Month: September 2003

Oh dear. I see that my letter to the Observer has earned a flaming reply from someone that actually knew one of the soldiers that died. Unfortunately, they missed my point, which was that for the Mayor to say that the deaths were like losing members of family was overstating things. For someone that actually knew the persons concerned well, then it is clearly a different matter entirely.
Of course, I’m now portrayed as a heartless soul who doesn’t care. And there isn’t really much point in me taking the correspondence any further.

If you’re able to read this page, read it quick, as this site is up and down more often than a whore’s knickers. Once again, apologies for the quality of service (and the quality of analogy).

Anna Lindh, RIP.
I wonder if the referendum on joining the euro will go ahead on Sunday in light of this tragic news. My feeling was that entry into the euro by the Swedish would have a positive impact on the pro-euro campaigns in Denmark, and, subsequently, in the UK. But all that seems a little inconsequential now.

They used to have other blogs. Now they have this one. Will someone nail them down?

Hmm. I seem to be talking to myself. Clearly, something at EasySpace is borked. This is annoying in the extreme.

BloggerPro is going to become free of charge. Annoying for anyone that has recently paid for it, but not so bad for those of us who are near the end of our subscription period. And speaks volumes about the perceived quality of the product compared to competing offerings at the moment.

Service continues to be intermittent here. Apologies for that. New hosting solution coming soon, I promise (and thanks for the several generous offers that have been forthcoming – I’ll stick a pin in the list one day soon to choose someone).
Grayblog seems to be online at the moment, which adds to a day where everything seems to be falling into place, which is nice.

Don’t forget! International Talk Like A Pirate Day is only ten days away! You have until September 19th to practice your "Avast ye!" and "Yarr!" until you have it perfected!

Incidentally, my finances would be in much better shape if ever I put in an expenses claim to my own business. Then I could use more of the money that I’ve borrowed from Barclays to pay off the mortgage that I used to raise that money. Sometimes I wonder if it wouldn’t just be simpler to give my organs directly to Barclays and let them sell them themselves.

Being the good boy that I am, I’ve just spent half and hour managing my finances. Which revealed the following:

• I’m not as broke as I thought I was. Not much better off than I thought, admittedly, but not likely to see the bailiffs yet. And my credit card borrowings are way below the national average.
• RBS Advanta are offering the best deal on interest-free credit cards at the moment, better even than Egg, with an interest-free period on purchases and balance transfers until June 1st 2004. The application is in the post.
• RBS Advanta are also offering a MasterCard with the corner cut off. Bizarre. I wanted a MasterCard as it seems useful for making some purchases on the continent (particularly automated purchases for fuel and railway tickets, where machines often do not accept Visa), so I’ve applied for the funny shaped one. I’ll report back when it arrives (assuming my application is successful).
• Egg are offering a prize draw. The prize is a £25,000 loan. Ummm. So they are offering the winner the chance to repay a loan?! What sort of prize is that?