To get rid of those f*cking annoying LJ snapshot pieces of sh*t, click here. Many thanks to spacecowb0y for this. And thanks to czol for alerting me to it.
David Cameron wants to stop benefits for obese, mentally ill and addicts who "refuse" treatment. (The mental health bit was brought up last year.) BBC article
The BBC wanted to hear from people who may be affected by this so I sent them my story.
I managed several months of not using shampoo and conditioner and then went back to using just conditioner as, despite using proper rinses, my hair was becoming increasingly difficult to brush. I've gone back to shampoo and conditioner as it was becoming harder and harder to get my hair clean when my hands and wrists are in pain and they frequently are nowadays. The itching I was getting seems to be my skin being allergic to the oils my scalp produces and not an allergy to the Faith In Nature hair products.
Oh well, it was an interesting experiment. I can wash my hair clean without using product, it's just really painful and takes far too long.
For those who haven't been on LJ at all recently, just over three months ago I stopped using conventional shampoo and conditioner and started using bicarbonate of soda and apple cider vinegar instead. I'm not sure exactly how long ago it was. I've lost count. I could work it out if I could be arsed looking at my diary but I can't.
My hair went back to being a greasy, manky mess when I tried to reduce the bicarbonate concentration about a month ago so I'm stuck with 1tbs in 250ml water. The apple cider vinegar concentration is unknown due to my method of pour some in a bottle and add water. This may have something to do with the occasional icky day. I just add a bit more vinegar and that goes away.
For the past couple of weeks, barring one occasion, my hair has been perfectly fine. Once dry it's soft and not greasy at all. It only starts getting greasy around day three which is perfectly normal for me. It may be slightly drier and frizzier than normal but I'm sure I'll figure out some method for conditioning it if that annoys me. Possibly coconut oil.
I've gone from paying £4 each for shampoo and conditioner to about £1 each for bicarb and cider vinegar. I'm on the first tub of bicarb and just started the second bottle of vinegar so I think I might be saving money. I honestly can't remember how long shampoo and conditioner normally lasted given that I went through phases of just not washing my hair when my mental health was really poor.
The itchiness is rather confusing. It's only itchy when it gets greasy. Am I allergic to mess/grease/myself? The steroid scalp lotion really did help as do antihistamines but as long as I wash it every three days it's bearable.
In January of this year the Commission on Assisted Dying found that “the current legal status of assisted dying is inadequate and incoherent” and that there is “a strong case for providing the choice of assisted dying for terminally ill people”. In its report, the Commission set out proposals for a legal framework within which assisted dying could be practised safely.
The draft Bill that is the focus of this consultation builds on the recommendations of the Commission on Assisted Dying to propose a safeguarded assisted dying law.
The proposed Bill presents an assisted dying model which would allow terminally ill, mentally competent adults in England and Wales the choice of controlling the manner and timing of their death. Patients who request assisted dying would be assessed by two doctors to ensure that they satisfied pre-defined eligibility criteria. The details of the assessments, and other features of the proposed process, are set out in the consultation document alongside the draft Bill itself.
‘The purpose of this consultation is to assess the robustness of the safeguards.’
The purpose of this consultation is to assess the robustness of the safeguards that make up the assisted dying procedure in the draft Bill. This will be done by asking the views of the public, health and social care professionals, patient representative organisations and legal experts. The APPG on Choice at the End of Life and Dignity in Dying want to work with others to ensure not only that patients at the end of life have choice and control, but also, crucially, to ensure that the safeguards work well in practice.
You can download the consultation document, including the draft Bill here. If you wish to, you can answer the consultation questions using this website here.
Jobcentre bosses warn of suicide risk among benefit claimants From the comments "Will there be an investigation into how politicised the DWP press office has become? This statement: It remains rare to find incidents of self-harm where the benefits system is said to have been a factor, but we are not complacent when it comes to ensuring that our staff can provide the right support and help to those affected.
Breadline Britain Day Three: austerity, hungry kids, mental health "I'm told the call, by shadow work and pensions secretary Liam Byrne, will be made at an opposition day debate on disability this lunchtime. Byrne will apparently reveal new figures that show that : the cuts to disabled peoples' benefits now outstrip the amount of money the Government is taking from bankers."
Mental health of benefit claimants is put at risk by welfare reform "The jobcentre supervisor told the man that his poor timekeeping had become an issue and put him at risk of being "sanctioned". "You have two options," he said. "Start turning up to the appointments on time; or continue like this and your claim will be disallowed." According to a health and safety report relayed to the Guardian, the man replied: "I have a third option." He reached into his pocket, took out a knife, and cut his wrists."
"A group of long-term unemployed jobseekers were bussed into London to work as unpaid stewards during the diamond jubilee celebrations and told to sleep under London Bridge before working on the river pageant . . .
Two jobseekers, who did not want to be identified in case they lost their benefits, said they had to camp under London Bridge the night before the pageant. They told the Guardian they had to change into security gear in public, had no access to toilets for 24 hours, and were taken to a swampy campsite outside London after working a 14-hour shift in the pouring rain on the banks of the Thames on Sunday."
A variant of this Workfare scheme is being rolled out to those in the Work Related Activity Group of ESA. I don't want to be treated like that. I feel sick and petrified now. I'm not sure I want to be here any more. I've emailed my MP but don't know what good, if any, that will do. Any suggestions?
After five weeks of hell of no shampoo or conditioner and using nothing but bicarbonate of soda and apple cider vinegar and the occasional essential oil on my hair I was ready to give up. The greasiness refused to go away and it was still itchy. I thought I'd give it one last go and decided to increase the concentration of the bicarb. It worked! The greasiness went! My hair was lovely again! And it has stayed that way for about a week. I've reduced the bicarb concentration and my hair is still lovely. I've stopped constantly wearing it in two plaits and have even worn it down!
I saw my GP on Monday who thinks the bicarb might be too strong for my scalp but reckons the itchiness is eczema. I now have to nuke my head with a steroid lotion for the next three weeks. No change yet but this is only day four and these things take time.
It would appear than I am not allergic to my shampoo/conditioner. What I have is rather fine and not really noticeable dandruff that results in a very itchy scalp about a day or so after washing. Fuck this for a barrel of laughs. Despite the itchiness not being caused by my shampoo and conditioner I'd rather stick with the bicarb and apple cider vinegar method of hair washing. I've come this far I'd rather not pack it in now.
New plan. Kill the dandruff. Vosene didn't work last time and I know from past experience that I'm very allergic to Neutragena T-Gel shampoo and just about everything made by Head & Shoulders. I have no desire to spend yet more money on shampoos and the apple cider vinegar hasn't helped so it's time for a new plan. New plan involves seven drops of tea tree oil, seven drops of lavender oil and seven drops of rosemary oil in about a tablespoon of carrier oil. I'm using olive oil because I'm feeling too cheap to buy anything else. On Wednesday night I made up the above, undid the plaits and nuked my scalp. On Thursday I washed my hair, which was definitely greasy enough to fry chips in, with the bicarb and ACV. This didn't work very well and I almost gave up and went back to normal shampoo and conditioner. I ended up leaving the shower with hair that still felt greasy. Towel dried it, plaited it and went role-playing. It still smelt of tea tree, lavender and rosemary. Yum.
By Friday evening there was no itching. Over 24 hours since the last wash and nothing. Friday night and still no itching. This could be an improvement but we'll see. About an hour ago I did the three essential oil/olive oil thing again but only used half a tablespoon of olive oil. Hair is back in plaits and will be washed tomorrow. Given the amount of pain I'm in currently this may end up being postponed. Fortunately the only person I have to visit tomorrow knows about and accepts what I'm doing so she won't mind if my hair is greasy. I can wear a hat on the bus. At least it smells nice.
If, after a fortnight of doing this, the essential oil crap hasn't properly solved the dandruff/itchiness problem I shall be going to my GP. I'd rather not end up with a prescription for polytar or the like but if this doesn't work I guess I'll have to. Wish me luck please!
Once again Royal Mail have pissed me off and it's nothing to do with the price increases. Oh no. This is to do with their leaving items with "your designated neighbour". The phrase "your designated neighbour" is farcical as you don't actually get to designate your neighbour. It just happens to be whichever of the people around you happens to be in. Could be anyone. Could be the thieving arsehole upstairs or the homophobic wanker two doors down. According to the gentleman on the telephone posties are supposed to have enough common sense to leave it with someone on the same landing as you so if you're disabled and on the ground floor you shouldn't have to go traipsing upstairs to get your packet. On the other hand I can count the number of posties I've encountered who have common sense on one finger.
So you can't designate a neighbour but you can opt out. What? Really? How? I didn't even know my postcode was unfortunate enough to be in a trial area. How the fuck am I supposed to divine that I can opt out of this trial? I asked the gentleman on the phone how one can opt out. He DIDN'T KNOW! He told me to "look for it online". That was really helpful.
About as helpful as the card. You can't designate a neighbour, so surely the card should say which of your seven neighbours has your parcel. Nope. Nothing at all. Fortunately I took a sensible approach and tried the one nearest me. They had my parcel. Thankfully they're really nice but I can't say the same for everyone else in the stair. I've now opted out. I know I moan about having to trek down to the arse end of Portobello whenever the postie with common sense decides a thin children's book is too large for my letter box (I guess my letter box must randomly shrink when I'm not around) but I'd rather that than have my post vanish into the ether because it's been left with one of my arsehole neighbours with no clue on the card as to which on it is.
Royal Mail failing again.
If you want to opt out of this farce click here. I realise this might be great if you have trustworthy neighbours but I don't and as half the properties in the stair are rented and there's a high turnover I just can't take the chance.
I haven't washed my hair since Sunday lunchtime. Yesterday afternoon I asked Mark if it smelt. He said it did a bit but couldn't tell me what it smelt like. I'm hoping/guessing it's just general sweat/unwashedness rather than ew, yuckiness. Although general sweat/unwashedness is kinda ew, yuckiness. He did say he had to go right up close to smell anything.
I was going to wash it before I went to bed but I currently feel like the world is collapsing in on me to the point where I cannot handle making a cup of tea. If I tried to shower now I'd probably end up using normal shampoo/conditioner just because I feel as though I cannot cope with anything.
I will wash it tomorrow when I shower. We're roleplaying in the evening and I hate going out with icky hair.
My scalp is slightly itchy today but I'm wondering if I'm reacting to my own sweat rather than shampoo etc. The itching only starts about 24 hours after washing or after I've slept at least once. Maybe I'm allergic to my hypo-allergenic pillow. Or the washing powder, but then the rest of me would itch. I shall stop the paranoid ramblings here and put clean pillowcases on my bed tomorrow after I've washed my hair. There's no point doing that now.
Washed my hair around lunchtime on Sunday. Used the apple cider vinegar rinse thing first to get rid of dandruff/itchiness, then washed with the bicarb solution then conditioned with the apple cider vinegar. Hair currently smells of hair and is back in two plaits as it's annoying me. It's not the greasiness, it's annoying me in general. And I think it's become a bit brittle. I guess I'm using too much bicarbonate of soda. Time to dilute it some more. For some weird reason my hair doesn't appear to look greasy. It looks normal. It just feels wrong, sticky. It's weird.
Time to watch some more Mysterious Cities of Gold before bed. I think I got up to episode 4, only 35 to go. I may be some time.
Tomorrow's plan involves looking for a gravestone that Mark photographed last month. He's lost it. The grave, not the photo. When he went back to the cemetery to do a slightly different take on that stone he couldn't find it. Hopefully with two of us looking we'll find it as the photo of it in Pulp Fiction sold on Sunday and the person who bought it is interested to know who the grave belongs to.
16th April - Washed hair with nowt 18th April - Washed hair with bicarb and apple cider vinegar
Scalp is still slightly itchy but not quite as itchy as when I use normal shampoo and conditioner. It still feels greasy and rather sticky so I've been wearing it in two plaits to hide its yuckiness. I have no idea how it smells but Mark assures me it doesn't smell 'bad'. Just different.
Thanks to theweird1ne suggestion of longhair I found this post which contains just about everything you'd want to know about going shampoo-free.
Now that I'm thinking about it my scalp is insanely itchy as is the rest of me. I wonder if they're adding chlorine to the water again. :(
I'm going to do my to NOT wash my hair tonight and wait until tomorrow. I'll buy and use some white vinegar as an anti-dandruff rinse, then the bicarb to wash and then the ACV as a conditioner. One of the suggestions for a conditioner has lavender, tea tree or rosemary essential oils in it. Note to self, go to Napiers get some rosemary essential oil so you can try these. I know I'm fine with lavender and tea tree as I have both of those. Rosemary sounds nice.
I'm still paranoid about having head lice and if the itchiness isn't gone by next week I'll probably treat my head to that lovely asthma-inducing stuff from the chemist. I may have to lie about my asthma in order to get it. Fortunately it has never triggered my asthma in the past.
Having neither bicarb or apple cider vinegar* I just washed my hair with water and used a tiny bit of normal conditioner on the ends. My hair is a little bit greasier than normal but with most of it tied back you hardly notice. Not had much in the way of an itchy scalp yet but it tends to come on a day or so after I wash my hair. *crosses fingers*
*Damn. I knew there was something I wanted to do whilst I was at Pulp Fiction. I meant to go to Real Foods and get some ACV. Unfortunately Steve was feeling really ill and was very happy to see Mark and I arrive. Mark was busy with sabledemon and website stuff so I got roped into minding the shop for five hours. I got a lovely book of Russian Fairy Tales out of it so I'm not complaining.
After having become allergic to yet another brand of supposedly "good for you" shampoo and conditioner I've given up and decided to go shampoo free.
My current plan is to go with the bicarbonate of soda and apple cider vinegar method. One tbs of bicarb in a cup of water as shampoo and one tbs of vinegar in a cup of water as conditioner. I plan to keep this place updated with how it works out . . .
I've been warned that the first few weeks are probably going to be a grease-fest but I cannot take the constantly itchy scalp any longer and I really do not want to have to take antihistamines every single day just because my hair is used to product. (I had my GP aunt check for nits just in case I've picked them up from a kid again but she gave my head a clean bill of health.)
There may be photos at the end of this to show how my hair has responded to this treatment. There will be no pictures of the grease-fest.
Camelot/National Lottery are incompetant goat-felchers who couldn't organise a piss up in a brewery if their lives counted on it. All I want to do is close an account and get them to stop sending me spam. These goat-felchers can't even handle that. They give you an email address for contacting them and then when you use it they send you the reply in the picture below. I think I've successfully closed the account but the spam won't stop. They ask you to reply to the email if your enquiry is genuine and they've wrongly flagged it as spam but all that gets you is another email identical to the one in the picture! I repeat - Camelot/National Lottery are useless fuckwits who couldn't organise a piss up in a brewery.
I've actually given up now and have just told Gmail that all email from these people is spam.
The driver of this UPS van who stays one block away from me is still evil. He's now parking RIGHT on the corner. Not only is he blocking access but he's making it bloody dangerous to drive into our block. It doesn't affect him. This bastard lives in one of the other blocks. His selfishness is putting the lives of 44 households at risk. I'm going to get the committee to email these photos and the explanation to UPS and see what they have to say about it this time. Whatever they said last time obviously didn't work. Don't use UPS. From what I've seen they don't give a rat's arse if their drivers endanger other people. As long as this van is illegally parked in my block I will continue to hold this belief.
I was asked not to post this as shortly after the last time I posted about this selfish arse the van got vandalised. According to the person claiming to be from UPS who phoned the committee member from a mobile that was my fault. Yup, if you post pictures of something that annoys you and it then gets vandalised it's your fault. What planet are these people on?
My estate has a slight problem with broken drainpipes and thanks to the freezing weather this is the result.
I recommend clicking for the larger version of this. That icicle, which is only attached to the wall at the very top, is huge!!!
Around half of our drainpipes will be like this. I know because I walked round the estate and made a note of all the ones that were broken. Now I just need to get my act together and scan the map and email it to our factors. I think these pictures will be going too. We're fucked. I dread to think how much this'll cost to fix . . .
Update on this entry. The one about the UPS van being illegally parked in my car park and blocking access to emergency vehicles. Well about three days after emailing them a phone call was received from the Edinburgh. They said the vehicle belonged to an outside contractor and that they'd contact them and try to resolve it. Another phone call was received today. They've spoken to the driver and told him he's not to park it there any more. He claims he didn't know it was illegal to block the path of emergency vehicles park a commercial vehicle on property where the Deed of Conditions, which the owner of the property must sign up to and agree to abide by, clearly state that this is not allowed. He's not going to be parking it there any more. He also led them to believe that he was parking it in his assigned space. Bullshit. That area is NOT an assigned space. Besides he lives does not live in my block and that portion of the car park only contains spaces for people in my block. Lying bastard.
UPS say that the van has since been damaged and that it's my fault because of this. I really don't understand that train of thought. Because I've posted something here someone has somehow and for some unknown reason gone and found out exactly where that place in the picture is and vandalised the van? What the fuck? I know none of my friends would've done it. Can't say the same for some of my neighbours or the emergency services who were having trouble getting round the vehicle. I don't give a flying fuck if the UPS van was vandalised or not. It's not my fault. I never advocated violence towards the poor defenceless object that was illegally parked by its dimwitted, law-breaking driver. That's his fault. Maybe if he wasn't so inconsiderate in his parking people might not have taken issue with the van. Of course it could just be a bunch of local kids or drunks. There was a spate of vandalism in that car park last year and a couple of years before that and then again about six years ago. I refuse to accept blame for something which is not my fault so you can go fuck yourselves.
Why were the photos posted online? Because I didn't know if your email system allowed incoming attachments and I couldn't be arsed dealing with a bounced email and then having to go about sending them another way.
The driver of this UPS van who stays one block away from me is evil. I hadn't been overly bothered about his law-breaking (it's against the Deed of Conditions to park a commercial vehicle in our car park and breaking the Deeds is breaking the law) until I saw an emergency vehicle fail to get past the van. His selfishness is putting the lives of 44 households at risk. I'm going to email these photos and the explanation to UPS and see what they have to say about it.
A friend and I have been setting up LJ and Facebook stuff for people who have been fucked over by DWP thanks to the lies told by ATOS Healthcare's "Healthcare Professionals." On LJ we have atosexperiences and on Facebook it's ATOS (Healthcare) Experiences.
A website is also being set up here. It's not quite finished yet. There's a bit more to go up. Please share these with people who are at the mercy of ATOS Healthcare's "Healthcare Professionals."
Mark and I would like to introduce the new additions to our family. Meet Jasper
and Carnelian. (Mark named this one, honest! I wanted to call him Carrot.) Apologies for the terrible pictures. By the time they awake enough to do anything it's too dark to take decent pictures without the flash and I don't want to use that around them. Jasper is an Angora Syrian hamster and is most definitely the boss. Carnelian, his littermate, isn't an Angora but he's still a sweetie. I bought a new wheel for them which, unfortunately was fine for Carnelian but a bit too small for Jasper. This didn't bother Jasper though. Instead of arching and potentially hurting or damaging his back he decided to do what I caught in the video below.
Yup. My hamster is a headcase. Carnelian then gets in on the act.
One hamster is in the wheel whilst the other perches his bum on one of the platforms and uses the outside of the wheel. Can hamsters catch insanity from humans?
I've still to tell you about the lemurs but that can wait until tomorrow. I'm far too tired right now.
Dear owners of 01772733194 aka Clear Debt Solutions, FUCK OFF AND DIE A SLOW AND PAINFUL DEATH AS SOON AS YOU POSSIBLY CAN YOU LAWBREAKING SCUM. No love, Me
Dear owners of 08448466529 aka the scum posing as Consumer Direct Debt Advice, FUCK OFF AND DIE A SLOW AND PAINFUL DEATH AS SOON AS YOU POSSIBLY CAN YOU LAWBREAKING SCUM. No love, Me
I honestly can't remember if I've posted this before. I posted it in the cult community but it should be here too. It had me howling with laughter and not much does that these days. I recommend watching the video before reading the lyrics.
I'll tell you why. If you score highly in the secret test in their exams then you are invited to attend a special class designed to help and teach them how to get into power. A perfect score means you are ( Warning: spoiler contentCollapse )
Do not buy laser pointers or any other product from www.laserpointers.co.uk. They're cheap and cheerful but WILL NOT help you if a product arrives broken or an order is fucked up. Steer clear of these cowboys.
Joy! Avast keeps telling me there's a Trojan horse on LJ so I've opened a support request. I won't be holding my breathe for a helpful response.
Trojan horse is JS:Illredir-AG [Trj] whatever that is.
LJ have made my support request private, just like all the other ones asking about the trojan. I wonder what they're trying to hide. Bastards.
Hmm, they have the time to hide all the support requests relating to the trojan but not to answer them. Lovely service. Well done LJ. You're really filling me with confidence.
Thanks to the Tories cost cutting threats and Murdock's anti-BBC agenda, the Beeb are planning to close two radio stations and cut a huge chunk of internet stuff. The stations - 6Music - the bestest station there is and BBC Asian Network which is of little interest to me.
Today I almost lost over £100 and it wasn't my fault. I ordered a couple of items, including my Mum's Christmas present, from Amazon.co.uk. I spent last night at Mark's and when I got back to my flat this afternoon I discovered a very large brown box with amazon.co.uk printed on it sat OUTSIDE my front door. In clear view of anyone passing by, not tucked around the corner or left with a neighbour. What's worse is that the the main stair door isn't closing properly so anyone can get in. It was ajar when I arrived home. I opened my door and took the parcel in and found an unfamiliar "sorry we missed you" card in green and white from the Home Delivery Network. In response to the "Where's my parcel?" question, the courier had ticked the box "in a safe place" and next to it wrote "LEFT BOY* AT DOOR."
FOR FUCKS SAKE. OUTSIDE A FRONT DOOR IN CLEAR VIEW OF THE STREET IS NOT A SAFE PLACE! What are these people? FUCKING MORONS?!?
Tomorrow's plan involved phoning them and asking them where's my parcel. "You said you left it outside my door but it wasn't there. Where is it?" I'll let 'em stew for an hour or so and then inform them that a kind neighbour rescued it before any of the local scum could pinch it. Then I'll complain to Amazon about their terrible choice of courier company. I'd say I'd rather have Royal Mail back but they've left large and valuable items outside my front door four times this year (and once in the past seven days) so I'm not at all happy with them either.
Why can't people do their jobs properly?
Edit: I'm not the only dissatisfied customer. There are some here and more here and here and from here - I recently ordered a photo printer – obviously a piece of fragile electronic equipment, and far from cheap, from Amazon. I came home from work several days later to find a card through my door saying my parcel had been left ‘down the side’ of my house. I discovered that the v. large and heavy box had been dropped over a 6 foot, locked back gate on to the concrete on the other side! On calling HDN to complain, the girl who took the call said she would ‘report the driver’ as not only should he – obviously – not have thrown any kind of parcel over a high wooden fence (I suppose I should be relieved that my 6 month old puppy wasn’t in the garden standing on the other side of the gate at the time) . . .
Holy Shit! My parcel's been sat outside my door since Monday afternoon! I guess I was VERY lucky it didn't get stolen.
*That's what it says. I'll scan it if you don't believe me.
It's 1990 and the New Covenant are Scotland's most powerful superheroes.
For those not interested in pictures and information about a pretty lady who can turn invisible and has a Giant Hamster Ball O'Doom, don't click on the lj-cut.
Edit: Mira's family (parents and twin sister) know that she's Mirror the superhero. No one else did . . . until she had to come out to the rest of the New Covenant when Snapdragon stole some 'industrial fireworks' from her company whilst he was undercover. Mirror punched him when she found out he did it. It was very funny.
Are all searches fucked at the moment? I type in exactly what I want and it's eighth on the page with all of the entries above it having only one part of what I typed. I type O+S on the HMV site and I get Jordin Sparks - S.O.S. (Let The Music Play) at the top when what I wanted was O+S by O+S. It's fifth on dvd.co.uk with the other four items not containing O+S at all! WTF?
Play.com win here. It's at the top when I search for it on their site. Well done Play.com. They're also the cheapest. Do the other shops not want to sell anything. If you type the exact title of an item and the top four or five search results bear very little resemblence to what you've typed how likely would you be to assume that site didn't have what you wanted and give up? I know I would normally but after the ebay D12 nonsense I've been trying a few tricks.
Searching for D12 on ebay gives you hundreds of D20s and Dungeons and Dragons books but no D12s unless you type "D12" instead of D12 alone. The "" trick doesn't work for O+S. I tried it on the above sites. Same results. Down at number five or eight. I don't know about the rest of you but I consider this to be very fucked up. What do you think?Am I missing something obvious?
We would like the government to intervene to end the ongoing dispute betweeen Royal Mail and CWU. This is now affecting thousands of small businesses, as they cannot guarentee their items are delivered or payments received. The government should step in and act as arbitrator to end the striking farly for both sides, and ensure that the backlog of mail does not result in thousands of small businesses going bankrupt -which will happen if this strike continues through Christmas.
My friend's ebay business suffers during strikes as the amount of negative feed increases when people don't realise that postal strikes by Royal Mail affect items they've bought on eBay. She can't use a courier service as it's far too expensive for what she sells.
To the Scottish Gas fuckwit who decided to switch my electricity supplier without my permission,
Fuck off and die in a fire you fucking fuckwit.
No love, Me.
I came back from Sheffield to find a letter from Scottish Power saying they were sorry I was leaving them. It came as a complete surprise to me. After the last changeover fiasco I've refused to switch suppliers. Scottish Power haven't been too bad and I really don't need any additional stress right now. That plan didn't work. I called the number on the letter for people who haven't agreed to transfer and the lady was very helpful. She asked me if I'd had any energy salespeople knocking on doors, nope. I did tell her about the Scottish Gas 'problem.' She said she'd stop the transfer and that I'd hear from them in five to ten days. I received the letter confirming the stop today. It also confirms that I was being transfered to Scottish Gas. Mark and I both suspect that whoever read the letter I sent to Scottish Gas may have decided to switch me without my permission. What's weird is that I haven't had anything from Scottish Gas addressed to me at my address. Mark reckons that the Scottish Gas fuckwit may have told Scottish Power that I was changing and then just 'disconnected' me.
Please sign this to prevent another Highland Clearance. Please don't let another obnoxious, arrogant American dictate what we Scots can and can't do. Let's take care of our own for a while. If he wants to create another ecological nightmare he can do it someplace else. WE DO NOT WANT HIM HERE.
luckylove is pissed off with whoever decided to change the ingredients in Quavers and the Salt and Vinegar French Fries to include MSG. She spent a fair chunk of last night in agony. Fortunately Mark was a star and went to Sainsburys to get me some peppermint tea. I love him.
In other news as of 4pm on Friday I still hadn't heard from the council. 48 hours my arse. It's now been five working days. Hang on, maybe they meant 48 working hours . . . I'm not going to work that out. They have some weird opening times and I so can't be arsed with it. I've done what I can to help them sort it out. I gave them the evidence, I even have a witness for that, and I've reminded them about it. If they pass the case on to the Sheriff court and or send bailiffs round I'm going to have some fun. Same goes for Scottish Gas who are still sending bills for a Miss J M Clinton to my address. I've written to them to point out their error and have even offered to provide them with evidence that my address is still supplied by Scottish Power. I'm going to have fun with them if they decide to send bailiffs round. I think I might write to their chief executive first and include the three letters that arrived last week and let them know exactly how much stress this is causing me. Freaking out about some random person changing my gas and leccy supplier every time I get another of their letters is not good for my mental health. I'm tempted to call Scottish Power, my supplier, and ask them to confirm again if they're still my supplier and explain why I'm asking. Mark says this is a bad idea as too many people involved will only complicate things but I still want to do it. Let Scottish Power ask Scottish Gas why they're claiming to be supplying energy to some random person who does not and never has lived at my address.
I feel the need to watch the Dark Crystal again just to see a pissed off Fizzgig.
I'm all for women only and men only swimming sessions to give members of certain religions the opportunity to learn to swim. What I am not in favour of is forcing a strict swimwear code on ALL people attending these sessions. Members of the general public attend these sessions too and some members of these religions don't follow as strict a dress code as others. It's unfair on all and damages relations between the cultures.
"It also puts moderate Muslims in an awkward position as it suggests, wrongly, that they are not devout enough, simply because they choose not to cover themselves in a shroud in a pool." - Douglas Murray
Dear Scottish Gas, For the umteemth time, Miss J M Clinton DOES NOT live at 2/2. I think she lives at 2/4. Please stop sending her gas and electric bills to 2/2. I was kind enough to redeliver the first two. I even wrote on them to point out the mistake and give her a chance to correct it. Since she hasn't or you've failed to do this, I've been returning them to sender with a message saying that she doesn't live at 2/2 and why don't you try 2/4. In the past two days I've three letters for her from yourselves. Piss Off. She doesn't live here. She's never lived here. This property is supplied by Scottish POWER and I have the bills to prove it. Any further communication to her will either be given to my hamster for shredding or put in my to do pile which means it may take 18 months for me to do anything with it. Now fuck off and leave me in peace. No love, Lauren p.s. No I can't talk to her. Our last interaction involved the police at 4am warning her to turn the bloody volume or risk an ASBO. Because of this I'm reluctant to have any further contact with her.
I've actually written something similar to this on the envelope that I shall be returning to them. I'm tempted to put the three items into another envelope and include this letter and post it to their undeliverable address without postage. Not My Problem.
Dear friends list, Why do several different items for several different people in my stair all come to 2/2? For once it's NOT Royal Mail's fault. Items from the Dogs Trust for Miss C H in 2/7 with the address 2/2. Items from Carphone Warehouse, for a Mr F, who I think lives in 2/5, come with the address 2/2. Items for a Mr D, actual address unknown, also come addressed to 2/2. What the fuck is going on? If it weren't for the fact that I know three of the four people actually live in this stair I'd be inclined to think there was some sort of fraud going on.
The Shaping the Future of Care Green Paper published by the DWP and the Department of Health on 14th July sets out government plans to get rid of attendance allowance and, depending on public reaction, also leaves the way clear to end the care component of DLA.
The consultation period for the green paper ends on 13 November. If there has been no significant outcry against the plans by then, it seems very likely that whichever party is in power after the next election will seize this opportunity to cut public spending by over a billion pounds a year.
I want an mp3 of the song in the Ford Ka advert. The one called Go Find It, the one with the 80 hidden Ford Kas. The one that goes ( I'm not invisibleCollapse ) I think it's by Soundtree but they appear to be a company that make music for commercials. I hope they actually recorded the whole song and are going to release it as a single. I really like it.
The Ford Ka website has an mp3 download but it isn't the song in the advert. It's some techno thing. The song I want may be there but the flash stuff is so bloated I can't find it.
The most popular video watched by Saudis is the "My broken Mysterious Cities of Gold Medallion." They also liked the "Camels in Bahrain 2", my cousin's rabbit eating an apple and "True Mathematics" by Ladytron.
South Americans love Ladytron.
The most popular video in Germany is New Model Army's "Master Race." I'm not sure what that means.
I finally managed to get the Bahrain data by guessing the url. It's too small to click on. From what I can tell most of my videos watched over there were watched when I was over there and the Camels in Bahrain videos.
Looks like YouTube is of the opinion that the only country in North America is the USA. The regions list includes South America and the USA but no North or Central America. The only way to select Canada or Central America and the Caribbean is through the All Regions main page. That's a bit crap in my opinion especially as the Caribbean islands are tiny! And I've just noticed that the same is true of Australia and New Zealand. And can't find an email address to complain to.
Total Eclipse of the Heart - the Literal Video Version. It was so funny I almost wet myself!
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