Where To Park In Edinburgh
This article is the second most popular on the BBC’s web site.
I just wonder how many of the viewers are from Glasgow!
Surprisingly, it doesn’t have anything to do with the Edinburgh tram.
Railways In Afghanistan
In Modern Railways this month, there is an informative article about how they are starting to build railways from scratch in that trouble country.
Apparently, they never developed a railway system, like neighbouring countries, and only now, with the need to remove vast amounts of natural resources around and out of the country, that the railways are being proposed.
It is a daunting task, made worse by the mountainous terrain and the fact that surrounding countries have a variety of different gauges.
Let’s hope the engineers succeed in their aims, as it might bring some wealth, prosperity and freedom to the country. There is a Wikipedia article, which gives more details.
What’s This All About?
I went to lunch at Leon in Kings Cross station today and saw this small crowd afterwards on the concourse.
Does J K Rowling realise what she’s started? I suspect her bank account does!
My Father Was A Real Cockney
My father was born in Islington and although he had all the rhyming slang and other knowledge, he never called himself a real Cockney, who was born within the sound of Bow Bells. Today, he wouldn’t have been, but when he was born in 1904, he would probably have been born inside the area, as indicated by this map.
I went past the church of St. Mary-le-Bow today and took some pictures.
According to the map, I think that both my maternal grandparents and possibly my paternal grandfather, were all born in the required area. So I could be three-quarter Cockney.
Twenty Three Celias
I’ve now unpacked all the beer and they’re sitting on the kitchen worktop.
Twenty Three Celias
There was twenty four, but one got drunk.
The Man Who Didn’t Know How To Use The Buses
Whilst waiting at the Angel for a bus, I was approached by a guy, who asked if he could buy a ticket on the bus to get to Stoke Newington. I told him he could, but as he looked to be in his sixties, I asked him, if he was eligible for a Freedom Pass. He was 65 and lived in Hackney, so he was!
But he said he’d never used the buses, as he was a mini-cab driver.
Perhaps major bus stops like the Angel, need instructions on how to use the buses.
Are The English Arrogant?
This post was selected by the phone-in on BBC Radio 5.
I don’t think arrogance is the word. But there is a class of the English, that has extreme self-confidence, which means they do things that are exceptional.
David Beckham is a classic modern example, as there are few people, who have achieved what he has done by pushing themselves to the limit.
Throughout history, we have had English leaders who could probably have been considered by some to be arrogant, but they just had this amazing self-confidence. Just look at Churchill, Nelson, Hawke and Thatcher for a start. In sport, there have been quite a few with it too like Bradley Wiggins, David Hemery, Stanley Matthews, Fred Perry, Nick Faldo, Will Carling, Geoffrey Boycott.
and then there’s the arts and the media, with people like David Hockney, Laurence Olivier, Henry Moore and David Attenborough.
You might think that I’m being very male and white oriented here, but I am tending to pick people, whose careers started and in most cases finished many years ago. In a few years time, the list will probably be different. But even now, you can pick many women and those from the broad non-white community, who owe their success to a supreme self-confidence.
So why are the English like this?
It’s difficult to find a definitive reason.
My Celias Arrived Yesterday
At about ten on Wednesday morning, I ordered 24 bottles of Celia lager from DeliDevine.
Last night just as I was sitting down to my supper, there was a ring at the door and on looking out of the window there was a van from Fedex.
I opened the door and the jaunty driver put the 24 bottles inside.
I know you might get served a little quicker down the pub, but just over 24 hours to get a heavy parcel delivered, isn’t too bad in my view.
The Celia lager is very much worth drinking and I’m starting to add used bottles to my recycling box.
As it’s also available in some pubs, you can actually try before you buy, as I did a few days ago.
It’s also better than the Estrella Damm Daura, that I have to carry home from Waitrose.
Fraudsters Are Targeting Wonga Customers
I have never used Wonga and I never will, but I received this e-mail supposedly from them this morning.
Customer Satisfaction Survey 2013
At Wonga.com, we sincerely value your opinions.
As part of our continuous improvement process, we’re conducting a survey to benchmark the opinions of our customers.We will use the resulting information to better serve the needs of our customers.
We kindly ask you to take part in our quick and easy 3 questions customer survey. In return, we won’t charge you ANY INTEREST on your next loan application!
Here is how you proceed:
• Download your personal survey attached to this email.
• Select the desired answers on your survey.
• Log in to your Wonga.com account to validate your survey.
We thank you in advance for your time and effort in making Wonga the best payday lender in the United Kingdom.Sincerely,
Wonga.com Customer Service
Message ID:
I wasn’t sure if it was phishing spam or something from the company, which has used one of my e-mail addresses.
So I did what you should always do with this type of message and used Google to search for “Wonga 2013 2013 customer satisfaction survey”
I found this page. So it’s a phish and of course fraudulent!
In some ways it’s rather ironic, that a rather dodgy company in my view, is being used as a hook by criminals to get mugs for their frauds.
The Anonymous Widower 
