Category: Moans

Wednesday 19 November 2008 | Moans | Comments (2)

I couldn't believe what ITV have done tonight, it may seem trivial to those outside Scotland, but it goes to show how the country is treated when it comes to National versus English television. It seems that while England are served their national team playing football, Scotland can't see theirs,...

Tagged with: Coronoation Street : England : Football : Scotland : Television | Continue reading England dominates British television

Thursday 30 October 2008 | Moans : The World | Comments (0)

I'm really getting fed up with the way the news is being presented these days, more and more it's short, sharp headlines, with reporters pushing people for something controversial or interesting whatever the story and whatever the real story behind it. There's also the growing trend of leaping on a...

Tagged with: Andrew Sachs : BBC : Financial Crisis : Help the Aged : Jonathan Ross : Media : News : Northern Rock : Reporting : Russell Brand : Sensationalism : The Bank of England : The Daily Mail | Continue reading Shock horror news reports from BBC!

Friday 24 October 2008 | Moans | Comments (0)

Back in March we received a note through our door saying that there was going to be maintenance on the main runway at Edinburgh Airport. It would take place overnight, and would mean that the night time flights would have to be diverted to a backup runway. This meant they...

Tagged with: Airplane : Airport : BAA : Edinburgh : Noise : Noise Pollution | Continue reading Edinburgh Airport diversions and noise

Sunday 12 October 2008 | Entertainment : Moans : Motorsport | Comments (0)

I had to laugh, although I've been avoiding Formula 1 after I've just lost all hope of fairness in the sport after years of McLaren bashing and Ferrari winning, I've heard the news about the attempts at the Japanese Grand Prix to focus the minds of the fans on the...

Tagged with: Environment : Formula 1 : Japanese Grand Prix | Continue reading Formula 1 pretends to be green

Friday 29 August 2008 | Environment : Moans : Politics | Comments (0)

John Hutton is the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform for the UK, and just yesterday he said “The era of cheap energy is over”, and I couldn't believe he had the audacity to say that. After all, what has his government been doing? Sitting on their...

Tagged with: Biofuel : John Hutton : Labour : Middle East : Nuclear Energy : Oil : Russia : Wave Power : Wind Power | Continue reading The era of cheap energy is over...tough luck says government

Wednesday 19 December 2007 | Companies : Moans | Comments (3)

Since I’ve moved to O2 Broadband on the 30th of October I’ve had nothing but problems, and I’ve struggling trying to get an uninterrupted connection to the Internet. Honestly I can’t remember how many times I’ve called their support, but I’ll try and talk you through what’s happened and update...

Tagged with: Broadband : O2 | Continue reading O2 Broadband fails to deliver or support

Wednesday 19 December 2007 | Companies : Moans | Comments (1)

I was with Demon Internet for something around seven years, over three years at the current address. In that time there's never been more than two or three periods of downtime, and they've been rectified quickly. Of course they are over the market price consistently, but you get a good...

Tagged with: Broadband : Demon Internet | Continue reading Demon Internet argues to retain customer

Wednesday 24 October 2007 | Entertainment : Games : Moans | Comments (0)

I find this incredible. The BBFC are coming under fire for releasing the David Cronenberg film Eastern Promises uncut, despite the high level of violence. Now my issue is not with the fact that they are releasing it uncut, I'm actually pleased they are, mine is with their inconsistency. The...

Tagged with: BBFC : Censorship : Gordon Brown : Videogames : Violence | Continue reading BBFC clear Eastern Promises uncut

Wednesday 21 March 2007 | Moans : Politics | Comments (0)

Sorry Mr Fat Controller, I just don't get it. The Chancellor has made some budget changes allegedly aimed at dropping carbon emissions from cars, not at raising money for the Government, oh no. Yet in my circumstance I'm going to be penalised for keeping my car in the garage, running...

Tagged with: Budget : Chancellor : Environment : Gordon Brown : Government : Labour : Tax | Continue reading Budget hits me for not driving - so called Green Taxes.

Monday 12 March 2007 | Moans : The World | Comments (1)

My Fiancée and I travelled down to London recently to see a premiere screening of 300. This week I've been invited to go to see Alpha Dog and 300 at the IMAX, and both are out. Why? Travelling costs, they are horrendous. Yet when we were looking at the costs...

Tagged with: Airlines : Flying : Rail : Train : Travel | Continue reading Inconsistencies of travelling and why it's better to pollute

Sunday 11 March 2007 | Moans : The World | Comments (1)

Do you want to know how to identify terrorists? They buy in bulk and large containers. Terrorists never buy items below 100mls. Even 120mls and that's likely to be your man, anything else and you're safe. Well that's what it seems to be when you're entering an Airport anyway. See...

Tagged with: Airport Security : Airports : Flying : Terrorism : Travelling | Continue reading Airport security - is it really making us safer?

Monday 19 February 2007 | Moans | Comments (2)

Once investigative reporting on television was incredibly insightful and provided a great service, often revealing those taking advantage of others or companies and people breaking the law. Today it's filled with scaremongering and sensationalisation, like a tabloid newspaper its role is to make an attention grabbing programme that will fill...

Tagged with: Dispatches : Journalism : Reporting : Television : Tonight | Continue reading Dispatches fights Tonight for worst reporting on TV

Friday 9 February 2007 | Moans | Comments (3)

When I was young crossing wardens - or whatever you would like to call them, we called them lollipop men and women - would stand at appropriate points of the road where kids would often try and cross, these were where there were usually no other safe places to cross...

Tagged with: Council : Crossing Guard : Lollipop People | Continue reading Lollipop people protecting pedestrian crossings

Tuesday 9 January 2007 | Moans | Comments (6)

We have a new phone that tells you who's calling, it's great for finding out who you've missed while you've been out, and also for recognising sales calls. So the phone rang this lunchtime with the word INTERNATIONAL across the front, now usually that means sales call. This is infuriating...

Tagged with: | Continue reading Foreign call center lies and how to annoy them

Tuesday 19 December 2006 | Moans | Comments (11)

10/12/2006 Item ordered from Play.com 11/12/2006 Item shipped according to Play.com records 19/12/2006 Morning: Checking to see where the item is, order shows shipped with Royal Mail tracking number 19/12/2006 Morning: Entered number into Royal Mail system and it shows an error 19/12/2006 Afternoon: Email arrives to say the item...

Tagged with: play.com : Post Office | Continue reading Play.com and/or Post Office mess up Christmas present

Tuesday 21 November 2006 | Moans | Comments (8)

I just received a shopping order from Tesco's and I saw the most disgraceful sight. You know I'm very keen on online shopping, mainly because I hate going into the superstores and battling with people who just idle about and come to a dead stop right in front of you...

Tagged with: | Continue reading Tesco's deliver rotten fruit

Saturday 4 November 2006 | Life : Moans | Comments (13)

...so my poor fiancé crashed the car this evening (don't panic, not the S2k). She was fine when I finally managed to get to her but the car had been in one hell of a shunt. I won't be surprised if the car is written off. Eventually we got home,...

Tagged with: | Continue reading Royal Infirmary Edinburgh

Monday 18 September 2006 | Moans | Comments (1)

I can't believe the Tonight with Trevor McDonald television show this evening, it's the third time I've watched the show and the third time I've been struck with the poor, ill informed, biased, sensationalised and downright idiotic reporting. Strangely tonights show was about videogames, and one of the previous shows...

Tagged with: | Continue reading Tonight with Trevor McDonald - Perhaps the worst reporting ever?

Monday 18 September 2006 | Moans | Comments (1)

Once again the English prove there's no life outside England as a statement online at Sky Showbiz: In Britain we're gearing up for the new smoking regulations which come in to force in 2007. In case you weren't aware, lighting up a ciggy in enclosed places such as pubs and...

Tagged with: News : Scotland : Sky Showbiz : Smoking Ban | Continue reading Sky Showbiz forget Scotland and Ireland

Saturday 2 September 2006 | Moans | Comments (0)

I've been using my Sony NW-A3000 for a while now and I love the player, but as you can see from a previous post, I don't like the Connect software, it's awful. Luckily there's another package you can use that Sony seem to have developed a bit better than Connect,...

Tagged with: | Continue reading Sony, SonicStage and the web

Thursday 3 August 2006 | Internet : Moans : Work | Comments (2)

Please note that this post has been removed. Due to persistence of search engine caching the physical page will remain in place,...

Tagged with: | Continue reading An example of backwards organisations

Thursday 6 July 2006 | Games : Moans : e-learning | Comments (2)

I've been a huge fan of the game Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30. For those of you who don't know it's a game that puts you in the shoes of a soldier dropped in France on D-Day. As he gathers stragglers and gets together his team he finds...

Tagged with: | Continue reading Brothers in Arms - Game Learning and poor sequels

Monday 19 June 2006 | Moans | Comments (6)

I read the Guardian every weekend and find it one of the least offensive, most unbiased newspapers around. I enjoy reading the articles and now and again some of the journalist-commentators are quite interesting to read. However this weekend I was appalled at the lack of professionalism and sheer irreverence...

Tagged with: | Continue reading The Guardian's anti-Scottish journalist

Thursday 25 May 2006 | Moans : The World | Comments (4)

I was watching a program on Channel 4 the other nigh called Grand Designs, showing how people designed and built their own homes. It's a wonderful show because that's exactly what I want to do in the future and it gives you great ideas and things to avoid. Yet during...

Tagged with: | Continue reading Is being environmentally friendly a joke?

Sunday 14 May 2006 | Moans : The World | Comments (3)

Of late there has been a lot of news in the press about wind farms in Scotland. We have the Scottish Executive releasing the "news" that they may axe seven planned Wind Farms in the next few months, preparation for the actual event if ever I heard it. Then we...

Tagged with: | Continue reading Wind Farms

Wednesday 26 April 2006 | Moans | Comments (2)

On my way to work there's an amazing monument erected in the grounds of a workplace just next to a main roundabout that marks the entrance to a large business estate outside Edinburgh. The estate is called South Gyle, the workplace the abandoned premises of BAE, and the monument is...

Tagged with: | Continue reading The Lightning, a dying relic

Wednesday 26 April 2006 | Blogging : Moans : Movies : Writing | Comments (4)

That's my life at the moment. When I'm not working, I'm living and breathing Filmstalker, and do you know what? I'm loving it. This weekend I just survived Dead by Dawn, the Horror Film Festival in Edinburgh that is running into its thirteenth year, and doing superbly well as it...

Tagged with: | Continue reading Working on Filmstalker

Monday 17 April 2006 | Moans | Comments (2)

Something is happening totally randomly on my computer right now and it's not only making me mad, but it's also making writing on the Internet exceedingly difficult. When I single click the left mouse button the computer randomly decides to pick up a double click so that programs will run...

Tagged with: | Continue reading My PC is annoying me

Thursday 6 April 2006 | Blogging : Internet : Moans : Writing | Comments (4)

I'm angry at a number of specific people as well as a genre, shall we say, of Internet users for the continuing arrogance and abuse of content, authors rights, and people in general. It seems that with the use of the Internet something is forgotten, common decency, respect, the following...

Tagged with: | Continue reading Arrogance on the Internet: Crediting sources, self promotion and respect

Monday 3 April 2006 | Moans : Politics | Comments (0)

Finally I decided to contact my MP and complain about the way cyclists are treated by other road users, the Government policy on greener transport with their corresponding lack of protection for cyclists, and the poor respose of the Police in my reported crime. I decided to use the excellent...

Tagged with: | Continue reading Contacting Government Officials

Friday 31 March 2006 | Moans | Comments (1)

On the fourteenth of November 2005 I wrote about how I reported an incident to the Police where I was forced off the road and into a wall by a truck while I was cycling. It passed within centimetres of my arm and I was lucky not to be hit...

Tagged with: | Continue reading The Police inaction on a reported crime

Monday 27 March 2006 | Moans | Comments (1)

I just went into O2 to buy a new phone, and not only that but move from being an Orange customer for over fifteen years, and they told me that they couldn't process my order because they couldn't find my address. I found this extremely frustrating as it was obviously...

Tagged with: | Continue reading O2 turn down customers

Monday 27 March 2006 | Moans | Comments (9)

I stood at the bus stop today waiting to head off to the cinema, and not the usual one which meant I had to check if I would still be paying 80p, according to the sign I was. I also wanted to check because I knew the price was rising...

Tagged with: | Continue reading Bus prices change without notification

Friday 24 February 2006 | Life : Moans | Comments (4)

It saddens me to say, but people let you down. They disappoint and so seldom do they actually surprise. In my life, for example, I'm particularly feeling saddened this week because people have once again shown me this is most certainly true. That's not to say I'm without blame myself,...

Tagged with: | Continue reading People let you down

Wednesday 22 February 2006 | Moans | Comments (10)

I'd like to call this intent to assault with a motor vehicle, but I'm not sure if that's a real law although it sounds much more accurate. This is now the second serious incident of someone attempting to knock me off my bike and cause me physical harm, and what's...

Tagged with: | Continue reading Dangerous Driving again

Thursday 29 December 2005 | Moans | Comments (11)

You know you might think I rant and moan a lot, but I didn't just develop that out of thin air myself, I inherited it. My Father is the champion complainer and taught me everything I know. Over Xmas we talked a lot about world events, news and life in...

Tagged with: | Continue reading Conned by National Charities

Tuesday 27 December 2005 | Moans | Comments (3)

It always amazes me when, come the cold weather, the news is filled with severe weather warnings and news reports of car crashes and impending doom across England. Yet when snow comes to Scotland we are greeted with the usual weather reports and not much excitement. Is there something different...

Tagged with: | Continue reading Snow and the English

Tuesday 13 December 2005 | Moans | Comments (2)

I can't believe that Companies have still to figure out that Customer Service is the key to getting Customers to first of all buy products from yourself, and secondly to come back again to buy more. One of the big factors of this is communication and keeping the Customer informed....

Tagged with: | Continue reading Customer service is important

Tuesday 13 December 2005 | Moans | Comments (2)

May I say to the gentleman in his car today who, while one vehicle was pulling in right in front of me while I cycled, blasted his horn from behind me, then overtook me driving on the wrong side of the road towards a blind crest and corner, steering with...

Tagged with: | Continue reading Road Traffic Act 1991

Tuesday 22 November 2005 | Life : Moans | Comments (8)

Cycling back and forth to work is a great thing as I'm reducing my carbon footprint, something I feel very good about in general, especially considering that my annual car mileage is under four thousand miles. However attempting to be good to the environment and looking after my health brings...

Tagged with: | Continue reading Cycling accident with a truck

Sunday 20 November 2005 | Moans | Comments (3)

When I was a contractor I had to submit my yearly Self Assessment Tax Return, it's something you just have to do and it's awful. This is where you account for what you spent and earned and try and let the Inland Revenue know that you've actually paid all the...

Tagged with: | Continue reading Incompetent Inland Revenue

Sunday 30 October 2005 | Moans | Comments (3)

It's fair to say that on some of the main roads in Edinburgh you'd be quite forgiven for thinking you're actually driving through a road in the Middle East or East Europe. The City streets are falling apart, filled with potholes, sunken drains, and so many ripped up and repatched...

Tagged with: | Continue reading Edinburgh's pothole ridden roads

Wednesday 19 October 2005 | Moans | Comments (10)

Cycling on the roads is a really dangerous and tough thing. It's especially dangerous when it's dark. Even moreso when you're in rush hour. At this time of year I have to add all those together and I get a big wad of danger delivered on a platter to me....

Tagged with: | Continue reading Top most dangerous vehicles to cyclists

Tuesday 11 October 2005 | Moans | Comments (8)

My views on the BBC license fee are very strong, but before I start ranting, let's just review what the license fee is here to do. Basically every UK resident that owns a TV has to pay the TV license fee, this goes in part to pay for the monitoring,...

Tagged with: | Continue reading BBC license fee

Wednesday 31 August 2005 | Moans | Comments (44)

Okay, here's the latest problem and I've just sent my first enquiry to International Paints, so let's see how this tracks out. I sealed my Garage some time ago with International Concrete Sealer paint, and it worked a charm. It stopped the dust fallout that was happening on my car...

Tagged with: | Continue reading International Paint - Garage Floor Failure

Thursday 11 August 2005 | Moans | Comments (1)

I've just started cycling to work again after a very long break, and it's tough. It's a thirty minute cycle into work and a fourty minute cycle back. I know, you're asking about that extra ten minutes...well it's downhill one way, and not the other! For the most part it's...

Tagged with: | Continue reading Cyclists and Motorists - Pt I - Cyclists

Monday 8 August 2005 | Moans | Comments (4)

You know what I hate, apart from the other fifty million things, I'll tell you, half filled sandwiches. I've just picked up my Tuna Mayonnaise Tesco Finest sandwich and bitten into it, sure there's a circle of tuna in the middle, but there's nothing at the edge!...

Tagged with: | Continue reading Half filled sandwiches

Tuesday 5 July 2005 | Moans | Comments (9)

Damn computers! Sometime ago I had the misfortune to be distracted while I was powering down my PC and in a rush to head out the door and I powered off before Windows had finished saving my profile data...that was my profile corrupted. So ensued a lengthy recovery and a...

Tagged with: | Continue reading Computer failure!

Friday 27 May 2005 | Moans | Comments (4)

I just went to the mens toilets at work, that's good for two reasons: I'm a man I needed the toilet Our work toilets have three cubicles, well on the floor I work on, and out of all three one was occupied and the other two were unusable. Why? Well...

Tagged with: | Continue reading Men's messy toilets

Thursday 14 April 2005 | Moans | Comments (6)

You know what really annoys me? Well, loads of things actually, but one really big one is my lukewarm morning coffee. I don't want lukewarm coffee, for an authentic taste like that I could happily piss in a cup, wait for it to cool, and drink it. That would be...

Tagged with: | Continue reading Lukewarm coffee - The worst thing about mornings

Monday 4 April 2005 | Moans | Comments (3)

I can't believe it. Finally my girlfriend and I have a week off work together, on Sunday we booked a luxury hotel in the Lakes to spend three nights at a fab 50% off. The luxury double room with the flat screen TV and DVD system looked wonderful, the views...

Tagged with: | Continue reading Ruined holidays and more Doctor hassles

Friday 1 April 2005 | Moans | Comments (5)

A company who you have purchased something from hire them to deliver the goods to you, so they just turn up at your door unannounced during a weekday, knowing full well the chances of you actually being in are extremely low. You own a house, you have to work and...

Tagged with: | Continue reading What is it with Courier companies?

Monday 21 February 2005 | Moans | Comments (5)

I've thought about writing something about this for some time, but I didn't think I had enough exposure on the topic until now. This weekend I've been thinking a lot about this topic for a couple of reasons. Firstly, there's the fact that at work just now our e-learning development...

Tagged with: | Continue reading Political Correctness gone mad

Sunday 6 February 2005 | Moans | Comments (0)

I hate it and I used to get so much of it too. When I stayed at my last flat I was receiving three to four items a day, crazy amount to be getting. Loans, credit cards, insurance, blah, blah, blah. All basically rubbish that I didn't want or need...

Tagged with: | Continue reading Junk snail mail

Sunday 26 December 2004 | Moans | Comments (0)

Christmas has been a nightmare this year, presents not arriving and all sorts. Having ordered from the Internet many times before and probably made about 95% of all my Christmas purchases online I was surprised this year by the failure rate and the inadequacy of the support behind the Internet...

Tagged with: | Continue reading Christmas Shopping and poor customer service

Friday 5 November 2004 | Moans | Comments (0)

Oh, this is probably my top moan ever. I really hate bad drivers, and some days you just seem to get them all on the road at once, like yesterday. I'm off on holiday and decided to drive to the bottle bank then off to the new Doctors to register....

Tagged with: | Continue reading Bad driving