Author: Moli

Greetings Moliblog readers,

I’m sitting in a Starbucks with my Chai Tea Latte in St Albans writing my blog having spent 20 minutes fighting the crappiest WiFi in the universe for access. It does surprise me that a company that charges a small fortune for a coffee can’t provide decent Internet access. I’ve never actually tried to do this before, however I have seen many a Starbucks customer sitting down to an espresso and a surf, usually with a Mac similar to mine. How strange that the Barista claims that Apple computers struggle with access. He tells me all this after I’ve paid £5.00 for a drinks card. I think I might have just helped someone with their target!!!

However, Internet accesses, 3G & WiFi are all luxury items when you go monster hunting in Scotland. This is something I’ve recently discovered on a trip to Loch Ness. How on earth do people live without Smart phones and the Internet? Actually, quite well really…

The air is clean and fresh, the views are breath taking and the people are really friendly. Maybe actually talking to your fellow man makes you a better person? Maybe when you look out of a window and see rolling hills, mountains and clouds hanging off the tops of trees, playing Farmville loses its appeal? I know it took me a while to realize that being in constant contact or being updated on who is bored in a meeting doesn’t really matter. Certainly I find it quite nice to read about people’s lives and their world but do I need it live and up to the minute like a CNN bulletin? I don’t think so…

On this note, my friends and I took this one step further by avoiding any news. No Radio, No TV and No Newspapers… It’s actually harder than you think. We are bombarded with information both private and global but I’m starting to wonder how much of it do we really need? I’m pleased that with all these forms of mass communication we managed it and avoided anything to do with the Pope’s visit and anything that News 24 or Sky wanted to scare us with.

While driving our terrible Skoda hire car through the highlands of Scotland enroute to the Isle of Skye I felt truly free from my London life and the pressures and speed that everything moves at. I’m not sure why or how things got so pressured or why we would allow ourselves to have a poorer quality of life. While waiting for the small and simple car ferry to set off, I was watching the still mist sitting on the water, watching a bright red ship float across the water with bagpipe music playing eerily around the mountains… This was amazing to see and hear and it made me wish for a simpler life.

I love my gadgets, my iPhone, my iPad and my Internet but I can’t help thinking that the obvious benefits to me and millions of others are at a less obvious cost. Like a frog in water, we have been slowly turning up the heat with better access, faster connections and more innovative ways of using the web. The global village is a virtual cooking pot with our standard of living being the poor little frog, boiled slowly to death while we happily call it progress unaware of what we are truly losing. I’m not going all ‘The Good Life’ on you all but I just felt so relaxed and free during that weekend that some of you might just get up from you’re fake farms and actually go visit a real one. This country is so beautiful and amazing. I’ve traveled around the world, literately… but nothing compares with coming home and spending some quality time in our own home grown splendor.

If you ever get the chance to explore the UK, you might like to go monster hunting like me… I didn’t find a monster with green skin and big teeth, however, I did find a monster in my way of life and realized that there is an alternative and it’s not that far away really.

Before getting on the plane at Gatwick, the two Master Chef Judges were on the plane… It’s quite clear from their faces that they are not best of friends. If looks could kill…

During my weekend away I went walking into the hills of the Great Glen. I’m not normally a big walker. I much prefer to drive to my destination but the views and fresh air made the walk really enjoyable… My friends and I talked, walked for a few hours and then we came across 8 wild boar. Now, my friends wanted to go in the opposite direction and as far away from these beasts as possible… I on the other hand wanted to say hello!!!
As I started walked towards them, my mates decided to hang back… The Boars then turned and faced me and started making grunting and growling sounds. Now this should have made me think about what I was doing but no… I carried on walking towards them and each step getting a little smaller. I then had my best idea ever… I decided to make my own grunting sounds and wave my arms around like I was crazy person. This however didn’t take a lot of acting and the boars started to run away, so I thought. As I turned the corner, I then realize they were now all around me in the hills. Not to worry… What can wild Boar do to you anyway? So I called my friends to catch up to me and we carried on our little walk through the highlands…

A couple of us decided to have a race too…

Last week I took Fleur to the Greyhound track at Romford.

She hadn’t been before and I was hoping she could use some of her Poker Magic to root out the winners… Despite being a cold night we stood outside and placed bets with the bookies in the stands. Sadly out of the 13 races that night she only managed to win once…

Here she is, saying… F I N A L L Y!!!

I on the other hand had a good night, winning £67. My method of picking the winners… Well, forget the form or how big the dog is. Just pick the one with a cool name. It worked for me…

My Birthday is coming up soon… Another year older and knocking on the door of 40 in 12 months time… Should I start to think about next year now? What shall I do?

Until next time…

M

I see from my last post that I only have one reader. Thanks Nick for the feedback.
The past week has been good fun really. The team at work have all been happy and delivering some great results and putting us ahead of our peers. The weekend was a challenge with so few staff and long waiting times to get served. Sunday was really bad with me running things alone and with only a few inexperienced colleagues to help. Being asked about every little detail makes you come to realise how nice it is to have well trained and independent people beside you. It didn’t help that it was extra busy with long queues everywhere and the systems crashing on me.  The waiting time was so long people just walked out rather than wait 30 mins for an advisor to come back. I really hope things get better but I fear things will get worse. I understand that times are tough but serving your customers must be a priority. I want to take their money and I don’t want a competitor doing it. Maybe I’m being selfish. Maybe we should share like good children.

I bought a new home phone this week. My last cordless phone was bought in the 1990’s and cost me £600 for just one handset and then I bought an extra one for £100. It was cutting edge at the time but now is regular and actually fairly basic. Not to mention, falling apart. I thought about getting the Bang and Olufsen phones at £1500 which look amazing but as a piece of tech it’s on the basic side. I decided to save my money and go for one of the best voted and reviewed cordless phones on the market. I bought a Siemens Gigaset SL785. A German built thing of beauty. Check out the website…

http://www.cordless-phones.uk.com/cordless-phones/cordlessphones-answering-machine/siemens-sl785-cordless-phone

One highlight of the week for me was my annual Last Night of the Proms party this Saturday. I’ve done this for the past 3 or 4 years now and it’s a great chance to celebrate being British and if you like, being English.

The cost of food and booze seems to have gone up massively in the last 12 months. I wanted everyone to have a good time but this year it cost me a fortune. Sadly, not everyone ate or actually drunk that much this year and now I have my own branch of Odd Bins in the kitchen.

I think the massive chocolate fudge cake went down well?

I’d like to thank everyone for coming along and I hope that everyone had a good time. I will be holding it again next year. Rule Britannia!!!

Until next time,

M

Donut of the week.

While I was standing next to 40 Laptops…

Me: Good Afternoon…

Man: Hi, can you direct me to the laptops please?