Hello All,

Just a personal note on the weather (how English). Well, it's piddling down. In fact it's piddled down for the last two weeks or so. Which does make me ponder the success of global warming. But then of course I'm reminded of the sudden and shockingly intense nature of rain in Orlando less than a month ago.

So.. Manchester. You next Disney destination?

OK. Perhaps now.

Tags: rain

I read a fantastic article from Digg and decided to add mine into the bundle.

HUGE hand phone.

1. Become bankrupt. This will render all outstanding credit terms (including cellular contracts) void. This also does mean you won't be able to get your new contract. However, if you enter into a voluntary agreement BEFORE this happens you can boot off the old debt (and contracts) at a substantially lower cost to yourself and they will not be able to render you un-credit worthy.

2. Go insane. Rendering yourself mentally incompetent is the psychological version bankruptcy. You'll be sectioned under your local mental health act... but at least that small cardboard box will be your iPhone. I mean, in your head that is.

3. Have yourself declared an enemy of the state. You will be ejected from your country, potentially end up in an orange suit just off Cuba and/or end up in a desert land. However, at least Sprint will get off your case and you won't have to worry about any debts you've left behind.

4. Become a criminal mastermind but get yourself caught and sent to prison (in the UK) because you will forfeit all right to ownership of a mobile phone.

5. Assume the identity of a dead child born around the time of your own birth. Obtain a birth certificate and then use this to legally obtain over documents such as a passport and so forth. Being 'away abroad' is usually a good excuse. Use this assumed identity to obtain your iPhone and then fake 'your' own death. May I suggest drowning at sea. Worked for Julie Roberts in 'Sleeping with the Anemone'

6. If your provider equips you with an insurance plan for your phone get clumsy. Check the conditions carefully (my favourite clause from a friend's insurance policy was that the phone couldn't leave the house, but I digress) and if all is fine smash the monkey to pieces. They when they send you a new phone.. smash that. Sooner or later they will hit the limit and call it a day on your replacements. But so long as the insurance is part of your contract... in order to cancel one. You get the picture. Just don't tell Three in the UK about this.

BEST TIP

7. Send your phone to friend in another state where your carrier is forced to use another network provider. When they use up your minutes on another provider it costs your own provider a fortune. If they do call your phone, your friend could be 'you' and say your doing a lot of travelling.

Best of all, you can also have your mate send you their phone for the reverse effect. It usually takes 2-3 months before the alarm bells start going off and they want to call it quits. So far, I've heard this working in 8 out of 10 case with the other 2 being offered considerably cheaper exit costs.

It was a hard drive home this evening. Heavy rains the night before had filled up the lower lying roads with lots of water and it was making the two motorways I normally drive back on very treacherous. Actually, it looks like what has happened is a truck got out of shape further up the line. So I decided on a more country route and avoid the sub 10MPH plod home.

All going well until I got to a road that dips under a railway line and the heavy rains had swelled the normal puddle into something like a murky ford.

So there we all were, taking it in turns from opposite ends of the ford to drive our cars through the shallowest part, setting up a 'bow wave' at the front of the car and NEVER, NEVER slowing down.


But as I get halfway across, for reasons I can't imagine, the young lady in the small hatchback car looses patience and drives in the opposite direction.

The only problem is that at the front of my car is a rather significant air damn, which acts like a snow plough when driving through water. It's almost like a mini Tsunami and well above the door level. Which is exactly what happened; right through her open window and presumably right onto her... and I couldn't stop or I'd risk flooding the car.

What's even more worse, this wasn't clean water... no, it was a particularly horrible smelling soup of vegetation and... well, I'd not like to think about it.

Whoever you are... if you ever do read this. Sorry about that. But then again, perhaps patience is something you could work on.

I'm not a nutter.
I'm not a conspiracy theorist
Or paranoid
Nor do I believe that Big Brother is out to get me.
And I certainly don't want to get any publicity over this....

I just want to get that out of the way before I start this. It's a tricky subject and I don't want to rub salt into open wounds.

I don't have a '9/11 story'. In the UK we're several hours in front of New York. I just happened to working at home that day and ended up watching nearly everything from the initial reports of the first strike on the WTC onwards.

But since then a number of things have happened and whilst I don't believe everything I hear, having some knowledge does make me wonder.

A simply list then, in no order.

1. Why are the images/video of Flight 77 hitting the Pentagon not being shown? In the five images given to the press it's more or less impossible to see the Boeing jet. The frames are not linear. So frames are being held back. But why? Surely they PROVE the facts. Ditto video evidence from the petrol station, traffic cameras and hotel.



2. Why is there next to nothing left of the fuselage of Flight 77? Vaporisation is quite frankly the most stupid explanation ever. After all, if burning jet fuel would vaporise a Roll Royce jet engine, how could they every fly! Why don't the six tonne engines make a significant couple of holes in the Pentagon? The idea the wings would 'fold back' is insane, the engines are a significant park of the mass of the airframe and would have huge amounts of inertia.



3. What is the explanation for the still molten pools of steel at the base of the WTC towers? How were they are to achieve such a high temperature; FAR high than burning jet fuel. The steel used in the WTC was of a hardened type design to withstand significant temperatures. So something other than burning jet fuel or diesel would have be involved. Suggestions of it being thermite or the demolition grade thermate are far from conclusive and go beyond what I want to say.



4. How were cell phone calls made from the planes when it has been proven in experiment that this would be impossible.


5. What happened to the last two minutes of the flight recorder on Flight 93. Also, how can passengers be heard discussing the assault on the cockpit when its a cockpit flight recorder? My sinking suspicion was that they succeeded in recapturing the cockpit but were shot down before they could announce it. The double tragedy would be too much for most Americans.



6. How come so many of the terrorists, identified by the FBI and detailed in the 9/11 Commission Report, turn out not be dead... or even terrorists. Yet neither the FBI, CIA or Commission Report have updated their details to reflect this recent information.

We've been back a week now. Which is long enough for mixed feelings to settle down into a more sensible appraisal.

I should explain....

Late May we went for a two week holiday in Sunny Orlando and for the very first time we went, we didn't really enjoy it. Sure the kids had a fantastic time, rides, food... more rides. But on the whole, I cannot say that Sue and I had a the best time ever.

But what was the reason? Well, for the first time we didn't go during our preferred Winter or Autumn season. This was purely down to the dates and duration of the school holiday. But the rise in humidity really was a killer and it was affecting Floridians as well as tourists. So now I feel less wimpy

Worse though, it was holiday season for America. Which caused huge crowds and a shocking decrease in what could be best described as 'polite behaviour'.

Now being thoughtful, I've looked back and figured our relaxed, polite gate could well have been a little too time consuming. Whilst most Europeans enjoy at least two weeks paid holiday at year (not me, mind, it's MY company) most of America seems to get just a week or less. In fact the average number of vacation days seemed to be around the 4 day mark! Add to this the obsession with driving their own cars down from New Jersey, Montana, New York, Los Angeles; to name just three licence plates we saw... The bottom line is that American tourists seem to be 'on a clock' and anybody who gets in their way is only wasting their vacation time.

Now I have a little sympathy. Whilst it's a regular occurrence for me to put in a sixty hour week; I do have the benefit of taking at LEAST a fortnight off. But some of the less than amusing antics and sheer rudeness of some of the 'flat out' tourists left us with a seriously bad taste in our mouths. Having our three year old pushed out of the way so a family of New Jersey could make it to Splash Mountain before us. A guy with a pram who we opened the doors for en mass to help him in; who couldn't be bothered to thank or indeed look at us (am I being over sensitive?) and just the sheer levels of queue jumping/pushing. We have kids, show a little restraint!

All in all, not the Disney experience we were looking for. Our flight was 6.5 hours delayed, Disney moved our villa location far away from the facilities (despite it being obvious that The Springs, at Saratoga Springs Resort and Spa, were more or less empty (no cars in car park). Then we had a terrible time booking dinning locations for our Disney Dining Plan.

Oh... I'm going into a rank again.

Then things got a lot better and the holiday turned around. But it still wasn't as successful as our Niagara trip or our previous trip to Saratoga in October.

So here are my suggestions;

1. Don't fly with Thomas Cook. They are just not setup yet. MyTravel or Virgin as MUCH better.


2. Travel from October to March. But avoid Christmas, Thanksgiving and New Year. The temperatures are hot but not humid and the park attendance is much lower*

* This is five minutes after The Magic Kingdom opened.


And just less the ten minutes later.....


Considerably quieter.

Finally! "The Apprentice" is over.

After heaven only knows how many weeks of having to suffer 30 minutes of bull every week, I'm now free. Sue loves it. What can I say...

Well... were to start.

I think it lost quite a lot of credibility to me when Sir Alan Sugar (Chairman of Amstrad) said "There's no room for caring and sharing in this business. This isn't Disney". Which made me laugh so much I nearly wet myself. That's right Alan. Because Disney makes a ga-zillion dollars each year; while Amstrad is basically kept afloat by making the set top boxes used by Sky.

But don't take my word for (or do... you're choice)


To start with. The BBC constantly shows amazing office blocks in the Canary Wharf area. But this is Amstrads actual offices, in Brentwood, Essex. It reminds me of a 1970's... Oh.. it IS 1970's office block. Not very pretty.

Then we have the fact that Amstrad only appears to make four things. Sky set top boxes. The amazingly unsuccessful EMailer telephone (now in Colour! Wahoo) and some odd little device that electrocutes your face younger! That and the myriad of naff stereos he flogs in the US and Europe (previously under the Schneider brand). So what does all this add up per year in profits?

Well, Amstrad makes about £100 million ($200 million) or so per and from that makes a profit of approximately £19m ($38 million). To put that in context... Tom Hanks personally made this from Saving Private Ryan and it's what Disney earns in about 10 days! Some 'Mickey Mouse' company!

Perhaps Sir Alan should act a little less International Mogul and more 'Poor lad turned good'. Because the idea that Amstrad is an international form is shockingly false.

Check out this even MORE bitchy report from the Guardian last year.

I'm guessing it started when we were all on holiday. But I was more than a little shocked to find that Big Brother is again gracing Channel 4 UK.

It's more and more like watching a televised golf tournament. I'm not just talking about just how boring it is; which is obvious in both parties. But for some reason, even at 1 am.. we are treated to minute after minute of overdubbed sounds of birds cheeping and jet planes going overhead. What's all that about! I mean what exactly could the house mates be discussing that people watching at 1 am could be so shocked about? Are they discussing the true nature of the universe and we are best kept in the dark? Are they all members of a secret Government department and they are talking about previous missions. It's ridiculous.

Quite where the 'sounds of the outdoors' were when Jade was ushering racists statements in the last 'Celebrity Big Brother' is anyone's guess.

So until a better explanation is forthcoming, I'm going for the secret organisation explanation... it's explains more or less everything else about Big Brother to me.

One story that stuck in my mind from the US might be helpful for you.

It appears that of all the flights that go via Chicago, only 55% actually leave within 15 minutes of their scheduled times.

So that's nearly half that are either 15 minutes OR OVER late. Which if you imagine the implications of a knock on delay, could spell disaster for anybody who has a connecting flight.

So, while Chicago is a lovely place to visit; try and avoid it for your hub connection

Tags: USA, flights, travel

Got up this morning to be greeted by a promotional leaflet for the RHS Flower Show at Tatton Park, Cheshire.

Actually, it actually read as the ...HS Flower Show because it had been folded in the wrong place. Which then caused all sorts of confusion in my head. For starters.. are the NHS going to run a Flower Show? If so.. would it take 8 hours to get into the place only to see a few flowers? OK, so that was a cheap pop at the NHS. Especially when I found out a little more about the state of medical care in 'the States'.

Whilst I can appreciate that social care is something of a missing factor in America (United States of, that is) I can't help but feel that medical care should be offered free to minors. Wesh, one of the many local Orlando News channels covered a story about a young teenager whose medical insurance only covered 50% of their cancer treatment and therefore she died because it was withdrawn.

As a European I found the whole thing unbelievably disturbing. Even private medical care company BUPA has a 'unlimited fund' policy with regards cancer treatment. I don't know why medicare didn't help her out. Wesh suggested that it was taking so long to sort out the paperwork that she died in the interim, plus I'm not even sure if her treatment was allowed.

What amused me most was the way all the Doctors in the states were interviewed they stated with "As we know, America has the best medical care in the world". Well, it's not. Not by a long chalk and the repeated declaration that it is isn't going to cut much mustard with either "The Commonwealth Fund" (A private foundation working toward a higher performance health system) or the World Health Organisation who rank the States very poorly.

So why do US Doctors and Politicians state and re-state this fact? Well, would you buy a car from a company that said its cars we're Okay, but could be better. I doubt it either; and because health is a business, that's why there is a pressure to promote.

If you fancy seeing a better debate. Read this Japan Times article.

Tags: nhs rhs health

No wonder Mr Potato Hear is looking pretty angry! On a recent visit to World of Disney in Downtown Disney, Orlando Florida I noticed he'd taken a tumble, system wise



And now a closer view...



Microsoft® Windows TOY isn't the most stable of operating systems.

Tags: mr potatohead bluescreen, Disney, Downtown Disney