Holiday watching

I'm on holiday.  Due to a poorly cat I can't go away at the moment so I'm spending a couple of weeks at home.  I've played a lot of computer games and watched dodgy daytime TV. 

I'm fussy about TV (although sometimes it might not seem that way!) I don't watch any soaps or stuff like that and I have a hatred for most reality TV.  I say most because there are a few shows that I enjoy - Masterchef and shows of that type of format can be quite entertaining.  Mostly because I like seeing disasters.

Like this one of obliterated sugar work just before judging...

Bake Off Professionals disaster

Because I don't want to watch This Morning or other daytime talk shows I'm often found browsing the documentary channels.  That basically means I have watched every episode of Ancient Aliens, every Stonehenge or Egyptology documentary and a decades worth of Time Team.  

Over the last couple of weeks I've spotted a 'new' show (new to me - there are several seasons!) called Forged in Fire.  It is that familiar Masterchef format but what amused me most was the sheer abundance of beards.  Honestly, have a look through, it seems to be part of the entry criteria (until you spot that there are a couple of ladies in some of the seasons so they must have loosened the rules for them)  I might watch some of it, I do like weapons and the stuff they make looks quite cool from the 5 minutes I've watched so far.  I will also be giving the contestants additional points for beard/facial hair and styling though....Lets see if the same ones win ;)

Bizarre Signs

It's been a while...I've been crazy busy and not had time to really sit down to blog....but that hasn't stopped me from seeing some odd stuff lately.  So here a small collection....

A new Chinese Takeaway.....I think.

A "special" kind of driver wanted...

I'm not sure whether the fruit and veg are supposed to be slippery, or if you're not supposed to run on them?

Blatantly lying shoes...

No dunking babies

I think the Fire Brigade are getting kickbacks from Burger king...

Isn't this the setting for a bad horror movie?

Toilet/Waterslide...mmmm

Negative...positive...negative?

I stumbled across this article online tonight.  Its titled: 10 jobs you can get with just your GCSEs.  I read it out of interest as I am one of the (seemingly unusual) people who has a brain but no degree - you may remember me talking about this is a previous post - I was hoping that someone was trying to show some positive news for those of us without this magic piece of paper...but alas, wrong again...the article basically reinforces the idea that in order to get a decent job you need a degree.  The jobs they list are:

Accounts Clerks
Receptionist
Medical Secretary
Customer Service Assistant
Waiting Staff
Engineering Maintenance Fitter
Fitness Instructor
Sales Representative
Care Assistants

Whilst this may dispel any concept that you must have a degree to even be considered for any job, these probably aren't the best selection to make someone really confident...they are only a step away from listing Binman and Street Sweeper (both of which probably pay equal or more than those they have listed!)


Yet again, MSN article authors must try harder!

On the bandwagon

Last weekend everyone seemed to be far, far, far, far more interested in the royal wedding than me. (I do know of a few others who didn't partake in any celebrations, but truly not many.) I'm not a fan of weddings to start with, I'm not a monarchist, and I despise pomp so this was never going to be a thing of excitement. I was quite pleased to get an extra day off work however ;)

As soon as the wedding was announced everyone who paid even the slightest amount of attention was talking about the dress, and the flowers, and what the after party would be like and on the day itself every channel (with the exception of E4 - thankyou E4 you saved my life!) was showing approximately 6 - Yes 6! - hours of footage of the events. Thanks to a combination of E4 and the lovely internet I did manage to see exactly zero of said footage. *phew!*

The news over the last few days has obviously also been filled with stories about the wedding. There have been wild theories thought up as posted by the wonderful B-Man, but it seems that the biggest star to erupt from the wedding has been not the bride or groom, or even the brides mother, but a hat....

The hat worn by Princess Beatrice to be exact....


Ugly huh? The hat amassed fans (or rather haters) on facebook within minutes, spawned blogs and websites such as Princess Beatrice and her Hat and Princess Beatrice's Hat and countless news articles.

I think that this hat looks very much like the type of mirror used by the evil queen in Snow White... maybe she was trying to ensure that she was the fairest in the land?


others however have had their own ideas....


Then again, there no such thing as bad publicity...all the media interest must be great for Beatrice....She'll get offers for reality TV next...

Cunning Plan?

I saw this article in todays news. If you can't be bothered to read it, the general idea is that recent statistics have shown that 40% of people who attend A&E leave without receiving treatment of advice.

"The study also showed around half a million patients leave A&E or injury units before being treated."....."It also shows a significant number of patients were recorded as leaving the department without having had any advice or treatment."

I immediately thought of at least two reasons this might happen...

1. The patients attend, get seen and then leave without actually needing anything. I agree that this would be a monumental waste of time and resources which could be better used elsewhere.

or

2. The patients attend, sit about for what possibly seems like an eternity, and then decide to give up and go elsewhere (maybe their GP, or another hospital)

I'm not having a bash at the NHS here, or making any kind of complaint about waiting times etc (in fact in my own experiences I have always received excellent service - and I have been a fairly frequent user at times of facilities such as A&E) but I am fully aware that such generic statements made from statistical analysis can be taken in more than one way.

I have a cunning plan however...Maybe St Johns and St Andrews ambulance services (and other voluntary organisations that are similar) set themselves up with regional clinics that could administer first aid and refer people who needed further attention to the hospitals. (this may require some public thought however - a hand thats been chopped off, or a heart attack, or other serious injury doesn't really count as something treatable with first aid alone and should be taken to the hospital directly!) This way the organisation members get plenty of practice and experience and the hospital has fewer people trying to get seen.

It's got its flaws, but I'm sure they'll get ironed out somewhere...

Long time no post...

I've been lax. I'm sorry. There are reasons for this, including a nasty bout of swine flu over the festive period which has only fully subsided in the last week or so, but I'm not making any excuses :) ...

I do have a list of posts saved in my mobile however so I can assure you, normal service will resume shortly...

This is pizza

I had run out of things to take to work for lunch last week, so in a quandary I grabbed an individual pizza from the freezer once I remembered that you could pop them in the microwave from frozen. A good plan, I thought... until I saw the end product. The cheese had tried desperately to escape from the top of the pizza, but only got as far as the plate...

Some people just don't know what manners are

Disclaimer before I start.....Don't get me wrong - Living in Edinburgh during the tourist season is a hate-filled time for many residents and I complain about them just as much as the next person.

Even bearing the above statement in mind I was quite disgusted to see last week at the attitude of a bus driver to some very confused American tourists. It was late and they got on a bus and repeatedly asked the driver where they needed to get off. I couldn't hear his response but even my awful knowledge of the city told me that the stop they first asked at was the one they wanted and he didn't tell them. They got into the centre of town, (still asking the driver where they needed to get off) when I felt I had to intervene. I tapped the guy on the shoulder and asked him where he was going. He wasn't totally sure, but knew roughly so I told him where he was if he got off the bus at the next stop and where to go from there. I don't think I've seen anyone more grateful in my life!

Maybe I should go work for the tourist board after all....

Since when???

I like to think that I have some "interesting" ideas on dress sense (when I can be arsed to wear anything other than combats and a t shirt that is) but lately the adverts I've been getting from alternative clothing stores is a bit..well, normal..... heres a couple of examples...



Apart from the models themselves I pretty much fail to see anything alternative about these items.

Maybe I'm just getting too old!

Zombie plans?

Mainly sparked by a conversation at Witchfest, and mainly by my current addiction - Left 4 Dead - Myself and BMan figured that we should have a zombie plan as everyone else seems to think its unusual NOT to have one already...So after much deliberation we have one! :) ...I'm not sure I should disclose it here though in case there are potential zombies reading....... *looks around nervously*

Grrr Ryanair strike again!

I mentioned back in June that I had booked a holiday to Barcelona for B Mans birthday. An extravagant gift I know, but I had managed to get it all for a pretty cheap price, £98 for the flights from Stansted, £380 for the hotel, and £40 for a coach to the airport and back. Everything has been booked and mostly paid for, and today I got an email from Ryanair telling me of a change to our flight times...they have moved it forward from 12:15 to 06:50!! This wouldn't be too much of a problem if we were flying from a local airport, but the overnight coach to London (which we are booked onto) doesn't even arrive in Victoria until 07:30. Hmmm...that just doesn't work.

Ryanair have offered a full refund and to be honest we are considering taking it. We don't really want to cancel our holiday but getting to catch the flight is now going to be a major (and costly) problem so the temptation is there to scrap the whole thing and book/plan a bigger better holiday in the early part of next year instead.

I'm pretty pissed off with them right now as you can imagine.

BT = Bloody Terrible or "Why I have had no internet for a week"

Oh dear here I go again....Another regretful business deal with a "service provider" When myself and B Man moved into our flat he already had a contract for Sky broadband so to keep it going we had to have a BT line. Neither of us were very happy about this as we had both had previous bad experiences with the notorious BT, but it had to be done (Its the only way you can have sky broadband for those who are blissfully unaware) So we had the line fitted and from day one have had constant hassles and problems, including a fault that took about a month to fix and again ended with us having no net connection for a week.

This time however the problem was dire, BMan got a call from his sister who had tried to call the home line but couldn't connect to it. This lead to us testing the phone and finding out that whilst we had a dialling tone we couldn't call out. So on the mobile I hop to BT "Customer services" I am initially told by the first advisor that I had a type of account that she couldn't deal with so I was transferred. A nice man in the billing department looked at my account and informed me that my line has been terminated..."Oh? I haven't had a bill" "hmm well the system is showing that you did not pay your last bill and you have been cut off. " Oddly he asked me when I noticed and was surprised when I said "about a day ago" so it sounds like it was cut off a good while before.
He checked the account and agreed that there was no outstanding amount (I had just made a payment for the month after the apparent "fault" prompted BMan to check the account online)
The nice man in billing then says - "well I can put you through to services and they will be able to reconnect you, just explain our conversation to them." Ok cool...easy to sort.

No.

I was then transferred to another man who instantly said "I'm sorry but I can't help you right now, our system is down so I cannot see your account." ok...but the last guy could...why can't you? "Its a different system, I can't see your account please call back tomorrow."

ok.. I'm baffled but I'll do that.

They were unfortunate, I didn't call them back...BMan did.... the end result was that they had disconnected our line for non payment (even though the bill was paid before it was actually due) the problem arose from a credit that was put onto our account that the highly sophisticated computer system had listed as unpaid (even though that amount had been credited...) and in order to reconnect us they wanted to credit check BMan again and sign us into another 12 month contract. He told them in no short order where they could stick that plan. They then had the audacity to inform him that a final bill with a disconnection charge would be heading our way, they were also told where to stick that and exactly how far... We should now be expecting a credit for the bill paid.

But this left us with no BT line...oddly the broadband was still working however so neither of us were very fussed.

The next day BMan gets home to find out that the broadband has also ceased to exist. So as an act of desperation we are now Virginmedia customers...

And the winners are..

My work don't really socialise. Its understandable, we spend 8 hours a day, 5 days a week together and I don't think most of us actually like each other that much...But they're not really a bad crowd - Honest. ;) So, when a charity quiz night was organised it was quite a surprise that some of us were willing to go. Five of us from my team initially got tickets, one had to pull out on the day, but that's still not a bad turnout really. Teams of 6 were permitted, so with DaBMan seeing his sister off at the airport, I called upon the "universal knowledge" that is Gurn to maximise our chances of actually getting a question right (although when asked what his specialist subject might be by my work colleagues the best I could come up with was "Comics?").

Little did I know what I was letting myself in for... I now know things about this man I would have never even thought of...These include: -

1. That he is a secret Cliff Richard fan
2. That he knows a little too much about cross stitch that a man really should
3. Just because he has visited a place on holiday doesn't actually mean he knows where it is

Overall we did pretty well, coming second out of about 9 teams (only about 3 points behind the winning team) This will be a point rubbed in at work tomorrow, believe me!

Best answer of the night came from our team too, on the very first question...

Q. Where would you be if you were at Ronaldsway Airport?
A. In a plane

Geography... not a strong point...