage from these idiots. The last biker fatality was 11 days ago. Frankly, I don’t mind these dickheads killing themselves, but they always end up taking an innocent party with them

Having said all that, the car drivers were little better with lunatics in small engined hatchbacks being the worst. We were overtaken on a 60mph section of the A64 by a blue Peugeot 206 whilst we were signalling to turn right. There was a continuous white line all the way and the traffic was very heavy in both directions.

Another example saw a convertible MGF with a massive 1800cc 4 cylinder engine ducking and weaving between on-coming cars as if in a formula one race. These people have no idea how to drive, no concept of the limitations of their vehicle and no thought for anybodies safety.

A further observation that I continually notice is that those of us with relatively powerful performance cars never seem to drive this way. The likes of Boxters, TT’s, let alone Astons etc, always seem to be at the front of a queue with a mass of normal cars lying in wait desperate to overtake. I actually had a Toyota people carrier pull up alongside me at some lights and race off on amber like a bat out of hell! One, what was the point and two, did he really think that he could out accelerate me! I guess so.

Anyway, we need to pay a visit to northern London over the next 2 to 3 weeks which will see more travel on the roadwork ridden M1. Whether we visit the big city itself we have yet to decide, but for anyone wanting to, here is a decent link to “what to see” in the city - http://www.londonweekendbreak.net/sightseeing.html.

I also forgot to mention the weather forecast this bank holiday weekend. Did anyone notice that the BBC predictions for all 3 days changed from sun to rain and back again three times between last Sunday and Friday. Those guys really know what they’re doing.

Only in Britain - an early morning census

2009-05-21T05:41:00.000-07:00

As usual I left home to take my wife to work (in the centre of Leeds) at about 8.10am. Within 5 minutes we in stationary traffic, but not on a street where such problems normally exist, rather on a main road with flowing traffic.

What then was the problem?

It was hard to tell as we approach a closed down lane, a 5 police officer check-point, plus two “greenpeace like” looking women dressed in reflective jackets.

So what was all the fuss, police manpower and disruption to the main morning rush hour traffic all about?

A census.

Yes – at morning rush hour, with rapists, murderers and yobs on the loose, the police (in ludicrous numbers) had brought traffic to a standstill in order for people rushing to work to have their journeys delayed by form filling.

What would happen if the French police attempted a similar waste of people’s time. I would suggest that the police officers in question would get mass abuse and the form carriers may well be strung up from trees.

1. What is going on when this kind of time wasting is scheduled for this time in the day.

2. Have I missed something and do we live in a secure country with a minimal crime rate, or are the police doing nothing more than acting as tax collectors for the government (via speed traps) or, failing that, using several officers to support some old woman asking people to fill in a form.

This country really is a laughing stock and further more a complete disgrace.

On a positive note, I signalled a waiting car to join our carriageway and my wife spotted that he had the courage to have a BNP sticker on his windscreen. Bravo, I wish that I dared to do the same, but I would no doubt be arrested for thinking that I had a right to an independent opinion. Something that my grandfather and great grandfather fought wars for.

Crossfire

2009-05-17T08:58:00.001-07:00

After 2 months of searching we finally managed to get hold of a very low mileage Crossfire in the colour that we wanted with the tiptronic auto gearbox.

It has been a long search that ultimately saw us travel 250 miles each way to a local dealer in South Wales last Monday followed by a second trip to pick it up yesterday. Each trip took around 10 hours of driving and we were wrecked when we got back at 9.00 pm last night. Mainly because the weather was very bad and coming back we had to drive through torrential rain, high winds and black skies.

That said, the car gets a tick in every box (so far) and, having driven it for the first time today, I was almost terrified by the acceleration and speed that it was able to achieve.

It also has all the gadgets from electrically adjustable and heated seats to a speed triggered spoiler, cruise control and leather seats. All told we are satisfied that we opted for the very rare (in the UK) Crossfire over the common TT’s and Boxters. In fact we saw a total of 4 Crossfires in 10 hours of motorway driving yesterday against dozens and dozens of Audi’s and Porche’s.

Right now we just hope for some reasonable weather so that we can get out and enjoy it.

Just heard that cry baby Federer has beaten Nadal in Madrid, so I must assume that Nadal’s knee problems had an influence on the match (as they did against Djokovic yesterday).

Driving

2009-05-07T09:31:00.000-07:00

Having just picked my wife up from work I am yet again dumbfounded by the standard, or lack there of, of driving in this country.

15 or 20 years ago you used to go to mainland Europe on holiday and be staggered by just how bad the drivers in countries like France and Spain were, but no more.

These days I find driving in Spain a relative pleasure. The drivers stop at red lights, give way at motorway filter lanes and don’t cut you up. In every way they are more considerate and frankly superior to their “British” counterparts.

But the saddest thing of all is that the European’s driving has not improved, it is simply that the standard in Britain is impossibly bad. This is made worse by the fact that well over 50% of all drivers here actually do not believe that doing any of the aforementioned “breaches of the highway code” are wrong.

I can remember discussing giving way to vehicles already on a motorway with a friend who looked at me in astonishment and told me that he though cars entering a motorway had priority over those already driving on it. Is there any hope!

The number of people using phones, eating food, texting with both hands, and generally doing everything but pay attention to the road is boundless. Why is it that the population of other western nations realise that this is wrong and generally do not do it, yet here in the UK the attitude is “so what”.

This country really has gone to the dogs in every way and on every level.

Second hand car prices up!

2009-05-05T03:17:00.000-07:00

It is no great surprise that. after an April and early May of generally good weather, both of the recent national holidays have seen rain and cold temperatures. It happens every year.

We have recently been looking at buying a new (actually a second hand) car of late. A coupe to be precise for use primarily during the weekends in summer.

On Sunday, and having completed a second and lengthy test drive of a particular vehicle, we were pretty much ready to try and make a deal. However, as soon as I brought up price the salesman stated that the price on the website (which he actually got wrong) was the price of the car and that he would not negotiate.

Given that the car was priced at £250 above the nearest round thousand it would seem more than reasonable that a drop by that amount would be seen as achievable. Obviously with that dealer it was not.

What I found dumbfounding was a conversation with another dealer later that day who tried to explain why he felt the first guy would not strike a deal.

His explanation was that, in tough times the dealers sell fewer cars and therefore they want to maximise the profit on each one. Consequently, they are reluctant to bargain on price.

Quite amazing!!!!

I am a web designer and these “hard times” see me working for less money than this time last year and being prepared to do things for that money that I would not ordinarily do.

It would seem that, while the rest of us will make compromises, drop our rates, and generally be more flexible in a recession, some car dealer are doing quite the opposite.

It does of course go without saying that we did not buy the car. Nor will we be returning to that dealer.

Crown green Bowling

2009-04-21T08:16:00.000-07:00

Having always liked the idea of having a go at crown green bowling (the one on a finely mown lawn with a camber), my next door neighbour, who is a team player, asked me if I wanted a go last Sunday.

The weather was glorious, the setting saw the 2 greens surrounded by a park, golf course and small lake, and the experience was thoroughly enjoyable. So much so that we played for 3 hours with my wife bringing us some fresh pasta as lunchtime came and went.

This is one of those sports that looks simple, but is deceivingly difficult. Not only is the bowling green full of subtle undulations and a centre to outskirts curve, but the woods (bowls) have a bias on one side that lets you turn the wood in or out. There is a lot to do and a lot to remember and fortunately I was given a good explanation of what to do and how to do it before hand.

Another great thing about this sport is that it is part of British (not imported) culture and it is played by young and old, male and female throughout the country and indeed the Common Wealth. Age, health and sex offer no discernable advantage and the cost of the kit is (I am told) as little as £40 with an annual membership of around £10.

In other words accessible to all whatever their age or finances. That makes it pretty good in my eyes.

Following on from my previous post about consumer service, I bought something from Argos a couple of days later. I checked it out in the car and it was faulty – in fact it had been sold and returned before in my opinion.

Needless to say I returned it and was offered my money back or a replacement, but the queue at customer services meant that the process took around one hour. A lot of time for something worth just over a tenner!

Idiots and customer service

2009-04-10T03:55:00.000-07:00

Three things that have either annoyed or irritated me over the last few days are as follows.

Today I see on TV’s teletext that a massive 100 people complained because a horse was shown being killed on a documentary by Alexandria Tolstoy about the horse men of Siberia.

What I would like to know is, do these people sit watching TV with a gunman behind them telling them that if they change channels they will have their brains blown out!

I watched the same documentary and flipped channels for about 3 minutes when it became obvious that the horse was about to “meat” (my little pun) its end in a violent way. There were warnings before the program, in the TV pages and via the Sky/digital info page. Are these morons totally brainless, or just too lazy to pick up a remote control.

When I went to pick up a two part prescription on Wednesday the miserable chemist (female) handed me two bags as she informed me that she was unable to complete the prescription and that I would have to come back late that afternoon or the following day. This was, to say the least, highly inconvenient. So why could she not tell me this in advance and give me the opportunity to take my custom to another chemist capable of satisfying the order. Needless to say, when I returned just before 4.30pm (as “instructed”) the required medication was still not there. Service in Britain.

As for the third irritation, that relates to windscreen wipers and I will recall that one in my next post.

Morons crossing the road

2009-04-07T02:31:00.000-07:00

In a period of no more than 5 minutes, late yesterday afternoon, I had three different people at three different sets of traffic lights walk in front of me when the lights were on green for me and red for them.

Did they have anything in common?

Absolutely! They were all on or using their mobile phones at the time.

However, they did not walk through a red because their use of the phone had made them unaware of their “law breaking” in doing so. In fact each one took a sly and disguised look at the approaching car first and simply used the fact that they were on the phone to take precedence over their need to pay any real attention to what was going on.

In his blog about Galicia, Colin Davies often mentions the resistance of car drivers to stop at Zebra crossings in Pontevedra and this actually brings out a very important point.

In Spain if you get run down whilst on the road, you as a pedestrian are at fault. Some (incorrectly seem to believe that this includes Zebra crossings). However in the politically correct UK, whenever a pedestrian is hit by a car it is ultimately deemed to be the drivers fault.

To anyone in mainland Europe, let alone the USA, this may seem inconceivable, however it is true. If a driver hits a pedestrian whilst driving (correctly) through a green light as the pedestrian crosses on (what for them is) a red, the driver will be found guilty of dangerous driving. Pretty sick you might think, but that is Britain, a country where everything that is wrong is deemed to be right through the magic goggles of political correctness.

More to come on these same irritating themes from a Brit who can no longer tolerate living in what was once his country, but is now a politicallly correct (and soon to be Islamic) state.