A 'Larry David moment'

Since rewatching the Larry David show 'Curb Your Enthusiasm' recently I have come across many instances commonly known as 'Larry David moments', when a ordinary normal situation eventually turns out to be one giant headache to sort out. However, there are other times, again there are many examples in the show, when Larry can't quite get why certain people act in the way that they do. Next time you go out to town, do the shopping, or take a run in the car, you are bound to meet some of these morons, who tend to do things that really annoy you.
Such a moment happened to my eldest son, Simon, this morning. Simon recently turned 18 and is quite a big built lad, and has no trouble passing himself for 20 actually. He popped out to get a Playstation magazine at our local Co-op here in Rhos-on-sea, but came back empty handed because a checkout assistant insisted on seeing proof of identity! This particular magazine is a popular one with kids obviously being a game console mag and I would imagine that kids of the age range between 10-18 would want to buy it. He could not believe that this woman had refused to sell him the magazine, so I said, come on let's go back. I want to see this! Simon picked his mag and went to the counter and was duly asked for his ID again. I was loitering trying to pretend I was not with Simon, but chipped in, "You do know that magazine is rated 15 don't you?" She replied that she has to ask because it's more than her job's worth. I said, " Yea, but you can see he's over 15, can't you?" It's policy, she said. So, you have to ask all the kids for ID before they can buy magazines now?, I said. Yes was the reply. So there you have it, if a magazine is a 12 rating, then all the 10 - 13 year olds have to show proof of age now. How many kids of that age carry ID cards? Not many. I have no problem if there is reasonable doubt in regards to someone who looks borderline, but if she thinks Simon wasn't even 15 years old today, she needs her eyes tested!

Time Flies

Steven Wilson talks about the song 'Time Flies' on the Roadrunner site.

http://www.roadrunnerrecords.co.uk/page/News?news_id=80332

Preview music for the forthcoming new Porcupine Tree album

Porcupine Tree have released various clips of music from 'The Incident' which will be released on 14 September.

http://www.myspace.com/porcupinetree

Sounds like another diverse sobic mix of brilliant music.
As always.

Music from The Engineers

Engineers - Three Fact Fader (album preview) from Kscope on Vimeo.

Clip from forthcoming DVD of No-Man

No-Man - Wherever There Is Light (from Mixtaped DVD) from Kscope on Vimeo.

Remembering Sir Bobby

Sad to hear about Bobby Robson's death. I have a couple of memories of him because I was living in the Ipswich area from 1988 to 1990. I remember going to a Ipswich versus Man. Utd game at Portman Road in the FA cup (don't remember the round could be the third) and it was televised. I was in the crowd and I remember turning to my left where the television box was and he was sitting there (he was a guest of the BBC for the match) and thinking 'bloody hell, that Bobby Robson up there!' The rest of the crowd spotted him and they all raised their arms to salute him and he raised his arm in acknowledgment and smiled. We all cheered.
Not long after I was getting off a bus from Washbrook to Ipswich train station on my way to work at Chelmsford, when I saw Bobby crossing the road, going for the train station as well. I think England had just embarassingly drawn with Saudia Arabia and he was, as usual, being slagged off in the press at the time. As I got on the platform it was packed with waiting commuters for the London train, as it always was. Bobby was standing right at the far end, where the first class coaches would stop at, and he seemed in another world, in fact he looked like he had all the worries of the world on his shoulders. I remember thinking, this is the England manager here, catching the same train as me (and a few others of course!).
Another celebrity I saw during my Portsmouth days was the infamous David Icke, who was then a respectble BBC Sports presenter but not long after lost his way with the Purple shellsuit cult. He was very uptight, sitting in front of me as I got on the Portsmouth-London train and hardly made eye contact with any of his fellow passengers. He was wearing a long camel haired coat, like Del Boy in Only Fools and Horses... I wonder what he's doing now...

1911 census

At last the 1911 census that covers the Welsh counties has arrived online which will help all Welsh family historians. It has been a long time coming, with the English counties appearing quite a few months ago. There was always this troublesome gap in family history research between 1901 and 1911, a black hole where it was difficult to prove whose children belonged to who, and the only way to find out was to buy copies of birth certificates. The cost mounts up!
I was fairly successful earlier on in finding my relatives, but because of the nature of the interface on the site it is very easy to choose the wrong name and waste credits. 10 credits will get you a copy of the transcript of the household of your relative, and 30 for the image download. To be honest the 10 credit information is good enough for me, it gives me enough to go on. I must have wasted about 40 thinking they were my relatives. Its already yeilded useful information for me.
Over the last few weeks I have signed up for Twitter. Not sure how useful it is to be on it, but I have had a good old search tonight for anything that covers my interests. One good thing about it is that it is a good source for info on absolutely anything you can think of, and I've found some interesting photography blogs (which I have provided links to on the left)if anyone is interested.

Boris

Viewing a recent Steven Wilson interview I decided to check out a band he mentioned that he was a big fan of called Sunn O)) on You Tube. While I like my rock music diverse and different, droning loud guitars which seem to last for ever will take a while to catch on with me. However, Sunn O)))collaborated once with the Japanese drone rock band BORIS and so watched a few clips and you know what I like them. Do not get confused with another band called Boris, apparantly from the US who do not sound anything like their Japanese namesakes. The lead guitarist Watta is one of the best lady guitarists I've seen. In their early albums their trademark was definately drone, but lately their sound is more contemporary and worth listening to.

The year so far

Well 2009 is already half way over and I've been a bit lazy in regards to writing in this blog. My main excuse is the work involved with my Psychology course which is on its last leg now (thank God!), but I am enjoying this one much, much more than last year's which was a pig of a one to do. The module is Social Psychology and it is very interesting. In fact I am in the middle of conducting research for a project which will include studying people's identity in relation to their environment. I can't say too much about it because of confidentiality restrictions, but I am looking forward to participate in it.
The year so far has been a mixture of study and family tree work. I have completed the counselling course, but I am taking on another module at the college which finish at the end of next month. With the degree course finishing this year I should be study free for the first time in 3 years, and will be taking on other projects hopefully. But no studying! Not for a while anyway.
My main interest this year on the family tree is one of my great great grandmother, whose surname I recently found out. Her name was Jane Salt, as confirmed by her marriage certificate and my great grandfather's birth certificate. She has been a bit of a mystery for quite some time,and the only information that I knew about her was that she married William Williams of Croesor in 1869, her children, which included twins with the names of James and George, and that she was buried at Llanfrothen churchyard in 1927. The mystery deepend when her marriage certificate did not reveal her father's name. A bit of back story for you. Around the 1850's, 2 brothers named George and Joseph Salt came to live in the Bangor/Bethesda area together with other members of family with the name Twigge. With Jane naming her boys George and James (James was George and Joseph's father's name) I was sure I was on the right track, with probably George being her father. Well I can't be sure, but a recent telephone conversation I had with a relative seems to indicate that George was her father but had her with a woman named Margaret Jones before he married his wife Ellen. This seems to make sense because Jane apparant birth was before his marriage, and that George and Ellen's daughter Sarah was a witness at Jane and William's marriage.
Another avenue for information may be a resident in a Criccieth home who clams up whenever anyone asks about Jane. Could there be a dark secret in my family history? I hope so!

Another rant!

Yes it must be that time of the year again! Something irked me this morning that made me write a stinging letter to that old 'reliable' institution of ours, namely British Gas. To cut a long story short we recently found out that British Gas has been taking money from our bank account for someone else's homecare bolier service plan - since October last year. Now you would think that they would be concerned that they have done this, but apparantly not. Since they agreed to refund us they have told me that it will take a further 21 days for them to send me a cheque, which will then add another week for us to wait until we get back what was ours in the first place. Anyway I think it's outrageous, and the next time I get a call interupting my tea from British Gas wanting me to sign up with them, I will not be responsible for my actions! This is the letter.

RE: Refund

Dear Sir,

I feel that I need to write this letter to you because British Gas has taken money from my bank account without my permission. 2 weeks ago I discovered that I was paying someone else’s Homecare Plan since October last year. No explanation as to how this occurred has ever been given to me, but it sounds like you have at least one sloppy employee! Actually it makes you think why the people I was paying for their boiler to be serviced all this time didn’t spot that they were getting it for free. Boy, are they going to get mad when they have to be told that they owe you money! Anyway, I think it’s outrageous that I have to wait 21 days for what is rightly mine and then it will be in the form of a cheque, which will probably take another week to clear. A month to get my own money back, and by the way money that I cannot do without. I wish I could be generous and be able to afford to help someone else out, but unfortunately I had to give up my work in order to care for a relative, and find myself having to live on Income Support. So, I herby give you notice that if I go over my overdraft during the period I am waiting for my money, I will be sending you the bill. It’s only fair.

I also must tell you that the ‘advisor’ I spoke to today (Leslie with a Scottish accent) needs to brush up on her customer care skills. Her ‘sorry’ sounded like I was her enemy, not a customer. I have read comments by other people on the Uswitch web site declaring their disgust at the responses and lack of help they get from your telephone ‘advisors’. It seems they were not exaggerating. I pity the one who will inevitably phone me next trying to get me to switch back to British Gas for my supply! With what I have to say I’ll convince HIM to leave British Gas!

To conclude, if I was responsible for taking money that didn’t belong to me I would try and return it as fast as possible, and break my back to make sure it happened. As a customer I would expect that. However, this matter is being treated like it doesn’t matter to you. This money that you took from my account MATTERS to me. If I took 21 days plus to pay you, YOU would charge me!

I expect you to reply to this letter giving me a good reason why it takes 21 days to write a cheque to correct a mistake that British Gas was responsible for. What the hell is stopping someone higher up the corporate chain of command in getting the big fat chequebook that British Gas undoubtedly has (how many millions profit did you make recently?) and send me a measly £90 whatever, which should have stayed in my bank account anyway?

Yours sincerely,

G Hughes


I'm not holding my breath, but I recommend writing as a method of relieving stress!