Monthly Archive

I hereby pledge that I, Our Man in Newcastle, will never post to my blog/Twitter/Facebook etc from an airport/coffeehouse/conference to comment on the availability, or quality of, WIFI.

I understand that the rest of the world does not care about the WIFI. Nor does it care what machine I am using to access the WIFI - however shiny, new, or expensive it may be.

If you’re reading this - please take the pledge too.

It’s time we put a stop to this.

* Sidenote: The words “wifi” and “airport” in Tweetscan.  Here.

(click for larger, more readable version)

It seems that I am not the only one to notice Guardian hack Louise Taylor’s crush on Sunderland boss Roy Keane.

Okay, so the mock up above is fake. But, then again, these little love notes aren’t.

Oh Louise. He only has time and eyes for his Labrador. Sad but true.

Image found here.

…is having to pretend that things aren’t getting worse because if you say they are then you sound like the worst kind of anicent old gimmer.  Not to mention a miserable, dreary old cynic.

But some times they are getting worse.  That’s not just because I’m no longer 21.  It’s because, well, they ARE getting worse.

We’ve had 30 years now of under investment in everything in this country and it’s hardly surprising that all isn’t what we’d like it to be.  Also there’s been 30 years of the gap between rich and poor widening. 

The worst of it all is that those driven by hate are blaming the cracks in our services and societies on those least able to defend themselves.

That’s what’s wrong here.  Isn’t it?  Not just me getting old?  Right?

I’ve been having an ongoing email conversation/row with Stagecoach about Heaton’s Number One bus.

To cut a long story very short, the bus which is supposed to come every 7-9 minutes was cut drastically without announcement.  In fact, during correspondance they have admitted that they simply did not have enough buses to meet their advertised service. 

I don’t know exactly how drastically it was cut but I waited 35 minutes for a bus - which would mean they were running a service at around only a quarter of its promised capacity.  To compound this, they chose this time to put up bus fares yet again.  They did this without prior warning or explanation.

Those of us who try to do the decent thing and leave our cars at home, are not being helped by woeful service.  It took me an hour to get from Heaton to the City Centre yesterday. It takes ten minutes to drive it myself and 40 minutes to walk. 

The Chronicle recently reported a Number One bus gone mad.  I feel for the poor driver.  Stagecoach make me go nuts too.  I can imagine the crap the poor guy has to take from irate customers.

Anyway, therir Operations Director has offered to meet me to talk through my concerns.  I know from friends living in Heaton how much the Number One bus annoys them all. 

Is anyone reading this on the Number One bus route and uses it (or doesn’t use it for reasons you can relate)?  Anyway want to add anything that I could bring up? 

*Sidenote I’m actually moving out of Heaton in just over a month. I’ve always had something of a tie to this suburb so I am feeling quite nostalgic about it. It was the first place I lived in Newcastle 17 years ago (I’m from up the Tyne Valley originally). Anyway, good to see the Flickr Heaton photoset is swimmingly healthy at a very nearly impressive 101 photos.

* Update:  I received this note which will also be added to the”moan list”

Its entirely shabby that a private company can get away with such a dismal service in what is essentially a pulic service. For what its worth xxx and I both wrote letters of complaint in around mid October, xxx’s concerned some quite wreckless driving, mine was for having to wait for over 40 minutes when they should be running at 8 an hour.  We received letters saying how these issues would be looked at. Clearly nothing was done.  

Okay just one quick grump.

I am hopefully going to attend Thinking Digital at the Sage Gateshead. It looks quite interesting.

But why, whenever I come across events that are all a bit web2.0, are their event blogs so awful? Okay, so do they look nice and the writing and content is fine.

But virtually no comments. Isn’t that the whole point of web2.0? I have commented here but, as I write, the day after I posted it, my comment is yet to be moderated. Crap by even the most average blogging standards.

Surely it would be worthwhile for an event like this, that charges several hundred pounds a ticket, to have a full time blogger. They should be getting local bloggers on board and be building a community around this event. If you had done all the work to get these pages up, wouldn’t you be twisting arms to get the interaction happening?

Right now the host is passing out the drinks and things on sticks and none of the guests are saying a word. This place is dead anyway.

Likewise their Flickr page is just going through the motions and ticking boxes. Look, they’ll be saying, we have a Flickr page! I’m not sure why the bothered.

If you’re going to tell us about blogging then, at the very least, can you learn to do it yourselves first. I know these sites are set up by techies and it all looks just lovely. But can’t someone actually just give the whole “conversation” thing a kick start?

Web2.0 is conversation - it isn’t just pretty stuff. If you don’t understand this then what is it you can teach me?

Or put it another way, how come your average one-man-and-a-laptop-blog is nearly always vastly superior to corporate effort? A quick hint - it’s not what it looks like, it’s what you do with it.

Side note: My comment was a quick protest at the advertised Mac Humour of the Fake Steve Jobs who is to appear (he makes jokes about Microsoft..ooh no stop it). Further Mac grumblings here.

Update: I signed up. Hope it’s worth it. In my sign-up email I got the link to the Facebook group. Okay. Good. Ticking all the boxes etc. We got this. We got that. Call me old fashioned though, but if I was the Conference Producer I’m not sure I’d want all potential delegates having access to my holiday photos. Web2.0 can go too far. Think privacy settings people and maybe Flickr for Business and Facebook for Pleasure. You gotta have a system. Make the divide.

Update 2: Unless I am mistaken my stats point to an email being opened and a link being clicked for this post. It was sent to the conference big cheese with the title: “Slightly dodgy comments on blog”. Ah well. I think we made our point.

Okay, so this may be little more than a fledgling urban myth but I do hope it’s true.

Apparently, so the tale goes, ahead of kick off at St James’s Park today, the visiting Sunderland fans smashed up all the toilets in the away section.

Unfortunately their appalling lack of foresight meant they were left without “a pot to piss in” for the rest of the match. I am sure, what with them being kept behind at the end, those prematch beers must really have been starting to hurt.

Smashing toilets is silly. Smashing the only toilets you have is doubly daft.

That’s if the tale is true of course.

Oh and rather wonderfully we won.

*Update on the Louise loves Roy situation: All had been quiet on the Ms Taylor front. We’d actually started to believe that all the Geordie requests to have her removed from covering Newcastle had worked. But she’s back and bitterer than ever - thanks to Newcastle’s win over Sunderland. Check this out and ask yourself - how gutted is she that Roy’s boys didn’t win?

* Update 2.  The “other” Guardian Sunderland supporter Barry Glendenning takes a hissy fit on the Guardian footie podcast calling Newcastle fans muppets to incredulous noises from his colleagues.  Later he compounds this by defending his actions on the Guardian blog - calling commenters (including meee): “sanctimonious, paranoid and humourless cranks“.  Such fun.

Ooh this is exciting.

Some time ago I was asked to write about my experiences at KOTO for an upcoming book.

Now it seems that it is not so far from publication and, in the meantime they have produced my piece in full. I remember writing it while sweating profusely in Nicaragua and, truth be told, I was missing Hanoi a great deal.

It’s the first time I’ve read it since I pressed the send button. I’m actually rather proud of it. 

At the very least, hopefully it proves that there was a time when I wasn’t quite the cynical grump I am today.

Pics below are from the KOTO Sapa trip as mentioned in the piece.  More on the Sapa trip at Our Man in Hanoi.

Okay okay, so in Britain we build people up and knock them down (as opposed to America that builds people up, builds them up some more, then some more and then documents their breakdowns.)

Every so often there’s someone who just everybody has to love and then later we all have to pretend we always thought they were overrated.

For the record, I always did greatly dislike Robbie Williams and Be Here Now is still my favourite Oasis album.

However, I do apologise if I’m ahead of the wave on this one. I have a feeling that I am about to upset people here but…

Please. Enough Stephen Fry. A national treasure? Sure. But enough.

I actually started to Google him in order to give a linked list of his omnipresence but it’s too vast a task to start to detail.

I believe his podcast is currently “most downloaded” too. It’s like he wants to be loved by the world and he’s doing everything he can to reach out to everyone.

Just to be absolutely clear on this. I really really don’t dislike the guy.

But it’s time for a break.

I can’t work out whether I think there is something seriously wrong with modern living or whether modern living is fine and it’s only the people, who really think there is something seriously wrong, that are the real problem.

Record 4,000 LP classical music donation leaves Oxfam spinning

The above story in today’s Guardian prompted me once more to consider what to do with my CDs.

I haven’t counted them but I reckon there’s somewhere in the region of 400.  Previously I had a similary large collection of tapes.  When I did the big clear out, pre my move overseas, I took them to a car boot sale and, heartbreakingly, they only sold when I moved the price down to about five for a pound.

My CD collection was kept.  It stayed in a big trunk which cluttered my parents’ house.  I’m back and I’ve relcaimed them but now they just sit there.  Bagged up and unused.  I no longer even have a CD player and everything is on MP3.  CDs seem cumbersome now and buying new ones a waste of natural resources.  I download instead.

Now, I could sell them.  But for the money it hardly seems worth it.  I’d give them to charity if I thought they really wanted them.  Certainly, when I go on my travels next time I’ve decided that my sparse worldly goods will go to centres that assist assylum seekers, but I don’t think they’d want Aztec Camera’s Greatest Hits.

I’ve thought of having a “Take a CD” party but that seems sort of patronising and a bit naff.  But I do want rid of them before the move to the new flat in a month’s time.

What to do?

And yes, my MP3 collection is backed up. 

Somebody just ended up at Our Man in Newcastle after Googling:

“ba phone number that actually gets through”

Poor bastards - there must be thousands of them out there - listening to hold music, if they’re lucky, but more likely simply being told, via a recorded message, that BA is just too busy to talk to them.  As the days, then weeks, go by they wonder will they ever see their cases again.

There is just nothing you can do.  Nothing that BA haven’t suffered.  No threat you can make against them.  Legal?  Media?  Shame?  Whatever.  It’s water off a ducks back now.  I feel your pain.

It’s still less than a year since I returned to this country following almost three years overseas.

During that time the kindness shown to me by people who, without fail, had some much less then me, amazed and moved me.

I’ve returned home to find that the people making the trip the other way around are not made so welcome. Our media and our politicians are against them. Even Gordon Brown, a Labour Prime Minister, talks of creating British Jobs for British People - a slogan previously only of the far right.

Has it all gone so wrong? Is this the way it is now? Have we all recalibrated our politics to such a level that even racism is the norm?

And I wonder what the migrants think. What do they make of the day by day stories in the Daily Mail, Express and Sun? Do they think we are all racists?

I hope not but I think we have a lot of work to do to persuade them. I am tired of being ashamed at my country over this. I want to make foreigners in my country as welcome as I was made.

I firmly 100% believe they make this country better - in so so many ways.

That is why I will be attending the event below. I would hope that any decent person reading this will do the same. Please spread the word. Your city cannot be held to ransom by the far right. It’s sad that this should come down to a shouting match. But, if so, we have to shout louder.

If you do not live locally I am sure the same scenario will be playing out near where you are. Please make it your business to find out what you can do.

Full time PR, part time cheerleader, Beth Kay, writes on Wolfstar Consultancy website:

Companies like Herbal Essences and CoverGirl have been giving out free samples at national cheerleading competitions and Gatorade sponsored ‘hydration breaks’ at cheerleading camps across the US. And it doesn’t stop there. Old Spice have been targeting high school football players and department store giant Macy’s Inc. sent templates of T-shirts to elementary schools encouraging students to design shirts and enter their designs in a contest.

The idea is that these teens are people that other students admire and look up to and are therefore ‘mavens’ in their own rights. And we all know that teenagers LOVE to talk. Nearly half of teens talk about personal care and beauty products, compared with just 29% of the general public, according to a study by research firm Keller Fay Group.

I personally hope that the trend catches on, most of all because I am a cheerleader myself. Anyone want to give me some stuff to talk about?…Anyone?… Prada?

I thought after the first paragraph she was going say how awful it was but she’s actually in favour.

Later, in the comments, she says:

Being only two years out of my teens I know that I for one would have no problem with people giving me free stuff when I was at school.

For the record, I don’t agree. And my comments are there too. 

Also it is worth pointing out that while the examples are American this is an English Leeds-based consultancy suggesting, it appears, that such tactics are fair game for UK schools.

Anyone else any thoughts? 

By Philippe Legrain in the Guardian.  Full post here.

One of immigration critics’ favourite arguments is that Britain is full up. Even if immigrants might have something to contribute to this country, they argue, we simply can’t house a larger population. The argument is superficially attractive to anyone who is often stuck in traffic or on a crowded train. Yet it is flawed in all sorts of ways.

For a start, there are more Britons living abroad than foreigners living in Britain, so the UK population is now lower, not higher, because of net migration. The strains on public infrastructure have more to do with decades of under-investment than excess population. The Netherlands is more densely populated than the UK, yet its trains are not overcrowded; Paris is more densely populated than London yet its Metro is less cramped than our Tube.

I’ve been kind of thinking of doing this for some time.

But I want to do a VSO blog.  In short the whole point will be that I actually write very little at all. 

I’ll set up RSS searches to dig out news of interest.  I’ll catalogue as many VSO blogs as I can find and highlight the best bits.  I’ll, of course, set up a Flickr group and provide links to the already established Facebook group.

I’ll take emails with questions and open them up to comments - the aim being to reassure potential volunteers and share expertise among current vols.  But I also want to inspire too by linking some of the more emotional posts from around the world.  I want it to make people want to sign up.

The rest, I am hoping, wil evolve naturally.

The aim is, if it works, and they like it - I can eventually hand it over to VSO.   But I believe whether official or unofficial it can really help them - and dovetail well with what they already do.  In the meantime it will be clearly marked “unofficial”.

Any suggestions welcome - plus offers of help too.  I’d also like to involve some other past VSO volunteers in this project.

Because it appears that those Tory Bloggers are not nearly as big as they may have you believe.

Clearest round up here.

Link to the above “willy waving” came from Bob Piper.

Fight, fight, fight here.  Quite fun - especially Iain Dale losing it.

Meanwhile I get the impression that scrapper and scuffle instigator Tim Ireland of Bloggerheads is rather enjoying this.

In a nutshell from Westmonster (posted at the first link above):

Now, we’ve been in many meetings over the years with clever people in suits whose eyes glaze over at statistical definitions, but suffice to say: Dale is completely wrong.

My stats?  Very small indeed.  My willy will not be waving any time soon.

From www.nufc.com

It was twenty years ago today….

That our current Academy coach really got under the skin of Steve Foster and his Luton Town chums see here

It’s all there: the benches, the fences, standing terraces, Michael O’Neill’s skinny legs, Gazza in happier times, ballboys in Co-op trackies, Willie McFaul wearing his wife’s dressing gown, executive portakabins and changing rooms behind the Leazes End.

On the soundtrack commentator Charles Harrison burbles “perhaps that’s a bit unnecessary….”

Au contraire Charlie, it was essential - never was there a more rotten away venue than Kenilworth Road, with its plastic pitch, ID cards and Thatcher-loving Chairman David Evans.

They took the mickey out of us in a 4-0 loss there in November 1987 - and it was fitting that we took revenge and rubbed it in at the next meeting with the Hatters.

Prissy Steve Foster with his daft perm and headband had led the p*ss-taking in Bedfordshire six months before, but couldn’t stick it when the tables were turned on Tyneside

Good to see Rachie, at the excellent Living for Disco, is back to blogging regularly as she prepares for her upcoming wedding.

It’s particularly interesting to see how another ex-VSOer is settling back into “normality”.

In particular check out this post and its comments.

And it’s all as beautifully written as ever.

The good news: after this upset we finally found our lovely summer flat.

Altogether brighter, fresher, closer to work and with that all important sitting out area for the summer.

So how did we find it? Well, we saw it on Gumtree.

For the unenlightened, Gumtree is just a place to buy, sell, giveaway or swap things. You can put up pictures, info, contacts details – in short, virtually everything you need to know to decide whether or not you want to view a house.

We saw the pics. We liked it. We arranged a viewing. We liked it. We agreed the deal. It’s that simple.

All done without the use of a lettings agency.

Our lettings agency experiences weren’t so positive. Pattisons made an appointment they didn’t keep. Then they rang me a whole two weeks later to see if I wanted to see another property. Understandably we said no and explained why. They didn’t apologise.

They did, however, ring up again the next day to ask: do you want to see another property? Lettings agents, it seems, have thick skins.

I trawled one by one, the lettings agent paradise of Acorn Road in Jesmond. Every last one of them, without fail, told me just to check their websites. I did they were all, without exception, wildly out of date and lacking the most basic of info.

Acorn Properties were the most friendly but their initially businesslike manner was ruined by not getting back to me on two occasions when I tried to set up viewings.

When I checked out the Adderstones Group’s website I was amazed to find that the details it provided included only a downloadable pdf of properties available – no pics, no details. Try working through that.

On other occasions agents couldn’t even find details when we rang up asking about properties when we saw them either on the web or marked by To Let boards. Other agents didn’t even have websites. Can you imagine?

So what do we expect of Lettings Agents? Well we want the obvious. We want to be met at properties when we make appointments. We want agents to keep us in mind when new properties become available that meet our requirements. We want them to return our calls and our emails (I genuinely don’t think many letting agency employees even understand email). We want them to, unlike Bowsons Lettings, keep their word and behave with some level of ethics and decency.

When we say we are interested in properties in East Newcastle we don’t expect reams of badly photocopied brochures through our letterboxes detailing houses in Gateshead.

But…

You could also argue that agents don’t actually have to do any of this because, although they haven’t spotted it, their world has already changed

You see, really we don’t need them at all. We just need a website that functions and some way of contacting the owner without the agent slowing things down.

I want to see pics on the site. Lots of them. I want to be able to enlarge them. I want to be able to send questions. I’d like to see a diary where I can place viewing bookings. I want each property to have its own url so I can forward them individually to my partner for her consideration.

Comments from past viewers might be cool too. If I was a landlord and none of the viewers took the property I’d be interested to know why.

Most of all I want it to be up to date. I don’t want to waste my time checking up on properties that have already gone or may not even reach the market. None of this is hard. Newspapers change their entire websites overnight – we’re only asking agents to weed out those properties already spoken for.

Gumtree already provides much of this and it was significant that my house hunting only became successful once we ditched the agents.

Using an agent would have cost me in the region of £400 more in fees. By not using one I have been able to use the saved cash (almost £70 a month over a six month contract) to find an altogether nicer property. By searching myself and dealing directly with the owner I have also had much better service than what the agents charge so much for.

In truth, the estate agency industry will die and its employees don’t even appear to know it. When they could be promoting the human side of what they can offer, as opposed to the more efficient high tech option, they’re not even keeping up with basic business courtesies. They’ve either already given up or have just been spoiled by housing booms gone by.

The very next time I do any of this as seller/buyer or landlord/tenant I won’t be using agents. They simply aren’t needed any more. Everything is better and easier if I do it myself.

Will anyone miss them when they’re gone?

* Since being treated badly by Bowson Lettings over 20 people have found their way to this website having searched for the agency. No doubt they read what I wrote and I am sure the vast majority decided to go with a more reputable agent. Good.