Freeview? Yeah, right, tell another one...

So, here I am, sniffling throgh this damn cold and going through Kleenex like I've got shares in the firm, and mentioning throuigh blocked-up nose and rough voice to a mate, over the phone, that I can't even get my freeview digital telly to tune into all the bloody channels these days (cannot get the news channels, movie channels, or even some of the mainstream chanels for pities sake), as they keep screwing about with the channel settings...

What does this friend of mine say? "So they lied to you, it isn't freeview, its no view!"

How very bleeping true!

I note that freesat prices are coming down... might give that a try before long, see how messed up that is!

Well, it's official. I've got a cold, dammit :-(

Great, isn't it? All you folks who can take cold remedies take heart: you don't suffer nearly as much as those of us who are on heart medications. For some reason, the medicines we're prescribed react very badly (read: they could put us back in hospital at best) to cold remedies. The problem is one that I am led to believe that  pharmacists call "contraindications", which is medi-babble for "It'll do a little dance with the other meds in your system and stuff you up big time".

So, we heart patients to suffer, because no-one appears to have given any thought to those of us with colds who also happen to be on heart meds.

Would someone in the pharmaceutical business kindly fix this on the hurry-up, please?

Pretty much got the bird feeder done now...

Heh. I'm tired, it's been a loooooooong day, and I'm now home, so I decided to fix, as much as I could, the Twitter feed widget settings (I've come to calling it the birdfeeder *shrug*). It's still not a hundred percent, but at least you can now read the last four tweets completely (it's on the right of the page, just scroll on down, you'll find it!). Next up: Figure out how to prevent the "RogersBlant" large text in that birdfeeder from arcing across two lines instead of staying on one line...

Ooooo... this has possibilities...!

I regularly see posters and adverts for new films on our buses - it's an occupational hazard, after all - but this one - "Horrible Bosses" - has me chuckling evilly in anticipation - if only beacuse I have known a few bosses in the past that I could happily see through a set of rifle sights *wink*

Here's hoping the hype meets expectations, for once ;-)

Ye twittering ... um... yeah, well... here we go...

OK, fair do's. I seem to recall burbling on about not going on farcebunk - I mean facebook - to all and sundry over the last couple of years (their security would appear to suck bitter lemons, and besides, it's well over-hyped, and those who know me *know* that I'm rather averse to jumping on those kinds of bandwagons *wink*

"So, what's this?" I hear you yell... yeah... well... um... *ahem* I jumped on a different bandwagon instead. Twitter. I'm still fiddling with the feed interface and settings, but it's working so far, so even when I've not got an internet connection available, if there's a phone service, I'll be able to send short updates onto here :-)

Gotta love some of these modern techno-gagtetry thingamibobs, aincha? ;-)

Missing half - or all - of the story...

So, here I am, on the way home from work (late in the evening, of course. Driving a bus tends to mean you work some Godawful hours most of the time), and there's some Polak screaming full tilt into his phone. In, of course, Polish. So loud, in fact, that you could probably hear him in Warsaw without the aid of a phone.

Why IS it that folks from across the waters tend to yell full tilt into their phones? Anyone?

Anyhow, as you will probably agree, it's normally bloody irritating - rarely is it damned hilarious - when you only hear half of some aggrieved call on the tram / bus / train (take your pick), but ye gods, imagine how infuriating it is when the daft git's yelling away complete gibberish in a foreign language, and you haven't a blessed clue why he's so up-in-arms! You'd think they'd add subtitles or something, so as to warn you what's going on, like "My cat ate mothers canary, and now dog has chased it up tree in front garden!" (note the stylised lousy 'English is not my first language' grammar *grin*).

Why can't they equip visitors with signs saying things like "I like shouting on the phone" when they pass through immigration?

Aaaaaaaargh!

On Shaving...

Like most of us on this side of the gender divide, I shave daily (well, daily when it's a work-day, and most days in addition, unless I'm being really slothful!).

The first razor I ever owned was a Christmas present from my Grandmother when I was thirteen, if I recall correctly; seems on reflection that my old man copped out and ran for cover (I was apparently one of those 'difficult' brats to teach, lol), and Gran decided that it would be safer all round if I used a Philishave twin-head rechargable electric razor for a first razor. It came in a massive plastic presentation box, with a manual that wouldn't have looked out of place in the Apollo Moon Capsule, and the admonishment to "Actually start using it, young man!". It was a hulking great brute of a thing, compared to modern electric razor offerings.

Over time, I gradually weaned myself off the electric razors (although I still have a battery-operated one for those emergencies and hurried mornings!), and went wet-shave on cartridge razors (Gillette Mach 3 Turbo, being the last ones I standardised upon); then, I got into the re-enactment hobby, and wondered what all the hooplah was about regarding Double Edged Safety Razors, and recalled an old Staff Sergeant in my Company in the Territorial Army mentioning in passing that if the Russians had come over the IGB (Inner German Border) and kicked off Big Mess Three, then all the Army would have supplied were DE blades for shaving.

This got me wondering what the Army issued, what my old man used, and so on, and shortened story, here I am, using a Gillette Slim Safety Razor that was made before I was born, and trying blades from a sampler pack from Connaught Shaving. They're quite cheap compared to a pack of cartridge blades, and you might be pleasantly surprised. But do, please, either read up on, or get yourself taught, the proper way to use a Double-Edged Safety Razor before trying it on your own - you'll find it an all-together more pleasant affair if you do!

Anyhow, previously, I'd tried to use Wilkinson Sword DE blades, but despite massive amounts of care and caution, those ripped my face to bits darn near every time, so never again on those; I've also used Israeli Personna blades (found in a branch of Asda over here), which were far better than the Wilkinson face-rippers, but until I visited Badger and Brush, a portal, forum, and resource for Mens' Shaving, didn't know about the sampler packs that are availble from certain um... retail "Heshtablishments" was how I heard it pronounced once... a good source of these sampler packs is Connaught Shaving (link above), and what a useful place I've found it to be!

I decided upon their 'Popular' sampler pack, containing Astra Superior Platinum (5), Crystal Platinum (10), Feather New Hi-Stainless (10), Gillette 7 o’clock Sharp Edge (5), Personna Platinum Chrome (10), Shark Super Chrome, Wilkinson Double Edge (5), for a total of fifty blades; I won't be bothering with the Wilkinson Double Edge, obviously.

I've used a few of the Gillette 7 O'Clocks, and found them to be not at all bad, then tried my first Japanese 'Feather' blade this morning, and wow, what a difference! It was a joy to use, with only a couple of small nicks and seepages to worry about - I also bought an alum block, to use in place of the styptic pencil that I've hitherto been using, and that certainly was a boon: Closed up all those nicks practically instantly - the pencil wasn't aywhere near as good, let me assure you!

Anyway, we'll see what I think of the rest of the blades in the sampler, but that's a few weeks off, I think.

More when I've done the full sampler pack!

One for the "Think Bike!" campaign...

This is only part of the result of someone not using their eyes when turning across oncoming cycle-based traffic (whether powered or not). Off camera, a young man has broken bones, a head injury - despite his crash helmet - and was, I think, VERY lucky escape with his life.

I won't detail what happened in any detail, as the Police are still considering what action to take.

But I was there. I saw it all. And I'm due to give a witness statement soon.

Folks, please, when you're driving, watch out for the cyclists. The result of not doing so is far too heavy in most cases.