14th May 2005 - 21:12 BST
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The last few days I have been serious thinking about investing in my own accommodation, the trouble for me, like most first time buyers is that everywhere is so fucking expensive!
During a discussion on this topic with a friend the idea was brought up about actually living on a house boat like the one I will be spending a holiday on in August.
These boats range from £10,000 to £30,000 for which you would expect one of high quality. This should be easy enough to obtain in a form of a bank loan with a manageable repayment process.
You then need to pay a mooring fee if you wish to leave the boat on a site indefinitely and make use of the facilities – water, electricity, etc. This can range from around £1,000 to £3,000 a year. Still very reasonable considering this will account for most utility bills and there’s no council tax.
I do want to get my own accommodation and refuse to pay rent to some landlord to line his pockets. A boat is an investment; the loan repayment is effectively a mortgage. When I am in a position where I can buy a house (and want to!) I will have an asset in the boat which I can sell. If I was renting a house or flat from a landlord I would have nothing.
I am also in a lucky position geographically, there is a marina not too far from my current house where I can stay (providing they’ll have me and there’s enough space!). That means I’ll still be close to family, friends and work.
I’ll be looking into it more next week, maybe even check out the marina. Who knows, by this time next year I could be blogging from a house boat and yes you can get ADSL (and Sky Digital)!
It'll effectivly be a house on water
Moving on, tomorrow is the last day in The Premiership and a very important one for West Brom, Crystal Palace, Norwich and Southampton all of whom are in a relegation fight. Three of the four teams will be playing in The Coca Cola Championship with Leeds next season.
The current Premiership table
West Brom, Crystal Palace and Norwich were all promoted to The Premiership next season. I have a soft spot for all these teams and if I had my way they would all stay up. Unfortunately only two can and if Southampton (who I want to see relegated) get their way all three will go down.
Norwich are the only team who know that a win will guarantee their Premiership safety, they travel to Fulham. Fulham are a below average team with nothing to play for. Problem for Norwich is they haven’t won away from home all season! Saying this I’m going for a 3-2 win to Norwich securing the Premiership status.
C'mon Norwich - "Let's be 'aving you!"
Southampton are at home to Manchester United. This must be one of very few occasions when I actually want to see Man Utd win. This is obviously the hardest of all the games. Man Utd have a cup final coming up, previous bad results and all their off the field problems. This will either produce a very strong and dangerous Man Utd team or one who doesn’t give a shit. I can see a strong side turning up. I predicted Manchester United will win this one 3-1 sending Southampton crashing out of The Premiership. Get the hankies out lads.
Going down, going down, going down...
Crystal Palace are away to Charlton. Charlton have nothing to play for and are generally very bad at the end of the season. I fancy Palace to win this 2-1 and if I am wrong about the Norwich game this could keep them up.
Good luck Palace
West Brom host Portsmouth. This is very, very interesting. Portsmouth HATE Southampton, I’m talking a major rivalry. I bet most Portsmouth fans would like to see their team lose if it meant Southampton would be relegated. The players will be professional, still with nothing left to play for I predict West Brom to win a nervous 1-0. I still don’t see them staying up, but you never know…
Have a good un' Baggies
If I could chose who I would like to stay up it’ll be a close call between Norwich and Crystal Palace… probably Norwich. So, for the last time this season, Delia Smith, Norwich chairman, get the sherry out and “LET’S BE ‘AVING YOU!”
Discuss this blog entry HERE
14th May 2005 - 12:12 BST
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Mr. Glazer is buying more and more shares in Manchester United plunging them into greater and greater debts, now estimated at over £500million! As I said earlier it couldn’t happen to a nicer club.
It comes to no surprise that every football fan who doesn’t support those dirty reds is loving it and there are loads of funnies doing the rounds on the internet. I’ve compiled a collection of some of the best ones, including some I’ve made here. Feel free to post links to that page on scum message boards, let’s remind them of the debt, you know they would do the same to us! :o)
13th May 2005 - 17:46 BST
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Apologies in advance for this blog entry it’s shit… literally
This morning I woke up to find that some bird has emptied the contents of its bowels all over one of my sloping bedroom windows, there is loads of the stuff! It’s like an Ostrich had been on the roof!
Cock-A-Doodle-Poo
It’s totally disgusting and the problem with sloping Velux windows is that they are very hard to wash. I’m just going to have to wait for a shower to come down and wash it all away. Until then I’m condemned to stare at white bird shit complete with the contents of its last meal whenever I look out the window.
Another thing about bird shit is why is it nearly always white with black bits in it? Unless you have some strange medical reason you wouldn’t expect to white shit in the bottom of the toilet bowl after taking a dump.
You also don’t see dogs spraying sticky white shit up against walls… you see them laying their filthy eggs in street corners and old ladies picking it up in plastic bags, probably to take home for tea to ‘Boil in the bag’.
'Boil in a Bag'. The favoured meal of old ladies who own dogs
So, why is it just birds with the strange coloured poo?
Discuss this blog entry HERE
12th May 2005 - 22:23 BST
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I came home from work this evening to learn the hilarious news that American business tycoon Malcolm Glazer now owns a massive stake in Manchester United. He only needs a few more percentage of shares to take full control of the whole club and at the moment it looks like he will achieve this.
"Shall we sell, shall we sell, shall we sell a share to you?"
Man Utd fans strongly oppose a takeover my Malcolm Glazer as he will be borrow hundred of millions of pounds to make the purchase, therefore instantly plunging the club into immense debt. The debt will be so great it will make Leeds United’s previous financial woes look like a small credit card bill.
The other concern of supporters is that Glazer (like most Man Utd fans) has never been to watch a game live and lives miles away from Manchester. They have also questioned his motives and how he will recover the debts – most definitely though charging the fans more money for tickets, merchandise and shirts.
A far greater fear for the fans is that the debt will never will be recovered and the club will be plunged into financial meltdown.
What a shame...
I know I have mocked other clubs in the past for losing games and their off the field problems but I would not wish what Leeds United had to go through upon anybody… except Manchester United.
Every Scum fan I know has mocked Leeds, even the official Man Utd website displayed an image of a wiltering white rose when Leeds were relegated. This time it certainly proves “what goes around comes around”.
Discuss this blog entry HERE
11th May 2005 - 22:49 BST
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Those Sky+ boxes really are so badly manufactured! I had my original box replaced last November and this weekend the replacement had it. It is well outside the warranty period, 6 months in fact and I knew all to well that I may have to pay a fee for a Sky engineer to replace it.
The thing I resent about this is that I know of many people whose boxes have failed, this is a known problem. I am sure if I were to get a replacement that would eventually fail and subsequently the box after that would do the same. Obviously there is some manufacturing issue somewhere.
Another issue is during the warranty period on no occasion was I offered the chance to purchase an extended guarantee, even though I requested information on one!
Anyway, to cut a long story short this evening I rung Sky. I was told by the operator that indeed I would have to call an engineer out at a cost of £65. I was not happy and asked to speak to his supervisor. She didn’t offer much joy either so I said that I would like to cancel my subscription.
I was transferred again to the Cancellations Department who practically begged me to stay with Sky and asked if there was anything they could do to make me happy. They more or less offered to kiss my arse and lick my shoes clean. They agreed to send an engineer out free of charge. I’m happy, they’re happy, everybody’s happy.
Just goes to show he who moans longest and shouts loudest wins!
This cardboard box is more use than my broken Sky+ box
Last night on Sky I watched the Man United – Chelsea game. Chelsea won the game 3-1 and really demonstrated that they are the top dogs of football (although Arsenal who beat Everton 7-0 this evening may well disagree!).
The thing I noticed was that when the game ended Old Trafford almost completely emptied of ManU fans. This was the last home game of the season for Manchester United!
Every team in every club across the country performs a ‘lap of honour’ for the fans at their final home game and the fans applaud their players for their work across the last 9 months.
Alex Ferguson dropped one of these last night after the game.
It was heard throughout Old Trafford
All those ManU fans who left are just so ungrateful and fickle. There must have been 30,000 Leeds fans who stayed at Elland Road on Sunday and they had to endure a really torrid season. This really shows who the real fans are!
I’m having to be on my guard at the moment. I have heard reports from many people that there are many large spiders about this month and inside houses. One person said they lifted up an item of clothing to find two of the buggers on his hand. Had that happened to me I would have died!
Whoever made up the saying “Spiders are more scared of you than you are of them” is a liar. If that were the case every time a spider saw me it would run away leaving a trail of spider poo behind it!
The only spider picture I could find that didn't scare me
Lastly, I’m going on holiday in August! The plan is for me and a friend to go up near Birmingham, rent a barge or a week and travel up the canals along ‘The Black Country Ring’.
The boat I get will be bigger, in water and not have a giant dog hanging out the window
Sounds a very enjoyable experience, I’ve never done this before but my friend has so hopefully the boat won’t end up crashing into any icebergs and going the way of The Titanic. I’ll have to get myself a captains cap to wear and practice my sea talk “Take her to Wolverhampton Mr. Murdoch, lets stretch her legs”.
Discuss this blog entry HERE
9th May 2005 - 22:28 BST
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I went up again to Leeds for the weekend, was a busy two days and am quite tired now.
Leeds played Rotherham on the last game of the 2004/5 Season. The game was slow and Leeds frustrated all their fans by hitting the post more times then I can remember.
Seeing as there was nothing to play for and the opposition was certainly nothing to write home about the atmosphere and attendance was superb. Chants in honour of Leeds United and legend Lucus Radebe rung throughout Elland Road
“Radebe, Radebe, Radebe, Radebe, Radebe, Radebe, Radebe, Radebeeeeeee … LU-CUS!!!!”
Great weekend, will miss Leeds over the next few months until August when they return. Next season super striker Rob Hulse will be in the squad. He has been on loan for the last three months but was bought by Leeds today. It certainly makes a change from selling players!
I’m sure there’s a lot more I can cover today but I am knackered this evening.
I’ll have a think tomorrow and aim to blog then. In the meantime have a look at these pictures taken from the journey up to Leeds and from the game itself. Sorry about the poor quality on some (taken with my mobile phone) and the lack of thumbnails on pages, again too tired to be sorting that!
7th May 2005 - 00:37 BST
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Anybody who has ever used an internet message board/forum (for whatever subject) on a regular basis will no doubt have come across a regular poster who often makes a bit of an idiot out of himself.
Like in the school playground he will bear the brunt of jokes, taunts and wind ups from every other member out for a cheap laugh.
Leeds United forum WACCOE now has such a member, LUFCScott, who just a few days ago posted this message he is probably regretting somewhat…
I hear Leeds fans sing, "Boyspank give us a song boyspank boyspank give us a song". I dont know what it means, anyone tell me please?
Of course, Leeds fans don’t sing about spanking boys, he misheard the chant for “Boys pen give us a song”.
Have a read of the whole thread here, it’s very funny.
This whole episode has caused great amusement among the WACCOE members, a lot of who have changed their forum signatures in honour of the funny story. A petition has also been created, insisting LUFCScott change his user ID to ‘Boyspank’. He has since refused and a suitable punishment is being arranged…
Great fun. Probably not if you’re LUFCScott (or Boyspank as he is now known) and quite likely a little confusing if you are not a regular visitor to WACCOE.
Lastly, I’m going off to Leeds Saturday morning again. I will be going to watch the Rotherham game on Sunday before going back to Bath. It’s the last game of the season. While the football may not be fantastic (against the ‘Mighty Rotherham’) it will be a great atmosphere, last game of the season, no relegation worries, summer ahead. Should be good.
Discuss this blog entry HERE
4th May 2005 - 23:15 BST
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So tomorrow is The General Election all across Britain. All the months of arguing and backbiting between politicians will come to an end (for a few days at least) and by this time on Friday we will have a new leader or Tony Blair will still be at No.10 (probably on the phone to his best mate George Bush).
One major problem The Election will face this year, like in the past is that there will be a substantial amount of people not turning out to vote for whatever reason – inaccessible, laziness, uneducated in which party to vote for, the list goes on…
I strongly believe that if the methods of voting were greatly increased then there would be a far greater turnout. I see absolutely no reason why, if implemented in a safe and secure manner people could not vote via their mobile phones, digital television or over the Internet.
One argument against this is that is can encourage fraud and is potentially insecure. I find this very strange, especially as when I go to vote at The Polling Station tomorrow I will not need to take any form of identification or cards to state I am registered to vote. Sure they have my details down there, but there is a gaping hole open for abuse.
With the advances in technology nowadays there must be a way to safely collect votes electronically. Hopefully sense will be seen and these methods will be made available for the next elections.
I’ve already made my mind up on who I’ll be voting for, although if you are undecided or even slightly unsure take a look at this very useful website. Even if you have fully made your mind up, answer the questions, you may be surprised by the outcome.
3rd May 2005 - 23:20 BST
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It’s great to be back.
Due to server maintenance Sparkster.net has been down since late on Saturday, it seems like a lot longer! Everything is ok now, apart from the forums which are down still (for now).
We’re all back now and in a new month. I did write a massive blog entry on Saturday evening but due to the server issues it couldn’t be uploaded. It is now in the April Blog Archive, so if you have missed it check it out.
A new section added to Sparkster.net yesterday was TV Cam. This is similar to a webcam but you can see what I am actually watching (kind of). There’s no streaming video or audio, just an image updated every so often. A pointless novelty but a bit of fun all the same.
Leeds were in action over the weekend, twice in fact. The first game being on Sunday against Leicester, I would like to forget about that one. Let’s just say the team with nothing left to play for decided to take an early holiday.
Bank Holiday Monday was a very special day for a very special player – Lucas Radebe. Over 37,000 fans and many star players turned up at Elland Road to bid farewell to The Chief. The man is a legend. He will be missed. Hopefully he will decide to take up a coaching role at Leeds next season.
Still on the topic of football, I watched the Liverpool-Chelsea Champions League Semi Final match this evening. Liverpool shocked everyone by winning 1-0 by a controversial goal.
Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho came across as being a bigger loser than Alex Ferguson saying “The best team lost” and “ Chelsea deserved to win”. Errrr…. If you deserved to win you would have at least of scored? What bollocks, I really hate it when managers fail to give credit when it’s due.
I’m not a Liverpool fan in fact I normally back their opponents, but this evening I was very happy to see them win. Well done.
Chelsea aren’t the team they were three years ago. Since being bought by Russian Billionaire Roman Abramovich they may have grown and become more successful but they have also developed into a ‘Rich mans toy’.
They are at the mercy of Abramovich. If he chooses to pull out, Chelsea could be plunged into financial meltdown. If he stays he could in theory do whatever he wanted, whether it is good or bad for the club.
They didn’t earn their finances from success like Arsenal and dare I say it Man Utd. As rival fans sing to them “You’re not Chelsea, You’re not Chelsea, You’re not Chelsea anymore! You’re not Chelsea anymore!””
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