Lets waste the PPI Companies time

I have had enough of these PPI companies calling me up and asking me if I have any credit card debt. MOVE ON! You have milked this scheme dry now, leave us all alone!

Now my advice to anyone who wants to be left alone is tell the company calling you up that they did a fantastic job claiming the PPI payments back for you and watch how quick they hang up knowing you are now a lost cause. This has worked wonders for me but there had been another issue recently for me – They are calling me from mobile numbers!

Anyone receiving a call from an 07….. Number knows how exciting it is knowing that an actual human being is calling you from their personal phone, this can only bring interesting information to you… Or not it now seems. In the past few days PPI leeches have called me on average of 4 times a day. Friday for example saw the same mobile number call me FOUR times in a space of 1 hour.

They have wasted my time for the last time and this is where we fight back people.

My challenge to all of you is this – time how long you can keep a PPI sales person on the phone for. It’s time for us to start wasting their time. It does not matter how you do it, just keep them on the phone and make it so they hang up on you. May I suggest asking them for a history of PPI, maybe get them to quote a few laws relating to it of even just tell them about your last holiday, just waste their time and make sure they don’t get a sale or commission or whatever it’s called.

Snow! Bit cold wet rain attacks the South Coast – No ones really bothered.

Snow has become too common in the UK in the past couple of years. I have come to this conclusion from the following factors

• Today College was closed, I had a snow day! Yet I was not filled with the excitement that perhaps a day off work might have brought me
• When walking outside in the snow, no strangers said hello to me. Back in 2011, snow would mean it was ok to talk to anyone in the snow
• There is only ONE snowman in the local park near my flat

This is alarming for the people of the UK because we love talking about the weather and key conversation comes from freak weather. Snow is no longer freak weather. It’s just something that happens. Sure, we will talk about how it took us longer to get home from work but give it a couple of days and it’s not only irrelevant, but also boring to talk about.

This whole situation makes me very sad. I NEVER got a snow day when I was at school or college. Snow was never heavy during my compulsory education period. We once got a day off because the school boiler broke, but it’s not like we could go out and do an activity related to this incident. Now students can expect to cash in 2 maybe 3 snow days a year. Its nothing special to them.

This is the amazing news story from earlier in the year where Adur Council were blasted for ‘killing’ snowmen on a football pitch.

I also used to look forward to that strange sensation of talking to complete strangers while walking through snow. It starts with the funny eye brow nod thing, then they say something funny like ‘ooo its cold isn’t it?’ and you say…’yeah.’ In no other weather situation would that random person talk to you. Imagine its a bit sunny outside, some random strange comes up to you and says ‘its quite nice out today isn’t it?’ You are automatically going to check both your phone and wallet are safely tucked away and prepare to be mugged or attacked.

As for the lack of Snowman action in my local park. I see this as either being a sign of lack of commitment or skill on behalf of the younger generation or that they have made so many snowmen in their time, they don’t want their hearth broken again seeing their master creation die a slow and painful death in a 2 day period.

Instead of all these great exciting by-products of snow, instead we see everyone complaining about the roads. DRIVE SLOW THERE IS ICE ON THE ROADS YOU IDIOTS! Instead we see everyone having a moan at the council for apparently not gritting the roads. People, allow me to educate you in a bit of basic science (you can trust me because I do a D in GCSE Science).

 

Grit is a form of salt. Salt melts and breaks up ice and snow. IT IS NOT A MAGIC POTION TO MAKE WEATHER DISAPPEAR. Also be aware that when there is a lot of traffic at a stand still on a road, it’s very difficult to grit the roads because (again here is some education for you) to grit the roads, you need to drive a massive truck around which dispenses the grit. Now this proves difficult when there is cars on the road for obvious reasons. The general gist of this rant is the councils are actually doing a really good but very difficult job, stop moaning, just get on with it, because they are.

All these issues will of course concern and outrage all 3 of you that read this blog post. But I urge you not to fear because I feel we must embrace this change and understand that soon snow will become a regular fixture in the UK weather climate, taking over from Flash Floods. Flash Floods in turn will become the exciting new kid on the block in terms of weather conditions and everyone will act weird and different during a rare flash flood. I myself cannot wait for the news clip showing the man in the canoe visiting his local Boots store.

I don’t even know this guy, but I dislike him for using a canoe in a flooded street. But I miss seeing him on the news.

Can you listen to Radio 4 and still like Rap Music?

To save some people time because I know how busy some people can be. The answer to this question is Yes.

For those after a bit more insight into the question of whether an enjoyment of Radio 4 can be shared with the angry rants of a rap song, please read on kind people.

I have recently discovered a real interest in talk radio. This has led me to listening to a lot of Radio 4, 5live and talkSport. I am not just talking about listening to football chatter, I am also mean other stuff like politics and other human interest debates.

One radio listening session which did catch my attention was a live debate in the houses of parliament where Cameron and Milliband were taking it in turns to accuse each other of failing stuff. (and this is going to solve the countries problems).
This is a rough transcript of what they said

 

Milliband (M): You said you would make sure the country would not be downgraded in its credit rating. Does this mean you have failed?

Cameron (C): We must work to gain this credit rating again

M: So you failed?

C: We must improve the country?

M: So you failed?

And so on… Pointless but amusing. He might as well as said ‘Cameron, you are a dick’ and then Cameron could come back and say ‘Milliband, you are a dick’ which then could see the two of them going ‘no, you are’… ‘no YOU ARE’. One of them could then storm out and slam the door, but it won’t because its one of those silly safety fire doors that closes slowly on its on (never good when you want a dramatic door slam exit).

 

Anyway back to the original point. So I love listening to this stuff now. But to totally turn it on its head, on my way to presenting my hospital radio show Saturday I listening to a bit of Kanye Wests latest album Cruel Summer which features the song Mercy where the lyrics ‘So much hate, I need an AK’ are used. Pictures it if you will, a white 27 year old man, wearing glasses, driving a Peugeot 307 at 29mph along Shoreham High Street singing along to ‘Your chick, she’s so thirsty, I am in the yellow Lambo, your chick, she’s trying to jerk me’.

If Kanye West is reading this, I would like to know what he means by doing Suicides on the Tour Bus and in the Private Jet.

Anyway, I know I may have personality defects, but at the same time I feel many others do and its ok to like Radio 4 and Rap Music, just never expect the two to cross paths.

 

I’m bringing Blogging Back

Hi everyone! No wait, this will be read by individuals so lets try that again…

Hello reader! This was written for you and ONLY you. 

I hope you’re well. How is (insert partner, family member, pet, imaginery friend)? I’m well. 

Anyway, I can’t chat, I am busy bringing my blog back from the dead. 

Why has the blog been dead?

Good question! Well I kind of got annoyed because I hit a high writing about Zane Lowe at Glastonbury where everyone read my blog, then nothing seemed to reach those heights again. I also got a bit older and found less to rant about.

Why bring it back from the grave?

Because I am bored of filling my spare time playing FIFA 13 (which I am now quite good at).

What are you going to write about?

Whatever I think needs writing about from the news, something wrong with my car or something in football that has annoyed me

When will you update the blog? 

Whenever I feel like it. This will usually be on a Sunday or night be after a small child has destroyed me on FIFA 13.

Do you like interiewing yourself?

No, hes a dick.

Whats missing from this blog post that you usually put on each post?

Oh yes! A picture! This is me with Norweigan girl group Katzenjammer a few years back. Thanks. Bye!

O2 Compensation Idea

Mobile phones have taken over our lives! o2s signal being down for a day and a half proved this. 

I have an interesting proposal for all o2 customers and o2 as a network. 

Instead of offering customer compensation, how about o2 donate the money to charity? 

Heres my thinking

My average phone bill and most others average is £40 a month. 

Divide you average by 30 days. Mine is 1.3333. So I have lost out on approx £2 for a day and half of no mobile phone. Now what am I going to do with that £2?

o2 has approx 8 million users. That could be £16 million that could go to Charity by all of us simply missing out on £2 of a phone bill we would usually pay.

If you like this idea, why not goto the o2 twitter page and send a link to this blog post to them to get the message across to everyone.

https://twitter.com/O2

Use the Hashtag #charitycompo

 

Now I am not only doing this as a selfless act…. If o2 does not do this and you want to donate your £2 compo, then please help out with Seaside Hospital Radio. We are in need of funds as we face an uncertain future in our current location and need to move so we can continue to broadcast to the patients of Worthing and Southlands Hospital.

Seaside Just Giving 

Seaside Hospital Radio Website

Maybe AVB is the right man for Spurs?

I have never been through a week where my opinion on something has changed to drastically.

At the start of the week, I was very pro Redknapp and was feeling very nervous that he would leave spurs.
He then left Spurs and I was rather annoyed with Tottenham for letting him go
Harry then goes on about how the board didn’t like him. I am not getting bored with him moaning and looking towards a new era at Spurs. I wanted David Moyes.

Now I find myself quite interested in the prospect of Andre Villas Boas.But I feel I may be the only one (other than the board of course!).

He is 34 years old and a very good and clever manager. He learnt his trade from Mourinho and was very successful at Porto. The trouble with his run at Chelsea is he went in there trying to change the place over night and no one likes change. You try telling Frank Lampard he’s not the major player at Chelsea anymore and he should step back and let others develop. Now imagine telling him that when you’re the same age as him. Tough job.

AVB always went on about this long-term project he had for Chelsea. Chelsea on the other hand were after a short-term solution and will continue to live on the short-term fixes. Spurs on the other hand could well be the team where the project works.

Tottenham don’t have the Lampard and Terry at the club. None of the players have been there a really long time. I feel the Tottenham playing squad have a lot less egos than Chelsea and may actually buy into the AVB project.

The down side to appointing AVB may be that we sacrifice a little of this exciting football that we have been so accustomed to seeing the past two seasons. But if AVB is as clever as we were led to believe 12 months ago, then he may actually try to adopt this into his project.

I am sure next week I will have a totally different opinion on this but for now I actually like the idea of AVB. I just hope he does not cost £35 million or whatever it is Chelsea ended up forking out for him.

Redknapp leaves Spurs, whats next?

I was half way through writing a blog a couple of weeks ago on Spurs, stating how this summer is potentially the most crucial time Spurs have every faced. One of the biggest decisions they needed to decide on was Harry Redknapp’s future at the club. Now they release a statement at 4am saying he has left the club.

I am still sticking with this being the most crucial summer for Spurs, because it is the potential turning point. We could either push on to bigger things or we could fall back into mid table.

With Harry Redknapp, I think there must have been a lot more going on behind the scenes than we would know. Yes the results were not great towards the end of the season and I always blamed the players, but at the end of the day I guess the blame lies with the man in charge. Its tough but Harry has been through it before.

There is a couple of issues, which I reckon made this departure happen.

A: He hired Paul Stretford to negotiate him a new contract. Why? He’s done it himself or through his solicitor on many occasions in the past. Why has he suddenly employed one of the big football agents to do it for him?

B: I am sure his rant about being in the last year of his contract was a catalyst to him not staying on at the club. As much as Daniel Levy may have liked Harry, seeing that in the papers would have worn him very thin. Plus I believe a member of Daniel Levys family had just passed away, so having pressure on him to negotiate his employees new contract would not have gone down well.

I expect Paul Stretford was behind this little rant and I expect it will get Harry Redknapp his millions at his next club which will most likely be in Quata or one of the other mega rich nations.

As for Spurs, well it needs to be a clever appointment. We need a manager who will come in and steady the ship and continue the good work. You must remember that with Harry leaving, so will most of the backroom staff. Kevin Bond and Joe Jordan were very important to the set up, but being Harrys best and loyal mates, they will go too.

 

What Spurs do not need is some manager from a different country who has won the cup in their home nation and is ‘well regarded’ as the next Man Utd Manager. This will not work. They will cost millions, come with loads of pressure and change everything at the club.

The basic principles of the club work, hence why we have finished in the top 5 so many times in the past few seasons.

Harry brought in only exceptional foreign talent, but mainly brought in experienced Premier League players and this has worked wonders on the club. I suggest the club does the same when picking the new manager. There is only one name that can be touted and that’s David Moyes.

I am a bit fan of David Moyes, but you have to remember that his success is also down to having a very understanding and supportive boss in Bill Kenwright. Everton have had their ups and downs, yet David Moyes job had never been on the line.

Should he take over Spurs and by December the club be 12th in the league, I doubt Daniel Levy will keep him on that much longer. Expectations at Spurs are now that we must challenge for the title or atleast be sitting in the top 4.

So it’s a MASSIVE summer for Spurs. I am hoping the board do the right thing. The more I think about it, the more I get the whole Redknapp leaving this. I was angry at first but we all know it was going to end sooner or later, I am just happy its ended at a time when a new regime can come in and actually make a difference instead of half way through October when we are battling relegation.

Dont worry fellow Spurs fans, we will find out Arsene Wenger or Sir Alex Ferguson eventually…

And sorry Everton if we steal your manager and you get relegated.

Euro 2012 Predictions

The tournment starts in a matter of hours, there has already been 125645621 reasons why England will not win it and my girlfriends birthday will be interupted yet again. Yes its another International football tournment, this time Euro 2012 in Poland and Ukraine. I have been pretty decent in recent tournments in predicting the ‘surprise package.’ Heres some of my previous bold statements:

2002 World Cup – I said Senegal would surprise the world and they got the Quarter Finals and beat France in the opening match

2010 World Cup – I predicted big things for Urguay. They finished 4th. Nice.

So for the Euro 2012 surprise package……

Russia!

Yep you heard it here first. Russia will win the Euros. Well they might not win it, but I reckon they will get to the semi finals.

What about England?

I really fancied England to win the whole thing a couple of weeks ago. The whole England going to Euro 2012 was very low key, no one really cared and then suddenly Rio Ferdinand has a paddy and its all over the papers. Back to being good old England with a drama. I cannot see them getting out of the group stage personally but with England you will never know what will happen.

Happy Euro 2012 everyone!

Redknapp vs Hodgson

As a Spurs fan, I am delighted the FA seemed up for irritating every England fan by not appointment the fan favourite for the England job. But you have to wonder what has actually gone on here and whether or not the FA has made the right decision.

So I have devised a little Redknapp vs Hodgson battle to see who is the right man for the job no one actually wants.

Experience:

Redknapp: Vast experience in picking teams up when they are down and turning them into something they would never of dreamed of. Portsmouth – bottom of Championship all the way to winning the FA Cup and giving AC Milan an almighty battle at Fratton Park in the UEFA Cup. Tottenham – relegation candidates, usually mid-table – turned into Title Contenders (for a bit) and now expecting Champions League football.

Hodgson: Where do you begin?! He’s been all over the world, he even managed Inter Milan twice! Kept out of the England radar while managing teams in Scandinavia, including taking Switzerland to a World Cup Finals and nearly qualifying again with Finland. Then comes to Fulham, saves them from relegation and gets them to Europa League Final. Off to Liverpool, does not quite work for him, straight in at West Brom and steady the ship there.

Winner: Hodgson – They have both done well at improving teams, but Roy has been all over the world doing it. The England job is something quite different to a premier league side where you buy more players when needed.

Fan Friendly:

Redknapp: Always been on the fans side where ever he has gone. He even went from Portsmouth to Southampton and back again and the fans still loved him

Hodgson: Fans sometimes find him a bit boring but they seem to be confident in what he does.

Winner: Redknapp. Hodgeson will bore the fans unless he gets England winning games in an attractive fashion live Harry would.

FA Friendly

Redknapp: When you been in and out of the tabloids for non football reasons, the FA will not be interested. Was never fancied last time he interviewed for the England Job so making himself some friends at Wembley was always going to be tricky.

Hodgson: everyone’s friend in football. He has worked for FIFA, UEFA and the FA. They know what he’s about and he knows what their about. Have you ever seen him in the front half of The Sun? (before today).

Winner: Hodgson –  He is safe while as Redknapp is liable to cause some havoc along the way.

Media Friendly:

Redknapp: Depending on how you refer to the term of media friendly. He has been quite bitter with the media in the past and they have not always go on. But then that makes great headlines, so in that respect the media love him.

Hodgson: Boring, keeps himself to himself. Journalists probably don’t even bother going through his rubbish as I bet that’s really boring too. He never gives the media that quote they want at press conferences and is very guarded. Hence all the negativity towards him in the papers today.

Winner: Redknapp – The papers need something to report on other than football. Hodgson will not give them that.

Potential:

Redknapp: There is not much else Harry can do to improve as a manager. At Spurs he has a tried and tested team of staff around him, he knows what players he needs and wants and everything works well for him. Never been a manager of a national team so perhaps that’s the only area he would want to grow in. He’s never going to manager Barcelona or Man Utd so perhaps that’s his next step.

Hodgson: He’s done pretty much everything but seemed to fall at the first hurdle in what was meant to be his first big job at Liverpool. No idea why that didn’t really work other than all the problems they were having behind the scenes with the owners. This is his chance to prove he’s not just a midtable manager.

Winner: Draw: They both have something to prove in terms of making the next step up in their careers.

So by my calculations, that makes them even in these terms, but I think whats more important to the FA and quite rightly is having someone they can work with. Imagine employing someone you were not sure you could work with. You would not do it and I think the FA have realised this and need someone who will come in quietly and get on with it.

Good Luck Roy!

The Downward Spiral know as Spurs

My reaction to seeing the score from the QPR vs Spurs match really sums up the season for Tottenham. I was not annoyed, I just let out a sigh and switched my phone off to continue drinking at the engagement party I was at.

The last 2 months have really made me frustrated being a Spurs fan, not because of the whole Harry Redknapp

to England fiasco, but because the players are letting everyone down after all the hard work that has been put in.

Rewind to when Harry took over, bottom of the table with some of the best players in the league. Fast forward to November 2011 and those players are challenging for the title in the same Spurs shirt that saw them rooted to the bottom of the table. Harry didn’t make wholesale changes to the squad, just added a little experience.

Harry Redknapp got them playing a way that the league had not seen. It was 100 mph for 90 mins and no one could handle it. The last two months however, something has changed and no one seems to know what it is.

After last weeks defeat in the FA Cup Semi Final, I amazingly read on twitter some spurs fans saying Harry Redknapp should get the sack. What else could Harry have done? He has played that team, that system, that way all season long and it seemed to work. It’s the players that are to blame.

I have a feeling Spurs have hit the peak and are back on the way down. The players have tasted the highs of the Premier League and a sense of arrogance is coming in. Dare I say it, but now people expect this high tempo from Spurs, the pressure hits and the egos come out.

Whats more worrying is that this whole situation leaves no reason for Harry to turn down the England job. Do you want to represent your country and attempt the impossible job, or do you fancy playing in Poland on a Thursday night for the sake of ITV 4? If we had Champions League, it might be a different story but I cannot see that happening now.

Some of Spurs best players will be on their way, Van Der Vaart I predicted at the start of the season would be on his way at the end of this season and I still think that will happen. Adeybayor will probably find a pay day else where. Modric will have his pick of sides to go win the league with and suddenly Spurs lose the spine of the team. This in turn will see Gareth Bale tempted to go else where.

This will then trigger a panic in the Spurs Board Room. They will go out and get the biggest name manager money can buy, they will change the way spurs play and suddenly we are in the same position we found ourselves in before Harry came to save the day.

Sorry Spurs fans, but we have hit the peak, its time for another midtable battle with Aston Villa and Sunderland until someone like Bredan Rogers comes along and picks the team up again. Hey, it was fun while it lasted.