Shouldn't charity help others?

I had the chance to sponsor someone at work today. I turned them down. well not so much turned them down, I just ignored them.

I was at a different workplace to my usual one, as they were short staffed. But I know everyone who works there. Not as friends, but as colleagues. And the difference? To use a drinking analogy, even tough I'm a sober, recovering alcoholic-a friend is someone who would happily buy a drink in the pub after finishing work. A colleague is someone you work with, & once you finish at the end of the day you don't want to see until you get back to work the next day. Simple!

Anyway, one person came into work for the afternoon & she dumped down a sponsor sheet onto the main desk & stated that everyone was going to sign it before she went home! Hmm... I've no problem with giving money to 'charidee' if I'm asked personally & nicely. You know: " I'm doing this walk to raise money for blahdeblah, would you be interested in sponsoring me.." But some people might just have different standards of communication skills to me, so I could let that go, if it's a charity I support, or just like the sound of.

None of that was explained to me though. There were three of us on, other than her. Our line manager put herself down for a couple of quid, myself & the other bloke ignored it. She wandered past at one stage and said that we hadn't signed it yet! She picked it up not long after, then brought it back later, saying aloud again that we hadn't signed it! Fucking sharp or what! Can't you take a hint love? I'm not bloody well interested!

And why not? A number of reasons actually. From where I'm sitting a sponsored event should be for a deserving cause, usually helping people in need, or supporting a community group. This was actually by her local church, and the proceeds were for improvements to the church steps! that's like you or me having some tiles fall off of our roof then doing a sponsored event asking YOU to pay for something that only BENEFITS me! You really are taking the piss! If you were asking for some money to help, say, a soup run to benefit the local homeless, then maybe I could support that. I say maybe because I don't tend to support religious based charidees just so they can show how caring they are on the one hand, while totally denying equal rights & acceptance of gay people on the other. So no, if it is for a cause like the homeless, then I would support someone fundraising for an non-denominational organisation like Shelter.

Mentioning religious fundraising reminded me of the other week when I was out & about in the Croydon area on a Sunday. On my way from the centre of Croydon to the old airport visitor centre, four teenagers got on my bus. They had labels pinned onto their front & back, similar to numbers in an athletics race meeting, which clearly stated they were doing a sponsored walk for a local mosque. Well walking, apart from the mile or so they were on my bus. they jumped off right in front of a checkpoint & the chap there happily signed their sheets, with no mention of their cheating by taking public transport, just a cheery word, and a wave as they walked down the road, probably only as far as the next bus stop!

The 'doorstep' appeal also failed my 'sponsorship checklist' by the actual event. Now call me old fashioned, but a sponsored event should be something that challenges you, exerts you, makes you earn the money you raise for a good cause. This one was a sponsored walk from the church itself, in Camberwell, to the River Thames! Which is a distance of, wait for it, three miles! And over flat ground! And you have the cheek to call that a sponsored walk? A stroll up the road more like!

She eventually took the form away from the main desk after around two hours or os after she'd originally thrust it in our faces. At least she had the humilty not to ask us why we weren't sponsoring her, I think a bit of an argument with me might have ensued!

I don't want to jinx things

But I've managed to log on ok this evening. And yesterday too. Two days on the spin. Which on current form is a fucking miracle! My internet connection has been playing up for a few weeks now, part of the reason for my lack of posts on here.

I use mobile broadband with Three, & i've been with them for about eighteen months now, since I bought my laptop through the gift vouchers I got a work in 'recognition' for my twenty years service to the local authority I work for.

I'd not really had any problems. Sure it cut out sometimes, or didn't always log on immediately, but for just over fifteen quid a month I wasn't too fussed with these blips.

But then I couldn't get any connections at all. So I rang the customer number. The first call I made from work, as they were free to Three phone customers, but my mobile is with 02. Fat lot of good that was, as I needed my laptop in front of me apparently. So I ended up, over a number of calls spending just under a score on my mobile. All to speak to some smarmy git in an Indian call centre! It was clear, through their transparent politeness they they didn't give a shit.

I'm loathe to change over to another company, I'm old fashioned like that, if i buy something & like it i stick with it. But I came very close to stopping my monthly payment from my bank & signing up with someone else.

The stupidness, some might say madness, going through my mind is that it's all my fault. That my life is so shit it serves me right for doing something that I enjoy, & gives me confidence and self worth. Which blogging does, none more so than my photoblog of football grounds, which is actually looked at by people from all over Europe!



I'm just glad it's up and running at the moment, there's plenty I want to say on this blog, but it's been a long, hot day. So I'll chat again tomorrow, hopefully, if I can get online ok.



At the weekend my mate Cookie got hold of a pair of the free tickets for the all ticketed 30,000 limit Armed Services Day at the old Chatham Dockyard. I'll tell you about that, probably. In the meantime I'm going to publish a load of photos of him below. For no other reason than he asked me to, and he has friends in America, & this is the only way they can see them. He did me the favour by sorting the tickets, so this is my way of paying him back.

Cookie snaps!

So here we go....

On the way to the Armed Forces Day, huge Union Jack on show as we go past.



Just inside the entrance to rhe old Naval Dockyard.



Not the best of shots, into the sun, here he is as happy a little boy with new toys on Christmas Day!



Dads Army! With the Home Guard from WWII.



In front of one of the warships, this is HMS Cavalier. This is one of my favourite snaps.



Here he sits in the Captains chair.



And gets his most hated town of Colchester in his sights.



One Medway Queen standing in front of another... ;-)



He begged me to take this one!



Talking about the history of this WWII American jeep, with it's owner.



And standing next to it.



He doesn't like this one. "It shows my gaps!"



Flying the flag for his friends over the pond!



With members of an Essex Battalion from WWI.



Keep the bloody pin in!



Guess what he wanted to be when he grew up? ;-)



Lovely double chin! ;-)



One for the album before he gets nicked!



Told you! Sitting in the cells...

An ambition satisfied!

There are some things in life that I've always wanted to do....at the weekend I achieved one of them!

I was on holiday, so I could allow myself a few 'treats'...my diabetes 2 isn't going to kill me, so I can be 'naughty' now & again. Sunday night was such a time.

The day before we'd been unable to locate a fish and chip shop that sold the world famous 'Deep Fried Mars Bar', that we're led to believe is a staple diet in Scotland, the heart attack capital of Europe!

It sounds disgusting, but it was something we wanted to try, LoLo certainly did! But no luck in the few chip shops we looked at. Belgian Anorak couldn't believe there was such a snack, even after I'd told him to Google it!

On the Sunday evening I was on my own, as the others were flying back home to London, or across the Channel. I'd been walking around for a few hours, & hadn't had much to eat, so was a bit peckish. I had planned to go to the speedway, which was at four, & headed to Queen Street station, having seen a poster at another station.



Which was lucky, as I'd forgotten the address of the stadium. my luck ran out.

I was still in 'London mode' & had forgotten what a third world country it is north of the border. There was no Sunday train service on the line, where the station by the speedway was! Primitive or what?

Instead I walked about, nowhere in particular, then headed for the famous Glasgow Necropolis, by the Cathedral. That was shut by the time I got there, so I'll save looking at that for another visit. The Necropolis is wonderful! Set on a hillside, overlooking the city, my snap really doesn't do it justice.



But the real highlight for me came after I'd been round it. Before I got there I stopped at a chippie & had sausage & chips. Well that's what I ordered, & yes, that's what I got. But they automatically dished up two sausages, not one. I wasn't complaining, but wasn't expecting two.
As I was leaving I clocked a sign in the window saying 'Fried Mars Bars'!



Now being English, I was a bit paranoid about them thinking I was taking the piss by ordering it, so bottled it, believe it or not! besides I'd have looked stupid going back into the shock for one, was my lame excuse.

But after leaving the cemetery, it was about nine o'clock by now, the rain was just starting, so I thought to myself: 'Fuck it, if I don't have one now I never will!'. So I ordered one! It takes a while, as the fat has to be very hot, to allow the batter to seal the Mars Bar in.
It was handed to me wrapped, so I didn't open it, with the rain now coming down. I dashed over the road to the train station, & unwrapped..

The photos are a bit blurred, as I had the Mars Bar in one hand, and the camera & umbrella was in the other, with bag over my shoulder. But this is what it looked like:



Then I tasted tasted it. I felt like a naughty little kid!



You know what? It was delicious! I wish I'd bought two!

Doh! Wrong airport!

Last Thursday I flew up to Glasgow. Right destination, wrong airport!

Luckily it was the one I arrived at, not left from! I was going from Luton, with Easyjet. I'd only been up to Glasgow once before, for a weekend with my brother & one of my mates, for a Celtic versus Leeds pre-season match. We flew up then, & went to GlasgowPrestwick Airport, which is actually about 45 minutes train rides away from Glasgow Central station. I can't remember who we went up there with last time, but assumed it would be the same airport, which is a mere nine minutes from Ayr, in the other direction by train. And where I'd planned to spend the beginning of Thursday morning, to look at the football ground.

Imagine my surprise on arriving to get off the plane, and into the arrivals bit, to think...'this doesn't look right', initially assuming thye'd rebuilt the terminal. But I couldn't see any signs for the railway station. Turns out we were at the other airport, which is closer to the centre, only twenty minutes or so by express bus. It made no odds to me, I just felt a bit of an idiot for not realising!

The trouble I've had....

with my bastard internet connection!

I was THAT close to cancelling my direct debit with the bank & saying fuck off Three!

I got back from my trip to Glasgow on Monday night, & tried to log on. Still nothing! Yesterday evening I got in from work & again no luck. I gave it another go at around ten o'clock &...BINGO!

This morning it was fucked again, but after another attempt, about an hour later it was fine. so maybe, just maybe, normal service is being resumed.

It doesn't stop me being pissed off tohugh. I realise I pay not very much for the service, just over fifteen quid a month, but I'm still a bloody customer! And I resent being taken for an idiot, even if I know sod all about computers!

I spent over fifteen pounds on three mobile phone calls, when complaining. And had no connection for two weeks. plus the stress worrying about it. Now I 'stress' is the new 'bad back', but it does do your head in!

What pissed me off most was the bullshit from the callcentre. answered by someone in an Indian call centre, the English might be ok, but the accent is bloody difficult to understand. And then when I'm moaning they have the cheek to say 'sorry, it's a faint line'..I'm not surprised if you're halfway round the fucking world! More like a standard cop put excuse when you're getting moaned at by someone like me! The pretence of taking my number, promising to call me back, not once but twice, when clearly they had no intention of doing so! I've been far too polite this time. But if it happens again i'll show them what abusive can be!

I can't really complain too much, as prior to this, I've generally been happy with the service. It can be a bit erratic, but at the price I pay what can I expect? But to be practically two weeks without a connection is simply not good enough.

Hopefully I can catch up on my blogging, but to tell the truth there's only so much I can do, & I've had a number of football messageboards to catch up on, as well as putting some snaps from Glasgow on my Facebook, so it gets tiring after a while.

Time for a small break from the keyboard I thinnk. Stick a pizza in the oven for dinne,r with extra cheese chucked on top, with a few splashes of Worcester Sauce. Then an episode of The Simpsons on Channel Four.

Bloody Marvellous!

I got in this evening & tried to log onto the internet. Still not working. So I played a bit of solitaire, with the telly on in the background. Almost as an afterthought, just before I switched off the laptop, I tried again. more in faint hope, than expectation....

And, yes you've already guess it, there was a connection! I'm not sure that it won't play up again, but hopefully whatever was wrong is sorted!

Now I'm on here I'm not in the mood for a long post! Despite having so much to say 'in my head' when I couldn't get onto my blog. Always the way eh? Plus I'm a bit tired now, having had a good few days of football messageboards to catch up with.

I had a nice day today. The rain that was due had turned up overnight, & it was dry. So I set out to visit a couple of places that I'd seen from an email service I've signed up to with Ian.

London, & the borders just outside, are full of untold amazing little places to see, which are way, way off the 'ordinary' tourist radar. It's those quirky little spots that I love. Two of them I visited today.

The first was an airport visitor centre, at a place where there's no longer an airport! On the Purley Way there's the only remains of Croydon Airport. Amazingly home to the first ever passenger service in the world. Though surely that should be joint-first, because if they were only the first they'd have had nowhere to land? It's popularity declined after the War, with the emergence of both Heathrow & Gatwick as the main London airports, as well as the urbanisation of the Croydon area, finally closing in September 1959. The old grass runways are long since built on, only the terminus buildings remain.



It's only open on the first Sunday of the month, but don't let that put you off. It's a working building, with a number of local businesses using it for offices, but at the back, up the stairs, the old control tower is now used as a couple of rooms for a small museum. We were taken round by an old boy who actually flew from here in the early thirties! As had another volunteer, who I chatted to, & he was ninety! Both were well spoken, & had no doubt had a privileged comfortable middle class up bringing, for early passenger aviation certainly wasn't within the price range of the working classes! I'm very much a working class (inverted) snob, but for once I listened & learned. They were fascinating. I love finding a little gem like this, free as well, & it was a cracking start to my day.

I'd spent almost an hour & a half here, I didn't think it would be that long, most of the afternoon was still ahead of me. It was still only just after one.

I got the bus back to Croydon, then jumped onto the tram, out towards Shirley. Another long lost local industry, but once again preserved. Again open only on the first Sunday of the month, & only from May to October. I was going to climb up the Shirley Windmill!



I got there a few minutes after two, & I only had ten minutes or so to wait until the next guided tour, at quarter past. You had to clamber up narrow staircases, & steep too, the steps like ladders, but without the 'gaps'. The chap giving the tour took us to the top, and talked us through each small floor, as we descended. I'll be honest, a lot of it went a little over my head, but only because I'm not that technically minded. I'm more 'local history' than 'industrial history'. But that's not to say it was boring. Another good hour spent here. I bought a guide book, and it also had a small walk around Shirley in it. As I didn't have time to head elswhere, as it was now almost four o'clock, I followed the route, & completed the not very strenuous circuit.

Something that interested me was one of the local pubs.



Called 'The Surprise', it had a local connection for me, as it was named after the rare Camberwell Beauty butterfly, which was shown on the pub sign. This building was formerly two cottages, converted to an inn around 1867. One theory about how the pub got its name is that about a hundred years earlier the butterfly had suddenly, and briefly, appeared in such great numbers that the event was called "The Great Surprise". Later, towards the end of the 19th century, they became quite common again in the district, and visiting entomologists coming to see them are reported to have refreshed themselves at the inn here, which was duly renamed after the famous event.

I also walked around, & photo-documented, the churchyard of St. John the Evangelist.



This was a 'bonus' as I hadn't planned to visit any cemeteries, but have now added another one to the 'collection' of ones I've been to.

All in all not a bad day. I wasn't able to get any surrepticious snaps of lardyarses, but-in a similar vein-this old cartoon from the airport tickled me!

To anyone looking in....

I've got some connection problems with my laptop. I'm typing this at my local internet cafe.

I've been told by 'Three' that it's local connection upgrade, some sort of work involving the nearest mast(s) to me.

To be honest I think they're bullshitting, but they've said it should be sorted by Tuesday, so I'll give them the benfit of the doubt.

So far it's cost me eleven quid on mobile phone calls to them! So I'm not really that much of a happy chappy at the moment!

Keep your fingers crossed for me...