Moaning Old Git | moan, moan, moan

Blog, News, Information, Rants, Comments, Moans, Life, Loves etc.

Big City Digital

Saturday, 14 November 2009 ‡ 11:52

Excellent service and excellent prices. I found my camcorder leather case from Big City Digital cheaper than all the usual suspects, i saved at least £10, that's a whopping 30% over its usual price everywhere else. I placed my order late Wednesday night and i recieved it Saturday morning!

Labels: big city, camera, digital, online, shopping

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chabobo.com

Saturday, 8 August 2009 ‡ 06:21

You want to advertise your car for sale? You want a guarantee your car will be seen at least once? You want value for money? You want to know that you can re-advertise any time and bump your advert back to the top of the search page? You want to see all cars advertised without complex search forms to complete? Then CHABOBO.COM is the site where you will advertise.

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Michael Jackson

Friday, 26 June 2009 ‡ 02:45

Just got in from football with my son and just plonked myself down, ate my dinner and then after watching Brasil just managing to scrape through to the final against the amazing South Africans, I had to get some work finished for a client and was hit with a stream of messages from Twitter.

I am just so shocked, i don't think it has sunk in yet. It is such a shame of what Michael Jackson has been through in his personal life, which i hope dies with him but the legacy of his music remains with us forever. I loved all his music but my favourite is Billie Jean.

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Sack them!

Friday, 8 May 2009 ‡ 20:18

How the hell can anyone justify claiming for a £3,100 40" Sony TV, £12,400 for a new kitchen and bathroom and the best one so far Tory MP Greg Barker bought a property in Chelsea for £480,000 in November 2004, claiming £15,875 for stamp duty and other purchase costs, then claimed a further £27,928 in mortgage interest payments over the next two years. He then sold the flat for £800,000 in February 2007, making him a total profit of over £360,000.

Who the hell signs off these expense forms? I don't want the MP's to pay the money back, i want them sacked. Thousands of people have lost their jobs due to the greed of the heads of banks, which the government have decided to bail out with tax payers money, are struggling to find work. Maybe these people should become MP's, I am sure the majority of those unemployed are far more intelligent, have higher IQ's and greater morals than a majority of current MP's.

Anybody caught fraudulently claiming expenses at work would be immediately and instantly sacked! So why the fucking hell hasn't any of the MP's got the sack. They are in a position of trust, they are meant to set an example, they are supposed to support the people, we should trust them.

They are all coming out of the woodwork now, claiming they made a mistake and are "distraught and heartbroken" at the fact that they did not realise their bank balance did not match their wage slip... do they get a wage slip?

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Seek Diabetes Awareness Charity

Tuesday, 5 May 2009 ‡ 20:50

The charity are raising awareness regarding the lack of information and common misunderstanding regarding the undiagnosed symptoms of this disease. At the end of May the charity are holding their first event. Details can be found on facebook and on the SeekDAC website, www.seekdac.org.

Labels: blood pressure test, blood test, charity, diabetes, symptoms

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Dholi 501

Saturday, 2 May 2009 ‡ 16:44

Fantastic Guinness World Record set today with over 600 dholi's playing in Birmingham at Centenary Square for over 10 minutes. You can watch the whole event by downloading the video, but it might take some time to download the 14 minute, 125Mb file!

Labels: Birmingham, centenary, dholi, guinnes world record, gurcharan mall

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Riverside Driving School

Tuesday, 21 April 2009 ‡ 08:14

As you know i don't like bad drivers, but when a driving instructor is not paying attention and completely unforgiving, this has really got to piss me off. This morning some knob decides to straight line a roundabout forcing me to hit the brakes to avoid running into him or hitting the roundabout. The worse thing about it, when i sounded my horn and pulled alongside, i looked over, the driver completely ignored me, as if his mistake did not happen. An apology would have been nice. I would hate to take lessons from this instructor. It would be a real shame if this driver causes a bad reputation for the company.

Labels: driving school, riverside, sutton coldfield

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Vaisakhi

Tuesday, 14 April 2009 ‡ 07:07

Today is the celebration of the birth of The Khalsa and i wish everyone Happy Vaisakhi

In 1699 a Sikh guru, requested a gathering of all Sikh followers at Anandpur on 30 March 1699. Guru Gobind Singh Ji (then Gobind Rai) requested volunteers who were prepared to sacrifice their head in the name of Sikhism. As one volunteer stepped forward, he was taken into a tent, then the Sikh guru emerged with blood on his sword and requested another volunteer. This occurred 5 times, which is how the Panj Piare were created. "The Five Beloved Ones" were Daya Ram, Dharam Das, Himmat Rai, Mohkam Chand and Sahib Chand. The Sikh guru then requested the five to initiate him as a member, on an equal footing with them in the Khalsa. The Sikh guru then recited the rallying-cry of the Khalsa, "Waheguru ji ka Khalsa, Waheguru ji Ki Fateh" (Khalsa belongs to God; victory belongs to God). He gave them all the name "Singh" (lion), thus becoming Guru Gobind Singh Ji with Bhai Daya Singh, Bhai Dharam Singh, Bhai Himmat Singh, Bhai Mohkam Singh and Bhai Sahib Singh. Guru Gobind Singh Ji, thus becoming the sixth member of the new order.

Guru Gobind Singh Ji then addressed the Sikh followers:

From now on, you have become casteless. No ritual, either Hindu or Muslim, will you perform nor will you believe in superstition of any kind, but only in one God who is the master and protector of all, the only creator and destroyer. In your new order, the lowest will rank with the highest and each will be to the other a brother (bhai). No pilgrimages for you any more, nor austerities but the pure life of the household, which you should be ready to sacrifice at the call of Dharma. Women shall be equal of men in every way. No veil (purdah) for them anymore, nor the burning alive of a widow on the pyre of her spouse (sati). He who kills his daughter, the Khalsa shall not deal with him.

Five K's you will observe as a pledge of your dedication to my ideal.

• Kesh: Hair unshorn representation of saintliness.
• Kangha: a comb to keep it clean and untangled.
• Kara: a steel bracelet to denote one universal God.
• Kacchha: a piece of practical wear to denote modesty.
• Kirpan: a steel dagger for your defence.

Smoking being an unclean and injurious habit, you will forswear. You will love the weapons of war, be excellent horsemen, marksmen and wielders of the sword, the discus and the spear. Physical prowess will be as sacred to you as spiritual sensitivity. And, between the Hindus and Muslims, you will act as a bridge, and serve the poor without distinction of caste, colour, country or creed. My Khalsa shall always defend the poor, and Deg (community kitchen) will be as much an essential part of your order as Teg (the sword). And, from now onwards Sikh males will call themselves "Singh" and women "Kaur" and greet each other with "Waheguruji ka Khalsa, Waheguruji ki fateh"

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Stupid Drivers

Thursday, 9 April 2009 ‡ 03:54

I hate when at a roundabout, the driver on my left decides to use a straighter line across the roundabout, forcing me to move to my right, either into another car or onto the roundabout itself, This happens to me most mornings and evenings to and from work. The worse thing about this is there are lines painted on the bloody tarmac to guide drivers around the roundabout and drivers still straight line roundabouts, even worse is drivers who feel i am too blame if i sound my horn or edge forward slightly and force them over into their lane, ARGHHH! This stupidity is usually compounded when the driver is using the left lane to turn right and on top of that not using their indicator. I will accept someone maybe in the wrong lane when they approach the roundabout or they change their mind or whatever, we all make mistakes, but then just to feel that everyone else around them are mind readers, for fucks sake these drivers should be shot in the head.

What else is there? how about drivers in the outside lane of a dual carriage way or motorway, traveling about 10mph - 15mph less than the speed limit, then refuse to move over when you approach, why do they feel they have any right to suggest the correct speed by acting as a roadblock? They always quote the following, "Its a speed limit not a target".

Another annoying thing drivers who are just stupid do is not realise that when there are parked cars on their side of the road, it is the on coming vehicles right of way - and NO i don't have to flash my lights to say thank you, the same reason i don't need to flash my lights to let you out of a junction or change lanes (as long as you are indicating). Using your indicator does not give you the right of way, it is a purpose of intent, letting other road users know what you intend to do.

What about stupid following stupid, especially when there is a lane coned off and stupid moves into the open lane, followed by stupid and stupid behind them until we have a queue of stupid drivers all waiting in one lane, even though the coned lane is some 2 miles down the road. This happened to me, can't remember where i was, but i arrived at the tail end of a massive queue of traffic. Summer afternoon, clear skies and we are parked in a single lane jammed with crawling vehicles. After about 20 minutes i approach a roundabout and i need to go straight on and since the lane has opened up into two lanes, i am within the law to use the second lane. So cautiously i begin along the second lane, i say cautiously since nobody is using it. At the roundabout there are roadwork signs stating that the second lane of the road ahead is closed. Since i am already in the lane i decide i will join after i leave the roundabout. As i leave the roundabout i see another roadworks sign but this time it indicates the second lane is closed 2 miles ahead and since it is a straight road, i can see nobody using the second lane. Nobody at all was using the 2 mile stretch of road that was still open because every stupid driver has decided to stay in the first lane. I was double and triple checking to make sure there were no signs indicating i should not be using the second lane, but nothing. I cannot believe how i managed upon so many fucking stupid drivers all on one road, not using a perfectly legitimate part of the road, just because nobody else is using.

I had one absolutely stupid woman driver in front of me, traveling along a 40mph single road, driving about 40mph, who absolutely insisted on braking heavily and letting other drivers out of side roads, she did this so often, i had to overtake her since she was causing a domino effect behind me... i wandered how far back this rippled until traffic actually stood still.

Labels: bad driving, stupid

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Website redesign: Update

Wednesday, 8 April 2009 ‡ 01:21

Busy with the kids during the day, the only time i get is late evening when they gone to sleep. I have fixed the rss xml feed for the pages that have a feed, so now you can click the icon in the (firefox) address bar or the rss icon in the right column.

Most of the content is done, my moaning on the home page, the about page, the f1 page has this seasons rant and contact page are done (i think). The cars page and work page are not finished.

It's 01:30, so me needs to get some sleep i think!

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My son told me a joke

Friday, 3 April 2009 ‡ 13:13

A boy asks his teacher, "Miss i need to go to the toilet."

His teacher replied, "Not until you have learnt your alphabet."

So the boy begins, "a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o   q r s t u v w x y z"

Teacher said "Well done, but where's your P?"

The boy said, "Running down my leg!"

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Banks

Friday, 27 March 2009 ‡ 13:37

Why are the heads of banks not held accountable for their bad business decisions, sub prime lending and other massive gambles they have made with our investments (mortgages, loans, etc)?

Why are Northern Rock employees getting huge bonuses? It would be similar to an ambulance driver running over an old lady and then taking her to hospital, then being awarded a bonus for keeping the ambulance services busy.

The Prime Minister and UK Government have a responsibility to ensure everyone plays by the rules, but it appears that they feel its OK that some many people are losing their jobs and small and even established business are closing.

I would like to see the massive amounts of tax payers money injected into saving these banks go where i want it to go, i want to make the decisions, i want to be able to vote on how the money is used, how much of it is used.

I have nothing against capitalism, what i have a problem with is greed and greed at the expense of innocent investors, borrowers and savers.

Labels: banks

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Battle of the Browsers

Thursday, 26 February 2009 ‡ 08:03

It is really hotting up now, the three big players in the browser market are really pushing their products to be 100% compliant,

• Firefox - v3.2 Alpha 1 is 94% compliant
• Safari v4 Beta is 100% compliant
• Opera v10 Alpha 1 is 100% compliant

Google Chrome v2, which uses the same browser engine as Safari is pushing 99%, Konqueror is at 83%. I have installed Safari 4 Beta on all my machines at home and work, PC and Mac. Apart from the silly placement of the tabs (IMO) Safari looks good, starts up very quickly, is fairly fast and eats little resource, especially compared to FF.

There will no doubt be issues and problems, but this would not be development and hopefully this Beta release will allow some rigorous testing.

Why does this matter? It means that the code web developers create and write, which we know and learn to be correct will now do (almost) exactly as it should in any (almost) browser, no more hacks, no more complaints and no more stupid ignorant comments like "Why does it not work in IE? The whole world uses IE so it should work in IE first!"

Why have i not mentioned IE 8? Are you taking the piss? IE 7 was only 14% compliant, IE 8 RC1 is only 20% compliant. How the fucking hell do Microsoft think that IE 8 is at RC1 when it is only 20% compliant, the nearest rival for any current stable release browser is over 70% compliant, heck previous versions of some browsers was over 40%!!! If you are using IE you are using the wrong browser, just because most of the world uses IE doesn't make it right. Anyone who develops web sites and web applications using IE, is NOT a web developer, period.

Labels: browser, firefox, internet, Microsoft, opera, safari, w3c, wai, web site

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Sullenberger

Thursday, 5 February 2009 ‡ 21:05

Massive respect to Captain Chesley Burnett "Sully" Sullenberger III

I have just heard the conversation between Sullenberger and air traffic control

There is little else anyone can say, but "Can i get on his plane next time i go abroad"

Labels: Captain Chelsey Burnett Sullenberger, crash landing, flight 1549, Hudson River

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Phones 4u

Saturday, 4 October 2008 ‡ 15:00

Raj from Phones 4u in Bull Ring, Birmingham City Centre is the guy to see about the best deals on mobile phones. Raj got me the best deal for my new Samsung i900.

Not only that, he threw in some desk speakers and £20 PAYG vouchers

I have been an Orange customer since 1995 and the best Orange offered me was £199 for the phone, then after some shopping around and haggling, Orange offered me the phone for £50. But since it was possible for me to join Orange as a new customer on a new contract, they were more then happy to sign me up for exactly the same current contract and i get the phone for free!!!

I am having difficulty understanding the difference between me on my existing number extending my contract for another 18 months and joining Orange as a new customer joining for 18 months on exactly the same talk plan. Are Orange sales staff paid different levels of commission for new and existing customers?

Again, see Raj at the Bull Ring store, tell him i sent you!

Labels: best, Birmingham, bull ring, contracts, deals, i900, orange, phones 4u, raj, samsung

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National B2B Conference

Saturday, 27 September 2008 ‡ 03:23

I usually steer clear of conferences and long meetings which usually bore me to death with useless information, sales pitches for services, products and items i do not want, but i have to say the National B2B Conference at Warwick University on Thursday 25th September was an experience i am absolutely glad i attended.

Michael Acton Smith, Co-Founder of Firebox introduces his story as an opener which was truly inspirational. To get details of his persistence toward his ultimate goal serves as great hope even in these difficult times. Thoroughly enjoyable and he deserves to be exactly where he is today.

In the afternoon Penny Power, founder of Ecademy a business networking site, shares her nuggets of gold with us, truly priceless. Great personal insight into Penny's life with snippets of information about her role as a business woman and mom has got to prove that anything can be achieved.

What both these business people displayed was their openness to help anyone who was ready to make the sacrifice. What was the sacrifice? To share their knowledge and experience to help anyone get a foothold on the route to building a successful business or organisation.

Also to have met Dave Chaffey of Marketing Insights, an expert in Internet Marketing, really assured me of my knowledge of SEO and SEM is accurate since all the information and advice suggested is already practiced by myself.

Labels: business networking, dave chaffey, ecademy, firebox, gadgets, marketing insight, michael acton smith, national b2b conference, penny power, sem, seo

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bustaname.com and buydomains.com

Thursday, 8 May 2008 ‡ 09:21

I performed a search for a domain name on bustaname.com around the end of April 2008 and i have evidence in an email which i sent myself dated the 28th April 2008 which i was using to remind myself to confirm the domain name i had discovered with a client.

I logged back onto bustaname.com to purchase the domain name i had discovered, only to find it was now unavailable! So i decided to check who and when the domain was registered.

Strangely, it was registered for the first time, on 24th April 2008, around the time i began searching on bustaname.com, how strange and what a coincident.

I then discovered the domain has not been registered by a person or company to use but registered by buydomains.com and is actually up for sale!

Total abuse of service? where do i stand?

Labels: abuse, bustaname, buydomains, domain, mistrust, name, theft

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Post Office, Birmingham, 1 Pinfold Street

Thursday, 24 April 2008 ‡ 10:27

Having checked around for exchange rates, the Post Office in town displayed 1.20 on the board in the door and the best i could find was 1.19 from my bank, not the biggest difference, but both offer buy and sell, commission free.

Having got my Euros from the Post Office i discovered they had charged me 1.1735

This was easily fixed, i thought either i read the buy rate column and not the sell rate, so i checked and sure enough it was 1.20, so i went in and saw the same girl as i did a day earlier and she informed me, 1.20 was only for £500 or more.

So I decided to check the board and it did not state anything about the rate shown being for £500 or more and asked to speak to the Manager. The Manager agreed with me, the rate is not clearly indicate minimum amount and promptly settled this issue and in a fit of generosity, bumped me a five euro note, which has given me a rate of 1.21!!!, EXCELLENT.

Labels: Birmingham, euros, exchange, money, office, post

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Orange does it again

Saturday, 12 April 2008 ‡ 00:00

Orange has done it again!

The pathetic level of service from Orange is outstanding, it beats every crap company i have ever dealt with. In over 10 years, i have NEVER missed a payment and continued upgrading in the hope that i would receive good deals from Orange.

This time i have spent days trying to access my on-line account without success, consistent failures.

Over night, i have stopped receiving SMS alerts and SMS icon on my phone and my SMS' are arriving on my phone nearly 24 hours after they have been sent to me, even the date and time stamp indicate the message was sent nearly a day ago, as well as confirmation from friends and family who send me message, asking why i dont reply... unkown to me i have had a message.

Raised this with Orange and what did they say, FUCK ALL... nothing. Ignore the bloody emails and comments and it will just go away, well i dont think so!

Labels: Birmingham, mobile, orange, sms, sonyericsson

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Amazon

Saturday, 10 February 2007 ‡ 11:51

Amazon should have stuck to selling books, because lately their delivervy promises are just worthless. Over the past couple of years I managed to locate items on obsecure or unknown (to me) web sites and then on Amazon for a few quid more, so obviously use Amazon due to its company size and fallback should anything be wrong. On their web site are a couple of lines that state "item is in stock", it will be "delivered by Amazon" and a delivery date.

I accept the delivery date is just an approximation, so being resonable i assume maybe 5 days delay. What i expect as given is the statements made that the item is in stock and is delivered by Amazon, therefore safely assume the delivery date to be fairly accurate.

I must need my head examined because this has happened to me several times now over the past couple of years. I receive an email with a modified delivery date, so i accept there may be problems or issues. Just before the delivery date i receive another email with a revised delivery date... and again... and again.

Amazon are pathetic with their offer of £5 voucher as if that is of any comfort when items are expected especially as presents.

I now will begin to avoid Amazon and use other sites.

Labels: Amazon, delivery, pathetic

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Its so blatant its hilarious

Thursday, 23 November 2006 ‡ 08:28

When i saw Microsoft's live.com search engine product / service whatever you want to call it i almost fell off my chair. Reason? It has taken over 5 years for Microsoft to copy Google and deliver another search engine!

Microsoft may as well have called it Microogle

Is there anything Microsoft have actually produced off their own back? I cant think of a single thing... oh yeah i can, making millions from software plagiarism an art form.

Labels: Google, Microsoft, search, theft, theives

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eBuyer

Monday, 6 November 2006 ‡ 22:41

I placed an order with eBuyer on 17th October 2006 and the expected delivery date was 25th October 2006. This was reasonable for me as I was in no great hurry.

I received an email stating my goods have been dispatched and date of delivery would be on 25th October 2006. This was great, so I waited around, but nothing. I waited the next day, nothing, I did the same again the following day, but nothing.

I decided to contact the courier company, who told me that eBuyer always has delays with their orders with the courier of around 2 days.

I decide to wait until after the weekend and still nothing. I sent an eNote and got a pathetic excuse, the item may have been lost and after 15 days eBuyer will re-send the item. I suggested that the item could not be tracked by the suggested courier website, I was told it was sent by Royal Mail which does not offer parcel tracking. Bullshit it doesn't, I have used Royal Mail with tracking, I got no response from eBuyer.

Labels: courier, delivery, late, order, tracking

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Orange misleading customers

Monday, 30 October 2006 ‡ 08:41

Orange have been advertising their new talk plan packages all over the place and they do look very attractive, with FREE *Unlimited texts, Unlimited calls and other FREE offers.

I moved my old Talk 300 plan to Dolphin 35 which offered *Unlimited FREE texts, 550 FREE cross network calls and *Unlimited FREE calls to a magic number.

I also signed up other friends and family to some of the other Orange offers, one of which was the FREE 1000 texts when PAYG customers top up their phone with £30.

Later discovered that when you sign up to these new talk plans, you actually do not automatically get the FREE offer on your talk plan.

One Orange Customer Services rep stated that when you sign up, you actually have to state you want the FREE offer on the talk plan, even though the talk plan states you receive the offer as part of the talk plan. Another stated that this was just human error and the Sales rep must have forgot to initiate the offer at registration. This is total and utter bullshit, because I tripled checked with the Sales rep in the Orange store that the Dolphin 35 package allows me the stated FREE offers when I was upgrading my Talk plan and continued to ask him during the time he was filling in the registration form and during the time he was waiting for the upgrade code from Orange.

Orange are totally misleading customers which must be against some advertising laws, so Orange customers beware, please double check when you sign up to any of the new Orange talk plans.

* Unlimited is limited by Orange's Fair Use Policy as stated in their terms and conditions, so also misleading. They either should not be allowed to state it is unlimited, or place the small print next to the word Unlimited on their adverts.

Labels: Birmingham, contracts, free, misleading, offer, orange, plan, sign, talk

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Alonso returns

Friday, 16 June 2006 ‡ 23:06

It appears that Fernando Alonso is on his way to his 2nd consecutive F1 WDC. I know it is very early in the season, but i believe that he can and will maintain his lead, irrelevant of what the other teams and drivers do.

I believe that Schumacher returned in order to try and win the WDC and then retire, but he knows this is not going to happen in 2006. There are rumours he has signed for another 2 years with Ferrari, there are also rumours he will return to Renault in order to gain another WDC. Personally i think he should retire, even though he is always good to watch especially when he is under pressure to finish in the points, having started at the back of the grid for what ever reason.

With Fernando moving to McLaren in 2007, Montoya rumoured to be leaving and Kimi linked to Ferrari, the Renault could be the ultimate weapon for any driver who can drive it like Alonso and Schumacher to gain a WDC!

UPDATE:

Wow this was close, at one point it really did look like Alonso was going to lose. The final race and the last race for Michael in Brazil could have been a film, it would have been really lucky for Michael had Alonso not finished and Michael went on to win the race and win his 8th WDC title.

Labels: champion, Formula 1, racing, Renault

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Top Gear

Monday, 5 June 2006 ‡ 12:33

Top car show on telly when i was growing up was TG and i remember when this lanky bloke with fuzzy hair appeared on the show as a presenter.

I am glad the new show is 1 hour long, it was about time this subject received more air time.

I love the idea of a celebrity in a poxy car, as with my mates i reckon i would also get a quick 1m 40 something time.

What i would love to know is the speed at which these guys carry in the follow through.

I know the show concentrates a lot more on these 3 blokes pissing about in cars which cost more than the average semi for most people, part me says "Hey, well done, if they can manage to make money out of having people watch them drive around central Europe in a Lamborghini, Ferrari or Porsche, but another part of me wants to see some more of the real cars that everyday Joe would look to buy.

They do throw in these little gems, hot hatches, family saloons, sports coupés, but i think it would be nice if £100,000+ cars did not dominate the show!

Oh and Clarkson, stop stealing comments from emails i send you and blasting them on air as your own!

Labels: Audi, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Porsche, Top Gear, VW

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