OK, so perhaps that post title is revealing an assumption on my part, but go and check the video here first.
Whether the sisters have had bad experiences with policemen & policewomen in the past I obviously can’t tell, but to fight with them on the motorway, and twice run away into speeding oncoming traffic indicates that they have serious issues. The section of film where a truck hits one sister is frozen (on purpose) so don’t be too worried about seeing stomach wrenching scenes. Did anyone see the Traffic Cops episode this was originally taken from? If so could you fill in the details for us?
Sep 26 2008
Swedish Nutters
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Sep 07 2008
Belated Update
As previously mentioned, I’m not exactly in tip-top health still, so please excuse random blips in the posting regularity here. Anyway, I just wanted to post a quick link to the BBC article on the hotel that had refused a room to a soldier now apologising and ‘clarifying’ what had gone wrong.
Cpl Tomos Stringer, the man that was (apparently mistakenly) refused a bed once the hotel realised he was in the army.
See the downright disgusting post three below this for the original story, and for a few differing views from this blog’s visitors. Having read some reviews (posted before this all blew up), it looks as though any people who stayed away from the hotel were not necessarily missing out on that much, quality-wise.
Sep 04 2008
Downright Disgusting
[EDIT]
Please see here for an update.
Morning everyone. I’ll hopefully be back to posting regularly soon – I’m almost recovered from a bug/flu/bad cold that I picked up on the flight back to Kazakhstan last week (Turkish Airlines are sadly not alone in the pitiful amount of fresh air (as opposed to the germ-laden recycled stuff) used on their flights).
Anyway, onto the reason I’ve made this post. First, please read this story from the BBC website. A brief summary is that a member of Her Majesty’s Armed Forces was refused a room at a hotel in Woking. Apparently it is the management’s and/or hotel’s policy not to accept military personnel!
As long term readers of this blog will know, I am not a supporter of the war in Iraq or Afghanistan per se; however, when it comes down to the lives of those individual people who voluntarily sign up to protect their country, I believe we should show some respect. Support the personnel, even if you don’t agree with the politics. I can only guess that the policy of the hotel has come from previous problems they have experienced with squaddies relaxing a little too much. If so, I can understand how large groups of physically fit men who are trained to fight would not be ideal guests. This does not appear to have been the situation in this case though. One lone man, who was on leave from Afghanistan due to an injury, and was in the area to visit another injured soldier friend needed a place to lay his head and rest for the night. Having been refused a room, Corporal Tomos Stringer had to spend the night in his car.
View Larger Map
(I believe the hotel is located in the centre of this map.)
I would ask all readers (especially those in the UK) to consider calling the hotel to register a complaint about this incident. If you live outside Britain, but still feel strongly enough, I can recommend using Skype (and purchasing some credit) to call the hotel – assuming your normal phone has high international call rates. This is what I did, and left a message for the duty manager. The lady answering the phone behaved in a professional manner, and I would ask any callers to remain civil and simply ask that their disgust with the management be registered and passed on to them.
The hotel’s phone number is (01483) 727100 , or if you are dialling internationally, +44 1483 727100 . Should you live in the Woking area, and have a few minutes spare to actually complain in person, their address is The Metro Hotel, Gwent House, Crown Sq, Woking, GU21 6HR. There are two different addresses listed by Google, with the same phone number, so I’m not sure whether one is simply a correspondence address.
If your job happens to include arranging overnight stays for staff in a hotel, then I would ask you to consider not using this hotel in the future.
If you do not feel anything wrong has occurred, I obviously respect your right to hold a different opinion, but thank you for taking the time to read this message.
Jul 24 2008
Edward Sells Well
Eursianet.org had an interesting article early last month on the current mayor (Akim) of Astana. There have been stories about that his family was involved in buying a property from a British royal (Prince Andrew – is that the daffy one, or is that Edward? I can never remember) at an above-market price. Mr Tasmagambetov denied the reports completely, and whether they have any basis in truth or not, the article has an interesting look at the possible motive for the release of these reports.
[edit]
Ooops, forgot to link to the actual article. Apologies to anyone who read this in the last 12 hours…
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Jul 16 2008
Bush Tribute Smells A Bit Off
With their tongues firmly planted in their cheeks, a group in San Francisco wants to ‘honour’ George W. Bush by naming a sewage treatment plant after him!
If the Presidential Memorial Committee of San Francisco’s petition is found to include enough valid and unique signatures, then the proposed naming would be put to a vote in November, at the same time as other Americans are voting for their new president. Check out the original article here.
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Jul 16 2008
Too Much RAM?
Sorry, feel free to think of a better post title and leave it in the comments section 🙂
So why has a photographer placed a huge sheep (is a sheep that is male only referred to as a ram, or can it still be labelled as a sheep?) in some poor soul’s home? Simple, he didn’t… Nick Boing The Ram actually lives in David Palmer’s house. He was found as a lamb in the Cardiff area, and decided not to leave. Before any animal rights activists get ready to start protesting, the family have tried on multiple occasions to re-home Nick to a more traditional setting, but he doesn’t want to re-assimilate. Check out the BBC report for more details.
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Jul 10 2008
Street View Not Proceeding In The UK?
See this article for a more detailed explanation, but the short version is that Google’s Street View service will soon be available in Britain. The cars have already been out in some cities taking photos, however a small bump in the road has appeared, with objections to peoples’ faces being displayed without their express permission. Although this was not a problem in America, Canada and the UK have both stated that their laws do not allow for this sort of service; Google has offered to use automatic face-blurring technology, though this could lead to an overall degradation of all photos displayed. I use Google Earth quite a lot, and would have been interested in the way some towns would have looked, but I can also see why some people feel this is not a good thing to allow.
Jul 10 2008
Reprieve For Misshapen Melons?
I remember a good few years back that the tabloids ran a bunch of stories proclaiming that bananas and cucumbers would have to be straight, apples perfectly round etc. all due to EU laws. Of course they had blown the story out of proportion, the regulations were put in place to ensure low quality merchandise was not mixed in with class a produce. However, in some cases this lead to perfectly good fruit and veg not being sold, and often disposed of. According to a BBC report, some fruit and vegetables will now be permitted in all shapes and sizes, providing they are labelled clearly as ‘for cooking use only’. Twenty six items of produce will have the regulations removed or relaxed, leaving just tomatoes, apples, lettuces, peaches and nectarines, pears, strawberries, citrus fruit, kiwi fruit, endives, sweet peppers and table grapes with the original laws in place.
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Jul 10 2008
Bury Mayor Plan Rejected!
Am the only person who would misinterpret the journalist’s story, when reading that headline? Although the article itself has the word elected inserted between Bury and Mayor, the RSS feed last week definitely had it missing. Perhaps a deliberate ploy to get people to view the page. Maybe I should try the same 😉
Oh before I forget, Natalya is back home, my brother Nick has managed to get a job (congratulations) and Alex is leaving on holiday soon.
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Jul 10 2008
Brown Brothers And Affinity
What is the connection between these two companies? One (Affinity) was a big ISP I used to work for back in Gloucester. Towards the end, just before the directors stripped the assets and fired everyone before the receivers arrived, tension was rising within the workforce. Employee sick leave was rising, people were beginning to complain we weren’t allowed to take cigarette breaks after 6pm, that sort of thing. At one point, management tried to tell us that we could only use the toilet at certain times of the day; those with surnames beginning with A-C could go between 8-10am, etc. etc. It wasn’t much longer after that before I was glad to have stopped working there. Anyway, how do Brown Brothers fit in with this? They are apparently automatically docking worker’s wages, (see here) depending on how long they are in the loo. As they need to remove their overalls for sanitary reasons, this can add up. Whilst the comments left after the article raise a few interesting points, I still think this sort of practice belongs in the 19th, not 21st century.
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