Showing posts with label Tesco. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tesco. Show all posts

Tuesday, 17 March 2020

(Don't) Panic


Today is a work from home day testing the network to see in we can come with coronavirus isolation. While I appreciate that the situation is serious and I may have had it (or a variation) and may still get hit by the more viciously virulent COVID-19  but I hope my natural resilience will see me through, but the media fed majority panic buying and lack of corporate planning has left me quite amazed. Some places are like testing the Titanic's lifeboats after the iceberg hits. I see people using hand sanitiser what seems like every two minutes when there is plentiful soap and hot water (the best defence) available. If it weren't so serious it would be funny.

At the weekend Tesco in Clayton Street was almost cleared of toilet roll, but Poundland (next door) had a huge display of Andrx nine packs in the front door, but of course the middle class red top snops would rather have nothing than go to Poundland.

Sorry for the ranty nature of this but it does give me the opportunity to share one of my favourite Smiths songs "Panic" maybe replace the chorus with "Hang The Red Tops".

Be safe, wash your hands , look after yourself and others, be sensible, and if you catch it stay at home. Think of yourself and others

Tuesday, 21 May 2019

Forget It ... Lets Burn Kings Landing


Tonight I have watched a lot of TV but then thought it's time for bed, then suddenly remembered I had a delivery from Tesco as they were offering 25% off wine and it meant I could order sparkling water as well, so it means I won't have to cart it back from a local supermarket in my rucksack. That isn't really a problem and it does stop you buying to much , a maximum of four bottles instead of the fifty that came tonight.

It seems that Feedburner is keeping up the hits on the blog, at the moment 1,200 so far today, when I was lucky to get maybe 1,500 a month. I'm not complaining about it, maybe someone might leave a comment if these aren't actual robots.

Lot's of people have been complaining about the end of "Game of Thrones" but I thought it was fine, if a little rushed and now we have "Lord of The Rings" and "His Dark Materials" to look forward to.

It is stunning the amount of television that we have at our disposal, and these days we don't even have to record it it to watch when we want as we can stream it. I actually watched a DVD of "The Golden Compass" tonight and very good it was. Lee Scoresby was inspired by William Scoresby who's house I pass every time I stay in Whitby.

Someone soundtracked the burning of Kings Landing with Metallica's "For Whom The Bell Tolls" but it is rather pedestrian metal and didn't do it for me, I was sure I could find a better soundtrack. I didn't have to do anything, someone had shoehorned "Hells Bells" by Ac/DC onto it and that's what I will leave you with, best seen on a big screen and turned up load.


Friday, 8 February 2019

Shadow Spider


I don't know if it's getting older but I seem to misread a lot of notices and signs. One interpretation is that I'm losing it, the other is that my perception is getting sharper because I am noticing it. The title of the post is from a misreading of a book title on Facebbok.

There's a card at work that says "Thanks" but the "Th" looks like a "W" to me. Maybe that's just my dirty mind.

I once saw a "Go Ahead Northern" sign and read it as Gonorrhea, again some indication of the workings of my mind. The thing is I realise my mistake immediatly and just see it as funny. In a way it is enriching my life with extra (if mistaken) language and words. I suppose Shakespeare must have used this and played with it, although I find some of his plays (especially "Romeo and Juliet") far too wordy.

Sometimes it's a visual thing so you get the words with LI in that look rude such as FLICK and CLINT which seen in the wrong light can cause a little consternation.

Carry On Films also exist for innuendo and mistaken meanings although barring "Carry On Cleo", "Carry On Up The Khyber" and "Carry on Screaming" most of them fall flat for me.

I am just going to put a list of my mistaken reads here which I may update as I find more. It's a bit
like the Clint chocolate cake:


  • "Go Ahead Northern"  -   Gonorrhea
  • "Thanks" - W@nks
  • "Clint" - C*nt
  • "Give The Gift of Cinema" - read Cinema as Enema (Seen in Tesco)








So what song should go with this, sometng literary and wordy, although all songs contain words, and there are so many songs that have mis heard lyrics such as "Kiss The Sky / Kiss This Guy" from "Purple Haze by Jimi Hendrix. Although I've used it before I've going to go with "Wrong" by Archers of Loaf one of my favourite ever tunes which I first heard on "The Speed of Cattle" and perfect for me contiually getting words and phrases wrong.


Friday, 28 December 2018

Aitchemvee


It looks like HMV are heading for administraion again. Last time their stores were selling anything, but music is still not their core sale product, although it is the core product you associate with HMV. One of the problems is that a great deal of people think that this is the only offline place you can get music. I Newcastle there are half a dozen record shops (listed and linked here)which a lot of people just ignore. Probably the same people who insist on going to Tesco rather than the Grainger Market for food.

They just sent me an email advertising their sale but the site doesn't work. Yesterday I bought two lots of vinyl from Discogs, which is a goldmine for both buying and selling music.

So I thought I would just mention this, it's not particularly important but they are blaming the high street malaise where everyone is shopping online. The thing is online is cheaper and often more convenient but it doesn't provide the interaction you get from a shop, that's for records or anything else. With that interaction you often get extra information and almost get a relationship with the person in the shop.

I don't know their names but I am friends with all the people in the shops I visit., and that takes me back to the shops. While I drop into HMV every now and then they are seldom my first port of call to buy a record, although I have bought from them. The problem is HMV is just another chainstore, it has no customer loyalty,  like any chainstore, and as such people will not be too botherd if it sinks or swims (apart from the employees), so I will share The Buzzcocks' "Why She's A Girl From The Chainstore" which seems sort of appropriate.


Thursday, 8 November 2018

Helium Echo


This morning I bougght some water from Tesco and for once used one of the auto checkouts. For weeks the echoey voice on many of them has disconcerted me and I've dicussed this while chatting with the real staff and had a laugh about it. This morning it sounded like it was on helium as well as echoing, sounding weirder than ever.

This comes on top of the Poundland ones that great uyou using the voice of Elvis, which  is also very offputting, wondering if next they're going to have some hologram greeter to freak you out even further.

This reminded me of The King, an Irish Elvis impersonator who had an album out called "Gravelands" featuring covers of songs by artists who have since deprated this mortal plain such as Freddie Mercury of Queen, Phil Lynott of Thin Lizzy and Kurt Cobain of Nirvana, (apologies for spelling errors) and it is a more than listenable album, so I'll share his take on "Whiskey in the Jar".

Have a disconcerting helium filled Thursday.

Wednesday, 8 August 2018

Your Password


There is so much idiocy about security. Banks tell us to hide our PIN, enter it under a cover so you can't see what you are typing, treat everyone as a potential thief and then make your cards contactless, no ID required (apart from odd random PIN requests).

I've always believed that much more than four passwords becomes a security risk, because people start writing them down. The only secure place for a password is in your head and it has to be something that you can remember, maybe a phrase with a smattering of numbers and other characters.

When I worked for Littlewoods on their IT systems the backspace was considered a valid character for a password, so if you made a mistake you had to completely start again with your log in.

There are systems that won't allow sequences, repetitions, numbers, special characters and these again generate security risks because people end up writing down passwords.

There are even software packages that remember your passwords for you. Think about that. You are entrusting all your logins to a piece of software, that is the digital equivalent of your notebook that you give to someone else for safekeeping. I was also amazed to see the number of password notebooks for sale on Amazon, it's like people want to give away their information, although if you think of your Tesco and Boots clubcards that track all your purchases, and Facebook where you publicly share so much personal information.

Facebook, Google and Paypal always ask me if I want to stay logged in, now how insecure is that. You enter a system securely and when you are finished you log out. The really annoying thing is that they use cookies to remember your preferences. Cookies are by their nature transient, and I always clear my web cache because I do web work and want a clean browser cache, which means all the particular site starts asking me for all sorts of things. To log into Facebook or this blog I am asked three times if I want to save my password.

Though again this blog is me sharing my thoughts with you.

I have had many arguments about IT security over the years, and it seems to me, often people do things because they can or it gives them control, rather than it's a good idea.

Fingerprints , Face Recognition and Retina scanning are more security options but my friend Nic managed to lock himself out of his iPhone when he accidentally sanded off his fingerprints.

So what else to play but "Security" by The Saints.


Thursday, 8 February 2018

Value For Money


I've just been out to replenish the milk and still ended up buying 2 litres instead of my intended 1 litre. This is because there is only an 11p difference between the bottles, so even if I don't use it all before it goes sour I've probably got more for my money. Tesco sell four packs of Mars Bars and Kit-Kats for a pound, yest single bars are around 80p, so people will spend the extra 20p to get three more bars and a lot of people will end up eating four instead of one, and while it doesn't affect everyone in this way there is obviously some agenda just to keep the population obese. Sorry to whinge about this on a Thursday morning , but due to a ten year virtual wage freeze for most of the country people have to make savings and tighten their belts while corporations and many politicians wallow in ever growing sees of money.

Two guys at the bus stop were talking about bets on the Tottenham vs Newport match last night, expecting a Swansea vs Notts County avalanche. I thought it would either happen or be about 2-0. It was the latter but I didn't actually put a bet on it.

Still I suppose that would be an excuse to replay "Newport State of Mind" but you can check this post from 2015 which has the video ny Alex Warren and Terema Wainwright which annoyed Jay Zed and Alicia Keys but instead I 'll include something else, and thinking about value for money makes me think of the Star Spangled Chestwigs take on Ottowan's "D.I.S.C.O." except as the the Chestwigs you know it's "S.H.I.T.E." but they do mention Iceland . Have a brilliant Thursday everybody.

Wednesday, 20 July 2016

The Kindness Of Strangers


This morning I got off the bus and thought I'd get a couple of bottles to see me through the morning given the lack of air conditioning in our building. I then realised I'd left my wallet at home so wandered into the office remembering that my bank and Samsung Note 4 phone could supposedly do contactless payment. And that is what I thought this post would be about.

So went to local supermarket , though I will try with one item , then thought no it'll work so had about a tenners worth of stuff which I scanned then thought tap and pay. Well tap tap tap and nothing happened , I'd followed the instructions switched on NFC and all that but nothing. So the helpful girl in Tesco's said she'd put the stuff back.

Then I noticed an option on the phone app  so pressed it and it said I had thirty seconds to do the transaction. I though great, this should be no problem , so re scanned my shopping basket , pressed the button, tap to pay ...... no way ... so handed back another bag of stuff.

Eat Me


Sort of gave up , but thought maybe it's their machines. So I went to Gregg's. Same result , so I was destined to go hungry , but here's where it gets interesting. I use Gregg's quite regularly but didn't know the server, but the guy said  "Just take it" , I said know , but he said it would be OK , but I didn't want him having to explain why he was £2 down on his till , but thanked him anyway.

Then as I was walking out a guy came after me and said "Here's £2 for the sandwich" , I said I hadn't had one, was slightly confused, but this guy was offering to buy me a sandwich , he said he'd been in the same position. I said no again , but thanked him for his kindness.

It's funny how we are often reluctant to take genuine help from others , but my failing phone brought me in to contact with some wonderful unselfish kindness today. I am glad I forgot my wallet because as a result I know there are more kind people near me that I thought there were.

Anyway it's really hot , so there's only one song , from Cole Porter's Kiss Me Kate , "It's Too Darned Hot" , though I've gone for the Ella Fitzgerald version.

Monday, 23 February 2015

Festival Fun - Comparing Photos At A Fall Gig


The last four days have see three days of music and seeing about fifteen bands which is a lot even for me, although this is not so much about the music about various fringe observations , which looking back on have amused me , or made me glad I side stepped them.

On Thursday I went to see the excellent King Charles at The Riverside and all three bands were superb. I briefly spoke to the guitarist with Man Made who was a really nice guy as well as being a talented guitarist and it turned out he is Nile Marr son of Johnny Marr previously of  The Smiths. That night at the end of the Gallery Circus set something started dripping through the ceiling. It turns out the toilets had got blocked , so I'm not sure what was overflowing but we managed to avoid the wet area, and the gig was totally brilliant.

While I'm guilty of posting photos on instagram, facebook and twitter I am amazed how many people see to spend virtually the whole gig on the phone or tablet. While watching The Fall , who are musically challenging , there were four ladies in front of comparing holiday and family snaps on their phones and mobile devices, I don't know if this is the normal modus operandi for Fall audiences these days.

Comparing Photos At A Fall Gig

Yesterday I was in a crush to try and see Public Service Broadcasting, but my sensible head moved me to the sides to ensure I could breathe. I'm sure there have been worse concert crushes, and I don't know what the solution is , but people forcing their way into the crush carrying multiple pints in plastic glasses and various takeaway foods on paper plates did not make the situation any better.

I thought I'd try Tesco's next day wine delivery. They've farmed it out to Yodel , split it into two parcels and keep sending me texts saying it will be delivered today. No time or anything , so they will probably wait round the corner and wait til I have to go out. After all in in a twelve hour delivery window there's only one possible time they could deliver. God I almost sound like a Daily Mail reader don't I!

However today is the day when I find whether I've been chosen as a giver for World Book Night 2015 so my fingers are crossed for that. I've been doing it since 2011 and here's a post on my first one.

Anyway I came out of it all in one piece , having seen some amazing performance, and looking forward to a totally brilliant week.

Saturday, 18 January 2014

Books On Board

Lots of Books
Paddingto Flare
And there's More
The last couple of times I have been to Paddington I've noticed a lovely bookshop on a barge walled Word on The Water. Follow the link to find out more as they are on Facebook.

There's a lot more pictures and some really good links there as well. A really interesting Facebook pages, although if you like books you are bound to like it!



As you come out of Paddington Station you see the barge and books right in front of you, and spoke to the owner who is a really pleasant guy. While the canal has lots of barges, it's brilliant to see something like this that makes you stop , and look and want to talk with people.

I was actually in a rush to get a train and ended up missing it because Word on The Water is so interesting in an area dominated by faceless offices and chains like Marks and Spencer and Tesco.

So although it was a long day yesterday, that was a bright unexpected end to a really good visit to London. Have a brilliant weekend everybody, I certainly will.

And they want more!!


Sunday, 23 June 2013

Glastonbury .... It's Just a Tesco and Wal-Mart of Music ... but we have The Mighty Slack Babbath To Save Us

Before I start my rant about this , I first must congratulate Michael Eavis on his vision , borrowing £5000 in 1972 to fund the initial festival I believe opened by Marc Bolan doing an acoustic set. These are the sort of people we need and I am so glad that he has been successful probably beyond his wildest dreams as Glastonbury. I read somewhere that there are 2,000 acts on over the five day festival this year , I thought I'd check and looking at the line up page here that could be right. I'm not counting. Tickets this year are around £205 , not sure if that includes a spot for your tent but say you see five acts each day then that's less that £10 a concert (remember what The Rolling Stones charged at the O2). There's a download of the original festival here which gives a feel for what it was once like.

So back to the rant, Glastonbury has just become like a supermarket, lots of products to satisfy every taste , but make sure you keep to the designated areas , have your clubcard on hand , make sure to you conform to the requirements of the supermarket. Their marketing is so good that people happily give up lots of personal information just to enter the lottery to get a ticket. Even twenty years ago people went to Glastonbury to see a particular group of acts , now people go to Glastonbury because it's Glastonbury. While this is not my scene (I actually like music) , it is a huge number of people's idea of heaven. Michael Eavis could have sold another half a million tickets for this year's festival. That's £100 million pounds more he could have made , more than the GDP of some countries.

So if you are going enjoy the music , enjoy your time there , I'll be frequent some much smaller events sch as "Slacktonbury" featuring Strange Bruise and the mighty Slack Babbath and their lead singer Ozzy Ouseburn at The Schooner on the 29th June.

Anyway the June's Tunes choice is possibly my favourite Glastonbury song "Glastonbury Revisited" by The Cosmic Rough Riders  from their brilliant album "Enjoy The Melodic Sunshine":

"Where have all the angels gone,
Now that all the acid's done .....
We made love under the sun....... "

Those days are long gone

Oh and just realised this was my 100th post this year , a friend had to point this out !!

Monday, 27 May 2013

Slide Comes Before A Fall


..and my how I fell , wandering into the bathroom barefoot and 18 stone of me hit the Amtico floor with a fair jolt . Somehow the floor and Kitchen ceiling were undamaged , while I survived with a sore back and bruising. Think that the Tom Petty song title is fairly appropriate for the situation.

After that have had fun with passwords and mobile phone and broadband technology with Orange and Virgin , eventually succeeding despite the best endeavours of the website "designers" to make their site unusable. I've worked with a few programmers and one of them cauled Paul who I worked for at the National Bus Company gave me these three rules for a program , though they can be applied to anything you do:

  1. It must work and do what it is supposed to do
  2. It must be legible and easily understood and documented
  3. It must be efficient
It seems very few designers / programmers take those maxims into account these days. Many of the people on the end of the phone are fine but they do have to work with systems that make their job very difficult , although you get some places that actually blame the incompetence of the user , with "You must have done something wrong" or "Try later" , as though some magic is going to suddenly make things work. If it doesnt work now , it wont work tomorrow unless it gets fixed. I'm thinking Tesco , Barclays and Nationwide for this particular bad attitude.

Anyway it's the end of the Bank Holiday , work starts again tomorrow , and it's almost time for bed .

Wednesday, 15 May 2013

Why?

Do you need  visual verification when buying alcohol at an automated supermarket checkout when paying by card? Surely the card can be used to verify your age. Asda, Sainsburys Waitrose Tesco they're all the same. I could understand if you pay by cash but if you can do contactless then you can verify someone's right to buy an item.

Sunday, 28 April 2013

The Internet Is Not A Private Place

This is just in response to another site telling me , via an annoying pop up , that they're going to be collecting data about what I'm looking at to enhance my browsing experience. For that read you're going to be targetted with adverts related to things you have looked at, It's why Boots and Tesco and everyone else encourage you to take out loyalty cards , it's so they can target you with adverts and offers that you are more likely to respond to.

The internet is a public place so you shouldnt be shocked that technology is used to track what you are doing , usually in the name of making you part with your money, I have a website here but that is seeing less and less of peoples money, A big part of that was when Amazon effectively stopped paying for referrals by creating a set of rules disqualifying email links , and sales to people who were already customers. Build your infrastucture then stop paying for it , a brilliant strategy.

Also The Cloud is being used as a storage facility , while I'm OK with it as a back up , I'm not happy with it as a first point of storage. Amazon and iTunes offer cloud storage , with the right to delete anything they deem not "licensed" . So when you use these facilities you effectively lose control.

Did you know that when you catalog anything with iTunes it writes to that file!! It should never do that as it effectively corrups the item, but it tries to and tries about 1000 times befor giving up,

Basically I dont need to be told that I need to be aware I'm in public when on the internet. It's Caveat Emptor and I dont need to be continually asked or reminded. I can install ad or popup blockers and switch cookies off aand everyone who uses the internet can do the same.

Thought the Bowie song was appropriate.

Saturday, 16 February 2013

Pause For A Hoarse Horse


Watch movies online and free tv

I nicked the title for this post from a seventies album by the band Home, which you can sample here . This is going to be a short post just about the whole kerfuffle of Findus Beef Lasagne and Tesco's burgers being contaminated with "horse meat". It's not poison !!

How often have you be so hungry you could eat a "scabby horse between two bread vans" ? When you go to a restaurant and order steak , you just expect beef , but it could really be any meat and the vendor would not be done under the trade descriptions act.

There's talk of criminal activity and nefarious dealings but the basic facts are that beef costs ten times as much as horse , and let's face it , when it's minced it becomes even further removed from the source animal. Also it's the risk and price you pay for eating ready meals and convenience foods.

It really isnt that difficult to make meals fronm scratch. Get meat from your local butcher (NOT Morrison's Market Street or Waitrose Meat Counter) , support your local butcher . The meat will be local , and visible and trustworthy . And you will probably find it's a lot cheaper.

Also did you know that supermakets plump up their bacon by injecting it with water , which means when you cook it , it shrinks to about a tenth of the original size you thought your were getting.

Anyway I still can't get over the media and gullible public's reaction to this . I'm surprised David Cameron hasn't applauded them on the meat suppliers cost cutting initiative ,I mean he expecte deveryone else to do it. But the Mail and Express et al continue on about the scandal . I mean it's not like we're eating Soylent Green ...... yet 


Saturday, 15 December 2012

Potatoes Eggs and HMV

The Potato and Egg Shop
It's over ten years since I moved into my current address and at the time I noticed a shop called "The Potato and Egg" shop. I always wanted to visit it just to see what was in there and about a month back when I picked up a hire car I stopped to have a look.

The shop does what it says on the front . It sells potatoes and eggs . Nothing else . Potatoes generally come in 25 Kg bags ranging in price from £9 - £15  , providing excellent quality products and more that reasonabl prices. The lady who runs it tells me she's been doing this for over thirty years.



This may seem a surreal post and hardly related to what I normally write about but we really need to support outr local shops otherise it will just be a Tesco Extra or Sainsburys Local , probably leaching money from the economy by tax avoidance.



Lots of quality Potatoes
The proprietor is an extremely helpful lady and I so prefer this sort of shop to the massive supermarkets.

And it got me thinking , that this shop is successful in providing two basic food staples and has been since the last century . I feel slightly guilty that I havent visited before now and must admit that carting a four stone bag of potatoes home on the bus was not exactly easy , but it does mean I don't have to buty potatoes for two or three months.

And Theres More
If you live in the West End of Newcastle I would recommend that you check this shop out if you use potatoes or eggs in your cooking . It's open 9 til about 4 all days bar Sunday and longer during the week.



Compare this with HMV , a music shop , who  now dedicate most of their floor space to iPod docks. The one I visited in Harrogate recently had relegated CDs to a far corner, this is a company who have lost their way. The Potato and Egg Shop hasnt !.

Sunday, 17 June 2012

I Don't Get Mad ....


But some things do annoy me , like these Chelsea Tractor size buggies that nu parents seem to need to ferry their screeching offspring through the narrow aisles of department stores. In Mars and Spencers yesterday on idiot parent was letting his brat push the device willy nilly through the store , sight into my leg . If you've seen me you know I can play the archetypal immoveable object with aplomb , which I did  in this case. Brat goes sprawling and bawling on the floor , nu parent bloke glares at me , about to launch int to som ecomplaint , before thinking better of it after observing my size and immovability!!

Why the hell cant these idiots use a reasonable sized buggy for round town , but I suppose it's a way of compensating for their own inadequacy , as well as a large car he needs a large baby carriage!!

...and then you get all these people liking Tesco, Asda and the like on Facebook. Don't you realise these faceless corporations don't give a dan about you . You are just a way of making even more money for them . Tesco endorse slave labour , and they will ditch you or their staff if theres another penny in it for them.  They're all the same even when they do the vouchers for schools. Spend three million pounds with them and your school can buy a football. You're just better going down to Sports Direct and buying a few balls for £1.99 each rather than going the Supermarke charity route.

I remeber a discussin with Chris Ball about the nature of Corporations . They're just out for all they can get . If they were at a meal with you they'd just nick all the food from the table , if they see a charity box they'll just pocket it . This is because a corporation is just a self perpetuating entity. The people who work within the entity may be ethical and moral as hell , but eventually the nature of the beast takes over with the aim of perpetrating the existence of the corporation.

Anyway I'll just leave my favourite video coment on this to finish this post:


Thursday, 19 April 2012

Not Dead .... You Just Have To Look

With National Record Shop Day approaching I wandered down Northumberland to check out HMV, until recently your only source of music on the high street unless theres a Tesco , or you go for the rack in the Pound Shops that are proliferating in in our relatively affluent society.  Time was when WH Smith and Boots has a sizeable music section but that's no more . HMV themselves are losing their identity with football shirts , Apple Product displays and DVDs and games taking a huge part of the display despite the fact that streaming media is negating the need for recorded films. How man do you watch more than once.

I Shrewsbury I found an HMV buried deep in a shopping centre. The shop was quite big , but the only new music was the new Madonna album and the metal section consisted of multiple copes of Black Sabbath Volume IV , Sabbath Bloody Sabbath and something by Avenged Sevenfold. Newcastle store is over three floors but the music side seems to be contracting by the second,


A surprise and welcome addition to the high street is the Thats Entertainment shops , outlets for Music Magpie. Their music is arranged by price and I picked up several limited editions (Crowded House Recurring Dream and Annie Lennox Medusa) for a couple of quid each. Second hand but excellent condition and the staff are helpful. I was suuprised to see a fair few Shirehorses albums which I thought were hard to get , well Fat Harry White is , so you you can pick up some decent stuff and they have more new stock than the Shrewsbury HMV!!

The Independents are doing well , there'll be queues outside from midnight on Friday but it's good to see there is now a choice of music on the high street.

Though of course you can always go to your local independent record shop !!

Wednesday, 28 March 2012

Drought In Salop

For the past couple of days I have been pottering about in Shropshire and Powys , mainly in Ludlow and Shrewsbury and Knighton. The buildings are interesting and very old , people are friendly and the weather is wonderful but that's by the by.

I was slightly disappointed to find no record shops in Ludlow ,unless you want to buy from Tesco or Oxfam. But barring Tesco and a new WH Smith being put together there are no chains in Ludlow and the Park and Ride  is remarkable good value for money.

Worse still Shrewsbury is a much bigger town and still no record shop , barring Oxfam. There may be an HMV but that doesnt really count as they will sell anything, the record space in most HMV stops decreases by the second.

We have World Record Shop Day which coincides with Newcastles High Bridge Festival and World Book Night on the 21st April , so that is a plus to look forward to. If you go here you can download iPhone and Android Apps to find your way around,


In Salop we'll make do do with the nice weather , historic buildings , Aardvark Books and Thion at Leitwardine!!

Sunday, 20 November 2011

What Is The Point?

Everywhere you go now tries to foist some kind of loyalty card , with the promise that you can earn "points". The reasons for these are to capture information about you in order to lure you into buying far more than you want or require.

There are a few that give a reasonable reward such as the 4% given by Boots and the free WIFI with Starbucks . But then you have the awful returns on Nectar and WH Smith cards.

Basicall my three are Boots , Starbucks and Tesco and I aint too keen on on Tesco!!
Also quite amazed to see that Tesco do Cars!!