Tag Archives: words

by | January 5, 2012 · 10:30 am

the joys of writing part three

Happy New Year to all of those who follow these jottings.

My holiday period has been spent with a heavy cold and so I have been more than happy to sit and write. My first book, I Don’t Have My Decision Making Trousers On, or “Trousers” as it has become known around my closest circle, was released on Kindle before Christmas and I’m delighted to see that a couple of hundred people have obtained a copy up to the end of December. I will not be buying a yacht of the proceeds, or not at that price, but it is a real pleasure to know that folks are interested enough to have clicked the link on Amazon. If you don’t have a copy there is a link you can click on at the top of the page here to buy yours. If you don’t have a Kindle you can download Kindle for PC or Mac from Amazon. It’s free and you’ll get three free classics delivered with it (or that is the current deal). Continue reading →

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by | December 3, 2011 · 11:06 am

I could find that offensive, but I’m a grown up and I choose not to

What is it about modern society and this obsession with taking offence?

A supermarket correctly labels its burgers as being reindeer and parents say that it has upset their children, so now they are calling them moose burgers. Well if, on behalf of the moose preservation society, I am offended about that, so what should the supermarket do now? Continue reading →

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by | September 18, 2011 · 7:16 am

the joys of blogging

There are those days when there is so much that you want to say that you just don’t have time to get it all down, and other days when you stare at a blank screen with your fingers waiting for messages to flow down from the brain and tell them what to type. Some days they can wait a long time…. Continue reading →

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by | August 14, 2011 · 10:16 am

letters to the editor – food labelling standards

Sir

You will be aware from previous correspondence, sadly largely unpublished, of my opposition to the EU food labelling standards.

However, there is one area in which food labelling standards are sadly lacking. Each week when I visit my butcher or supermarket I find meats labelled as cured; but of what and when?

I think that we should be told.

Yours faithfully

R. Suppards (Mrs)

 

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by | August 7, 2011 · 4:25 pm

Lucy Snivelshed is dead – let her rest in peace

So Lucy Snivelshed is dead? I can’t say that I am especially interested in this news other than because it still rumbles on. Of course there are those that miss her dreadfully, and I can empathise with that; I have lost people I loved too. But is there not something of a whiff of profit in the air here once again?

We all know that anyone in an artistic field will have their work become more valuable posthumously, and to see that two of her albums are in the top 10 with a third top ten entry of, oh yes, a double album of the first two. I gather these days just someone looking at the album on Amazon counts towards sales, and you only need to sell about 5 to go platinum, but even so…

I have never deliberately listened to anything of the lady’s work, but I do recall my browsing amongst the CDs in the late lamented local Border’s store being made less pleasurable by the noise coming from the speakers above. When asked for about the fourth time “can I help you with anything?” I suggested that I might be more likely to buy something if they could turn off that dreadful racket. “But that’s Lucy Snivelshed” they said, adding “she’s won awards”.

Perhaps, but my personal pantheon of favourite lady singers features the likes of Nina Simone, Dionne Warwick, Doris Day, Dusty Springfield, Judith Durham and more. Maybe Lucy S did have talent, but my brief encounter with her work did nothing to suggest that I listen further, or to add her to those that grace my i-Pod.

Those that might have helped her defeat the trouble that surrounded her are now profiting from her demise. Fortunately she is now safe from the grasp of the demons that troubled her, and perhaps her squalid demise might save another soul from following the same path. If she is to be any sort of role model, that would, at least, add up to something.

 

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by | July 5, 2011 · 10:09 am

when tv adverts were fun – good sport your missus – another from Castlemaine XXXX

With their Ute teetering an the brink of disaster, could this pair have misunderstood the lady?

Watch it here and make up your own minds. Castlemaine XXXX at its finest perhaps.

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by | July 2, 2011 · 6:57 am

mobile phones and boring people

Why is it that the mobile phone culture dictates that a person’s volume on their phone is in inverse proportion to the substance of their conversation?

Riding home from London on the train last night I was joined by a fellow businessman, but a complete stranger. His papers identified him as working for a company that I know well and he spend much of the journey making and receiving calls, but I heard probably less that 30 words over about the same number of minutes of talk time despite the fact that we were sat so close. A shame in some ways because, being in an industry where I frequently earn my keep I might have picked up something useful.

Three or four rows in front and behind were a man and a woman who were both so loud that every word rang out through the carriage, and boy were they inane. Having seen them both neither looked like a gormless moron, but they both sounded that way. Do these people think that a lack of decent conversation skills can be overcome by shouting?

Oh, the joys of train travel.

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by | June 12, 2011 · 7:12 pm

why are publishers so reluctant to pay up for content?

I’m in the process of having to take strong action against one publishing house and am actively chasing another for payment for articles that I have written for them and, in the former case, for several photos to accompany the article. Both articles have been published against agreed terms, so what is the problem with coughing up what is owed?

One problem is that it is taking me longer to chase them than it did to write the darn things in the first place, but I am going to keep going even if I end up taking them down the small claims route.

It is a shame as it takes away both the pleasure of having something published and any feeling of support for that publication, but such is life. There are a lot of shysters out there.

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by | June 6, 2011 · 7:00 am

when tv adverts were fun – something for the ladies?

Australian lager adverts in the UK have always shown an element of dry wit. This one is the old favourite “something for the ladies?” overloading of the ute (pick up truck) from Castlemaine XXXX. Enjoy:

Something for the ladies?

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by | April 25, 2011 · 7:00 am

when tv commercials were fun – carling black label king arthur

Having written recently about Monty Python and Fawlty Towers as being series that I did not find funny I though that I would use some examples of TV commercials as things that did amuse me because of their style and wit. Last Monday I blogged a link to the Weetabix Robin Hood spoof and that has been well received, so I’ve had a trawl around YouTube and found a few more.

So here is another light hearted piece, this time  from the Oblivion Boys series of ads for Carling Black Label, here featuring the Knights of The Round Table and the Arthurian Legend.

I have a few more up my sleeve, so over the next few weeks watch out each Monday for a new one.

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