washing machine

hi there

blimey, this is getting to be quite a site for advice on hoying things that run on the leccy and that from South Africa to England. i can only hope that it helps out one or two people along the way. although this post might have a reasonable level of enjoyment for all.

since our arrival in England my washing machine joys have been handled at first by my Auntie Susan and then with a borrowed machine, with thanks to the kindness of other Lee. that machine had to go back today, but Lee is a top class bloke and happily arranged to help me get my dearly beloved machine out of storage and installed OK.

yes. that's right. my washing machine survived the trial by sea, trial by shark and trial by Somali pirate. it is here, at home, up and running.

watch and listen as it does its little happy song.

very nice to hear her sing away again after some four months! i mean, my Auntie Susan's machine is ace and the one that other Lee lent us did a superb job, but it is nice to have my lovely smart fancy LG one on the go once more.

from a practical perspective i would like to think that the above shows off that oh yes indeedy SA electronic equipment works just fine in the UK. i do refer you, however, to the previous post i did. bringing a TV set (even the fancy LED or LCD ones) or printer might not be all that wise, considering the issues i have experienced. plugging in and switching on is not, after all, working.

but enough grown up and sensible stuff, behold and indeed enjoy as it goes off on one to do something called a tub cleaning run, whatever that is.

i thought it best to run the tub wash thing on it as you just cannot have any idea at all what some mucky Somalian pirates might have been doing with it. 

will there be a lot of posts about my sensational washing machine and its return to use? possibly some, but i would not imagine they will be all that frequent.

i am off to wash some clothes and things then!



be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

plugs

hi there

a bit of a follow up to this post what i did on the subject of moving electric equipment from SA to the UK. a bit of a discovery of sorts in respect of Microsoft, the Xbox 360 and their odyssey of plug adaptor fittings.

the Xbox 360 has been working fine (except for me being no use at games) via using one of them SA to UK plug adaptors. however, they are pricey (seven pounds each, as point of fact) and not really a long term solution.

i went off to get a replacement cord to put in the power adapter / convertor / big black box things, which you can see in picture here, and made a somewhat interesting discovery. this two pin plug socket thing is far away from being standard in the UK. they are, then, not readily, freely or easily available. oh dear, whoops. it seems for the most part that UK Xbox power thingies come with that 3 pin or 3 slot sort of connector for the power cord, like the kind you once upon a time would have called a "kettle cord", or if you prefer like you put in the back of a proper desktop PC.

what to do, then? stick with the adapter plug thing? as i said, not a long term fix. i did think about simply cutting off the South African plug and attaching a UK one, as in theory this should work. i am reluctant to, however, as if it does or did not then i would be stuck with no means at all of plugging it in.

i am not at all sure if your circumstances involve informing children that a toy does not work anymore due to "Daddy trying something with it", but let me assure you that this approach does not usually end very well at all. so there is no point in taking scissors, a knife and a screwdriver set to a power cord as plan a if you don't have a very good plan b in place. trust me on this one, if nothing else.

the picture you can see there, however, shows and tells you that i found an answer. with some wildcard google search action i found the correct power cord to plug into the power box thing that comes with an Xbox 360 from South Africa. two pounds and twenty one pence pieces was the cost of it, which isn't too bad i guess. better, certainly, than the thirty or so pounds an entire new Xbox 360 power cord set would have cost.

would cutting the SA plug off and attaching a UK one have worked? no idea. i am reasonably sure that yes it would, but i wasn't prepared to gamble on it. quite happy that i don't have to, to be honest.

those two hole "figure of eight" plug power cord connector things are, i am delighted to report, freely available here at the least. so i am, oddly, happier with Sony than i am Microsoft at the moment.

quite a dull post, this, for my regular readers (which yes i know is saying quite a thing) but i can only hope this info helps someone somewhere.



be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

one more train adventure, then

hi there

i am, it seems, doing three or four things at once. tasks in their multiple, if you like - oh if there were a buzzword that combined "tasks" and "multiple" to throw around as something one is good at. actually, no one is good at it as such; just some are better at juggling.

this could then end up as quite a disjointed bit of posting, so apologies if required in advance.  as more than a few of you really, really like these train things, i will try to make it a good one. it could, after all, be the last for a while.

but first, the present. sort of. you may recall my last post was about the jolly, billy-ho adventure i am about to have with the South African Post Office; an organization reluctant to work at the best of times. here i am, in good faith, posting the items.

i have every confidence that Royal Mail shall do their thing and get the items to South Africa. i have slightly less confidence that the SA end will deliver them on time, if at all. i would be delighted to be wrong.

there are a number of non-SA bound items in there too. well, two. i have every confidence that they shall arrive in good time, at the least.

onwards then, and indeed backwards to yesterday (or the day before yesterday if i only post this later than today, which is likely). i had reason, of sorts, for another train adventure. actually i could have gone by other means, but it seemed to make sense to do it all via train. so i did. but first, a stroll around the village.

yes, that road is indeed quite narrow, and yes indeed you can see two cars passing each other without quarrel or incident. they are good and polite drivers here, look you see. i am imagining a similar passing of cars on a road that narrow in Johannesburg. i sense a collision, that wall being knacked, the path being mounted, firearms and threats being drawn and a whole city brought to a standstill as everyone waits for the cops to come and do a gesture of a report and the tow truck companies to engage in fisticuffs, the winner presumably towing the cars away.

standstill, stop. think of what those words mean. now think when you hear on the news, or read in a newspaper, how stupid the speaker or writer must think you are if they decide to say "total standstill" or "complete stop". i have no idea what one would do with a phrase such as "partial standstill" or "slight stop". and don't get me started on "unique", rather look at a dictionary.

but enough linguistics, more images. i would have thought that some people around the world assume that wherever there is an village green in England there must be a game of cricket being played on it. not so, my friends, as this image shows off.

we wait until after morning tea, with scones and cream and a lovely preserve, before we take to a spot of cricket. this business of playing cricket before morning tea is some sort of ghastly, horrid notion come up with by the colonies as some sort of rebellion. it is also cheating; for if England played all their games after morning tea they would obviously win, every time.

right, i am tired. i am off to bed, taking a rest from all these tasks of a multiple nature i seem to be engaged in on a synnergy level or something. less is more, and all that. smarter not harder, if you like. more later, then.

some time passes.......

good morning, then. i am sat here with coffee and more than one task, but let me see what i can do.

also i am sat here with a new haircut and a much shorter, trimmer trimmed beard. no selfies of that yet, but of course there are one or two of me on my travels the day before yesterday. like this one.

yes indeed i am smiling in that picture, or at the least trying to. i thought it might be nice to try that instead of that usual sort of look i have in these selfie things. unconvinced that it has worked, but i have given it a try.

i would be pretty sure that very few of you are particularly interested in what's going on with that symbol of a failed life; the "i spotted Jimmy Hill" pencil off of the Viz. for those of you who are for some reason interested, the answer is no, not yet. in the mail i have not had my SAE delivered, so no pencil for me as of yet. if it does not arrive in the post today this will mean i face going through Easter without it.

a more pressing interest from many of you will be, i imagine, in if i have any pictures like the one above, only slightly different in so far as they do not feature me blighting, so to speak, the landscape. the answer, to the delight of many, is yes of course.

wow, it really is a beautiful part of the world that i am fortunate enough to call home. the purple haze tint that my blueberry camera has added for unknown reasons is nothing more than a bonus, i suppose.

another thing that a number of people seem to get all enthusiastic about would be video. specifically, to the point, no-nonsense video clips that do the job quickly. if you are one of the legion who see things this way, then here is a video for you.

here for your pleasure is a video of a tractor doing its thing. which is being driven about the fields by a farmer, of course, but you can see that in the clip. actually you can't as it is from a distance, but now that you know what you are looking at you can.

many of you may well find yourself singing One Man Went To Mow A Meadow as you watch the above, and that's fine. if i had either the technical know how, the actual name of the song or as point of fact the copyright permission i may well have dubbed that jolly tune onto the clip for you.

One Man Went To Mow A Meadow was, of course, basically the celebrated and to some highly successful basis of the Conservative Party's brilliant idea of fixing unemployment in the 1980s. well, fixing unemployment in that "unknown and unmapped" area of the country north of all known civilization, which for most Conservatives seems to come to an end in the upper regions of Watford. they took it as a given that it was just all big fields, full of huts and that, where sheep and cows roamed. meaningful employment, then, was "likely" if everyone in these wastelands simply took a bike, pedalled to a field and mowed it. nice one, cheers for that.

hey ho, moving on then, and another picture of me, and again i am trying to do that "smile" thing; that one that makes the world go around more better than if one did not smile, i am led to believe.

apologies, if you wish them, for all the me, moi and indeed i nature of some of the pictures, then. for some reason some people quite like seeing me and how i am getting on, although i would think more just want the adventures and the bits that are not me.

to that end, my battles with time and distance, in particular with regards to what google assumes about a combination of the two, seem to continue. my walk to the train station this time around saw me arrive even earlier than the last one, despite a good deal of faffing around on the high street and around the green. i can only assume the lack of me stopping to have speaks with anyone was at the heart of how i managed to somehow beat time.

how fortunate, then, that one of the shops in the village provided me with some reading material to pass the time.

no, this would not usually be the sort of thing i read. however, the shop was offering this current edition of this magazine at less than 25% of the cover price. words are words, really, when you think about it, so this was very much a case of "aye, that'll do". especially as it worked out a good deal cheaper than the majority of newspapers on offer.

as it turned out, however, words are not just words, after all, and i found the content of this magazine to have little in it that caught my attention. my (considerably) better half rather likes it, so it was far from a total waste. in fact it seems to have generated a rather good return on investment in the grand scheme of things. it just did not do the job that i wished it to do in respect of making the minutes move away full.

i had to, then, mess about with the camera and that on the blueberry for some entertainment, which meant i had a go at some sort of "artsy" if not symbolic images. like, for instance, this one.

yeah, not too artsy really, but then again i made no claim of being artsy or any sort of artist.

although i do try, i suppose. like, for instance, with this next picture of some train tracks. and no, i am not going to go off on one about vanishing points again; for that you are most welcome to go back to the other train adventure i recently had and read all about it.

it is quite class and trusting that one can access the tracks if they so wish, is it not? the warning sign about not doing it is, however, usually enough to prevent people from doing so. that and a natural sense that messing about on a railway line is an ill-advised thing to do. rather refreshing to be given the choice to be stupid; no fences or walls exist to stop you from following that path.

is this post as disjointed as i feared, suspected and warned? perhaps, so let us mix it up some with a look at how all that quitting / cutting down considerably on the smoking front is now going.

quite possibly not at all that well, but then again not entirely as bad as the above picture says. although look how nice and distracting all them lovely Spring flowers, daffs i believe, are.

cut down a lot, really, but yes i confess i could be cutting down a good deal more. i shall try and renew my efforts in this respect, honest.

electroniky cigarety is indeed, as point of fact, helping me and indeed my (considerably) better half to cut down on the less electroniky, more expensive ones. so that's a step in the right direction, at the least.

for those of you with an avid interest in the world of video content on a blog like this then here is another one that you can watch and, indeed, listen to. following on from the clip of a train leaving a station in the last post on this subject, i thought for some reason that you might want to see one arriving.

i am uncertain if the above is of any use at all to the more trainspotting member of this mostly fine world of ours, but if it is well then so much the better. i suspect that they would rather be out spotting the trains in person, as that seems to be what the hobby is all about, but this might do for those times when one cannot get out and do it themself.

did i feel somewhat slightly anoraky standing and filming this? of course, yes i did. but this is hardly anything new to someone who, for instance, sees it as a good idea to try and get a "free" pencil off of a magazine. deary me, this life i lead can be quite overwhelming and grind me down sometimes. i should, and in fact do, know better, but onwards i go with it.

as for why i was off into town on a train adventure once again, well, it was to conduct a little bit of business. business that, alas, means that train adventures in the future will be limited - possibly not happening much at all, really. i went to buy one of them bus pass things, look you see, to assist me in my travels.

whilst the sad and upset ways of the above sink in, why not distract yourself with a look at town bathed in the blue sky and sun that Spring has unleashed. no, i can't remember why i took this picture, so that description of it will have to do. oh look a traffic light.

i would love nothing more at all than to be riding the train tracks on a regular basis. it is cheaper, faster and a good deal more comfortable. the harsh, hard and stark reality of it all is, sadly, that the trains simply do not run at a time that i need to travel. it would be amazing if i were in a position whereby i only had to start travelling at 10am each day, but there is no such amazement for me, dear reader. or many others, really, which explains why twice i have been the only person at the station waiting for that service.

the bus is sometimes fun anyway, and gets me where i need to be pretty close to the time i have to be. it also allows me to play the class "famous person" spotting game pioneered by my mate Jeremy, but i cannot disclose further details of that here. and no it is not that Jeremy, not the lippy one off the TV that does the cars and that. a proper, real person of the same name is who i speak of.

my chum Spiros, you will be pleased and relieved to hear, is still wrestling with how to go about getting a suitable, lifestyle matching haircut. to this end, i decided to take another picture of the Turkish barber that he is currently stil considering coming up here to contract the services of.

we all, and indeed they, hope that Spiros makes a decision on where best to get his hair done soon. they cannot, i suspect, keep reserving a chair for him all day every day in the hope that he turns up.

you may have worked this out already, but i did not take all that many pictures as i was out and about this time. i sort of somewhat forgot to do so, but also my battery was running reasonably low. sorry about that.

i did at least take a picture of the station down town for you, basked as it is in the sunshine of the earlier image.

on the train back i did, i must confess, get a little bit camera happy. sadly the happiness was not matched by any sort of ability on the behalf of the blueberry camera. the time between me pressing the "take picture" button and the picture actually being taken was of a wild google nature and i missed various landmarks as a consequence. whoops, sorry.

i did however, i think, take a much more better image as i went through Nunthorpe this time. i had a particular request to do so, and it was a request that i was very happy to meet.

all them cars and that stuck there are victims of really bad luck. as trains only pass this way at the most six times a day, how unfortunate that they should happen to be on the road and heading across the railway line crossing at a time when the train takes moments to pass it. no doubt a number of the drivers were distressed about their misfortune; perhaps one or two even got quite cross about it.

mindful of the distinct and real possible chance that this could be the last train adventure i have for a while, i decided to be brave and bold, dear reader. yes. i took a selfie of myself on the train itself, figuring if anyone did not like it then that was more their problem than it was mine.

indeed no, i seem not to be doing that smile thing this time. see it, if you like, as a moment of sad reflection on the possibility that i will not be on the train again any time soon.

so goodbye, then, dear train. thank you for the wonderful, comfortable and very nicely priced transportation that i needed to have. i do hope that i get to ride in this way again soon.

a picture, then, of the train pulling away in its gentle ways, leaving the station.

but the above, of course, does not mark the end of this particular blog post. not when i have uploaded some more pictures (well, one more) and, indeed, another video for your further viewing pleasure.

why is it, you may ask, that i mess about with buses and trains when i have a perfectly good car at my disposal? those of you who know me are quite aware of the answer. i do not like driving, and driving really does not care at all for me. others have a better relationship with it all and that's great for them. i prefer to live a life as free of car use as possible, and in no way does that mean that i am better or worse than anyone who does opt for a more car using way of life.

here then is a video of a bit of river doing its thing.

feel free to relax, unwind and indeed chill as you watch the gentle flow of a stream right there. that's kind of why i put the video here, but i won't get upset if you ignore it. not that i will know if you ever play it or not.

a last picture, then, of the road back home. looking, if i say so myself, lovely in the sun.

and that, dear reader, is just about that. off i go now then to do a task or two of a multiple nature once more, including as point of fact seeing to see if i can think of one word that covers a description of doing a number of tasks all at once.

i can only hope the odd element of this post has been of interest to someone somewhere!



be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

trial by post office

hi there

well let's see how this one works out, shall we? which one? doing this blog post on the child's toy for a start, since this device is the best and easiest to take images off of the iTwat. which means yes, Commodore 64 mode is the way we are going here.

look you see, an image of me in Commodore 64, showing that my knacked eye is all mended now as well as revealing that i could well be in need of a haircut and a touch of beard styling.

but enough of that. the real reason for this post/moan is that i have need, it being so close to May, to trouble the South African Post Office to do the job which they are paid to do. i have several items that i shall be posting; doing so knowing that the chances of them being delivered are, alas, 50-50 at best.

this time of year, and this year in particular, poses many challenges for any sort of public service being done in South Africa. why that is we shall get to, but first, on the off chance that they are never, ever seen again after i have posted them, here is a highlight of what it is i am posting.

yes indeed i have left the pen on the envelopes in a way that i believe that Lord Hanson would have. if only i could find that image of him wafting his fountain pen around.

anyway, here are the challenges or if you like trials that this mail will feature as it heads towards South Africa. and let there be no doubt at all that Royal Mail will at least get the mail to the border of SA, what happens next is sadly out of their hands.

here are the dates that will disrupt post (and everything) in South Africa

April 18 - 21 - this is Easter weekend. i have avoided sending mail so early that it would be in SA for this particular weekend as it will be a write off.

April 27 - Freedom Day. this is a Sunday, so the Monday will be a holiday. no bad thing, except for what happens a couple of days later

May 1 - May Day public holiday. on a Thursday. which means most (all Post Office staff) will take Friday off. and the Wednesday and Tuesday before it.

May 7 - Election. a public holiday in South Africa, and look it is on a Wednesday. so most (all Post Office staff) will decide to take the Thursday and Friday off too. they will probably rather just be on strike on the Monday and Tuesday.

yes, i have gone for that "dithering" thing on the other Commodore 64 camera "app" i have with that picture above, and indeed the one below.

as you can see, then, the next 2 - 3 weeks represent a time when little, if any, work will be done by any State or public sector employees in South Africa. and that is little by their own standards. i suspect elements of this mail, having no value beyond sentimental, will simply just vanish or be discarded. and yet, still, i insist on trying as i like sending mail and cards to people.

who knows, perhaps the SA Post Office staff - in particular those who sort the mail and deliver it - have had some bizarre change of heart and simply get on with the job they are paid to do instead of just standing around thinking of reasons to go on strike.

of the items i have posted to South Africa this year, just about 50% has actually been delivered. that i suppose is a semi-impressive ratio, considering general incompetence and frequent strikes. the last i heard was that the most recent strike was about the expectation for staff to deliver the mail that had built up during the strike before, which pretty much tells me exactly what fate befell the birthday cards we sent to my beloved mother-in-law.

it will be with surprise and shock if i learn that all these items land! if they do so on time, and none are due for another month, well then so much the better.

yeah, will get a hair cut and a beard trim.



be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

erm.....................

hi there

the below is from, and thus all credit to, the Daily Mail

Rooney Scholes? i see.

what exactly, one wonders, would have been wrong with George, Bobby, (ahem) Ryan or indeed Alex; somewhat traditional first names that are usually instantly associated with the club. or Eric. or Bryan. Ronaldo, even.

hey ho, good luck with that.



be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Forbidden World

hello there

much to my disappointment, frustration even, i simply do not get the time, margin or chance to watch all of the films that i wish to see. so it's a bit weird that when i do get the chance to watch something i watch utter, utter rubbish, i suppose.

this is Forbidden World, also known as Mutant. i kind of knew it would be rubbish, but watched it anyway in the wild hope that it would at the least be entertaining rubbish. and it was.

why did i end up watching this? because it's about 75mins long. that is roughly how long Toy Story 2 is, which my (considerably) better half was watching with the boys, leaving me free and clear to watch this undisturbed and at the same time. yeah, when you are picking a film on the basis of running time there's a problem.

i believe it is supposed to be a sequel to something called Galaxy Of Terror, which i have heard of but not seen. it did not really affect following this if that's the case.

what is it and what is it all about? well, in 75 minutes it manages to rip off (take a breath) Alien, Battle Beyond The Stars, The Thing, elements of Soylent Green, every bonkers scientist thing you have seen, Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica and probably one or two things i have not seen. it also throws in some grotesque horror scenes and a substantial amount of rudey-nudey stuff. and it even sort of clings to a coherent plot and story.


so actually it was not rubbish. quite good, really.doubt i would watch it again, but i think i will have a look you see around for this Galaxy Of Terror thing. which i suppose i will just have to watch as a sort of 'prequel' thingie, then.



be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Pondo? Pondo is that you, you jack rabbit?

hi there

well, what can i say. after successfully introducing someone else to the sheer magic and brilliance of The Party Animal, time for an update. since they who were introduced to the wonders of this film went off on one of them jolly google crusades and found the following.

as my post from a few years ago, linked above, mentions, Matthew Causey, did little if anything else film wise after the awesome performance he gave as Pondo Sinatra. he did, however, go on to become a Doctor of Film, which is quite cool.

if the above image and link are simply not enough for you and you have a wish to see Pondo in action more recently, well then - here is video of him!

obviously soon i shall be looking in to how one registers at Trinity College, Dublin, to study film and that. in the mean time, however, i am awaiting delivery of a film i have ordered. it might star or in some way feature Dr Causey, but it most certainly was directed by David Beaird, he who made the awesome thing that is The Party Animal.

My Chauffeur it is called. probably won't be as good as Party Animal, but let me give it a try anyway. although yes indeed, that Sam Jones is indeed the Sam J Jones, him off of Flash Gordon. so it should be interesting anyway. will let you know as and when it arrives and when i have watched it!



be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

found around

hi there

time for a little break, methinks, from the sort of me, moi, i type of stuff that blogs inevitably become or come across as. with that, then, one or two things that have struck me as kind of curious from across the width, breadth but perhapt not the length of the net.

a rather tame thing to start with, really.

difficult to tell the motivation here. was it that they could find absolutely nothing to do with a perfectly fine ten pound note and thus they decided to simply deface it, making it as far as i am aware no longer legal tender, instead of saving it for the next time they went to some sort of shop or menders?

perhaps it was just that they had an overwhelming urge and need to pay tribute to the late Ms Amy Winehouse, which is understandable, and at the same to wished to make clear exactly what valuation they had placed on their own special tribute.

a confession would be that i have never looked at a bank note and said "let me deface that", much in the same way i have never looked at Queen Elizabeth II and thought "with a little bit of imagination she could look a lot more like Amy Winehouse than she presently does". so full credit, and indeed respect, to the creator of this interesting and quite possibly less than legal inspired tribute.

credit, indeed, also to this chap right here.

it would be easy to point, laugh and pour all sorts of homophonic scorn on this gent, which no doubt many will do, but that i kind of misses the genius of this.

an airplane or train ride, which it would seem this chap is off on, is an excellent place to do this. it's a very public and visible place, surrounded by a whole load of people you will not see again but, you suspect, people that will remember you for a fair while.

i would rather think, though, that their are certain countries around the world in which the genius of this outfit would not be as welcome as it could be. anywhere that FIFA has awarded the World Cup, for instance, would probably frown up on it. but that's more an issue for them than it is this chap, really.

would i head out and about anywhere in this sort of outfit? in all probability i would imagine the answer to that is not really, not really, no. i somehow doubt that they do them in my size, and i would almost certainly lack the bravery to do so. unless i had a bit to drink, i suppose.

one of the best elements to the chap above is, of course, that he appears to have his own sort of mini-me thing on the go out there in the world, too.

this looks a bit like one of them things that are like McDonalds and that, only fanciers. perhaps it is one of them cafe or canteen things that one finds in a hospital or places of work with a large and lucky staff number.

i am very far removed from the idea of being a fashion commentator, but for me that striped shirt does not really work with those particular pants. obviously he thinks that it does and he probably knows more of co-ordination than i do, so forgive me if i sound out of place with a critical comment. but i would have gone with a plain shirt, i think.

also i probably would not have gone with the pink pants, obviously. i like a pair of dark strides, i do. the only reason i have blue jeans (blue) is to go with them brown boots that i ended up with. that is my fashion level.

if i said there was a website out there that celebrates a sports chap who is described as being an athlete, ambassador and inspiration you would immediately think it were a site set up for John Terry by John Terry for John Terry to show support for John Terry. it is not, though - it is a site set up by some to show support for that Oscar bloke, that one that has a bit of a pressing legal issue at the moment.

those in charge of that site are rather keen to stress that one is innocent until proven guilty, which is quite correct. we should all wait and see if it is in fact proven that she shot at a door and hoped for the best.

the site features a video of Oscar being nice to people, in particular black people whilst he is wearing gloves, set to a very moving and relevant song by Westlife; a matter i am sure they are thrilled about. if one clicks on the site and has a look then one will be impressed with the sheer amazing number of nice things he has done and wonder why on earth so much fuss is being made over a minor killing.

finally, for the moment, for you and in particular for my mate Spiros, this one, which was shared and shown off to the world by that one out of that Star Trek thing. the one, George i think, that has apparently become the "Stephen Fry of science fiction", although without being quite so preachy as he; certainly not operating any sort of double standards to my knowledge.

i would suspect or hope that this picture has had one of them "photoshop" things done to it so that it says what it does to the amusement of many. you never know, though, perhaps this sign is intended to do right there what it says on the box it does. in which case i do not want to know, but i would wager that certain friends of mine, Spiros and indeed Payney, would know a lot if not all about it. and they will tell me, whether i want to know or not. which i probably don't. but maybe i do.

and that would be that. let me leave you in peace, now - the dishes in the sink are somewhat hesitant, if not reluctant, to clean themselves.




be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

moving electronical equipment from South Africa to England - advice if wished for

hello there


one of those infrequent, mostly sensible blog posts with some "in my experience / opinion" advice. answering, if you like, the kind of question i sort of should have asked before moving stuff over. hey ho, live and learn i guess.

i have, as you are aware by now, come home. i brought shiny things with me. do they all work here? yes, actually, they do. the voltage and that means that all electronic equipment will work here. if one moved from the USA to Europe or Africa, or the other way around, that would not happen, the USA is on a lower voltage.

however, some equipment works better than others do. here, for whatever it may be worth to you, are my findings. please pass on to anyone doing a move1

'digital' TV sets bought in South Africa - maybe / no

South Africa is, it seems, in for something of a shock when this digital TV broadcasting all kicks off there. why? because some digital TVs there are not as digital as you would think. to get a digital signal - and DSTV or that other satellite one is not an indicator of this - you need a TV that can receive digital signals. just because a TV is LCD, LED and "fancy" does not mean it is this. a less than year old model Samsung i have brought over does not pick up digital signals.

what to do if you have a big massive LED TV set? well, check it out. perhaps yours is a model that has digital built in, but as we shall see later on here, the same make and model of shiny things is often made in an entirely different way for different markets. in all likelihood all brands of TV made for sale in SA will not have the digital TV stuff in it because there is no need.

do not mistake a "smart" TV, one that you can connect via WiFi and other networks, as being a TV capable of receiving and displaying a digital TV singal. get it in clear black and white that it has a digital tuner and not just the capacity for an analogue signal. TVs are cheaper in SA than here, so it will be a temptation to bring it. and of course you can get it to work.

if you are going to go the way of satellite TV here - which is very expensive compared to DSTVs prices, in particular on the sport front - in all likelihood you will be "HDMI"-ing it anyway. so it will work. if you just want the normal, free-to-air Freeview here in the UK - which is ace - then you can get a decoder box that "converts" the signal and will work fine with any SA TV. except for one minor problem.

what on earth, you may ask, is this that i have pictured here? this is an obsolete piece of technology called the SCART socket. i was under the impression that this rubbish had died out in the 80s. the picture via a SCART is worse than one via those red, yellow and white A/V cables. and yet for some bizarre reason it is all the rage here once again.

for some reason, all of the cheap and cheerful Freeview decoder boxes come with a scart option alone. some of them are so enthusiastic they even have two (2!) scart sockets. as far as i know, no TV set for sale in SA has a SCART socket. the happy news is that the more expensive models - and i speak of about one hundred notes sterling - that can do HD Freeview and usual PVR functions (and stream stuff) do come with HDMI ports. so if your TV is really big, shiny, new and something you have no wish to part with, understand the cost of making it work here.

DVD and Blu Ray players are cheap here, and getting cheaper. don't buy one all special to bring this way, same zones between SA and UK so all your discs will work "lekker" too.

same goes for all your Xbox, Playstation things too. games are all PAL in the UK and SA, so ones you get in either country will work on the machine.


iTwat of the iPod variety - yes

in SA there was always a notion that shiny new things were cheaper in the rest of the world in terms of "actual" cost and "real" costs in respect of income and standard of living. this is wrong in respect of the humble iPod, amongst other things.

Apple, it seems, charges more for the iPod here in England than they do in South Africa. as a point of fact, from what i have seen, the second hand and refurbished ones costs more than the new ones do in South Africa.

if you have an iPod bring it with; if you have any intention of getting an iPod then do it in South Africa. trust me on this one; i somewhat regret not buying a second one when i saw them going at a decent price before we left.

iTwat of the iPad nature? i don't know, really. i have heard tales of the top of the range ones here costing a very good deal of money. but then again there are loads of cheap alternatives on offer here. as there are, indeed, in South Africa.

proper computer / laptop - yes

yes, heck yes, bring your computer. they seem to be very costly things over here, even on the second hand market. also licences, like Windows and Office, are a lot cheaper in SA than they are in the UK. get your PC and fully arm it with whatever software you want or need before you ship it over. you have paid the licence, they are not going to charge you the different, extra cost when you move here and change your country setting.

for some reason the "bits" are very expensive too. video cards, hard drives and all that sort of thing. monitors in particular. so "jazz" your PC in South Africa before shipping it. consider also picking up a second hand laptop in SA too, even if like me you hate the things. WiFi and that is plentiful here, and they cost less second hand in SA than they do here. i kind of wished that i had picked one up for a bargain price, but no matter, i have my proper machine on the go.

the strangest thing i have found is the cost of either internal or external DVD writer drives here, at least new. what i have seen on the shelves makes me rather glad i bought one for the child's toy netbook when i did. there is a bigger, better and cheaper second hand market - hi there, eBay - here than there is in SA, so it's not the end of the world if you don't pick one up.

external drives and that seem particularly costly here. however.......

printer - no

this was one tough lesson i have learned, and is perhaps the inspiration behind me writing all of this. if you bring a printer from SA to the UK, you will wrestle and struggle with it, as i have.

why? because printer manufacturers are, apparently, dicks. although the identical make and model printer i have is available in England, it is different in the model / number of ink cartridges it takes. apparently the ones sold in South Africa are for the "Asian" market, and designed to take different ink sets. i can find no worldly reason for this at all. cheers for that.

i am, then, finding it a hell of a struggle to get the cartridges - either genuine or "compatible" - that work with my machine. bugger.

so ditch the printer and lose the headache. prices of printers here are not unreasonable as such, and the happy news is that the "compatible" or refilled cartridges for all printer models in the UK are both plentiful and freely available.


cellphone / smartphone / mobile phone - yes

again there was always an idea that one could get better, cheaper phones around the world than they could in South Africa. not really true.

for a start, whereas in South Africa you more often than not get a phone free with a contract or upgrade, here more often than not you have to buy the handset (granted at a lower fee) and still sign a two year (or so contract).

also all phones here are sold network locked, and unlocking them, looking at prices in places that do it, is expensive. most places want, for instance, upwards of forty pounds sterling to unlock an iTwat.

this of course is not the case with a phone handset bought in South Africa. there the laws and regulations mean that they cannot sell "network locked" phones, and if they do the person who sold it to you is obliged to go right ahead and unlock it for you at no charge.

so if you are moving, do not go "oh, i will just get a class and smart new phone when i get to England". or Wales, look you see. make sure you bring yours, and if it's a bit old, rather buy a new one before you move. it will be unlocked here, thus you can pick and choose which network you want.

radio / docking station - maybe, no

the docking station you got in South Africa will most certainly work here, and will pick up FM signals no problem. but if you do that you will be missing out in a number of ways.

first off, and surprise surprise, the docking stations here actually do charge the 3rd & 4th gen models if iPods and iPhones. in SA they "do not" and this was due to the "design" of the Apple product, not a flaw in the docking station. go figure.

secondly, DAB. digital audio broadcast is what i think it stands for. your SA bought docking station or radio does not have it. the majority of them on sale here very much do have it, and it's amazing. loads and loads of excellent, first rate radio stations to choose from and listen to. very much well worth it, i say. and i know what you are thinking, but trust me - radio in England is not as bloody dire and awful as it is in South Africa.


Grown Up Sort Of Shiny Things Appliances - varies

for all the things you need around the house.....

kettles and toasters are exceptionally cheap here - even super special purple ones, as seen on the pages of this blog so far this year.

i was shocked and alarmed at the cost of irons and vacuum cleaners here. really seriously insane cost to them. i am not 100% sure that changing the plugs will work in itself - here the plugs are fused and need that third, "earth" write that is often missing from power cords and plugs in SA. you can, however, buy those "double adaptor" looking travel plug convertors that are fused. make sure you bring them too.

microwaves, fridges, that sort of thing - only if you are really attached to them. reasonable enough pricing on those here.

washing machines - well i brought mine because it does that lovely little happy song. but it does not do tumble dry, and you do really kind of need a tumble dryer here for the wetter moments in the weather.

and that's about it. hope this helps someone out!





be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

the actual return of the train adventure

hi there

oh yes indeed my eye is hurting somewhat still, and indeed i am somewhat tired, but let us see how this goes. a lot of people seem very excited about the return of the train adventure to this blog, so who am i to allow an eye infection or fatigue to stand in the way of presenting one?

that said, i seem to have taken and uploaded a far too large amount of pictures, so apologies up front and in your face right now if this gets dull and goes off course! for those of you who somehow found your way to this post but did not read the preview for it, might i be so bold as to suggest  you click here, or here click if you are Yoda, to read that to get a general feel.

after establishing times and distances, allowing for stopping to have speaks and taking pictures (see preview), today was the day to head off on an actual train adventure, not just a mere simulation of one. i progressed rather well, feeling somewhat less dizzy, and was able to take some "look at the strange angle at which i held the camera" pictures. such as this first one.

yeah, that's sort of like the slant at which the film the baddies in that Batman TV series, isn't it? the one where they covered up violence with words like "bonk" and "bang", quite sensibly so i believe.

i appreciate that i am fortunate enough to live in a beautiful part of the world as much as i appreciate that some of you for some reason prefer images of this beauty without either a class angle to the image or my presence being an integral part of it. for those of you out there reading, i am then delighted to present this image of the road and indeed path (and trees and things) which laid ahead of me as i went to the train station.

for some reason i suspect a number of you also really, really like images of railway stuff, such as signs and information and that. well, then, how about one of them electronic, or if you wish elektroniky, signs that gives one information? yes, even at a rural station.

it is interesting, i think - or maybe not - that the text on display distorts when one takes a picture quite like as happened with signs at the various Gautrain stations i took one or two pictures of for the benefit of posts last year. proably something to do with lighting or shutter speed, that.

i cannot imagine what sort of life you lead, but there are possibly one or two of you who quite liked the above image, but would quite like it even more if there was the suggestion of my presence in the picture, along with the rays (or whatever) off of the sun obscuring the elements of detail of the sign.

as luck would have it, and i did warn of some rambling in this blog post so don't moan, i have just the picture to meet that particular kind of thinking.

as it happens i arrived at the train station well far in advance of the time that i calculated i would. but you might have clocked that from the impressive number of pictures of the platform. i would not say that my timing today was totally wrong from my exercise the day before; just a bit radically off. mostly because i did not start it from where i timed it, i would agree, but also because i did not stop for any full conversations; passing pleasantries was all.

whilst i was at the station, right, my phone rang. if i worked it out right, and my one ear is no better than my one eye, but that might be because i have not put that olive oil stuff in it, it was a chap from Newcastle who was now in Leeds calling me, which was nice. we had a chat, he said he would call again, but has not done so thus far. perhaps next week.

pictures of train tracks are always awesome, aren't they? i mean, there's all that depth and perspective and that, with a class "vanishing point". not the film, or smart album off of Primal Scream, called Vanishing Point, but the same term in an artistic setting. i am pretty sure it is the artistic way of describing the point at which something vanishes on a painting or picture, quite possibly horizon-related, but you are better off looking it up on the google for an accurate answer.

i think thought this next picture answers any questions you have about vanishing points.

that bit in the picture, right, where you can no longer see the train tracks, is the "vanishing point". i think.

in regards of other things that reflect a sad, lonely, sheltered, pathetic and empty life that is somewhat resigned to acceptance of the mundane, alas no, as of yet i have not received back my "i spotted jimmy hill" pencil off of the Viz. the whole thing is conducted on a strictly second class affair postage wise; further it is all entirely at the mercy of the Viz as to when they decide they can be bothered to send one to me, if at all. i hope so, since i sent them the stamp and everything.

anyhow, enough of that. the train came along, within seconds of the time that it was supposed to dock, or whatever it is trains do (probably not 'land' as such), and off i went. and yes indeed i did get a picture or two fo me on the train, watching the world go by as i went past it, or elements of it. not all of it, of course. but a worldwide train ride would be pretty amazing, man.

it's just as well, really, that the Post Office here, as well as delivering mail and doing the job they are paid to do (SA Post Office, pay attention), value and pride themselves on discretion, privacy, confidentiality and respect. had they felt obliged to ask me what exactly i wanted a number of second class stamps for, honesty would have pressed me to tell them of my ambition to get an "i spotted jimmy hill" pencil off of the Viz. perfectly legal, of course, but the Post Office would have been well within their right to ask if next i intended to sit on a park bench, drinking meths or brass polish. it would, under the circumstances, been a fair and not unreasonable question, i suppose. pathetic, but i really do want the pencil.

i am hesitant and somewhat wary of taking wild amounts of pictures here, i must say. one hears all sorts of stories about privacy and sensitivity to such things. matters that are fair enough, really, as i would not wish to invade privacy in any sort of deliberate, direct or intended way. i suspect i am being over sensitive in this regard, but one so does wish to avoid conflict.

that said, i did get some further pictures on the train ride. like, for instance, this one of the famous, celebrated and well known Marton station.

no, i have no idea where exactly in Marton this train station is. i mean, it must be there, but for all my years in and around Marton, i have no idea where exactly one would be if they got off at this station and went for a walk around. if someone stopped me in the street and said "you, boy - you have spent many a formulative year in Marton, your knowledge shall suffice. direct me to Marton station at once, boy, and be quick as you do so", i would probably have to fall to my knees, have a bit of a "moment", break down in tears, cry of how i don't know and expect a beating as a consequence of my failure.

maybe it's down by them tennis courts, or that park. i don't know. if you are all that bothered then get a map or google it or something.

for those of you who like their stations a little less Marton and a bit more Police, well then here's a picture that will please you a very great deal indeed. i trust.

should the pencil arrive, and i would not blame the Viz if they just instead wrote back and said "you are a sad and pathetic w@nker, never contact us again", will i actually use it, or will i put it away as if it were some treasure of valuable antique? this is the question i must wrestle with for at least the weekend. quite possibly days, if not weeks, depending on just when the Viz decide to act.

to state the obvious, these pictures have of course been taken after i got off the train and went about my business; indeed business i am not prone to discuss at this stage. my business certainly did not involve this next establishment directly, but due to the expressed vested interest of a number of people i felt an obligation to take a picture of it to show off here.

ladies and gentlemen, Club Bongo International, more frequently known as The Bongo Club.

i have this one friend, and please note i did not explicitly or openly name Payney here, that frequently gets a bee in his bonnet about The Bongo Club. He sort of works himself up to a point of anticipation about going at a random date he has selected, right, and does all sorts of rituals around it. in the days leading up to the date he has selected, he will do things like light candles at certain times of the day, evoke passages from texts that he believes he should keep in mind as he attends and deploy his deft skill with cubist and impressionist art to construct complex pictures of how amazing he believes it will all be. inevitably, after the date has passed and he has been, he will only discuss his experience and time at the place with the phrase "i do not want to talk about it".

Spiros is very excited about one day attending Club Bongo International. the name alone appears to have tickled him pink, and the exciting times that another friend - again, please note i didn't mention Payney in this regard - might well have there just fuels his enthusiasm. Grantham, or Tooting, Or Kent, or wherever it is that he roams about looking for new pants these days, does not have a place that sounds as enticing or impressive, apparently. he is also rather keen for a couple of people to come with him, assuming they get their passports and visas sorted out in good time.

on, or in, Spiros and his world, regular readers of this blog will be aware of his plight and torment in respect of trying to get his hair cut in such a way that his lifestyle is affirmed by it. quite sensitive about it, is Spiros. it is quite plausible that he will, when coming to have a go at this Club Bongo International business, go to the Turkish hairdressed previously highlighted here. however, it would be mean and unfair of me not to show him this other option.

will i be going here for a haircut? only so far as to give Spiros the emotional and moral support he craves, really. i, as you are only all too well aware from the images of me, am not at all bothered about how my hair looks, really. clean is my benchmark for my hair requirements.


did i conduct that business in town that i went there on the train for? yes i did, thanks. and a good deal more that i did not particularly intend to, but more on that a bit later on. after that, i left. so here is an ill-thought out, badly executed and not even bothered to be "framed" or considered picture of the way towards the train station for you.

my apologies about the above one. my further apologies for the rather excessive level of images featuring me coming up. if you have not scrolled down for a sneak peak, well, if you don't want to see me stop reading now, i guess.

on the basis that i have not seen or heard the terms of late, i assume it is unfashionable and maybe all that politically incorrect stuff to speak of "first world" and "third world" these days. i think you are supposed to speak of "western world" and "developing countries and emerging nations", which is all rather too patronizing for my tastes. just so we are clear up front on that.

the difference between the first and third world on this earth can very much be seen in my differing train adventures. unless it is a case of thinking too much, and then of course it can't.

when the Gautrain hit, it was the most amazing thing ever. so what that it did not stop at or go to anywhere practical for the majority of commuters - it served the purpose of enough to ensure full trains at peak hours, and was very, very handy indeed for a number of requirements i had. it was reliable, affordable and pleasant. best of all, it made it possible to get to the airport on time without setting of the day before your actual flight; so notorious is the highway to it for being blocked by accidents and random strike action.

and yet the train i rode on today was pretty much, in look and appearance here in the first world, the same thing. but here it is not seen as a wonder. it's an alternative mode of transport, sure, but one that people don't seem all that keen on. i assume the lack of interest in the train is why there is a token gesture of three (3) a day, as opposed to the majestic one every twenty minutes thing that was on offer with the Gautrain.

the times that it does run here, at least to my little corner of the world, seem to have been selected at random. they are not times that would suit one for commuting to or from work, they would not be of use to someone wishing to go to town to watch a film or a match, and nor would they be of use to one who was in the town for a bite to eat. just weird times.

yes, even allowing for the fact that i am not at all good to look at, this picture is pretty bloody bad, isn't it? i think i upped it to see if it still looked bad. it does.

anyway, at the risk of going all Guevara or, perhaps, better, that twat thing Sean Penn does where he goes around the world and looks all sympathetic towards plight, it is quite depressing to see perfectly good, reliable and most importantly safe public transport being discarded and, to an extreme extent, made a mockery of. it's like here people want rid of it, despite a large number of people wishing for it, needing it and relying on it.

at the risk of being preachy, try a land with no safe, reliable or well organized public transport. when my car broke and went to the car menders i was in a situation where i had no option for safe public transport. and i lived in a major suburb. it was take enforced leave or hire a car. for those of you who say "well then don't break your car", well, a fair point, but that lacks an appreciation of my sensational driving style and the daily troubles of trying to drive reasonably legally in and around Johannesburg.

here it is quite class that they can discuss, plan and eventually build things like this HS2 business (there i said it), but a shame they are allowing the existing forms of public transport to drift away. it makes little sense to me, dear reader, that they cut down public transport on less frequently used routes to times at which it means even less people can use it on a practical level.

i have no idea where to direct this sort of protest, plight or complaint to. perhaps the press, but i seem to use all my stamps as a way of soliciting pencils off of the Viz at the moment. quite the first world problem, i am sure you might agree with if only because you cannot think of any particular reason why it would be worth the effort to disagree.

but the train is cheaper, cleaner and faster than the bus, right, and runs even less than the buses do. why the hell is no one using this instead and why on earth has the service been cut down so much.

anyway, Gypsy Lane station. a few of you may have found this post, and indeed me, by accident and have nothing but fond memories of this.

often, in my younger days (as opposed to my future ones, but you never know), i caught the train from here to town to purchase the latest vibes off of the HMV shop. Norman used to come with me sometimes, usually to buy different vibes. more metal ones, him, where i was more a classic rock or teenybop pop type of buyer. when i didn't get the train, i took the bus. oh, the joy of choice.

a station that i do not believe i ever used, but passed frequently, was Nunthorpe. i had a request from someone, let us call him Jonathan for that is his given name, for pictures in particular of Nunthorpe, so i did my best. i was, alas, on the wrong side of the train to take pictures of what i imagine he wished for me to take images of, but i gave it a go.

sorry if it did not work out as hoped.

i did, however, get a magnificent picture of the station box thing, or whatever it is called, at Nunthorpe station. it is excellent that they do not sell tickets at Nunthorpe station, but they do all the same have a station box thing. probably because the train tracks cross the car road thing there. so someone has to stop the traffic, what, three times a day. six if we assume there is always a return journey.

still, i recall this station box fondly. in the wild days of a healthy lunch of half a loaf of bread and some crisps, me and my intrepid chums discovered, by accident, that for a while in the 80s, none other than The King, Elvis Presley, based himself and no doubt his secret operations from this box. so look at this with the respect and admiration as if it were the promised land of Graceland itself, for it sort of is.

yes it is. just like Air Force One is not an actual plane, but any plane that the President of that country which name escapes me for the moment (United something) is on, so any building that The King, Elvis Presley resides in becomes Graceland, and thus He is governed by the laws of Graceland and not those of the surrounding area. so if he were displeased with something, He could dismiss it in any manner he saw fit, even if it was considered illegal, perhaps immoral, outside of the state of Graceland.

a vision of beauty and all things lovely from the window on the train? sure.

and then the train got to my station. so as i was bound to do, by the terms and conditions of the contract i had de facto entered into by purchasing the ticket, i got off. also it was handy to get off at my station as this meant that i could get home OK.

but yes, of course a picture of the train departing for you.

and so it was time to walk back home from the station. a time that one did not have to measure time, for it no longer mattered if google were correct or incorrect about how long such a walk would take. my home runs at a different, more agreeable timetable than that of the trains, thanks.

here is a picture of me probably thinking about that. or maybe just thinking "am i pressing the right button on the camera thingie". or indeed saying to myself ouch my eye is still quite sore and scratchy.

i probably won't ever use the "i spotted jimmy hill" pencil if the Viz decide to send it, you know. i think we call all guess what will happen. if they send it, i will get all excited, take pictures, do a blog post about it and then put it in a drawer or something. perhaps i should buck the trend of what i do with such things. perhaps i will force myself to use it or, if i do not feel quite so drastic, sell it to Spiros.

and if you are enthusiastic about such things, well then here is another picture of me doing the same as above, probably, but from a somewhat different angle. the eye being shown off, sort of, is the infected, bad, painful, itchy, scratchy one. although in fairness it is less so right now, a little bit watery really thank you for asking.

yes, i agree, that is a lovely bit of fence there, and my apologies for obscuring it somewhat with me being in it.

it's entirely possible as i walked that i was recalling, fondly and with the correct level of sentimental hygiene, the train rolling along away upon the tracks, in a coastal direction. if for some reason this makes you rather jealous because you cannot do the same, well actually you can. thanks to the magic of video.

here is a video, of about three seconds or so i think, of the train departing.

for some reason you people seem to like these videos, so for that reason i am happy to put them here. except i believe that them people at Apple don't like the videos so you can't watch it on certain Apple products, like the iTwat and the iTwat. sorry for that; use a device from a more reasonable manufacturer and watch away would be my advice.

another picture of moi? go on then.

here i am looking off into the distance, then, a bit like the way underwear models do for some reason that no one has ever quite worked out. maybe their jaw line, or jawline if that is a word - you know, the line of the jaw - accentuates the underwear they have on, or something like that.

one last picture of me, for this post at least, then. made a bit smaller than the rest to show some sign of sympathy for that which you are subjected to.

yeah, this is me holding the ticket, or tickets if you like. this ticket caused a bit of a scandal on the train, as it happens. the lady conductor on the train, over the microphone tanny address system thing, said quite clearly that everyone was to have the ticket for this specific journey at the ready as she came around to ram a pen through it, or write on it or something. i got a bit confused and bewildered as to which was the ticket relevant to the first journey and which was the correct one for this. i developed a strange fear of being thrown off a moving train by the lady conductor, who was lovely by the way, for presenting the wrong ticket.

in my panic, then, i opted to just simply give her both tickets and do that "look foreign" thing. you know, when you look like a simpleton and seem scared, confused and bewildered by the strange yet wonderful land you have ended up in; one in which you have no idea at all as to how the train tickets are supposed to work or in what way they are to be presented. in great fairness the lady conductor looked at the ticket, looked at me as i tried to do that "look foreign" thing, looked at the ticket, wrote on the ticket and moved on with her affairs. quite a relief, and i shall treasure the ticket right up to the point at which my (considerably) better half discovers where i have hidden it and throws it out as it is of no value or use any more.

speaking of my (considerably) better half, treats were the order of the day for her as i conducted my business in and around (well, in) town. that there is indeed one of them subway sandwich things, the one she likes.

what is it? a sandwich. oh, what's in it? chicken and avo, and some salad things and some honey and mustard sauce. on one of them honey loaf bread things, which i am led to believe is made with honey in it. the important thing is that my (considerably) better half was delighted with it, and enjoyed it as best and as much as one can in respect of a sandwich. and why not. enjoy every sandwich, a brilliant genius once spoke, just before he was taken away from this world.

the delight my (considerably) better half greeted the above item with was not really matched or mirrored with another item that i purchased. quite confused, baffled and puzzled by it, she was. although i am not. well, not much. a little, in passing, maybe.

up to now, so far as i am aware and i am happy to be corrected, i have not really had a relationship with things that are (i think) of French design and of Chinese manufacture. an unusual combination, really, personified in this box.

yes, some sort of rather basic Alcatel mobile phone thing. for what reason, since i have the blueberry and that, did i opt to buy this? well, it was significantly cheap, and the nice chap in the store did a hell of a job selling it to me.

actually, it was cheap, but not as cheap as it could have been. by recharing my phone for a specific amount, right, apparently i qualified to get the above for 49p. except, alas, i did not. i barely use my phone, look you see, and thus i had not recharged it or used it quite enough to meet their threshold of spending to qualify for it at a splendid price like that. it didn't really bother me, to be honest, but the chap looked somewhat crestfallen and down that he had, in a sense, betrayed me by dangling this French-Chinese thing at me and then snatching it away. when he persisted and looked up the non-special price - about four times the 49p special price - i said "yeah, OK" and bought it.

what's the phone like? no idea, still in the box. it looks like it does not do internets, emails, pictures of things like that, but it makes calls, sends text messages, gets delivery of both of them, and can do radio, i believe. a handy "emergency" one, then, or one simply for William and/or James to bash around a bit if it amuses either or both to do so. or i might just randomly post it to someone.

i am pretty sure that covers most if it, and indeed then some.

many thanks for reading!




be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!