Waffling

Stone House Signs

It’s been about 6 months now since I got rid of the old beehive that we were using as a house sign, and having missed a delivery earlier in the week because the driver couldn find our house, I thought it was about time we started looking at some Stone House Signs

I’ve always preffered the rustic look rather than the uniformal look which a lot of wooden house signs or slate house signs tend to be, so was happy to find a house signs website which has a wide range of stone house signs in all shapes and sizes.

Not only do they provide a range of rustic stone signs, they also make house signs out of natural Welsh slate which is hand picked by the craftsmen.

Friday, August 27th, 2010 Waffling No Comments

Pond Filter for Koi Carp Pond

Ever since my father started keeping Japanese ornamental Koi Carp I’ve been fascinated by these graceful, tranquil fish, but until recently I lived in an apartment, so there was no room at the inn for Koi.

Now I’ve moved into a house, the first thing I did after unpacking (much to my wife’s surprise as she was expecting a new bathroom suite!) was to start work on my Koi pond. Koi are pretty particular when it comes to being happy in their habitat, so there I was digging down 1.5m into the garden to make a nice deep pond for the Koi.

One thing I always remember from my father’s pond is that the water was never really clear, which always seemed a bit of shame. After all, Koi come in a variety of magnificent colours and patterns and if your water is cloudy, you can’t see them and they can’t be having much fun either.

So for my project, I started researching Koi pond filters on the internet to see if this could be the solution. I discovered a Koi pond filter not only keeps the water clear, but it also processes organic waste, so your pond doesn’t get a build up of bacteria that can be harmful to the Koi.

Of course, once you start looking at filtration systems for your Koi pond, you soon realise that there’s a whole range of different options out there. One thing I soon picked up is that you need to make sure the filter that you select is big enough for the size of Koi pond you have, so it can cope with the amounts of pond water being circulated through the filter.

Luckily, I had only just started digging out my Koi pond when I came across these filter systems, so I had the choice between using a gravity filter or a pump filter. This is because you need to build in drainage to your pool plans if you want to plump for a gravity fed system. On reading that these gravity Koi pond filters require minimal maintenance and cleaning, this is the one I opted for.

Last week I finished the pond (complete with drain!) and installed the Koi pond filter I bought. I couldn’t wait to get stocking my pond with Koi and I’m hoping these graceful symbols of love and friendship will prosper in their new, filtered Koi pond. I hear the oldest Koi in the world lived to be 226 years old, so I’m hoping my Koi will be happy in their pond and enjoy an equally long life.

Tuesday, July 27th, 2010 Waffling No Comments

Free SEO Reports

I asked a very simple question on a business forum today

Does anyone here offer free seo reports?

Rather than a simple, “Yes, we provide free SEO reports” I got a number of replies;

Doubt it

Why would anyone do that?

Proposal/Quote but not report

Send me a link to your site and I will do a report

A reply about how SEO reports are done

I then got a reply implying I was a competitor as though I was asking the question for some other reason

I did get one reply which I responded to by PM but only the 1

It is so frustrating that when you try to ask a simple you get people trying to read something else in to the question.

Monday, July 26th, 2010 Waffling No Comments

Sing Hosanna Lyrics

Last year I set a page up with the Autumn Days Lyrics

My daughter starts at big school in September and at the end of next week her primary school is holding a leaving ceremony at the local church for all the year 6 students who are moving up.

I’ve been to the last 3 leaving ceremonies and every year one of the songs is Give me joy in my heart (Sing Hosanna).

This year I will be prepared as I have written the Sing hosanna lyrics down and will know them off by heart before we get to the service.

Sing Hosanna has always been one of my favourite hyms and luckily it is also one which I find easy to sing along with.

Friday, July 9th, 2010 Waffling No Comments

Ban the Vuvuzela from World Cup

It may sound good if your sat in the Stadium but when you’re 6000 miles away sat trying to listen to the world cup games on the radio the Vuvuzela is killing the game.

Ater 10 minutes of listening to the first game I just couldn’t stand it any longer and had to switch off.

Surely the annoying Vuvuzela will effect viewing figures and radio listners so will the big broadcasters allow this to happen or will they call for the Vuvuzela to be banned?

Vuvuzela Ruining World Cup

Friday, June 11th, 2010 Waffling No Comments

House Signs Made From Slate

Came across a nice site last night which sells House Signs made out of slate or natural stone.

After my latest episode which involved a FIAT Punto, a verry sorry old dear, and a broken house sign, I have decided this time to get a nice Slate House Sign and bed it in to the verge.

Next time some old dear decides she would like to park her Punto on top of my sign, hopefully it will do more damage to her car than it does to the sign.

Saturday, June 5th, 2010 Waffling No Comments

Portable wheelchair ramps

I had decided that my first website was going to be about wheelchair ramps the next thing to do was start building it.

I started of on just free webspace on Geocities (no idea where it is now) but soon decided I should register a domain and start learning basic HTML.

I registered by first domain via easyspace, got the most basic hosting package and started to teach myself HTML.

Initially it was all just centered multicoloured text with the odd image in the center of the page, I then started learning about tables, and thought it was great because I could now put text on the side of an image rather than just under it or above it.

I was having fun doing this and just treating it as a hobby (much like I do now).

I found a site with some nice images and info, so started using the images of portable wheelchair ramps and started describing them.

It was only about 5 pages, had a *what I thought was cool at the time* dark brown background and a mixture of yellow, gold, white, red and blue fonts.

Looking back at it now, the images were all fuzzy, the text looked a mess and it basically lookd like what it was, a homemade experiment.

Saturday, June 5th, 2010 Waffling No Comments

Dance like the stars – if I knew who half of them were!

Flicking through the newspaper this morning I saw a photo of ex-Baywatch ‘actress’ Pamela Anderson in a somewhat compromising position. Nothing new there then you might think, but actually this position was her doing the splits at the end of her latest dance routine in US reality show Dancing With The Stars!

It seems telly fans on both sides of the Atlantic can’t get enough of this tenth series and I wouldn’t be surprised if it inspires kids and adults all over the country to take up dancing lessons to become as nifty on your feet as our Pammy.

But wait, just who are these people on Dancing With The Stars? I can’t believe someone managed to convince astronaut Buzz Aldrin that it’d be a good idea to dance live on TV. Nicole Scherzinger from the Pussycat Dolls clearly wants to be known as more than being just the ex-squeeze of F1 driver Lewis Hamilton. Then there’s TV has-been Shannon Docherty accompanied by a splash of soap and z list reality stars I’ve never heard of, all dancing away.

The oddest addition to the show has to be Evan Lysachek who happens to be a gold medal winning ice skating champion at the recent Vancouver Winter Olympics…that’s cheating surely?!

Even so, it’s all great entertainment and enough to inspire anyone to pull on their glad rags and get indulging in some dance lessons.

Tuesday, April 20th, 2010 Waffling No Comments

Top 10 Car Leasing Deals

I’ve been re-structuring a Contract Hire site over the past couple of days.

It’s not so much a case of getting it more SEO friendly but more a case of getting it easier to edit and add content to, and making the navigation and site crisper and cleaner.

The colour scheme isn’t my cup of tea and the main banner/logo isn’t exactly appealing, but the rest of it I just set up in a very simple no nonsense fasion.

We will be creating a page for the Top 10 Car leasing Deals but at the moment are just displaying the top 5 on the homepage.

Car leasing is one of those industries I’ve never really looked at and don’t really know what the difference is between car leasing and contract hire.

I assume contract hire is more for people who are looking to lease a car for business use, but apart from that I don’t really know.

If I was going to lease a car myself I would probably go for a 12 month car lease or a 24 month car lease at the most, and then at the end of the contract have a brand new car and start again.

After looking at the prices for leasing a Fiat Punto Evo I’m wondering if it would be better to buy though. I’m pretty sure that 12/18 months ago you could get some good 24 month deals on similar cars for under £200, but the cheapest I have found so far for leasing a Punto Evo is over £250 and that’s without the tinted windows and body kit

I worked it out it would cost me more than £6k over the 2 years, I know depreciation is bad, but I wouldn’t have thought it was that bad on a Punto.

The guy who I am doing the site for has a Fiat Car Leasing page but at the moment doesn’t have a Punto Evo on it, if he can’t get a better deal than the others I’ve seen I might try and buy an ex demo of dealer with just a few miles on the clock.

Thursday, January 7th, 2010 Waffling No Comments

Comments on the London Olympics Logo

Negative Comments on the London Olympics Logo

I think its utterly hiddeous. Angular, disjointed, garish, a complete waste of money but, at least in that aspect it does represent the London Olympics! I think it should be withdrawn immediately and Seb Coe should be personally asked to reimburse the public purse the £400,000 he decided to flush down the toilet on the design before he is summarily dismissed as organiser of the games and replaced by someone with more common sense.

Absolute rubbish!!! Why is it that the only good thing Britain can do is waste money? Anyway, why is it London 2012, what about the rest of the country or doesn’t anything exist outside London?
S Davis
Leeds

It’s an Art Director on drugs. I guess the price is also designed to reflect the “worth” of the strange design. My bid for the logo would be in the $3 range and then I would burn it. But I would keep the outrageous verbage that “justifies” the design. Absolute lunacy.
G. Jones

If my dog left something like this on the sidewalk, I’d be arrested.
Troy Davis
New York

Londoners may be unaware of the huge disappointment felt here in Paris when we failed to win the Olympic bid. The silence in the streets of Paris after the announcement was made was deafening. Never known for being good sports about losing, the leg-slapping hilarity on the unveiling of the logo had to be heard to be believed. Consensus is it looks like a smashed swastika & subliminaly evokes the tragic London bombings the day after the bid won. What on Earth was Wolf Olins thinking?

its actually more like 4 and a half pigs ears – no doubt produced by a committee of do-gooding, PC, totally out of touch with reality types. scrap it now and get London teenagers to submit their designs within the next 15 days, then get the public to pick the winner on a website over the following 15 days, which will provide a very good logo at very low cost before the end of july. AND seek reimbursement from the original ‘designers’ of the pigs ears !
Paul

As one who suffers from migraines, these flickering images are sure to give me one. The person who designed/approved this deserves to be afflicted with one that never ends.

No doubt this will have been commented on at length but it needs to be said again and again. Anyone with a basic understanding of English grammar will be well aware that names have capital letters, spelling London as ‘london’ in the 2012 logo is quite blatantly wrong. There can be no serious justification for this. I can well imagine that its originators perceive it as ‘youthful’ and modern but it isn’t, it’s just illiterate. The trend for writing names without capital letters comes from writing text messages where it is irritating to have to switch modes for the capital names and it is therefore much easier to write the entire message in lower case. However, this clearly isn’t justified when trying to advertise London’s 2012 Olympic and everyone is very aware of that. Frankly, it’s just embarrassing that in trying to advertise London as THE city of the world the chosen advertising team didn’t realise that basic literacy was a requirement. Now, most people will look at the logo and think “Hm, it’s pink and why have they spelt London as london? Don’t they know how to use grammar?” . Brilliant, no doubt by advertising our lack of grammatical ability combined with a logo that was drawn by a 5 year old our Olympics will become highly regarded and eagerly anticipated by the world…
Jan Bartscht

The new Olympic 2012 logo is absolutely ghastly and massively disappointing. I was really thrilled when London was awarded the Games but now feel totally deflated by this formless and uninspiring mess. Please, please change it to a design we can feel proud of. More public consultation before the design was launched might have been advisable, and how it could have cost so much to produce beggars belief.

I’m astonished. Of all the talent around London agencies and we come up with this. British designers have been immensely proud and universally recognised of their achievements of the last 30 years. This will do British design no good at all. I’m sure there has been enormous amounts of hot air spoken in board rooms about the rationale about the logo – but this is a mess, with no visual centre, confused, illegible and a missed opportunity. It’s not too late to change it, we can’t let the Olympic brand be cheapened with this disaster.

A meaningless visual mess that conveys no sensible message. Give an average 3 year old a pencil and save yourself £400.000 as he or she would be happy with a tube of smarties.

My grandchildren could have produced a better image. It amazes me that these overpaid “Plonkers” can produce such rubbish NO it will not grow on me , I attended the 1948 Olympics and there were no problems with Logos , the 1948 logo was GREAT.Simple and to the point ! Now everything has to be so complicated, just to keep some overpaid “Plonkers” in a job. I despair in this modern day world. Seb Coe cannot justify this Logo in in any way !
Jack Gilbert

The late Professor C.E.M. Joad once observed that “A committee of wise men equals one idiot”. In consideration of the presentation of what appears to be shattered pink glass and at a cost of £400,000, surely proves the point.

2012 Logo is utter and absolute rubbish. How can they justify the cost of £400.000? I would like to see their account published, so the public can see how they came across this vast amount. The Logo is dreadful NOT easy on the eye. Even though the vast majority are displeased. Why on earth should we have this Logo THRUST upon us. How come the public were not given a chance to choose a Logo?
Margie Downes

The characterisation of the cipher ’2′ … there were some troops in the not too distant past who wore a pair of “2′s” like these on their collars, but they were “S’s” really!!! What planet do(es) the designer(s) live on?

It does not suit the standard London are measured with in sports arena, we have pass the generation when the logo can be applied

Four hundred thousand pounds for this piece of total and utter garbage! They would have been better advised to present the project to any class of art students who would undoubtedly have come up with something far better and for free. What we have been lumbered with is a waste of money of criminal proportions and the perpetrators of this con should face court action, accused of misuse of public funds or taking money through false pretences.
Norman Wilkins

am French and I was really disappointed when Paris lost the Olympic Games. But I thought that Britain and London were great enough to organize memorable Games. But now I see the logo that has been chosen, I am astonished. How can this happen that any committee has chosen this one??? It is so flashy that it becomes aggressive; it is so formless and meaningless that I can’t explain how a designer comes to this with £400.000! I hardly regret that this is this kind of image people will get of London and Britain…
Mélanie

It’s utter shite! A bunch of art students could have done a better job in exchange for a few drinks in the uni bar!
Paul G Hanmore

This the Emperor’s new clothes of logos.
I get the impression that though it is apparently praised in the design community, this could be because no-one has the guts to point out that it is a heaving pile of toss. The colours are just quite simply awful, it isn’t the design so much, though it does look like Lisa Simpson giving head, but it just grates on the eye. If I’m being kind I think that maybe it was designed to be completely shit so that more attention would be focussed on The Games, because surely no-one in their right mind would pay £400,000.00 for this (On that note was the £400,000.00 for the animated advert as well because if it is then that is not so bad). The logo of a sports event has never bothered me but seriously, do they just think that the public will be cowed into thinking that they are such ignorant philistines and will just accept the wisdom of their “betters”? “Betters” who are simply nothing more than vastly over-paid marketing executive wastes of space with alcohol and drug problems. At least I can take solace in the highly likely scenario that most of that money has been snorted off the cistern of a toilet in a west end bar somewhere and disappeared up their noses. What an unbelievable waste of cash.
A disgrace.
Sam Bellani

Possitive Comments on the London Olympics Logo

I like the prety colors
Lucy B
(aged 4)
The design and the structure represent the awakening of a sleeping giant, it is cutting edge yet strangely old fashioned, the painstaking work that has gone into this must not be underestimated and one needs to view the logo through the eyes of a new born child to appreciate the full complexities. I truly believe this will become a major iconic feature of the 21st century, will influence a new generation of artists/designers and will encourage many more children to take an active part in sport and the community.
S Coo,
Surrey

Saturday, November 14th, 2009 Waffling No Comments

Dominoes Results – Top of the Hill Dominoes League Banbury

The first week of the Top of the Hill Dominoes League which consists of local pubs from villages to the west of Banbury (Oxfordshire), started on 10th September 2009.

The George at Brailes came from behind to gain a close victory over arch rivals The Brailes Boys.

The first round finished all even at 2 games each, but the boys went 5 – 3 up after round 2 after winning the round 3- 1. The following round was again tied at 2-2 leaving the Boys needing just one game in the final leg for a draw or 2 for the win.

Undaunted by the fact they had to win all 4 games to take maximum points the George Hotel started strongly when T Simmonds and D Knight finished strongly to take the first game, this was soon followed by another victory for the George by A Evans and J Mills which leveled the match up again.

The tension was growing as the end drew nearer but R Hibberd and S Anon kept their heads to take The George in to an unassailable lead 8 – 7 leaving Team captain F Evans and old stalwart K Hinds with the responsibility of closing the match out.

They didn’t disappoint the home team supporters and easily won their game to give The George Hotel a narrow 9 7 victory which takes them to the top of the league.

Commenting after the match, George Hotel team captain, F Evans, said

“It was a great result for us, it’s always nice to get one over the Boys, they have always been our bogey team”

Next week The George Hotel take a short trip up the B4035 to take on last years league champions, The Lampet Arms, Upper Tadmarton, in what looks on paper to be an equally tight game.

Thursday, September 10th, 2009 Waffling No Comments

Wine Coolers – This years must have appliance

Despite the bleak economic predictions it looks like this years must have home appliances are likely to be Wine Coolers.

We’re not just talking about small every day wine coolers here, we’re talking luxury wine cabinets.

Wine cabinets come in a wide range and offer options of; single temperature, three temperature or multi temperature. They also range from small under worktop units to superbly styled cabinets that don’t look out of place in any dining room.

Designed for long term wine storage, the three temperature and multi temperature wine cabinets also have compartments that store both red and white wines at perfect serving temperatures.

Monday, September 7th, 2009 Waffling No Comments

Upholsterers in Nottinghamshire

Set up a listing in my main directory site tonight for Upholsterers in Nottingham which bought back memories of when I was still living in Aldington.

I helped the next door neighbour convert one of their old outbuildings in to work studio where she would re-upholster old furniture.

Monday, June 22nd, 2009 Waffling No Comments

Christmas Puddings Contaminated

A range of special 2008 Christmas puddings have been pulled from the shelves amid fears of contamination!

The unbranded Christmas Puddings are said to be contaminated with higher than average levels of cupronickel, an alloy of copper and nickel.

Consumers are being asked to be careful when buying Christmas puddings and to report any suspicions that they have bought Christmas Puddings contaminated with any substance.

Contaminated Christmas puddings are 2nd only to poorly defrosted turkeys which are the number 1 cause of tummy bugs over the festive holiday.

Monday, December 8th, 2008 Waffling No Comments

Top 10 Christmas Movies of all Time

Below is my list of top 10 christmas movies of all time.
Not necessarily Christmas related, but they are the films I like to associate with Christmas and the ones I like to watch at least every 3rd Christmas.

(no particular order)

It’s a wonderful life
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
The Great Escape
Whistle down the wind
Santa Clause (The movie)
Holiday Inn
Miracle on 34th Street
Wizard of Ozz
Charlie and the chocolate Factory
Die Hard

Sunday, December 7th, 2008 Waffling No Comments