The Rambles of Neil Monnery

We are going back a bit here but I was surfing YouTube earlier and found a video that has left me conflicted. It is a video showing a recording on a woman’s voicemail by SportsCenter anchor Scott Van Pelt who also fronts Golf on the worldwide leader as well as host his own radio show. Van Pelt has always come across as a pretty cool guy. Anyway he met a woman at a bar one night and then decided to give her a call. Listen to what he had to say.

Her response was to give the voicemail to the media to show him up. What class.

I know he was a bit dorky but I just don’t see what is too wrong with it. He plucked up the courage to ring this woman and when she didn’t answer left her one (albeit long and rambly) voicemail. He wasn’t mean. He didn’t harass her. Just phoned up a girl and in a long winded way say that she was pretty awesome (which is surely a good thing) and asked if she wanted to go out for dinner sometime.

I ask ‘what the hell is wrong with that?’ and then I ask ‘what the hell is so wrong with the message that you decide to sell the message to the media because he is famous?’

Sometimes I just shake my head. It is hard enough for some people to ask women out expecting to get a negative reply or even worse get laughed at and mocked by the woman for being not good enough for them but to get your voicemail sold to the media? Wow. Just wow. That is way harsh.

I’m 28 and I still have only asked one person out on a date who I didn’t already know to some decent degree. With women like this in the world I can’t see me doubling up on that number any time soon…

Hello All. Here is a guest/sponsored blog post from the good folk at one of the supermarkets I do happen to shop at. If they had a bigger M&S Simply Food in Southend-on-Sea no doubt I would shop there more. Far more. Please read on for their thoughts on Christmas hampers – something which is a rather big tradition with many families over here

It seems that every year, the world gets a quicker jump on the holidays. Shops begin to light up and Christmas music starts being played long before the fall season is even over, and many organized people get their shopping done long in advance. Of course, for many people it is quite a difficult concept to get Christmas shopping done in early or mid fall. After all, most people are very busy, and thus don’t even start considering the logistics of the holidays until at least November. On top of that, shopping usually takes a good deal of time and effort, and isn’t always worth thinking about months in advance. This is why, if you are thinking about trying to shop early this year, Marks & Spencer Christmas Hampers might be nice to consider.

While some, particularly those outside of the UK, are unfamiliar with the concept of Christmas hampers, they are actually popular items that can make very fitting and convenient gifts. The easiest way to think of Christmas hampers is that they are basically like very nice, ready-made gift baskets that can be bought in a variety of stores, or ordered online. Some may see these sorts of baskets as somewhat impersonal when it comes to gift giving…. But in actuality, there is enough variety in the different types of hampers offered that you will still be picking out specific gifts for specific people, rather than buying generic gift baskets simply because you cannot think of a more particular gift.

Generally, Christmas hampers contain a variety of foods and drinks that can serve as nice treats during the holiday season. You may be able to find a hamper full of nice Christmas cookies and sweet treats, for example, or one that includes nice cheeses and breads or crackers. Still other hampers tend to include selections of nice wines, beers or liquors, which may make great gifts for certain people. The fact is, there is plenty of variety when it comes to the contents of Christmas hampers.

The other obvious benefit of these hampers is how convenient it is to shop for them. While you will indeed still be making decisions based on the contents of the hampers and who among your friends and family would appreciate them, you will also be picking from a selection of pre-made gift baskets. This means that you may never even have to enter a store to do your Christmas shopping, and you certainly won’t have to go through the wrapping process. Ultimately, it seems that these classy and convenient hampers are perfect gifts to consider for those who want to shop early.

Do you know this man?

Hi there…

Following this post over on LJ_UK I thought I’d try to help out the original poster.

If you can’t be bothered to click on the link this is what they had to say:

If anyone knows this man, they should send him this photo. I was attempting to take a picture of a tasty restaurant next to Hampton Court Palace earlier today and this man struck a pose. Not sure who he is, but I think he deserves this photo as he is clearly awesome.

So does anyone know? If not please try and spread the word via social networking and your own blogs.

I know this isn’t that important but it’s a dank drizzly Tuesday morning so…

Oh I’m an idiot. When I migrated my website from WordPress.com to a self-hosted WordPress.org blog I was fiddling around with a lot of widgets. One of that was a comment verification tool. I wondered why I hadn’t had a single comment on my blog since the move and the reason is painfully clear – I screwed up the plugin. Well I have deactivated the widget and all is right with the world (well the blog) for now.

I suspect very few noticed or cared but if you want to lambast me for being an idiot now you have your chance.

Apologies.

Since 2003 I have had a Nokia8310. It served me well. I liked the little phone but for about the past two years it had shall we say stopped working. Basically if anyone rang me it was likely to both cause the battery to die and for the phone to lose connection. I kept with it as the new world of mobile phones was both scary and expensive (and deep down I’m a right tight arse) but recently I have loosened the purse strings somewhat. Having a phone that a) works and b) gives me access to the interweb on the move was actually a pretty good idea.

So last week I purchased a second-hand iPhone 3GS and so far so good. I can check e-mails even if not at my computer. Can tweet on the move and all those added little extras like train times and information are worth it. I’m not fully a convert yet but I’m getting there.

Now the problem occurs of what to have as my ring tone as I can pretty much have anything. For years I’ve just had the standard Nokia tone but no more. So here are the candidates..

First up following on from its appearance in my last blog – The Big Fight: Live (ITV)

Next up ESPN’s College Gameday: Live

Maybe the BBC’s Golf theme?

Or it’s Cricket theme?

Possibly even Ski Sunday?

Maybe the BBC Snooker theme?

The Chain anyone?

Maybe The Apprentice USA?

I did/do love The Contender…

I’m certainly looking to go down the theme tune route. Any suggestions?

As it stands I’m leaning heaving to The Big Fight: Live.

At lunchtime I was pointed to this article in the Daily Telegraph about a 12 year-old boy who wore a skirt to school because his school has a ban on shorts. The kid says that it is discrimination that girls can wear skirts but boys cannot wear shorts in the summer and lets be frank – he has a point.

According to the story the school outlawed shorts in 2009 after a consultation with parents. Apparently most schools in Cambridgeshire have the same rules. I must admit I can’t remember if at either of the secondary schools I went to had a ban on shorts for boys in the summer. I imagine Oaklands probably did but Carisbrooke High may not have done. Still I didn’t care about these type of things when I was 12 but the kid makes a good point and well done to the school for not castigating him.

Whether or not you believe this is something worth fighting over you have to admire his spirit. I’m not exactly sure that wearing trousers in the hot summer is that much different to wearing shorts but heck exploit that loophole over skirts. It is certainly unfair that girls can wear either skirts or trousers and boys can only wear trousers (or skirts using this loophole). I just don’t get why this is.

So anyway another pointless ramble. Well done to the kid. Shows up the schools stupid law. Hopefully they’ll sort it out and he maintains his interest in politics.

Sadly I see far too many of these types of videos. This one is one of the worst I’ve seen though although that one where Canadian police stripped a 15 year-old and hogtied her in a jail cell in the nip is still the most disturbing I’ve ever seen but I digress.

Sheriff Larry Amerson of Calhoun County, Alabama can clearly be seen in this video with his hands around the neck of a handcuffed and shackled inmate. Think about that for a minute and the ethics and the civil liberties behind this. We all want the police to be trustworthy people whom will treat anyone fairly even under strenuous conditions. I think everybody going for a career in criminal justice should take a look at this case, or at least the subject of police brutality. I’m beginning to wonder just what they are teaching police recruits in America. It seems though that maybe the problem goes beyond just the sheriff and partly lies with the culture

Reading the letters in The Anniston Star it seems as though the general public are fully behind the Sheriff. They think a bit of tough life and hands around a throat of a teenager toughens him up and will scare him straight. This may be the case but doing it in full view of a CCTV camera is dumb. The kid apparently was on a programme that it is hoped would ‘scare him straight’ but still I’m not sure that hands around the throat is the best way forward.

The officer is under an FBI investigation and the CCTV evidence is pretty damning. If he doesn’t lose his job he’ll be a very lucky man and I wouldn’t be shocked to see criminal charges laid at his feet.

I just wonder when people will learn that CCTV is everywhere and in this day and age you have to watch everything you say and do. Had this happened 25 years ago no-one would’ve heard about it let alone complaints made. A seemingly good career thrown away in a moment of madness. However as they say ‘if you can’t do the time then don’t do the crime’ and I’m pretty sure that is assault at worst.

Watch the video below to put together your own thoughts.

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Like most sane people – I adore the awfulness of Eurovision. Yes I know that it has lost a bit of zest since Terry Wogan decided it had gotten too political even for him but it still is well worth an evening (or more if you watch the semi’s) of entertainment. For years the UK have put in piss poor entries that we knew deep down had no hope of winning. From Daz Simpson to Scooch we have been roundly kicked in the knackers by Europe and deservedly so but this year it might well be all different.

Now if you didn’t know our entry this year is Blue who have reformed and their song ‘I can’ is actually good and they can pull this off. They are still famous across Europe and the song has what most Eurovision winners need – a catchy melody (yes I know Lordi didn’t but they were the exception). If you haven’t heard the song yet then here is the video. Let me know what you think:

Blue – I Can

Now I’m not what you call a Blue fan but they weren’t the worst boy band ever. They had a few half decent singles and their European wide success should help us. Last years winner was fantastic and I do have Lena Mayer-Landrut’s song Satellite (Germany) on my iPod. I also enjoyed Tom Dice’s Me & My Guitar (Belgium) so not all the songs are terrible.

I do think it would be fun to win it all this year. People will moan about how its a waste of taxpayers money blah de blah and we should pull out of Eurovision but for what we spend on it – it works out as great value fr money for the BBC year in year out. Millions will tune in for the cheesiness of it and Ireland are throwing Jedward at Europe so surely we won’t be last – surely…?

PS: I bet if UKIP got to power they would want to remove us from Eurovision. This cannot be allowed to happen!

Anyone who knows me will know I’ a sucker for UFO and alien stories. Having had extraterrestrial encounters myself I’m very open-minded about the whole thing. So when I saw a story entitled ‘Aliens to drop in on royal wedding’ it was a no brainer. My mouse moved and I clicked on it.

In essence for those of you who don’t want to read the link, the story says that UFOs are often spotted near big events and have been spotted more often than usual in both Libya and Japan in recent weeks. Those aliens watching our world play out like their own personal soap opera – the little scamps. Add to that sightings over the English Channel have increased in the past few weeks. Those aliens clearly wanting to do some dummy runs to make sure traffic isn’t a problem for the big day. I only just realised that we had three Bank Holiday’s in eight days – score. The aliens must know of the traditional problems with Bank Holiday traffic in the UK.

Major George Filer is a retired pilot from the RAF who now runs the National UFO centre. I had no idea we had one of those. I’d like to go there and have a bit of a chit-chat about Rendlesham Forest. However he seems to be convinced that the alien fraternity are interested in the Royal Wedding. Considering most English people aren’t that seems far-fetched but hey.

I know when I see the snippets on the news I’ll be looking for one thing and one thing only – aliens!

I’m pretty sure that he is the most disliked football around and tat is quite an accomplishment. Many footballers are disliked by fans of rival teams but the general public couldn’t care less. Ashley Cole has managed to transcend sport and is just disliked by everyone. I’m not even sure that Chelsea fans like him that much. Terrific footballer, yes. Best left-back in the world, quite possibly. Bit of a prat, without a doubt. Hated by most, yeah I’d say so.

We all know about his extra marital affairs that caused his divorce. We all know about him skipping out on Arsenal for mega-money. Then a few weeks ago he shot a work experience and seems to have pretty much got away with it. I’m pretty sure if I shot anyone then the police may want to get involved. Had the work experience kid shot Ashley Cole then all hell would’ve broken loose. So he gets away with that which is to be honest more than annoying and now this.

Whilst I do not generally buy newspapers I do read most of them online and therefore I do read The Sun and today a headline with, ‘Ashley Cole’s plan to woo Cheryl back’ is easily enough for me to click on. The fact is that he thinks that buying property in Dubai will woo her back, the divorce was all a stunt as she had to show that she was doing something and is extremely confident that they’ll re-marry when retires. What world does this guy live in?

So he thinks that when he retires and isn’t playing football any more she’ll run back to him and they’ll live happily ever after in Dubai? Well in a way you have to admire his optimism or maybe it’s just self-delusional. Either way the smugness and arrogance really pisses me off and he always pisses me off. He has it all, he can be a hero to many but instead chooses to act like a total jerk.

And to top it all off – the photo used in the article. Well lets just say they make him look like a right arrogant twit. Nice editing by whoever edited that.