METROPOLIS - 2012

I'm off shopping at my Local Tecco's

I was driving through Sale today, when I passed this shop - the local TECCO express store - The name reminds me of something, but I just can't put my finger on it... I like it, and hope they do not get sued...

Afterwards, I had to go to Liverpool (or at least, that's what I thought) to sort out a PC - and guess what? - It wasn't meant to be Liverpool, it was supposed to be Leicester and I messed up completely - talk about a nowhere boy...

I love this mural, sadly it's on a busy roundabout and I was just driving through  - I will try to get a better photo next time - better images can be found at:

http://www.fotolibra.com/gallery/search/pro.php?all_words=the+liverpool+mural+project

also, check this blog: 

http://theliverpoolmuralproject.blogspot.co.uk/

Another Day - Another Fine - I hate Bolton Council...

Today, Sunday, I Just got another fine for "Parking in a loading place during restricted hours without loading"  (Contravention Code. 25 - This is my second fine in as many days - The other was for for Overstaying my Parking by 6 minutes "Parked after the expiry of paid for time" (Contravention Code. 05) ...

I seem to get a ticket everywhere I go and every other day..  Bolton - Manchester - Liverpool - London - St. Helen's - Bristol - I really, really hate it, and people wonder why the High Street is dying.. Simple, the Greedy Bastards are running the asylum, and we have to pay for it - every bloody day...

The loading area in question, is at the back of a blocked street, with no loading bays, gates, doors, shops or anything else around, and it had not been used for at least 5 years.

I'm just looking for somebody to come with me one day and pretend to load things, from one car to the other; piss them off for a couple of hours, take some photos for the newspaper, get a couple of tickets, then leave...

 

We're in the money - Britain's Deficient Democracy

Original Article Here...

  The Windsors Pull A Fast One

"A mood of austerity may be stalking Britain, but the champagne is still flowing at Buckingham Palace"  Financial Times

Britain's parliament has given in to the Windsor clan and has set back British democracy by allowing the feudal family to reclaim some of the revenue from the Crown Estate, a vast real estate holding valued at £7.3bn that generated a suplus of £230.9 in 2010-11 and that belongs to the people. 

From 2011 the clan are to be given 15 per cent of the Estate's profits in place of the grants that have been paid since 1760. But if property prices fall, the clan will not lose out. It's income is guaranteed not to fall, no matter what happens in the property market. According to the Financial Times "The princely budgets will never be lesser than the previous year's. When the Crown Estate does well, royals win: when it does not, taxpayers lose". The Daily Mail has estimated that this could eventually mean the Windsors taking £68m a year, twice their current take, as wind farms increase the Estate's revenue. 

After many years of trying, the Windsors, with the shameful help of the government and opposition parties, have clawed back some of their lost feudal wealth and privilege. 

The Financial Times quoted a “government source” as saying that “The royal family must have been getting the champagne out when we conceded this. They have been trying for decades to persuade ministers to do it”.

According to the Daily Mail, a conservative newspaper, the decision to change the funding arrangement, which was announced without fanfare, was a “masterstroke” by Charles Windsor’s chief adviser, Michael Peat. According to the newspaper “250 year of history was overturned” by the decision to allow the Windsors to get their hands on income that has been recognised since 1760 as belonging to the people of Britain. In 1760 the German side of the family had not yet emigrated to this country.

"One could say they have pulled a fast one"

The Windsor clan has been pressing to receive income from the Estate for over 100 years. Charles Windsor, who is due to become head of state on the death of this mother, has pushed for it for 20 years. But until now the Windsors’ claim that the Crown Estate belongs to them has been resisted by governments of all parties.

A Mail source told the newspaper that “Charles (Windsor) has always believed the money from the Crown Estate as taken away from the family. Now they have got it back. One could say they have pulled a fast one”.

But this is about more than the money. It is also about the freedom that the money will give members of the feudal institution. And it is about a rolling back of the democratic progress that has reduced the privileges of the Windsors and expanded the rights of the people.

The new concession will free the family from the limited accountability to the people it has had. In a related development the government has made the Windsors exempt from the Freedom of Information Act, so that their activities in general will be shielded from public scrutiny.

In his biography of Mr. Windsor, Jonathan Dimbleby quoted people close to him as saying he believed that the income from the Crown Estate would help create “an independent and vigorous” monarchy. 

Philip Hall, author of Royal Fortune - Tax, Money and the Monarchy, told the Financial Times that Windsor “probably more so than the Queen, seems to be staking out some kind of new role”.

And because the Windsor believe the Crown Estate is not the property of the people, the new arrangement will allow them to lie that the feudal institution costs the people nothing. According to the Financial Times Windsor staff find it “unedifying” to have to justify their spending of the money the people give them.

Rupert Ponsonby, a Conservative legislator-for-life, told the House of Lords that the new funding proposal was “appropriate because the Crown Estate remains the property of the Queen as sovereign”. A “government source” refuted this, telling the Financial Times “There is a major constitutional issue with appearing to say that (Elizabeth Windsor) owns all this stuff when she doesn’t”.

Sovereign Support Grant

The proposed change in the form of public handouts was announced in October. Chancellor George Osborne said the feudal family would be allowed 15% of the Estate’s profits by means of a “Sovereign Support Grant”, in place of the current annual handouts known as the “Civil List”. He described the 15% Windsor cut of Estate income as “an indicative figure” and said there would be safeguards to limit the family’s income. The National Audit Office will also be able to examine the new grant.

But this form of handout would end the current limited public scrutiny of the Windsor finances that their dependence on the “civil list” grants gives. According to the Daily Mail it will send £68m a year streaming into the family’s bank account. If present trends continue they would also be guaranteed an annual increase. 

The huge size of the payments would result from the development of offshore wind farms. The seabed on which they will be based is public property owned by the Crown Estate. Wind farm owners pay the Estate a fee to run cables across the seabed and a percentage of the income from electricity generation. 

Doubling Their Money

The Estate says that its profits from the wind farms could reach £100m a year, giving £15m annually to the family. However, industry experts told the Mail that by 2020 income could reach £250m, £37.5 of which would be passed on to the Windsors. In total their 15% of Crown Estate profits would amount to £68m, more than double their current handout.

This Windsor triumph has taken Britain backwards, further away from a break with the feudal past, further away from fully democratic institutions and further away from a democratic society. Mr. Windsor will be freer to use his privileged potion to advance his prejudices, which in the past have prevented modern architecture and promoted homoeopathic remedies at the expense of taxpayers.

The Windsors will be potentially much richer, in a stronger position to claim that they pay their own way, and able to increase their freedom to put pressure on the government with less worrying that parliament might rein them in.

As Britain has no written constitution, and effectively therefore, no constitution of any reliability, challenging constitutional attacks such as this is particularly difficult. The only safeguard is a legislature occupied by legislators who have sworn allegiance to the Windsor family.

The Crown Estate Belongs to the People

The New Mircosoft Tablet....

- hhmmm... a Touch Pad with a Keyboard?..  So its a Laptop?

- Nope it's small, so its a notebook.

- Nope, it's a Lablet or a Noblet, depending on the model...

 

The New Lablet or a Noblet, (depending on the model)

Stand Lane - Whitefield

A Mechanical Chicken with 3 Spermoids (or whatever)....

Windows, Windows, Windows....

Problems, problems, problems all day long....

Windows Vista Update - “Configuring Updates Stage 3 of 3 0%”

Change Windows Shell - UKash Police Virus

Unable to turn Automatic Updates On

I hate Browser Toolbars

I hate Incredibar, I hate Babylon toolbar and I hate every other crappy toolbar on the planet.  I just installed an update to a program that resided on my PC for over a year; and I made the mistake of not reading or questioning the installation, so I just clicked, next, next, finish and trusted the vendors.

However; this managed to install original software plus, the Incredibar, the Babylon toolbar and a third party toolbar; it changed my home page and my search providers and started redirecting browser pages to God knows where; without even asking me.

I removed all toolbars and reset IE to its original factory settings; and I removed all Firefox toolbars / add-ons and reset my search providers / home page. 

And to make sure that all entries all deleted; I cleared all the cache; emptied all temporary folders; removed all keys from the registry and installed Spybot Search & Destroy, to finish the job and to remove all traces of those toolbars.

So guess what Spybot S&D hint of the day was:-

Hint of the Day: Caution! Products from Trend Micro or McAfee might be regarded as malware! According to the the antispyware coalition's definition, programs, such as McAfee and Trend Micro might be considered Spyware and / or PUPS, which it defines as: "Technologies [...] implemented in ways that impair user control over [...] Material changes that affect their [...] system security;"

I always suspected that, and if it wasn't true; then I'm sure that some, slick, expensive corporate lawyers would have sued the pants off S&D.

Liverpool Docks - Regent Road

Liverpool: Tate & Lyle Sugar Silo, Huskisson Dock

I went to Liverpool on a Job Yesterday - On the way back, I passed this building near tho docks. WOW, WOW, WOW! - It is so HUGE and scary, like the set of a futuristic movie - the photos do not do it justice.

The Most Expensive BBQ Sauce in the World - Phil Vickery

You can see the original recipe & video at:

http://www.itv.com/thismorning/food/burgers-with-bbq-sauce/

BBQ Sauce Recipe

Everyone has a special way of making BBQ sauce and this is my favourite. It's easy to make and will keep for a week or two in the fridge.

Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 20 minutes
Serves 8

Ingredients	Price
100ml olive oil 2 medium onions, finely chopped 4 cloves of garlic, chopped 200ml tomato ketchup 200ml passata 50ml cider vinegar 100ml Worcester sauce Juice 3 large lemons 150ml pineapple juice 150ml apple juice 4 tbsp light brown sugar 4 tbsp English mustard 1 tsp ground black pepper 1 x 10g vegetable stock cube 1 tbsp cornflour or arrowroot 2 tbsp water	0.30p 0.72p 0.30p 0.44p 0.42p 0.12p 0.55p 0.90p 0.24p 0.22p 0.22p 0.20p 0.05p 0.10p 0.05p 0.00p
Total	£4.83	£1.59

Method

1. Heat the olive oil, add the onions and garlic and cook for 3 minutes to soften slightly.
2. Add the rest of the ingredients and bring to the boil.
3. Turn down the heat and simmer for 10 minutes to cook. I like to thicken my sauce slightly, as it can sometimes separate, by mixing the cornflour and water together and stirring into the simmering sauce - it will thicken almost immediately.
4. Check the seasoning and adjust if needed.
5. Keep warm and serve.

This will keep for 2 weeks in the fridge.

In those austere times, I was shocked to watch the man making us his revolutionary "BBQ Sauce".  A "BBQ Sauce" that does not taste like "BBQ Sauce" -  I left a comment on the website and it was deleted within 10 minutes...

We just need some Rocking Horse Dung to make it £5.00 a spoon, even.. 

Happy 100th Birthday Paramount - The Answers...

Very Cool Poster... I would love to have one on my wall...

And now for the Answers: Top Left to Bottom Right

1. Airplane
2. Top Gun
3. Psycho
4. The Addams Family
5. There Will Be Blood
6. Titanic
7. Transformers
8. Up In The Air
9. The Godfather
10. Friday the 13th
11. Jackass
12. Wayne's World
13. Paranormal Activity
14. Crocodile Dundee
15. The Hunt for Red October
16. Election
17. Catch 22
18. Nashville
19. Star Trek
20. Rosemary's Baby
21. Raiders of the Lost Ark
22. Beverly Hills Cop
23. Cleopatra
24. Saturday Night Fever
25. 48 Hours
26. Murder on the Orient Express
27. The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie
28. Zoolander
29. Ferris Bueller's Day Off
30. Planes, Trains, and Automobiles
31. Ghost
32. Meatballs
33. The Warriors
34. The Bad News Bears
35. Scrooged
36. Mission Impossible
37. Breakfast at Tiffany's
38. Forrest Gump
39. Cloverfield
40. South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut
41. True Grit
42. Escape from Alcatraz
43. The Truman Show
44. North Dallas Forty
45. The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!
46. The Ten Commandments
47. Team America: World Police
48. Paper Moon
49. Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory
50. Pretty in Pink
51. No Country for Old Men
52. What's Eating Gilbert Grape
53. Duck Soup
54. Vertigo
55. An Inconvenient Truth
56. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
57. Trading Places
58. An Officer and a Gentleman
59. Rango
60. Braveheart
61. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
62. Barbarella
63. Days of Thunder
64. The Nutty Professor
65. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
66. Harold and Maude
67. Fatal Attraction
68. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
69. Coming to America
70. The Postman Always Rings Twice
71. G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra
72. Marathon Man
73. Serpico
74. Beavis and Butt-head Do America
75. Footloose
76. Once Upon a Time in the West
77. Lara Croft: Tomb Raider
78. King Kong
79. Gulliver's Travels
80. Going My Way
81. Les Amours de la reine Élisabeth
82. The War of the Worlds
83. Dreamgirls
84. Shutter Island
85. School of Rock
86. Sunset Boulevard
87. Flashdance
88. The Godfather Part II
89. Super 8
90. Chinatown
91. The Fighter
92. Hustle & Flow
93. The Adventures of Tintin
94. Justin Bieber: Never Say Never
95. Pet Sematary
96. The Longest Yard
97. Holiday Inn
98. Rear Window
99. The Italian Job
100. Wings

I might have messed up a bit with the numbers / titles...

Official Olympic Costumes Revealed!

Success lads, we have finally made the GAY suit, and it works even on a Mannequin....

The Queen's Diamond Jubilee - Another Wild Party..

Crowds are gathering - Glad to see that out of the 10+ million London occupant, somebody had bothered to come out (the Camera Man's Mother, Daughter, Sister & Wife)..

The patriotic heels come with a price tag of £3000. Though that is because they are encrusted with Swarovski crystals.

  Fab - Need a pair in Men's Size 11.

(still, there is no accounting for taste)

And meanwhile, on the other side of the road...

Sunday - 13th May 2012 - Unlucky for some.

While driving back from a job in Manchester (M602 - Just Outside Eccles.)

A man jumps off a motorway bridge, hitting a vehicle in the process.

The vehicle was around 10 cars ahead from my position. 200-300 yards away...

All traffic stops - the man whose car was hit, gets out, sits down on the central reservation with head in his hands, thinking and probably still in shock, and collapses in situe.

The jumper, is lying face down on the road, with legs and arms mangled in an unnatural pose, I can only assume that he had died instantly.


Around 3 cars behind, were in a multi crash (pile-up) , they couldn't stop in time.

I felt so very uneasy & physically sick.

What does it take to make somebody wants to end it all, this way, what reason, what pain, what state of mind.

Life is so short and precious, yet it's wasted in the pursuit of the impossible, and crushing us, our hopes & dreams at every occasion. And even if we attain that dream, by then, it will be too late to matter or to care...

R.I.P Young Man... I hope you are somewhere better, with no pain....

If it looks like ......

A customer of mine had a problem with a laptop, so I went to his house to sort it out - After I finished, the man mentioned that his wife has just got back from holiday, and that he had asked her to bring me some exotic sweets.

He asked me to try one, and as per usual I accepted and told him that they were very tasty, and all the while, trying to control my gag reflex.

I never tried those sweets before, but they were really, really bad (photos attached). Apparently, they are a Kurdish delicacy, made with grape juice.

So the question is; If it looks like shit, smells like shit & taste like shit; What could it be?