I am a Giraffe

I can see the tops of every tree for miles. It's great fun to just watch the birds landing on the highest branches and then wobbling a bit. I sometimes like to frighten the little birds and shake the thin branches a bit with my tongue. Of course, I wouldn't let them fall, I'd catch them somehow.

Anyway, I heard lots of people talking today about technology. They all come here with their clicky cameras and Internet phone devices, but today someone went all the way and put the two together. Some guy (I think his name was Jeff) took a picture of me licking a metal bar and then said: "I've just put that on Facebook". First things first, no, I don't know why I was licking a metal bar. I was hungry but couldn't be bothered to eat, so I thought the taste of metal would help. It didn't. Secondly, yes I do know what Facebook is given that I am great at ear-wigging visitors daily.

Then I thought...what if I could use Facebook or Twitter or Flickr? And then I realised that hooves aren't great for operating a computer mouse. Standing on real mice isn't a problem though, so if anyone needs something to squash a mouse and can't be bothered to buy a cat, then I'm your man!

I like it when people take pictures of me. I imagine I'm David Beckham and pose a bit. I'm not so good at the football bit though, I run like a girl giraffe.

Hmmm...I get very distracted by being able to see so much from here. Wouldn't you if you were this tall? For instance, I can see cars from up here and let's face it, a car can't pass without catching your eye. You do it too when one passes your living room window, don't you?

I think I'll bend my legs now and lean down to prevent further distractions. Ouch, this ain't as easy as it looks! Oh, there goes a camera again...that was a proper pose.

Curse the pig with the Flu!

This is kind of an "in-between" blog post to explain why I haven't been around, and also to explain my next blog post.

Firstly, I moved back to Chester. I love our house very much and it's almost finished in terms of unpacking and making the big bedroom into a study room.

Secondly, I had Swine Flu, which was fun to say the least. TamiFlu messed with my stomach, so once I came off that I started to get better.

Right, my next blog post is going to be something a big different, it's going to be more of a short creative writing piece. I'll be honest, I'm mainly doing this because I'm bored, but it's inspired by a photo I took of my favourite type of animal at the weekend :) I'm going to put myself into the head of the giraffe and write away. If it works, I might do it more often, taking the "Observation" part of "Observation Station" a step further.

Keep your eyes peeled, should be up soon :)

The end of Spotify in Ireland *insert sad face*

So today the dreaded email came:

"We're writing to you in regards to your Spotify account which up until now you've been using free of charge.  While we are really happy that you are enthusiastically using Spotify, we are unfortunately going to have to restrict access to your free account."

It seems as though everyone outside Sweden, Norway, Finland, Spain, France and the UK has received an email to confirm that their accounts will be effectively suspended.

There are two reasons this annoys me: 1) I am in the south of Ireland, but only about 20 minutes away from the UK border, and 2) I do live in the UK, I'm just staying for a while.

There shouldn't have been an option to change location if this wasn't allowed in the first place, so while I understand why they have to do it, this situation should never have been allowed to occur.

Anyway, I'm going back to England in a few weeks, and my account better come back!

Making the most of having music in my life for as long as it lasts, so current track is Lily Allen - 22.

The best things in life are free...sometimes!

Recently, I have tried to make the most of my break but relaxing a bit. This mostly consists of sitting indoors and looking out of the window at the rain. This is free, but it's no fun!

A few weeks ago, me, my boyfriend, his brother and mother went to play Pitch and Putt and managed to get the whole way round without paying a penny. There was basically a turnstyle with a notice on it saying to leave your money in a box. Well, I am an outstandingly honest citizen, so I would have been stupid enough to leave my money there, only for no one to collect it. The others decided that none of us should pay, and this turned out to be the correct decision, as we played all 18 holes without paying a penny (and there were no drinks machines, so we couldn't even be tempted to put a euro in there!).

On the other hand, holidays are not free unless you win them (and the only thing I ever won was an X-Box code that wouldn't work in the UK!). Holidays are the best thing in life at the moment, I mean they must be, because as me and my boyfriend have noticed, everyone is going on one (except us it seems!).

The alternative to going abroad on holiday is erm...staying indoors and watching the rain, so it looks like I'm going to have to learn to enjoy that!

The one thing that is [mostly] free is my laptop. I have already paid the money for it, and this one actually has a decent battery meaning it costs about half the electricity that my last one did. So I'm finding a lot to keep myself occupied in that way...playing games, Tweeting, blogging, looking for jobs/phone companies, reading the news etc. So at the moment my laptop is one of the best things I own!

Anyone else suggest anything that is free and fun? NB: If anyone says "go for a walk", I will kindly remind you that I am living at the top of a hill and it pours with rain like there's no tomorrow here!

Technology: Taking the fun out of a lot of stuff!

Is it me, or is everything that can be enjoyed on the Internet being spoiled? This includes gaming on consoles such as the X-Box 360.

I will place a long pause here, to allow you to ponder that question..........................................

Just watching my boyfriend play Call Of Duty *insert number and title here*, and there's all this talk of "modded controllers", which are basically X-Box controllers that have been modified to fire more shots at opponents. While some of you may be thinking how amazing that is, I am of the opinion that it is cheating, and what part of cheating is fun? Why would you spend so much money on a game, console and controller, and then cheat?

The other modern concept that is being spoilt, is social networking (within which I include Facebook, Twitter, forums, blogging etc). Twitter has been completely turned on it's head after "Spam-bots" took over. Thankfully, there has been an operation to rid the micro-blogging site of some of these pests, but many still remain. Numbers of followers used to be exciting to keep up with, now it's annoying to know that half of those followers might be only doing so to send Spam, or viruses, or dodgy pictures.

Having said that, some exciting moments have been brought to me by Twitter, including the following:







YES! That is the real David Lloyd, replying to lil' ol' me!

Also, what's this with Facebook allowing people to create themselves a middle name, or two...or three? I think Christianity may have something to say about self naming, (and yes I do know that "Christianity" is not the bloke off Eastenders!).

So for all that modern concepts and technology can bring, don't forget, they're not perfect, and I can't see them ever being so. It's not even possible to get a mobile phone to work for over about a year, so how is there any chance of defeating X-Box cheaters and Twitter spammers, to name but a few annoyances.

Views, please? :)

Minor Irritations (possibly part 2!)

I am a very irritable person. In fact sometimes, I am sure my boyfriend finds me almost impossible to live wth, so thanks to him for putting up with it! I get wound up with so many things, and here's just a taster:

• Orange taking 83p out of my account. Why 83p?!
• Brita water filters not being full up when in the fridge
• Curtains remaining closed after waking up
• People who don't stand in one spot at gigs (want to go to toilet/get a drink)
• Oil splashing out of a pan
• Huffing
• People on Facebook who complain all the time (!)
• Towels on the bathroom floow
• When the pot runs out of sugar
• BT
• Post taking too long
• Karaoke versions of songs on Spotify
• New blip.fm video function
• Ungrateful people
  
• Badly parked cars
• Martin of UTV fame (if that's even his name)

Many more...could go on...but running out of thoughts for now. For those of you who wonder why Orange took 83p...join the club!

Any wonder knife crime is so high?

I am absolutely outraged by a news story I have just read. A 15 year old boy has purchased a machete over the Internet, and what's more is that it only cost £1.50. Isn't it awful to think that someones life can be taken away by a cheap piece of metal?

This lad was testing underage sales for trading standards, so there is no concern in this case over the purchased machete (just to clear that up!). The story is here.

Knives should not be available to buy over the Internet...full stop. If you need a knife for the kitchen, you go to the shops. And of course, people are going to complain if that measure is put in to place: "Oh but I live in the middle of nowhere", "I don't have time to go to shops" etc. So what, you are willing to let people keep dying because 12 year-olds can but a knife on the Internet, for those reasons?

I shudder when I walk past knives in a supermarket. They are horrible looking things, and so commonly used as weapons. At what point are the Government going to take serious measures on knife crime? All the things they are trying to do are not working, clearly. It is hard to find a day where the news headlines do not include the words "stabbed to death".

Having said this, I have to be fair. There are measure taken in shops to prevent knives being bought by youths. I was asked for ID in TJ Hughes once...I was buying household cutlery. Just for the record, I was 21! Embarrassing...yes!