Time to reflect on the year.

It's time to look back and think about what we've learnt and done this year.  I've met lots of new people and made some new friends, and sadly lost a few.  I've also learnt a lot over the last year, it supprises me sometimes just how much information a person can soak up
Has another year made me a better person?  I like to think it has.

This year we've lost Robin Williams, Joan Rivers, Lauren Bacall, Peaches Geldof, Richard Attenborough, Harold Ramis, Sid Caesar, Shirley Temple, Mickey Rooney, Bob Hoskins, Eli Wallach, James Garner, Richard Kiel, David Brenner, Rik Mayall, Roger Loydd-Pack, Linda Bellingham, Joe Cocker, Alvin Stardust, and many many more stars who have given so many people pleasure over the years.

Thanks for reading my blog.  Good Luck and may your year be a happy one!

Thinking of flying? Well good news and bad news...

The good news is the number of serious air crashes is at it's lowest with only 111, the lowest since 1949 when jet travel began in earnest.
The bad news is 2014 has the highest number of fatalities in the last ten years 1.212 (so far) Although far lower than 1972's record year of 2.429.  The other bad news is that there have been far more emergency landings this year, for things like smoke in the aircraft etc.
One theory is aircraft maintenance has had to cut corners, and also aircraft now mostly carry the minimum legal amount of fuel for the journey, so any holds up and they've got a problem.

Frosty morning pics

The last few days have been really cold, so I couldn't resist grabbing a few pics of the frost.

A few sunsets from this week

Just managed to catch the sunset on sunday, heres a few pics.

The EU want to ban gas cookers

The bonkers bureaucrats in Brussels latest wheeze is to ban gas cookers, apparently we're destroying the planet and causing... wait for it global warming!
The problem is is for a start global warming stopped 18 years ago according to the figures, and secondly if we all switch to electric cookers there isn't the generating capacity at present to cope, even more curious is the fact that many of the power stations are gas fired, so instead of burning gas in my cooker I'll be burning more gas in the power station instead.  So what exactly have we saved?
It's really time to tell these bureaucrats in Brussels to come back to planet reality and stop interfering with every thing we do.  Better still tell the EU to get stuffed and come out, or we could try simply ignoring all the bonkers rule they make.... like most of the rest of the EU do.

City link gone bust

The courier firm City link have gone bust over Christmas.  To be honest I'm surprised they lasted this long, some years back my brother had a chain of shops, part of his business was sending out items mail order, for a time he used City link.  My God the amount of stuff they lost was unbelievable, when he tried to sort it out he never really got any sense from the company, they were a total shambles.  He renamed them shitty link and switched to a different company, but they cost him many thousands of pounds.

The Hobbit 3 (battle of the five armies) film review

I know I said I wasn't going to post till after Christmas but I'll do a quick review while it's still fresh.

The film is the final part of the Peter Jackson trilogy the Hobbit.  Compared to the others I felt it was lacking story and mostly battles, while the battles scenes were well done you've seen one Orc sliced up you've seen them all.
Perhaps a better title would have been the madness of Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage) who gets gold fever (for want of a better name) Some of the scenes left me feeling I was watching a video game rather than a movie, and some of the special effects looked like they had been borrowed from a 1970's movie.
Not my favorite of the films.
The film also doesn't stand well on it's own, so if you haven't seen the others don't bother seeing this as you'll be baffled by whats going on.

Waynes rating  5/10  to be honest the three films could have been made in two with the padding removed, and dear old Bilbo wouldn't have started to looks so old by the last film.

Well thats it for me now till after Christmas.

A big thank you to all who have followed this blog in it's ramblings, I'm stopping now till after Christmas, to eat drink and be slightly whimsical (I don't really do merry...  chance would be a fine thing) anyway thanks again for dropping in and sharing my thoughts and comments.
Best wishes to all for the Christmas holidays.

And as dear old Dave Allen used to say.   "May your God go with you"

Neath Christmas parking

Neath seems to have solved the Christmas parking nightmare by the simple process of letting people park anywhere they like.... literally!  They were parked on the pavement both sides of the road, in some cases both sides of the road as well  as the pavement, so the traffic couldn't move at all.  They were parked in the middle of the road (I kid you not) some were nearly parked in the bloody shops, it was properly bonkers.  At one point a car was following me down the pavement so it could park on the bit of pavement I was walking on, bloody dangerous if you ask me.
Of course there were no police or wardens about, never is when they are needed, so the town became a free for all. The shoplifters must have had a ball!
I was lucky, I managed to find a parking space behind the counter of a baked potato stall... I had to wait for the previous driver to move out though......

Casino

Here's a few pics from a casino.  I did actually work very briefly as a bouncer in one many moons ago to help out, but that was another story.

By the way if anybody is interested I do have a winning system for roulette, no seriously I really do, if you want to know send £10 to... Honest Wayne c/o the home for deranged photographers, lockhimup lane Surrey on the wold.  By return of post you'll get my system (written in crayon as we can't have sharp things here) and a genuine rust-proof piece of  baking paper.
For every £10 received a donation of bugger all will be made to an overseas charity.

Anyway back briefly to reality, here are the pics.

Apprentice winner fail!

Well done to Mark Wright for winning the Apprentice 2014, one slight snag though is Marks business plan.  You see Marks idea is getting your business higher up the listing on google etc, with his business Climb On Line. Sadly for someone whose specialisation is Internet you would think he'd have bought the domain name for his business first, climbonline both the .com and .co.uk are both taken.  Looks like your climbing a greasy pole Mark!

Neath little theatre a Christmas carol and the nutter in the audience

To the man in the audience that I had the misfortune to sit next to. Yes you, the man who's wife comes from Berkshire, the man who's wife calls him Victor Meldrew, the man with the fingerless gloves like Mr Scrooge, who had a drink he didn't want and offered it to me.  Guess what!  You really are an arsehole aren't you!.
 I'm sorry but I'm a very sociable person normally, but when I pay good money to go to the theatre to see a fucking play, I don't go to talk to nut cases who should really have a wrap-a-round jacket that fastens at the back, and ten rolls of rubber wallpaper.
Serious warning!!!  Leave me alone.

Now the play.
The show had a fairly simple set but the cast did a good job, with only the one minor "fluff" that I noticed, I enjoyed it anyway. Scrooge really got into the character.  So well done.

Wayne rating 7/10

Morriston hairdressing capital of the world!

Morriston hairdressing capital of the world!   My God I've never seen so many barbers and hairdressers shop in one place, I'd guess half the shop in the entire town are taken up in some way with hair care.  sadly at least half of those left are closed and empty.  My God what a depressing place!
I was there today, the Friday before Christmas, the place was like a ghost town, you know it was so bad it made Port Talbot look good by comparison, ok not as many nutters as Port talbot but more winos thats for sure.

The Apprentice 2014

This week we were down to the last five candidates, this was also the week of the interviews... So what exactly was the point of the series?  You see the candidates business plans were torn apart and two sacked pretty much because of them, so why bother testing them for eleven weeks if they had a shit business plan? Surely Sir Alan Sugar would have checked their business plans before selecting the final group of candidates, if he checked them and they were crap whats that say about him? 
It also makes the whole series totally pointless if one of Sir Alans friends Claude Littner is going to choose the final two, why not skip the program and just pick the best two in the first place, or is Sir Alan more interested in being a tv personality than a businessman?
Makes me think so.

Well done dozy idiots

Well done to the team of Dutch computer wizards who spent ages computer modeling San Fransisco bay to test the theory that 3 convicts may have escaped from Alcatraz in 1962 in a home made rubber boat. Of course if they'd bothered to check they could have saved themselves weeks of work, Mythbusters did it themselves in 2003, using exactly the same materials, and made the shore safely.
Sometimes all you gotta do is check!

Merry Christmas !

Just to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year !

Some inventions that never made Dragons Den

An audio speedometer for blind drivers.

A left handed Piano.

Dark glasses for blind guide dogs.

Dehydrated water.

A self extinguishing match.

A concrete airbed.

And the big news in the daily fail today is....

Scarborough shelled!   Well i it was actually the 16th of December 1914 it got shelled, and it's not exactly news is it. Actually only a hundred years late isn't bad for them.

Michael Schumacher "dumped" by sponsers!  Well it's not exactly dumped is it, they poor guy is pretty much still in a coma, he's not up to making adverts so the sponsers can't really be expected to pay him 4 million a year for not advertising their products can they.

Isn't it funny what a song can evoke.

On my way home tonight I heard the song Zoom by Fat Larry's band on the radio, it took me straight back to 1982, a very exciting and turbulent time of my life, and a fairly stressfull time I suppose really.
Isn't it strange the memories a simple song can evoke? It'll bring back memories of dear friends, and sudden deaths. Of days in the sun, and nights washing in cold water and walking miles, sometimes in the pouring rain. Of long trips, staying in expensive hotels (for free) and the hours and hours spent waiting for something to happen, then frantic moments when it finally did happen.
Yep 1982 was one hell of a summer.

Do pay attention Mr Bond

It seems Q needs James Bonds help for a change. Usually it's Q who gets Bond out of a tricky situation with his gadgetry, but this time it's Q who is in trouble.  Nine modified range rovers for the new James Bonds film Spectre have been stolen, the heavily modified vehicles have all the sort of gadgets Bond could want, now their in the hands of a Bond villain.... Well sort of.

So if you get offered a brand spanking new range rover at a knock down price, and it has the usual extras, like heated seats, headlamp washers, ejector seat and rocket launchers, you might want to give the secret intelligent service (SIS) a bell or drop them a line at 85 Albert Embankment, Vauxhall, Lambeth, London. (by Vauxhall bridge)  I'm sure Q will be glad to get them back.

More police madness!

This time it's not the Met but west midlands police who are being silly.
They have told their officers not to come to work in uniform after a kidnap an office threat was received.  Makes sense some would say, but not if you think it through.  You see the chances of an officer on his or her way to work bumping into a terrorist kidnapper is fairly slim, far easier for the terrorist to find one on duty, all they have to do is make a phone call to plod and wait for the officer to come to them,  or drive a bit quick on the motorway and again plod comes and finds you.
The problem here is theres no easy answer, you either stop the police responding to all calls (not practical) or send enough officers to deal with any threat they find there (again not practical) simply telling them not to wear a uniform on the way to work isn't going to help I'm afraid.

Weather looking bleak

It seems the UK is in for some bad weather, so half an inch of snow and the whole place will come to a standstill as usual I suppose.

Eaten alive... or more a nasty suck?

Paul Rosolie 27 had planned to get eaten alive by an anaconda, wearing  a special armoured suit he got as far as letting the snake nibble his head before getting his team to rescue him, apparently the snake, a constrictor was hurting his arm.  What the hell did he expect?
Another success for the discovery channel then, what exactly have we discovered this time.  That it's a bad idea to get eaten alive by an anaconda? That the discovery channel can waste hours on total rubbish again? No I think the best thing we've discovered is it's best not to watch the so called discovery channel in the first place.

Doctor Who's original address.

The original address given for Doctor Who is 76 Totters lane, a scrapyard.  Thats the address Susan the Doctors grandaughter gives the school she is in and thats the address her two teachers find the Doctor and the Tardis (name also invented by Susan.).

Playing with fire.

Well it's not exactly fire but it is burning so you have to be a bit careful... I certainly wont be doing it in the petrol station....  again!
Anyway after a long struggle to actually get the images off the card (long story) I finally have them home so here goes.

On a serious note this is potentially dangerious, if you do try this make sure your on a surface that wont burn and be carful, the stuff goes a long way and can burn for some time after it looks to have gone out.

The Christmas tree is coming out

My eldest son likes setting up the Christmas tree so today we are doing ours and my mothers tree (with luck) I used to love Christmas by as I get older and Christmas gets more and more commercialised I'm loosing interest, lets face it the real spirt of Christmas is long gone.
Maybe if it wasn't rammed down our throats for three months before Christmas it would be different, but now by the time it comes I'm sick to death of hearing about it.

Retard repellent?

Can someone please point me in the direction of a shop that sells retard repellent?  Seriously!   It doesn't matter where I am, the bloody retards always find me. And frankly I'm getting very pissed off with it.
This evening I was on a deserted beach about 4 miles long and the fucking mindless moron still homed in on me, 4 bloody miles of empty beach at night and the bastard still comes to the only bit I'm on. 
Why for Gods sake?  
Does it really not occur to other people that some of us like to be left alone, "he's only being friendly" says someone, well so was bloody Dr Crippin but I don't want him for a mate either. 
I have friends, and if I want more I'll choose them myself, not just pick up wandering retards at night off the bloody beach.
I'm sorry to rant but I'm reaching the point where sooner or later I'm going to turn nasty with one of these dozy idiots, and as the Hulk used to say "you won't like me when I'm angry" well trust me you wont be jumping for joy with me either when I finally loose it.
So heres an idea, if you see a stranger wandering about minding his own business, bloody leave him alone, it might be me in a REALLY BAD MOOD!!!!

Cree 3 in 1 T6 headlamp review update

While using this today I discovered a feature I missed in my Sept review of the headlamp.
On the back of the battery box (on the back of your head) is a red light, a panel thats lit up when the torch is on.  This could be a usefull feature if your cycling or something similar.

Save us from geeks!!! And cows.

The tech geeks at Apple have been working on a solution for broken screens on Iphones... And the one they come up with is brilliant!  I must admit I wouldn't have thought of it.
Their plan is very simple... Well in a geeky sort of way!
The plan is to fit the Iphones with a sensor that detects when it's dropped, then a gyroscope inside rotates the phone (rather like a cat falling rights itself) so it falls safest side down, then it's thought a compressed gas canister will fire to act as a retro rocket to slow the phone down at the last second before impact.
As I said brilliant!  Personally I'd have done it the easy way and fitted a polycarbonate screen instead of wafer thin glass, but then what do I know.
And people wonder why an Iphone costs £500.... Guess!

An analogy.
Some years back the British army were having problems with cows, yes seriously!  You see cows were going and giving away observation posts (op's as the army calls them)) by gathering around them, this drew attention to the op.  Now the army called in experts, they had psychologists, vets, camouflage experts, they spent months trying different things.  The vets said the cows were nosey, the psychologists thought the soldiers were seen as a cow gods (you couldn't make this stuff up)  The camouflage people said cows can see in infra red so they could see through the camouflage around the op, which the vets disagreed with. 
The fact was whatever they tried failed, then someone got the bright idea to ask the farmer who's cows they were using for the test.
He told them the cows knew there were people in the op, and people fed them, so they went where they thought they would get fed.
Sometimes the easy answer is not getting too clever, go for the easiest solution, it's usually cheaper as well.
Rotating retro firing phones FFS!!!