Richy B.. . random rants and ramblings

I DID IT!!!

I finally got round to joining a gym. It’s really making my finances tight, but it has to be done. I was topping the scales at 15st 3lbs which was stupendous!

Two weeks ago I finally took the plunge, and I have been every week day, and one saturday since. I have coupled that with eating less, and the weight is starting to move! Woop. Weighing myself today, I am 14st 9lb which appears to be where I was when I first started harping on about getting thinner.

My routine is nothing special, but I am finding I am can do more quicker than I thought.

I shall provide more details later, but for now, you can rest assured I am getting fitter, and I remembered I had a blog to update!

Iphone 4 Home Button

I finally dragged my ass to an Apple store yesterday (Birmingham Bullring) to have my weird home button issue looked at.

I went with little hope of it being resolved, as it is not a problem that can be easily replicated. Basically, when you press the home button, it will often not do anything. For example, from standby mode, you can click the home button once to bring up the unlock screen. Double press it, and you get the ability to use iPod controls. With the release of ios5, when double pressing you also get access to the camera functions.

It is also a pain in the ass with regards to multi tasking often going to the search screen instead if bringing up the background applications.

After a short wait in the very busy and extremely hot shop, I was seen by a Genius dude. He asked about the problem, and surprisingly agreed it was a device problem pretty quickly. He also advised me that my phone was out of warranty by two months, and I would have to pay.

I advised him that the problem had been present since before the warranty expired, and although he sympathised with me, he could not replace the phone for free. He did however reduce the replacement fee from £120 to £60. I was also advised that if I had have reported the a problem to Apple, despite not being able to get to a store, he could have used that as evidence that the problem has been present for a while (whilst warranty was present), and done more for me. Sadly, I simply put it down to software problems, and being a lazy git, never did anything about it.

So I paid my £60, and got a nice new iPhone 4. The home button seems a lot softer that my other phone, and works like a charm. It also means my other problem is resolved whereby any dock would only work with the cable half plugged in. If I plugged the cable in fully (via the car stereo for example) the stereo/dock would say “iPod not recognised”.

So I’m pretty happy, and I hope that the issues do not return.

Seeing as I am skint, I shall be staying in a lot more, which is kinda cool as it means I will have more time to play on the Xbox, and also update my blog. Just like now!

So what have I been doing? Well apart from spending a lot of time on the “The Sims” on Facebook (thanks for making me addicted Sal) I have been all over the place camping it up! Not in a gay way, I mean in a tenty way. I have also been spending time with my friends, and generally having a good time.

I have recently come back from Cornwall, where the weather was great for September. You can see some images below.

Whilst there, we visited the Pirate FM studios. This might seem quite trivial to most people, but I went there when I was a child with my parents, and the old Pirate FM jingles are a fond memory of my Cornish holidays. The only reason we went to the studios was because I really wanted a car sticker, so my Dad drove us over! I also managed to get a Pirate FM t-shirt as well, which I wore all the time thinking I was the coolest kid in Cornwall! I have managed to find the jingles on youtube, which you can also see below. We also visited Healeys Cider Farm, Bodmin Jail and hired some body boarding equipment in Perranporth. On the way back we stopped by Torquay, and was interested to find out what had happened with the Palm Court Hotel which had been burnt out recently.

We usually take our own little tent and camp, but my girlfriend found a £99 Super Tent deal at Haven Perranporth, which turned out better than expected. For a tent it was amazing, with a cooker, fridge, beds and all cutlery, chairs and whatever else included! All we really needed to take was the quilt! Shame I never knew this before hand, as I basically took everything. Even the entertainment was good, and I am not really a fan of cabaret style entertainment.

So that’s summer done and dusted really. I need to save a lot of money to try and make a dent in my debts, so winter will be full of overtime I guess. Still, there’s always next summer to look forward to. Woop!

Pirate FM jingles:

And the gallery of images:

[Show as slideshow]

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Mmmmm RedBush!

It seems It takes me forever to get to sleep at night, especially at other peoples places where it is not pitch black and deadly quiet! It seems I have a pretty fussy body clock.

In a bid to get around this, I am currently on day three of no caffeine! I have gone and bought some decaf teabags and I’m gonna do my best to stick to them. No sooner had I bought them someone mentioned Red Bush? So off I trotted to find some of them which are “naturally caffeine free” as opposed to having the caffeine removed.

They are quite nice actually, and have a familiar after taste, but I have no idea what it reminds me of. I can’t say I have felt any more settled at night, but after drinking cans on Monster energy drink every lunch time, along with copius amounts of tea and coffee throughout the day it may take some time!

I paid a visit to Detroits recently for a maternity leaving do for someone at work. Although it still kind of feels like you are sat in a car showroom, the décor, food and service are excellent.

I have to say that I was extremely impressed with the attentiveness of the waitresses, who never failed to spot my bottomless coke was empty! (They also looked very cute in their retro uniforms!)

The food was awesome, I had a fillet steak that was perfect. It went well with my cherry milkshake, which came with the longest straw I have ever seen!

So if you like awesome food and brilliant service (and a big screen showing Happy Days) then give them a go! We had a brilliant time, and I’d go back tomorrow if I could.

Detroits:
Jaguar House, Castle St, Worcester , WR1 3AD
Tel: 01905 619047

Scamming bastard - George Agdgdgwngo

Well I hear about it all the time, but never thought it would happen to me. My bank account got hacked.

I found myself locked out of my online bank account, and I contacted HSBC to find out why. They said I had tried to log in “incorrectly” too many times. This is a bit odd, as I have used Internet banking for years, and I have memorised the IB number they supply. So there is NO WAY anyone could stumble across it. Unless I was hypnotised and blurted it out. But I doubt that.

The long and short of it is, the bank reckon I have used a machine that had a virus and my keystrokes were logged. Something I am fully aware of, as I have worked in the Internet industry for over 10 years. My machines are clean, so its a fookin mystery. Anyway, they blocked the areshole from transferring funds, and locked me out in the process. Having visited the branch with my photo ID I now have to send a form off confirming I have carried out all the tasks they recommend. Joy!

Meanwhile I have started cycling again! Woop. Hopefully once I have a better level of stamina, I will be able to cycle to work, and start losing some serious flab. My first challenge is to reduce my portion size, as I am a seriously greedy bastard, and will munch until I am about to explode. And then I will have a pudding! I seem to have lost around 2 pound since yesterday (is that even possible?) so things are going in the right direction.

Anyway. It’s time to hit the sack with the smell of Nag Champa wafting around my room. Night all!

Some time ago I switched banks from HSBC to First Direct. As part of the move they changed all my Direct Debits over for me; something they can probably do with ease as they are of course both owned by the HSBC group.

All went well and every Direct Debit got moved. Apart from 02, but that’s not HSBC’s fault. Anyway, for the past three months Tesco have successfully taken payment for my loan from the correct account, a nice little sum of £418 a month. Because I have moved banks and all direct debits were essentally cancelled at HSBC the balance sat at zero. I kept the account active just in case I needed it.

My girlfriend then said she had paid me back some money. When it never appeared in my First Direct account I assumed it may have gone to HSBC (as she has my old bank details stored as a payee). Low and beold it had done. It was only then that I noticed I was overdrawn. What had caused it? “Tesco Finance first payment”.

So, I called HSBC and told them to reverse the charge as I had not authorised the DD. I had not been told by anyone they would change back to my old account, and I had received no notice of a failure on my current DD. In fact it is still sat there via First Direct as active. After a bit of persuading, HSBC returned the money to me.

I then thought I would give Tesco a call to find out what the hell they are playing at, not only to vent my frustration, but to ensure they got their money correctly. So, using saynoto0870 I found a number for them. I rang it, and I was told I would have to ring another number, but when I asked for a normal number my request was refused and I was told I would have to ring the 0845 one. Sadly Mr Tesco, I am not going to pay 25p a minute on my mobile to advise you that you have fucked up. Especially when I will likely have to pay charges for you sending me overdrawn.

So, now that HSBC has clawed back the £418 pound, lets see how quick they get in touch with me huh! I feel a nicely worked letter being written.

Young Blood Hawke - a new musical venture by Sam Martin and Simon Katz of Iglu and Hartly

When I mention Iglu and Hartly not many people know who I am on about. They did however have a top ten tune here in the UK with “In This City”. At the time I didn’t really think to dig around for more tunes by them. It was my girlfriend who introduced me to the album, and subsequently we saw them a couple of times when they toured the UK.

Jarvis Anderson sporting a black eye, and myself

Sadly the new album never materialised, but Jarvis Anderson appears to be working on new material with Future Boy (James, Bourne previously of Busted). This music video appeared which might hint that he is working without the band for a while. On Twitter, he has mentioned that Iglu and Hartly have not split, but they are on a hiatus. Meanwhile, two other Iglu and Hartly band members, Sam Martin and Simon Katz, have formed another band and released a taster album. The tunes are awesome, and carry a very similar style to I&H.

So I am quite pleased, not only does it seem that the original band is still around, but there is good material coming from them separately as well.

And in a claim to fame, not only have I met them, but I have “conversed” with Jarvis via Twitter, and he tweeted the image I sent him! I have also had retweets by Sam of Young Blood Hawke. Just shows they are all really nice guys, and have a lot of time for their fans.

The beach at Perranporth from the lookout point

It was well overdue, but I have been to Cornwall and had my fix of all things Cornish. It was nice to get down there, and also nice to spend some time there with Mum who hasn’t really been down there for a while as it was always my dad that drove, and she has no licence.

Perranporth is still my favourite “base” and I always go back there. Not only is it really nice, but it is quite nicely placed to manage visits to other places nearby. The good thing with Cornwall is nothing is really that far away.

On this occasion though, we stayed at a place called Kenegie Manor, which despite being a “holiday park” was really nice. It was a collection of bungalows and apartments set in some nice countryside just outside of Penznace. If you need to walk to town though, be bloody careful as the road down to Penance is lethal on foot. Whilst there we visited Porthcurno (Minack Theatre), St Ives, Newquay, Perranporth and Polperro to name a few. We went to Polperro as my girlfriend had joined us midway through the holiday, and she wanted to go on the horse and cart that I remember being there from my childhood. But sadly after we drove all the way there, there was no sign of the horses or their carts!

The next step is to get back down there camping, which I hope to do a few times before summer leaves us again. A nice session on the Cornish Rattler at the Watering Hole on Perranporth beach will do very nicely!

I tell ya what, if you’re thinking about buying things on HP, and getting credit cards, have a good think about it before you do.

Over the years I have always had a loan for something. Usually a new car, or motorbike. And now, after many loans I am currently up to my lugflaps in debt. Because of this, I am currently working 6 days a week at my current job, and then up to 3 nights a week at my second job. As such, I have very little time off, and I am very bloody tired!

So I have decided to schedule a weekend per month where I can go camping. Another side effect to having no time off is having no time to organise anything and before you know it, the summer is gone. So, thats done. One weekend per month throughout summer. And then a couple of weeks off in September. That should help me maintain some kind of sanity.

To be fair though, I have a week off as of a week Monday and I am going to Cornwall. Sadly, My aunty is ill, and my girlfriend has decided to go to Greece, so it’s just me and mum, but that should be nice. The GF will then meet us down there when she gets back from Greece which falls about halfway through our Cornish get away!

So there we go. I best dust the tent off and make sure my little Retro metro is in good enough shape to make it!