Facebook Friends

I have been peeved myself with FB since a friend was wiped off it for posting artistic imagery which some small minded person found offensive.
Found this interesting, though obvious really. best thing to do is hide everyone from your NEWS FEED apart from yourself then you’ll just hear good stuff.

Paddle Round the Pier Brighton

Last summer I was lucky enough to take my kids down to hove lawns for the paddle round the pier festival on Hove lawns in East Sussex.

The summer sun shone down upon hordes of types, young and old who enjoyed two days of sea, skate, SUP and surf related run – all for charity.

My kids loved the ferris wheel ( below ) and the adults in our party sank down on the grass with beers and listened to the music.

The stalls were wild and varied with everything a wannabee surfer could wish for, food was great also.

This year the 2010 festival kicks off on July the 3rd and rolls on over the weekend with a fun packed and entertaining line up of sea events ( jet ski, paddle races, SUP lessons, kite surfing ) and land events ( skate race, skate and BMX park, music, etc).

For more information visit the paddleroundthepier website, then book the date as the festival grows from strength to strength each year and is a great community event for Brighton.

Invictus – is it a true story

I watched Invictus the other evening. Generally I have a little gripe with Clint’s movies, they sort of shout out at me that my heart strings are being tugged at mercilessly, that the characters will do just what is expected of them and that there will be an honest and venerable ethnic minority person who shows the white man up for his oafishness. Well as a white oaf I am happy to be led in many ways and have to confess that the Invictus movie took me on a ride which I loved at every turn. It maybe my soulful and unerring love of the sport of Rugby which allowed my ducts to well up with ease throughout the film, but in essence I completely enjoyed the movie.

Well there was one problem – there was a whole scene of the 1995 Rugby World Cup in South Africa omitted from the film – we all know about it, the press kind of tried to keep it a secret but true Rugby followers have this story in their lore, deep and well understood.

Early on in the Rugby World Cup there was a secret meeting between Nelson Mandela and Will Carling. Notes taken by presidential aides confirm that Mandela asked, nay demanded that Carling’s men throw their semi-final to New Zealand and deliberately miss tackles on the useless and lumbering Lomu to make him appear good. It is well known in Rugby circles that England could have walked off with the Cup with ease – everyone knows that!!

Well Carling, under pressure from the RFU bowed to Mandela’s demands and Rugby history was made when the Boks lifted the cup.

It would have been nice if Eastwood had remembered the magnanimous gesture of the English team and recorded that for all to know.

Searching for Michael Peterson

I was lucky enough to chance upon a beautiful evening in Brighton at the Sally Bennis Theatre. A load of the South Coasts finest ‘surferati’ was assembled to view Jolyon Hoff’s documentary/ film.

It was a finely constructed and nicely cut insight into both the east coast surf scene in he early 70′s and of course into the mind of MP.

He clearly was a tortured genius.

oooNews Website

I came across ( literally ) a most erudite site today at ooonews – although I doubt that their news sources are totally reliable and I suspect that they overuse certain expletives for comic affect; there can be little doubt that they are bringing a fresh and interesting slant on many news stories.

The site is based upon a CMS by Microsoft which is all I need to see to know that they are trustworthy individuals and use an easily recognised colour scheme to help both the normal browser and those with accessibility concerns – vital these days.

There are stories about Pete and Jordan, Jade Goody, Steve Jobs and some other people I have never heard of from this international news source.

Anyway, check it out for yourself : ooo news

Self Publishing

Ok, I have been filling this blog with words and articles for a couple of years now and it is about time that I did what I always wanted to do and get down to some serious writing. No more of the 300 word posts about ephemeral items, but to write my novel.

I have at last, I believe, succeeded in bringing together many of the raucous themes which inhabit my creative side and I can see most of the novel starting to put itself together – of course I have to put pen to paper first, but it is taking shape.

Once that is done I will have to think about getting the weighty tome published. I have seen a site which specialises in Self Publishing and am quite impressed at their self publishing process: you receive advice whilst maintaining creative control, and that would be important to me.

Those of you who doubt my resolve to write and publish the first masterpeice of the 21st century please be ready to meet the new Kerouac, the new Henry Miller, the new published…… well just wait and see.

Private Investigators in Brighton

I have never used a PI (Private Investigator) before and don’t really know much about the industry, never having given it much thought.

However recently I came across a company based in Brighton who offer Private Investigation work and covert surveillance ops so I started on a little investigation of my own… what do they do I wondered?

Well there is the obvious – what could be the main suspicion of anyone these days? I could suggest that someone may want to find out if their teenage daughter is smoking or up to no good, but most cases will involve a suspicion of adultery. A cheating partner can be quite upsetting for some people so they try to find out if this is really the case. By hiring the services of private investigators who can undertake discreet surveillance and even collect incriminating evidence ( photos or recordings ) you can actuallly find out for sure if your wife or husbnad is cheating on you and have photos to prove it. Although this sort of hard evidence of adultery will not really make you happier it will at least give you something to show to your divorce lawyer and prove your gounds for annulation or decree nisi or whatever it is called.

Moving away from the private or family investigation the brighton private investigation company also carries out enquiries into corporate affairs. Businesses sometimes will want one of these security professional to pose as a customer or member of staff to uncover any malpractice occuring which may harm their business or reputation. These investigations are carried out in such a confidential manner that noone, sometimes not even managers, will know of the presence of a PI in their midst.

The surveillance techniques, for any gadgety nonce that I am, thrill me with wonder. How I would love to have a GPS emitting vehicle tracking system, a buttonhole spy camera or a bug that fits in a computer keyboard. I am clearly in the wrong profession, I mean I like dark clothes, I love gadgets and I am sneaky and pretty hard also, I would be just perfect for covert surveillance ops. ( In fact I filled in the MI6 suitability online questionnaire only last week and they told me that I was actively encouraged to apply – I lied about my age you see. )

If you want to look at the site, checkout the Private Investigators online.

I want a portable DVD player

I dont usually go on about such things, I do in fact.

I want one, I want to turn one on.

Now the last thing I would want to do would be to prostitute my blog with some sort of begging message, that would be against the integrity with which I write and against the values I hold most dear…

But, there is a Portable DVD Player with ipod attatchment at Telephones Online.

The website specialises in cordless home phones but sells a range of Philips portable DVD players at very good prices.

So, if anyone at Telephones Online reads this post and feels that I deserve a chance to fully review the product then please contact me and I will be happy to help.

VOIP telephony

Voice over IP Communications specialists Best4IP have created a site with a view to bringing together a wealth of information on the subject of SIP telephony, VOIP telephony and their related features and implementation.

Best4IP is a natural progression of focus from a company which has specialised in providing cost effective and bespoke communications solutions for its clients for over 10 years.

Voice Over IP is rapidly becoming the industry standard when it comes to the installation of PABX ‘s and larger switches.

ipod touch

Apple have announced the impending release of a new ipod, this time, aping the iphone and coming with a full, wide, touchsreen. The unit is obviously beautiful, impressivlemy designed and I am sure will be an absolute dream to turn on.

However, my video ipod suffices, indeed my 2nd generation ipod ( black and white sufficed ). The ipod works very well for me as a music player, either in the home hi-fi or in the car. It is a hard-drive music/ MP3 player and, with one hand I can flick the wheel around to my heart’s content and play virtually any some I may wish to. The point is, I don’t really look at it much at all, I navigate and listen; the Apple ipod touch is a kind of overkill, it is a kind of b’sterdised machine which has been lovingly crafted and function crammed, without really, I feel, having a sound market position in our gadget bags.

The , now, humble Nokia N95 is still eminently preferable to an itouch, it having, as previously intimated all the functionality a truly mobile device ( it even knows where it is with its built in Sat Nav ) should have and the itouch, is not really an ipod, nor an iphone.

I do not doubt for a second that it will be a huge success; our wanting generation ( or three ) will snap them up and love owning them, but I just kind of feel that this is an interim step, a nice and beautiful one at that though…..