Discovery / Stupidity
Posted: Tue 29 May, 2012 Filed under: 1BEM, Driving, Education, Stupidity Leave a comment »Every so often, you discover something, and realise you’ve either made a stupid mistake, (even if based on a logical premise) or just never clicked on the reasons why.
An example of the latter for this was that I only realised last year that the Jubilee line is silver on the London Underground map because it was – yes – the Queen’s Silver Jubilee. Yeah, yeah, I know.
Another – this time from my father – was that in the “Thomas the Tank Engine” stories, James was red, because he was “ready for anything”. The look of “Oh!” on my dad’s face was priceless when he eventually clicked on to it – but it was a long time after he’d been reading the books to my brother and I.
Anyway, today’s discovery was more on the ‘stupid but logical’ side. Until looking at a map today, and seeing it by chance, I had never actually realised that Watford Gap is nowhere near Watford. Indeed, there’s about 60 miles between the two…
So I feel a bit of an idiot, although I can justify/explain the logic beneath that thought…
Savings
Posted: Mon 28 May, 2012 Filed under: 1BEM, Advertising, Business, Customer Services, Cynicism, Thoughts, Weirdness 5 Comments »Over the weekend, I was in Sainsbury’s, and saw a fine example of weird savings…
I’m sure I’ve waffed on about this before, but I can’t be chuffed to double-check. (Turns out, July 2009) Anyway, it’s hardly news.
In this case, a 4-pack of 2L Diet Coke bottles is retailing at £6.50. (And let’s not get onto the price-increase side of things – It’s not long ago that that 4-pack was £5) As a 2L bottle on its own is around the £2 mark – I think it was £1.98, but who’s counting? – then £6.50 for four isn’t a bad deal.
Except – except! – that if you pay a bit more attention, they’re also doing “3 for the price of two” on the individual 2L bottles.
So you can get six bottles for £8 ( or £1.33 a bottle) , instead of four for £6.50 ( £1.62 per bottle )
Supermarkets are very strange places when it comes to saving money…
Value for Money
Posted: Tue 22 May, 2012 Filed under: Domestic, Getting Organised, Thoughts Leave a comment »At the new house, I’m halfway between Bedford and Milton Keynes, both of which have Cineworld cinemas.
As a result, I signed up for their “Unlimited” card, which costs £15 per month, and allows you to see as many films as you want at any Cineworld. (except for London West End ones, which I never go into anyway) Which seems to be a pretty good deal. Considering that a normal ticket costs near-as-dammit £10, the card is paying for itself if you see more than one film a month.
As well as the free viewings, they also offer discounts on food/drink at the cinema, and a number of other side-benefits that might be of interest at some point.
In short, it’s a pretty good deal, and I suspect I’ll be getting my money’s worth out of it.
Flamed Out
Posted: Mon 21 May, 2012 Filed under: Cynicism, London, Thoughts Leave a comment »On a cynical note, is it just me that really isn’t enthused about the Olympic Flame ? Or, indeed, the Olympics in general.
Indeed the best thing about the Olympics at the moment for me is that I’m not going to be in London when they’re in. And that is a major success, so far as I’m concerned.
Irresponsible ?
Posted: Sun 20 May, 2012 Filed under: Cynicism, News, Thoughts, Weirdness Leave a comment »Last week, David Oakes was sentenced to life imprisonment. He’d taken a shotgun to his ex-partner and their two-year-old daughter, supposedly because he was ‘afraid’ of losing them. He then (allegedly) tried to kill himself with the same shotgun, and failed.
In today’s news, Oakes’ ex-wife has come forward, saying that Oakes had also been abusive towards her while they were married.
His ex-wife said the “total control freak” was regularly violent and on one occasion pulled a gun on her.
“He pushed me to the sofa, pulled a gun out of his pocket, put one bullet in the barrel and spun the barrel,” she said. He kept clicking it to my head, he held the gun straight to my head. It didn’t go off, so he went off and calmed down and came back later as if nothing had happened.”
Now maybe I’m missing something, but surely that’s attempted murder ?
I do understand that an abused partner doesn’t always go to the police – but it could be done anonymously via Crimestoppers etc. And if she had reported his instability to the police, I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t have been allowed to have a registered shotgun…