Photo :Molly on the Birmingham and Worcester canal Brum.
This blog has no more importance than the writing on a toilet wall, it is merely my opinion.
AdSense new terms and conditions. 5 pages A4 nearly 3000 words. They are kidding! If I read all the terms and conditions of programs I was running I would never stop reading.
It says I must agree!
Piss off I don’t agree. Stop me using Adsense go to it dudes see if I care.
Sick as I am of saying it yet another hire boat moored up with ropes across the towpath. I’m sorry but what is it in their genes that lets them see this is OK. This is surely a case for euthanasia of the terminally stupid?
I have today blocked 957 advertising sites. I see from my ad management page that dating sites have already been blocked for some time. I suppose that doesn't include marriage sites. I will have to contact AdSense and complain.
The advertising I have on this blog occasionally displays ads that some people find offensive. (Thai girls seeking marriage being a recent one) Whilst I do have control over some of the ads, I cannot stop the majority. I don't like the Asian marriage ads either.
Adsense, who are part of the google empire, trawl the blog and place ads dependent on content. They usually pick up on key words, so what I write about and the comments made together determine the ad content. It would be nice if there was a tick box for certain types of ad, and indeed if this was a child’s site there would be, but by doing that some ads that would be useful to boaters would be excluded. I would much rather ask for ads that only relate to boating in the UK, but that isn’t an option.
There is not a great income from this advertising. Mainly because I don’t have ads in every available space, just the one. Later next year when my financial situation changes I might just cancel them altogether, but until then its free money and we all like free money.
If you are offended by ads that appear on your screen there is a little cross box in the top right-hand corner of the ad which when clicked on should register your dislike of such ads and hence fourth block their appearance.
“Almost half of families would be in danger of falling over the edge if they had to find an extra £99 a month to pay their bills, a study has found.”
This is an amazingly stupid thing to say. Force people on to minimum wage and have a study to see if they can take more shit. The incompetence of this government knows no boundaries. If there is not a revolution in the very near future I will be very surprised.
If Cameron wont go then maybe it is up to the military to make him or take him out for good.
For an extra 50p I would shoot George Osborne.
What is a consultation? I wonder if those that are responsible for particular departments have any understanding of the concept. I am not just talking about CRT although they are currently in error. All government departments national or local seem to mis-understand the whole idea of the principles involved in consultation.
What is the current practice? A department sees a problem and comes up with a solution. Then they ask everybody what they think of their solution. When the thoughts are in they implement their solution. Despite what seem to be said it is usually a foregone result. This is what we are going to do what do you think? Departments not really wanting your opinion but going through the motions anyway to placate the masses.
What should be the practice? Well, there are lot of ideas on this, but my thoughts are thus, A department sees a problem. To solve the problem they ask everyone how they would solve the problem i.e. gather ideas from as many sources as possible. When everyone has had their say, then and only then, do they look at all the possibilities put forward and discuss the merits of each solution and which of the solutions (or combination of various parts of the solutions) will be the most effective at curing the problem.
Squadron Leader James King, the RAFs answer to Fagash Lil, who I worked with back in the eighties was a master at this. Rather than pontificate about how problems should be solved his mantra was always, “Don't bring me your problems, bring me the solution.” What happened next was those who found the problem would go away and come up with a number of possible solutions then Jim would decide the way forward in consultation with those people, choosing the best solution or combination solutions to cure the problem. This is called leadership. It is not difficult, it’s what he was paid for.
In a consultation you cannot enter the arena knowing what the outcome will be. It is not fair and not in the spirit of the laid down rules which require consultations to take place.
Operation Bulfinch ( relating to the Oxford child abuse case) has finally bought the perpetrators to account. Reading through the newspaper report in the Oxford Times I cant help but ask why haven’t heads rolled. All I see is some overpaid CEO trying to mitigate her part in this debacle.
I cant understand why some senior council official who is earning more than the prime minister has not yet resigned for the damage that has been caused to these girls. It doesn't matter when she acted the point is this happened on her watch. It is her responsibility. These girls were failed by the those who are paid to look after them.
This was a monumental screw up!
From the Oxford Times
Joanna Simons, chief executive since 2005, earning £182,431 a year,said it was “beyond comprehension” an organised gang was acting on the scale it was.
The Old Bailey trial heard one social worker claim it was the “general consensus” amongst staff at a children’s home that one of the victims was being groomed.
And a school supporter worker also told the court nine out of 10 social workers knew what was going on.
“As soon as we suspected there was something big going on we took immediate action.”
The chief executive insisted social workers had acted upon concerns
She said: “There was huge concern among social workers about these girls and this is reflected in the fact that a lot of action was taken before Operation Bullfinch.
“Girls were sent to secure units and out of county placements, staff followed girls and tried hard to get them to speak and took away their mobile phones.
“However we did not understand the grooming process in the same way that we do now or that there was a gang in operation. We are sorry we were not able to act sooner.”
Simons said previously social workers had usually focused only on the families.
“One of the big things we have learnt is social workers have to be more like detectives and detectives have to be more like social workers.”
When asked if how she felt that this had happened when she was in charge, she said: “It is the worst thing I have ever seen in over 30 years in local government.
“We are all deeply affected by this and we are incredibly sorry we did not stop it sooner. Everybody feels responsibility for this.”
“One of the big things we have learnt is social workers have to be more like detectives and detectives have to be more like social workers.”
She declined to comment on whether she had considered resigning.
And she said there would now be a serious case review, adding: “We will absolutely be implementing any recommendations that come out if it.”
The council head said about 2,500 staff, including social workers, teachers and health workers, had been trained to spot the signs of sexual exploitation.
The Arts Council is to give CRT £2 million to create a corridor for art along the Leeds and Liverpool canal.
Art is very subjective. It’s what you want it to be. I want it to be deeper. And I know a man with a dredger. £2 million will make a great deal of difference to the depth of the canals up there.
When I started out on my journey last year I stopped in Banbury because the Banbury Canal Day was in progress. I was seconded to read Muddy Waters stories for the children while waiting for the star attraction, Prunella Scales, to arrive. During the weekend we all watched a film called The Longest Narrowboat Journey in the World. An interesting film if somewhat spoiled by the band playing the sound track live and some weird distracting girl ‘dancing’. The film need a voice over, less music and an absence of the ‘dancer’. Whether she was interpreting the film or the music I don’t know, but at one point it seemed she was enacting having a baby (general consensus).
Anyway on my way up the Macclesfield Canal some time later I saw the very boats moored on the side of the canal. Cool!
, , , , but judging by these comments I don't think I will be buying this particular book.
Frighteningly, shockingly bad.
I found a copy of this in a charity shop the other day and decided to spend a pound out of curiosity. Mistake.
If it can be had for 99p or less and with 320 pages, plus blank leaves, it is quite a lot of toilet-paper for your money.
"It was a shock - absolutely awful. I felt pathetic
An outstanding compendium of arsegravy as this astonishing failure discovers yet another job he is hopelessly inept at.
Slow, shallow, unconvincing,
Rubbish from start to finish.
Worst book I have ever read.
I must say, the level of talent displayed by ******* has given me the confidence boost I sorely needed,
Utter drivel!
This, this, this is the worst most illiterate brain numbing book ever produced, in case you failed to understand the previous, in short it is crap, period.
This "book" brought to mind human excrement pouring (nay, gushing) out a hole.
How any publisher could even consider wasting paper on this drivel is beyond me.
I read this trash with an open mind. Or at least I tried to. In the end I had to stop since I could not stop laughing at the "author"'s apparent lack of ability to function on a human level as expressed through his characters.
I bought this item with an open mind only to find that as the bland predictable prose give way to a banal plot I became more and more full of vitriol and despair. I slipped into a deep and uncompromising depression, the depths of which I may never return.
So to whom do they refer?
The Devils Tune is written by none other than Iain Duncan Smith. So apparently not only is he a twat, but he cant write either. GO JET!!!
More rubbish found at Roundham. It is a doggie doo bin so why is the doo doo placed behind the bin and not in it?
When I first went to Ansty there was a doo doo bin at bridge 15. I took ten bags of rubbish from around that bin. That problem has been solved the bin has been removed. We don’t want that to happen here, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it did!
Just south of Langford Lane Bridge, about 15 paces there is a bin for the disposal of Doggie doo. It is a convenient bin for the doo doo collector in that there is somewhere to park nearby and they can just come down the steps by the bridge and take away the doo doo. They have a relatively small van and are not equipped to collect anything other than doo doo. This is the case with most doo doo bins!
So why I ask do the general populace not understand this. There are not the facilities in place to collect other rubbish. Now in this picture you can see three bin liners full of ‘other rubbish’ I don’t know but I am guessing that one bag, the black one was dumped there and the other two grey ones followed simply because the first bag appeared, them being a different colour. This could be either boaters or locals or both.
What is most annoying is that about 100 yards south down the canal is a waste disposal point and 3/4 of a mile north is Thrupp disposal point so these people are totally f***ing lazy, ignorant dumb bastards. What we need is a Euthanasia Law in this country to terminate these people because it would seem they are of no use to society whatsoever!
I shall be in touch with the fly tipping department tomorrow!
OVERVIEW
When dowdy Pauline allows her bossy neighbour to talk her into a holiday on a hotel boat, she isn’t expecting to revisit her past. Or to find a new future. A warm and witty look at what happens when a waterways holiday takes an unexpected turn… back to carefully forgotten memories of stifling respectability, young love, and the sixties that didn’t swing for everyone....
Performing her own script, Kate Saffin is natural… Her warm portrayal… allows the audience to laugh at [Pauline’s] fusty foibles… creating a genuine affection for the central character. FringeGuru (original title: Memories of Water)
TICKETS
Oxford: The Theatre at the Old Fire Station May 9th and 10th 7.30pm (55 min)
Tickets £10/£8
http://www.oldfirestation.org.uk/event/
Tickets Oxford: http://bit.ly/14Y3FCL
Box office: 01865 305305
Or on the door from 19:00
London: Pleasance Theatre Islington May 14th 7.45pm
Tickets £10/£8
http://www.pleasance.co.uk/islington/events/finding-libby
In answer to my question “Are you really old enough to be an MP? The tories has been whip and one man boy band Michael Fabricant replied “No.”
I am sure that we all feel sorry for the two year old toddler that was found face down in the canal at Burnley on the Leeds and Liverpool. He is stable and expected to recover. So three cheers for the Emergency Services.
The child’s mother wants the waterway ‘fenced off’ to prevent other mothers from going through the same anguish as she did. She wants the council to make it happen.
This is going to sound heartless, but if she had been paying more attention to the whereabouts of her child when in the vicinity of the canal that child would never have fallen in, in the first place.
Short of committing The Council and CRT to a very costly fencing program maybe the relevant authorities should start proceedings to recover the costs of the emergency services which were only required due to HER negligence as a parent.
Too often today, when a problem occurs, ill-informed people demand measures are taken to stop other ill-informed people (negligent with their lives and the lives of those for whom they are responsible) from being stupid. Well I am sorry but the community pays enough for other people as it is without paying for fencing for parents that cant be arsed to look after their children.
Fencing has, in the past, been erected around a lock to prevent children falling in. A child climbing on the fence fell in and drowned. Fencing is not the answer!
I get emails like this all the time. Of course Jonathan Gascoigne is just a scumbag who spends his day sending out emails to all and sundry. @He has no connection with FaceBook whatsoever!
If I click on the link I get the TORONTO DRUG COMPANY. They sell among other things Viagra and Calais. Clicking on that button that says ‘go to facebook’ doesn’t take you there. By right clicking on the button and selecting ‘properties’ you will find a link that, again, has no connection to facebook at all.
http://twc-advantage.com/unifier.html which in turn takes you to http://boschdrugstore.com/ Toronto Drugs.
Toronto Drugs are not the only ones who do this sort of thing Express Pharmacy, Pharmacy Express, Online Pharmacy, Canadian Pharmacy et al. It is all a big con trick. It is not salesmanship of any kind. It is simply a bunch of corporate sanctioned scumbags filling up your email service.
I always put them in the blocked senders list. My list has a 1000 or more of these people. Block one and ten more appear. What I really would like is for my email service to have a basket that I can just drop these emails into instead of having to cut and paste the addy into a page that is three clicks way.
Despite companies (drug and email) saying they are committed to stopping spam it would seem they are really putting in very little effort.
Some things just niggle. If I see one more celebrity write “My Autobiography” I shall commit untold mayhem.
Who else would write your autobiography, idiots!!!
Why on earth would you be on the cover of someone else’s autobiography? Bloody muppets!!!
If you take the hose off the drum then surely you can remember where you got it from a few minutes later when you have finished with it?
Or am I being too simplistic?
This was a hire boater, nb Trinity. He used it to fill his water tank. We cant be too angry coz this hose is the hose that me and other people, with a shit tank, stuff down the hole into the tank to rinse it out. The last few inches of this hose is highly toxic, which is why the sign says:-
NOT DRINKING WATER
I trust College Cruisers have a few buckets around the yard because they are going to need them.
Ya haf ter larf!
