Andrew's Blog

Lets all go to Sainsbury's and try something new, like ignorance and being patronised.

All I want to do is get my usual assortment of groceries and household good. These happen to include 4 boxes of tissues and 2 pack of paracetamol and 2 packs of ibuprofen. This is because I am coning to the end of a stinker of a cold and have used all my stocks of tissues and these drugs.

I would have purchased more but in 1998 a law came into force restricting the sale of paracetamol and asprin to packs of 16 or 32 in pharmacies. There is no acyual law stopping you buying more than one pack in a single sale or buying more packs through multiple sales. There is clearly some issues surrounding this so guidance suggests that retailers do not allow the purchase of more than 32 tablets in a single transaction or allow as far as is practical multiple purchases in a single day.

http://www.hants.gov.uk/regulatory/tradingstandards/medicines.html

There are no laws I can find regarding the sale of ibuprofen at the usual dosage of 200mg.

I respect the law and the guildlines and only want 2 packs of each. one for home and one for the car of each.

Recent research has found that taking the recommended dosage of each together is more effective than either on it's own for fighting a cold.

I find paracetamol works well with a fever whilst ibuprofen works well for my persistient back ache.

Anyway the checkout operator refuses to sell me the 2 packs of each stating that she is a trained nurse (why is she working in a supermarket then, surly agency nursing pays more?) and that I can take them together but she cannot sell them.

It is just toally wrong!

I cannot convince her to sell them to me. I wait for the manager, finally he arrives and just spouts the same rubbish. No matter how much logic and common sense I offer i just get the same rubbish.

What makes me mad is the way a pair of supermarket staff can think they can nanny me and try to protect me from myself.

I could buy lots of booze and pickle my liver no problem, buy 200 fags and fill my lungs with tar, buy all manner of chocolate and cakes and clog my arteries, buy womens clothes and be a cross dresser, buy lots of condoms and comit adultery, buy a selection of energy drinks and send my heart beat over the red line but woe be tide me if I want to stave off a minor seasonal illness for fear of me having a sudden attack of depression and killing myself.

I was not depressed until they atarted on me. As for killing I would put myself third on the list, the checkout woman and the manager would be first.

No common sense, no understanding of the law, just ignorance and a total lack of customer focus. Just corporate robots, shells of a human being, drones, androids, the modern pit ponies.

It is hardley a suicide plot to buy 4 packs of tissues, shower gel on offer, a new tooth brush, shampoo, crisps, ready meals, various savory snacks, a big box of anti-acids, a couple of sanwiches etc. Indeed my suicide pact was so ingenious I even got the longest date items I could as I would want the food in my fridge to still be in date for the enjoyment of those who find my body.

This was not a bottle of vodca and a few packs of pills, it was a weekly shop!

Why not spend money on staff training not advertising, this incident has wiped out all my good will and loyalty in a stroke.

They have the technology to see who is not following policy as they know what is purchased and who served them? Indeed it is not difficult to make the till block the sale of 2 packs of paracetamol, the staff do not need the think (I actually think this is a bad idea as they need the practice) but when they try to think it all goes wrong.

Oh and just to prove the point I was able to put 2 packs of each in to my online basket on their website so if I shopped online I would not have had a problem except they don't deliver to my area!

Dumb fools!

Fully paid up members of the flat earth society!

I am hopping mad as you can imagine. I walked out leaving a belt full of assorted shopping for them to put back on their shelves, I guess £6o worth. I only wish I had some icecream now!

Sorry this is so long and thanks for reading.

In order to attract more business Welshpool Airport has changed it's name to Birmingham International (Welshpool) Airport.

This follows the trend set by London (Oxford) Airport.

It is rumored that a few other airports are considering re-naming themselves to improve their public profile, These include London (Exeter), London (Shoreham) and Manchester (Isle of Man) International.

This trend is set to spread to other areas of life too, there is to be a Kia XJ220, a Hyundia Corniche and a Proton Carrera.

The supermarkets are jumping on the band wagon too, there is to be a Marks & Spencer (Aldi) and Sainsbury's (Netto).

The planes flying from these ariports will be changing too, there is to be the Boeing 747 (Mirrorwind MW17) and the Airbus A380 (Bi-Plane).

In order to make this possible the laws of passing off are to be revoked and we shall all be totally confused.

Ok I am at a total loss as to what this sleeze bag is doing in politics in the first place but what has me fuming is that he is now running the country.

Unelected and widely disliked he is now in charge of the country!!!

What srot of fuck wit is Gordon Brown, he is supposed to be in charge of the country yet he cannot sort out the holiday rota. I may be looking at this in an over simplistic manner but I would have thought there would be a simple rule, the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister cannot be off on holiday at the saem time.

Not only did Gordon not think of this but when he decided that the unelceted Mandelson would be the Deputy Deputy Prime Minister he fucked up again as over the weekend he was still on holiday so we had the Prime Minister on holiday, the Deputy Prime Minister on holiday and the Deputy Deputy Prime Minister on holiday.

I have to say we probably had the best leadership of the counrty over the weekend for a long time, with nobody in charge there were no bad decisions taken which of late is a big improvement.

Every company I have ever worked for have had rules about who can be off and when you cannot be off at the same time as particular colleagues.

Then we have the fact that MPs have weeks of holiday anyway so there is lots of oportunity to spread the holidays out.

Mandelson angers me anyway. He is a greasy slimey brown noser who I do not trust.

He was on TV today saying how the people of the West Midlands are good at finding work for themselves and are resourceful and good at helping themselves. Well Madelson, it's a case of having to as the likes of you and your chums at West Minster are not going to help us. You have helped the bankers maintain their bonuses but when it comes to manufacturing and other real businesses the policy is clearly "Help Yourself Becasue We Won't Be Helping You"

Bring back Guy Forkes, we cannot wait for the next general election to get a new government we need one now. We need a Prime Minister that has been elected and not an apointee and his unelected cronies.

So I pop into the city centre late Saturday afternoon for a little bit of shopping and a bite to eat.

Not going to be long so I park in the Bullring.

I pop to TKMaxx and buy some jeans.

The Pallisades are closed, seamed odd but thought nothing of it.

I come out of TK Maxx by new St station and there ar epolice everywhere. I go back to the bullring and it is locked, very odd they are meant to be open until 8, its 7.10? How the hell am I going to get into the car park. I have to walk all around the bullring and enter the car park by the car entrance. I ask a guy whats going on and he tells me theres some sort of BNP riot going on.

As I drive around the city there are riot vans everywhere, police with riot sheilds forming lines all over the city, letting everyday folk through and stopping those who look like trouble.

I see about 30 young asian men, all muscular, many with hoods up of bandanas across their faces being chased around the back of New St station towards the markets and St. Martins.

I also see lots of cars with young asian men in parked up on the edge of the city and others driving around.

It is clear that there are a lot of nasty looking asian guys out looking for trouble, but why?

Turns out the English and Welsh Defence League were having a march to protest against muslim extremeists. This is linked to the muslim protests at the soldiers home coming parades earlier in the year.

In response to this an anti fachist demonstration was organised. The two met in the city centre and a pitch battle errupted.

The EWDL are a new group who appear to be linked to the BNP and are reported to be formed from an alliance of different football "firms" (football hooligans). There appears to be some credibility to this as the police will not "kettle" the EWDL for fear of getting battered by thugs who think battering the police is a sport.

I would appear that the anti fachists were actually made up of the asian version of chavs and gangs who are all too appartent in Brum these days, a lawless bunch of young men into driving like idiots, fast cars, drugs and haters of all non asians and non muslims who have no regard to society or community.

To make matters worse there was a game at St. Andrews and as the football fans approch the station to get their trains home the asian yobs kicked off beleiving these people in football shirts to be part of the EWDL due to their football connections. Sadley these were just fans going home.

Basically we have white rachist thugs fighting a pitch battle with aasian rachist thugs while everyday folk are trying to go about their business.

Each set of thugs trying to legitimise their thuggery by hiding under a banner of a respectable cause.

I agree that we do not want fachistism. I want a political party that fight for the British people and the British way of life.

The English and Welsh need representation as the political system is becoming a joke with Scottish MPs ruling England and Wales but English and Welsh MPs not having power over the Scots.

I agree with the right to demonstrate. There is a time and a place though and those muslim extremists who protested at the soldiers home coming should have been rounded up, and arrested or at least "kettled" for a while.

The BNP does not represent British people, they have a senior offical who is South African but will not allow a British born asian or black person to be a member.

Being British is not about skin colour, it is about who you are a citizen of, it's about what teams you support, it's about what values you hold. It's about where you call home, the lanuguage you speak and so much more.

I want a British National Party who will allow our friends the asian shop keepers who are the hub of the local community to be members, who will allow the hard working mechanic who's parents came here on the windrush to be a member, who will welcome the white guy from the council estate as well as the 3rd generation Irish family.

I want a British National Party who will refuse the thugs who trash their council houses and sponge off the tax payers with their life on benefits membership as they do not upholld the British values we hold so dear.

The biggest problem I have with imirgration is that we cannot export our trash who are happy sponging off the benefits system not the hard working who will happily do the jobs that our armies of chavs feel are beneath them.

I am fed up with the assumption that white people are rachist until they prove themselves otherwise and that it is impossible for non whites to be rachist.

Just look at the businesses who are all asian, where English is hardley ever spoken and all non asian cutomers are ignored. There is a total race reversal in some parts of the UK. Where prejudice is based not only on race but religion. These are not just insular "communities" but are failing communities with the power in the hands of thugs, bullys and gangsters who use race and religion as a tool in their operations.

We have two tribes of disaffected young men who are lawless and spoiling for a fight using race as an excuse for a punch up. I wish they would find a field way away from the rest of the true British people to stage their war. With a bit of luck they would kill eachother and Britain would be all the better without them.

Settiing the scene:

It is 1944 in a cafe in Berlin.

An important looking German enters the cafe and is seated at a small table by the waiter.

The cafe is quite busy as there are several German soldiers and a few SS in there.

The important German as the waiter for a snitzel, the waiter replies, "I'm sorry sir we have no snitzel, the sortages, the war you know."

"Very well" says the German, "I will have a sausage"

"I am sorry sir we have no sausage"

"Do you have anything to eat?"

"No sir, I am very sorry"

"Well get me a snaps."

"Sorry sir, no snaps."

"A cigar while I read my paper then?"

"Sorry sir we have no cigars, perhaps a glass of water?"

"WHAT! NO FOOD, NO SNAPS, NO CIGARS ONLY A GLASS OF WATER" the man shouts.

The waiter meekly says "I'm so sorry sir"

"THAT DAMN FOOL MAN, HE IS AN IDIOT HE IS RUINING THIS COUNTRY WE HAVE NOTHING, THE MAN IS A FOOL!"

At this several of the SS foicers jump up and one approaches the man, "You will have to acompnay to gestapo headquarters" as he grabs the man's arm forcibly.

The man carmly replies, "I was talking about that idiot Churchill, who were you tinking of?"

The man is let go.

Hi,Just letting you all know about a sit in protest on the Isle of Wight.

Vestas, a Danish company and the largets wind turbine manufacturer in the world, is shutting their factory on the Isle of Wight which makes the blades for wind turbines.

The problem is that the demand in the UK is not there for a couple of years due to the early stage investment is at and delays in the planning process.

Blades manufactured there were being exported to the USA but Vestas have opened a factory in the USA and are moving production there, it is often the case that permissions and government funding in the US is tied to US job creation.

Anyway the mangement have done a poor job of the consultation with the workers over the redundancies and despite making massive profits were not offering generous packages to them.

It is also a travesty thet the UK governement are investing millions in wind energy but are refusing to come up with a solution to the short term issue and help the factory stay open.

The lack of support for UK manufactuing is poor at best.

As a last ditch attempt to save their jobs about 20 workers are staging a peacful protest in the management offices at the plant. They have been there for 11 days now.

Vestas have now sacked them loosing their redundancy pay and pay in liue of notice.

They are continuing their protest and are asking for support.

Vestas made a total mess of an application for a court order to evict them (shows how good they are) yesterday and it was thrown out of court until next week for them to get their papers in order.

The island has few skilled jobs and loosing 600 is a big blow.

The government have just announced £6million grant to Vestas to create a R&D facility on the island only employing 150 and very few of these will be former Vestas workers. Vestas had a £3.5million grant to set up the production facility a few years ago which they are now closing.

Why are the goverment giving grants with out true long term comitment?

Please visit www.ventnorblog.com for news and information along with the Guardian and other local and national press.

Oh joy week one of the school holidays and I'm already fed up.

Why, I have no kids, I am not on holiday.

Well at 8.30 pm I go to do my shopping at the supermarket as per usual.

I Wednesday evening should be quiet, but no, kids everywhere loads more people shopping for their families with massive trollies overflowing.

There was even a todler in her pjamas and dressing gown shopping with her dad.

Of course Sainsbury's don't have any more staff on the checkouts, the basket till has a massive que and I have a trolley.

I will not use the self scan tills because they can never get it right and always need a supervisor, besides at a normal till the operator scans and I pack at self scan it takes twice as long as I scan then have to pack after that to the annoiance of the que behind.

It is not really responsible to bring kids out past their bedtime to go shopping and as for the older kids, control them, I do not appreciate your brat whizzing past me at full pelt being chased by another of your offspring.

No I am not Victor Meldrew.

So last night on the local news there was a report about some cricket programme for youngsters ahead of the test match where some of the English and Aussie players were giving a bit of coaching and a photo oportunity.

So where was this?

Accoring to Midlands Today it was in Highgate park in Neachells.

This may come as a revealation but Highgate Park is actually in Highgate, the clue's in the name!

Highate is actually the first suburd of Birmingham where the merchants and factory owners of the new city set up home in the rural surroundings on the edge of the city away from the squalar of city life.

They could look across the fields and the valley of the River Rea and see their business empires on the other side of the valley in the new town of Birmingham.

Hard to think that the industrial heartland of Digbeth / Cheapside and the markets were actually outside the city and were just fields.

Highgate Park is also the first municipal park in Birmingham.

On the other side of the City the Aston area was also fields when the General Electric company decided to set up it's manufactuing plant just the other side of the river Tame in the green field site that became Electric Aveneue just next to what is now Spaghetti junction and the M6.

Anyway enough of the history lessons, why can the news just not get things right!

The latest thing to get on my tits is driving.

Well it is a constant irritation.

Why do people not indicate at all at islands, then you have those who indicate right and then left when going straight on confusing the hell out of every one.

You also have those who decide that it does not matter which lane you approach the island in, then turn right from the left lane or vice versa.

The next are those who fail to move lanes as they go around the island, a serious issue when turning right. As you progress around the island you are supposed to move over from the right lane to the middle and then end up in the left lane for your exit but some will just stay in the right lane all the way round until thye swerve across all the lanes and shoot off down their chosen exit.

We also have the going straight brigade. They take a straight line from entry lane to exit when the island is round thus cutting across all other lanes. they seam oblivious to what they do.

We also have problems with multi lane islands where people fail to read the road markings in advance of the island. Many multi lane islands allow two lanes to go the same way entering an exiting alongside eachother. One island I have frequent problems with has two lanes that go right with the inside lane also allowing you to go straight on. Often thoses in the right lane will cut you up if you go right from the left lane which is clearly signed on this particular island.

I have more reason than ususal to be pissed about this as last Sunday I was hit by a driver struggeling with the island.

It is a 3 lane island. I went straight on from lane 2.

As I enterend the island a car entered from the road to the left in the left lane we passed another road to the left side by side, I indicated to come off the island in the outer of the two lanes of the road I wanted and assumed the car to my left, which was not indicating, was going to take the left lane of the same road.

Sadley no, as i exit the island there is a crunch and a bang as they drive into the rear passenger door of my car pushing the back end over.

It turns out the driver was making a right turn from the left lane without indicating at all.

She was Polish in a hire car picked up in somerset the day before and was lost in Birmingham.

It makes the driving understandable at least. That does not help my cause as I am now faced with getting it fixed and getting the money off the hire company's insurance.

An hour earlier on the same island I turned right from the right lane and had a near miss as I exited the island with a red golf who was doing a U turn from the middle lane.

This is a daily occurance on all the large islands in Birmingham.

Another cause of twitchy bum syndrome is the Pump Engine island which has part time traffic lights.

People do not know what to do when the lights are off. many times I have to break and swerve to avoid those who blindly follow the car infront on to the island without looking.

I have also had to screech to a halt behind those who stop at the stop line on the island when the lights are off clearly not noticing the words "Part Time SIgnals" on the traffic lights and stopping while they try to engage their brain.

I want a tank then I would not care what they do as I will just crush those who are too dumb to know the rules of the road.

On Midlands bulitins in breakfast today the news reader read the script to a story about a fire, who is responsible for writing shuch total and utter bull shit?

"...80 residents had to be evacuated on Wednesday due to burning asbestos."

Have I missed something, is the most fire proof material known to man suddenly combustible?

How do you extinguish burning asbestos, with fire proof petrol???

Never let the facts get in the way of a story.

Oh and it was not a slip up, the same script has been used on all the bulitins from 6.30 to 8.30am.

The world is filled with fuckwits!!!!!!!!!!!!