Long time, no posts . . .
October 29, 2020 at 18:17 | Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a commentWell, the last post on here is from over 12 years ago (I’ve deleted some posts that reflected my personal views from over 10 years ago, but are no longer relevant) and things have changed somewhat rather dramatically for me over the last 12 months or so. If you know me personally, then you’ll know what I’m talking about, including a family bereavement and a move from a house where I lived for 28 years.
Meanwhile, today we have had the sad news that Bobby Ball, one half of legendary comedy duo Cannon & Ball, has passed away thanks to the horrible Covid-19 pandemic that has caused so much turmoil for us all this year. Another British entertainment legend has now departed this life and will be very much missed.
Rock On Bobby … RIP.
The Gregmeister FroffeeeCoffeee Special!
April 28, 2008 at 1:19 | Posted in General gubbins | Leave a commentNow I like a really good frothy coffee from time to time. Well, at least one or two a day!
Here’s the way I like to make my coffee … it’s extra milky and very much extra frothy!
Put 1-2 teaspoons of any well known brand of instant coffee granules into a mug that
can hold up to 400ml (but no less than 300ml) of liquid. No cheapo, supermarket own
brand shite though, but Red Mountain, Maxwell House, Nescafe, or some other.
(My current preference is Red Mountain.)
Now add 2-3 heaped teaspoons of coffee whitener, preferable Coffee Mate or similar.
As for sugar or sweeteners, that’s up to you, although I recommend Half Spoon Sugar.
I assume by this time, you’ve already put some water in the kettle, and switched it on.
If you haven’t … well, what are you waiting for? The water won’t boil itself you know!
Give the contents of your mug a stir up, then pour in a drop of UHT semi-skimmed milk.
(The milk must be from a resealable carton with a plastic cap or tab or the next part
of the method could get quite messy.) Stir it up again, until you’ve got a smooth
and gloopy caramel coloured mixture in your mug. Make sure there are no lumps
or any undissolved coffee when you’re done stirring.
Now comes the interestingly unusual bit. If the milk carton is currently more than two
thirds full, pour about 200-300ml of it into any suitable container, such as a jug or
another mug. At this point, close the cap or tab of the carton and give a darn
good shake for about 10-15 seconds. This is where the frothyness starts!
Leave the carton to stand for a few moments, about 30 secs should do the trick.
The milk will now be rather foamy for the next few minutes, so at this point, open
the carton, and squeeze some of the the milky foam (or foamy milk) into the mug,
and stir it up. Now wait for the kettle to finish boiling, if it hasn’t already.
Pour on the freshly boiled water, up to about an inch or so from the brim of the mug,
and stir. Squeeze on a bit more of the frothed up milk, and stir again, but don’t mix
it completely into the hot coffee until it melts. Ensure it’s still slightly foamy on top.
Pour on some more water from the kettle until the mug is nearly full.
Top it off with as much, or as little of the remaining milk foam from the carton as
you like. Feel free to garnish this frothy coffee delight with whatever you fancy.
Cinnamon, chocolate powder, sprig of parsley … or nothing at all.
(Sprig of parsley not recommended!)
Now … enjoy!
New Knight Rider gets the go-ahead. And “The Doctor” is back!
April 6, 2008 at 20:02 | Posted in Television | Leave a commentMy all-time favourite TV series, Knight Rider is coming back! The (some would say) cheesy
action adventure classic from the 1980’s, has been commissioned by NBC for a new series
following a successful pilot TV movie aired in the US back in February. The original KITT
has been retired, and replaced by an all-new supercar, still called KITT, but this time
built into a rather mean looking Ford Mustang Shelby, and not the old Trans-Am.
Here’s the two minute preview trailer from NBC, posted on YouTube back in January.
The voice of the new Knight Industries 3000 is provided by Val Kilmer, although as yet,
no-one has ruled out any future appearances from the old Knight Industries 2000, as
voiced in the old series (and the 1991 TVM Knight Rider 2000) by William Daniels.
The driver of the all-new KITT isn’t Michael Knight (as played by David Hasselhoff in the
original series, but by Micheal’s son, Mike Traceur, although The Hoff briefly reprised
his role in the new pilot movie, with a brief walk-on part, passing the baton to Mike
towards the end of the movie, at the funeral of Mike’s mother Jennifer.
The new series is much more modern than the original and is likely to be a tad darker,
and far less cheesy than the original show, although it’s very likely that it’ll still have
some of the old show’s classic elements. It seems that it’ll still be a show that’ll
be fun to watch, and generally won’t take itself too seriously.
NBC have announced that the new Knight Rider series will premiere in September,
on Wednesday evenings at 20:00, and re-run on Saturday evenings at 20:00.
If/when the new Knight Rider will be seen on British TV is currently unlnown.
=====
In other news … the latest series of Doctor Who started on BBC One yesterday evening.
And despite the slightly controversial decision to cast Catherine Tate as the Doctor’s
new companion, the overall reaction has been mixed, but her re-introduction to the
series has been mostly well recieved, by DigitalSpy forum members at least!
There were still some slight elements of her comedy show characters coming through,
which some viewers may find annoying, although the first episode in this new series
was mostly lightweight and comical, with even more excessive use of that ruddy
sonic screwdriver than ever! Even the villain, Miss Foster, had her own sonic
device, that worked exactly the same as the Doctor’s sonic screwdriver!
Thankfully overall, her character Donna Noble, has been somewhat toned down since
her quite shouty original debut in the Christmas 2006 special “The Runaway Bride”.
Exactly how CT will be in the darker episodes of this new series, remains to be seen!
It’s been quite some time . . .
March 30, 2008 at 2:27 | Posted in General gubbins, OI!!! Give it back ... ! | Leave a comment. . . since I last posted anything on this ‘ere weblog. TBH … I had almost forgotten about it.
There have been some developments regarding my ongoing effort to get a refund of my
bank charges from Alliance + Leicester, and thanks to the test case between the OFT
and several major UK banks, I’m not much ruddy closer to acheiving my goal!
I’ve sent 2 refund request letters, the 1st of which, got a stock reply, which boiled down
to A+L effectively saying “We’re waiting for a decision in the test case … so F*** off!” … !
The 2nd letter, which outlined my intention to pursue county court action, but also offer
an olive branch of me possibly accepting a moderately reduced refund … was ignored.
So, it seems like I’m going to have to wait for that decision too. But I’m NOT giving up.
The total amount of charges now due is £614, not including interest … or Greg Tax!
Reclaiming My Bank Charges … Part 2
August 15, 2007 at 14:28 | Posted in OI!!! Give it back ... ! | Leave a commentLast week, after 3 weeks waiting for a response from Alliance + Leicester to my request for
all the details of the excess bank charges levied to my account, I actually received a bit
more than I was originally expecting. I thought that I’d get maybe 2 or 3 pages listing
only the charges, but what I actually got were full copies of ALL my statements.
Essentially, there were 28 pages (29 if you include the covering letter) listing every single
transaction since the account was opened in December 2005. Which means, should A+L
use any delaying tactics after I’ve asked for my money back (which is highly likely) and
the situation turns to legal action, I have now got all the info that may be requested
by the county courts and/or any lawyers that might get involved.
Last time I posted an article here about my A+L bank charges, it was a random selection
of account statements over a ten month period from August 2006, in which I found a
total of £452 in charges for unauthorised overdrafts and bounced DD payments.
The full amount of charges from all my statements comes to a not so grand total of £503.
I was expecting it to be a fair bit more than that, but at least I now know exactly how
much I can claim back from the corporate greed A+L have exercised against me.
Now, I’m off to compile a list of the actual charges, and a letter (using a template letter
from MoneySavingExpert.com) to give A+L upto 14 days to pay me back my money.
As always, I’ll keep you posted on further developments.
Best Regards,
DJGM1974 – a.k.a. Greg Mitchell.
Back again after a partial hiatus.
August 14, 2007 at 20:30 | Posted in General gubbins | Leave a commentSince my last entry on here, even though I’d been offline for a while before that, I decided
to take a partial hiatus from the internet, then gradually come back to it a bit at a time,
rather than leaping straight in. I’ve had swathes of crap clogging up my Google mail!
Luckily most of it was in my Spam folder, and it was gone in two mouseclicks!
The next thing I’m going to do is post an update on the saga of reclaiming a heap of bank
charges back from Alliance + Leicester. I got the information I requested detailing all the
charges last week. I’ll tell you more in the next article. Feel free to go and have a look
at my previous entry regarding that situation, if you haven’t read it already.
Once I’ve sent off my next letter asking for my money back, I’m going to catch up with
a certain friend and business associate (You know who you are!) via WL Messenger.
BREAKING NEWS … The internet has crashed!
July 22, 2007 at 10:50 | Posted in Funny stuff | Leave a commentOH NO, the entire world wide web has gone titsup.com . . . !
That … was a joke!
(Obviously!)
Reclaiming My Bank Charges … Part 1
July 21, 2007 at 0:28 | Posted in OI!!! Give it back ... ! | 1 CommentOk folks, this is quite a long article I’m posting here, but please bear with me . . .
Back in December 2005, I opened a new bank account with Alliance + Leicester,
for reasons of which would mean a long story about my previous employers,
the money they owe me, which I’ll probably never see again!
Anyway, over the course of the 19 months or so my A+L bank account has been
open there have been numerous charges applied, for direct debits that’ve been
bounced, causing my account to go overdrawn, thus resulting in a charge for
an unauthorised overdraft. Even though I never intended to go overdrawn
in the first place! Not at all! Deary me, no!
Anyway, to cut a long-ish story a bit shorter, while you’re currently out of work,
and trying to start a computer repair business with a friend, bank charges are
very much a hinderance. And since in recent months, there’s been a lot of
stuff about bank customers rebelling against their banks and claiming the
charges back, I thought it’s probably time I should do the same.
So, I grabbed a random handful of my A+L account statements covering about
ten months since August 2006, and I found that during that time, the total
amount of charges was £452!!! And that’s only for that 10 month period!
I know I’ve had a fair few charges on my account in the other months since
the account was opened in December 2005, so I’m sure the grand total is
probably quite a lot more than £452. Gawd knows how much more!
So, this week, I have ventured upon the first phase of my plan of action against
what is essentially profiteering and corporate greed, and get my money back!
First up, I opened up what is referred to as a “parachute account”. The reason?
In case A+L say, “Ok you can have your money back, now feck off!”, and close
my account with them. Which would be very unfair, but it could happen.
Secondly, I’ve sent a letter requesting details of all the excess charges that’ve
been applied since December 2005. Then, I’m going to add them all up, and
politely demand it all back. The lot! Every last penny of it.
(Well, I’ll certainly not settle for any less than 90% of it.)
I know that I’ve got every right to do this, and I can even threaten to take A+L
to the small claims court if they refuse my request to refund the charges, and
it is very likely they’ll do that. They know they’re in the wrong, and so they’ll
probably try everything they can, to avoid paying me back my money.
If you’ve read this far, thanks for bearing with me.
Now, if you have a bank account that’s had excessive charges applied at anytime
within the last 6 years, you too have the right to do as I’m doing now, like many,
others, write to the bank, find out exactly how much you’ve been charged,
and politely demand it back. And the end of the day, it’s your money,
don’t let these greedy corporate (barstewards) steal it from you!
Check out … MoneySavingExpert.com – Reclaiming Your Bank Charges … there’s
plenty of valuable information there, and template letters you can use should you
decide to take action against your bank, and reclaim what is rightfully yours.
I’ll keep you posted as to what happens with my situation.
Best Regards,
DJGM1974 – a.k.a. Greg Mitchell.
Good morning/afternoon/evening/night … delete where applicate!
July 20, 2007 at 23:24 | Posted in General gubbins | Leave a commentWell, until now, I’ve never really had much to blog about, if anything, but now I’m about to
start action against my bank to reclaim hundreds of pounds of excessive bank charges.
So here goes . . .
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