Amongst the usual parochial puff and regular sound-bite purveyors, there was a mention of something about athritis. Might be interesting, I though …

Apparently, one of the main causes of athritis is obesity. Then again, one of the main causes of just about everything is, of course, [...]]]> Was listening to the Local Radio station, recently.

Amongst the usual parochial puff and regular sound-bite purveyors, there was a mention of something about athritis. Might be interesting, I though …

Apparently, one of the main causes of athritis is obesity. Then again, one of the main causes of just about everything is, of course, obesity. I do agree that obesity is not the best of things, but I do not believe that it is responsible for every ill that befalls the world. It would appear that you can be rude about fat people, accuse them of all manners of indiscretions, abuses and down-right criminal behaviour. The are fair game. A nice fat target, in fact. Unworthy of consideration and a burden on the Health Service struggling to make up the income lost due to the reformation of born-again non-smokers.

You can’t discriminate on the grounds of race, colour or creed. Ageism has to be practiced discretely, and sexism should be treated on a ‘don’t ask, don’t tell, don’t pay the same’ basis.

But a mobile phone using smoker who is overweight, is just about perfect. I have even heard people say that fat people should be forcibly ‘reduced’ in an appropriate facility. Would that be ‘Diet Machs Frei!’  Not so much a concentration camp as a dissipation camp.

When all the smokers are gone and the fat people are but a memory, who will the mob be howling for? ‘Death to Dandruff?’ or ‘Sterilise Redheads!’ (Sorry. Forgot. Is seemingly OK to slag redheads, even on the BBC.)

Will we ever find a solution to the prejudiced, ill-informed, opinionated and terminally self-obsessed ignorant people?

Fat Chance!

I must add that I have a specific interest in the above. Like approximately 10% of the world’s population ( and represented in every racial grouping -  check it out! ),  I am a red head!

Work (earning a wage) has been a full time occupation (as I am sure my employer expects it to be) and that has left little time to indulge in work (the literary kind).

I have been up to Scotland. Re-visiting [...]]]> It HAS been some time since the last post! Busy is the word. Very busy!

Work (earning a wage) has been a full time occupation (as I am sure my employer expects it to be) and that has left little time to indulge in work (the literary kind).

I have been up to Scotland. Re-visiting Fife. A very enjoyable and relaxing, long weekend. Eat well but slept badly. Premier Inns guarantee a good night’s sleep or your money back. Hah! The bed was terrible, the food poor, the place spotless and the staff very helpfull. I even filled in the feed-back form truthfully. Will they give me my money back? What do you think?

Bathsheba moves to its concluding chapter, but you can’t see it all yet. Mainly because I have not implemented the site update. A fair amount of graphic work to do. Delay mainly due to work (as above!)

Visited Dunwich again (museum, this time). More research for future writing. This will NOT feature on tachras as this one will be a novel. I can’t give everything for free, after all …

If there is anyone out there who is fluent in Glaswegian, drop me a line. I need a voice. Post in answer to the blog.

Back to work. Busy, busy, busy!

Mesklin

First impressions …

The latency (time it takes to act on anything) is slow – over a second or two. Takes a bit of getting used to! It isn’t a problem as I don’t play shoot-em-up games on the internet. And I understand why this is (speed – not [...]]]> Well, here we are. Satellite Internet.

First impressions …

The latency (time it takes to act on anything) is slow – over a second or two. Takes a bit of getting used to! It isn’t a problem as I don’t play shoot-em-up games on the internet. And I understand why this is (speed – not gaming!). It takes a 50,000 mile round trip to reach my Internet Provider (who just happens to reside in Turin) before it gets out into the Wide World. Light can only move so fast. (see A. Einstein for details). Then it has to get from Italy to wherever.

Download speed (rough check) exceeds 4Mbps (about 20 times the speed I got from my creaking old BT aluminium line to the telephone exchange a few miles down the road). So top marks for that. Upload speed 500kbps (about 1.5 times faster). OK on that. Possibly, if I do a better job of aligning the dish, it might get even better. Play safe. I’ll leave it for now.

As for the company that supplied the kit. Bentley Walker.

Their installation write up is terrible. A sadly familiar story of experts writing instructions on something that they know all about, while completely forgetting that the do-it-yourself home installer has never put up a satellite dish in their lives. (it ain’t like a Sky dish – it has to be set up very precisely, and it is a bit like bolting a Reliant Robin to the wall of your house). Heavy, awkward, and the instructions are inside the house on your PC while you are halfway up a ladder twiddling bolts. I have the scars to prove it!

To counterbalance the poor installation instructions, I have to say that Bentley Walker rate in the Top 3 of friendly, knowledgeable, informative, and helpful companies that I have ever dealt with. In anything. Forget BT and the dark legions of Overseas Call Centres. Goodby Orange Support. I sent an anguished email, asking for assistance, and they phoned – repeat, phoned – me back within 10 minutes to sort things out. I’ve waited much, much longer before BT (We are terribly busy) bothered to even pick up the (terribly important to them) phone.

Early days yet. But so far, I’m impressed. Bentley Walker, go to the top of the class.

Mesklin

A claimed 1,000kbps download rate (approx what you would expect in an impoverished 3rd world country) turned out to be less than half (450kbps), then gradually deteriorated till it averaged 200kbps, and, on one memorable day, peaked [...]]]> After a brief flirtation with Orange as a possible Internet Provider, I have gone looking for someone better.

A claimed 1,000kbps download rate (approx what you would expect in an impoverished 3rd world country) turned out to be less than half (450kbps), then gradually deteriorated till it averaged 200kbps, and, on one memorable day, peaked at 8kbps. Wet string would work better!

The Orange technical support (neither technical nor supportive) waffled their way through their scripts, promised everything, delivered nothing, and failed to call back when they said that they would. An impressive 100% fail rate.

When I told them that I believed not a word that issued from their overseas call centre (populated exclusively with people called Gordon and Robin), they would not pass on my complaint.

I cancelled.

Then they admitted (verbally, and twice) that my telephone line was of such poor quality that I could neverhave received any kind of service worth having. Of course, they would never confirm this in writing. They said that they would not charge me for cancellation , but said that they would charge me, in writing, for early cancellation.

To quote Sam Goldwyn …

“A verbal contract ain’t worth the paper it’s printed on!”

Orange would seem to agree. Regardless, on the 25th of November, Orange will be only a greasy mark on my Internet experience.

I’ve looked around. Did the research. Got the permission. Paid the fees upfront.

I am going satellite. On the Internet. From Not-Spot (or grot-spot) into the Wild Blue Yonder. They claim about 6000kbps or more. Till I try, I can’t really say. But I intend to find out. Watch this space …

Orange is a lemon said the bells of St. Clements

Will I grow rich with a satellite dish?

Would Orange pay me when I phone them twice daily?

I owe the three farthings said the bells of St Martins.

Apologies for the rhyme, but not for slagging Orange.

Mesklin

http://www.tachras.co.uk/journal/articles3/granny/Douglas.htm

The missing story of ‘The Hostler’ has been dredged from an old back-up on an old hard drive, and put back in place.

A brief bout of formatting has made those wonderful [...]]]> After a recent comment from L,  I went into tachras and tidied up the stories of Jean C. Schmidt and Douglas West.

http://www.tachras.co.uk/journal/articles3/granny/Douglas.htm

The missing story of ‘The Hostler’ has been dredged from an old back-up on an old hard drive, and put back in place.

A brief bout of formatting has made those wonderful reminiscences a little easier to read. (A little more tidying will be done before long).

Have a good read.

Mesklin

Orange are rubbish. They are slow, stupid, and useless. Support is pathetic and utterly ineffective. The email contact us form does not work. The are like a small, furry version of BT, and they even get confused as to whether it is a BT or an Orange line [...]]]> A quick update on Internet Providers …

Orange are rubbish. They are slow, stupid, and useless. Support is pathetic and utterly ineffective. The email contact us form does not work. The are like a small, furry version of BT, and they even get confused as to whether it is a BT or an Orange line that they are working with. Could they actually be the same support centre in India? But sitting in a small, draughty annexe!

If I ever find the dork who came up with the term ‘working day’, I will dump on his head from a great height.

I had a better, faster service 5 years ago, only a few miles from my present home, and I was further from the exchange. Progress? Not with BOrangeT.

No more BT … although the Greedy BTs sent me a final bill, including a bill for £30 for the disconnection of [...]]]> Well, here we are. In our new abode, and buried under a mountain of cardboard boxes. It took a week to dig down to the level of my computer, then get it connected.

No more BT … although the Greedy BTs sent me a final bill, including a bill for £30 for the disconnection of the broadband at my old house. What a shower! I dumped them after trying for nearly a year to get a decent broadband service (they never succeeded) and now they want me to pay them £30 for NOT providing a service. Whatever next? A bill from SKY for NOT providing satellite coverage, or a demand for payment from Harrods for NOT shopping there. May they rest perpetually in their own droppings.

Now with Orange. Slow (in every sense of the word), but a little ginger will be applied.

The telephone line is still provided by BT Wholesale, as I am connected to a local yokel exchange and the big boys don’t consider it worth putting their own lines in. As a result, I get only ADSL (no plus) and pay extra for the privilege. Another example of BT and paying extra for nothing.

I am assured by the lady from Orange that I will get Superfast Broadband soon. The Government guarantees it! I expressed a certain scepticism. She insisted! I will remind them in a year or two. They will deny ever saying it. Everybody will deny ever saying it. Either I am wrong, and the whole world is right OR I am right, and the whole world is wrong. The latter may sound very much like a description of insanity, but my money is on me to win by six clear lengths (or more). Time will prove who is.

Anytime soon, some more poetry …

… after all, no-one has ever complained about my poetry. Am I doing it all wrong?

Watched the Mel Gibson fim on the telly. ‘Forever Young’. No great shakes as a picture. But they play Billie Holiday singing ‘The Very Thought of You’. An amazing voice and a great song. Rap artists – you are wasting your time, your talent, your culture. There is so much better out there. Rise up to meet the standards, not slump down to try and limbo under.

Mesklin

I am in the process of moving house. Again. Every time, more expensive than the time before. This time, unbelievably slow.

The result is no time to work on what I really wish to do. Write stories. Have barely any time [...]]]> I know that it has been quiet here. Too quiet, and for too long.

I am in the process of moving house. Again. Every time, more expensive than the time before. This time, unbelievably slow.

The result is no time to work on what I really wish to do. Write stories. Have barely any time to read stories! And have only just got round to fixing the tachras logo that always gets junked everytime I upgrade this theme.

Soon, I will have a new place and (hopefully) a better link to the internet than the execrable one that Bhangra Telecom has graciously provided over the past year. Upgrade the overloaded telephone exchange to ADSL 2+. Result? The worst bro’band ever experienced. As for BT Infinity, the name describes the timescale for implementation (or would that be ‘alimentation’?) The place I go to has a non-upgraded broadband which should be faster than the present joke set-up. 7 days, and bye bye BT. Hooray.

We shall see what the future holds …

Fresh from the proofreading talents of ‘The Red Pen’, with the odd rewrite thrown in for free.

Just run your cursor over to tachras Volume 4, and click on the ‘Lower Methil Annexe’ stories, you can read the latest instalment.

Wee Wullie

http://www.tachras.co.uk/journal/bookcasevol4.htm

A little bit of fun for [...]]]> And here it is …

Fresh from the proofreading talents of ‘The Red Pen’, with the odd rewrite thrown in for free.

Just run your cursor over to tachras Volume 4, and click on the ‘Lower Methil Annexe’ stories, you can read the latest instalment.

Wee Wullie

http://www.tachras.co.uk/journal/bookcasevol4.htm

A little bit of fun for the day!

http://www.tachras.co.uk/journal/bookcasevol4.htm

I hope that you enjoy it … … because there are more to come!