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.
Hackney Is London’s Cycling Capital
That is the strapline on this report in today’s Standard. Here’s the first few paragraphs.
Hackney has been declared the cycling capital of London after research showed that more residents commute to work by bike than by car.
The figures, drawn from the 2011 Census by the Office of National Statistics, reveal that 14.6 per cent – or one in seven – of Hackney residents use a bike as their main method of getting to work.
This is the highest bike ridership in London – neighbouring Islington is second on 9.6 per cent – and is three-and-a-half times higher than the city-wide average of four per cent.
Obviously, Hackney is near to the City and it’s an easy cycle to work. But perhaps a bigger factor, is that Hackney must be one of the flattest boroughs in London.
Food Wars In Israel
Most stories to come out of Israel are not about how well Orthodox Jews and Muslims get on, but this one from The Australian is. Here’s the introduction.
IT was meant to be a battle for supremacy in the kitchen and, perhaps, for the right to claim ownership of the cuisine.
But Israel’s most popular cooking contest has achieved what decades of peace talks have failed to do after turning an orthodox Jew and a Muslim Palestinian into firm friends.
As Jackie Azoulay and Salma Fiyumi completed their dishes in the Masterchef final on Wednesday, they cheerfully embraced on national television.
It’s just a pity that the leaders of both sides can’t sit down with these two women and have a really good meal.
My next door neighbour years ago, had been a Colonel in the British Army. At one time, he had been enforcing the British mandate in Palestine, so he knew the area well.
He said that the only way to tell if the various people in the area, were Jew or Arab, was from their surname. It would appear, these two women have performed that wonderful feat of turning the clock back constructively.
Are Wind Farms A Good Idea?
A wind turbine in Devon has collapsed in high winds according to this article on the BBC.
I suspect engineers and investigators will find the cause of the collapse, but it illustrates one of the problems with turbines.
Failures like these stiffen the resolve of people, who don’t want them nearby, making the costs of the installation even more uneconomic.
If we need to develop renewable power sources, there are better systems available, than putting multiple blots on the landscape.
Marks And Spencer Make Allergies Clearer
One of my problems with supermarkets and ready meals, is that you often have to turn them upside down to read the allergy information, as with Waitrose’s fish pies. Today though, I bought a newly-introduced meal of slow cooked venison in a red wine and onion sauce from Marks and Spencer.
Marks And Spencer Make Allergies Clearer
Note the blue patch on the packaging showing the allergies. It’s getting there, but the allergies could be better shown still. For this product, they are cow’s milk. I’m not sure, but I think in the past it was just milk.
Someone at Marks and Spencer, has been thinking.
I’d also see a universal word or symbol for no allergies. Or perhaps for none of the common allergies, like fish, shellfish, gluten, celery, milk, mustard, buts and wheat. But then I’ve come across or heard of people allergic to rice, soya, chickpeas and potatoes.
Joining The Zoo For A Year
I quite like the London Zoo as a place to go for a walk. But then I do like to walk in places, where the views are good.
So today, I joined the Zoo as a member which gives me as much repeat access as I want and a few other benefits for £68/year.
Gorillas In London Zoo
I remember the famous gorilla,Guy, who came to the Zoo in the year of my birth, although he was probably born a few months before I was.
In those days his cage wasn’t as spacious as the modern gorilla enclosure, where about four gorillas live happily together.
These pictures show them inside, as it wasn’t very tropical today.
C used to tell a story about one her clients. He was an habitual criminal and every time he came out of jail, one of the first things he used to do was visit Guy in the London Zoo.
He’d tell the gorilla, that he was now out of jail, but he could see that Guy was still incarcerated.
Guy’s reply was not recorded.
What Do You Do With Old Listed Buildings?
The old penguin pool at London Zoo is still there.
It illustrates the conundrum about what you do with old historic buildings, which have outlived their purpose, so well.
In my view it should be taken down, moved somewhere else and used for another purpose. It is totally unsuitable for its designed purpose and it takes up valuable space on a constricted site.
It’s Not Too Cold For The Penguins
I had gone to the London Zoo to see their penguins.
Surely, the Penguin Beach must be one of the best wild animal displays in the United Kingdom. The heron in one picture is a wild cheeky visitor according to this article in the Mail.
Although, I’m generally against a lot of wild animal displays, this one is rather different, in that a good proportion of the penguins were actually bred in the Zoo.
I’ve actually seen penguins in the wild twice; in the Galapagos Islands and South Africa. It has always surprised me that so many people go to Cape Town on holiday and never check out the penguins, that live all over that coast.
The Anonymous Widower 