The kids are off in Wales, so that leaves Me and Mrs G to do whatever we like. WooHoo!!....
Starfleet is making my brain hurt at the moment, not least because I can't seem to get the right people interested in helping out with their fields of expertise, which means adding delays to the things I'm trying to shift, it's just not much fun when it's like that. So instead of thinking about that, and taking my mind right off the subject we've been thinking about holidays - and why not.
I very nearly booked a trip to Dubai last night, I'd looked at it online at lunch time and it was a reasonable price, but by the evening (when I'd decided it will be a fun thing to do) it had gone up by over 25%. In a state of shock I rang the company involved to talk to a person rather than a machine, to be told that demand had gone up this afternoon and the package price was based on available flights. Most disappointing, and got me to wondering if their booking system online is self defeating. It probably logs people looking at packages as interest and if the number of views goes up, so does the price. The problem with that is that if the number of views goes down, the price doesn't, and I'm then not inclined to buy a package. More than likely this scenario is in my paranoid head, but you never know - some companies think they're being clever with tricks like that - when in fact they're just being dumb.
After a lot of poking about and persuasion on my part, we're not, I repeat NOT going to the Mediterranean this year. I'd rather be going to Cuba or the Domincan Republic or somewhere around there, but Mrs G's new job means she's only got limited amounts of holiday this year, and a week isn't long enough for places of such distance. So it looks like we might have a week in the Canary Islands in September - to top up the British Summer Tan (you're having a laugh aren't you? - Ed) just in time for Christmas. We already have a little trip in November to Spain as well, but that's more likely to be warm rather than sunny, and Mrs G does love the sunshine. A bit more digging around on't'internet and we're ready to book as soon as Mrs G has booked her time off from the office.
After that it was time to cook some dinner, so as we're on our own we had one of my speciality chilli's and a bottle of fizz (for a special treat). As you may be aware, I like to keep up (or is it down?) with the kids, so popular culture in all it's forms is very much my thang (he said showing his age). This week's stuff and nonsense is particularly large.
First up, double corrie to catch up with. After the terribly sad events in cumbria last week, ITV withdrew the goings on in the Street because of the gun related story line. Sensible, and showed respect for those involved. Corrie, as I've mentioned before is my one vice in soap opera land, I know nothing of the other efforts other than they don't have a giggle in sight.
The main event though has to be Channel 4's offering last night at 9pm. Finally, it's the final final Big Brother in it's 11th (and final) series. When this first started in the UK (10 years ago) I paid it no interest and dismissed it as the piffle that it was, and still is really. However, there is no denying that it has had a significant impact on British Television and TV audiences. In the first instance it marks the start of the Summer proper. Secondly when you start watching someone's behaviour in this voyeuristic manner, it quickly can become addictive, so be careful. By about the 4th series I was hooked and by the 8th I'd got over it. This time round, I'm going to watch, although not obsessively, for old times sake (and because Davina McCall is very watchable, albeit slightly barking). This being the last series, there will be all sorts of buffoonery though. They already have a mole who should he be found out will be evicted. Unfortunately for him as he had to wear a mole costume with a sign around his neck saying "I am a Mole" - In theory they should work that out pretty quickly, but we are talking about Big Brother (#BB11) contestants here - so he could equally likely get away with it.
Every muscle twitch is likely to be reported on twitter (see link above) but this had a negative effect last night when so many users were posting so many observations that twitter actually fell over. This has been known a couple of times before, but it's surprising when it's something like BB. At the time, the trending topic of the moment was "Monobrow" - one of the contestants has one of 6.5". Kids and technology cause these bizarre events on this planet that we inhabit. Freaky. It's going to be a very long summer.
Starfleet is making my brain hurt at the moment, not least because I can't seem to get the right people interested in helping out with their fields of expertise, which means adding delays to the things I'm trying to shift, it's just not much fun when it's like that. So instead of thinking about that, and taking my mind right off the subject we've been thinking about holidays - and why not.
I very nearly booked a trip to Dubai last night, I'd looked at it online at lunch time and it was a reasonable price, but by the evening (when I'd decided it will be a fun thing to do) it had gone up by over 25%. In a state of shock I rang the company involved to talk to a person rather than a machine, to be told that demand had gone up this afternoon and the package price was based on available flights. Most disappointing, and got me to wondering if their booking system online is self defeating. It probably logs people looking at packages as interest and if the number of views goes up, so does the price. The problem with that is that if the number of views goes down, the price doesn't, and I'm then not inclined to buy a package. More than likely this scenario is in my paranoid head, but you never know - some companies think they're being clever with tricks like that - when in fact they're just being dumb.
After a lot of poking about and persuasion on my part, we're not, I repeat NOT going to the Mediterranean this year. I'd rather be going to Cuba or the Domincan Republic or somewhere around there, but Mrs G's new job means she's only got limited amounts of holiday this year, and a week isn't long enough for places of such distance. So it looks like we might have a week in the Canary Islands in September - to top up the British Summer Tan (you're having a laugh aren't you? - Ed) just in time for Christmas. We already have a little trip in November to Spain as well, but that's more likely to be warm rather than sunny, and Mrs G does love the sunshine. A bit more digging around on't'internet and we're ready to book as soon as Mrs G has booked her time off from the office.
After that it was time to cook some dinner, so as we're on our own we had one of my speciality chilli's and a bottle of fizz (for a special treat). As you may be aware, I like to keep up (or is it down?) with the kids, so popular culture in all it's forms is very much my thang (he said showing his age). This week's stuff and nonsense is particularly large.
First up, double corrie to catch up with. After the terribly sad events in cumbria last week, ITV withdrew the goings on in the Street because of the gun related story line. Sensible, and showed respect for those involved. Corrie, as I've mentioned before is my one vice in soap opera land, I know nothing of the other efforts other than they don't have a giggle in sight.
The main event though has to be Channel 4's offering last night at 9pm. Finally, it's the final final Big Brother in it's 11th (and final) series. When this first started in the UK (10 years ago) I paid it no interest and dismissed it as the piffle that it was, and still is really. However, there is no denying that it has had a significant impact on British Television and TV audiences. In the first instance it marks the start of the Summer proper. Secondly when you start watching someone's behaviour in this voyeuristic manner, it quickly can become addictive, so be careful. By about the 4th series I was hooked and by the 8th I'd got over it. This time round, I'm going to watch, although not obsessively, for old times sake (and because Davina McCall is very watchable, albeit slightly barking). This being the last series, there will be all sorts of buffoonery though. They already have a mole who should he be found out will be evicted. Unfortunately for him as he had to wear a mole costume with a sign around his neck saying "I am a Mole" - In theory they should work that out pretty quickly, but we are talking about Big Brother (#BB11) contestants here - so he could equally likely get away with it.
Every muscle twitch is likely to be reported on twitter (see link above) but this had a negative effect last night when so many users were posting so many observations that twitter actually fell over. This has been known a couple of times before, but it's surprising when it's something like BB. At the time, the trending topic of the moment was "Monobrow" - one of the contestants has one of 6.5". Kids and technology cause these bizarre events on this planet that we inhabit. Freaky. It's going to be a very long summer.
and now you have Corrie in HD!!
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