Not Responding…

One of the most annoying messages that comes up on my laptop is ‘…not responding.’ It’s a complete waste of a message. If I cannot fathom out on my own that whatever website or program I am trying to use is ‘not responding’ then I should not have a computer in the first place. You can usually tell when it’s ‘not responding’ because I am swearing under my breath and wondering if throwing the laptop across the room would help.

This is one of the reasons why I do not own a tablet PC – the flat design would be quite easy to throw across the room when I’m busy having a tantrum – so I do not think it would last very long in my hands.

My smartphone is only 6 months old and so far doesn’t tell me anything is ‘not responding’….in fact it seems to work really rather well. The only disappointment is that the battery is beginning to fart and die around 9pm. But then I have been using it for texts, calls, internet browsing, music streaming, maps and social media for a lot of the day.

Tonight I watched [Lord knows why] Channel Four’s program ‘Bedtime Live’ – a show all about helping parents getting kids to bed (I don’t have kids). Before I started to watch the show I did wonder if it was really necessary to dedicate an hour of live tv to something that happens up and down the country every night – and has done for many many years. There is nothing new in kids going to bed. But having watched the show I was totally drawn in.

Whether it was the single mum, the parents of twins or the parents of the toddler who needed motion to get to sleep, I felt for them all. I just wanted to hug Zoe, the single mum, who faced the battle of bedtime on her own. But then I got a bit cross.

The show’s expert had travelled to a Merseyside school to explain the impact of lack of sleep on teenagers. The featured family had twin 14yr olds and a younger child who was (I think) around 11 or 12. It would seem that it is quite normal for many teens to be up until the wee small hours as they play on their games consoles. The parents of the featured family merrily laughed at their kids apparent addiction to gaming…well aware of the late nights their kids are having.

At this point I was shouting at the tv. ‘YOU ARE THE ADULTS – MAKE THEM STOP!!!’ could probably be heard quite clearly through the wall by my next door neighbour as I shouted pointlessly towards the corner of the room – the parents might as well have signs around their necks that said ‘not responding’ because quite frankly they were not. 

One has to say the show’s producers were quite brave as they fitted night vision cameras into the twin boys bedroom to monitor their sleep pattern after using the games equipment – and then again when they had not. It struck me as quite dangerous…do we really want to watch teenage boys in the darkness of their bedroom? No thank you. Needless to say there were great improvements the next day when the kids had not been using their tech until 2 or 3am. Rocket science. Not.

But one comment from the expert reminded us of why the show was necessary ‘…I left school over 20yrs ago and mobile phones were not a problem then..’ The speed of advancement in technology and the accessibility through smart-phones is having a huge impact on the lives of not only adults – but also teens – and this is possibly having serious effects on their development. A ticking time-bomb, as the school principal commented on the show.

And this is quite a concern on so many levels. The convenience of the smart-phone is great for adults….but how suitable are they for young kids and teenagers? 24/7 access to social media, games, the internet……it’s not a good combination.

One final comment by the show’s expert was the you should refrain from using tech one hour before bedtime to help your brain adjust to sleep time. So on that basis it’s time to now stop. Before my brain is ‘not responding’……but it has all been food for thought…

Prince Charles on Countryfile, The Mail Online on Posh…and a fat bloke’s belly on…well, most things really…

I have just been to buy milk from the Tesco Local and bumped into a man [literally] who seemed blissfully unaware of the external dimensions of his beer belly – I know this because his amble mid-rift brushed against me twice (I was in the shop about 5 minutes) and he seemed totally unaware that we had come into contact. Not at all pleasant and also rather odd.

Why am I telling you that? Because on the way back home I was thinking about isolated rural communities who cannot nip 1/2mile down the road to buy supplies on a whim. (Although after hearing about the little fat man they may not be too upset by this…) The plight of these isolated communities was discussed in tonight’s BBC Countryfile program, which HRH Prince Charles was ‘guest editing.’ It would appear that succession is an issue for hill farms with very few young farmers around to take over from the existing hill farmers – many of whom are heading towards 60 years of age.

I can tell you are impressed by the knowledge I have gained from tonight’s program. It was a very interesting episode and I suggest you watch it on ‘i-player’ if you can. What was even more interesting was watching the Twitter feed – using the Countryfile hash-tag. Prince Charles definitely gained many friends amongst the Countryfile audience…with a great deal of positive comment being made about his contributions.

There have been many cheap jibes directed at Prince Charles over the years by our beloved press – but one subject the man knows plenty about is the environment and we could do much worse than listen to, and take an interest in, some of his views on the matter. To be honest, Prince Charles is someone I would love to sit down and have a long conversation with….

One of my guilty pleasures is laughing at the Daily Mail Online. It is less of an online newspaper these days and more of an online ‘celebrity gossip magazine’ - in my humble opinion anyway. But what makes a visit to the Mail Online so amusing is a quick flick through the ‘Reader’s Comments’ at the foot of most pages.

In the last few days the Mail Online posted a story about HRH Posh of Beckham. Well, most days they post a story about HRH Posh of Beckham to be fair……but this particular story involved Her Royal Poshness taking her Range Rover Evoque for a drive. That was it. The story was literally that Posh had taken the keys of her Range Rover Evoque and driven down the road herself. Somehow the Mail Online dragged this out to a full page http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2290100/Victoria-Beckham-heads-drive-Range-Rover-Evoque-helped-design.html 

The tone of the article was so sycophantically written I was nearly sick…… ‘ With her brunette locks tumbling in loose waves  around her shoulders, the mother-of-four cut an effortlessly stylish figure in a  simple black ensemble and aviator sunglasses’…….wrote the Mail Online journo who was clearly either padding out copy beyond belief or genuinely in awe of Her Royal Poshness….’As a busy working mum, the Spice Girls singer no  doubt had a jam-packed day ahead of her, and seemed to be concentrating intently  as she embarked upon her jobs for the day.’ – oh please!!!

But what made me feel a bit sad was the content of the ‘readers comments’ for this particular story. Have a look using the above link. There is so much anger, and hate, and cynicism, and bitterness ……. all arising from the non-story of Her Royal Poshness driving down the road in a Range Rover. It says so much.

Finally, I am sure you have been highly entertained by Mr Beiber and his trip to the UK this week. What a master stroke in PR this leg of his world tour has been. But in all of this flim-flam surrounding his visit the one question that springs to mind is….where are his parents? He strikes me as someone who needs advice from his family right now. That’s all.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

People watching – and the Dad who didn’t quite ‘get it’….

This morning I had to stand outside my office waiting for a colleague to arrive, as I have to do from time to time. I don’t mind in the slightest as I can engage in a little ‘people watching’ - for example –  the woman who wears animal print coats and the highest heels possible … but who also pulls along a shopping trolley…I often wonder what or whom inspires her dress sense. Then there is the man who walks his daughter to school…..and the daughter is almost as tall as he is… even though she is going to a primary school. And not forgetting the family who all (and I mean all - father, mother and daughter) regularly skip along hand in hand singing nursery songs and suchlike…..quite a spectacle….but who looked serious and miserable as sin on Valentine’s Day…..I’m intrigued to know which one forgot to buy a card….

But while I was waiting this morning, it soon came apparent that there was some kind of cycling event going on at the local school as there seemed to be an awful lot of kids on bikes carefully making their way to class.

I was impressed by the two small lads who cycled along the pavement, wearing their bike helmets, but then got off their bikes to wait and then cross at a pedestrian crossing once the little green man appeared. Much more sensible than the teen who blundered into the road and didn’t seem to register where he was until he finally noticed the car driving towards him. Then there was the Dad who was cycling along, barking out instructions to his two sons cycling ahead of him, who were all being jolly brave amongst the rush hour traffic in their fluorescent jackets and cycling helmets.

There were many other children with their parents and sole young cyclists who were making their way to school….and I was quite impressed with how all the children seemed to be embracing the day. Then there was one ‘Dad’ who just didn’t seem to ‘get it’ in the same way as the others. And it made me laugh.

As the cycling Dad and his two sons sat at the traffic lights waiting for ‘green’, a Jaguar saloon pulled up alongside them with the boot lid up and a bike sticking out of it. Inside was a man driving and a young lad sat in the passenger seat. The driver seemed to look across at the cycling Dad for a few moments as they all waited for the traffic lights to change colour. This was the moment I imagined the penny dropped. ‘Ah……’

I couldn’t help but smile…….what a prat.  

 

 

Tom [not-so] Cleverley’s crap car, the Dacia Duster and Robbie Rogers

Last Saturday I past the Manchester United player, Tom Cleverley, in his black Mercedes G-Class 4×4. I was driving to the shops – he was, I suspect, driving home from training.

The Mercedes G-Class is not a pretty car. Nor is it a cheap car. It is, however, a crap car. What Car magazine rated the Mercedes G-Class with just one star out of a possible of five.

In order to buy a Mercedes G-Class you must be a wealthy person. They start from a shade under £83.000 and the top model costs around £123,000. Hands up if you have bought the wrong car then, Mr [not-so] Cleverley.

So what car should our budding first team ManU player be splashing his cash on? Well if he has to have a 4×4 within a similar price range he could actually save himself a few quid by buying one of the new Range Rovers. I saw one the other day and they are truly huge, but they are also much better on fuel and CO2 emissions than its predecessor.

But perhaps the car Mr Cleverley should be buying is a Dacia Duster. http://www.dacia.co.uk/ Indeed, the intro on the website even says “At Dacia, we make a simple range of cleverly designed vehicles”….so they obviously had him in mind all along…and starting at just £8995 he could save himself a fortune – or buy himself one for each day of the week plus another two for his parents. What Car magazine even rate it as three out of five stars…so much better than the G-Class. Splendid.

Finally, the footballer Robbie Rogers came out this week and promptly retired from football. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2279324/Robbie-Rogers-Leeds-comes-gay-retires-aged-25.html Good luck to him. You can read his blog in full here: http://www.therobbierogers.com/ it makes great reading.

Have a great day

Polar bears, dodgy search engine terms and mixed feelings about HMV…

I have just finished watching a repeat of Gordon Buchanan’s BBC program about Polar Bears. They are truly majestic beasts and the show is a ‘must watch’ if you haven’t had chance to do so as yet. Now, it could be that it has been jolly cold today and that my house is taking an age to warm up….or it could be a psychological effect of watching all the snow on that program…..but I am typing this leaning against the radiator feeling like a right wimp as I rarely feel the cold at all.

Before I get started on the subject of today’s rant, I thought I would share with you some of the ‘search engine terms’ that have brought visitors to my humble blog. I love to read what people type in…it really can be quite hilarious. I will list the ten most intriguing below:

1. ‘Sue Barker’s house’
2. ‘Greg James penis’
3. ‘Where to buy emily maitlis black top’
4. ‘gamekeeper porn’
5. ‘sex in toyota iq’
6. ‘caning tom daly’
7. ’32 inch tv too big to carry one person’
8. ‘did itv have subliminal images on their broadcast yesterday’
9. ‘dogging team valley’
10. ‘oral sex in romania’

So, basically, if you have arrived at my little blog whilst in the middle of indulging your odd fetishes with the help of google….then hello and I hope you manage to get help. To everyone else…..read on

Today it was announced that the UK music retailer, HMV, has called in the administrators. This has triggered a wave of nostagia from Twitter users with ‘HMV’ trending for most of the last 24 hours. It is a terribly worrying time for the employees of HMV and my thoughts are with them as they cope with all the uncertainty over the coming weeks.

I did visit HMV before Christmas – for the first time in ages- and it felt quite ‘retro’ to be walking into a shop to buy music or a dvd. And this is, of course, part of the problem. In a digital age HMV remained firmly on the high street when Amazon and other retailers focused on internet sales benefitting from the associated cost savings.

There were many ways in which HMV could have reacted to the shift in trends their markets experienced over recent years….but they appeared to do nothing. In the back of my mind I am thinking of the book ‘Who moved my cheese.’ HMV has been in business for many years, but this does not guarantee a future as Woolworths, Currys or Rover can testify.

The one thing that did surprise me when I visited HMV was the number of younger (sub 30) customers looking through the games, DVDs and CDs. I imagined it would be full of people too scared of the internet to try and use Amazon. And the customers were not all geeks seeking out obscure heavy metal bands either. And this was before Christmas.

This makes me feel even sadder about the demise of HMV. My gut feeling is that there was an opportunity all along to turn the fortunes of this company around – that there was a real chance to do something a bit special with the brand….something a bit innovative…..but did the management have their heads in the sand? Or worst still up their own….ah, hold on, I can see another dodgy search engine search happening. I shall stop there.

So good luck HMV and all who work(ed) there.

BBC tv’s ‘War on Britain’s Roads’ and the sadness of a suicide

On Wednesday I watched the BBC! program ‘War on Britain’s Roads’….and I am glad I did. The aim of the program was to explore the relationship between the motorist and the cyclist on our roads in the UK and, as you may expect, there was footage to show bad behaviour on both sides and interviews with individuals that aimed to reflect a cross section of views.

I used to cycle a fair amount when I was younger but, maybe predictably, when I passed my driving test and bought a car the cycling more or less stopped. I would be the first to admit that the roads of a busy town or city must be an intimidating and dangerous place for a person on a bike these days – but as I described in my blog of 7th September, many inner city cyclists behave in such an angry and ‘f**k you’ kind of manner, that in many cases they seem to make the environment more dangerous for themselves.

I fully agree that motorists need to give bikes more room and on roads there must be careful consideration for those pedalling rather than motoring, remembering their vulnerability at all times but, in my humble opinion, a lot of cyclists need to observe some basics…..decent lights when it’s dark, do not wear dark clothing, observe traffic lights/highway code (you are not permitted to cycle on the pavement and you must obey all traffic signs and lights….for example), and realise that motorists do not want to kill you…… think about whether you are positioning yourself on the road in such a way that you can be seen (avoid mirror blindspots) and do not try to take on large metal objects however angry you are feeling. Cycling is good. Cycling is healthy. But not if it makes you that angry.

The BBC program was sensational in style but it also highlighted an issue ….. and I loved the cycling policeman….and I think the young man with glasses who was interviewed throughout the show might need some media training and some anger management counselling. In my own opinion. But the mpther of the cyclist who was killed by a truck was terribly brave in the way in which approached the company that owned the truck.

The best quote came from the mother of the dead cyclist. ‘It is a competitive space [on the roads] when it needs to be a co-operative space..’ – which sums it all up perfectly. Maybe we need to look to the Netherlands for some tips.

The terribly sad news of the death of Jacintha Saldanha came as a huge shock yesterday. Jacintha was the nurse who took a prank call from an Australian radio station, whose DJ’s were pretending to be The Queen asking after the Duchess of Cambridge as a prank. The assumption has been made in the UK press that the death of Jacintha Saldanha was a suicide – most likely as a consequence of struggling to deal with the pressure and humiliation of being tricked – the fall out of which was reported globally.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20649816

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2244608/Jacintha-Saldanha-Familys-grief-suicide-nurse-transferred-DJs-hoax-Kate-Middleton-hospital-call.html

I cannot imagine how a lady, whose job and primary concern was caring for people, could have felt when she was tricked in such a public way. It would have been fascinating to have listened in to the meeting that will have taken place at ’2DayFM’ in Australia when they planned the prank. What consideration was made for the nurses at the hospital? Was the radio station blinded by the hope of high ratings and notoriety if their prank was successful? Did they consider that the Duchess is actually a young woman in the early stages of her first pregnancy who had to stay in hospital ….. was this the wisest subject of a prank??

My initial feeling was anger towards the two Australian DJ’s who did the prank call and who appeared to love the global coverage of the aftermath, but now I feel pity. Their rather pathetic glory at the extent of the initial press coverage has flipped in such dramatic fashion …. that I imagine their own well being must now be a real concern. And whereas I recognise that the two DJ’s (Mel Greig and Michael Christian) would never have imagined this outcome, it does rather illustrate the shallowness of what they were doing. In many ways the most respectful thing to do is for the two DJ’s and the production team/managemen team to be sacked and for the radio station to award damages to the family of Jacintha Saldanha/make a very large charitable donation in her name. The whole episode is sickening and I hope the family of Jacintha Saldanha do feel the overwhelming wave of sympathy towards them.

Skyfall…..

It has been many weeks since I last updated my blog, so I felt it was about time to focus and get writing. What is slightly disturbing is that my stats for the blog appear to have maintained a steady rate of hits regardless of the fact I haven’t written anything for about 6 weeks. In fact, yesterday saw one of the highest number of hits I have had for a while. Hmmm. So ‘hello’ to the good people of India, Portugal, Belgium, Chile, Ethiopia and Australia who, along with some fine UK citizens, decided to read my ramblings.

Yesterday I went to see the latest James Bond film, ‘Skyfall.’ I had been meaning to go and see it for sometime, but finally got round to going to the cinema yesterday afternoon. http://youtu.be/6kw1UVovByw

What I must say first of all is that if you manage to watch the film, as I did, behind an elderly couple where she is a bit deaf …. then that will add to the enjoyment of the film no end. Towards the beginning of the film, Bond follows a Baddie to a skyscraper where an assassination is about to take place. In the process of gaining access to the building the Baddie shoots a couple of security guards. Just after the first shooting, the old bird in front said (rather loudly) ‘Oh dear…’ which kind of set the tone for the afternoon.

My parents watched the film a week before I did and my Mum couldn’t help but let slip a couple of key plot lines and also vented her frustrations at the ending. ‘It did go on a bit. I wanted to go and kill him myself. He just refused to die. I could have killed him much quicker…’ At the time I thought my Dad’s look of horror was due to the declaration that his wife of 49 years wanted to kill a man, but it was, with hindsight, a look of horror that Mum was going to blurt out the surprise ending to the film. Thankfully she didn’t. And nor have I

The film is quite long, but I have to say I was enjoying it so much it didn’t feel like 2.25hrs at all. As I am a bit of a car freak, I was loving the Audis, the Jags, the Land Rovers and…..the Aston. I particularly loved the part of the film where he goes to get his DB5 from the garage – and the reaction of the audience in the cinema. A comforting ‘ahhhh.’  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pngh_NFY0qg

The stunts are one of the major draws of a Bond film as they do not use CGi as seems to be the norm these days. And spectacular they were. I understand they got through 15 Audi A5′s when they were filming the opening (I just wish I was given one – lovely cars) The use of the helicopter in the final few scenes was brilliant too. http://youtu.be/FTVZ2WNcudU

I have to say that Mr Craig is the best Bond by far and the introduction of a new ‘Q’ works well (Ben Whishaw- from BBC’s ‘The Hour’), Dame Judi is an excellent ‘M’ – the Church of England could do well to make note – see, you can put a woman in charge…

I have not seen a Bond film at the cinema before, but I would go and watch this one again given half the chance. And the DVD will be duly purchased in due course.  As would an Audi A5 Coupe and a Jaguar XJ. But maybe after the lottery win.