On a beautiful, cold but clear, Yorkshire morning, the GF and I jumps in the brand new Clio she’s purchased and zooms (kinda – it IS a brand spanking new NEW car!) off to the distant climes of Nidderdale.

Going for a walk with a difference - Llama trekking!

We arrived at the site (Nidderdale Llamas) and were greeted by the proprietor and chief Llama woman, Suzanne.
After a brief change of footware ~ it was a glorious day, but there had been an over night blanket of snow ~ we were introduced to the Llamas.

Jack and Bertie were clothed in suitable apparel for a stroll around the locale and farm lands, were equipped with panniers to carry our tea (very kind of them), and we were ready for the off.

A brief introduction to the do’s and do not’s of llama trekking and we were away.

The experience was amazingly good ~ being a hard nosed techie usually makes you immune to the ‘joys’ of  the outside world, we like our interiors gadget encrusted after all. In this case I actually enjoyed wandering about in the winter wonderland leading a llama about.

Trust me when I say this really did surprise me!
It was the GFs idea after all ~ she’s a sucker for the furry animal types. If it happens to have sleepy camel type eyes, it’s just the more appealing…

The llamas themselves both seemed to have a personality; Jack being the lead llama took every lapse of concentration as an excuse to misbehave and tuck into some of the choice bits of local flora; Bertie was a relative newcomer to the trekking experience and as such was a little nervous, but still great fun.

Overall, if you imagine walking a very large, extremely placid, slightly cheeky dog, you’ll not go far wrong. They have some extremely comical expressions too!

Give Suzanne a call and get out for a bit of fresh air!
One of the more enjoyable things to do in the snow…

Filed under : General  |  No Comments »

=============== ===============

Broadband tax condemned as ‘unfair’ by MPs

I have posted on this topic a few times now, ranting about the stupidity of this ridiculous charge.

Now it seems that there is a government committee that seems to think this is true too.

All at once I’m in agreement with an aspect of the government!

Taxing those with a fixed telephone line to pay for ’super fast’ broadband is such a stupid idea, whoever proposed it wants a good kicking.

The people it will effect are the people who WON’T get the benefit. Either they already have broadband or have chosen not to take the plunge (and probably run their houses with steam power )

I do believe, when I was a younger chap, that the government were warned that privatising the telecommunications industry was a bad idea, and that profits would come before quality of service.

This tax has come about because BT and the telecom industry have said they don’t have the money to upgrade the UKs Internet infrastructure.

Maybe they could reinvest some of the £547M toward paying the tax; which experts estimate will only generate £175M- about 32% of BTs profit for the 2008-2009 period (bear in mind that the profits BT announced were down by 45% from the previous period, a whopping £991M)

From these figures, we can ascertain that it would take BT 5-8 years to pay for the upgrade if they were to invest all their profits toward this goal (BT estimate that it’ll cost about £5 Billion to do the job)

All these huge figures all seem a nonsense though – I can’t even imagine £1 Billion

Rant over – bedtime…

Filed under : General  |  No Comments »

=============== ===============

It is with great pleasure I can announce that Rochester & Associates Ltd is 12 today

12 YEARS of fun and frivolity, and still going strong. I still can honestly say that I enjoy every day at work

It is quite amazing to think of the things that have changed over the years – for those interested you can see what has happened on this date through out the years here:
BBC On This Day Website
Here’s to 12 more years of great technology…

Filed under : General  |  No Comments »

=============== ===============

Firstly, I have to point out that I have no kids ~ don’t want them ~ don’t like them!

I AM an avid computer gamer though (yes I am nearly 40 and I still like them )

It’s from this vaunted standpoint that I am getting increasingly aggrieved at the constant media attention that computer/video games are bad.

This evening, whilst benumbing my brain with inane televisual ‘entertainment’, I came across a Super Nanny episode proudly flaunting a child with a “Computer game addiction” – note the emotive language used – “addiction”?
The child’s mother was at her wits end when the child would spend hours upon hours playing games (mainly the World of Warcraft line as far as I could see).
The harangued mother also had two smaller girls, both demanding attention.

It didn’t take a genius to realise this wasn’t a case of “Computer game addiction”, but plain and simple BOREDOM!

Amazingly, once the child got out doing things the “addiction” vanished ~ NO SH*T SHERLOCK!

On the same program they tried to claim that the health and exercise regime of the country’s children was also lacking because of computer games.
BULLS*IT!

I would put this down to the usual parental paranoia about letting little johnny/jenny playing out in the streets/parks. Kids are not allowed to scrape knees, climb trees or anything else we did as kids, because parents in general and society as a whole is massively over protective.
There is no personal responsibility left in the UK, everything is somebody else’s fault.

Parents, wise up, if your offspring is spending too long on the PC – TURN IT OFF!
Be a parent and live up to your responsibilities – programs like Super Nanny constantly show that being soft on kids results in badly behaved, spoilt, brats.

Filed under : General  |  No Comments »

=============== ===============

Once again I have attempted to venture into the world of finance – this time to open a bank account for some savings…

This proved to be far too inconvenient for the branch of Barclays I popped into this morning…

Off I pop to the local branch, chipper to the last as I strolled in to the branch, waited patiently for a cashier to become free, and advanced smiling…

“[holding the account flyer] Can I open one of these accounts please?”
“I’m sorry sir, you need to see the lady over there [points], but she is busy and she works on an appointment basis”
[Like I'm not a busy person]
“I can fit you in this afternoon at 2:00 or tomorrow if you wish”…
At this point I’m looking non to impressed – I’ll not bore you with my comments…!
Suffice to say I wasn’t too impressed

Ok – now this account NEEDS you to go in to the branch to open in the first place (the terms state you must be an existing customer to open the account online).
NOWHERE did it say you have to go into the branch to make an appointment to open the account, before you go in to the branch to open the account.
This is ridiculous!!

HELLO BARCLAYS! I’M TRYING TO INVEST MONEY HERE!!!

What is wrong in the minds of man, that makes you think that people want your service SOOOO badly that they’ll perform tricks for your pleasure Barclays?
I just want to open a savings account – not apply for £1,000,000’s – it’s not too difficult for you is it?
The last time I opened an account it only took 5 minutes ONLINE, and required not much more than my name and date of birth.

Next time I’ll take my mother (to confirm her maiden name), birth certificate, driving license, passport, National Insurance number, a utility bill (in my name and at the present address), the 4 other cards I have for other bank accounts, all my personal measurements, written confirmation of my memorable date/place/pet, written confirmation of my alpha numeric 16 letter password (from which they’ll only need letters 2 6 and 10),  a blood sample, retina scan, AND a swab of DNA/skin sample.
Maybe that will convince them that I’m me. Though I doubt it…!

Yet another display of stupidity on behalf of the banks…

Filed under : Hell  |  No Comments »

=============== ===============