Regular readers of this blog (wake-up mum that means you!) OK, that should probably read regular reader, then. Anyway, mum, you might remember that I wrote an entry on the blog about the 10 things I love most about Sydney, Australia a few months ago. And at the end of the entry I said that [...]

It is incredibly sad news about the tornado in Oklahoma, especially the children in the school in the suburb of Moore. A very severe tornado with wind speeds of up to 200mph has battered the town – the same suburb was hit by a tornado in 1999, when the storm produced the highest winds ever [...]

I came across this and I won’t be having chicken nuggets again for – well probably just a few days actually. But it’s still pretty grim….mechanically separated chicken…

This made me laugh. There’s a site out there called freeindex.co.uk and it’s a very good site if you’re looking for a tradesperson. Nice list of companies, ratings and you can ask for a quote. A bit like Rated People but it’s free for the tradespeople to get leads, although probably not in the same [...]

I know you’re not supposed to laugh at these terrorist stories but this is like a sequel to ‘Four Lions’. You can read the full story here, well the Sun’s version of it anyway (I saw it in The Standard BTW, I don’t read The Sun unless I’m in a cafe – honestly!). Anyway, the [...]

This is really sad and it’s literally a few hundreds yards up the road form our office. There are police and fir engines still at the scene. It seems a man has been seriously injured on a Boris Bike and a big lorry has been involved. I’ve just been out to see because the traffic [...]

My mum sent me this in. She is always on the internet scouring for interesting stories. Well, it saves me a job. This is about a bogus beggar in New York and it’s quite amusing – have a look. And I’ve found another one, although this guy doesn’t really sound like he’s shuffling with a [...]

This is the saddest story I’ve read in a long time. And looking at the pictures I need to have a long lie down. It certainly makes you glad that you were born in the UK and puts everything into perspective. It’s beyond the pale that anyone should have to go through this in this [...]

This made me laugh today. Asda have recalled their tins of ‘Smart price’ corned beef. Looking at the tin, I cannot imagine anyone actually purchasing this product and those that do probably really don’t care what’s in it anyway. It sends shivers down my spine! I can’t think that Asda will have many returns because [...]

David Cameron stated today that he is determined to keep the Trident nuclear deterrent but I’m not so sure this is a good idea. Never mind the the morals, I don’t think we can afford it. But it was a smart time to bring the whole thing up again after North Korea stepped up the threats [...]

Struggling for things to do with the bitter weather we’re having, I drove over to Dulwich Village with the family for a look about on Bank Holiday Monday. I haven’t been for years and was hoping to get a walk around the park, but it was blowing a gale worthy of arctic conditions and so [...]

We mostly like to talk about the weather in the UK. We’re well known for it because it’s always varied – cloudy, rainy, drizzling, overcast, grey, snowing, windy, gale force windy, sleeting, cold, quite cold, very cold or b*****d cold with occasional outbreaks of sun. But this month has been absolutely chronic. Even in London, which [...]

by Steve Macrie I don’t know much about banking – some people might argue that I don’t know much about anything, but surely this Cyprus situation is a grave mistake. It seems to me that regardless of how they have got themselves into this mess, the EU has made a commitment to them. So, they either [...]

by Steve Macrie As the rest of the family are in the Cotswolds this week, I’ve been at home by myself. And as i normally go out of the back door with my bike I haven’t been picking up the junk mail that arrives daily in the hall. Realizing that the wife is returning with me [...]

by Steve Macrie I’ve been in Sydney, Australia for 3 weeks again this year. It’s my third time in three years and I love the place. It gets harder to leave everytime. So, today I am going to list the 10 things I love about the place and tomorrow I’m going to list the 10 [...]

By Steve Macrie This is the most bizarre celebrity crime story we’ve had since O.J. Simpson. I hears the news last week but didn’t realize it was actually Oscar Pistorius, on eof the World’s most famous athletes. Now, I’m not going to pass judgement on whether he’s guilty or not, because they’ve appointed 12 people [...]

By Steve Macrie I was reading this article on Yahoo News this morning about how Apple is going to have a devastating  impact on the home console market. Two people called Gabe Newel who is a co-founder of some company called Valve Software co-founder of Valve Software and Nat Brown, who was one of the first engineers on Microsoft’s Xbox [...]

By Steve Macrie I’ve been watching some programs about this new scam by the banks that has come to light over the last few weeks and I’m glad to see that the Financial Services Authority has finally got around to making a decision on it. The stories of what the banks have been doing to some [...]

By Steve Macrie Just like everyone else in the country, I am currently doing the 5:2 diet. I read this rather thin book on it in about 2 hours last week – I got it free on a borrowed download from Amazon because I’m a prime member – there is a recession on you know! Anyway [...]

As I’ve already written several times on this blog about the problems facing HMV, it hasn’t come as any surprise that they’ve gone into administration. It’s already looking like a grim year for retailing with Jessops going into administration too. The high street has to adapt and quickly otherwise we’re going to have town centres [...]

by Steve Macrie I simply can’t wait for this interview. You have to hand it to Oprah Winfrey, she has her eye on the money. It’s going to be the one of the most watched interviews in history. Lance Armstrong is a dog, pure and simple. I’m not really talking about cheating in the Tour [...]

There is a big row at the moment about Child benefit cuts. Of course, no-one wants to lose a benefit no matter how much money you have but this cut has been in the post for a some time. It seems to me that the government needs to have a fundamental look at tax and [...]

Once again the Metropolitan police are in the dock. ‘Plebgate’  is about to explode over the police like a Krispy Kreme doughnut they are so fond of snacking on. Not only have they completely fabricated the incident in it’s entirety, made up stories about the eye witnesses and sent a fake email from a man [...]

I wrote on this blog back in March that I would be surprised to see HMV on the high street after Christmas and it looks like I was right. But you didn’t need to be Nostradamus to see this one coming. It’s always sad when a well known brand, employing thousands of people hits the [...]

I’ve been watching Dispatches tonight on Channel 4 tonight. Here’s a programme guaranteed to make your blood boil, it’s about the banks – again. There were the usual tales of woe with the banks ripping off and lying to their customers. It happens so often that no-one seems to about an eyelid. HSBC had a [...]

by Steve Macrie I think they need some new PR guys at Starbucks. Yesterday they pledged to pay £10M a year in tax for the next two years and got taken down to Chinatown by the press. They’ve only paid £8.5M in corporation tax in 14 years of business, despite UK sales of £3Bn. Which makes [...]

News today of Voyager 1 encountering a “magnetic highway” at the edge of the solar system. The spaceship’s daily radio reports sent back evidence that the Sun’s magnetic field lines are connected to interstellar magnetic fields. It’s called the magnetic highway because charged particles outside this region bounce around in all directions, as if trapped on local roads [...]

I’ve blogged before about this concept. Simply because it could be a ‘game changer’ as the Americans like to say. Except that this is a British project. The story is that Reaction Engines Ltd (REL) a company based on Oxfordshire have successfully completed a milestone test on their Sabre propulsion system and its been confirmed by the [...]

I’m sitting here this morning trying to log into my Netflix account on my Samsung television. For some reason it’s logged me out and now I’m struggling to remember the login and password. This is frustrating enough on a computer, but with just a remote control to scroll across the screen and pick numbers from [...]

Anyone with a comb-over of those proportions is not likely to be taken seriously by anyone outside of his employment, but even Donald Trump has outdone himself this time. After Barack Obama’s narrow win over Mitt Romney (thank God for that), he sent a series of rants on twitter: Let’s fight like hell and stop [...]

By Steve Macrie: steve@serviceteam.co.uk There’s a lot of talk today about multi-national companies – mostly American, avoiding paying any tax on their profits in the UK. eBay shaved almost £50 Million from its corporation tax bill in Britain by legally channelling payments through Luxembourg and Switzerland. It generated £800 Million in the UK and paid less [...]

By Steve Macrie Here’s a story that has apparently caused outrage around the globe – although it didn’t mention who has been outraged. I dare say someone, somewhere will be upset about it because someone always is. The Taliban will probably smash up a few of their own towns in protest I suppose. Anyway, Catarina Migliorini, [...]

There is a great story doing the rounds this morning about two people who have been left ‘devastated’ after a wedding planner included them on an email she was sending to her manager. The email read; “I know this probably doesn’t sound very nice, but I am trying to put this wedding off as I [...]

Is anyone talking about anything other than the incredible 24 mile high Skydive by Felix Baumgartner, today? It is simply incredible. The footage and the story can be found here. And the stats are off the charts: Exit altitude: 128,100ft; 39,045m Total jump duration: 9’03″ Freefall time: 4’20″ Freefall distance 119,846ft; 36,529m Max velocity: 833.9mph; [...]

My wife works for a large American Corporation and I’ve had the misfortune of overhearing her conference calls from home over the past few weeks. It’s a dreadful business. Pretty much like a Royal Court in the middle ages, everyone back stabbing each other and playing games of political intrigue. Hundreds of people on a [...]

Being shot is a ‘chance you take’ said Judge Michael Pert QC to two burglars permanently injured when they were shot by a homeowner. He then jailed Joshua O’Gorman and Daniel Mansell for four years each after rejecting a plea that he take the shooting into account. O’Gorman and Mansell, who have a string of [...]

  It’s looks like a tasty device and I don’t have an e-reader although everyone who has one tells me they’re great. It would be nice to see some decent competition for the Amazon Kindle apart from the Kobo – which I’m told is pretty crisp too. However, I’m not sure Barnes & Noble have [...]

So this week has all been about the iphone 5 launch. To me it’s seemed a little more subdues than previous launches with not as much interest, but that might be because to be honest i’m not as interested. It’s already had a write up from the guardian and by all accounts they are queuing [...]

I won’t go into the full story because it’s been written up by a professional journalist on the BBC website. But a brief recap of the Ian Tomlinson murder by the police goes: 1 April 2009: Ian Tomlinson is caught up in a G20 protest. He collapses in the street and dies 4 April: Police [...]

America’s ambassador to Libya and three officials were killed when a mob attacked the US consulate in the eastern city of Benghazi to protest a film deemed offensive to Islam, an official said Wednesday. “The ambassador was killed along with three other officials,” said Wanis al-Sharif, the deputy minister of the interior. What sort of [...]

I know you’re not meant to laugh at these sort of stories but this guy nearly got himself a top ten position in the Darwin Awards. Here’s the story: A man who decided to surprise his girlfriend by posting her an unusual present – himself, narrowly escaped death when the joke went horribly wrong. The [...]

I’m a big fan of HBO dramas – I watch them all the time and so does everyone else. The list is long and distinguished and I am currently watching or have watched: Game of Thrones – great, I really like it. Boardwalk Empire – I’m unsure so far. True Blood – a bit boring [...]

I keep a list of the countries I’ve visited, currently 59. Not bad. But I wondered just how many countries there are in the world and it turns out that at this point in time, there are anywhere between 190 and 206. This is because of various border disputes, wars and historical arguments. So some [...]

In the news recently has been US President Barack Obama’s pledge to pursue “common sense” changes to gun control laws. It’s not easy to talk about gun law in the states, not if you want to get re-elected anyway. The constituition guarantees an individual the right to bear arms and there is a very strong [...]

The London 2012 Olympics – wow. What a great two weeks to be in London. Probably the best two weeks I’ve ever spent in London and I’ve ben here a long time. I’m not the only one to feel a little flat this morning, I expect. This Olympics has had everything. Great sporting achievements – [...]

It’s getting pretty grim out there. Luckily for the past few weeks we’ve had a happy distraction with the Olympics but there’s a cold front coming in from the East and it isn’t the weather. It seems that the British economy is stating to falter, with todays announcement of the worst quarter’s trade deficit ever.  [...]

Yet another scandal is unfolding at a British bank this week. Standard Chartered has been accused by a regulator in New York of laundering Iranian oil money over a number of years. Now, Iran has consistently been described by the United States as the world’s foremost state sponsor of terrorism. It actively supports terrorist groups, [...]

Glued to the TV now that I haven’t got any more tickets for the Olympics I was watching Ross Murray run in the 1500m semi-finals. It’s a shame he didn’t qualify but when asked why he said ’7 months training, and 2 years on the lash before that’. Man I laughed my ass off as [...]

Wow, what a night – and I was only watching it TV! Once in a while, probably a decade everything is set for something spectacular to happen. And then once in a generation it actually happens! And last night was one of those nights. Having been in the Olympic stadium two days before it made [...]

What a day. I was lucky enough to get some tickets for the first day of athletics in the Olympic Stadium. And great tickets they were too, look at the view! It’s the first time I’ve been to the Olympic park and it is sensational. And the Olympic Stadium itself is from the top drawer [...]