May Day

This time last year I embarked on my "Post A Day In May" just to see if I could do it. I ended up doing 37 posts which at that point doubled my blog posts for the year. I know that I can do it so I'm not going to try this year , although I will still be posting.

Still on holiday , and working yhrough The Wire (Series 1) and just finished Mad Men (Series 3) , and just found out that Seven Stories in Newcastle is hosting an Enid Blyton exhibitions. The weather this week is being excellent and am about to zip off to visit somewhere I can take photographs of.

Warbuton's Crumpets vs McVitie's Chocolate Hobnobs

This is not about the products per se , both of which I enjoy , well I prefer the Chocolate Hobnobs. Basically my grip in this world in which the customer needs to be protected from every possible instance of contamination by person or persons unknown.

What it is, is both products come in a cellophane wrapping which the purchaser must open to get at the product. The McVitie's wrapping is easy to open , no problem whatsoever. The Warbuton's wrapping requires industrial cutting tools to get into. If you try using yor bare hands you don't stand a chance and will end up destroying the crumpets inside , reducing them to untoastable crumbs as you get more and more annoyed at the fact you can't actually open the damned packet.

If you are going to buy a product and see that the packaging is damaged , put it back and get another one. Too many products are almost impossible to get into without some cutting implement , which in itself is dangerous. Imagine turning up at casualty - "I stabbed myself trying to open a packet of crumpets then burnt my hand when I got its stuck in the toaster"!

There's Only One Tony Wilson

Well actually there's more than one , which we all knew. I grew up with Tony Wilson , So It Goes , Factory Records , Joy Division , Happy Mondays , The Hacienda. Sadly missed since he died a couple of years ago , but the guy revolutionised music ,and business , not financially successfully but his vision resulted in some amazing breakthroughs. The first peorgram to have the Sex Pistols performing live on TV and immortalised in the sureal but entertaining 24 Hour Party People.

Anyway a couple of years ago I bought several books pertaining to Factory Records and related groups and a few my the great man himself. One called The Universe on a Bicycle sounded like a Wilson title , but in fact is written by another Tony Wilson (an articled clerk turned artist who patented an origami table) about a bike ride round Ireland pondering the deep questions in life in a very entertaining manner. I only found this out today when I started reading the book and would recommend it to anyone. It's one of those pleasant mistakes in life that actually benfits all concerned . I have found a new author and he has a new fan so to speak.

While not in the same universe as the late Anthony Wilson my world has certainly been enriched by reading both authors.

Let's Get Tattooed - Excentric In Shrewsbury

Excentric - Shrewsbury 

Last time I was in Shrewsbury one of the places that made the biggest impression on me was Excentric , which is a Tattoo studio as well as supplier of excellent and exotic stuff. This time a couple of Gremlin's from the second movie caught my eye , placed upon one of my favourite glass tables that I've seen. Theyr on the right hand side of the pic just above the open sign.

As well as tattoos , which I don't fancy by the way though Val had some excellent ones, the place has loads of steampunk , biker , cult film and weed related paraphenalia.

Chestwigs

All the staff are really nice and incidentally everyon had the same phone as me a Samsung Galaxy Note 2, although we couldnt get a decent signal or connect to wifi If you are it Shrewsbury it really is worth checking out and while the tattoos were not as exotic as my mate Shev's (of the Doll at The Black Bull and the Star Spangled Chestwigs) with his left leg washing line it's a great place and if you want a tattoo I cant recommend them highly enough.


So that was the highlight of the day , rounded off by dinner at The Armoury by the river , again a recommended place to eat and drink if a little pricey. I'll leave you with some classic 'wigs

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.

Sometimes You Want To Skip

When you're watching a TV series on DVD you sometimes don't want to waste time with the titles. The sries in point is The Wire. Others with great titles are The Sopranos and True Blood.

What I've found is you cant skip the titkes because often they integrate it with an essential scene. It's a minor complaint though when the progams are so excellent.

Hook-a-Gate and iPad Annoyances

Well finally got to Hook-a-Gate yesterday and although there’s little phone signal (E at best certainly no 4G) the cottage does actually have free Wi-Fi.  However as usual the iPad refuses to acknowledge that the signal exists, so I can only access the internet through the iPad by tethering to my Samsung Note 2 with the weak mobile signal although I suppose I could tether to the wifi with the phone then tether to the phone but that might just tie it in knots.

Hook-a-Gate is a small village in Shropshire with a couple of pubs, one of which, The New Inn , is incredibly busy but welcoming and does superb food. While there is obviously money in the village the prices in the pub are extremely reasonable.

The Old Coach House where we are staying comes complete with cat who has an enormous sense of entitlement and seems to think it owns the place. You can check the details here.

Oh yes and the laptop has a Java update that insists on getting you to install the Ask Toolbar and McAfee PC Slow Down Software. I recently spent an hour decluttering  someone’s PC after telling them it was OK to install the Java update forgetting to tell them to uncheck the Ask and McAfee installs. There was another piece of software on there , apparently recommended by RBS which effectively wouldn’t let you uninstall it because it was “protecting” the PC. Most of this is the equivalent of fitting four Denver boots to your car and throwing away the keys to make sure it doesn’t get stolen and you don’t have a crash.

Anyway time to have something to ea.

Oh we're also currentlly watching The Wire with it's excellent opening Tom Waits penned credits song , "Way Down In The Hole".