Bloody Vista-third time lucky maybe?

Just bought another laptop with Vista on it, the story so far is this is the third one in just over a year, the first one was an insurance replacement in September 07 which I ended up selling on ebay, at that point I couldnt do anything productive with it like video editing or photoshop as all these programmes used to crash on the early version of Vista, bought another one six months later same prob (Sent it back to amazon and bought an HP laptop with XP installed ) and now have a got one, another HP laptop, with 4g ram and 350 HD for 400 nicker from ebuyer (who I seem to be buying exclusively from at the moment, just a printer from there today), it can dual boot but Im gonna try and do some editing and image work with it this week before loading XP (which in itself could be quite torturous) I’ll let you know what happens, for normal every day stuff, WP, internet its fine except I have to reboot the router as it seems to forget how to log on which is a pain in the arse.

Good news Bad news, historically speaking

Wheyyyyyyyyyyyyyy hey Kensington now officially is the place which has the city’s first purpose built licenced cinema…..hurrah. Go and visit Wetherspoons which was the Picturedrome, first one in the city…..blah blah blagh

How do I know this, well the other cinema which counter claimed this unique historic title (the other cinema is/was in Walton), has sadly been demolished to build…er….apartments….except…well you know the rest, the grass on the site looks really nice though…..

Definitely the Oldest and possibly first  purpose built Licenced Cinema in liverpool

Possibly the Oldest and first  purpose built Licenced Cinema in liverpool, not any more though

Bad Phone Day-Fones Nt Fr Me

I was in the city centre yesteday getting me ISAs in order before the end of the tax year, and pnon the way home I called into Fones 4 U “just to see what I could do about changing mcontract o more minutes and if they might deem to give me a better phone and/or a free laptop” well you never know. As soon as I sat and “Coleen” starting dealing my enquiry had this sinking feeling that I wasnt going to get out without selling my soul or at least more than I wanted too. After taking me through a lsit of questions and being told about the insurance I needed (I have never broke or lost a phone so I dont think I need insurance-and it was a tenner a month too). So she eventually brings me a phone which I played with for a a bit, I’m not really sure what I was supposed to tell in 10 minutes but I wasnt impressed actually. thought nah, its £35 a month, its the wrong network, its the wrong phone  (LG not Sony ericcson) so I said I’ll think about it……..Whaaaaaaaa.
Short of an alarm going off, the effect was a bit like if I’d got my knob out. They are obviously used to a younger clientele who will just impulse buy, I wanted to go and think about, but they obviously didnt, firstly Colleen wanted to knwo what was wrong with the “deal” and then the manager came over and wanted to know what was wrong….I told him all I wanted to do was think about , but  was told that “that offer was only applicable right here right now”, so right there right then I walked out.

Note to training section of “Telephones for You”, stop being so pushy, word of mouth is worth lots more than their range of TVadverts which seem to show their clients as being Morons.

They’ve lost me (and you?) for good. Incidentally passing the Orange shop across from fones 4 U, went in, the man there said, just give us a call and we will up the minutes to 300, duh!

24 7 365 Stella

Imagine the scenario you wake up, its 3 am, you smack you lips, “Hmm ” you think ” I could do with 5 cans of stella artois for under a fiver”, but it’s 3AM!!!!! 

What does a man have to do to get a drink in Kensington and Fairfield at such an unsavoury time. Well the answer is to hand, as we’re goign to get a a 24 hr wine shop (to add to the “Not Drunk Enought Store”, the one that looksa  bit like a downmarket amsterdam brothel), not that they told us this on the planning application….according to that it was just a “late” licence….so what are we going to do about this devil in our midst.

options

Find out where the owner lives and open a 24 hr a day Offie in his area?

Picket the place

Start drinking again (abstainer for 15 years) keep going in, down it all there and then in the shop and getting rat arsed (should be easy, as I’ll proabaly be able to get bevvied on a thimble of the afore mentoned Stella) make nuisance of myself  (vomitting shouting hallucinating etc) until they get fed up  and close at 11 pm or I die of liver complaint.

glue the locks (dont believe I wrote that but it is a good idea) but its open 24 hrs so there’s not going to be anytime in the day when we coudl do this.

Or people could jsut not go in, not buy anything and they’ll eventually get the message……

any other suggestions  (legal of course?????)

Homer Simpson was right-More Tall Tilington GEARS tales

Attended a meeting this week of the GEARS refurbishment management group. In case you dont know where I live is called GEARS www.newgears.wordpress.com which is an acornym of the street names of the area.

The local regeneration company have spent £1.1 (plus an extra £200,000 VAT cock up money) on refurbishment work, this amount of money doesnt go far these days …..£1.3 million  equals SOME new walls, SOME new tiles, SOME new fences and gates. pans out over the 800 homes in Fairfield £1350 (that is if every house gets done, but only 80% of the houses are having something done so its over that amount)

Without going into mind numbing detail, we arent very happy with both the standard of the work (eg were the men tiling Tilers?), etc and some of the materials seem a bit sub standard (eg exterior paint running in the rain-see previosu posts). The most annoying thing is now eveyone seems to be side stepping the responsibility and a professional closing of ranks happening.

These types of jobs are commissioned by a statutory agency, in this case Kensington Regeneration who then employ a firm of award winning architects (BCA Landscapes) to project manage and finally but not least BCA employ ACORN builders to carry out the work. A clear chain of commnaad or responsibility. To cap all of this we the residents association have been “Consulted” about the changes for over a year before the work started (it began in July 2008). The reasons for the length of time offered by the Architects are- The Rain, the lack of permission slips, er….cant think of a third excuse…..

The management /consultation meetings now take on familair pattern, we moan, the architect waffles, we moan again, someone from ACORN waffles, we get shown some “Nice Things” (door plates pictures of trees etc) we leave disaffected, work is not rectified and stays the same.

Anyhow I’ve decided to wthdraw from these meetings on the basis of line from the Simpsons, when Homer  told Marge that it takes

“Two people to lie, one to tell the lie and one to listen to the lie”,  

in other words if I’m not there I dont have to listen to what they have to say, and maybe they’ll shut up and do what they are supposed to do.

There arent many options left for us excpet to wait until after 31st March when officially the work is “finished”. It’s then we need to start thinking of ways of sorting what should have been an uplifting and positive experience but is now a horrible situation for anyone to be in.

Anyone know a surveyor who’ll work for a cup of tea and a sandwich?

Just what the Doctor Ordered

Just come back from Radio Merseyside, from reviewing the  newspaper and my heart has sank to new levels of despair, the shop opposite Wetherspoons (147 Kensington), is about to open as an Off Licence, jsut what we need. Last night  I was at a Your Communities Matters event at the Police Club,  the man from the PCT spoke and showed us a very telling map of Health Poverty in Liverpool, colour coded, a very very dark blue ring circles the inner city, this is a bad thing!, Kensington and Fairfield falls within this ring. One of the indicators is the amount of alcohol abuse, so just in time we get another “Offie”, what has filled me most is what can be done to stop this? I had originally enquired about this shop ( as a base for KensingtonVisions activities) only to brushed off by the previous owner who just wanted to make a “fast buck”. It seems the only people who can afford to run a business are Tanning Salons (Cancer Shops), Offies (Booze Parlours) and Kebab shops (Obesity).

We need to get control of our area, suggestions can be tied to half a brick and thrown through the window of the new Offie.

I did a quick survey a while ago and its astoundign how many places there are to get off your trolley in K&F it was a bit of an eye opener

http://stevefaragher.wordpress.com/2007/09/15/just-how-many-places-to-get-pissed-does-one-area-need/

Making the best of a bad job

Making the most of bad job Kensington Regeneration always like to make sure people know that they are responsible for the improvements in the area. They usually stick one of their “ington” signs on their handiwork. Just thought I’d beat them too it on the refirbishments in my area.

Looks good doesnt?

The signage look sgood doesnt it.